With Bowki interceding you manage a slow careful revival of the goatlings. (4 channels brings them all to consciousness although not necessarily full health )
Bowki tells his brother goatlings (no have noticed no female goatlings so far) that there is a misunderstanding, that you are not spirits and that you wish to assist and or befriend them.
If the Goatlings seem keen to assist in their travels, and take them to their home, Maks will perform a few more channels (no need to get them snatched up by an angry Owlion.)
If the Goatlings seem keen to assist in their travels, and take them to their home, Maks will perform a few more channels (no need to get them snatched up by an angry Owlion.)
Using the full 30 hp from your channels will heal all the goatlings to full, except one will have a minor abrasion yet.
As the goatlings awaken and receive their healing they converse amongst each other and Bowki explains to them the situation. After a short while, they will agree to escort you either to their base camp west of your current camp, or back to their lands south of the valley, downstream. They say that they will likely meet scouts well before you reach their villlage, and if the leaders don't actually want you to enter their village they will know well in advance. They say this because their leaders may think you are spies.
Maks nods appreciatively. "I can understand that. At the very least, we've acted in good faith, right?" She gives him a doggy grin. "How far is it? We're not particularly adept with rocks and mountains and such, as you seem to be." she explains, moving her feet around so they could see how different her joints were, comparatively.
"Whichever way you had intended to head once you'd finished with us, would be ideal, I think. I'm interested in observing, if nothing else."
Mlinzi nods in agreement with Makoto's statement. "That'll probably mean going back to their base camp. Though I'd like to get off this plateau before nightfall, it would probably be better to not get these guys in any trouble. And who knows? Maybe they'll have fires and blankets to share with us so we can sleep a little more comfortably."
Bowki nods. "Let us return to the camp. Perhaps some shamans there can advise us. Are you ready to leave?"
"Just let me pack up this fish for the road." she nods, collecting the blackened fish, and placing them carefully into one of the javelin pouches. She was worried it might be insulting... but it was more important to her not to waste food, so the slight sleight would have to take a back seat.
Mlinzi picks up the dead goatling leader. The body is a bit heavy to carry all on his own, even with his impressive strength, so he asks for help from one of the other goatlings. The Vanara is a lot more subdued than he was yesterday.
"Yeah... if the golems stop by later, though, we'll have to make sure to tell them where we're going."
"Maybe we'll be able to work for them for some food?" Lucina said as she followed after the goatling.
Tavros silently picks up all the extra weapons taken from the goatlings as well as anything else he might need to carry and happily follows everyone, humming some unknown but lively tune under his breath.
Makoto doesn't plan to aid in carrying the dead back. She'd be more than happy to help bury them... but the sticky sap is bad enough without adding blood to the mix. She figured the goats would be more than happy to do whatever they normally did with a fallen comrade.
When the issue arises, the goatlings says they normally have a funeral pyre. The goatlings will help carry their fallen leader.
As the group gets ready to depart, the goatlings are all abuzz talking amongst each other after their initial shock wears off. Bowki translates for you at times. Bowki seems quite popular with the other goatlings as they clap him on the back and he seems to point to various members of your group and talks and gestures. He seems to have assumed some sort of leadership role with their shaman dying.
Teniel focuses on listening to the goatlings talk as the group moves, frequently asking Bowki to translate interesting-sounding words.
Day 2, somewhere around midday
As the group moves they begin heading west away from the lake, back into the forest, where movement will be slow. Luckily according to Bowki, the camp is not far, and the goatlings seem eager to return after the fight.
Bowki obliges Teniel, relishing his new important position as translator and surviving goatling hero.
"Do you think they have the same diet as us?" Lucina asked hopefully, spending so long in well fed in Goodwin's home had definitely hampered her survival skills.
After about an hour of travel the goatlings make several bleats signaling ahead. There is an answering bleat from the ahead somewhere. Bowki says "We will arrive to our temporary camp soon."
Bowki bleats out some more calls. "I let them know we have guests, so there is no awkwardness when we arrive."
"That's good. I wouldn't want there to be any more unnecessary violence against your people." Mlinzi replies. He's been uncharacteristically quiet lately. Clearly something is bothering him.
"Alright, then."
"Do you have any idea what sort of reception we'll be expecting? Also, I believe Lucina was curious about your eating habits." Makoto pointed out to Bowki.
Bowki says, "Well I expect there may be some caution, but there should be no outright combat as we are vouching for you as our guests. As far as eating, well we can be omnivorous, but for the most part we eat grains and seeds, sometimes bark. We can eat quite a bit of the plant matter around here. Mostly wild oats, quinoa, and various grasses. Why do you ask?"
"Very well. For food, because when I offered you fish, you took it... but didn't seem to care for it. Being able to eat the same things that you do is good for us, but it also presents problems if we build nearby. I'm also an omnivore, though many of my allies have different appetites." she motions to the cat, "He can't really subsist on vegetables. What of customs, that is important as well. Are there any things that I absolutely mustn't do when I arrive? When I leave?"
She seemed to be doing her best to absorb his culture, even as he interacted. Like Teniel, she was working to absorb the gists of things... but it would be a tough road to learn that way. Time would likely need to be dedicated to get a real concept going. A spell cast, then days dedicated to the language would create a suitable dictionary.
"Do you have paper, or a way to get paper?" she asked suddenly. "What of a mortar and pestle?"
"We aren't very prepared for the wilderness so when we ended up here food became a big concern, if we have similar diets maybe we could work for food from here instead."
Tavros' happiness at the upcoming prospect of a festival with dancing has him energetically bounding forward before returning to the rest of the group. There are a couple of near misses where he almost falls on top of someone, but he somehow manages to avoid tripping too badly.
He seems a bit confused as to why no one else seems quite as excited as him, but he's quickly distracted from those thoughts. His sisters and Teniel were all being boring. Or...well, ok, not boring exactly; he knew they were talking about all sorts of interesting things. But they weren't as interesting as dancing! Although a small part of his brain did acknowledge that the only reason he could be so excited and not pay attention now was because he could just pester them later.
So instead, he decided to bother Mlinzi. Who was just walking. Which seemed kind of odd. He normally like to climb. But climbing with someone on your back might be tough. But normally he'd also be asking questions wouldn't he?
Tavros pushes these thoughts aside as he attempts to include his brother in his semi-play. He keeps oddly lurching forward towards him in a way that suggests he's trying to playfully headbutt a large sized Mlinzi only to remember part way through that he isn't large and therefore far too short to headbutt comfortably without charging. How he manages to forget that despite the obvious visual evidence isn't exactly clear. At one point he almost attempts to lift the Vanaran up in a short dance.
Finally, he gives up and just asks, "So brother, what are you looking forward to seeing in the goatling encampment?"
Bowki replies "At times we do make paper, though we do not record much of our history on paper. Instead we tell it through story and song. Much of the Ceremony of the Lake, in addition to the feats of battle prowess, are the songs of battle, the drumming ceremony, telling of tales, reciting of history, the names of the heroes, and the battle dances of endurace, with some luck we will see a Summoning."
"Our shamans and herbalists will often use a mortar. We will have to see if any of them have one to borrow." He pauses concerned at one comment, when you mention building there. "What do you mean building? Here in the sacred plateau...?" a long pause follows that and he seems troubled, even anguished. "Surely you meant you will build in the lands by the humans....." he emits a sound that sounds one part nervous laughter and one part bleat, "Meaaaaa-aaaahh-aaahh-aahh"
"Well, there is clean water, and plenty of wood, and stone. There's a lot of opportunity for a smaller community to gather food, as well. We'll need a place to return to, and I believe a large portion of us will be working on a safe haven..." Maks says, trailing off. "Is there something wrong with building within the valley? What makes it sacred?"
"These lands have always been the goatling sacred lands, even we do not settle here out of respect. So many other races like to take from us, pushing us to the edge of the world. The dwarves and humans dig into our hills for metals and gems, and they cut down the trees and burn the grasslands. Now you newcomers wish to take our sacred lands....If you are not spirits, you do not belong here." The words seem to come hard to him as he doesn't wish to seem confrontational, but he seems resolute in upholding what he sees as a goatling tradition.
"Then we'll get word to the others that this place is important to you. I'm sure that most of us do not want to offend you." She shrugs, slightly. "We're more interested in finding our master and his friend. We were told there was once a monastery near here. Somewhere in the mountains... but magic was used to keep us safe for a very long time. If we could find that... That would be a more preferable place to settle."
Mlinzi looks up at the big minotaur and tries a half-hearted smile that looks even more like a leering grimace than usual. "I'll just be happier once this poor guy's laid to rest."
Blood gushed and there was a scream of agony as Mlinzi's crude spear pierced the Catfolk's side. A roar of approval rose from the crowd. The Vanara let out a gutteral, primal scream of rage and triumph, then followed the attack up with a brutal thrust through his opponent's chest. Those green, slitted eyes widened in pain and surprise, and then glazed over as death claimed Mlinzi's latest victim.
The Vanara blinks and shakes his head, realizing he'd stopped cold in the middle of the trail. "Sorry... He was going to have the nightmares again tonight. He knew it.
Miyu Michi, who had been trotting off to the side of the others, keeping his senses untainted by conversation, and the crashing of bodies through trees, moved closer inwards, while the group traveled. When the bull started to crash around Mlinzi, he spoke up quietly. "There is more to it than that. What is it that is troubling you, pup?" He asked in his deep, resonant voice, each word lilting at the end, segueing into the next word, rather than truncating. The monkey seemed to have at least half of his attention, as one eye was trained on him.
You see some relief creep into the goatling's fur covered face. "I don't know anything of your master. There is also no ruins or buildings in this area, you may wish to seek the lands outside of this plateau. The dwarves and humans below may know the answer to that. I am sorry I cannot help with that."
"Can you tell us of what lies in the neighboring mountains? Where does your land end, and the sacred lands begin? What of the human and dwarves borders? Perhaps there is an obvious feature that marks the edges? Streams, cliffs, fences, stones?"
"Our people do not go very high in the mountains, as it is barren and eventually treacherous even for us. Nothing lies there of interest. Our lands are in the hills outside of the mountain gap, but this encircled mountain plateau is the land of our sacred ancestors and where we bury our fallen battle heroes. The dwarf people have made a truce with our people to not push too far into our lands from the hills below. We keep within our ancestral boundaries, there are some canyons and old riverbeds we do not stray beyond. There are also other dangers beyond these lands, giants, dragons and powerful beasts and other creatures lurk near the borders. Our best heroes are able to keep them from our lands. What the humans and dwarves do is their own business."
"We should stop," Teniel ponders, "And tell the others to head South, before they get into too much trouble here. I think writing in the sky is our best option, since Jovar hasn't stopped by all morning. Mlinzi, can you carry three of us up to the top of the trees? Sound will carry better from up there."
Mlinzi, glad for the distraction from his inner turmoil, turns to Teniel. "Sure, I can do that... Unless you want me to try carrying Tavros. Best to take you up one at a time, though. Who's going up?" He nods to the goatling helping him carry the corpse of the leader and they gently lower the body to the ground.
"It'll be best if I can see through to the lake, yeah—and Lucina and Makoto will be able to make plenty of noise with their cantrips, to make sure the other groups notice my message."
Teniel will go with rainbow-flashing letters made of smoke, on a 60' wide billboard, for a few minutes at a time—if the others with Ghost Sound can imitate the sound of laughter, but extremely loudly, that should be weird enough to get people's attention.
"That... is really, really clever." Maks acknowledges, letting Mlinzi carry her up. Once up top, she'd wait for Lucina to arrive (or not), and then begin the applause, cheers, and laughter. Make it sound like a crowd!
Day 2 - afternoon
The group pauses so that Teniel can put into place his sky message plan. Mlinzi slowly and carefully carries the casters piggyback up the trees (climb +18 and taking 10 should auto-succeed even with some enumbrance penalties for a tree).
Once in the tallest tree they can find on the nearest hill, Teniel launches his giant letters over 400' into the sky.
Makoto and Lucina erupt with a cacophony of noise, ghost sound mimicking the sound of 16 people cheering, clapping and laughing.
Below, Bowki looks at Tavros "How is your battle dance?" there seems to be some skepticism in the goatlings eyes as he eyes the big minotaur up.
Mlinzi, seemingly repulsed by the sounds of cheering and laughter, drops to the ground and squats beneath a tree several yards away, looking rather morose.
"Sorry, Mlinzi. Just figured it would be the most unnatural sound, to get the others' attention."
Tavros blinks at Mlinzi. "You do realize I killed him, right?" He had the suspicion that he should feel bad about that. But he didn't. The goatlings had attacked. They had defended themselves. It was as simple as that.
He supposed that he probably could have pulled his punches some. But it's not like he had known it was a misunderstanding. Although his siblings had. He frowned at that. Why had they pulled their punches? He quickly shakes his head to clear his thoughts. There was no real point thinking about this. What's done was done.
Because a verbal response would clearly be silly, Tavros gives Bowki a much more suitable answer.
He frowns slightly though, "I would do better on less dangerous terrain."
The Vanara nods to Tavros. "I wasn't holding back, though. Could've been me. It's just... I haven't been in mortal combat for a long time."
Mlinzi hadn't spoken to the others much about his life before Goodwin came along and rescued him. They wouldn't know the details of how he'd been forced to fight and kill for the pleasure of bloodthirsty crowds, or how savage he'd become during that time. Still, they'd know about the broad strokes.
"Kabodhoan wouldn't have killed anyone," Teniel calls down from the branches, "But Pamburu might have. The important thing is that we know to be more careful next time—and with more information, we're less likely to be attacked like that."
Bowki observes Tavros' moves. "Hmmmm." He says nothing more.
Not long after you send up your giant rainbow letters, there is an outcry from ahead. You barely hear it because you have the noise of 16 people clapping and cheering, but the Bowki calls up and then over into the forest.
"Our camp is just right here, a moment away. My brothers see your magic words and hear the sound of your spirits calling."
"Not spirits, just simple magic!" Maks calls down. "I can't even make it make actual words, just communictate the idea of sounds!"
Meanwhile, Miyu simply watches the ape-man, resting on his haunches.
"It's... a message." Teniel tries to explain. "We want to get our friends' attention, tell them to leave your sacred lands—and so I suggested strange noises that would get their notice. The magic we are using creates an image and sound of objects that are not there."
"Is all of your peoples magic from spirits?" Maybe that would help avoid some misunderstandings.