Isamu stabs at the gangle as it tries to charge away from him.
He narrowly misses it, though. He debates only a brief moment before deciding that Yeldrid needs the help more, then leaps down and stabs at the gangle attacking the catfolk.
Lily looks at the bloody footprints for a minute, hoping they don't hint at some darker misfortune. She then turns her attention to the poor souls beset by the other gangles.
"Don't worry guys, Lily Shadow is on the case!"
Lily charges over to flank the southern-most gangle w/ rex, deftly stabbing it in the back.
Yeldrid yelps at the vicious cutting, looks the gangle in the eyes and says
As another roar of gunfire goes off, Yeldrid pulls from a sheathe a small, sharp implement. It looks like an oversized piton, but much thicker, sharper and of an oddly shiny metal.
Rex more than makes up for his earlier fail in the next assault. He hadn't used his weapon in a while and remembered it required a little more finesse than most swords. And though he was used to taller opponents, he'd never fought orcs before. Now that he'd taken a hit and gauged their attacks, he could retaliate. The first strike was a critical one. The orc was headed for Yeldrid and he'd be the shame of his home if he let another get wounded on his watch. He hits the orc in the back of the leg and takes it clean off. Another hook pulls at his arm so he uses the momentum to swing hard at the offending orc.
Lily Shadow rushes forward and stabs the last gangle in the side, eliciting a scream. As the gangle tries to turn to counter her new attacker, Yeldrid raises his gun and shoots her right in the head. But she only roars and raises the hook above her head, her eyes pale and maddened—only to be felled by a skilled slash from Rex.
The three gangles are slain, leaving the injured party, the turtle, and the gentle trickling of the stream.
The turtle crosses its arms and taps its foot.
Isamu sighs slightly as he looks over the dead gangles. He preferred peaceful solutions, but it hadn't seemed likely that they could just talk them out of attacking the turtle-creature.
Speaking of which, it seemed vaguely familiar somehow... like he'd heard a story about a creature like this once? He thought about it for a moment, but the feeling receded, so he just turned to the creature and gave it a polite bow.
"I'm glad we could be of assistance, sir," he says.
Rex flicks the blood from his blade and re-sheaths it. He then turns to Yeldrid. "Would you please not fire that thing so close to me. I have very sensitive ears." With a harrumph he turns and approaches the newcomer who almost literally flew into the fray without a moment's hesitation. "So you are Lily Shadow yes? I thank you for the aid but what are you doing out here? Do you know..." he turns to the turtle and wonders what to call it, "him?" He fights his natural instinct to sniff but still ends up moving his nose uncomfortably close while Lily speaks.
Yeldrid reaches up into his ears and pulls out two tiny buds, "What? Sorry, couldn't hear you over the gunfire. These things are loud, you know. You fellas might wanna get some plugs."
Isamu sighs slightly as he looks over the dead gangles. He preferred peaceful solutions, but it hadn't seemed likely that they could just talk them out of attacking the turtle-creature.
Speaking of which, it seemed vaguely familiar somehow... like he'd heard a story about a creature like this once? He thought about it for a moment, but the feeling receded, so he just turned to the creature and gave it a polite bow.
"I'm glad we could be of assistance, sir," he says.
The creature gives a similar bow, clearly being careful not to spill the water in its head. "I, too, am glad," she says, in croaking Common. "You fight well. I have heard of you." She turns to Lily Shadow. "Those ragamuffins knew your name.
"Mine is Raguen. This," she gestures to the bridge and stream, "is Neragu. Good evening, we say to you."
Lily jumps back a bit, startled by the sudden sniffing. Her fangs tremble a bit nervously for a second, as she looks down at Rex. I am Lily Shadow, and I'm happy to aid the innocent against the fell beasts of these woods. What an adorable little creature Lily thinks to herself, I could just eat him up. Lily represses her urge to drool, all too clearly remembering her missed meal scurrying around back at the lair.
She looks over at Raguen as he introduces himself, and curtsies deftly Pleased to make your acquaintance Raguen she turns towards the stream, and Neragu, finally she turns back to the party and everyone else! I haven't seen this many travellers in the wood for a while; whatever's brought you out this way, you may want to delay your plans. The gangles are out in force, looking for something.
Lily turns back to Raguen I don't suppose this lot said what that is?
Raguen tilts her head very slightly. "A lost soul," she says. "One of those lost ones that turn up in the Squirrwyrd—what you call the Writhing Wood—now and again. They din't mention that. It's just obvious. You can taste it in the air, can't you? Neragu won't shut up about it."
Whose reincarnation is it, that the gangles would care?
Yeldrid looks back and forth between Lily Shadow and Raguen, and then at the river.
"The river is people? Or a person? Honestly, if I'd known I would have been more considerate when I encounter rivers...
He coughs and adds, "Yeah, so, this is Rex. Swordsman. Champion of Justice. And this is Isamu. Swordsman. Champion of Justice. This is Samson. Mule. Champion of the Barn. And I'm Yeldrid Thozosh. Alchemist, bounty hunter, carpenter, blacksmith, hairstylist, inventor and aspirant of Euingen. And gunsmith. Of which you have been given a formal introduction. We're passing through because we are chasing giants and on a quest...of sorts. We even have maps!"
Yeldrid pulls out the maps in excited glee, showing them off in a bundle.
Isamu gives Lily a bow as Yeldrid introduces him.
"I apologize for not introducing myself earlier, Lily Shadow," he says. "But if the gangles are hunting someone, I'm rather inclined to go to their aid."
He shifts his gaze to Raguen. "If Neragu is speaking of this, perhaps the lost soul is near their waters?"
Rex looked back and forth between the conversations, not really following what was going on. He looked at each person that spoke and cocked his head adorably to the side. He didn't even know what they were talking to and no one seemed to keen to explain. He only knew it was named Raguen. When Yeldrid introduces him, he pounds his chest with a fist and bows. "I am also a paladin of Danaan the Sun Chaser. Does any of this have to do with the Politician thing the other ones mentioned?"
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Raguen seems to think a moment. "We don't know who the lost soul is, or where. Only that they are in the Squirrwyrd. Really? You can't taste it?" She rolls her eyes. "You all have quite a few names, don't you?"
"The river is people? Or a person?"
"Neragu isn't a river. Neragu is a stream. Obviously." She starts picking up dead leaves from the bridge, assembling a small pile. "A Politician? Hm. Really. In the Squirrwyrd?" She peers at Rex. "That's interesting. Hey, are you gonna use that magic, dog, or you just gonna walk around bloody? It almost hurts to look at you."
"Does it have a smell? My nose is better than my tongue." Rex tilts his head again in confusion. He ignored the dog comment in favor of diplomacy and asked, "Magic?"
"That bag." She points at Rex's side, where he put the bag of cherry drops Yeldrid found. "I don't know how you found it, but if you've got magic, you should use it. Hoarding magic'll turn you to a dragon, you know."
"Is that what those do?" Isamu asks. "We'd been wondering about them, but we apparently don't have quite the same senses you do."
The humanoid turtle sniffs. "Clearly."
"So, the gangles are looking for a spirit...thingajig. And they're tearing up the forest to do it. And this...'politician' is the person behind it. Honestly, this polly is sounding like a real bad bloke. Causing all this trouble. We oughta swoop in and spoil his plans. It's what adventurers do, after all.'
"Can you point us to the...squirrel...weird? We should get going if we're going to help this spirit. Those gangles might be a bit ridiculous but they'll find it eventually with enough time."
"Ah, Yeldrid, from what Raguen said, the Squirrwyrd is this whole forest," Isamu says gently, waving at the woods around them.
He looks over at Lily. "Milady, you wouldn't happen to have any ideas of where to look, would you? You seem familiar with these woods."
Raguen blinks transparent eyelids. "I haven't got much in the way of guidance. Just a sense. Just west. West of here. And the lost souls always head toward the river town, of course. These orcs," she gestures to the three dead gangles, "were here to guard the main road. They wanted to cross my bridge. I guess that means this road isn't being well-watched for the time being."
"So, are you going to use that magic?" she asks, looking a bit impatient. "I suppose I might let you cross if you give me one or two. They hit me pretty hard."
Yeldrid pulls out the sack.
"By all means, mate. Have at 'em!"
He pulls out two drops and hands them to the strange turtle lady.
"Well, if our business is done, I suppose we should shoot through to where the soul is. Hopefully, the others can catch up in time."
Isamu nods. "It does sound like there is no time to wait," he agrees. "It also sounds as if you should hand one of those to Rex, Yeldrid."
"Your taste might be better than mine but I am pretty confident in my nose and my nose says those are bad." Rex watches the turtle eat the red cherry looking things before giving one a try. "Seems we are in luck. West is our general direction."
It might be that those who don't walk towards Barlily just never survive, of course. The Writhing Wood is no place for children.
Raguen starts sucking on one of the cherry drops, then nods and waves the party by. "Besht of luck," she says, giving a slight bow. "You might meet wunno' my brudders in the future. Neragu's a lo'g stream. If you do, menshun m'name."
As Rex sucks on the candy—which doesn't taste too bad, if maybe a little saccharine—he notices the pain from his injuries lessening dramatically.
It is approaching nighttime as the group draws near Lily Shadow's hideout, and the typical hideous night sounds—familiar to Lily, perhaps—have begun: Hisses, chortles, chirps and whistles, punctuated by the occasional scream. This presents the partymembers with a choice: Do they continue on through the night, or spend the night here?
Isamu looks over at Lily. "Would you happen to know a good place to make camp, Lily? While I think all of us see well in dim light, I don't think we want to try continuing through the night. I, at least, fight better after a good night's sleep." He gives the group a vulpine grin at his half-joke.
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Lily nods, feeling a little apprehensive about showing a group of strangers into her second home. I know where we can hide from the gangles for a few hours.
"Lead the way, mate. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a night animal. So I could do with a kip and some dinner. Or whatever the bloody hell is in my ration bag. I think it's dried rabbit..."
The group takes shelter in Lily Shadow's hideout—a slightly cramped but not unbearable arrangement. Sleeping is difficult for those unused to the forest sounds, but it does come in time even to the sharp-eared Yeldrid and Rex.
It is a sunny morning, but the ground is drenched in fog. As such, only Rex and Lily notice the nearly invisible mass of webbing below. The webbing forms a sinister net around the base of the truck, preventing any easy descent into the clearing. Whatever put the webbing there is nowhere to be seen, but enough of it extends into the brush to suggest that the web's maker is not far off.
Lily goes outside to eat her breakfast of live mice on a quiet branch by herself. Below she admires her brethren's work, absently wishing, and not for the first time, that she had been born with the gift of silk.
Around this time she notices Rex looking down trepidly at the slight glints above the grass. Smiling mischeviously, she climbs down her safe house's ladder, and plucks out a tune on one of the webs.
Hello friends! Good hunting this morning, I hope the gangles haven't fouled too many webs. I'm looking for a lost soul, I think they should be able to quiet the forest back to its normal state. Has anyone seen one?
Yeldrid, barely awake, flops out of his bedroll and fumbles for his boots.
'gudmorn...smells like...wet..bark...whats for breakfast?'
There is a pause. Yeldrid and Isamu watch this in bewilderment, though at least they can now see the web.
After a moment, a plucking melody vibrates along the strands back to Lily Shadow.
The forest crawls with spiders of four limbs
A lost soul? We spied her before him.
Find the angel to west and then to south
But the gangles, we confess, are all about
Seek ye the child to south and then to west
Near the wild spring's mouth is where they rest
But gangles abound
Angels run aground
You cannot be aided
The east is blockaded.
Escaping with the soul is no mean feat
Got anything to eat?
Yeldrid rubs his eyes and musingly says "Do spiders like rabbit? Mice? I ate a bat once. It wasn't great. I like mice though. They have a nice crunch you don't get with rabbit.'
He gathers his belongings and eats a quick breakfast. "So Lily. I take it spirits, and angels, and I guess gangles are something you've handled before. How often does this happen? And what can we expect when we find the angel? Or spirit? Or whatever the bloody hell it's called."
He also looks out over the sea of webbing and adds "I also take it that your friends aren't gonna give us trouble? I like spiders, but I prefer them small enough to swat about."
Isamu watches with wonder at Lily's playing. "That's quite the talent you have there," he says, admiringly. "It seems they've given us a direction, at the least. Unless you know where this wild spring might be...?"
She knows all the info about aasimars underlined on the Document.
She's also pretty sure she can find the spring—there are a few that feed into the Styx, and the directions on this indicate one she's been to several times before.
Rex sleeps with both paws up and both ears twitching periodically with each new sound. Only the particularly loud ones wake him but never for very long. Barely enough to identify that they were in no immediate danger. In the morning, he spies a drop of dew hovering off the ground. Upon closer inspection, he finds it is sitting on a spider web. Spiders were never good. Especially since a good number of them are bigger than he was. He relaxes when he finds they are at least friendly. "That was lovely. I should hope we can meet those spiders one day. So now we venture south west?"
"I reckon. Let me make sure my gun's ready for the day and we'll be off."