After a moment of examination all of you can tell that the statue is of Calistria, the elven goddess of revenge and lust. As the group approaches the area from which the smell is coming from, Emarel and Jilvi spot what appears to be the partially eaten remains of a man wedged among the pier's pilings at the northernmost edge. Enara, however, is too distracted to notice the body by the two sets of eyes she is almost certain she caught watching the group from the water.
Enara quickly draws her shortbow and snaps off both an arrow and a shouted warning to the others about the creatures.
At the sound of Enara's warning, Emarel snapped his head away from the statue of Calistria and on to the creatures in the water, letting an arrow loose as soon as he saw the eyes in the water.
Not wanting to deal with whatever these new threats in the dark, Emarel ran his hand over his bow, infusing it with glowing, magical energy, before shooting off another arrow. It was only after letting the arrows fly that he thought to think aloud "I wonder what these are, that have managed to make a home in a secret tunnel like this one?"
Til decides to try to get a better look at whatever's out there, before trying to bolster his accomplices . . ..
Free Action) Sustain spell Dancing Light, moving lights out towards creatures.
1) Start Composition Inspire Courage
2) Sustain spell Dancing Lights
3) Stride
Moving into a strategic position, Lucius holds off and waits for the creatures to approach. "Stay back, I'll hold them off!"
Enara takes a snap-shot at one of the creatures and hears its low growl as the arrow sinks in.
Emarel makes two arcing shots with his longbow, grazing the same beast in the water with one and missing with the other.
Hemdar peers at the creatures as they emerge from the water and tries to recognize them. As he does so, he speaks the words to his frost spell and fires a bolt of cold at the creature approaching Lucius. He then speaks a word, guiding Enara's next shot with her bow.
"What are we even fighting?!" Jilvi shouts, hands spinning through a pair of incantations.
Hemdar tries to aim a ray of frost but misses but misses his mark against the still submerged creatures. He is pretty sure that these are some kind of alligators, but unfortunately doesn't know any other pertinent information.
Enara moves up behind Lucius and takes two shots with her shortbow. The first misses its mark but the second sinks deep into the creature's flesh.
The alligator closest to the statue emerges from the water and onto the pier, closing the distance between it and Lucius. The creature has start white scales and flesh, a condition that Hemdar knows as albinism. This particular alligator is massive, and it snaps at Lucius's leg to great effect. Jilvi looses a glob of acid at the beast, hitting it dead on.
The second alligator, much smaller and with normal coloration, emerges from the water and attacks Lucius with both an attempted bite and tail slap. Both attempts do not even come close to connecting, and Lucius responds to the encroaching reptiles with a longsword swing for each. He slashes the first to emerge deeply, its blood a strong contrast to its pale flesh. His blow against the second is a fatal blow, gouging deep across its side and felling the creature.
"Gator, spit that out! You don't know where it's been!" Jilvi hurls another gob of acid at the brutish beast, then follows up with a few floating motes of healing at Lucius.
As the enormous alligator emerges from the water, all Enara can think is That...is a lot of teeth. Quickly surveying the situation, Enara realizes the beast has a clear line to Jilvi and the others, and rushes over to stand in between them. As she does so, she flings two daggers at the creature.
Jilvi quips with a tossed glob of acid, splashing the alligator handily. Enara moves, and with the conviction of concern for her friend tosses two daggers that sink right into the beast with great effect.
Seeing the massive, white alligator take hits from the party like they were nothing, Emarel took a couple steps back. "How is this thing not dead?" he says out loud, after drawing an arrow to his glowing bow and firing it off. "I wonder if it's a similar case to those rats we came across. What the hell is in the water in Kintargo?" Emarel adds as he quickly fires off another arrow to follow the first.
Emarel's first shot strikes right at the alligator's eye, sinking deep and stilling the beast.
As Enara retrieves her daggers from the alligator's corpse, she turns her head slightly in Emarel's direction. "I think you might have answered your own question, there. Lucius, how's your leg?"
Lowering his bow, Emarel let out a deep breath. "Well, it's as dead as those rats now. I'm gonna touch it."
Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Emarel walked over to examine the massive beast, finding one of his arrows near it. He had never seen an alligator this big, but then again, he had never seen an alligator inside a city either. "Is it normal to have these hang out in tunnels inside a city? That seems like a deep-seeded problem within the city infrastructure that should probably be addressed. But really, I want to know this got so big. Eating other alligators maybe? And if this was the surprise at the beginning of the tunnel, I wonder what else will be coming up."
Emarel takes a look over the corpse and is pretty sure that there he sees something leather inside of the gash on the beast's side that it may have had trouble digesting.
Tilorean is pretty sure he spots grooves in the stone of the statue in the water that could contain a hidden compartment if anyone wants to wade in and take a look.
Swearing out loud as he cut down the beast, Lucius was definitely not a happy camper "What in the name of the gods are these things doing here?!" Almost immediately, Jilvi provided healing to his woudner leg, keeping Lucius in the fight.
Seeing the other crocodile was felled, Lucius sheathed his blade and shook his head as he responded to Enara's inquiry into his well being "I've been better; the beast got the better of me there for a moment. Thanks to Jilvi though, I'm no worse for the wear... just my ego a little bruised at this point."
Jilvi bats her lashes at the paladin. "You're welcome!"
After a suspicious glare at the murky water, she slowly approaches the statue. "It's really nice to see you," she whispers, looking up at the statue's sly smile.
"Those were some seriously big creatures! Thank you, Lucius!" Til moves the lights out to surround the statue. Then he wades out to the grooves that he saw.
"Looks like there's a way top open this thing up over here." He looks it over, trying to see how it opens.
Hemdar moves alongside Emarel to look closer at the alligators.
"The big one is albino. That's not something that can happen to a creature just by drinking some water. It was like that from birth, and I'm guessing the same goes for it being abnormally large. Although it would have to have some food source to grow that big and not starve."
"Right, that's what I'm most curious about. What could it have been eating here in these tunnels to get this big? Did Laria never encounter them in her time of using this tunnel? If not, that likely means these arrived recently, but from where? And why were they driven out? There's so many questions." Using a mage hand, Emarel tries to pull the leather he sees out of the gash. He'd much rather avoid getting alligator innards on his hands if he could help it. "Well, at least we know it wasn't subsisting on excessive leather consumption." Emarel remarks, holding up his find.
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Emarel gets the leather object free from inside of the beast without much trouble and without getting his hands dirty. It appears to be a boot—part of a matching set with the half-eaten corpse not too far off.
Tilorean and Jilvi inspect the statue of Calistria. The only magical aura coming from the statue comes from inside the compartment that Tilorean quite easily figures out how to slide out. Inside is a golden religious symbol of Calistria and a rune-emblazoned whip.
The treasure, in total, appears to be a pair of Daredevil Boots, the religious symbol worth 15gp and a +1 Striking Whip.
"I've heard of alligators before, but I haven't seen any here in Cheliax. I suppose it's possible that they came here from somewhere else trying to find food, which could explain why they attacked people, and ate that boot, or whoever was wearing it."
With visible discomfort, Enara pulls the corpse out of the water and on to dry land. Noticing the similarity between its remaining boot and the one Emarel has fished out of the crocodile, and then further realizing the significance of the find, she lets out a low whistle. "I feel absolutely terrible for the guy, but this is a real find. Hey, Emarel, do you have a spell that can clean these things off?"
While that's being taken care of, Enara examines what's left of the body, trying to determine if this is indeed Nan Comerivos, and what killed him. Sure, the gators were munching on him, but they could have just been scavenging what they found.
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"Oh, man, these are simply disgusting." Emarel says, seeing the blood and gore surround the boots. "Definitely magical though. Like you said Enara, a real find." As he says that, he spends the time to clean off the boots, as well as everyone else around that happened to go into the water or get any of the alligator blood on them.
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As the group cleans themselves up and divvies out the treasure, they hear a bloodcurdling squawk come from the room behind them. "You! Kill! Lizard!" The broken sentence comes from a creature that looks like a humanoid crow with oily black feathers, glittering eyes and a sharp beak. It stands about five feet high, and it emerges into the room in a charge. Given the creature's approach and the wicked talons on its hands, diplomacy seems off the table.
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"Oh hello there! You're a big bird there, and we're, uh, the Silver Ravens! Which is a kind of bird! Super lucky you're here, we could use a mascot and oh okay he doesn't wanna talk..."
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Seeing the giant bird charge at them, Emarel quickly stood up. "Giant rats, giant alligators, and now giant talking birds. Are there any normal animals in this city?" The water around the group giving him an idea, Emarel conjures up some water in front of him, shaping it into a densely packed arrow. Holding it back on the bow, he aimed at the crow, letting loose as the tension became close to breaking. "Hello, would you mind telling me what you are and what you're doing here if you don't mind?" Even in the midst of combat, Emarel thinks it's never a bad time to study. Especially considering it would probably be dead after this was over.
Emarel is fairly certain this creature is a dire corby, a sort of minorly intelligent subterranean predator. Though they possess intellects and hands capable of using tools or weapons, dire corbies usually forgo the use of such devices. They favor their claws in combat, relishing the feel of their talons ripping through flesh and the hot spurt of fresh blood on their feathers.
Emarel's dense arrow of water strikes the beast, knocking it back a few feet before it begins its own assault.
The dire corby, seemingly unbothered by Emarel's attack, lets out a cry of rage and charges at Tilorean. It tries to claw at Tilorean, but the young man manages to dodge what would have certainly been a devastating blow.
Enara blurts out, "Holy crap! A talking bird!" She watches in amazement as the creature charges into the room, but springs into action when it swings at the bard.
Ducking underneath the dire corby's massive talons, she maneuvers around behind it and strikes once each with her trusty rapier and dagger.
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Emarel was glad that he wasn't the only one who was at least slightly perturbed by the talking avian. He spoke up to the group, suddenly remembering seeing the likeness before in a book. "If I'm right, which I usually am, I believe that it's called a dire corby. It probably would much rather use its beak to eat us, than talk to us." At the corby he says "Can you please confirm or deny before it's too late? A simple yes or no would do." The raging actions of corby led Emarel to believe he would likely not get any real answer, so he aimed his bow once more. His free hand conjuring up two arrows, one of fire and one of pure force energy, Emarel tried to make sure he avoided Enara, and fired.
Both of Enara's weapons find purchase, digging deep into the dire corby's flesh.
"No! Chough tengu! Protect sisters!" the dire corby squawks, letting out cry of fear as Emarel's spells strike and her feathers begin to smolder.
"Okay, a talking bird is weirder than the big, white lizard. Hey! Bad bird! No killing the nobles!"
Til starts talking about various ways to serve fowl, and how easily it would be to take this carcass to a good butcher and cook to get things started.
Then he tries to quiet the thing himself . . ..
1) Start Composition
2) Strike
3) Strike
"Eat us?" Shaking his head, Lucius snarls "Not on my bloody watch." Striking at the bird, Lucius yells at it in attempt to strike fear into its heart "Damn mangy creature, face me!"
Jilvi gets closer to the wild melee ahead of her, uncoiling the new whip as she approaches. "Sure hope this works better than the last one..." she whispers, invoking a prayer of protection as she lashes the whip at the strange bird-creature.
"Wait, did it say something about sisters? Uh, guys there may be a lot of these things down here!"
Hearing the bird's fearful cries and speech, Hemdar hesitates for a moment, and tries to talk to her.
"We're not here to kill you, or your sisters. We can just talk, and no one has to die."
Tilorean stabs the giant bird creature with his rapier, puncturing the dire corby's gut. While Lucius's words don't seem to break through the haze of the creature's rage, his sword swings with incredible force, slashing across the dire corby's chest and felling it.
As the dead dire corby strikes the stone underfoot, silence reigns again in the Wasp's Nest.
Enara straightens back up and looks around. Without taking her eyes off where the dire corby came from, she turns her head to the others, saying, "Well that was terrifying...anyone hurt?"
Til looks himself over. "I don't think so . . .. Why did that thing attack like that? What was that about sisters?"
"Means there's probably more of them. Keep an eye out."
Having stricken down the dire corby, Lucius briefly nods and mutters "Disgusting creature." Turning towards the others, Lucius adds "Agreed, there are likely more down here, and we just made quite the loud ruckus."
Sword still drawn, Lucius again takes the point "Ready when you are."
Emarel put his bow away slowly, thinking about the last words of Chough. They bothered him, more than from the fact that it had started communicating before being struck down. He walked over and carefully inspected the body, unconsciously drumming his fingers along his legs.
"Claws and beak are the right shape. Feathers consistent with previous illustrations. Yes, this is definitely a dire corby. So, why would it say it's a tengu?" He tries to find any scraps of information tucked away in his head. Not often was there a chance for him to meet any talking birds in person before.
Turning to the rest of the party, he voices his concern. "Do any of you know anything of tengus?" Regardless of the answer, Emarel continues. "I'm curious as to what it meant it by its last statement. I anticipate there being more around, these sisters it mentioned, but I wonder if there's something else going on. If we run into them and it's not too much trouble, I'd like to try to talk to them before killing them."
Emarel's inspection of the body nets two finds: three copper bracelets and a silver locket. He values the bracelets at about 25 silver each and the locket at 15 gold. The locket bears the elven rune for "mother" on it's face, and opening it up reveals what appears to be tucked away fragments of an eggshell.
Enara's knowledge of tengu, while not exhaustive, is mostly colored by her own background. She knows that most of the tengu in Kintargo are involved in some sort of crime or another, a result of being seen as strange here on Avistan and crime syndicates favoring tengu for their natural talents with both linguistics and swordplay. While the dire corby superficially resembles a rather well-built tengu there is no common ancestor that Enara is aware of.
Enara nods to Emarel. "I've worked with tengu before. Great forgers, nasty with knives. Odds are, any we meet in Cheliax, especially ones hiding in a basement with a dead body, aren't the kind you'll see signing up to join the city watch. That said, I'm not opposed to talking with them if we can. We're hardly law abiding citizens ourselves."
With a gesture to the dead corby, she continues. "Anyway, our friend here didn't give us much of a chance. And even though they said they're a tengu, the two aren't related at all as far as I know. Maybe someone convinced them they were a tengu? I don't have any idea why you'd do that, though."
At that, Emarel raised his eyebrows. "As you say, considering the position we lot find ourselves in, perhaps it is a good thing we are not meeting up with anyone inclined to the city watch, bird people or otherwise."
Holding up the locket to the party, he adds. "And look at this - this locket says "mother" in elven, with a piece of what I can only assume was the egg that this corby emerged from, inside. Nothing I know of them would indicate actual literacy. I do hope these sisters have something to say. Oh, and our friend here also had these on them." Emarel added, holding up the bracelets. "If any of you are so inclined to wear such jewelry. They are rather fetching pieces, if I do say so myself."
Til shrugs. "Might do it out of ignorance, or to impose control over them? Maybe simply because somebody wanted them to be tengu instead?"
Enara's shoulders droop a little as Emarel describes the locket, and she waves away the proferred jewelry. Stepping off to the door the corby came from, she pokes her head around the corner to see what she can see.