A large female adult eagle materializes on a branch a few feet away from Daelynn.
[ooc]NOTE: There are some corrections to make here. First, the four towers look about 40 feet high instead of equal height of the walls. Also, there are some trees that are close enough to the eastern towers that you could reach them by tree branches, but this would require an acrobatics roll as you would need to jump. The central tower looks the same.
I command this magnificent eagle to fly around and look at the structures to the east of us, then fly back to me.
At once, the bird flies over the canopy and begins to circle the area of the keep. This happens for about seven minutes until it lands directly onto the edge of the central tower. At first nothing happens for about five minutes, then she flies to the northeast tower. One minute later, it visits the top of the southeast tower. A few seconds later, you hear it squawk very loudly and ascends up as quickly as it could. Moments later it returns back to you.
The moment the eagle screamed, I look and listen intently at the direction of the southeast tower.
Same here.
Ditto.
All three of you barely heard a voice inside the tower, right before the bird squawked out and left the tower. @Amual, you are fairly certain the source of the yell spoke in a language that is clearly unknown to you, but judging by the intent, it was something like a "GET OUTTA HERE!" tone.
The eagle returns back to Daelynn. You notice that some feathers are missing, but no wounds are visibly. Your experience with nature indicates that the bird is giving off vibes of anger.
I look over the eagle and speak in a very soothing voice."Tell me what happened to you just now," I ask in a whisper while keeping eyes on the keep.
It takes the bird a few moments, but it looks at you with blazing eyes that hints that it wants blood.
"That fool threw a rock at me from within the stone nest," she responds with venom in her mind's voice. "I saw him and flew away just before I was brought down."
Trying not to be amused, I study the bird intently and maintain an even voice.
"What was it that threw a rock at you?" I must remember not to give too many questions at it.
"It was a two-leg like yourself," she responds to your next question with a reduced level of anger. "It was shorter than you, male, with green skin and strange looking antlers on its head that moved. It was fast, very fast."
Attempting to identify from the description what this might be.
After thinking for a moment, I ask the eagle what else it saw.
@Daelynn: From the information conjured up from earlier conversation and what the bird informed you of, you are almost confident that the offending creature in the southeast tower is a fey. Your fey knowledge suggests a quickling.
The eagle interrupts your thinking with his next answer. "In the other stone nest, I saw food. Lots and lots of food, scurrying around in the stone nest and moving in big pack. I could eat many of them for very long time. Me could not swoop in to catch any in close area."
It finishes with a final report. "But big nest felt very bad, nothing dead I think. Something with power. Scary, but did not see."
"What have you got for us?"
Taking a moment to choose my words carefully to avoid misinformation. Once I've given some thought on it, I respond
"Well, there's definitely a fey in the southeast tower, I think it's a quickling because it attacked the eagle with amazing speed." I inform our leader. "In addition, I believe the northeast tower is full of rodents, probably rats and lots of them. The eagle did not see anything in the central tower, but it was a bit nervous about the place. She saw nothing else but a courtyard thick with bushes."
Thinking about the current situation. There's a wicked fey in one tower, a creature that goes out to hunt, and something strong inside the central tower. The northeast tower has a vermin problem. Nobody uses the main gate, which means something's peculiar about that entrance. There is still plenty of time in the day and it's unusually warm.
"Listen up, we're going to go away from the keep by about a mile or so, and deal with the wandering creature that traveled southeast from here. This way, we can handle it alone without help from the keep. Once we take care of it, then we can plan on what to do with the inhabitants tomorrow with the correct spells and equipment necessary for a tough fight. Slowly fall back 300 feet from the keep, and follow the trail in the trees at a slower speed. T-formation with Amual in the lead and myself following. Let's go."
Ok. Once you form up, you travel east, following the tracks which stand out in the snow. The Murque River is to your right. The trail weaves around the undergrowth for little more than two miles, taking up a hour of travel. You are averaging 40-50 feet above the ground.
ROLL PERCEPTION!
I signal the party to halt in place.
"Uh oh, looks like action time is here," I think to myself.
All of you see a creature approaching almost straight ahead of you on the ground. Range from Amual who is the closest to the contact is about 250 feet. It's moving but very quietly, even you do not hear it at this range. Seems to be dragging something on the ground and moving slowly.
Without taking my eyes off of it, I signal the team to hold position and not move.
"Hey Adarion, I think we've found our suspect already. 12 degrees left, and coming towards us. I may pass underneath us by about 60 feet if it doesn't move from its course. Very certain it has not detected us."
From what you can all tell, it looks like a hairless elf with long slender arms that appears to have claws. The creature wears leaves and vines for clothing, but the skin looks brown and rough, suggesting either enchanted tree bark or natural. It is obviously not one of the brethren, and it's nature sure looks evil, most likely fey. You see a body being dragged, looks human-type. Leather breeches, boots, cold weather furs can be seen and bloodied.
"This is what we will do. Same as before, attack from range with bows on my mark. Quick, quiet and swift. I'm certain it's a fey creature, so use bane arrows so this won't be a dragged out fight. On my mark..."
A few minutes passes by before the creature gets to about 50-70 feet from the squad. It's dragging behind a human male, looks like a hunter unfortunate enough to be caught by this killing machine.
vs DC 30 to spot the party
Suddenly, it stops. The fey look around as if it detects something. It drops the body and crouches into a defensive stance. A moment later, it looks up...
ROLL INITIATIVE!
Damn! This thing is good," I curse to myself in my mind. "We didn't have time to blend in to camo up, but it may have spotted us anyway. Dealing with fey isn't the easiest thing to do.
"I let it get too close,"
I think we may be in trouble.
The creature seems to know you are there and braces itself. It does not make any noise or battle cry, just ready to fight as it flexes it's claws. They look really nasty.
Hmm, too late to rethink ourselves isn't it?
Facepalm.
Round order goes as follows:
Claeledar
Fiavia
Daelynn
Adarion
FEY CREATURE
Amual
Kethelis
ROUND 1, FIGHT!!!
Claeledar, you go first.
I move laterally from the target 10 feet in the trees to remain within the point blank range and loose an arrow at it.
It's a hit (barely) on AC 18. Damage follows:
The fey creature yells out in searing pain. Looks very hurt. Next up is Fiavia.
Realizing that I don't have any powerful attack spells ready, I don't feel like using up a spell recall. So, it's move and shoot.
CRITICAL HIT! Roll to confirm against AC 18
OK.
CONFIRMED! Damage as follows:
Creature takes an arrow right into its head just above the left eye, shudders briefly, then falls down without crying out. It twitches, then goes motionless.
"Everyone, form a circle and wait for 10 minutes to secure our position. We don't want more encounters or surprises. Blend in and stay alert!"
Ten minutes passes by, but nothing comes of it. The fey is dead. Very dead, along with its prey.
Keeping an eye out, anticipating the area is clear of danger. Once satisfied, I act.
"Claeledar, Amual, hop down to the ground with me and inspect the kill." Nodding to the others, I signal for them to remain on watch from above.
When you approach the creature, it is confirmed that the fey is known as a Grimstalker. Your shared knowledge tells of how these things are very effective assassins and ambush predators. They are evil, about the worst offense to nature than it gets in regards to the fey. Grimstalkers can climb well, control plants, possess incredible senses, and has poisonous claws. They like to collect skulls from their kills as trophies. It has no items on him.
The dead body is a human, a lone hunter that was very unlucky. His throat was slashed wide open, probably didn't know he was dead the moment the grimstalker attacked until seconds later. A search on his body reveals 7cp, a fur fox pelt, fur winter clothing, a normal knife, and a waterskin full of water. Nothing else of value is on him.
Looking over the dead, I'm glad we came out of this unscathed.
"Adarion, this could have been a nasty fight, had things dragged on a few more moments," I admit with a sigh. "It's not so much the poisoned claws, it's how it can control plants and use tree shape."
With only a moment's thought, I recall an important tactic taught to us in our special training.
"We will hide the bodies, that will cover our tracks and force any sort of search parties to lose trace of us."
looking over to Claeledar and Amual, I nod to them as they should understand what to do without orders.
Once we place the bodies in the pit I cast: