Ben leads off with a simple DC 15 Burst of Radiance in an attempt to blind the many heads.
Little Buddy is still on guard with Ulretha and will follow him and defend him.
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As the creature drags itself into the clearing, Lidia holds her bow low, arrow nocked and ready, and crouches behind some thick brush. She waits still as a statue, barely breathing, patiently allowing the thing to stumble into the kill zone.
At last she leaps up and takes a single step left, then lets her arrow fly toward the heart of the beast. "Kyaa!" she shouts, to give the arrow a little more oomph.
Thyste gets herself up a tree !
She crouches on a branch, firing down at the snake when she hears the thrum of Lidia’s bowstring.
What Ulretha knows about ambushes, the Pack understands instinctively. Despite its mass and obviously dangerous abilities, they rush to the attack.
Only the two males are close enough to get to the creature and they aren't able to attack, yet but they're ready to sink their teeth in in a moment.
Little Buddy races forward too, expecting a fight, and placing himself between the threat and his charge.
If your aim is to kill, there is no reason to hold back a second arrow, figures Thyste as she nocks and looses another.
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Ulretha moves into position next to the multi-headed serpent even as the Pack organizes itself around it. Crezobill moves so that he's on the opposite side from the rest of his pack. For most creatures, that means they can't pay full attention to everyone.
It's hard to tell if that will be the case with so many heads.
Doesn't really matter though...Ulretha hits the creature with a hammer.
The bigger they are, the more meat they're made out of. And snake is delicious. Even if this thing wasn't going to come after them, the Pack might go after it.
Thyste is quick to skiddle down the tree and across the bog. ”Hey, hey, snake’s good meat! Leave me some!”
”Dinner!”
That was a heck of a lot easier than expected.
Some instinct drives Ben and he lands on the beast and joins the feast.
”The more to kiss you with, my dear!” cackles the foxling.
She does not seem to be eating the snake raw, however; instead, she’s using her dagger to cut out strips. It will be much better cooked.
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Lidia doesn't seem to think this is funny and narrows her eyes a little at Thyste.
She looks around the little clearing and spots her cat licking at the spilled blood of the monster.
"Ugh! You too?" she says in mild annoyance, then goes and scoops the cat up and carries it off to the north side of the glade. She sits down, goes into her pack and pulls out some dried strips of smoked fish and offers one to the cat. The little beast sniffs the offered treat daintily for a while, then lifts away its head without even tasting it and looks at Lidia neutrally.
"Really? You're the only cat in the world who doesn't like fish?" she says.
The cat gives its standard ragged mawr. Lidia sighs and the two look at each other for a moment in silence. Then she looks up into the trees and fingers her bow. "Fine. I'll try and find you a bird." She picks up the smoked fish stick and takes a single tough chewy bite, then winces and sticks it back into her pack.
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Perhaps surprisingly, Ulretha does not join in the feasting. He does help with the butchering, though.
"We shouldn't linger too long. This much meat is going to attract other predators and carrion feeders. We can probably deal with them, too but who wants to get involved in protecting a dead body for hours?"
”That’s why I’m not getting fancy,” admits Thyste, whose strips of meat still include scales. ”Just cram our packs and leave the rest for whatever lives around here.”
After about 5 minutes or eating, Ben regains control over his instincts and takes off again to scout ahead.
Once again Deluge returns to the party and tries to guide them to his new find. Basically squawking at them and hopping away in the direction of the dwarf until they follow. Or not. In which case he will repeat the process with the dwarf.
Thyste shrugs. "People have asked me about them," she says, "but I think that's a kitsune thing. I've avoided learning anything about them on principle."
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Despite his early urging everyone to hurry up, Ulretha spends the time necessary to get a full week's worth of rations. By the time he's done, the hyena's have had their fill, licked their chops clean and are lolling around enjoying the sensation of a full belly and relative safety.
"Next time you change shapes, you should be a parrot or a raven, Ben," he comments as the druid begins his ptantomime act.
But, he follows along. Things worked out pretty well the last time, after all.
BEN is relieved when Ulretha gets the hint and heads off in the direction indicated, though he is rather annoyed with him for his ignorant suggestions. There are LIMITs to this shape changing thing and a parrot, of all things, is not a possibility.
Ben does his best to be in two places at one time - watching the lost dwarf and guiding the party. He's unsure whether to let the dwarf know he's there, worried he might freak out and try to hide. Particularly since the foliage magically avoids his flight path. So he keeps his distance and just keeps an eye on him.
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As Kioshi starts describing what he knows about will'o wisps, a light seems to go on in Lidia's face.
"Oh! You mean Nazh-gûgols! That's what the orcs called them." she says. "Yeah, we're more likely to find it at night. They like to make little random sounds to get your attention, then look like someone's lantern or torch, just a little too far away to make out who or what it is. And invariably when you follow, you never quite catch up, and suddenly you find yourself in a sticky bog or something. And then it comes back for you and lays into you with lightning bolts. They say you can see a grinning skull in the light as it tries to kill you, because death feeds it and makes it happy. The orcs were terrified of them."
"No wonder the druids put their secret tomb here. If the orcs knew those things were around, they'd never come in this swamp. I feel like a dummy, I don't know why I didn't make that connection sooner!"
"Nazh-gûgols range over a wide area, but they tend to have a killing spot they always drag you toward. If we can find a place covered in bodies, that's probably it."
Although the creature she describes is gruesome and horrifying, Lidia seems pleased and excited to be the source of information, chattering with uncharacteristic volubility and enthusiasm. For just a minute, she seems like a normal village girl who might be gossiping about her cousins.
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Lidia attempts to watch the woman from behind some scrub brush, her brows knit as she tries to work out what she's talking about. She glances around at the others.
"Whoever she's talking about, I think we need to handle this delicately. And the last thing she'll probably want to see is a gnoll and a dinosaur bird moving in on her."
"Thyste, maybe you and Kioshi could handle this. You both seem non-threatening. I'll cover you."
Thyste nods. ”I try to not be too scary,” she says. ”Pettable, maybe.”
She positions herself along the woman’s path, finds a sittable rock, and sits, pulling out a tasty-smelling trail snack.
Essentially, she’s setting herself up to be approached.
Ben finds a nice perch from where to observe the encounter, wondering if the dwarf is a druid. He checks her out for tell tale mistletoe and whether the gear she is carrying is druid friendly.
The hyena's creep into the underbrush where they can to stay out of sight and hearing, as well.