Struug sees the lizards moving towards them and launches a blob of acid at the nearest one.
Lorelei grabs her crossbow from beside her and attempts to shoot at one of the lizards as she shouts to alert the others to their presence.
"Over there! Giant lizards!"
"Just what I always wanted," Blink said with a sneer, "A fresh set of armour that delivers itself." The Sylph pulled her own crossbow and opened fire, hoping to put some holes in the creatures before they got too close. If needs be she would summon something to keep them at bay.
Bjorn leaps up from his spot on the beach, grabs his earthbreaker and slams it into the lizard closet to him. He screams a battle cry as he attacks.
Distracted from just waking and from the mental scream from Struug, the monitor lizards easily avoid your attacks. They scramble forward to attack the biggest threat they see, Bjorn.
Bjorn is nearly pulled apart as two of the monitor lizards grab and pull at him. Finally one grabs on to him and begins to shake him about like a rag doll.
Bjorn continues to scream his battle cry as he brings the earthbreaker down on top of the one shaking him about.
But because of the shaking, his attack goes wide. Not realizing how hurt he was, he passes out from the exertion of the attack.
Seeing the big man in trouble, Struug focused, stretched forth his hand, and launched a glowing dart of violet energy at the lizard shaking the warrior.
Cursing heavily under her breath, Blink makes a split secoind decision and charges to Bjorn, reaching down and casting Cure Light Wounds on the savaged viking. "If anyone gets to kill him," she said as she slapped her glowing hand onto his shoulder, "It is going to be me!"
Lorelei tries shooting at one of the lizards attacking Bjorn.
Just as Blink heals Bjorn, one of the lizards goes in for an attack on her. But just as it's about to bite her, it suddenly stops. The other two lizards also seem to freeze and stare off. The one holding Bjorn drops him to the sand and all three lizards scramble off into the surrounding jungle.
Turning around from the direction the lizards came from, you see a cloaked figure standing beside the fire. You are unable to see their features or wither or not they are male or female.
"Your going to need to find shelter if you hope to survive on this island." The cloaked figures voice is noticeably feminine and almost has a melody quality to it that feels like she is about to sing.
"You know, we were just thinking that ourselves. What with the killer lizards, killing metal spikes that sunk our ship, giant death volcano and other wonderful features..." Blink sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was fairly obvious where the conversation was going.
"Alright," she said after a moment, "You're likely about to offer to help us or you wouldn't be talking. And we'd be getting chomped by angry lizards. Let's get this out in the air - what do you want in exchange for helping us, and how exactly do you propose to do so?"
Struug stood puzzled as the lizards left, then he noticed the figure standing the fire. Jumping back, and raising his mace, the Dunauxian Magus readied himself for attack. Then she began to speak.
<And just who in the infernal regions are you?> Struug added to Blink's questions.
Bjorn gets up from being spat out by the lizard on to the wet sand. He looks to the stranger with his earthbreaker, still confused from the ordeal.
Finally his resolve gives up and he falls back down to the sand, sitting in an awkward position. Those damn lizards hit pretty damn hard....
The cloaked stranger pulls back her cloak to reveal a young face with bright red hair. "I am Freya, restored to my domain after the heroes defeated The Purge. I want to help you as best as I can, but I have little power on this island. My only advice is to head for the fortress to the east where you will find shelter and the start to your journey."
"Freya?" Blink stared for a moment. "As in Goddess of love, sex, gold and war? I always thought that was an odd combination. How do we know..." Her voice trailed off. "We can't know, can we, if you're telling the truth. You're either out of power, or you're an imposter. In don't know which. But we'll take the help. Can you give us any details about the path to the fortress? And about the fortress itself. Who lives there, what shape is it in, are there any traps or defences we need to know about...etc."
Struug tried to see if he could get an indication of whether or not this woman was lying.
Freya shakes her head "Most of this island is shielded from my sight. The beach here is as far as my domain will let me travel. If you would have camped any farther inland, I wouldn't have been able to assist you with those nasty lizards."
Freya seems to concentrate for a long moment, "As for the fortress... I see it in ruin and abandoned of sentient life. You will find a path leading to the east a few hours from here. Be careful, something is blinding my sight on this island..."
Bjorn is about to snort before remembering his manners. A god?! Here?! Can we trust this pagan god? What would Praetor say if he knew I was being protected by her?
Struug looked at the volcano, then back to Freya. <That something wouldn't happen to have anything to with that?> he asked, pointing towards the fiery mountain.
Considering, Blink added, "I'm not sure it matters. Anything that can mess with a God is going to be way beyond anything we can handle for now. I'm not entirely sure any of this is a good idea..." Blink stared back at the ocean behind them. "But so far it's the least awful choice we have."
Blink didn't like this. She didn't know if the woman before them was a Goddess or a lunatic druid with delusions of grandeur. She didn't know if this fortress even existed. But taking control of such a structure would be a useful thing. Of course, they'd need to be cautious - empty of life didn't mean it was empty of danger. Traps, constructs and the undead were all fun and not alive. And there were plenty of things that weren't sentient...
But they knew that the dragons would find them there. Moving wasn't an option - they'd nearly ripped Bjorn in half. Which was funny, true, but she'd have been next. The fortress, whether Freya was really a Divine, and whether it was really real, was as good a destination as any other. They'd just have to keep an eye out for traps and ambushes...
"May I ask what your interest in this place is Freya? If you have little power on this island, why would you even wish to be here? What is in it for you to offer us help?"
Freya looks off in the distance for a moment, "Call it a hunch, call it a nagging feeling that something is off for a whole island to be shielded from sight from all the gods... call it what you will, but the whole situation feels bad." She sighs for a long moment.
"Where a god cannot travel, a mortal will have to go in their place. Your free will is what defines you and allows you to go where we can not..."
Struug answered, <With all due respect, while I believe you are telling the truth, it doesn't necessarily mean I trust you or your motives. My people have a tendancy to not believe in deities, since we were created by an undead abomination known as The Nameless One.>
Freya steps closer to Struug and peers down into his eyes, "And you are plagued by nightmares of him and his minion. I am well aware of the plight of the Dunaux and I only wish the gods were free back then to have helped, but you made out on your own fine enough..."
Suddenly, Freya looks up at the stars. "My time is up, I wish you all the best of luck... from here on in, you are on your own..." A wind kicks up and sand spins around everywhere. As you shield your eyes, you feel a warmth pass over you and just as suddenly as it started, the wind dies down. The beach is once more empty save for yourselves.
Blink shivered. Her affinity for wind made it pretty clear that wind wasn't natural. Or maybe it was simply the fact the woman had vanished. She glanced over at Struug, but didn't ask for an explanation. If he wanted to explain, he would.
Instead, after a glance to make sure the nasty beasties were still gone, she returned to where they had been sleeping and picked up her gear. "The lady said east, right? Let's start heading east." It wasn't ideal, but right now nothing would be. Unless some had a pocket boat to get them home. This was rapidly turning into one of her worse ideas.
Getting his gear in order, Struug threw his pack over one shoulder, turned to the rest of the group, and said, <Yes she did, and we'd best hurry. I don't feel like waiting around to see if the scaly's come back.> He started heading east.
"I'm not too worried about that," Blink replied as she sroted her meagre positions and followed, "I'm pretty sure we can all run faster than Bjorn anyway."
Lorelei trudges along with the rest of the group, though her pace is a bit slow as she appears to walk with a slight limp.
"I'm more worried about something that can shield a whole island from a god's sight. Makes me wonder what we will find on this island."
<Absolution hopefully.> Struug thought a little louder than intended.
Bjorn chuckles at Blink's ribbing, "If only you had seen me in the arena in Tyrene! Then you would have seen how fast I am! Hopefully the wind stays calm so you won't blow away!" He slaps her on the shoulders in a friendly competitive fashion. He secures his equipment and earthbreaker to himself before briskly hiking through the jungle.
While the group was hiking, Struug kept mentally mumbling. <Corrosive quotient squared minus the parabolic equalibrium, divided by the flow of energy equals increased output while decreasing distance of effectiveness.> Despite the apparent rambling, the Dunaux was extremely vigilant as to his surroundings.
Bjorn becomes lost in thought as he listens to Struug mentally mumbling, he fails to see the trees in front of him. "Good friend, not sure if you are aware, but we can hear your thoughtful mumbling. Also try to consider the effective distance is only decreased in a straight line. However you should be able to maintain effective distance if you take ballistics into account..."
Snaping out of his calculations and replied, <Sorry about that, I forget sometimes. As for what I'm working on, it's a spell equation, one I've been working on since we started this trip.>
Bjorn looks at the Dunaux from the side as they walk. "I am not one for magic, but I certainly enjoy the science of war! Force is equal to the mass times by the acceleration. Or the way I like to think of it, if I take something heavy and hit it really hard, it will bleed a lot!"
Struug easily picks up a small trail that leads eastward through the forest, and after a few hours you spot a large fortress looming in the jungle ahead. From what you can see, the fortress has suffered much in its time in the jungle and many of the walls have crumbled from vegetation.
<That may be all well and true for the physical elements of warfare, but the mystical elements can get a little more.....complicated.> Struug retorted.
Blink scanned the crumbling fortress. Well, so far so good. At least the supposed Goddess was right about this much. But she still didn't like that it was only empty of 'sentient life'. There was just too much that was neither sentient nor alive that could cause a problem. She wasn't the most observant person, but she wanted to make sure the fortress was quiet...
Bjorn crouches behind a cropping of trees and takes a long look at the fortress and looks for any movement.
After his earlier blunder in the jungle, Bjorn remains ever vigilant.
Blink, you notice a small flicker of light coming from the fortress and something bright shining off that light. Your not exactly sure what it could be from your angle.
But Bjorn can clearly see a campfire and a small group of people clustered around it. The fire light is shining off the breastplate of a guard stationed just outside the light of the fire. He blends into the foliage quite well, other then the glittering golden eagle upon his breastplate.
Bjorn swears as quietly as he can and will whisper to everyone in his group, "Tyrene solders! Small group of them. What the bloody hell are they doing here?!?"
Struug quietly broadcasts, <So what do we do from this point?
"Smack goddesses that assure us fortresses are empty?" Blink rubbed her eyes. "No, I suppose that's unfair. They aren't inside, are they?" Still, she wasn't exactly sure what they were going to do with the damned people? Well, there were four of them...
"Bjorn, you can see them better than I can. What are they armed with? How are they equipped? And exactly how many of them are there?"
Bjorn squints in the darkness and whispers back, "I see seven, but there might be more. If they are regular Tyrene soldiers, they will have a gladius, a few javelin's and a dagger with the markings of their squad upon it. However if any priests are among them, we could be having to deal with some magic as well..."
<Is it possible to distinguish which one might be a priest?> Struug asked while attempting to formulate a strategy.
Bjorn shakes his head, "Not from this angle, but it would be the one usually holding the eagle standard."
<Blink, do you have any magics at your disposal?>
Nodding, Blink replied, "I can cast Cure Light Wounds and I can Summon Monsters. Plus a handful of cantrips. I can't see any other than Message being much use here, though."
Considering, Blink added, "Seven is too many. Plus, it's a weird number. Wouldn't a squad of ten make more sense for such a regimented army? I wonder if they have scouts out, or ambushers. Either way, I think the choice here is obvious - we need to take them out a few at a time. If they have a patrol out, we need to take them out and hope they're dumb enough to send a second. Two groups of three and a group of four we might be able to handle. If there's no patrol we need to lure a few from camp, maybe ambush one when he goes to the toilet and then the ones who come searching for him."
Bjorn thinks on it for a moment "Your right, ten is a standard squad size with twenty-five being the smallest size for a platoon. There must be something wrong... Tyrene is a self-centered egotistical country that is hell bent on forcing everyone to think like they do... but they aren't our enemies. Maybe we try the peaceful approach? They aren't supposed to be here anyways, just like us..."