Salty, very foolishly, keeps figthing.
"I'll make a sauce of you innards, beasts!"
(-3 because of Dex damage included)
---
"PIIIIIIEEEEEESSSS!" cries the cockerel, foaming, as Eliah somersaults away from his flapping wings.
She manages to find her sword effortlessly.
Meanwhile, Salty manages to take a chunk out of one of the hens.
The cockerel misses the hapless archeologist, but his companion has a bit more luck.
The cockatrices fixating on Salty return his threat with enraged bocking, attacking him without pause! [ooc]Five damage and 3 DC 12 Forts or take , , and Dex damage consecutively.
Salty manages to resist the birds attacks. He will keep biting until he is able.
"I'll drink your blood!"
(-3 because of Dex damage included)
"Yeah yeah, I get it already, PIES!" Eliah screams in Taldane (common), temporarily forgetting the cockatrice are squawking Thassilonian in her frustration. Easily finding the hilt of her short sword, she rips it from the sheath and slashes angrily at the bird that struck her.
More relaxed now in the relatively familiar surroundings of the inn, Pharysene sets to work reweaving her rope (with Mending), now that the job of carrying the wheat back is complete.
"Ah, Max? If you like, I can fix your boot now..." She calls out tentatively.
"Pies?!? Where?!? "
Max nods to Pharysene. "Thank you for the offer, I think right now, we should figure out what came this close to the inn before I remove my boot."
Max looks out into the darkness.
Xarl silent since they left decides to follow Tuich in case anything tries to attack her.
As long as none of us are alone I don't think any creature might attack.
The cloud moves over the ground silently, stopping just behind the bow-carrying human. "What is he doing?" asks a quiet voice after a moment. "Looks like he's looking!" answers another. "Definitely looking." "But is he seeing??"
There's a brief pause. "Psst." "Get his attention." "Hey, person." "What do you see?" "Do you know anything about these marks?"
"Niulamayu, we've met. My name is Max. And yes, I see the scratches. But, I can't figure out what made them. I was hoping Kenith might know, or perhaps you might have seen them before? If none of us know what they are, not much we can do, but remain alert and no one go off by themselves. Of course, I am no one's boss, so that's up to you."
There's a confused murmur of voices, then it dies down and another one speaks up. "Name!" "It has a name, it says." "That's not important!" "Not what we asked!" "No, indeed not." "Maybe it doesn't speak Taldane?"
Another pause. "Mae'n siarad pobl-dafod?" "O! Dyna syniad!" "Dyna beth ydyw!" "Ydych chi'n siarad pobl-dafod, yna?"
Max looks at the cloud and then looks around at everyone else.
"I don't speak that language, does anyone else speak it?"
Tuich blinks at Niulamayu. "Excuse me, did you know you're suddenly speaking in tongues?"
The cloud emits what sounds like a collective exaggerated sigh. "That answers that." "So it does." "Indeed, it answers it." "How do we communicate with them then?" "They can't read us, either." "How unfortunate for them." "Unfortunate!" "Truly unfortunate!"
Another voice speaks up a bit hesitantly. It enunciates carefully and pronounces each word slowly as if trying to make sure the language is not the barrier to understanding. "We asked..." (there's a short, whispered conference) "We did not ask your name. We only want to know whether you know what made these marks."
There's a short chorus of anticipatory hushing noises as the cloud awaits the answer.
"WHAT?! PIES?? OH.. Its these damn birds, they're using a dead language!"
"Eochniss Ks'vanti ataktcha!!" she shouts in response to the bird's squawks.
"And you are talking about pies? Do they know a recipe?"
"I understand you blue cloud. Sadly I have no knowledge of natural creatures but I can take a look and see if a magical critter made the marks." Fajra replies to the Sylvan.
---
Tuich throws a tantrum with blinded gusto and finds her sword bites flesh... with minimal force.
"FRESH THIS MORNING!" comes the scream of indignation of the cockerel as his hen is struck.
Salty, meanwhile, chomps at the air.
There is a flurry of feathers and wrath. Eliah loses her remaining copy in the chaos and feels a tell-tale beak-clamp.
Salty, the poor naked man, is assailed without mercy or hesitation.
Realizing, at last, the futility of his efforts Valaravans makes a withdrawal action to go back towards his equipment and clothes.
"Let me get my shot and I will be right back! Defend yourself! I'll come back!"
Hearing the faint (pop) of her last copy's disappearance, Eliah alters her stance, striking again at the cockatrice, but more cautiously this time.
"Gahh!" Eliah misjudges the creatures position (Let's see you fight with no eyesight!) and swings wide. Her frustration is palpable. She then tries to dodge away from her attackers.
"Then there's nothing more to do here, is there...? Except eat. I can't imagine it's goin' to be any safer out there in the night away from the hearth we can finally use." Lupi relents, holding some of the salvaged wood from the night before.
"We'll have time to puzzle it out later, I hope. If it had wanted to attack us, it could have, I think."
---
CONFIRM[/dice][/dice]
Having warred and lost with her current adversary, Eliah is very put off and vocalizes her frustration. The cockerel responds by mimicking her voice and her yell in entirety.
Meanwhile, Salty is set upon by two of the birds from earlier as he runs, while one sprints ahead of him, as if mimicking the tactics of frenzying sharks to surround. Still, his things are clear of it... if only just.
The monsters attack yet again, rending flesh and leaving their curse in their wake. [ooc]2 damage to Eliah, 4 to Salty. Eliah and Salty need to save twice or take and Dex damage consecutively.
Salty gets to his things and looks for his "drinks" (potions) and his "shot" (mutagen) while linking his tusks.
Eliah is inflamed by the bird's mocking, only adding to the insult of having this much trouble dealing with a pack of overrated chickens! In her head, she says to herself, "Keep calm, your eyes don't work but you can still fight... focus on the sound..." She maintains her stance and strikes again.
'Did he say shot..? Why in seven hells does he need liquor at a time like this??'
"Save the celebration for when we survive, Tusks!" Eliah yells, not quite sure which way to face.
Still deeply shaken and not understanding why, Tuich nods absently while continuing to stare at the unnerving scratches. "I suppose so, Lupi. Let's go see if we can pull a meal together."
---
Eliah lunges fruitlessly yet again, frustrated beyond belief. The birds are both relentless and elusive.
Salty fares better only because he reaches his things, and better is a relative term.
The cockatrices make their move, surrounding the hapless naked half-orc.
Eliah is not spared, either.
"Eating time!"
Salty drinks his mutagen and a potion of enlarge person, using both his hands. In a couple of seconds Valavarans grows to Large size, and he takes shark characteristics, his large tusks giving place to vicious jaws and his hands turning into cruel claws. He sees the cockatrices and starts salivating... The food is on the table.
Eliah shakes her head, finally clearing the sparks from her vision. As her attackers come into focus, she lunges forward with renewed vigor, emitting a (prematurely) triumphant yell!
"Hurrah!! Ya f%*@in' chickens!!"
Eliah does begin to change the tide by fighting back. Her blade sinks into the wing feathers of one of the hens. Her yell is easily heard by the half orc at his distance.
Salty, meanwhile, mutates in place, transforming into veritable nightmare fodder.
---
The damnable things retaliate, gouging at Eliah again. Another bird joins the fray on Eliah, too, being that it is no longer blinded or distracted, and the third that had been seeing naught but stars lunges.
She takes two hits.
Perhaps it's the intimidation, but only one cockatrice manages to peg him this time around.
Salty, turn into a orc-shark hybrid, quickly withdraws towards the river, and swims quickly towards Eliah. He tries to remain in the river, out of attack range of the cockatrices, but at the same time near enough distance as to allow him to charge them next turn. The cockatrices will need a bigger boat! :D
Eliah dashes away from her assailants, recognizing the need for space after that last bite!
Well, I am almost blind too, but yes, I am accustomed to the position of the brackets...
Eliah bravely escapes and spells some copies into existence. Said copies swiftly cause a flurry of indignant squawks.
Salty meanwhile transforms into a nightmarish monster and shoots away from the creatures.
One of the hens makes a very loud squealing sound, and the creatures proceed to disengage and run away...
Only to be rebuked by their rooster in the distance with a return cry of
"TWO FOR ONE!" In Thassilonian. At a distance of 90ft, they stop and cluck amongst themselves.
Meanwhile, the creatures dig into Eliah's unfortunate clones, but she manages to stave off all three attacks directed at her.
Eliah resumes attacking the one she managed to strike last time.
Noticing the orc-shark swimming upriver, Eliah eyes widen slightly before she's forced back to focusing on the fight at hand. "Nine hells, just what kind of bloody monster have I been dumped here with?!" she thinks to herself, making a mental note to keep an even closer eye on Salty from now on.
Her move action will be to, once again, dash away towards her pile of stuff.
Salty, transformed into a half Shark monstrosity, charges against one of the Cockatrices attacking Eliah, which can notice EVERYTHING in Valaravans is now much bigger than before, specially his tusks and teeth, which he uses on the enemies attacking her.
"I am back!"
Eliah took a swing and missed at one of the hens from before. More clucking ensues, but the rooster, for once, is blessedly silent. Probably because he's staring down the sharkpedoe heading their way.
He latches onto said wounded hen because she is on the side.
To be honest, Salty decapitates the little monster. Unsurprisingly, it tastes like chicken.[/ooc]
The rooster caws something without any human sounds, this time.
All of the reinforcements come running back, with only one errant hen even caring enough to lunge at Eliah... only to hit a clone.
conf
3 hits. Nix one, the rest running. Next turn they arrive.[/ooc]
The rooster manages to jump atop salty and scratch at him, along with the fastest of those he'd been fighting.