Veltariel just nods and waits patiently for Esrisi before leading the way out to scout the perimeter around their current location.
Vel and Esrisi don't see any immediate threats in the area. Once the group is ready they all set out to continue exploring the peninsula. Making their way through the marshes they eventually have to cross back over the river to continue on to the west. After a short while Vel and Es spot something ahead. On the shores of a large marshy pond is a
village of thatch-roofed huts. Later afternoon now, the sun will be setting in an hour or so.
"Hmm... we'll try talking first of course, no matter what. I can go in alone or with as many of you want to come along. We could leave a couple of our stealthers out of sight in case things go badly with the talk though." Sapher offers up a plan.
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Esrisi comes back with Veltariel from scouting, holding her hand and smiling with an extra hop in her skip as she nearly bounces along the path.
When they find the huts, she nods to Sapher "Of course, let me try to talk to them. If things appear to be going sideways, we can always try to pull a Queen Sapher again, no?"
She smiles and leans down to tousle Sapher's hair.
Sapher is suspicious of Ez's sudden happiness, and then there is the... smell... the dwarf pinkens in her cheeks, looks really uncomfortable, and decides it is time hurry. "Let's go!"
The party advances to about 60ft from the village and then Es slowly approaches. The village itself is built in shallow swamp, with the huts partially submerged so that only the top halves of the mud-and-twig structures poke out of the mire. Firm trails wind through the area, but all areas off these trails consist of deep bog.
Sapher moves with Ez, not wanting the woman to go in alone. "She has lemon cakes, they are quite good."
"I'll buy you a dozen when we get back, all drizzled in honey and dipped in cream." the dwarf offers, looking out across the huts, worried about the silence.
"Thank you Ez" Sapher responds, knowing what a sacrifice that is to oracle
Veltariel keeps a close eye on the surroundings as the two women debate over the diplomatic value of lemon cakes.
Esrisi calls out followed by Es and for a moment there is no response. Then from one of the closest huts a creature emerges. Bulbous eyes glare atop this creature’s decidedly toad-like head. A multitude of warts and bumps decorate its greenish skin. It looks at you both for a moment before letting out an extremely loud croaking noise.
Moments latter you start hearing more and more loud croaks echo through out the village.
Drask nods. "Mhmm." He yawns and keeps a relaxed posture. His eyes flicked around rapidly, but outward he gave a show of being calm, that way if the others wanted to try diplomacy he wouldn't ruin it by looking on edge.
That being said, his mirror image is up, and his axe rests lazily across the back of his neck. Relaxed and at ease, but could bring the blade down in a moment if needed.
Seeing the creatures from afar Caroliss rushes up to join the others, just happening to be able to understand their language. She notes to Es and Sapher "They are sounding the alarm!"
"Mhmm." Drask says again, in a slightly more concerned way.
"I'll try talking to them!" she says. "Drask--take out that hydra's head!"
She opens her mouth and lets out a series of croaks. It's surprising that any human can talk this way at all.
"Friends, we come in peace to tell you of a great triumph. We have slain the hydra that has been attacking your peoples!"
She then looks to Esrisi.
"We also have a lemon cake to share! Please, let us speak to your leader."
She translates for the benefit of the party.
Oh, right. Drask reaches down and grabs the hydra's head, holding it up into the air. He slowly sweeps it in front of him, as if showing it to the entire room.
Several frog men begin to emerge from the huts in the village carrying morningstars. You notice some of them have minor injuries, like they had recently been in a fight. As Drask pulls out the head and starts waving around it gives them pause for a moment, as other start to fill in behind them.
Es moves up her hands raised to show she means no harm. As she moves to the nearest one that is injured the others nearby tense up, but then she heals it of its wounds. As the wound heals it croaks out something to the others and then more and more croaks start to ring out around Esrisi. Eventually, from one of the larger huts deeper in the village a slightly bigger boggard emerges and the others go quiet. This one is obviously some sort of leader and it gets closer, but maintains some distance between herself and Es, with a several boggards in between. She gives Es a curious look before starting to croak something out which seems to be a question.
The apparent leader says "More humans, come to make deals they will not hold up? Why are you here?"
"Kind of racist, calling us all humans, right Vel?" Drask jabs with a bit of amusement.
Drask assumes that they will ask about what other humans there were and what deal was broken, and as such just scans over the area, listening to Caroliss's translations.
Veltariel’s head turns slowly towards Drask, her face emotionless but her eyes alight with an inner fire that em seems to emphasize her her inner broken state.
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Mokhasi chuckles, "especially since," and he looks around, "this motley crew contains not a single human."
Mokhasi says to Caroliss, "could you ask them if we can help them with some larger task? Perhaps for a small reward?" He looks in his belt pouch and a small, cute moth flies out and flits away into the marsh.
Drask pauses, then frowns. He turns and stares at Es. Then he goes back to watching the boggards. Not human? A question for another time.
"What do you mean, Mokhasi? I count 2.5 humans here! Although figuring out how many humans there are in our party is getting more complicated."
Caroliss begins croaking again toward the boggards. "We are here to explore these lands and report on them," says Caroliss, which was not entirely false. "And we seek friends in this place. Who are these other humans and what deal did you have with these other humans? We will succeed where they have failed." Caroliss tilts her head toward the hydra head once more.
The lead boggard croaks back to Caroliss "A bunch of woman humans with shiny armor. They said they would help us end the vile troglodytes who murder our people, in exchange we granted them passage through our cave. If you can truly kill all the troglodytes to succeed where they have failed, we would consider you friends to the tribe."
Oh, genocide, of course, why don't we just do that as a favor for you? Caroliss resists rolling her eyes. The important thing was that the Grey Maidens were here, and that would definitely be an interesting lead.
Caroliss translates the message, then croaks on. "Oh, we know those human women. They're not to be trusted. Show us where they went. We'll deal with those humans AND your stinky troglodytes!"
"Good good, yes you kill those filthy troglodytes, then we tell you where to find the shiny human women. Do what you want with them, they did not honor our agreement. I will send one of our people with you to watch you slaughter our filthy enemies and when you return we celebrate!" the leader replies in the croaking language. Several of the other boggards let out sounds that seem to be cheers to this good news of Caroliss seemingly agreeing to slaughter a tribe of troglodytes.
"It sounds like you are doing a good job" Sapher says hopefully.
"Er, yeah, thank you, Sapher! They're definitely pleased. Though what we're agreeing to and what we're actually going to do might be a little different."
She turns to address the boggards again. "Before we risk our lives fighting these troglodytes, you must show us to the cave and allow us to explore what lies on the other side. In the meantime, your people can prepare. When we return, we will fight alongside you as we've promised!"
The lead boggard considers Caroliss's words before noting "Very well, but as you have come to help us, there are three minor things I need from you before we you explore the caves. First, my injured people, I see you have a healer. Please heal their injuries. Second, our tribe has split recently over a disagreement in how to proceed some of those who were on the opposing side still reside here. I need you to round them up and get rid of them. Finally, the rest of the dissidents have actually taken up residence in the cave, so you will need to destroy them before you can explore."
Sapher catches a look from Caroliss and one from Mok, so she shifts her vision to detect the alignment of these frog people.
Sapher can't pick anything up from the majority of the boggards but realizes that the leader who has been doing the talking is in fact evil.
Caroliss nods sagely, before croaking a few more times. "Very well, I agree to your terms. Gather your injured around, and I will heal their wounds."
She convenes her allies and quietly explains everything that has happened. "Of course, I was careful to say that only I agreed to their terms. Doesn't involve the rest of you."
She then outlines a plan. "We need to investigate what's on the other side of the cave where these Grey Maidens went, but to get there, we'll have to deal with one or another boggard first. I'm not really feeling the idea of killing off a troglodyte tribe, so maybe we can see what the boggard dissidents want? They might be a little less vicious than these folk."
Drask frowns when Caroliss translates. "I understand fighting the trogs for them, but we're not here to fix all their problems. I suppose if they're in our way though..." Drask shrugs. He has no love for boggards or troglodytes. He wouldn't go out of his way to kill them but he has no qualms about it either.
"The leader's aura reeks of evil. We should talk to the dissidents before we do anything else."
Sapher swats the bracer away, giving the oracle a right and proper dwarven glare. "Let's go talk to the other boggards, Rationally! Not everything on this planet is as stupid as a mite."