Gellius examines the map, gesturing to the top quarter as he suggests a plan for the group.
"I think we should make this the priority," he says as he indicates Big Bumble's portrait. "I'm guessing that since we're all strangers, Big Bumble might be a little less than friendly. We should be prepared to defend ourselves without actually hurting the creature if we alarm it."
"Perhaps we should head there via Pib and Zarf's room? Let them know we're friends of the Bumblebrashers? I'd hate to have them intervene in any altercation thinking they were fighting off interlopers. Looking up, he nods to Gethric's suggestion despite Warbal's protestations.
"I agree that we should explore the more dangerous areas as well. If the incident with the not-dragon has taught us anything it's that the tribe is ill-prepared to fight off unexpected attacks," he looks down once more, indicating the room Warbal had warned of dead longshanks. "And I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to ensure the dead remain that way."
Gethric frowns and shows a mild interior rankle as everyone except himself is adamant that the beast slain by the freshly minted heroes was either not a dragon or a not dragon... but he doesn't let that flow over to his words.
Providing a non-verbal shrugging acceptance to Gellius's proposed plan he stretches and checks buckles and straps... clearly eager to set out and investigate into the depths.
Darla readies herself for the day's travails, nodding in agreement with Gellius's assessment.
"Care to lead the way?" she asks him. Turning to Gethric and Aronida, she then asks, "Or would you two like to do some more scouting ahead?"
Gethric smiles at Darla's query replying "I think while we're inside it'd be best to be bunchy... I do my best stalking in the wilds."
"Bunchy it is," says Gellius with a grin as he moves to the front of the group, waiting for Warbal to lead them down. "Could I trouble you for a light once more?" he asks Darla, holding out his main gauche.
Darla nods and casts the cantrip for Gellius.
"Right. I agree with the plan," Revka nods at Gellius. "It wouldn't surprise me if these Pib and Zarf are also not dragons. But not not-dragons like the one up here, if you understand what I mean." She seems to be talking gibberish, but looks as if it makes perfect sense to her. "I like the plan to talk to them first, so that we don't have to fight them.
She's ready to depart, but then seems to have an idea. "I have a spell that will make someone go to sleep. I could try it on Big Bumble, but it probably won't work. Unless he's a really lame mascot, but I don't think that's the case." She turns to Warbal. "Is there anything that Big Bumble likes, that we could bring so that he won't attack us?" She thinks of her own tribe, where the porcupine could be distracted with carrots. For a while, at least....
"Oh, Big Bumble likes just about anything, especially if he's hungry, which he probably is." She sucks on her fingers a moment in thought. "You could take him some of the leftovers from the feast, if you want. He really likes honey, but you'd have to go find a bee nest for that."
Revka shudders. "We're not going to try and find a bee's nest." She shudders again. "But bringing some of the leftover food is a good idea. For us as well." She grins and starts scavenging some of the left-over food. "Ready!"
When the group is ready, Warbal leads them through the graveshells' puddle, back outside the citadel, and north down its side wall. From there, they follow her across the open ground to where the back side of Hellknight Hill begins to descend. She scrambles down a rough foot trail for a few meters, then stops.
"Here is the Bumblebrashers' way in," she announces. With a bit of squinting, a well-hidden door can be discerned, covered with rough stone that matches the natural rock of the area and behind tall grass and brush.
Gethric shuffles over and gives Gellius a nudge in the back of the thigh, non-verbally indicating that the high honour of 'chief-door-opener' fell upon him.
Aronida pads along with the group, agreeing with the decision to stay together. At least for now. If an opportunity for scouting arises later, she'll take it.
Rolling her eyes slightly at everyone's hesitation, she steps to the front of the group and opens the door herself. "Let's go find Pib and Zarf." Whoever or whatever they might be.
While the rest of the party hesitates, Aronida matter-of-factly steps forward and opens the door. It reveals a narrow corridor of worked stone running directly into the hillside. After about twenty feet, it ends in another door.
Gethric looks to be the third into the corridor - after Aronida and Gellius.
Darla takes rearguard, knowing that it's important to protect the party healer...even when the healer is a goblin.
Revka takes her position near the back, and gives Darla a big grin by way of thanks. As they walk, she puts a hand along the wall, letting herself touch the worked stone without giving it too much thought. She keeps her eyes open for danger (or anything else that catches her interest, which is pretty much anything).
Revka is half-in and half-out of the hidden doorway and Darla still standing outside when Aronida reaches the second door. With a glance over her shoulder to make sure everyone is ready, she opens it.
The light from Gellius's shield has barely spilled onto a broad stone floor beyond when an inhuman cry reverberates off the walls and ceiling and a figure emerges from the darkness, coming directly toward the party. At first, in the confusion, it appears to be a man with a strangely awkward gait wearing long colorful robes and a bushy headdress, but as it gets nearer, an unusually long and sharp nose resolves into a beak. It is a human-sized bird with elaborate plumage.
Seeing the tight quarters, Gellius tries to squeeze past Aronida and to slip by the bird creature’s grasp.
Gellius launches a straightforward series of thrusts with his rapier as he tests the giant bird’s defences and tries to remember if he’s ever heard of such a creature.
;
Gellius slips past Aronida and dodges the oversized bird before it can react. He stabs it from behind.
Revka stands on tiptoes to get a good look at what's happening. "Is that a bird that's walking? Can it talk?" In a somewhat louder voice, she hollers "Hello. This isn't your home, is it? We're just passing through!" As the first order of business, she tries to figure out what the creature is. It had better not be a not-bird, she amuses herself, which leads to a thin grin on her face.
-
"Right, that's weird. It's a... a... tropical bird?" Revka doesn't sounds too certain. Anyway, she's not about to let their search for Big Bumble be delayed by this creature. "Shoo!" she shouts at it. "Get away!"
Constricted as they are by the corridor, Gethric seeks to follow Gellius' lead and tumble through and past the bird...
...and though Gellius had occupied the prime-backstabbing position, the quick snicker-snack of his fork left the halfling proud to have hopefully contributed with a little more efficacy this encounter.
Gethric follows Gellius's lead in ducking under the bird's wings and stabs it twice in quick succession. Blood slides over the brilliant feathers and spatters the stone floor.
Another of the colorful birds rushes out of the darkness toward Gellius.
Darla starts singing to inspire her friends in the fight:
"These birds are big but their bones are hollow.
Knock them flat like they were just swallows!"
She moves forward a bit before trying like Gethric to tumble past the nearest bird and the logjam at the doorway.
Aronida takes a step back, studying the strange bird. Interesting. I wonder how it tastes...
Gastronomical musings aside, she doesn't hesitate to unleash a arrow at the creature.
Darla sings an encouraging ditty before following Gellius and Gethric in dodging the bird at the door.
Aronida steps back and studies the bird for a split-second before raising her bow and releasing two quick arrows. The second is unneeded, as the first strikes the already-wounded bird in the neck, and it collapses to the stone floor.
Seeing the first bird fall so quickly, Gellius turns and slips past the second, trying to draw its attention to create an opening for his allies. As he shifts into position, he unleashes a series of complicated attacks, his two weapons working together seamlessly.
;
;
Gellius darts around the second bird to attack from another angle. His rapier only slices off the tips of some colorful feathers, but his main-gauche stabs into the bird's body itself.
Bouyed by his success Gethric spins on his heel and focuses his attention on the second arriving bird. The bloodied tines of his deadly eating implement swish forth snicker-snack...
Strike: for
Strike 2: for
...at least one of his thrusts sinking deep into an avian vital organ...
Revka takes a step forward, but doesn't move past Aronida for fear of getting struck by an arrow. Now that she's confident that these are regular birds, she has no hesitation to add to the efforts to deal with the birds. "It's like hunting for food, isn't it?"
She considers throwing her starknife, but doesn't want to scare Aronida in front of her. Instead, she says a little prayer. "Here, birdie birdie. Don't you feel yourself get sleeeeeepy?"
Gethric looks like the butcher's scion rather than the baker's, his forks flying with a gusto not seen since Breachill's last pie-eating contest. The sharpened tines carve the colorful bird like an oversized game hen, leaving it bleeding out on the stone floor.
Withdrawing his fork from the bird's innards the halfling contemplates it for a moment before wiping off the worst of the viscera on the fallen feathers. He looks up towards Gellius and the others "We all good? Anyone know what those were?" frowning as he realises his skills at balancing the bakery's ledgers weren't terribly helpful in this context.
"Hmm...no not really," Gellius answers tentatively. "I mean, I remember reading about a bird with fierce talons like this; they're called rocs. I think they're supposed to be much bigger though."
"Perhaps they are not-rocs," he smiles to the group in general with a shrug. "Regardless, that was a fine display, Gethric. Where did you learn to fight like that? Were you in the military?"
Gethric starts to protest that if they're going to call everything they encounter and triumph over not-something else then... but the query about his past short-circuits any grumbles. The halfling shrugs, looking a tad embarrassed "Not the military no... though my da' could be a pretty hard taskmaster and I've had my breeches slammed thin a time or few. I suppose the aim and such came from hunting coneys and hinds... need to be pretty quiet and aim true to drop 'em without ruining the pie-meat."
A few moments pass before he returns the query "What about yourself? You put a pretty big hole in the dragon we put down earlier... though I suppose it's a bit harder to eat with your blade?"
Looking at the corpses, Darla comments, "These might make a much better meal than what the goblins offered us last night. And the feathers could be used to stuff pillows or mattresses."
The rest of the group has no better guess what the birds are than Gellius's. Maybe they're baby rocs?
One thing for sure that's odd: Where did the not-dragon and the not-rocs come from? They're certainly not endemic to the area. Why did these unusual creatures suddenly appear in an abandoned citadel?
The group is standing in a wide stone hallway, empty except for the dead birds. To the east, the hall ends in three separate doors, while six additional corridors branch off to the north and south. A mass of rubble spills out of a clogged archway in the northeastern portion of the room.
Stroking his smooth-skinned chin Gethric muses on whether the birds would make for good eating "Probably a bit gamey... Ma always says the meat tastes like what they eat and I mean..." gesturing around at the lack of free-range eating in the underground... before inspiration strikes "Hang on now... maybe these feathers serve for a dandy's cover? We should pluck a few of the brightest and see them back for the milliner."
Gethric moves to the fallen birds and looks to pluck a half-dozen or more of the most pristine and radiant of the feathers.
Revka looks wide-eyed at the manner in with Gethric dispenses with the second bird. "Wow," is all she exclaims. To Gellius she tries to provide some clarity: "Not not-rocs, just birds." she says. "I think..."
She walks over to the mauled remains of the birds. "Do you think there's any good feathers left without fork-marks in them?" She giggles. "We could probably slice of some good meat from them. But maybe that will have to wait for later. We're looking for Big Bumble, remember." She already seems ready to move on. "No one who got hurt?"
Darla starts to scoff in amusement that anyone back in town would wear anything as bright and flamboyant as the bird feathers...but then she remembers that she wouldn't know something fashionable if it came up and smacked her in the face. And she did have a tendency to dress in mainly boring browns, gloomy grays, and muted greens...perhaps she could use a touch of color herself.
Than another idea strikes her.
"Gethric--gather your feathers now. Pluck the bird bare if you'd like. I was thinking that maybe Big Bumble might appreciate a peace offering of giant colorful chicken!"
"Probably does taste like chicken," Aronida offers. It's unclear whether or not she's making a joke.
Ignoring the dead birds for now, she turns around and mentally compares the hallway to the Bumblebrasher's map. "Looks like we'll want to take the second corridor on the north side." She points to the one she means. "South is skeletons, east is fangs, and the other two northern corridors didn't seem to lead anywhere in particular. At least, not that I could tell." The map had been rather vague in that regard.
"Anyway, that's my vote for our next direction."
Revka checks the map against her surroundings. "I think you're right, Aronida." She looks impressed. "The Bumblebashers really did a good job with the map!"
A few moments pass before he returns the query "What about yourself? You put a pretty big hole in the dragon we put down earlier... though I suppose it's a bit harder to eat with your blade?"
“Not really the military," Gellius begins before pausing and seeming to change his mind about what to say. He helps Gethric salvage a few of the more intact feathers as he continues. "I received private lessons in fencing since...well since as early as I can remember. It’s kind of the done thing amongst the noble houses. The noble scions are expected to be skilled in swordcraft but then to never actually use it. We weren’t formally part of the Cheliax nobility, but my father had big plans for our family. I suspect he was glad to see me leave the city to be honest. I never quite fitted in the way he wanted.”
“I think you’re right about Big Bumble,” Gellius says to Aronida before pointing to the northern passage closest to the stairs. “Although I’m guessing this passage here leads towards Pib and Zarf…whoever they are. I think we should pay them a visit first. Let them know we’re here on behalf of the Bumblebrashers. I’m a little worried they’ll hear commotion in Big Bumble’s room and think we’re some kind of invaders.”
Darla nods at Gellius's words. "Yes, I think Pib and Zarf should be our next stop. We can see if they can offer advice or aid...or if they're part of the problem. I don't like the thought of a 'misunderstanding' while we're trying to deal with a bear."
Feathers secured Gethric sees them as safely stored as possible before looking to butcher an oversized chicken leg as a bumble-offering. He then cleans his hands off on any unspoiled feathers left on the bird, then standing to follow the others.
Gethric harvests some of the most impressive plumes and a chunk of raw poultry, leaving the stone floor of the vaultway looking like the killing floor of an abattoir.
Lugging the meat, Gethric follows the party down the dark corridor which Warbal told them leads to Pib and Zarf's domain. It leads northeast for fifteen feet before turning due north; after another dozen feet or so, the hallway terminates in a closed wooden door. As the light from Gellius's shield falls on the door, markings are visible on its lower half. They look like crude, childlike drawings of dragons with wide toothy maws and batlike wings, mixed with unfamiliar symbols.
When the group stops in front of the door, Revka moves up. She inspects the drawings. "Hmm, this is Draconic. And it says there are mighty dragons up ahead. Well, it says something to that effect," she adds, squinting at the symbols which look a little different from what she would expect.
"I think we should let them know we're here, so we don't startle them. And I think they want proper respect. Being mighty dragons and all..." She doesn't look convinced on the latter part, but seems certain on the first.