"Nice trick, beast. It won't help you."
Benedict takes a shot, drops his bow, and moves up 20' drawing his sword.
Jie pleads with the magic crow. "Please Sir Crow, we don't want to harm you, but you can't have our stuff or harm those under our protection." She delays with an arrow cocked ready to shoot if the crow leaves melee combat. She is also seems to be listening very intently.
The intelligent crow does not seem moved by Jie's plea.
Lissa drops back and Amkarang steps up, each giving the other a flank. They swing together - Lissa's glaive destroys one of the phantom crows, but Amkarang manages to make contact with the actual bird, and you can hear something crack inside its body.
, ,
, ,
The crow stares balefully at Amkarang. "Your luck is really going to change," it sneers at him. It moves back next to Lissa again, out of the effective reach of anyone's weapon, and then mutters a curse, its malevolent gaze locked on Amkarang's.
Benedict moves to attack the crow, flanking with Grum.
Jie continues to delay, ready to shoot the bird if it flies away.
Grum's blade is not confused by the crow's illusions, and any bad luck it might have inflicted on Amkarang doesn't seem contagious. He almost bisects the bird, and it dies with barely more than a cough and a flutter of feathers.
Phersi is semi-conscious and badly wounded, but stable. With the crow dead, she gasps and make a half-hearted attempt to stand up, succeeding only in making herself cry out and then fall back to the earth again.
"Nice work, Grum."
Benedict will pick up Phersi gently and carry her back to camp; hopefully Rhyna or Aubrin can heal her wounds.
Then it's back to trying to build shelters, depending on how much time we have left before nightfall.
"I don't know, but that's a good idea. I think we need to build shelters and I don't know how to track a flying creature, but maybe we can look around later this evening or tomorrow."
"It might have a mate as well. Something to keep in mind when we go looking for it. As for tracking - birds rest in trees, and everything poops."
Aubrin's magic heals Phersi's wounds, and by the time she's taken care of, the evening rains Jie warned about have arrived. It's full dark by the time the storm moves on, and although your shelters hold, based on the reinforcing work Jie lead the rest of the camp through, it's clear that your group needs something more permanent, and soon.
With watches posted, the night passes without event, and you awake to your second morning as refugees, in need of a plan for the day.
Under your group's direction, the Phaendarite refugees take down their temporary shelters and pack up to move deeper into the woods. So far, morale is pretty good - people are well-fed and healthy, and the few incidents that have arisen you have dealt with quite swiftly. A quiet marching song starts up among the group as you head out.
Because some of you are weighed down by your armor, you can't get too much ahead of the main group.
Encounter one: ,
Encounter two: ;
Lissa shudders, her eyes focused on Grum's back as they head through the woods, then finally she looks about.
"I was freed. You can speak with the High Court if you wish. How else would I have left? A portal was opened."
She answers the voice habitually, forming the fey words in her mind and letting them rest easily together in front of the larger picture. As she mentions the court, the image of the Norn Auri flashes through her mind.
"Gather close friends, there's at least one fey nearby. They like games."
Jie reins Feng in and looks around.
"Let's hope they're friendly" she remarks to Lissa as she pulls an apple out of the bag. "No, not for you, Feng." she chides her horse. To the ever encompassing forest she speaks. "We do not mean to trespass or alarm. If you would like to parley, then we can sit down and have a brunch."
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Completely unaware of what was happening, Grum marched stoically along. When hearing Lissa, he stiffened, a look of concern on his face.
"We should be going then. The fey won't fight us face to face. They will make a mockery of us, and we will leave all the poorer for it. Talk to them not, let us be off."
Benedict doesn't know much about the Fey, other than to watch his words and not make any promises.
"Fair children of the First World, I am sorry that we must seem so dull and uninteresting to you who have seen such wondrous sights. But a great stone tower has appeared in an instant in Phaendar! Surely that is an oddity worthy of your attention."
Lissa suddenly freezes, as though someone has placed a weapon to her throat or something. In a moment, though, the reason appears, as she slowly turns her head to look at her left shoulder - and there is, in that moment, a strange figure visible there. It is a cross between a black-furred rabbit and a grinning human girl, long legs and short fluffy tail attached to a rabbit's body but with the tiny torso, arms and head of a girl, with large black rabbit ears sticking up from her head. The creature stares back at Lissa, but her ears twitch and she turns to look at Grum, eyes narrow. "You're going to pitch the kettle-bottom, and I've no taste for burnt apple cider. You there!" she points at Jie. "Slice us a yammer-all, eh? Aye, the tower rises in Phaendar. Hobnails and entrails, blood and guts from good deep cuts. Iron fangs bite, and I'm a gander. Best to tent with my new friends, you can hear my breeze?"
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Grum held his tongue while looking at the fey. A task made easier by him having no idea what it was that it said to him. There was little that he feared, and even those that he feared he was usually willing to fight. But he had no interest in tangling with the fey. Doing so would likely just mean walking away to mocking laughter after a series of unfortunate comedic events at his expense. Best to let someone smart like Benedict handle this. Or Jie. The creature seemed to have taken interest in her.
Jie smiles and starts to cut the apple into seven slices. Giving one to Feng, she passes the others to Benedict, Lissa, Grum, Amakarang and keeping one for herself, gives the other to the bunnygirl. "The Iron Fangs do indeed bite, but we plan on biting back. My name is Jie." she says as she starts to eat the apple slice.
"Ghiltisha," the pooka replies, smiling, as she takes the apple slice and has a bite. Her front teeth are extremely large. "Or Tish if it fits the box withal."
Benedict takes an apple slice and eats it.
Eating our food with them isn't a problem, right? Just eating their food?
"Ghiltisha. Benedict. Do share our grub.
But tent with us? Aye, there's the rub.
Our walls are trees and our roof is sky.
Fey can thrive, but not so I.
Storms and rain and chill and hail;
mortal folk indeed are frail.
Tents? We might make sails for walls.
But perhaps you know of stony halls?
In the Fangwood might be found
sturdy shelter underground?"
Jie is taken aback by Benedict's rhyming. 'That's quite good she thinks. 'and is probably the best way of talking to the pooka.
The pooka blinks at Benedict and almost drops her apple slice. "Well all right then!" she laughs. "Homes in the earth? A dearth, but touched a time once. I know of such. In the roots-up-a-ninny, where the air-pecker pickles ripe and ready. East and east and north, in leagues four-two-one and done. The Children of the Stone they lair, but you'll rag their tags with a shade of another shadow, I think. Troglodyte, they hight?"
Air-pecker means nose? So there's a bad smell. A swamp? Or the troglodytes? It might be rude to ask for clarification, and you never want to be rude to a fey, but at least the directions are plain enough.
"Thank you friend! And so I think
we'll venture there and brave the stink.
It may take us many days,
since we have to stop and graze.
If you wish to come, you may,
or tend to matters of the Fey.
My orcish friend you may call Grum.
Although he may seem rather glum,
he does not mean you any spite;
his joy is not to play but fight.
He's the thing a goblin dreads,
snicker-snacker lop their heads."
Benedict will continue to chat with the Pooka; if it starts bothering Grum he will try to distract it with more rhymes or stories or pratfalls.
Amkarang smiles at the rhyming and chuckles.
A rhyming rabbit woman, I've seen many odd things, but never that.
Benedict and the pooka continue their almost-unintelligible conversation for another half hour or so, while the rest of the group watches with varying levels of comfort. Tish, for her part, eventually changes position, flying from Lissa's shoulder to perch behind Jie on Feng, but otherwise seems content to talk, sing nonsense songs, and trade rhymes with the aasimar. Finally, Ghiltisha stands and swoops off of Feng to land in front of you all.
"Path-friends, the path ends. Sunnydew is wasting and I'm a jape-a-nope. Tell songs and thy roots will tickle my toes anon!" She turns invisible again, and is apparently gone.
Another 45 minutes or so passes, and then the group finds itself approaching a broad stream, almost a small river. There is what looks like a usable ford nearby, leading to a small island in the middle of river, and then more forest beyond.
"Careful - there is something under the water near the ford. Does anyone know what creatures live in these waters?"
Jie enjoys the company of the Pooka and is saddened by her departure.
As they arrive at the ford, she looks at the area Benedict motions toward.
"I don't see anything, Benedict." she says as she she readies the Heavy Crossbow, scanning the water near the ford.
"Amkarang, feel like doing some fishing?"
If any of our foraged provisions are meat - like squirrel or something - we could bait a hook and see if it is some sort of predator lying in wait.
Even if Amkarang can't actually haul it in, he can get it to reveal itself from a safe distance.
Several ideas for what might be lurking under the water run through Jie's mind - crocodile? alligator? hippopotamus? giant turtle? - but none really come close to the dragon that suddenly rears up out of the water.
It's not a large dragon, as such things go: only about 8 feet long from nose to tail, with two legs, two fin-like wings, and a row of red-brown fins running along its spine. Its scales are a dark, dusty grey, and its smoldering red eyes seem filled with fury as it turns toward you.
The drake rears its head back, then with a wet choking sound hurls a caustic blob of phlegm at your group, landing with a wet splat in the midst of the group. Jie, on Feng, is off to one side, and Benedict a bit too far in the lead, but Lissa, Amkarang, and Grum are at ground zero when the sticky, reeking blob lands.
Benedict will move, drawing his bow, and take a shot at the dragon.
Entangled: The character is ensnared. Being entangled impedes movement, but does not entirely prevent it unless the bonds are anchored to an immobile object or tethered by an opposing force. An entangled creature moves at half speed, cannot run or charge, and takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity. An entangled character who attempts to cast a spell must make a concentration check (DC 15 + spell level) or lose the spell.
"Spread out a bit on the bank, let's not all get caught again!"
Both Feng and Jie are startled by the drake's sudden appearance and it takes a moment for her to calm him down. "Shh, Feng she whispers, "wait for it to come to us."Fortunately she is too far away from the viscous glob to be effected and in response she shoots her crossbow.
she then stores her crossbow.
Amkarang manages to dodge most of the glob of acidic goop. He grunts in pain before fully taking in the source of the glob ,"By Hei Feng's beard is that a dragon?" He runs further up the bank and draws his meteor hammer, ready to hit the beast if it comes near.
"I don't care how big it is, one of us is earning the name Dragonslayer today."