... he is about to start to attempt to constrict and bite his enemy.
Just out of curiosity, how much discussion do you folks think can be squeezed into a round? I go hit the beach for an afternoon and I come back to an entire town hall meeting in the bushes. Fortunately, most of that can take place after Burnsten slices the Beargle's head in two pieces just as it's about to come back to its senses.
With a groan, the beast topples over, knocking Biter to the ground and pinning his legs beneath its massive bulk.
Biter struggles for a bit to free himself from the topped giant.
As he gets up, however, you look over to see Biter poking his finger through a ragged hole in his cheek, bloody teeth peeking out from within. His eyes lock with Abbas', "Notting to suppose maybe Deregaac can fix this, eh?"
Either way, he will spend some time searching the clearing, being specifically interested in both the Beargles and the dead humans.
As he passes by the smaller of the two Beargle corpses, he stops for a second, head tilted to the side, idly rubbing the black feather hanging from his ear. With one quick motion, the tiny hunter stoops down and plucks a pure white feather from the creature's body, pulls the black feather's tether from his ear, threads the white feather next to the black one, and re-attaches it to his ear.
Abbas will move toward the party and once rath and biter are in range heal check to see how hurt Rath and Biter are1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10 will channel twice 1d6 ⇒ 2 1d6 ⇒ 6
Abbas approached the downed Beargle and the rest of the party huffing and puffing from his run from the beach ".....Perhaps....I...will..stay ..."He pauses to catch his breath and notice the various wounded party members "Perhaps I will stay with the scouts from now on running is not my strong suit, at least not in this mail. At least no one was grievously injured thank Sarenrae." Abbas turns toward the direction of the sun, concentrates, and mumbles a quick prayer to the Dawn Flower.
Abbas finishes drawing her holy light into himself and channeling it into the area around him.
"Well can someone skin this beast if you don't mind and make cloak out of it since I'm not good at that. Besides it's a token to remember my first fight in Arcadia" as he steps back from the corpse and starts cleaning his sword "Always nice to hear you Deathbellow"
The first Beargle actually isn't dead, nor is it bleeding out, it's just unconscious.
The two humans most definitely are dead, however. They wear hide vests and loincloths, have bows strapped to their backs with bark quivers of arrows on their hips. One of them still has a wooden warclub tied to his waist, while the other managed to loosen his weapon, just never wield it. Each man wears decorations of feathers and shell bead necklaces, as well as little pouches on leather thongs about their necks. Inside each pouch are bits of hair and nail, small animal parts, and various dried herbs.
Neither of the bows or clubs look any better than standard fare, and the arrows have chipped stone points rather than steel (and aren't the straightest shafts you've ever seen either). One of the shell necklaces looks of much higher quality than the other, the insides of the shells awash with coruscating colours of mother-of-pearl.
The beasts do seem to possess excellent hides, and both have many bright white feathers you can use to tie to your weapons (or ears).
Rath marvels at the healing power of Sarenrae, watching the muscles in his chest reknit and the wounds close. Breathing becomes a pleasure not a chore. The only remains of the damage are 4 livid stripes.
He claps the winded priest on the shoulder, "Many thanks, Bhai Abbas! Your Goddess does good work." He trots over to the summoned wardog, picks it up, and kisses it affectionately. "Subzai Accha kutta*! Your flanking helped me very much." He puts the dog down and pats its head.
Rath tags along after Biter to inspect the Beargles and particularly the dead Skraelings. "Think maybe we should leave the Skraelings items on them for moment. Do not wish to dishonor their dead. Shall we finish off last Beargle?"
* from Vudrani - 'Best Dog'
"What must we do nowsss?" As tracant steps away from the corpse of the beargle with Burnsten "We defeat themsss and we thanksss you for healing usss... Abbasss..." looking at Ravarath after going towards the Skraeling corpses "Strange man..."
Biter nods his scarred head and prepares his great blade for a killing blow (knowing his small knife probably isn't up to the task). The small hunter runs his fingers along the creature's neck and collar bone, and finding his intended spot, drives the long blade down through the soft spot into the creature's heart and lungs.
"What must we do nowsss?" As tracant steps away from the corpse of the beargle with Burnsten "We defeat themsss and we thanksss you for healing usss... Abbasss..." looking at Ravarath after going towards the Skraeling corpses "Strange man..."
Pete reholsters his weapons and sidles over to the dead Skraelings. After looking over, but not touching the corpses, he turns to Rath ,"'Ey Rath, what de ya meake 'o them, was they part o' a scoutin' party, comin' ta greet us, or diya t'ink dey was jes hunters. In any case, methinks they prolly gots some friends o' them not far from 'ere. If'n we gonna take those feathers like 'Lexis suggests, 'n nows th' time."
Rath stares at the Skraeling, clearly lost in thought. Only Pete's speaking to him snaps him out of it. "Hey Pete! Think if we take feathers, should be from Beargles not Skraelings. This is difficult problem - many cultures have very specific rules about treatment of dead. Don't want to offend Skraelings - get relationship off on hm... wrong foot. Hopefully, Rajkumari's notebook or Grey can give us ideas on what is safest thing to do."
He adds, "Don't think they were here for us... maybe hunters for group, maybe nomads with no connection to other Skraelings."
"Aye, I 'gree wit' ye. We shouldn even touch th' bodies. Too risky. Wouldna e'en bury 'em. Mebbe th' journal has some answers fer us." Pete replies as he moves to one of the Eaglebears, and starts removing some white feathers, and tying them together in a bundle, for preparing later.
"I think if we can't figure out their death traditions then we have to risk trying some of own to show respect... and hope Skraelings we meet will understand we were try to honor their dead in our way. Leaving the bodies here, like carrion, may look disrespectful."
"Rath, I'd much ratha be disrespectful then insultin', catch my drift? Still we shoulda 'least try ta do somethin' wit' da bodies. Afer more o' them show up." He glances nervously around him, almost expecting the whole Skraeling village to show up.
Walks towards Ravarath and Pete "Well I rather make them a funerary pyre to honor them, then let them as carrion for some other thing to have a feast with them" he leans down and takes two white feathers and ties them to the pommel of Deathbellow and another two feathers to his dagger pommel "Almost forgot about the feathers thing, with the fightin' I just get carried away sometimes" shurgs his shoulders.
Given their gear and the fact that they gathered together fire wood and had started making a fire, it seems more likely that this was a hunting or scouting party, or possibly even just travelers.
Alexis can't be sure, of course, from such limited resources (Gray's book mentions nothing about death customs, save that the Skraelings consider them important [read the stuff about Skraelings and Undeath at the end]).
Researching the etymology of those words, however (and wow, really creative too!) suggests strongly that Skraelings prefer burials and that burning the bodies would not be appreciated well at all. She can learn nothing, however, on whether or not to leave their belongings with them, take the belongings to be returned to families, or some other treatment.
Knowledge History on Skraeling customs
Maybe we should track them back to their camp or village and let their own people decide what to do with them? Just my 2 coppers...bringing their bodies back may also allow us to gain some measure of respect with the natives and initiate contact. Do you feel comfortable enough in their language to make contact Alexis?
Elorin also takes a couple of feathers from the one he did actually hit.
After thinking for a while, Alexis turns to Elorin and says, "If you are able to track them, I believe that we should indeed attempt to make contact. At this point, we are strangers in their home — at most a few hundred people facing an entire civilization. If we are ill-received, that will make everything else we do more difficult. However, since we are still close to the beach, we should first take a few minutes to exchange information with Brycen and Grey before we head on. I believe the Rose of Cassomir is close enough to shore for me to use my message cantrip."
"As for the fallen, they will need to be buried, but there's simply not enough information to go on to determine if the Skraeling have a specific burial ground, or if they are buried with their weapons or not." She continues, although you get the feeling that Alexis is more thinking aloud than actually speaking to anyone in particular, "If we bury them here, even with a simple stone cairn, practically speaking it could be disassembled to remove the bodies to elsewhere. However, that would still effectively be equivalent to exhuming them. Even then, what about their belongings? If they have a specific burial ground though, if we return the bodies of their slain with their gear, their tribal elders could decide what is best..."
"Well as long as they don't think we killed them, since we are strangers they could think anything about us" looking at the corpses of the Skraelings, "I would say they should be buried here with their things on top of their graves with a token of the beargles. So can someone help me skinning this big beargle to make a cloak out of it?"
"I think it would be best if we made two litters upon which to bear the slain back to their people. Let us cover their bodies with a sheet of cloth and lay their weapons upon it so that it is clear we are not trying to claim such items for ourselves or to disregard them."
"Elorin, if you are willing to find the trail, I shall be willing to initiate diplomatic relations. Please begin searching the area for signs of the trail. While you are doing so, Rath and I shall return to shore and send word to the fleet whether by spell or launching a rock or blunted crossbow bolt with a message tied to it. The rest of you can help by making litters and gathering up the bodies in a fashion that Abbas feels is respectful."
Nazard: About how old do the slain Skraeling appear to be. Are they clearly adults, or could this have been a hunting party for a rite-of-passage [to manhood] ceremony?
"By the way, gather some feathers to attach to your weapons, but do not skin those beasts yet. We have no way of knowing if they are sacred and if such an action would be sacrilegious to the Skraeling. Rath and I will be back in a few minutes. We get only one chance at a first impression, Burnsten, remember that."
With that, the two will hustle back to the beach. If the closest ship is too far away for message, then Alexis will use either launch item or launch bolt (which has a greater range) to fling a small rock or bolt with a message tied to it relating the slain Skraeling and that we are attempting to find their camp to initiate diplomatic relations. Also included is a warning about the fact that we have slain a mother and child owlbear (of sorts) and that others may be about. If Grey has any advice on funerary rites, that would be excellent.
"Aye, 'Lexis, ye got it." Pete turns to the group and says, "All right ye, let's get to it, time's a wastin'." Pete takes an axe out nd starts chopping some branches down to construct a pair of makeshift litters, and then waiting for Abbas to arrange the Skraeling bodies properly.
"Biter, go wit' 'Lorin, 'n make sure he don't git bushwhacked. Th' rest o' ye, gimme a hand!"
Rath walks silently beside Alexis, thinking, and acting as her de facto bodyguard. "Bahin, wanted to thank you for patiently listening to my rambling thoughts over last weeks. It is rare, in my experience, for noble-borns to listen to people like me. It is a great honor to me that you speak with me as peer. Wanted you to know I appreciate that."
They proceed a bit further before he says more, "I think if these Skraelings are from close and hopefully friendly tribe, and we can find them, then I think your idea of preparing bier and carrying them to their people in position of honor is very good. Even if we don't observe all their rites correctly. If we cannot find their tribe quickly - think we must risk burial. I read Grey's book - the journey of dead to the afterworld seems linked to burying. Cannot risk keeping them above-ground too long or could be seen as slowing their afterworld journey. May be a big insult. There are many risks here - even position of body at burial can be important. But we must risk certain things and hope that Skraelings understand we are strangers and trying in good faith to respect their dead. May come down to you telling them that. Give some thought to how you will tell them that and about the battle. Wouldn't say we 'tried to rescue' your people... implies they needed help. Maybe say, we heard sounds and came to see. Saw Beargle kill the warriors and then we had to defend ourselves, maybe. Something like that. Many peoples have over-abundance of pride and we must be careful not to offend pride."
He considers his shredded gi, fingering a bloody tattered portion of it. "I think Beargles may be sacred but also acceptable to kill. Think their warriors were drawing weapons, not laying down to die. Hope so - perhaps it will gain us some respect and NOT offend."
The goblin returns a flat stare at Pete, the look quite plainly saying without words, 'I don't take orders from you.' And as Pete goes about his business, he hears a muttered and mocking, "Biter… go wit Lorin.. an' make sure.. meh meh meh… GreaseFace shoulding to keep his words to himself, maybe…".
Biter does, despite his hostile words at the dwarf, join up with LongEars to aid in searching for the human tracks.
"Yes lady Alexis, most wise advise I suppose, since you are more knowledgable about the Skraelings than I am" Walks over to Biter side "Well fought Biter, give them a lesson there" laughs a bit and pats Biter in the shoulder "Well, let's get to work on this then, help move the bodies Tracant"
The goblin returns a flat stare at Pete, the look quite plainly saying without words, 'I don't take orders from you.' And as Pete goes about his business, he hears a muttered and mocking, "Biter… go wit Lorin.. an' make sure.. meh meh meh… GreaseFace shoulding to keep his words to himself, maybe…".
A half-smile acknowledges the tall half-breed's words, and the tiny warrior nods his head briefly. "Molkan'Och* was'ing to do not so bad, either." He inclines his head to Alexis, "Mighting to do some better listening to some good ideas when claws come out, though. Molkan'Och wasing lucky not to catch some bleedings for his'ing brash actions." He shrugs his tinily powerful shouders as if to say 'tho it doesn't matter to me if you take some bleedings' as he turns to continue looking for tracks.
Before he gets too far away, however, he turns back to the tall northman, a deadly serious look on his face. "Whening a new wolf pup is'ing accepted as a hunter in a wolf pack, pup is'ing do well to keep eyes and ears open and muzzle shut. Growling at senior hunters," his eyes cut to Elorin to make sure the Ulfen gets his meaning, "is'ing not only to get the pup the anger of that senior hunter, but whole pack." The tiny warrior watches the northman for a second to make sure the message has been delivered before saying one more thing. "Biter notting have great love for Kuuk'ar , but Kuuk'ar has'ing proven to be good hunter and warrior. Biter is'ing to stand by that first before standing by young pup."
Elorin and Biter have great difficulty following these tracks. You don't think that the Skraelings were being deliberately evasive, just naturally trackless. You do find some, however, which lead off in a northwesterly direction. You follow the tracks for a few minutes before coming to a large pond/small lake with an island in the centre. The tracks veer around the shore, again northwest, you follow them for another twenty minutes before losing them completely. You see no sign of any Skraelings or a village.
In your efforts to track the men, however, you do notice something else very odd. You can easily (sometimes) see the human tracks, but at no time do you encounter any other tracks of any kind: no rabbit tracks deer prints, or bear claw marks. The silence of the forest becomes oppressive too: no bird calls, no chatter of squirrels, or rustling of bushes from fleeing fauna.
"Bahin, wanted to thank you for patiently listening to my rambling thoughts over last weeks. It is rare, in my experience, for noble-borns to listen to people like me. It is a great honor to me that you speak with me as peer. Wanted you to know I appreciate that."
A somewhat melancholy smile crosses Alexis' pretty face, "Rav— *sigh* Rath, even though we didn't speak often at the academy, in the short time we have known one another, I would not consider anything you have said to be rambling." She gives a short laugh, "If anything, I think our newest member would like to hear less of me speaking! At any rate, you are a wise and perceptive individual... qualities that any ruler should hope for in an advis— no... in a friend."
"I think if these Skraelings are from close and hopefully friendly tribe, and we can find them, then I think your idea of preparing bier and carrying them to their people in position of honor is very good. Even if we don't observe all their rites correctly. If we cannot find their tribe quickly - think we must risk burial. I read Grey's book - the journey of dead to the afterworld seems linked to burying. Cannot risk keeping them above-ground too long or could be seen as slowing their afterworld journey. May be a big insult. There are many risks here - even position of body at burial can be important. But we must risk certain things and hope that Skraelings understand we are strangers and trying in good faith to respect their dead. May come down to you telling them that. Give some thought to how you will tell them that and about the battle. Wouldn't say we 'tried to rescue' your people... implies they needed help. Maybe say, we heard sounds and came to see. Saw Beargle kill the warriors and then we had to defend ourselves, maybe. Something like that. Many peoples have over-abundance of pride and we must be careful not to offend pride."
The princess nods thoughtfully at your assessment of the situation. "Agreed, trying to bear the dead back to there tribe really only has a limited window of opportunity. If we had more men, I would leave a group behind to guard that area with instructions to bury them as Burnsten suggests within a specified period. Unfortunately, our options are limited by the time available to us. Part of my hope is that while traipsing thru the wilderness, the Skraeling of their tribe will find us thereby saving time and making this effort worthwhile. If we are unable to locate anyone by nightfall, I think will we need to at the very least build cairns wherever we may. Otherwise, we may risk attracting scavengers seeking to further despoil their bodies."
"As far as their warriors' pride, that's something I have been thinking upon actually, and I believe you and I are of a similar mind."
"I think Beargles may be sacred but also acceptable to kill. Think their warriors were drawing weapons, not laying down to die. Hope so - perhaps it will gain us some respect and NOT offend."
"As far as those customs go, hopefully Grey can provide us with a few short answers. Even if they killed two men, I don't like the idea of just leaving the beargle carcasses to rot. Unless Grey provides advice otherwise, perhaps we can have some trappers or furriers from the fleet clean the carcasses. From what Elorin has told me regarding woodsmanship, that much carrion would surely attract scavengers. We don't need any additional dangerous wildlife in this area..."
The two of you continue walking and Alexis shakes her head noticing how shredded you became in that fight. "So what exactly happened back there? I had thought that by having hidden archers wound any foes while melee combatants retreated as 'bait', that we could successfully lure any enemies into a trap. Even Burnsten seemed to be of that mind when he... 'summarized' my words. After he moved forward though, we lost all communication since we were relying upon the link between Burnsten and Tracant for that."
"I understand the saying that 'no plan survives contact with the enemy', but was it a fundamentally flawed plan that we should reconsider? Since you were there, I'd like to know your thoughts on the matter."
Elorin will also look for powerful or large predator tracks while they are trying to track the humans.
Elorin pats his small friend on the shoulder as he scans the forest.
Biter, there is much unease in nature in this area, I fear that there is either a powerful predator in the area, or possibly something unnatural here that is driving away the normal animal life. Since we have had no luck tracking the people back to their village, we should go back and warn the rest of the group. I recommend we explore the area extensively to find out the cause of this imbalance, it will endanger our colony that there is no wildlife to hunt in the area and feed the colonists, and lets not forget what might be actually causing the imbalance!
They will start moving with stealth, even though it will take them some more time.
Elorin when he gets back will agree with Alexis' assessment that we need to use this quantity of meat before it spoils, even though we don't know the customs since we were not able to find there village nearby.
The goblin nods his agreement to Long-Ears' words, and pads silently along. on the return trip, he will keep his eyes peeled.
Upon the return, Biter is sure to report all they saw (and didn't see).
As they reach the shore, Alexis comments, "By the by, I'll mend your clothes in a moment, let me first get this message off to the fleet..."
If the ship is too far away for message, Alexis will use launch item or launch bolt to send the following missive:
Falcon:
—Alechsularis
launch ??? 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22
Alexis is able to get her message spell sent over to Lord Brycen, who orders her unequivocally to avoid any and all contact with native villages, at least for now (of course, Biter and Elorin have already left). Gray is summoned up on deck to message back and forth about burial customs. He reiterates the no burning that Alexis deduced, and adds that, although he has no proof, he suspects that the Skraelings worship much the same gods and goddesses as the Known World do, albeit under different names, and that prayers appropriate to Erastil or Gozreh would probably be acceptable to the Natives.
Elorin finds no predator tracks either - no tracks of any kind.
As Burnsten is looking over the Beargle carcasses for possible skinning, he notices that their fur is quite damp.
Brycen: "Very well Governor, for the time being, we shall hold off on seeking out contact with the natives. I am hoping that when contact does occur, that their elders will have some recollection of the peaceful intentions shared by Duke and Duchess Kirmoon on the prior expedition."
Falcon: "Thank you for the additional lore. Reading books and journals is a far cry from personal experience. I will ask Gregor's aid in handling Gozran burial rituals. We're heading back now to regroup with the rest of the scouting party unless you or Brycen have further advice."
If they are sending over trappers/furriers to clean the bodies, Alexis and Rath will wait a few minutes for them to row ashore and then lead them to the scene. Otherwise, Alexis will take a minute or so to patch up Rath's clothing with the use of mending cantrips before returning to the rest of the party.
Upon arriving, she will inform them that there has been a change of plans...
No furriers are coming yet. Brycen (and Sir Kheiron) want the entire beach area secured before anybody else rows over.
Oh, Alexis notices that their rowers had rowed out about halfway between the ships. They come back to the beach once they see you alive and well. They look terrified.
Oh, so we didn't row ourselves over then?
If the rowers are within range of speaking, Alexis will speak to them, otherwise she'll use message, "Good men, you have nothing to fear from those cries you heard. We dispatched two beasts akin to owlbears in the woods and continue to secure the area. Tell me, did you spot any additional threats for us to take care of?"
The two men shake their heads fervently, although now they're fearfully looking up and down the beach, waiting for unknown terrors to leap out at them.
Since there are such dangerous predators about and possibly something else powerfully unnatural, Alexis, I recommend that we continue to scout the area with the rest of you about 100 feet behind me, Biter, and Pete so we can be sure there are no other beasts about.
I tell Alexis and the rest of the group about the complete absense of tracks and that is should be worrying.
Pete listens to the scouting report given by Elorin, as the elf finishes what he has discovered, Pete strokes his matted beard, thoughtfully. "Hmmm, a right conundrum this be 'ere. What say ye ta this , th' Skraeling were sent 'ere ta check out what is 'appenin 'ere, as it may be affectin' their village, p'haps. if'n that is th'case, then we kin 'pect more visitors afer too long."
After hearing Alexis's report, he nods, Aye 'Lexis, that sounds right sensible ta me. i agree we needs ta do somethin' bout those beasts we kilt afer too long."
Pete then hoists his gear and draws his hammer again, and motions to Elorin and Biter, "Well, time's a wastin' let's see if'n we kin dig somethin' up."
With a curious demeanor "That makes me wonder what kind of predator or magic can hold such a strong eerie presence in this place..." as he looks at Elorin after speaking his thought loudly "I'll stay behind as you ask Elorin, just be careful in these wilderness, since what you speak of is unnatural"
"Pete, the lack of news from the Skraeling scouts won't be noticed yet. I suggest going with Elorin's plan for now and then secure our foothold in this beach and protect the ones coming from the boat. I will not leave them alone in this wilderness"