Highness scratched at his crown as he peered past Ragnhild toward the door, "Could we offer it food, crack the door and toss something in or perhaps talk to it and calm it down?" he offered, not very interested in having a hungry bear come through the doorway at them.
"That's a pretty sound idea. It's too bad we didn't cut off some meat from that dragon-lizard we killed," Jonagher remarks, "That would have been plenty of food for a growing bear..." He looks sidelong at Ragna. "You don't suppose we could go back for it, do you? I mean, even if we don't find a bear in there, we could use the lizard meat as bait for whatever else is there...or, we could just keep it for ourselves, you know?"
"We could take a peek and decide after." Muses the priest. "But I like the idea your idea Jonagher. Even if it's not the bear, some other hungry beast might be appeased by a meat offering. I suppose it can't hurt to retreat right now, before we've alerted anyone to our presence."
”Fine fine.” Ragna says, releasing the door handle. ”Where will we get some bear-sized food?”
"Hello, dragon-lizard carcass..." Jonagher smiles and leads the way back to the citadel. "All we need to do is carve off a few choice steaks and take them with us. If the bear doesn't eat them...and provided we survive...we can always roast them for ourselves for dinner tonight."
The party retraces their steps to the dead grauladon in the courtyard and performs some quick and dirty butcher-work. With the still warm and bloody cuts of meat, they return to the secret door in the hillside behind the citadel.
"This is gonna be great!" Jonagher announces as they finish butchering the necessary fodder for the goblin's hungry bear Bumble, "I mean, how often can you honestly save you've eaten 'dragon' meat before, right? That's something every adventurer would love to claim, but in our case it's true! Well, sort of 'true'...I mean, it is a dragon-lizard, but we don't have to tell anyone that!"
Once they make it back to the entrance in the hillside, Jonagher keeps his bow in one hand and a slice of dragon-lizard meat in the other. He intends to throw the food and then draw an arrow to defend himself, if necessary...as he can always retrieve the meat afterward if he has to quickly discard it to fight.
”Yeah, maybe.” Ragna says, still a bit peeved over their battle with the dragon. ”If the bear can fit through the door, we could try to lead it outside so we don’t have to worry about it finding us while were dealing with the frogmen.”
"Agreed. And once it's outside, let the goblins reclaim their...ummm...mascot, was it? That way, they can worry about feeding it and keeping it under control, and we're free to focus on everything else. Of course, everything else includes frogmen, monkeys, that guardian we heard about, and potentially more dragon-lizards...and don't forget that invisible flying devil we probably let loose...so, maybe dealing with a bear would be the easier task after all?"
Much like Jonagher, Irenaeus holds onto his staff with one hand while keepin a slice of dragon-lizard meat in the other.
"A dragon-lizard's teeth, a flying devil's sting, a bear's claws... I would rather like to keep myself more or less in one piece. I hope I do not have to choose the beast and the body part that injures me..."
Ragna opens the second door, the arcane light on her shield spilling into a wide, dark hallway. At the very edge of the light is something tall and gawky, perhaps someone in colorful robes and an elaborate feathered headdress
Ragna pulls the door closed. ”There’s someone in there wearing colorful robes. Does that match the frogmen and monkeys we’re looking for?”
"No idea..." Jonagher replies, "But at least it's not a hungry bear?" He pauses a moment and thinks further about the animal sounds he'd heard earlier. "You know, I thought it was another beast when I listened at the door...so I suppose it could be a frogman or monkey...assuming they'd have a reason to dress up in colorful robes..."
An eerie, inhuman screech can be heard from within, followed by a resounding thud against the other side of the door, which rattles in its jamb only inches from Ragna's nose.
"Well...whatever it is...it seems quite agitated..." Jonagher remarks. He then tries to think of anything from his prior studies of magical creatures, occult legends, or even his time spent in the Darklands which might explain the type of creature he only glimpsed before Ragna shut the door.
"I could try and get past whatever is on the other side of the door if we open it wide enough." Highness suggested, eyeing the dust drifting off the door. "Nobody looks down, especially when someone is sticking a shield and sword in their face."
Irenaeus takes a few steps back to put some distance -and Ragna- between himself and the door, mentally going through his repertoire of spells and casting a shielding cantrip on himself.
"Perhaps it may be interested in some lizard meat as well?"
Ren prepares himself for potential battle.
From the far side of the door comes a scuffle and a squawk.
Shaserai jumps a little as the creature seems to hurl itself against the door. "That's not good at all."
As Ren has done, the priest shields himself, all the while trying to piece together what kind of threat they are facing from the glimpse he got and the eerie sounds coming from beyond the door.
Like Ren, Shaserai wards himself against danger and prepares for battle.
"If you are ready Highness..." Ragna mutters, yanking the door open!
Ragna flings open the door once more, to find what is unmistakably a large bird with long, brilliant feathers, a tall crest, and a disturbingly sharp-looking beak staring straight at her with black, beady eyes.
"Giant bird!" Ragna shouts, her surprise making her following attacks inaccurate.
The bird bobs and weaves so that Ragna's attack results in nothing more than a flurry of colorful feathers on the breeze.
As soon as the door is open, Highness ducks his head and begins running under and around Jonagher's legs, intent on getting past the bird at the door. Its sharp beak stabs down just as he is about to dodge past, and he is forced to duck behind Ragna's leg for a moment, but as the bird raises its head, the goblin quickly tumbles through the doorway.
Highness tumbles past the birds, scrambling past beaks and legs before coming back to his feet and with an insane look in his eyes, jumping at the second bird, but only catching a handful of feathers for his efforts.
Highness tries to seize the second of the large birds but fails to get purchase on more than feathers.
"I can't do anything from back here!" Alak shouts, trying to manage his two-handed sword in the tight corridor. "Either push them back so we can move forward or let them through and we'll fight them outside!"
The lead bird unfurls its wings and flaps them rhythmically. The bright colors are hypnotic and mesmerizing, an effect that is only partially counteracted when it jabs at Ragna with its sharp beak.
Highness blinked hard at the sudden confusion of colors flashing before his eyes.
Jonagher watches Highness scurry past him and Ragna into the unknown room. The birds ruffled feathers seem quite impressive, even colorful, but not so daunting as to slow down the half-elf. "The goblin is already thru!" he shouts back to Alak, "We press forward or he'll be trapped in there with the beast! We just have to clear the door first!" To punctuate his words, he starts drawing arrows and firing them at the creature, both in hopes of wounding it or at least driving it back.
The vivid colors of the bird's wings leave Jonagher momentarily dazzled, as if he had stared too long skyward on a cloudless day. Despite the effect, he drops his lizard steak and fires, two of his arrows finding their target.
"Birds," Irenaeus simply says in a somewhat exasperated tone. "Is there no end to this... menagerie?"
His words are followed by a moment's pause and the utterance of a few simple arcane syllables. There is a quick gesture towards the avian creatures and then an arc of lightning materializes and jumps from one feathered foe to the other.
Ren casts his cantrip, and a smell of singed feathers taints the air.
The second bird raises its own wings and flaps them in another mesmerizing display; then it lashes its long tail feathers at Highness, a surprisingly painful experience as there seem to be sharp, whip-like blades of bone concealed in the luxurious plumage.
"By Torag's beard, so many Mwangi creatures in this citadel!" Remarks the priest. "This has to be a deliberate invasion."
Shaserai chants a protective spells, warding Ragna against the Emperor Bird closer to her and also renewing his own protection.
Unable to see anything at all besides a kaleidoscope of colorful feathers, Ragna raises her shield in hopes it will block out the birds.
Ragna kind of sort of can make out some kind of large shape beyond the mesmerizing feathers and she swings at it with her axe, hoping it is not Highness she sees.
Ragna's dazzled eyes make her first wild swing hit nothing but air, but by swinging where she didn't the first time, she manages to make solid contact with poultry-flesh before raising her shield defensively.
Highness is completely discombobulated by the confounding colors. He strikes out on instinct at the nearest threat, sending brilliant feathers flying but failing to do any actual damage to the bird.
The bird in the doorway jabs repeatedly at Ragna, but the warrior is able to dodge and weave behind her shield to avoid the sharp beak.
Squinting his eyes, Jonagher continues firing on the bird attacking thru the doorway. "Push beyond if you can!" he encourages Ragna, "We need to press the attack with our greater numbers in a wider area!"
Jonagher manages to focus on the blurry riot of color in the doorway and pierces it with two arrows, the second lodging directly in the bird's flat black eye. It collapses in the doorway.
With one of the large birds down,Irenaeus switches to a different spell and element of attack as he flings a magically created glob of acid at the remaining foe before renewing his shielding magic just in case.
Ren flings a glob of acid which fails to hit the bird before renewing his own arcane protection.
The bird turns and stabs at the discombobulated goblin with its sharp beak, drawing blood, before slashing at Ragna with its long tail.
Having no need to maintain his spell on Ragna as the first emperor bird has fallen, Shaserai steps up to Jonagher and attempts to overwhelm the mind of the other animal with the might of Torag.
Shaserai moves up behind Jonagher and attacks the bird mentally.