Priyya does her best to describe the creatures appearance for Lureene.
Priyya can't help but pile on the good news. "Given the power I felt from this creature... I have to wonder if this is the 'devil' from the Red Mountain that they worship and are 'protected' from. I mean, why would it be eating baboons when you can get ten times the blood from one giant?"
"Yeah, you've got a point there. Why indeed?"
Lureene looks up after cleaning off the remnants of goo and other filth from Alis' blanket using her prestidigitation spell which had been dirtied by the assault. "Yeah the only explanation I can think of is the giants have an arrangement with the Red Mountain Devil. Probably related to the sacrifice they will hold next week."
She folds up the blanket and stores it in Alis' bag. "If the being is from the infernal planes, then they would certainly enter into a contract with them."
"There's got to be more to it. If blood is blood then there is no reason for the demon to enter into a bargain... for what? The promise of a human victim once a month and sucking on monkey blood in between times? It could threaten these simpletons with death if they don't provide sacrifices and still have the leeway to drain a giant when it gets really thirsty. No bargain needed. No, something else is going on here that makes the sacrifice necessary or the giants unappealing as snacks. And this thing can fly - why not fly to the mainland to get its own victims?"
Priyya chuckles.
She bursts out laughing. "You owe me for that one, Alis."
Alis thinks back and suddenly her eyes go wide.
The princess groans and slumps down on the floor of the hut, blowing a stray lock of hair out of the way when it falls across her face.
Alis makes a fist and puts her knuckles to her forehead as Lureene looks up at her in confusion with her big, blue eyes. "You're right Priyya, I totally owe you for that one..."
Giving a sigh, she pulls Lureene's blouse closed before Mal gets an eye-full and plants a kiss on her retainer's forehead.
Mal furrows his brow at Priyya's assessment. "Thing you've got to remember, people can organize for conflict better than animals. You're also looking at a pretty limited food supply. Before we came there were what, twenty-some giants here? No way they breed fast enough."
"Another thing is it might not be a very strong flier. Sasha and I couldn't see the mainland from that hill we scouted or the waterfall. It could be too far."
Priyya wipes an eye, still laughing. "Forget about it, Alis. Consider it a brilliant strategy for ensuring that I'm vicious in combat. I have to get my frustrations out some way, now don't I?"
"Well, what if it doesn't have a choice about leaving?" Alis says, back to the rest of you as she gets dressed behind the privacy screen afforded by Lureene's wings. "I mean, Lucia was bound to Chivane right? What if this 'Red Mountain Devil' is bound to this island for some reason? There has to be something special about this place for Ieana to be so intent upon killing everyone to get here, and she walked right past the treasure that Ishirou had marked out..."
"Besides," she gives a dainty yawn, "wouldn't drinking down a whole giant take a while? Maybe this think likes to have its meal while it's still hot. You noticed how tiny the tea cups at Auntie Corrina's were, right?"
Priyya shrugs at Mal's assessment of her assessment . "Maybe so. We're working from very few facts. I'd expect a demon to be able to fly better or zip to their own plane or something but who knows. This beastie doesn't appear to be anything any of us has seen before. Maybe it is hydrophobic."
"Let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that this thing is contractually stuck here. I'm wondering if Ieana is trying to get herself a pet... bind it to her service for figuring out how help it fulfill whatever contract is holding it here."
Lureene shrugs, "Well, it certainly is possible. But I imagine it took a lot of effort for her to get here. Now she may want to ally herself with the Demon, but I suspect that is not her true goal. From what I saw of her, she is a powerful spellcaster, so would it not be easier to just use a calling spell?"
Alis feels a draft as Lureene shrugs and notices that her privacy screen has retracted. "Hey! Mind the wings El..."
Mal gives his employer and her pet fiend a withering glance before resting his eyes on Priyya, back to the blondes.
"You guys are talking about contracts and pacts and that's great, but wouldn't she have to be more powerful than whoever bound that devil thing here in order to break its bond? If a general orders a unit to the front, you better believe a lieutenant better not try to go against that. You think Ieana's really that strong, Darkmane?"
Lureene glances back at 'Lis, and an abashed look crosses her face. She hurriedly extends her wings so Alis can finish dressing.
"Uhh, sorry about that, 'Lis."
I suppose if I ever need another way to make a living, I have found it...
"I don't really have a feeling about how powerful Ieana is. She hasn't really impressed me yet. I'm thinking that MAYBE the devil is kept here by a technicality. IF it is, then Ieana's strength doesn't really matter. If she has leverage, she can make a deal with this devil. But this is ALL supposition. I'm inclined to play this out until we have more information before we try to plot strategies."
Lureene sighs, "Yes, Priyya, I know that we are just making guesses now. So, the next thing we need to decide is what should our next move be. We could see about checking out the village, since we are not far from there. But I am concerned about Sash and the others as well. We don't know if they are OK, the scouts from the village may have found them....or the demon found them...or something else happened to them."
She looks at Alis, giving a frustrated sigh, "I know we need to try finding Kovack, but...I just cannot stop worrying about the others...plus I know they must be worried about US as well."
Priyya looks at her curiously, trying to fathom her logic. "So, if the decision were entirely yours, what would you do?"
Lureene looks Priyya in the eyes, and responds, "I think we need to check on the others, or at least get close enough so I can communicate with Grak. Whether that means returning to our base camp, or scouting the village, I am not sure of. Whichever is closer, I guess."
"Hmm, well I suppose that it's possible they could be in danger, but heading back that way to check and then returning to here again would take nearly all day..."
Now fully dressed, albeit looking like she could use a nap, Alis steps out from behind Lureene. Her blue-violet eyes shift over to Mal and Priyya. "What do the two of you think?"
Priyya chews on this question a good long time, debating whether to lay out her logic or not. Not "I say we press on. There is no point coming this far only to stop now. Sasha has an instinct for self-preservation. If we didn't trust her to keep the others safe, we shouldn't have split the team as we did. It's too late to cry now."
"Alis, here's the other thing. Say we head back and they're taken. Then what? You questioned two cannibals last night. They flat out told us where their encampment was. They also told us when the next sacrifice is."
Mal points a clawed finger at Darkshoal as it slips towards the horizon, not yet even a full quarter-moon yet.
"We've got eight days before the full moon. That's when they said the next sacrifice would be. Even assuming our camp got found and everyone taken, they have to keep at least one of them alive until then, maybe more. Going back accomplishes nothing. If they're ok, it's wasted effort. If there's been an attack, then unless we show up while it's still going on they're either dead or captured. Short of it is, it's still a waste of time. Better to head to a cut-off point where we know the giants have to be at some point."
Lureene nods reluctantly, still clearly worried about her friend back in camp. ”Ok, I will go along with you and check out the trail. It should be a simple manner to determine if any of our friends passed along the trail, right Mal?”
[ REAVER'S SHIV: Map | Position (017) | Overland Rules ]
Alis nods at everyone's counsel and takes out the map. Slipping a small pair of calipers and a piece of string from her pack, she takes a few measurements and says, "It looks like it would be about twelve miles if we keep to the trails, eight if we could fly, in order to reach the lighthouse. If we were to turn back, it would be nine miles even if we went in a straighter line than yesterday."
She puts her tools away and looks up at Lureene. "Sorry El, but it's just not practical, and I'm not wild about any of us heading off by ourselves either."
For a moment, Mal wonders whether he has Alis and Lureene to thank for his headache. Certainly the blondes' lack of survival skills wasn't doing him any favors.
"Well that depends, Lureene. IF they came this way and IF they were marched along the ground then yeah, I could track them. As much as it rains here though, it would be by sight, not scent. In case you didn't notice, it seems they like to knock their quarry out and just carry them though."
Lureene gives Mal a long, steady look. ”Well, that is why I am asking you, am I not?” She looks ready to add something else, but abruptly turns away and mutters, ”I need to study my spellbook before we move out.”
Alis sighs inwardly. "Fine, go ahead and study your spells it's too early to 'move out' anyway. Priyya can't even start her prayers for a few hours yet and I've gotten all of maybe two hours of sleep. I was actually just about to wake Priyya for her turn at watch."
Kicking the hut and noticing that it doesn't look like it's going to fall over, she walks back inside and says,
Whatever the rest of you do, do it quietly please. Priyya, if there's no other way, there's a scroll that can remove disease in my pack. I'll leave it to your determination if Mal needs it."
With that, she puts a pair of earplugs in, takes a long drought from a silver flask and lays down on her blanket and closes her eyes.
Priyya checks over Mal to determine the extent of his injuries and figure out the best treatment option. Afterward, she attends to guard duty and ponders what exactly is eating Lureene. It certainly isn't the bugs.
Lureene pores over her spellbook, by the light of a cantrip, but she has trouble focusing on the arcane glyphs and symbols. At times her vision seemed to slip out of focus. She realized it was probably due to the concussion she suffered the night before. The more she thought about it, she realized she was lucky to be alive. If the giant had struck true with his blade, she would be...somewhere else, she was not sure yet where. Certainly not with 'Lis anymore that was for sure!
She did not want to die yet, she had so much to do. Find her father and save him from his past mistakes, see Rath-hun again, deal with her mother. Still, out here she felt increasing aware of her own mortality. She wondered whether she was fated to die here. Crazy thoughts to be sure, but who knows what the gods have in store...
She shakes the thoughts from her mind and resumes her studies, while thinking of a way she could make Mal suffer for his actions the night before.
She shakes the thoughts from her mind and resumes her studies, while thinking of a way she could make Mal suffer for his actions the night before.
Time: 7:00db (daybreak, 7:00am)
Alis groans and squints at the light pouring into the battered old hut from outside. She could smell something cooking and supposed that it must finally be time to get up. Fat lot of good finally being able to fall asleep did though, all that awaited her were dreams that she had rather not recall.
Though she couldn't see him, the princess could feel the warmth of King Tut's little body curled up against her midsection, sleeping soundly. Scratching his head gently, she picked him up and held him to her chest as she quietly got to her feet, before freshening the both of them up with a few cantrips. A few minutes of stretching followed as she tried to work from her limbs the stiffness that came from sleeping on the hard ground yet again.
Even dozing in Yvonne's carriage was luxurious accommodations compared to this...
It took her only a minute or two to pack up her belongings before joining Mal and Priyya at a small, smokeless cooking fire the hunter had engineered. Nearby Lureene was snacking on some fruit and other light fare Mal had procured. Taking a deep breath of the cool, moist air, she waved to her companions. "I don't suppose there is hot water for tea, is there?"
A clawed finger pointing to a steaming pot however at least meant that her day would be off to a good start. "Aww, you remembered! Thanks, Mal..."
While you realized that there's not a whole lot you can do for him without curative magic, you did at least manage to stop him from trying to cure his headache with the remnants of Alis' flask of raspberry liquor and a hammer. You have little doubt that with his strength the fever should run its course by tomorrow and that for now the most conservative option would be to simply treat the symptoms via lesser restoration to help him keep his focus.
Stealth Checks
Heal Checks
Fort Saves DC 16
Priyya pokes and prods Mal until he looks sick of the attention. "Well, Mal, it looks you breathed in something you shouldn't have... you have Cackle Fever. I think you are recovering so the best thing to do is treat your symptoms."
Lureene waves at Alis, "Good morning, 'Lis. I hope you slept well...or at least decently, anyway." The princess can see Lureene is almost completely recovered from last night's ordeal, and her eyes are clear and focused. As Lureene finishes up her meal, she stands and stretches out her wings, remarking "Well, that was certainly comfortable accomodations, but I think it is time to move on now."
"I'm ready to go."
Alis laughs a little. "Well I'm glad that you were comfortable. Just don't get accustomed to using me like a pillow every time you get banged up — that's for extenuating circumstances only, El."
Sense Motive Checks:
Mal points to some buzzards circling in the sky over where your battles last night were. "That's going to attract some attention. Alis, while you finish up, Little Sister and I are going to check the situation at the gulch. I wouldn't take too long."
As almost an afterthought, he adds, "Thanks for helping with the headache, Darkmane. You want to have a look with us, or keep an eye on things here?"
Stealth Checks
"There's safety in numbers and we know the giants don't come here... so I'll go take a look with you."
"Sounds good. See you in a bit then."
As the two head off, Priyya hears a whispered message in her ear.
Lureene pouts, "Awww 'Lis, you take ALL the fun out of getting clobbered by an oversized cannibal!" She laughs, "I know you make a wonderful pillow, but I will skip those circumstances, if that's ok with you."
She gazes skyward, "I wonder where that demon came from, I hope he is not hungry..."
As you sneak up to the cliff, you can hear the grunting and heavy footsteps of two giants slogging down the path below obviously carrying heavy burdens. Scanning the scene with his eagle's eyes, Mal points out a sniper on the opposite cliff about another 70-feet south of your location. Whether or not there is anyone inside the hunter's blind overlooking the trail is anyone's guess.
All in the air above, buzzards with a mantle of white feathers around their shoulders and pale necks circle eagerly in the sky and you can see the the bodies of the slain giants have already been pecked at a good bit. Curious as to what the taller hunters are looking at, Talvyra slinks forward, but her presence startles a clutch of birds roosting on the cliffs that burst into the air in a flurry of squawking seeking to defend their eggs.
Down below, the two giants there, turn to look and one of them points a thick finger in your direction grunting out a loud warning to his comrades.
MAP: M-Cannibal Ambush #2, (Round 00)
Alis finishes sipping on her tea and comments, "Well, you make a pretty good blanket yourself. Now if only you didn't roll around so much when you sleep."
She plucks Tut out of her hair, leans back against the hut and puts him down on her tummy, the two of the proceeding to play peek-a-boo over her bust. "So, what do you want to do until the terrifying trio makes their triumphant return? It's a good hike up there, they'll probably be a good quarter-hour more yet."
Perception Checks
"Well, since wandering away would not be a good idea, maybe we should get back to the hut. Should we try to disguise the fact we were in here, in the unlikely event they decide to check out the hut, traditions notwithstanding?"
"Hmm?" Alis gives Lureene an odd look. "I never said they don't come here. The youth just explained that they don't set foot insi– EL! BEHIND YOU!!!"
, Giants, (Lureene)
MAP: N-Sacred Hut, (Round 01)
Theme: Stand a Chance
With a shout of surprise, Alis hops to her feet, drawing her rapier. No sooner does she regain her footing than do a pair of tall, wiry-framed giants emerge from either side of the hut stopping just in front of you, swords in hand!
Cursing their luck, she hisses, "I'll try to draw their attacks to make an opening for you..."
The twain both swing at her as she darts close to the one nearest to Lureene. Yet the lithe elf girl makes evading their attacks look easy even though Lureene is certain she herself couldn't reproduce the feat.
A jaunty "Hya!" rings out across the clearing as Alis nicks one of them in the thigh as she goes.
In annoyance at the tiny food-thing's antics, the giant that just got nicked takes a step back to give himself more space before swinging at Alis and slicing only empty space.
However, the other giant doesn't fall for Alis' ruse. Instead, his eyes lock on Lureene and in one fell swoop, he discards his sword and grabs her in both hands!
; Alis, Giants
MAP: N-Sacred Hut, (Round 02)
"Dammit El, you really need to quit taking after me! Hang in there..."
Lureene cries out as the giant grabs her, piining her arms behind her waist! Not panicking (much), she struggles to cast a spell which should hopefully allow her to escape this predicament…then realizes she has another option…
Once freed, she quickly moves to behind the giant flanking Alis,
while drawing her rapier, and utters a quick spell to increase her movement!