and I think you still owe me a copper for the extra soup last month, but I'm willing to let that slide
Lou mentions from the back of the group.
Xutal simply watches everything giving the snakes more then a passing glance. That creature was able to sneak up on him, he was not going to let something like that happen again.
Zaira seems somewhat relieved to find the hermit, sliding down off of her horse with a dazzling smile at the hermit.
"There was also some nasty little creature that seemed to be ambushing people," Opi added. "Some of our macho types managed to pummel it to death, and we found some remains at it's lair. We were hoping you might know something about it, and where we might want to send the remains."
Walthus looks about to each of you, "Goblins? Oh yes, their tribe is at the end of the old fishing road, down that way" He points down to south west. "Heard a commotion or something last night, was rather busy, snakes were acting rather unusual."
At the mention of the creature, he nods his head, "Yes, there have been rumors of the White Beast for a few years... guess that was it"
Xutal watches the halfling growing suspious. He prepares himself to attack if the halfling does something.
Zaira remains clueless. She just smiles, "If we go foray into the swamp, would you mind if I left my horse here?"
"Thank you for the information sir. If you do not mind me giving you some advice, you might want to think about taking a little trip inside town for a couple days. With the bounty on goblin ears there may be a good number of inexperienced hunters out here with bows who may shoot first at any noise they hear and you are one the small size sir."
Walthus nods at the advice "I appreciate that, but this is my home. I'm sure I can stay inside and be fine. As for your horse, not the best idea to leave it here, the snakes might get spooked..."
Blissfully unaware of the strange ripple, Opi looked around. "Snakes? Why am I not surprised. Must be a challenge to not treat on those when you need to use the outhouse at night." Opi chuckled. Still, she wanted to avoid any snakes - she didn't know any spells that would cope with poison.
Xutal tried a different tactic.
"It's strange you missed the festival of fire. Why were you not there?"
He hoped no one blew his trick.
Ri frowns softly before taking a step away from the Halfling, feigning an interest in the snakes in the garden. His hand hovers over the quiver at his left hip, holding there.
'Something is wrong...'
Ri takes a casual glance at Xutal and arches an eyebrow.
"Well then, I guess we will be on our way then. I think that we are still ahead of the other groups, but another one could be stopping by here at any moment now."
Kirsteen moves over to Ri, touching his arm to ensure his attention and making sure she is turned away from Walthus. "I think that once we get down the road a bit, you and Xutal could do a bit of scouting." Kirsteen's eyes flicker over in the direction of Walthus when she mentions scouting.
Ri stares a Kirsteen for a moment before nodding casually. "Yes you are right..." He looked past her to Walthus and nods. "Thank you for the information Walthus. See you again!" He turned back to the group and nodded to nodded towards the road. "Lets be gone!"
He smiled at Kirsteen and nodded, to show he understood, before moving away down the road.
Walthus rubs the back of his head for a moment, "Yes the festival... I was meaning too... but I got held up."
Xutal let's things go for the moment, following the others.
You start to walk down the road that Walthus indicates, it takes you all a few minutes to realize Bjorn is not following. Looking back you see that he has drawn his large greatsword and has it pointed at Walthus who seems to be cowering from the large weapon.
Cursing Ri darts back up the road, drawing an arrow and pointing it at the ground. "Ease down now Bjorn. What is going on?"
"Well crap. There goes being subtle...."
Kirsteen sprints after Ri and then sees Bjorn threatening Walthus.
Bjorn steps around Walthus, still holding out his sword. He keeps Ryouichi within eye sights. He reaches the pen full of snakes and takes out a long green one. He tosses it at Walthus who immediately jumps out of the way and screams a sound that couldn't be possible for a humanoid. The halflings face and body quickly change into an orange bulbous body with no eyes or a mouth. Bjorn smiles with glee.
The faceless stalker launches itself at Bjorn with such ferocity. However you can see that the stalker is hurt from something else and is favoring one side.
The stalker slams into Bjorn, forcing him back slightly
"What the hell is that thing?"
Kirsteen moves to attempt to grapple the creature, wanting to take it alive to answer questions.
"Where the hell are all these freaky damned monsters coming from?" Opi yelled, as she slipped the safety off the crossbow and took aim, and raising the weapon to her shoulder as she steadied herself with her legs. Khashim responded, smoothing his loping movements so she could take her shot.
Growling sharply, Ri circled away, giving himself a line that did not cross Kirsteen. Drawing the fletching to his cheek, he exhaled softly as he released.
Growling as the arrow flew wide, flashing past Kirsteen's face by mere inches, Ri draws another arrow.
Xutal moves forward striking at the shapechanger.
But the slippery thing gets out of the way of his blow.
Zaira had gotten back onto her horse, now she wheels it to charge back into combat. Her casual demeanor fades and she swing the lance off of her pommel to charge right into the fray with it.
Kirsteen grapples it just as everyone damages it a little. It looks pretty beat up as you grapple it and seems half unconscious and unable to break free.
"Enough guys or you will kill it. Get some rope so that we can tie it up and question it. I want to know what happened to the real Walthus."
Kirsteen maintains her hold on the creature while she waits for someone to tie up the creature.
Xutal stops just short of making another strike, but keeps moving towards the house.
"I will check the house, if we find the body it dies. If not then we can threaten to kill it."
He opens the door carefully and keeps watch for any more surprises from the swamp.
lou scouts around the area for any signs of other intruder types possibly hidden in the marsh area or possible signs of a small encampment or meeting point.
Ri slides the the arrow he had drawn, back in to the quiver, before moving over to Kirsteen and pulling a rope from his bag. He busied himself with tying up the creature for a moment, before looking up at Kirsteen. "Sorry about nearly hitting you there. I was fairly sure I wouldn't though..." He grins a little self-consciously before standing. "You can drop him now. Those knots would hold a wild animal!" Dusting off his hands, Ri walks over to Bjorn and pats the man on the shoulder.
"We were going to come back and scout him out, see what was wrong but I suppose your way worked just as well. Do you require healing friend?"
Kirsteen lays the now tied up creature on the ground and back away a step as she draws her spear and points it at him in case he tries anything.
"No apology needed Ryouichi, this thing was certainly struggling enough to be a hard target to hit. " Kirsteen smiles at Ri for his apology. Nice of him to apologize and be concerned though.
" I can guard him if anyone else wants to help Xutal search the cabin."
Ri nods and unslings his bow once more, drawing an arrow from his quiver and moving up to the front door, before whistling softly. "Coming in!" He listens for a moment, making sure Xutal heard him, before moving inside.
'I do not want to get a punch in the head after all... Startling our friend Xutal does not seem like a healthy option!'
Zaira veers her horse off and spends a little while getting it to turn around. Then she finds a place to hitch it, and comes over to look at the creature they've caught.
"What is that thing?"
"Not your average halfling," Opi said, hoping down and looking at it. It was a strange looking beast - with no eyes how did it know where they were? But it'd had no trouble attacking the Barbarian. "We don't tend to transform into eyeless blobs and attack people. Gnomes, on the other hand..."
She glaced over at Khashim. "Stay. Guard." Obidently the big wolf lay down, mussles on his fron paws, staring at whatever had been pretending to be Walthus. Opi moved into the cabin and started looking around. "Maybe it was Walthus," she murmured to herself, "Pretending top be a halfling all along..."
Zaira pokes it with the tip of her lance,
"That seems unlikely, given how many people seemed to know him personally."
"I certainly hope you're right," Opi replied, and started to hunt through the cabin.
As you search the cabin, you begin to hear shuffling coming from upstairs. When you approach the noise, you notice it to be coming from a closet. It sounds like someone is prying away boards. Within a few moments the sounds stop and the closet opens a bit, and a weak voice says "Who goes there? I heard a commotion outside. Is the stalker dead?"
"Not dead. Tied up and in our captivity. Come out Walthus. The coast is clear!" Ri leans casually against the wall, returning the arrow he held to its quiver.
The door opens and a small halfling struggles out. He appears to be quite hurt and parts of his clothing are dried with blood. He waves you over "A little assistance would be greatly appreciated! It's good to see you, I was worried I would have died and then been eaten by that creature"
Kirsteen continues scanning the woods around the little cabin as she calls out to those inside it. "Is everything ok in there?"
I hope that was the only one of its kind around here...
Ri walks over to Walthus and steadies the man with a hand on his shoulder. "We are here to help old boy. It is good to see you too. Come on!" Ri leads Walthus downstairs slowly, taking his time to keep up with the shorter fellow.
"We found Walthus!" Ri calls back, as he leads Walthus down in to the living area of the small shack. He turns to the Halfling and helps him in to a chair. "Stay here friend. I will get you assistance!"
Out of nowhere a hand grabs the little man by the collar lifting him off his feet and shakes him. Xutal keeps his eyes on him as he does.
When the Halfling remains just that he places him back down. No real harm done, other then a shock to the system.
"Just checking, this swamp is nigh cursed it seems."
Ri grins at Xutal and pats him on the shoulder. "Good call friend!"
Walthus is shaken about and his eyes roll back into his head. As you let him go, he slumps to the ground like a rag doll. He doesn't change into anything, just remains a very bleeding old halfling.
Ri crouches beside the Halfling and frowns, looking him over. "By Erastils fuzzy beard I have no idea what is wrong with the old man. Maybe we need a healer here..."