Round 1 resolution:
The cavalier skewers the nearest bird as it leaps from the table. The dripping corpse hits the ground with a wet thud.
Vachordi's voice booms across the tavern; instead of the dischordant tones from earlier the song shifts the crowd from terror into action. Several patrons pull knives, or grab heavy mugs, pans, or other improvised weapons to defend their friends.
Awnara begins casting in celestial as the stirge launches itself onto her, grasping with both feet and digging into the flesh of her neck with its proboscis to drink .
The third bird hits Gilda and also finds a perch for blood .
The fourth bird bobs along with Vachordi's song and gives a forlorn hoot to punctuate it.
Garin slashes the bird attached to Awnara, it falls off of her dripping blood.
Shells attack greatly wounds the stirge clinging to Gilda, however the bird clings to her relentlessly.
begins!
Gilda's stirge will continue to drink. The 4th will attack Edrik.
Vachordi continues his song.
Vachordi's voice cracks again, as he still needs water. He prays that the stirge continues to sing along.
Then he sends an arrow at the stirge on Awnara for
for
Garin moves to defend Gilda when Vachordi's cracking falsetto pierces through the noise of the battle. It annoys the cavalier, so much so that when he stabs his dagger into the bird, he does it with much more fervor.
Awnara's prayers are interrupted as the creature leaps upon her and buries its proboscis into her side. She grimaces in fear and revulsion as it noisily slurps and sups on her blood. "GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!", she shrieks, pulling her knife and stabbing at the horrid thing.
Move: Draw my knife.
Standard: Kill the stirge!
Shel moves to strike at a beast, trying to slice it open.
Attack
Damage
With another Stirge charging him, Edrik readies his hammer for another swing. As it rears up on him, the determined Paladin brings his weapon down on it.
Apologies- the forum must have eaten the last post.
Round 2 Resolution
Edrik stabs the stirge cleanly, avoiding its probing beak. It falls limp to the table.
Vachordi's song falters, but his aim is true. The arrow plunges through the bird, narrowly missing its host Awnara by inches. There is a sickening plop as stirge releases her and slides out. She covers the bloody wound almost immediately.
The lifeless birds lay scattered around the mess of the table. An eerily haunting pipe melody floats through the silence after the combat, and fades before you can discern where it originated.
The townsfolk recover from the shock, and a few even manage to offer thanks. They bring you fresh mugs, and a few start to drag the dead birds from the dining room.
Abashed, and clearly shaken, Kiranna the owner of the Outward Inn approaches the table.
I've never.. I've no idea how these creatures got in here! I run a clean ship. I can't thank you enough. Your meals are fee for the duration of your stay in town. My doors are always welcome to you folks. I've heard of these birds, but never inside a building. She continues to stare at the rafters high in the ceiling looking for signs of other creatures or a nest, but finds none.
Affixing his hammer to his belt, Edrik scowls at the two dead squabs at his feet before they're dragged off, kicking one lightly just to be sure it's dead.
"Did anyone else hear that pipe music? How very strange."
At the promise of free food, Edrik's scowl disappears and as he quickly rights the table. "Well then! Far be it from me to say no to an excellent meal... at this point I'm starving."
"Xould that pipe music have controlled the stirges in some strange way? is there a neighbor to the bar who is known for playing a pipe," Shel asks Kiranna.
Garin wipes away the gore from his dagger with a nearby cloth before sheathing it.
"Thank you, my lady. That is very generous of you." Garin smiles at Kiranna. "It's only lucky we were here to help."
Or unlucky, the cavalier can't help but think, wondering if the occurrence was intentional. So many suspicious events. This town was getting to him.
"Strange indeed," he says to Edrik. "I heard the pipe but could not tell you where it came from or when it started. The singing was distracting."
I misread the table. I thought the bow was x2 not x3. Vachordi was right. Vachordi- you've earned a GM point. Play it when you are close and need an extra boost to accomplish something.
There was a notorious criminal known as the Piper of Illmarsh who used his musical talents to charm stirges into draining the blood of his victims that he had paralyzed. He was successful at poisoning dozens of people all throughout Ustalav before he was captured and sent to Harrowstone. He perished in the fire.
Awnara shrieks again as the stirge that had attached itself to her suddenly sprouted an arrow. Unfortunately, the beast exploded, covering Awnara in both its blood and her own, drenching her in blood and gore. She crawls out from underneath the table, white as a sheet, her clothes stained with blood.
"Um...is there some place I can clean up, Miss Kiranna?"
Gilda locates a piece of cloth (napkin) and presses it to the bite. She staggers back from the table a bit.
She looks at her hostess.
"I'll having that dwarven ale you mentioned. And beef broth, beef stew, beef liver or anything cow related you have handy. Thank you"
Locating a chair she sits forcefully. She is pale and drawn.
Knowledge Local
Awnara's stomach grumbles as Gilda lists off several savory offerings. "Um, and a bowl of whatever she's having after I clean up, please and thank you!"
Your bow now has a +5 enchantment. <You didn't ask for it to be permanent> #wishrules
Kiranna offers the sorceress a key to one of the rooms and the water closet. She quickly bustles off to fetch new food and beverage, while one of the scullery maids swabs off the blood and gore from the table.
"Thank you!", the halfling maid says, giving a quick curtsey to the tavernkeeper before rushing upstairs to the water closet. She spends awhile washing the blood out of her hair and off her skin before changing into a fresh set of clothes, rumpled from being in the bottom of her pack. While her first set of clothes were practical, these were more formal. A white apron protected her dark green dress, and both showed signs of obvious creases. A scowl was on the maid's face when she returned to the table. "I'd hoped to have some time to air out the wrinkles on this before I wore it. Then again, I also hoped to wear it at the Professor's funeral. Nothing seems to be going the way I thought it would ever since I left home."
She looks a bit glum, but once Kiranna returns with hot stew, the halfling's eyes regain a bit of their luster. She tucks into the stew with gusto, hungry from the ride as well as having a non-consentual bloodletting earlier. "So," she said between mouthfuls of stew and freshly baked bread. "Where did these things come from? Any ideas on that?"
Vachordi drinks down some water to clear his cracking voice.
Some stew for me as well.
When Awnara returns Vachordi climbs over to her. Gorgeous little one! I am sorry that it took me as long as it did to get that critter off of you!
Syl orders and eats with the others. "Well, we can just make a note that if we hear anyone talking about strange music, to inquire a bit further."
"It's all right, Mister Vachordi," Awnara replies, unconsciously rubbing the welt from where the creature's proboscis had entered her. "Though I think my other dress might have gotten it worse than I did. It's probably ruined!"
I have an uncanny ability to clean things. I will take a look at it later if you like.
Are you crowd sourcing your questions about the stirges? If so, diplomacy checks.
Gilda waits patiently for red meat (cooked) and beer.
"Everyone put their spoons down now! Can anyone detect the presence of poison? Does anyone remember the research we did at the library? The Piper of Ilmarsh controlled a group of stirges he would set upon people after he paralyzed them with Lich dust in their meals. Is someone trying to copy his infamy?"
Vachordi sprays water out of his mouth, then backs away from the food.
So what now? Vachordi says flummoxed.
YARGHhhhhh There be gold in these here archives.
Jail- burned down, big name criminals listed on the roster.
Professor dead under strange circumstances, likely due to strange cultists he was following.
Undead crawling out of graves, and now an attack of strange birds.
[Will post a more thorough post tomorrow, one with complete sentences]
"Well, I suppose we wait. None of us seem paralyzed yet, and according to the books that was the Piper's M.O. If non e of us freeze us, it's safe to assume the copycat didn't use all of the Piper's bag of tricks."
Gilda listens to Shel's reassurances, ponders them for a bit, then yells out, "We need more beer. Do you have any of the good dwarven? I need three mugs now and at least one for each of my friends."
In a quieter tone she adds, "Dwarven beer is good for these sorts of things."
"I don't think drinking could make the situation worse, so might as well tip a tankard or two while we see if we were poisoned. Afterwards, we can figure out the best course of action going forward. We need to be more aware of our surroundings in the future, as someone is either trying to scare us, or something even more dire."
Awnara's eyes go wide at the mention of poison. Partially from dread, but also because she's reached a moment of crisis - she had just ladled a healthy spooful of deliciously savory beef stew with root vegetables into her mouth and had begun to chew when Shel mentioned poison. No good options presented themselves. Swallowing the soup might poison her further. Spitting it out would be extremely rude. Excusing herself to do so would be a discrete way of handling it, but then she'd have to talk with her mouth full, which was again undignified. She pouted as she gave all these options thought.
For now, she just sat the wooden spoon back in the bowl, and pushed the piping hot stew away from her and sat with her hands folded in her lap, listening for a good way out of her predicament.
"Sorry, Awarna, you are new to the table. We did a bit of research about the place where the Professor had his 'accident' and apparently it was an old jail where it had numerous awful prisoners, including this Piper I mentioned. We've found quite a bit of information about this town in the short time we've been here."
Possessing none of Awnara's good manners, Edrik grows wide eyed at Shel's warning and simply spits out the stew.
Pushing his bowl away, Edrik mumbles "You know what Gilda, you're right... ale would serve well right about now."
Listening to Shel talk about the prison, Edrik ponders quietly a moment before thinking out loud "Shel, do you remember any other famous prisoners from your research at the prison," pausing to take a swig of ale, Edrik uses his sleeve to clean off the foam before continuing "could be we might run into other imitators besides the Piper."
"There were several 'named' prisoners, Edrik, but there were only two I'd heard anything about. Those were Ispin Onyxcudgel and the "Piper."
Kendra Lorrimor speaks, after nearly fainting during the fight: It is unlikely that a copy cat would try to poison an entire room, or just us in front of everyone else, so I'm sure Kiranna's food is safe. Do you think there is a copy cat killer, mimicking these old dead prisoners? Was there one known for dropping gargoyles on kind old professors? Perhaps my father's library has some local lore on the subject?
Kiranna, still embarrassed by the lax security of her inn, makes good on all of her promises and fills orders as quickly as she can. A small cask is pulled from the cellars, dusted off, and tapped - flowing from it is a fine quality dwarven ale. Customers begin drowning their fears with copious amounts of drink and fried sausages.
"I'd assume that was the case with the copycat, Kendar. The only thing that really worries me was an entry in the Professor's journal, about him not being prepared for the ghosts at the prison during his first visit. Hopefully, he was talking metaphorically..."
Garin begins eating, partaking in some of the ale. "Indeed. We should browse his library. Perhaps it contains some clues. Miss Lorrimor, would you be so kind to guide us there later?"
Gilda eats quickly, washing the food down with the ale.
[b]"If we are going to look at his library, then let's be about it. Someone else may get hurt if we dawdle."[/]b
She rises from the table and readies herself.
"Gilda's right. Any source of information here, we need to take advantage of. Especially, when I'm not sure how many people will be welcoming enough to let us use the libraries around this place."
As Gilda rises, Awnara does as well with relief in her eyes, taking the moment to rush to the water closet and spit out the food. She wipes the evidence away from her lips, and returns to the group.
"What's this about a library? I've got a head for languages, I might be able to help with that."
LEts do it then! Vachordi says after he wolfs down some stew and guzzles some water.
As the party finishes their meal and grabs their equipment for the door, it opens revealing the sheriff in his long coat and two assistants trailing behind.
He tips his hat to Kiranna and enters. So I hear there's been a disturbance. Why am I not surprised to see the former professor's henchmen are responsible? Explain yourselves. Where are the monsters?