Examining the bas-reliefs, Aithaloessa has cause to regret once again whatever it was that impelled her mother to shush her when she was a child instead of indulging the usual appetite for fairy stories and grand magical adventures. She can tell that some of the figures represented here are genies, but what that means, she has no idea.
Aith is particularly fascinated by the aerial figures, which induce her to betray her whimsical side. “I can only imagine what it would be like to fly. It must be incredible, don’t you think?”
She's about to continue at Yasmeena's first words, before the rest of what she says sinks in. The wounded elf peers out from under the cloisters, but can see nothing in the tangled overgrowth.
The sound of the bird shakes Ibhrim out of his thoughts on the many wonderful reliefs. He takes a short look at his companions and nods at Yasmeena's comment, "It sounds big indeed. You guy think you are up to it right now, if it's there and it turns hostile? Or better keep moving for now?"
The bird is only heard, but not seen. Somewhere in the thick growth of bushes and whatnot it hides. As of now there is no obvious way the bird would come from there to where you are.
Tariq started at the pictures of the bearded figures, wondering who might they be. "Done saints, yeah, but... And here, this one is left alone. He must be the one in name of whom the monastery is built..."
His companions take him from his trance. A bird? Big?
"We'll have to clean the place sooner or later, though that doesn't mean we have to go reckless. We should be very careful, since we don't know what's really there. Anyone can scout ahead?"
The one left behind in A6 is the one named as Vardishal in the A4 one one.
As the cloister has a roof the only way to get up and look over the greens is to climb the arch. It's not easy, but practice makes perfect. Reaching the top, Antarah gets a short glimpse on an angry looking vulture sitting in a nest, before he drops back down to not be fed to the offspring.
Tariq is very, very interested in the lives and stories of these five genies, specially in the one who constructed the monastery. Which kind of genies were they? Where did they come from and where did they go? Why was the monastery abandoned thirty years ago?
Right now, however, they seem to have a more urgent matter at hand.
He nods to Antarah's words. "Yes, I agree. Any idea how?"
“I wouldn’t recommend trying to burn the whole courtyard out,” Aithaloessa suggests, displaying a belated sense of caution – or just a general elven sensibility for growing things. Probably the latter, because for someone from a place with a large minority dwarven population, she doesn’t actually have a convenient axe or hatchet for clearing undergrowth.
“I think I saw an overgrown path somewhere,” she offers.
Here and there the brush thins out enough that a dedicated explorer might be able to create a sort of passage, but mostly it is an impassable mess.
“But that might work better if we were fresher. I won’t press the point if we want to act now and everyone else is happier with a general blaze.”
Yasmeena considers, shifting from foot to foot idly. "I suppose we must first be sure there are no more of these pugwampis hiding anywhere here. They did like hiding in the cacti before, so I wonder if there are any others in the undergrowth?"
"From the experience we now have, the vulture might end up breaking the eggs he tries to defend." Tariq tries to sound funny, though the situation is not funny at all. "I don't care much about the little garden, but I do about the rest of the temple. If we set a fire, we must be hundred percent sure it won't spread. We've done damage enough to this monastery" he finishes, in a clear reference to the altar site.
“Just how big is this vulture?” Aithaloessa can’t help but ask. “I doubt it’s likely to carry her highness off, and unless she takes it into her head to take it literally, she’s not likely to go climbing up where she’ll threaten the nest and get attacked.”
“Never mind. You’re right: it’s more trouble than it’s worth,” she concedes graciously, while she considers Yasmeena and Tariq's suggestions. “Anything interesting in there has probably long been choked out, and it will have to be cleaned out before it can be planted again. So…”
Besides, at this point, she might as well add arson to wanton destruction of property in the charge sheet Aithaloessa can’t help but write up mentally for herself. Checking the direction of the wind, and trying to get a sense of how far the overgrowth extends, she rummages in her pack for a flask of oil. “Anyone got a light?”
Tariq stays alert in case his endless stream of water is needed. "Oh, Dawnflower, forgive us. It's all for your greater glory."
Even though the growth is green, everything is rather dry in this lands. With a flask of oil and a tindertwig Aithaloessa sets fire to the garden. At first only the tindertwig burns. The flame gets larger as the tindertwig sucks up the oil. As the oil warms up, the oil itself starts to burn and the flames spread. Thick smoke rises, mostly into the air, but some collects under the roof of the cloister. The heat becomes immense and the fire begins to draw air from the cloister like a chimney creating in slight breeze. Shortly thereafter the garden is a fiery inferno. Everything green turns brown from the heat and goes up in flames.
With angry bird noises the vulture leaves. The fire ravages for several minutes turning the cloister into a furnace where the heat is unbearable.
"Oh, dear, what have we done..."
Tariq seeks a place from where to watch the fire without turning into charcoal.
Retreating a safe distance away as the flames bloom, Aithaloessa tries to take comfort in the idea that the fresh ashes might just revitalize the soil of the cloister garden, in due time.
The group watches the bonfire burn down from a distance for a while. As there are opening to the outside everywhere, fresh air is sucked in but everyone who comes close to the cloister breaks a sweat. The walls are hot to the touch and on those on the garden side one could even burn the skin. The garden itself is now blackened and still glowing coal is lying around. Some flames are flickering here and there. The tree in the middle is reduced to a smoking skeleton.
Checking somewhere else with less heat, the group enters the southern hallway. This large but plain interior hallway leads to the various chambers of the monastery’s southern wing. A weatherworn statue of a winged woman stands in the middle of the hall.
Yasmeena marvels at the cleansing damage the fire deals to the overgrown courtyard, then follows inside to escape the danger.
She nods to Antarah while studying the statue. "I hear them too," she whispers. "That way."
The apes are baboons and they come out as they hear the group moving about in the hallway.
And they are fast. The first one charges Yasmeena while she studies the statue of Sarenrae.
Antarah gets rid of one of the apes with a well aimed cut.
The second baboon goes for Antarah then.
Yasmeena swiftly draws her scimitar and lashes out at the nearest baboon, nimbly swaying back and forth on her feet.
The third baboon comes for Antarah too. But Yasmeena cuts down the first ape that attacked Antarah. But just as you find hope, that this could be an easy fight, a pugwampi comes out of the kitchen.
As the apes come charging forward, Aithaloessa waits for a clear shot, picking the nearest target.
As soon as she squeezes off her shot, Aith steps aside to let Tariq by, hugging the wall for cover while she gets ready to reload. Cartridges, she thinks. I knew I was forgetting something the last time I stocked up on paper.
Tariq quickly moved to a strategic point in front of the door, unsheathing his scimitar and executing a powerful slash versus one of the pugwampis.
Just as the ugly fey come out everyone misses again. The pugwampis come out to join the fight. Yasmeena gets attacked by another baboon, but they are also really clumsy all of a sudden.
Yasmeena nimbly steps away from the baboons and in a smooth, dance-like motion swings behind her as she spins to attack the pugwampi with her sword.
The pugwampi doesn't take well to the blade.
You stop paying attention for a single moment and then they start a fire... Ibhrim shakes his head as he follows the others what hopefully is safety.
It isn't.
"Just how many of these things can a temple hold?" Claws still out, Ibhrim takes a single step so he's in reach of the nearest pugwampi. Then he lashes out with both claws.
This time the pugwampi is unlicky, ar Ibhrim ends it with his sharp claws.
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Antarah felt the pugwampi's stab and started feeling dizzy. He says to Yasmeena next to him "I'm sorry, but I don't think I can hold much longer." He swings his sword at the baboon next to him holding his sword with two hands.
However his swing is clumsy and the effort fells him. He drops on the floor bleeding.
Pressed against the wall of the nave, Aithaloessa lets her trained hands do their work almost automatically, grateful that she’s not wrangling a musket, only echoes of drill disturbing her own thoughts. Prime and load.
"Just how many of these things can a temple hold?" Claws still out, Ibhrim takes a single step so he's in reach of the nearest pugwampi. Then he lashes out with both claws.
“We should start a count,” the guard deadpans, as she swings herself back into the doorway behind Tariq and Ibhrim, prepared to fire again.
Make ready. She tries not to overreact when she sees Antarah fall, a few paces further off.
With the creature just in front of him dead, Tariq steps inside the kitchen to catch the one remaining .
Yasmeena tries to protect her fallen companion from the aggressive apes with her scimitar. She goads them with grunts, hoping that they find her a more pressing target than the man on the floor.
Tariq smashes the head of the ugly pugwampi in. The Baboon doesn't yet want to give up on Yasmeena and bites at her again. Their clumsiness is suddenly gone again, but Yasmeena is prepared and evades the teeth. While she fends that one off with her blade the other baboon jumps her too and bites in her weapon arm.
Hoping she doesn’t regret it, Aithaloessa steps through the doorway to get close enough to get the most out of her weapon – and hopefully mitigate some of the risks of shooting into the chaotic melee.
With her care to make sure that none of the other adventurers are at risk of running into her bullet, though, her shot goes far wide.