Alara shakes her head. "I don't know--I think we can do just fine without his help. I say we just take him out and be done with it."
"Zaoibe believes he will escape if we allow him to awaken...and if he has spellcasting...he might be able to do something like that. She has been up and up on everything up until this point, so I see no reason to doubt her. I agree with Alara, as well, we should not need him for anything. Let's just find a place to burn him up and be done with him quickly."
Piper thinks about this. Then, reluctantly, he nods in agreement.
Masamune seeing his comrades have come to an agreement just drags Kikonu outside so that they could burn him in peace. Masamune also brings his blade down once again on Kikonu's neck to make sure he won't wake up before their done.
"I leave him to you brother unless you would like me to burn him?" Masamune just seems to be making the offer as he's perfectly fine with whoever wants to burn Kikonu.
"Once we get a fire going, we are going to want to cover him so that he smolders away, not a blaze. Otherwise, we might gain too much attention." With that, he begins to place straw all over the body and then ignites it in several places until he is sure that the body will begin to burn, then he seems to light up, walking back into the stables, he finds one of the water troughs. Looking to Alara, he nods, "Can you watch the body while my brother aids me in this?"
At which point, Ash explains his plan.
Piper aids in preparing for the burning in any way possible. Gathering straw, aiding in preparing the water trough, removing the remaining items from the body, etc.
Masamune gets to work on the bottom of the water trough cutting a hole to let all the water out.
Alara wordlessly nods and keeps watch over Kikonu's unconscious body, occasionally giving him a whack if he stirs.
A black, sooty, and foul-smelling smoke still pours out from under the trough as Kikonu burns. Zaiobe regards the pyre for a few moments before she wordlessly takes to the skies, not even looking back Her flights takes her in a generally southern direction.
Meanwhile, Kikonu finally dies.
As the body burns, Rawnie and Piper, perhaps not as closely involved in the building of the pyre, spot a creature observing them from the walkway. It appears to be a more heavily clothed dire corby. Whatever it is exactly, they see it dash from the walkway into the castle.
Piper watches as Zaiobe takes off into the skies, wondering if they will meet again. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the cloaked figure watching them. After it dashes off, Piper pulls on Alara's sleeve. He signs, 'Alara, there was a figure watching us. It looked like a heavily clothed dire corby.' He points to the walkway.
"I believe we've been spotted." Rawnie notes to the others, as she too notes the creature Piper points towards. "We need to be careful, they could alert the rest of the area, be ready for this whole place to come down on us."
Masamune turns at Rawnie's statement.
"Well let's move quickly. If we bring Kikonu's head we might be able to convince the rest of the dire corbies to leave without a fight. If not then it's better to fight them one at a time then to face a horde of them."
Alara winces. "Right--let's go. Get ready to run like hell if there's too many of them."
Piper nods, rapier at the ready, all set to pursue this new foe.
"Indeed...I am apprehensive about heading into anything we don't have warning about...when we are completely expended from a casting standpoint..." he is ready to move, but begrudgingly.
Acknowledging the concerns of the fellow party members Masamune offers a plan of action in case everything doesn't go well. "If they seem like they have any fight left then we shall do as Alara said, retreat, and come back after refreshing our resources. Is everyone okay with that fall back plan?"
Piper thinks about Masamune's plan and nods, willing to fall back.
Ash slowly nods. "That might be the best course. We must be quite careful to not get boxed in though."
Masamune takes a few moments to remove Kikonu's head before striding up to the main castle doors. Making sure his allies are in position Masamune throws the doors open and if he sees any corbies he throws Kikonu's head at their feet.
Throwing the head wildly off course Masamune quickly looks at any of the dire corbies in the room and tries to look as threatening as possible.
Alara casually twirls her nunchaku in a threatening manner to try and help Masamune.
As Masamune and companions burst into the room, they spot four dire corbies still lounging around near the throne. They leap to their feat as the samurai lobs the still-smoldering head of Kikonu at them. It lands a bit short but the bounce and roll do little to diffuse the tension of the situation. It's unclear if they truly understand Masamune's words, but they do seem to understand the gist of his message. They quickly bolt from the chamber, squawking all the way with their hoarse voices.
It appears that they are running up some stairs obscured from your immediate view.
Masamune pauses for a few moments as the corbies start to run up the stairs rather than out of the building. "Uhhhhh, hopefully their just gathering a few things then leaving! Maybe... Anyways let's give chase and be ready to run away!" Masamune then strikes a brave pose as he begins advancing along the coribes' path trying to not look like he's going to run away at the first sign of trouble.
As Masamune closes with the stairs, he can hear the noises of the corbies increase with new voices added to the squabble. Four corbies were spotted heading for the stairs; it now sounds like there are more than that in whatever chamber sits at the top of the stairs and above the throne room.
Masamune begins to follow the corbies up the stairs slowly while making sure to not be stealthy at all. As he advances up the stairs step by step he tries to gauge by sound how many corbies are in the room before yelling at them.
Piper waits with baited breath as Masamune follows them, ready to do a tactical retreat.
Following close behind his brother ready to heal what little bit he is capable...if needed.
Rawnie stays near the others, as the samurai gives chase.
Alara doesn't stray far from Masamune's side, though she does keep her nunchaku readied.
From the sounds of things, there are at least a few more corbies than ran up the stairs. Exactly how many is impossible to tell, picking out different voices in a language none of you speak.
However, when Masamune reaches the tap of the stairs, with Alara and Ash closest behind him, he can see there are three additional corbies. The four that he scared seem to be put off enough to continue to flee down corridors, away from the chamber. But the other three corbies seem a little more stalwart and react with hostility.
The room itself is a fetid mess. The large table in the middle of the room is heaped with partially eaten carcasses and thick eggshells, much of it giving off a rotten smell. The three corbies farthest from the open corridors each have some small piles of garbage near them, as if they had been caught in the middle of doing some moderate cleaning (in a room that needs much more severe cleaning).
Masamune focuses on defense while waiting for the rest of his companions to fall back.
Alara promptly spins on her heel and runs back down the stairs. She then looks for some shadows to hide in...
Left without any more spells today, Rawnie pulls out her crossbow and loads it, as she moves away from the stairs.
Piper decides on a more interesting plan. He decides to drop his rapier, draw his flute, and begin playing a tune. The sound of the flute is turned into the sound of well armed men in heavy armor, marching and yelling, screaming for the death of the corbies.
There isn't a lot of shadow in on the ground floor (though you might suspect the dire corbies can see in some darkness anyway), but ducking around the stair wall does provide concealment terrain for Alara - at least from the perspective of the dire corbies.
The dire corbies react next and one of them is determined to prevent a full retreat by the intruders. The one closest to the stairs jumps over the rail on this floor and lands safely on the stairs below, moving to claw at Piper. He fails to injure the musician, but not for lack of trying.
He does cock his head at the sound of Alara's movements, a move that makes it clear he notices her presence.
The other two feisty dire corbies move in toward Masamune. One of them has to come around the table and is slowed enough that he can't attack this time. The other had a shorter distance to come and slashes at the samurai. He fails to penetrate the samurai's defenses.
Piper's thoughts are interrupted when the corby drops down in front of him and swipes at him. He easily dodges and stabs at the new enemy with his rapier.
If possible, Ash takes a quick down the stairs so they can start working their way back. Wincing, he draws his dagger and readies to strike out at anything that comes by him that is a threat.
The dire corby at the foot of the stairs is distracted just enough by Ash that he fails to avoid Piper's thrust (given the situation, I'm going to say flanking applies between you two). The bard draws blood, inflicting a substantial wound, though the dire corby seems undeterred.
With one of the Corbies on the ground floor in her range, Rawnie looses the loaded bolt, hoping to strike the creature, but her shot goes wide, missing it as she drops another bolt into it's place.
Masamune strikes at the corby that attacked him before shifting down the stairs to make it harder to be flanked.
Masamune grievously wounds his opponent. The dire corby, however, is undaunted.
Rawnie's shot goes wide.
Alara groans and moves to attack the corby on the stairs. "Right. Hard way it is, then."
She swings her nunchaku...
Alara's nunchucks whack the dire corby hard, but these creatures are quite ferocious and it continues to try to fight back. Having been injured by both Alara and Piper, it isn't sure who to strike out against most. In the end, he lashes out at the newcomer - the one who tried to strike at him from hiding.
He strikes Alara once for 4 points of damage.
Meanwhile, up the stairs, the injured dire corby moves into the gap left by Masamune and attacks.
,
He strikes hard enough to do 4 points of damage to Masamune.
The second dire corby also tries to strike at Masamune, but the balustrade offers a little bit of cover. And neither of his attacks are effective.
Masamune continues to strike at the injured corby trying to take it down so that he could focus on the other one. Bring his blade in from the side he tries to continue opening up the wound he created before.
Piper once again stabs at the corbie in front of him, trying to deliver as much damage as possible. Ash being on the stairs helps out in this.
Painfully, Ash slashes out again to help Piper hit.
Reeling from the blow, Alara swings her nunchaku again...
...and misses wildly.