Durgan rides along. If he's passed this way before, either he doesn't remember it or the terrain has changed.
He is somewhat disappointed in the ferryman's refusal to accept payment and tries to explain the value of a cash-based transactional economy, but to no avail. Durgan sighs and enters the ferryman's name in his Ledger of Civic Obligations, noting that he owes the ferryman for services rendered, and offers to provide healing if needed in the future.
At the shadow passing overhead, he looks up, but does not recognize the creature. "It's dangerous, Scarlet?"
Durgan casts Barkskin on himself and draws his axe.
Zokon gets off the horse, draws his bow then uses studied target on the manticore
"So anyone know anything about these things other than it's a manticore?" he shouts while dismounting
"Yeah, they're pretty smart and like to bully or bribe people. Sometimes they are hired as bodyguards, too. Don't be surprised if its lion face tries to bite us."
Huh? The Vsevolod hadn't seem so bad to her. Well maybe Igor was a bit unsettling. And to be fair they hadn't met the lord of the castle. Still - Illthir was curious and tried to poke around as much as she could.
---
"Ooh dear." Illthir shaded her eyes with her hands so she could take a closer look at that shadow. Not that that helped. "A Manticore you say? On the bright side; being eaten by one is quite the story. Let's hope this tale turns out the other way!"
The skald flickered with the reins to her horse and then eventually tried to ready her sling. With a bit of luck she wouldn't need it.
The family of Baron Vsevolod the Bludgeoner has long and sickeningly gooey reputation. The Baron's great great great grandfather came from the hinterlands of Iobaria to settle in Ustalav more than two centuries ago after some sort of peasant rebellion. In Ustalav the family were granted lands left vacant by a terrible plague. There was a rebellion in their county that saw the overthrow of the nobility in their county about 35 years ago that saw the current Baron's father (who like all of his male forebears share the same name) leave the country. His son arrived in the region of Mivon a few years later and settled into the old abandoned castle on the hill overlooking the nameless village.
Perfectly normal.
===============
The manticore circles 200' above.
"Well, if we are on the dinner menu, and that circling looks like it, then we should definitely not stay out in the open. We don't want it to grab one of us and fly off, force it to land if it wants a fight!"
Alia looks around for some trees(or even just one tree), or even just tall-grown shrubbery - this was wilderness, after all, so it was a reasonable expectation to find either nearby.
Directing her horse towards her choosen direction, she unslings her bow and gets ready to cast shield on herself if the Manticore starts an attack of any sort.
Serena draws her scimitar, holding the reins with her left hand. "If it would make off with us, then let it try! We will give it a case of indigestion!"
The large winged lion wheels through the skies above like a big carrion bird, as the party makes ready.
Evevenywg lets out a long string of dwarven curses that might even cause Scarlet to blush a bit redder.
"Let's ride for the cover."
"I'm less worried about it making off with all of us than with it picking out whoever seems tastiest and running off with that person alone...", Alia responds to Serena, already riding for the cover north:"Over there, we can force it to land, rather than fly by!"
"Cover it is, then!" Scarlet rides her horse forward.
Bludgeoner? Uhh... Illthir wondered if she wouldn't get her stellar story by simply turning around and waiting to chat with that man. But since she would also like not not get bludgeoned she stuck with her path.
---
"Don't like manticores Erevenywg?" Illthir sighed in agreement. She also looked around to see if there were any cover around. Some trees might do it. Alia and Durgan seemed to have the right ideas. "Anyone have a harpoon? Would have been handy!"
"Ahhh... darn" Zokon jumps back on the horse to follow the group to cover
"Probably too far for a harpoon even if we had one, Illthir, but we do have bows and crossbows."
Serena growls but turns and rides for cover as well. "Very well, we will bring it to us!" When she reaches cover, she dismounts and readies her shield.
"Cover it is, then!" Scarlet rides her horse forward.
"The stalking manticore singles out one of the herd. It is a truism in nature that he who hesitates is often lost."
{This is followed by slow motion high-definition footage of the manticore chasing Zokon across the savanna.}
"An intelligent hunter, the manticore first seeks to cripple its prey's mount. Gifted with a tail full of thick sharp quills, the hunter gets within range and lets fly a volley of them at horse and rider both."
The horse lets out a bloodcurdling whinny and then falls to the ground taking Zokon with him.
Round 1! (Theme ♬)
The Bold May Act!
_________________
__ manticore
__ Alia
__ Zokon
__ Serena
__ Posh
__ Scarlet
__ Illthir
__ Durgan
__ Erevenywg
"Looks like we're doing this!" Scarlet tries to quickly dismount from her horse.
Scarlet takes too long , and she casts Shield to protect herself.
"Lok!!!" he shouts as the horse is hit multiple times and then he is falling and rolling
Zokon falls clear of the horse, rolling to come up on his feet and bow in hand, he is already nocking an arrow and tracking the flying beast.
Serena slides off her horse and readies her shield and scimitar.
"Lok!!!" he shouts as the horse is hit multiple times and then he is falling and rolling
Zokon falls clear of the horse, rolling to come up on his feet and bow in hand, he is already nocking an arrow and tracking the flying beast.
Durgan dismounts (as a move action) and casts Stabilize on Zokon's horse.
Durgan dismounts (as a move action) and casts Stabilize on Zokon's horse.
Durgan dismounts and moves back.
Zokon will fire a couple of arrows at the Manticore
"Ha! beast..that's for Lok." Zokon has a quick glance at the horse to see it's condition
Illthir steers her trusty horse back towards Zokon and starts singing a song of battle. Trough the awesome power of music, and the fact that Skald songs are not language dependent, she sought to at least give Lok a chance to last long enough!
Posh decides to pass the time by looking over Vega in it's cage, wiggling it's finger at it teasingly.
"Aww, have you missed me, Vega? I bet you have!" he said affectionately, not knowing exactly how well she may have trained the cat.
"What an ugly lion!" he called out, purposely making a incorrect assertion of the creature as he understood that this creature could understand common. "Perhaps it could be a playmate for Vega?"
The force of Posh's taunt seems to sour the manticore on the party. The creature scowls at the group and wheels away.
"Yeah, you better run!" Scarlet bellows. She's not sure what she did, but everyone's safe for now.
"Zokon, is your horse alright? If not, you can use mine. I'll slow us down a bit though..."
Not realizing Zokon had been forcibly dismounted at first, his battle cry catches her attention, and she steers her horse back around in a large circle, while shooting an arrow in the general direction of the Manticore and shouting:"Eat bandits, you cowardly kitty!" when it withdraws.
When the others worry about Zokons horse, and faster than she would be, Alia instead keeps her eyes on the oversized flying Cat, making sure it REALLY leaves.
The party reunites at the crossroads, and now must decide their next steps.
Alia notes the farm folk around them looking at the group with interest.
Durgan attends to Zokon's horse, using a couple of charges from his wand (now at 49).
"Ha! Whaddya know I hit something and made it go away.. " Zokon looks very pleasedc with himself for a second and then as he comes down from his adrenaline he remembers his horse and moves over to tend to it.
When Durgan heals the horse, if it was still alive to be healed "thankyou good priest."
Durgan's healing touch causes the spikes to drop from the horse's flanks and rouses him back from death's door. Shakily Lok regains his feet--barely. His eyes wild with fear and his breath coming in gasps the terrified horse makes to rush off into the woods.
"Oi, someone calm that horse down, quick!"
Zokon grabs at the reins and Loks face attempting to calm the animal with gentle strokes
"Whoa boy! Your safe now. I'm here."
Illthir quiets down once the manticore takes off and Lok comes to it. She looks to the sky for a long time, just in case the creature would come back. But luckily - that didn't seem to be the case.
"Nice shot Zokon! I'll just say the manticore was struck down whenever I write this song." she laughs.
"Hmm. But maybe we should get some lighter armour for the horses, for things like this, after we dealt with the bandit menace."
"Thankyou. After I blew the archery competition earlier n our adventures I feared I was losing my touch and maybe some light chain for the horses, for mobility and protection." Zokon remarks with a smirk of pride on his face.
"No, you still got your touch. You are the best human Ranger I ever met in my travels - I was getting ready to chase after your horse for nothing, there - you calmed it with a touch. And who cares about competitions with a shot like that...even someone who received special training against such beasts could not have placed that arrow better." - Touching her own horses neck, patting it, she continues:"We should look into options to protect our horses, indeed. I think we can outrun most threats, though - except ranged attacks. I know there were spells to deal with that - we should talk with Numalar when he catches up, maybe he can craft some item to protect them."
Zokon manages to get the panicked horse to heel.
Beginning to walk off some of Lok's adrenaline rush it becomes apparent that the horse is not really healthy enough for a daylong journey .
"I can protect the horses for a short time if they stay close to me. But some light barding would be good."
Durgan continues healing the horse.
"Mm." Illthir agreed with the general suggestions of solutions. Many good ideas; none really helped out here in the forest.
"Thankyou good Durgan, remind me to get a new wand if this healing gets a bit much."
and in response to Alia "Maybe Lok just likes oats or something and the thought of more oats is his salve." he shrugs
As the manticore flies off, Serena taps her shield with her scimitar. "And don't come back! she warns. She keeps a wary eye to the sky while the horse is retrieved and healed.
Now that he's had a second to think "Hey all, let's go, it might have a mate or friends or other things that will come along and try to eat us." he gets back on Lok and gets the horse moving at a steadily increasing pace if the horse can
"Yeah, yeah. We got a Stag Lord to find." Scarlet mounts her horse and prepares to ride off again.
Later that same day the party reaches the Shrike River. Overlooking it from a hilltop a mile or two away it is a broad blue line winding from Lake Candlemere to the distant unseen Tors of Levenies. Over a hundred feet wide, and of unknown depth the banks on either side are populated by flocks of thousands of raucous black, white and tabby-colored herons, ibes, and spoonbills. The noise they are making carries for miles.
"Almost there, any ideas on how to conceal ourselves or how to act if we are found by a patrol?" asks Zokon as he observes the squawky birds
"With all of these birds squawkin' I can barely think." Scarlet gets off the horse. "We gotta cross this river first, right?"