Realizing the scenario does not play to her strengths Sigrun nods at Percy's words and take cover.
Cawing madly, the ravens approach rapidly. In under a minute, they're directly on the pyros.
Percy cackles and a sheet of flame erupts from her fingertips. Dinner is served!
Allie laughs as she fire hadookens the swarms. Angling the cone to encompass the swarms to the fullest extent possible.
The felinerai did his best to keep the horses still and silent, watching the smaller magic weilding friends of his go to fry the birds... He was prepared to move out and tackle them to the ground to save them in necesarry.
The elf outstretches one hand and points his scimitar with the other, the fan of flames extending outwards to try and incinerate both sets of crows.
As soon as the birds are within range, they're engulfed in three massive gouts of fire. When the smoke clears, charred corpses are everywhere. The smell of burnt feathers permeates the air, but the threat has passed.
Percy jumps up and down with a squeal of delight. No more salted meats for at least a week! C'mon everyone! Time to gather some roasted crow!
She leaps down from Slaygon (which has now properly earned it's name in her mind) and starts tossing birds into the bed.
Sigrun rises grinning, and walks over, shaking snow from her hair. "Very well done!"
"Good job goils." Hobbes says rejoining the group.
The elf clears his throat at the halfling's "girls" comment.
"Not just girls, thank you very much." the magus brushes the cinders from his fingertips, a mere annoyance this time.
"You too, longhair."
From the inside of the illusion, Zses hears the screech of birds and what is, supposedly, the smell of a couple of dozens of fried ravens. Not hearing anything after that, he sticks his head out of the illusory mound "You're already done?"
Well then that was easy... that bard lady had head this way... I hope she wasnt made into bird food." He said blinking at the bird collection and licking his lips for a moment. Bird did sound a little tasty. He began to lead the horses back to the Slaygon's front so they could continue on their journey.
Percy tosses Zses a particularly roasted bird and grins. It seems Percy's style of torment might be more subtle than Allie's. All done! Lets get these collected and get out of here.
Ered just chuckles loudly and shrugs. "Well, when you hit anything with that much fire...it's going to die."
He nods to the two small ones. l"That definitely was pleasant enough."
"Unless she was responsible for sending them." Sigrun says in response to Silence.
Percy finishes collecting the dead birds and gives the signal to carry on. She sits on the back of the Slagon and plucks as they go, leaving a trail of black feathers on the snow. The work hurts her hands some, but it's worth it for the fresh meat.
Hobbes seeing the discomfort it causes Percy, will take some and help with the de-feathering.
Allie helps as well.
Percy smiles at her companions. It was good to have something to do to pass the time oher than look at trees.
As the scene unfolds Neverhome carries a deep sense of nausea and discomfort as the group goes about preparing the ravens. This... Is very bad.
You travel onward through the snow. After a little time, an enormous crow materializes in front of the Slaygon. "Rawk! Who dares pass through my domain?"
Percy looks around at the windblown, desolate landscape and snickers before halfheartedly turning it into a cough. She doesn't think much of this overgrown bird's "domain", apparently.
Huh. A Witchcrow. Powers like a witch, body and soul of a magpie. Kinda like our friend Zses, but worse because he's nice and quiet.
Everyone hide your shineys! It's ganna take 'em! she mocks.
Hobbes looks more confused at the bird-landlord but his confusion turns into a smirk at Percy's comment. "We should keep movin', folks."
Allie looks a her sister. "Fwoosh?"
"A witchcrow?...Wow! I didn't think we'd ever run into one of these on our trip," Ered smiles, almost seeming to enjoy the experience. It's weird, but weird in a way he understands.
"I thought dad lied when he told me about these..." the elf just grins, toying with his belt pouch, the temptation to silence the bird so strong. And equally as tempting to see how interested in thieving it is.
Allie looks a her sister. "Fwoosh?"
Watch it. If it makes a move for us. Do what you do best, sister.
Rainbows of light ripple down Percy's arms as she gathers energy toward her hands.
"You should fly away......now!"
Who passes through your domain? Why it is us, A band of Ten heros like in the legends. The Quiet pause one moment before the pounce upon ones prey, in a cool winter evening with a slight wind blowing from the east, with my friends, and associates,A charging stalion most feirce, The magical muffin producer, She that Burns, She that Explodes, The Tricky one, The one with space in his head, the overeager one, The one whose hair matches her rage and...uh the elf.
He said with a smile tilting his head up at the bird as he nodded at each one.
We are traveling the lands looking for deeds to do and such things, since you are the master of this domain yes yes, perhaps you know of a quest we can perform? And you sir whom are we adressing?
He added seeing no reason to not be civil while not exactly divulging anything.
"Over eager? Me?" Hobbes resists the urge to roll his eyes.
We kill a bunch of ravens and then a Witch... Crow... Thing shows up!
Splaying both his arms in the direction of the Witchcrow Neverhome exasperates quite loudly, "If we ever had sign of world telling us 'you have f&@*ed up most severely', this would be it."
"Yuck" is the only thing Zses manages to say when Percy throws him the charred raven.
I hope that she just has a terrible sense of humor, and it wasn't a 'You will be next!' thing.
When the uneventful journey is interrupted by the appearance of a giant raven, Zses stares at him blankly, a little stunned by the absurdity of the situation. After Lyosha speaks, he too consider for a moment that the universe was trying to tell them something, but shacking the thoughts off soon after.
Right, Lyosha thinks that killing ravens is bad luck! Good thing that Crow's a raven, or he would have been pinned to the wall that time at the tavern.
"Yes, my friend over there is right! We're only poor travelers, and we mean no harm. We have barely anything with us, carrying around only mantis meat as food!"
Well, it's technically right Zses thinks to himself, surprised to have said exactly what he meant without it seeming a little off Am I able to talk only to ravens or what?
But don't think us easy pickings. Percy adds. We have no trouble from you and we'll give no trouble. Just let us pass... Please...
Percy hopes that the energy rippling down the cracks in her skin gives credibility to her claim. Otherwise they were going to have an extraordinary amount of feathers and meat on their hands.
Allie giggled at her title. 'Works for me' She then looked at the WitchCrow. "Do you like potatoes? Im sure they will be nice and yummy this time of year. I sure do like farming for those tasty buggers all night long in search of the legendary golden potato of ledgend. If you are lucky, it is the tater that will last until you say a certain unknown word, but its flavor and texture are sure to please any palate. It can only be found at night with special headgear made from the finest gnome craftmenship. It is called the Blockened Potato Pealer and Dicer. I own several. They're good for regular potatoes, too."
Allie smiles as Little Allie turns into the Witch Crow and mocks it.
The Witchcrow's eyes glint greedily at Silence's offer, and it relaxes. "Rawk! You may pass - for the low, low price of - "
Suddenly a second Witchcrow appears. Flying at top speed, it screeches and snatches at Vashti's pocket (where the keys to the Dancing Hut are). Misjudging its speed, the wannabe thief gets its talons tangled in her cloak and faceplants against the side of the Slaygon with a loud *thud*.
"What the-"
Before the twins go on their murderous spree, Zses and Crow try to snatch the pouch back from the thieving Witchcrow.
Please don't start setting them on fire, please don't start setting them on fire is the only half-formed thought in Zses' head.
Percy holds out a hand for Allie to hold for a second. The crow hasn't actually stolen anything, after all. It was just being stupid. Besides, face planting on the Slagon was probably punishment enough.
Leave, now. she says to the idiot bird, And I'll extend the same offer to you. Persist, and we cause you... Trouble.
Hobbes chuckles at the clumsy bird. "You two featherheads should go. The beautiful ladies mean what they say."
Imitating the crow as best she is able, No! Its mine! Where are your manners! If you try that again, the kids are going to teach you some! Now get!!!
Covering the treasures as best she can.
Ered clears his throat after giving the cat man the look, when he is called "the elf". It's but a moment after the second one arrives that he looks at the interloper.
"I think it would be much more appropriate for you to be civil, especially since we, as strangers, are heavily armed...and that would lead to a bad ending if we were badly surprised." his hand casually rests on the pommel of his sword, as he looks from one of the beasts to the other.
"For the last time...leave.......NOW!" Sigrun growls
He sighed, birds and there shinies... his eyes widened for a second and his hand slid down to his belt pouch... He reached into it, pulling out a few silver and a handful of copper
Hey there bird friends.. I have some shineys." He said moving the coin in his hand trying to attract their attention.
The birds reluctantly fly away with their heads bowed in embarrassment - but not before taking the shiny coins.
Zses watches the giant ravens as they depart, arms crossed.
"Well, that was...anticlimactic. And went better than expected." he says after a while, glancing at the pile of dead ravens on the Slaygon "We had already picked up enough birds today. Shall we go?" he concludes, climbing back in the Slaygon.
Sharp winds whistle across this stark white plain, stinging the eyes along with the near-blinding rays of the reflected sun. A great eruption of frozen ice rises in the distance - an imposing pale tower crowned with icicles spearing into the sky. Seemingly born of the land itself, an unbroken circular wall of ice guards the tower's base, with no means of entrance visible. High above, a large gash opens in the tower's bowl-like crown, ringed in icy spikes and split by a massive plane of ice resembling an inverted crescent moon.