Hearing the news, Stayven nods. He subtly quaffs his mutagen, readying for battle.
Katrine nods to Faerin, readying her longbow. Beside her, Storm's ears perk up at the signal for a fight.
Taking a deep breath, Faerin casts her customary protective spell, bark emerging to envelop her skin in a protective layer.
A chill rises in Pelipe at Ahto's words. Her first thought goes to the Roc, but it doesn't seem the case. Regardless, she doesn't like the fact that they may engage in combat here. It may draw the eye from above.
Pelipe surges magic through her, causing it to protect her body from any harm incoming.
The young arcanist quickly asks a blessing of Abadar to protect her friends in the security of good community.
"I am ready when you are to face it."
She will signal her trained horse that they are about to engage in combat and to be ready to react.
In the middle of the group as they advance, Faerin prepares for a fight, her awareness opening up to her environment as she waits to see what hunts them.
The creature emerges from behind the rocks and trees atop the cliffs from which it was stalking you. This creature has a vaguely humanoid head, the body of a lion, and the wings of a dragon. Its tail ends in long, sharp spikes.
With a quick snap of its tail, it hurls a sharp spike at Ahto, but the projectile deflects harmlessly off the pauldron of his breastplate.
Although the creature then unleashes a beastly roar, the arrogant smirk that follows bespeaks a surprising level of intelligence in this threat.
Pelipe will turn her horse away from Ahto, where the creature flings its spines, and will angle to the side a bit more, hoping to almost surround the beast. Before she does though, she unleashes her magic on the group, hasting both man and beast.
The winged, spined beast laughs in response to Ahto's attempt to command it.
It unfurls its wings and glides down from its high post, attempting to rake Ahto with the claws on one of its broad paws.
However, the extra speed granted by Pelipe's magic makes all the difference, and Ahto weaves about to avoid the sharp claws.
Guiding her horse forward just enough to see around the bend, Faerin utters a quick chant in the ancient druidic tongue, drawing on the morning sunlight streaming down into the area and focusing it into a brilliant flash of shimmering light.
However, the large boulder between you and the monster would provide cover, giving it +4 AC against your ranged attacks.
Katrine isn't familiar with this kind of monster, although she suspects it may be some manner of magical beast - albeit one that has worked its way into the local ecosystem as an apex predator.
Faerin's spell leaves the large creature rubbing its eyes with the backs of its paws in a futile attempt to restore its blinded vision.
The light of the spell also burns away at its hide.
Pelipe reads the battlefield and the callouts by her companions. She was already trying to decipher the riddle of what this creature was when it popped up. She was just so shocked initially. Now that her brain starts to turn its gears, she hopes to understand what this is.
Though a good survivalist, Stayven doesn't know much about the arcane.
Stayven darts in, shoulder to shoulder with his king.
Pelipe will relay the information on the beast, if any that she may know. Otherwise, she blasts it with a great acidic blast.
(Sicken Fort DC15)
Katrine moves to get a better shot at the creature, Storm on her heels. The wolfdog growls, but until it lands, he can't reach to bite it.
Now that it has pounced right in front of the party, Pelipe is able to recognize this creature as a manticore. Although manticores were likely a magical creation, they have long since established themselves as a naturally occurring species.
Manticores eat any meat, even carrion, though they prefer human flesh and rarely pass up an opportunity for such a delicacy. They are smart and social enough to bargain with or bully evil humanoids into alliances or offering tribute, and more powerful creatures may hire or bribe them to guard or patrol a place or area. They like lairs in high places, such as hilltops and caves in cliffs.
With two mighty swings of Burden, Ahto puts down the manticore, wounded as it was by Faerin's spell and Katrine's arrows.
The creature neither wore nor carried anything of value, but if you could locate its lair nearby, it may have hoarded away wealth purloined from other preyed upon travelers.
"A predator such as this likely kept a lair nearby." Faerin comments, looking at the slain beast's body. "We might be able to track it's movements back to it."
"Depends. If it didn't discard its victims' belongings, there could be some valuable items in with the remains." First, though, Katrine wants to see if any parts of the carcass are valuable enough to be worth lugging along on their journey.
"A being wicked enough to want to kill humans particularly, it may have trophies. I'm unsure if such behavior has been documented. We can quickly determine the answer with such excellent trackers in our group."
"Depends. If it didn't discard its victims' belongings, there could be some valuable items in with the remains." First, though, Katrine wants to see if any parts of the carcass are valuable enough to be worth lugging along on their journey.
Pelipe considers possible sites to narrow down the beast's lair and then puts her head together with the other more proficient people in the realm of the natural among the party.
Though aware of the existence of manticores, Farin is only passingly familiar with their preferred terrain and habits, so she instead takes some time studying the area, searching for signs of a path the monster traveled as it hunted, hopefully leading back to its lair.
Katrine gets down on one knee to examine the manticore's tracks more closely. Beside her, Storm takes a deep whiff of the body, then starts sniffing around for a scent trail.
With some assistance from Ahto, Faerin is able to pick up the recent trail of the manticore, retracing the steps that brought it to the precipice over the mountain pass where it lay in wait for this ill-fated ambush. Along the way, Katrine shares some details about what makes for an ideal lair for this kind of predator.
The trail leads you away from the mountain pass, and the going gets rougher. However, Katrine's knowledge provides some tips and tricks that keeps you advancing into the heights of the Tors. She and Storm are also able to pick back up the manticore's trail from places where the beast used its wings to get around.
After about an hour and a half, you have reached the jagged cavern that served as the now-slain manticore's lair. It reeks of fur and offal, but within you find the plunder it has claimed from past prey.
It looks like it hasn't plundered any merchant wagons, since there is little trade to be expected along this mountain pass with no contact having been established between Tamlyn and Varnhold. Apart from the animal remains, there are the bodies of a handful of mountaineers, vagabonds, and outlaws with little more than smatterings of coins and chipped knives on their person.
However, one fresher body appears to be that of an explorer or adventurer. In addition to a finely made staff that doubles as a walking stick, he wears a ring carved from exotic jungle wood and carries partially completed maps detailing landmarks among the mountains and on their far, eastern slopes.
It is amazing to her that after such a long journey they find the lair. For a while she would think they were lost, but then sign after sign would show this creature had a large hunting range.
Thankfully, the plunder can be cleaned by her spell, and as they make these coins, ring, and staff clean of decay and weathered condition of sitting in the ground on a dead decaying body, she will observe the staff. Perhaps it is good for her? Perhaps for Faerin? If no one else can, she will also work to identify the ring.
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"Let us put these poor fellows remains to rest," Ahto says. "May the Master of the First Vault see them to the Spire, and may their patron deities claim their souls, should they be deserving."
Ahto picks out any and all human, dwarf, elf, and halfling remains he cand find, and stacks them to be buried.
Once he has found what bones and remains he can, he begins the process of covering the remains with a cairn of stones.
Faerin moves to aid in burying the remains in silence.
As Faerin and Ahto inter the remains, and Pelipe examines the recovered items - discovering that the staff, although well-shod with steel, is almost disappointingly mundane - you can hear a group of high-pitched voices carried upon the wind.
It takes a couple minutes to realize that a small gang of winged fey messengers from Tamlyn are flittering along from the west. They seem simultaneously excited and relieved to have finally found you, so they can deliver whatever tidings they bring.
Pelipe points out the staff's lack of qualities, at least to her senses, and hands it to anyone who wants it.
When the messengers come, she rallies behind Ahto with support. She hopes not only to hear good news, but perhaps news concerning her family.
While Katrine is very interested in the maps, the respectful thing to do is take care of the remains of the manticore's victims before examining potential routes east. So she helps Ahto and Faerin haul stones for the cairn, followed by a brief prayer for the souls of the departed.
"If nobody else wants the ring, I'll take it. Might come in handy for scouting." Katrine is a pretty good climber already. With the help of the ring of climbing, she could climb more difficult surfaces.
Spotting the group of fey, the ranger smiles and waves at them. "Hello, friends."
"No no. You keep it, my dear."
She will hand over the ring.
"And not only will it help with scouting, but with your archery, it is probably best to have a height advantage."
Pelipe had done some minor archery lessons in her youth, but nothing extravagant. However, she did recall that height did seem to help to some degree with hitting targets.
"You'll never believe what was found in the beast's lair!" squeaks the pixie leading the gang before she and her fellow sprites and grigs begin chattering all at once, excitedly talking over one another to share the news with the lord and ladies of Tamlyn.
As you listen and coax them to speak one at a time, which lasts for a short while at a stretch, you do pick up the key details of what was discovered when your scouting party retraced the giant owlbear's swathe of destruction.
After getting past some nasty spiders and fungi that also inhabited the large cavern in the southern hills, your scouts discovered the rotting remains of a second massive owlbear. Your scouts hypothesized that this was the mate of the one you fought, and its death may have triggered the rampage that nearly brought it upon Horace.
Your scouts also found the remains of a would-be beastmaster and his gang who ran afoul of the creatures. Giant, shredded suits of barding and saddling suggest they were trying to turn the owlbears into beasts of war. The dead beastmaster was also in possession of a powerful but cursed ring that he may have been using to try to bring the owlbears under his command.
Your fey subjects were able to identify that the ring was made from a lock of Nyrissa's hair, suggesting that she was a "patron" of this beastmaster, and that unleashing the giant beasts was another of her schemes.
;ostenting to the report of the group's Fey subjects, Faerin nods,clearly expressing concern as she turns to her companions. "I see what you meant about a truly powerful enemy. I'm convinced that this is the same very powerful fey woman I've heard whispers and rumors of, who was exiled from the First World. The few that' I've asked about her refuse to speak her name, fearing it would draw her terrible attention upon them."
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"We have already drawn her attention," Ahto replies in a tone of resignation. "Myself in particular, it seems. She has offered her hand to me in marriage, and I have refused. She has made it clear that I have the remainder of the year to reconsider. Make no mistake, she is not interested in me as a partner, only as a means of acquiring Tamlyn for herself. I will not let that happen, even if the price is my life."
He turns and addresses the pixies. "Who currently has possession of the cursed ring?"