”Geedra look,” she says as she moves to the tarp and unwraps whatever interesting hits are contained therein. She trusts the rest of the group to keep watch on the Quilled thing.
Inside the bag was a gnome! His blue hair and beard were unkempt, his armor was well worn, his cloak a patchwork mess, and he smelled like an ogre. Dangling from a strap on his shoulder was a crossbow, old looking, and with notches craved roughly into the side. Unfortunately the gnome seemed to be unconscious. He lay there now before the party.
Geedra turned up her nose at the new discovery. ”Am not magic or gold,” she says disappointedly. She points toward Krosh, the healer and hand her thumb towards the unconscious gnome.
”Anything better than old gnome,” she inquires of the Quilled man.
The quilled man looks dumbfounded. "Better? Better? Better!?" he gestures dramatically towards the unconscious gnome. "What better? Good for many things! Do what you wants with it. Make it slave? Eat it! Turn it into zombie pet. Trade it to giants? Sacrifice to Baba Yaga!"
Krosh grunts in mild disgust as he pushes past to investigate the gnome, kneeling down and putting his hands on him. After a moment, the shaman speaks.
"Not injured, so to speak. Just unconscious, maybe from an ether or nonlethal blow to the head." He rummages around in some sachets and bags from beneath his many furs and hides until he produces a small container that he uncorks and waves under the nose of the gnome.
Within an instant the gnome's eyes spring open and he awakens in a start, nose stinging and burning from the acrid, pungent stench of the contents.
Silas, you awaken to a stinging nose and surroundings - and beings - unfamiliar to you. Standing over you is a tall, sturdy form whose identity is shrouded beneath many layers of different animal hides, pelts, and furs, and whose head is concealed beneath a helmet made of a full elk skull, antlers and all. Many trinkets, talismans, feathers, and bones hang from bits of twine and rawhide strings from the antlers.
Behind this being you see a goblin woman with a toothy grin currently half-arguing with a small, grotesque humanoid covered in quills and wearing a smock made of humanoid skin. There's also a brawny, bearded human man, armored in breastplate and carrying a spear and heavy shield with a bear motif embossed on it, and a half-elf possessed of an air that is equal parts sleek and feral. Beside him is a fully grown white tiger.
Behind all of them is a lithe, bow-wielding elf in leathers and an attractive, brown-haired woman cowering behind him.
Geedra shakes her head. ”Am need gold too! Group am not need gnome. Gnome looks all broken. Take gnome and hold,” she demands of the Quilled man.
Byakko looks almost sheepish, "Hail sir gnome, sorry if I poked you. My name is Byakko, this is Enii," he gestures to the tiger before introducing the rest of the group before asking, "how and why did you end up in this pointy, errr, things sack?"
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While most of the group interacts with the gnome, the quilled specimen and Geedra seem to be having a tiff off in the sideline.
Gold? Gold?! Bah on gold. What good is gold? Can't eats it, can't dead it, can't make it new friend after deading it! Wrinkly she-goblin wants gold!" the thing rants. "hope horse bits goblin's nose off and shits it on her head. Come in the Lady's house and beats up on her...oooh, ha ha ha. Jadrenka knows golds. Probably has golds. She would give gold. Ungrist is Warden's favorite friend. I bets Warden knows where golds is." he grins and claps, then near coughs up a lung, black spittle dribbling from his mouth, which he sucks back in and resumes grinning.
"please no..." Greala whimpers from the back. "not the Warden. This is obviously some sort of trap..the gnome is probably part of it, too. This place is naught but deception..."
”Where is way to Ungrist and Warden? Geedra am want gold and treasure if group am have to take gnome and girl out of here,” she says as she stomps and points at Greala.
Skäne casts a baleful stare at first the quilled wretch, then Greala before settling on Geedra. He grits his teeth and nods to himself;
"We bring the Gnótt ... We find this Ungrist and takk his life and hodd .. That should please our Puka!"
He points his spear toward Greala;
"You have still yet to prove yourself tryggr . You would do well to remember this."
Silas looked around, not that he was awake, and took stock of his situation. A walking taxidermy shop, a goblin, and the ugliest pincushion he had ever seen, and then the half less was less of a concern compared to the glowing tiger. This was not the worst place he had woken up in but, he would not call it his favorite.
He looked at the big guy when he was addressed. "I um... was out for a walk and ran into some trouble. Some giant thought I'd be a good snack and--" he stopped talking when his eyes landed on woman cowering behind the half elf. "Well, you look familiar." the gnome said as he reached for a dagger.
"Do you two... know each other?" Byakko says stepping aside to point at both. An eyebrow raises as he side eyes them both.
The quilled man lets out a dramatic sigh.
"Listens," he states emphatically. "Me Ungrist. Jadrenka Warden. Ungrist - ME - is Warden's favoritest of friends. So surelys Warden give nasty tres- ehhhhh - nice guests - golds for not being means and hurts old Ungrist. Understand??"
Greala looks to the gnome, puzzled. She looks a bit taken off guard. "W-what? What do you mean? I've not seen you before." As he reaches for the dagger she moves behind Mithas even more. "What are you doing?!"
Despite Greala's state of surprise, she seems to be telling the truth about never having seen this gnome before.
Byakko remains... puzzled.
Geedra shakes her head. ”Quill man am confusing,” she says. She finally has his words click in her head. ”Treat Quilly good and Warden am give gold. Where Warden at?”
Without waiting for a response, she turns and smiles a large wicked toothy grin when the gnome pulls the dagger and it appears he and the human girl might fight. Maybe the gnome was okay, after all!
Skäne too remains uncertain of the words of any, but the gnomes belligerence toward Greala seemed warranted...
"Gnótt Jotunnsnakka . How is she known to you?"
Completely ignoring the tension of the room, Ungrist shrugs in his overly dramatic way. "Warden cans be anywhere - moves through all Artrosa as she wills. Warden is master of her domain, afer all! Ha ha! Have not seens her here, maybe back that way to Maiden," he says, pointing back the way you came. "Wardens move about like that, thoughs" he adds, snapping fingers. After a long pause he looks at the gnome. "Sooo...you still takings gnome? Or just golds for you and gnomes Ungrist have...?" he says hopefully.
Meanwhile, Krosh slinks up behind Byakko and Skäne and mutters "Truly I do not believe the woman knows the gnome...but the gnome knows the woman."
SM:
The disheveled gnome looked at the group around him. They haven't tried to murder him yet, which was probably a good sign. Though... he stared at the brown haired woman. He did not draw his weapon. "Who are you people?" he finally asked. His eyes darted from one person to the next, landing back on the woman hiding in the back between every new person.
The goblin looks at the gnome. ”Geedra,” she says, pointing at her chest. ”And group,” she adds, pointing at the rest of her crew.
”What am gnome doing in cave?”. She couldn’t help staring at the gnome’s hat as she addressed him.
Byakko hesitates at the strange situation looking like he is about to speak but instead he silently waits for the response to Geedra's query.
Silas looked at Geedra and then the group. Slowly he got to this feet. "Gnome was being saved for a snack." He snorted. "Frost giants, ya'know? Then some guy with quills took me for... who knows what. They were all grouped together or something. They had another friend, too. Who said something about uninvited guests before shifting her form into..." his eyes landed on the woman trying to hide in the back.
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Greala narrows her eyes, brow furrowing as the gnome speaks. She meets his gaze and lets out a long sigh. "Couldn't just make things easy, could you, little cricket?" Her voice is different, sharp, low, with a slight rasp. [b]"I'd hoped to make tools of you lot, but I don't think you'd be receptive to my methods. No matter, I'll at least see what I can do with one of you."
Her fingers upon Mithas's shoulder tighten and she grins. "Ta ta for now, lovelies."
There is a ripple across her, the colors comprising her being flickering and stretching for a brief second, which carries through to Mithas. A breath later, with a light pop of sound, they are gone.
Ungrist stands blinking for several seconds before he erupts in laughter. "Hahahahahaha! We weres all hoodswinked by Caegriel!" He slaps his thighs as he goes on, chuckles punctuating his words. "Should have known! Tricksy one! Good prank."
"Anyway, give yous gnome, yous get golds from Jadrenka Warden, we all friends, yes?"
Skäne grips his shield and spear - jaw set and scarred scowl deepening. He looks to Ungrist with a black stare;
"Where has she taken our Skúta ? Tell us Hryggr or face minn ire!"
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”Big human am cut Quills off, if group doesn’t get Mithas back in one piece!”
"Aye, best tell us and quick. As far as our gnome goes... What shall we call you? Probably best you stick with us while we figure out our mission here lest you wind up in a sack again, or belly..."
Ungrist throws his arms into the air.
"Whats? Whats? Does Ungrist looks like Caegriel? Hows Ungrist to know wheres Caegriel takings the elf?!" He stomps in a sort of tantrum. "Ungrist no being friend of Caegriel, nots these days. Wells, nots in old days, too." His voice lowers. "Means old hag. Thinks she ruler of all. Pah. Great Baba Yaga made Jadrenka Warden, not Caegriel, so Caegriel always angry. But Jadrenka is Ungrist friend. Want elf, talk to Warden." he adds, matter-of-factly.
To the gnome he smirks. "Ungrist save you from giant belly snack, but then these ones beats up Ungrist and keep him from makings you forever friend. At least yous a lucky gnome once today!"
Silas got to his feet and brushed himself off. "Good Gods. Least she gave up the act quick. Call me Silas." He said, finally introducing himself. He picked up his trusty crossbow and gave it a quick once over for any damage. "Any of you mind if I shoot this guy?" He gestured the crossbow at Ungrist.
Geedra shrugged. ”Gnome, Geedra am not care at all. Quilled Man am worthless. Maybe tiger want eat Quilled Man too,” she said, pointing to the large cat.
"Shoot?!" Ungrist shouts in protest. "Shoots Ungrist?" He stomps his foot. "Bad gnome. Ungrist saves gnome from giants snack-bags and gnomes want to be shoot Ungrist?" He scowls and mutters some string of unfamiliar words in an alien tongue. "Ungrates-ful...."
He turns to Geedra and the others to implore them. "Comes now..not be shoot Ungrist. I take you to Warden, yes?"
Geedra looks at the others and taps her foot impatiently. She had no better idea and if they stayed here longer, they might run into even more gnomes. She certainly didn’t want that.
”Go Quilly. Take group to Warden. Maybe Warden am have good stuff group can steal.l!”
Silas slipped a bolt from a bag on his belt and spun it around in his fingers. "Who is this 'Warden' exactly?"
Ungrist breathes a sigh of relief.
"Warden is Jadrenka. Jadrenka is Warden. Master of all Artrosa, title given by Baba Yaga herselfs!" He smiles a truly grotesque smile. "Hmmm, where she be...Warden can move through all Artrosa in a blink," he repeats. He taps his head a few times. "Last I knows she not in Crone. She went over to Maiden. Come, come!" You realize he just said this a moment ago, and it seems as though this strange man might be a touch unbound in the head.
He rushes past you and moves into the hallway you came from, bidding you follow.
"Strange..." Krosh intones. "We entered the Maiden statue...what oddity this creature spinning." He sighs.
Following the quilled miscreant, you are taken back to the room where you fought the three fiendish feyfolk torturers. Ungrist whistles and coughs. "Oh oh! Looks here...you did in for the Nymph's bastards, huh?" He laughs. "Good riddance! Always so loud and making Ungrist annoyed. Always squabbling and shouting. Killings them mights make their sires mad though...or maybe not. Don't think they liked them much!" he laughs again and moves through the room, once more back the way you came. On his way through and stops at the corpses of one of the torturers and whispers "not so loud now!" before skipping along.
Back through the long hallway and you are back in the partitioned room where you met Greala..or, apparently, Caegriel. Ungrist walks on his tiptoes in this room, and turns back to whisper at you.
"Shhh, hags sleep in this room. Don't want to pester hags. They mean."
He slowly leads you around the exterior of the partitions until you reach another hallway leaving this room which you have not traversed. Another flight of rough-hewn stairs leads you to a splitting path left and right, and after a second of supposed contemplation, Ungrist leads you left, passing under a stone arch. Beyond, you enter an impossible expanse of broad meadow bathed in bright daylight filled with swaying wildflowers. There are no walls, no ceiling, and the floor beneath you is suddenly grass.
Ungrist seems unperturbed, and squints, getting excited. "Aha!" he exclaims, pointing.
Out in the field you see a figure walking leisurely next to a large bovine creature. Ungrist rushes forward and eventually you get close enough to get a good look.
A striking young woman with black hair worn in myriad braids walks barefoot in the flowers. She wears a simple roughspun dress of grey but wears a mantle of raven feathers. Her pale skin his flawless and her features delicate and exquisite, she regards you with yellow-amber eyes. Her arm is draped around the muscular neck of the ox that walks beside her.
"Warden!" Ungrist calls, rushing to her. He dashes behind her legs and hugs them. "More new...friends have come. They beat up poor Ungrist but then we talk and is well. Caegriel trickses them and takes friend. But want friend and gold for stopping beating up Ungrist."
The Warden takes in what the strange fellow has to say and gives him a soft smile and pat on the head. She turns to look at you again. "My domain has been gifted with many visitors of late," she says in a sultry voice. Her eyes drift to Skäne and Byakko. [b]"Oh, but none so handsome." She smiles impishly and giggles. "I would hope that, despite your exchange of violence with poor Ungrist, your visit is for better reasons than the others that have come." She twirls a braid of hair in her finger and smiles again. "What brings you here? Amuse me."
Byakko steels himself to remain wary (this time), the last striking woman he met had deceived him and absconded with a friend. His answer comes out steely, barely a hint of warmth in his greeting, "Greetings Warden. For now our reason for visiting you is your assistance in tracking down our friend who was taken by the woman Ungrist calls Caegril. This is your realm you say? Are you able to tell us where he has been taken? Perhaps once our group is made whole again we'll have time for amusing tales of Baba Yaga's trail of riddles left for her Riders."
Skäne lets Byakko speak, instead holding position with shield and spear held close, lest this Warden's whims be of a violent nature despite her honeyed words...
”Geedra am need Geedra’s group member. And Geedra am need keys for Baba’s chicken hut. And any extra gold am not hurt Geedra’s feelings…”
Jadrenka's ears and eyebrows perk a bit at the mention of Baba Yaga, and it is this topic that she latches onto.
"You've news on Baba Yaga?" she asks with a sly, inviting smile. She tosses her hair behind her shoulder and relaxes her stance. "I have not heard from her in some time...t'is a strange thing." She let out a drawn out sigh. "And what might you know about these boorish giants that have come intruding and stomping about?" A pang of anger and annoyance flashes across her visage as she mentions them. She reverts to a devious smile to add: "You're in my domain, my dashing adventurers. Perhaps if you answer my questions, I would consider answering yours."
”Giants am went running from Geedra in the Baba Yaga Chicken Hut. Kicks messed giants up real good. Group needs keys to make chicken hut move again, seems like.”. She looks conspiratorially at the woman. ”Baba Yaga am select group for important mission!”
Jadrenka perks up a bit and smiles at Geedra, taking her arm from around the stoic ox next to her she kneels down to put herself more at the goblin's eye level. You can spot a series of silver necklace chains around her neck, one of which holds several keys of different materials, and the other a few feathers, bones, and a gold nugget. "Truly little witch, you serve Baba Yaga as well? When did you see her last? Did she give you any messages to pass along?" She sighs somewhat whimsically and closes her eyes momentarily, basking in some recollection, and then opens them again. She waves her hand in the air in front of her, a ring on her finger shimmering in a mystic light as she does. "Hm, interesting..."
She stands up and stretches. "Caegriel is a horrid old hag. We have a troubled past, but forced we are to coexist here, for the time. I cannot say much. Oh, if only I could reveal the secrets of this place..." she winks towards to the human and elven men and bites her finger playfully. "But, I cannot. Though if you want to find what was lost, you could follow the taker to the Mother, where she kneels to pray."
Geedra waits for the others, knowing her particular way of negotiating didn’t play well with most.
Byakko sighs, No sense in holding back the story, "We all carry the mantle of her Riders, having met them in various states of... demise. The party member taken from us and I share the White riders mantle. We have never met Baba Yaga, though I should like to, as it seems she's the only force that can stop this foul false winter her truculent daughter Elvanna has brought upon the land. Elvanna seems to have diverted Baba Yaga's return somehow, coveting the throne for herself. If you have any of the Hut's keys it has been aiding us in finding her I think... Or if you can direct us how we can travel to the Mother from here it would greatly appreciated." Byakko smiles but the edge of concern over Mithas and their mission bars the expression from being warm.
Aid another diplomacy
”Yeah, am what that guy said. Group big strong special Baba Yaga friends. Baba Yaga might am reward if help group…”
Skäne nods grimly in argreement of his fellow Riders.
"Aye. Hvítrkló und the Puka speak true. We are her riddari and seek the next step on our path..."
Jadrenka smirks, her face suddenly betraying her with an of air of delight.
"Riders, you say?" she says playfully. "I'm not sure if that is ominous or fortuitous." She sighs and stretches. "Still, not all intruders are made equal, it would seem. Perhaps our paths do not need to cross in woe? Desires, ambitions...fickle things." She absentmindedly fiddles with her necklace of keys, slipping a finger through the eye of one and begins twirling it on her finger. "In any case, it certainly would be nice if all of those loud, lumbering oafs were to find themselves...well, not so loud or capable of lumbering anymore, no?" she gives a wink. "We shall meet again, I am sure. Oh, and...forgive me, I cannot explain the intricacies, but when the illusion fades, best be on your way. Warden I may be, but I can't control everything here," she says, glancing to the ox before continuing in a whisper. "And he may be hungry."
A final spin of the key sends it flying from her finger and landing in the grass a few feet in front of your group. "Oh my, how...clumsy of me. Pleasant travels, my dears," she chuckles, winking again.
The ring on her finger flashes and Jadrenka vanishes. A moment later, the endless meadow of wildflowers melts away around you, swiftly leaving you in a bare cavern; floor, ceiling, an walls of rough-hewn stone. The muscular ox is an ox no longer, but a huge bull with flesh that appears to be interlocking bluish-gray metallic plates. Massive horns curve forward, similarly colored. The beast stamps and snorts, a sickly green mist escaping its flared nostrils as it does, but doesn't move to strike..yet.
Byakko keeps his eye on the metallic beast as he slowly bends to retrieve the key before backing away. He can feel his tongue thickening but whispers to his companions, "Huh, figures the only remotely friendly face is as puzzling as a raven. Where to now?"
Skäne levels his spear and shield and moves toward the hulking beast issuing a challenge;
Geedra wasn’t sure that fighting that metallic beast was a great idea. Once she saw, Byakko grab the key, she started backing up. ”Maybe big human am want back away from oversized metal cow? Cow am look awful mean!”
Byakko pauses, indecision clear on his face. He knows better than to get between a Viking and his challenged foe, so he steps to the side and slowly draws his sword and shield, motioning Enii to do the same, as he was unsure of whether his tongue had transitioned to bestial or not. He prepares a Bull's Strength to be cast on Enii at any sign of hostilities.
Skäne accepts the sudden challenge of the metallic bull, matching the beast's snorts with guff as he readies and braces his spear. Byakko manages to get the key and pocket it without drawing the bull's ire and begins to back away, hesitantly producing his weapon as well while Geedra attempts to advise the others to pull back.
Skäne heeds Geedra's puka wisdom and slowly begins to back up, whilst keeping himself ready should the beast charge.
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Geedra sees her large friend start to back up, so she takes the opportunity to scurry out the exit. ”Group am ready go now,” she advises as she passes them by.