"On second thought. Maybe we should take that bird from afar." His boots were shaking with feet as the vulture screeched.
"Hey guys... wh-where is that magic?" Ohrmizd actually shivers and shakes, his knees hitting each other while he tries to hold the scimitar between him and the vulture "Who said vulture? Y-you forgot about the 'giant' part!"
The Keleshite steps forward towards the center of the garden, gulping and breathing deep and readying his scimitar to attack in case the vulture comes nearby.
Manuun hits the vulture causing it's screeching to get even louder and shriller.
"I suppose we're doing this then."
Heshan positions himself to let the others shoot down the bird as he attempts to disorient the vulture with his magic.
The bird is engulfed in a cloud of color, like at a holi festival and falls off the tree, burying Ohrmizd below its feathery figure.
"Rats!" Ohrmizd barely manages to protect himself with an arm from the vulture fall while he delivers the previously readied attack as the bird comes by.
Moving out of the feathers tangle Ohrmizd grasps his scimitar with both hands and attempts to permanently knock down the bird "Great Heshan! Great! I knew I could count on you!"
But he fails to get out of below the body and his blade just scratches the ground.
Lofnaiali and Tahlumilali use the opportunity to unleash their combined attack power on the bird. But even if it is stunned, its hard to not only shave off some feathers, or shoot straight through them with no effect.
Not to talk of Ohrmizd who fails aimlessly under the feathers and Manuun, who is so startled by the beast that he fumbles putting the bolt on properly, sending it rorating over the yard in a ballistic curve.
Heshan smiled as the bird looked stunned... only to recoil in shock as it shot out feathers in retaliation.
"Does anyone know any other vulture that does that? Because I am at loss as to which one can.
This time, he preferred to save up his magic, lining up a shot at the vulture.
The vulture is still lying motionless on the ground.
"Oh b!&~*! I think there is a pugwampi around! It cannot be that difficult to hit a helpless bird!" Ohrmizd attempts to swash once more at the vulture.
The vulture would awake again, but with all the beating it got, while it was out, it is dying.
"Poor thing. Never stood a chance.
Heshan walked over to the bird to finish the deed.
Ohrmizd observes how Heshan crushes the vulture's skull with the staff. The man looks at the man and frowns "That was... reckless... I was just trying to knock it out so we could bring him out of the place"
But taking a long breath he adds "It is ok, it was him or us. It was a dangerous one this bird. But fortunately we had a wizard with us. Thanks again Heshan"
Once the vulture menace is removed, Ohrmizd checks the garden "Any magical auras?"
Heshan looked up in surprise.
"That was my mistake. I wasn't sure what we would be doing once it was incapacitated.
With a sigh, he used Detect Magic to see any magical auras.
Nothing detects as magical in this area. Neiter on the ground, nor on the walls and also not in the nest fo the vulture.
"Yes, sure!" before moving on to the upper balcony Orhmizd will register the garden.
The garden is still a jungle of wees and thorny bushes and not giving up any secrets the easy way. If there are any.
"The chapel upper works are completely rooted. I do not see how we could move there without breaking the wood, and I have fallen enough times to know I do not want to fall from there again" Ohrmizd looks back to Heshan as an idea strikes back to him "You could made us all small like a cat so we can move there skillfully. You wizards do those kind of things isn't it Heshan?"
Heshan pointed a finger up in front of his face as if to stop him from asking any more questions.
"First off, I am a sorcerer. So I have no need for pouches. And secondly, shrinking people is outside of my expertise and that would depend on how my powers manifest... which I don't have much control of," he admitted.
"That and I am not sure that is a good idea when gnolls would more likely than not see us as a snack rather than just slaves."
"Of course I am coming, if I let you go alone you are likely going to end destroying the full chapel or killed" Ohrmizd comes by with Manuun and Heshan "I have a sling, but if I could make use of a crossbow I would be able to crawl around so the floor is less likely to break under my feet. Maybe you can use your magic to attack at distance or I can lend you my sling if you prefer, or both"
Ohrmizd chuckles when Heshan gets molested by the word wizard "Sorry man, I did not want to offend. To be fair, I do not fully understand that difference between a sorcerer and a wizard. Do you really think there are gnolls around?"
Manuun makes it to the slap dash wall that the pugwampis have put up there. Looking through the nooks and crannies he can see the nest inside. There is one big fat pugwampi on a kind of throne, with two others sucking up to him. There is no obvious door to provide entrance.
Ohrmizd tries to whisper so the pugwampis do not hear him "Ok... what about this... you said this pugis adore the gnolls. I have a scroll of disguise, I was saving it for infiltrating the gnoll tribes, but... what if I try to use the magic to become a gnoll and try to bark them orders... If you hide up good enough, it might give us enough distraction to set an ambush on them. That is the best I can offer. It is a one chance, it either works or goes very bad"
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"Thats sounds like a pretty decent plan.... if we can get them into the open, I have one grease left to keep them there. Or maybe get them to fall onto the lower floor."
Manuun thinks a while what else could be done to improve the plan. " Maybe you should talk to Dashki on how best talk as a gnoll. He seems to know these creatures pretty good."
"Ok, let's descend so we can plan this better" then Ohrmizd goes down the ladder once more.
Once below the Keleshite starts to lay down his ideas "I think it is better if you hide here in the lower floor. Upstairs you risk falling down while looking for a hiding"
"I learnt to talk Gnoll when they took me and my family as a child..." Ohrmizd frowns and seems disgusted at this point, but he tries to focus on the matter at hand "Whatever. I will try to gather them to go down and search for the humans invading their lair. If they bite the trick, and you hide yourselves around the chapel, we will have much better chances to succeed than fighting upstairs"
"If they don't bite the trick... well... then pray to Sarenrae for my soul..." the man gulps.
Anyway, Ohrmizd will follow Manuun's advice and will look for Dashki and ask him how to better pose as a gnoll "You are the gnoll expert Dashki, could you give me some advise on how a gnoll will tell the pugwampis to go down to the main floor and organize them to look for the invading humans?"
"Gnolls tell pugwampis to f&%$ off. And then try to kill them. No gnoll ever look at them other than as pests." Dashki tells.
"Just be there and let curiosity lure pugwampis down."
"Huh. Good to know.
That was a most interesting biography of those debilitating creatures. As for Ohrmizd, she waved off the apology.
"No offense at all. Many people who are not casters can get things mixed up. So wizards require components to perform spells while sorcerers such as myself have no need for that. Yet wizards are capable of performing any spell they have the components to while we cannot... though there is the concept of schools..."
But he felt he was going off track.
"Anyways, that is the gist of things." He nodded in approval of the inquisitor's plan.
Ohrmizd nods at Heshan and taps him friendly on the shoulder.
To Dashki he answers "Good advise I guess. Let's see how it goes"
Walking into the chapel Ohrmizd picks up his disguise self scroll from his case "This took a good part of the money we earned from that statuette you know..."
"Ok, you remain behind the walls were you can make sure they cannot see you. You will know when to get out I guess" and then, when everyone is on place, he unfolds the scroll and starts to read it while asking Sarenrae for guidance help. As Ohrmizd completes the reading the scroll crumbles in his hands and his body starts to grow hair and become a grotesque version of himself. A particular bestial gnoll he remembers from his childhood as a slave results. Ohrmizd makes sure to hold the magical mace instead of the scimitar.
Placing himself in the middle of the chapel's floor Ohrmizd starts to shout up to the rafters in Gnoll "<>" he follows up with a bunch of improper words and curses he used to hear the gnolls' say.
The two pugwampis appear at the hole where the chandellier hangs, to gawk at the gnoll.
One is excited, the other not so much. But they both retreat and you hear noise like a discussion upstairs. One pugwampi appears at another place at the ceiling to watch the gnoll.
The disguised gnoll keeps shouting in Gnoll in the most menacing tone he can manage "<>"
The pugwampi disappears from sight.
Ohrmizd walks back to where the group is and whispers to them "Psst... I told you not to try hide. Move behind the wall where they cannot see you Heshan"
Then the gnoll comes back to the chapel and waits.
Ohrmizd walks back to where the group is and whispers to them "Psst... I told you not to try hide. Move behind the wall where they cannot see you Heshan"
Then the gnoll comes back to the chapel and waits.
"Oh right.
Heshan would do just that.
Nothing happens. The pugwampis seem willing to take the risk. They stay hidden and don't follow the orders of the gnoll.
"<You either get down here immediately or I am done with you f#@+ers!>" Ohrmizd-gnoll shouts again.
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The pugwampis all come down the ladder and line up in front of Ohrmizd with a glee. "What shall we do master?" the big fat one, who seems to be their king, asks.
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Talking in gnoll "<This land is mine now. You are such a failure, leave the monastery immediately so I don't see you again or I will kill you rats!>"
Holding his mace the Ohrmizd-gnoll steps away leaving the clear passage for the pugwampis to leave.
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The pugwampis look very disappointed, but do as they are told and leave towards the nave and from there out into the wild.
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"Holy Monsun! You fooled them! Great job Ohrmizd!"
After carefully crawling back to the safe spaces on the balcony Manuun joins the others in the main chapel.
"Looks like we removed all the unwanted inhabitants. Although we should probably clean up a bit before the princess arrives. Also can one of you help me getting some planks or wooden boards upstairs. That way we should be able to get to the other places upstairs without breaking through."
Ohrmizd nods and congratulates the whole party "It was a group idea. I could have not done it without your support"
"Yes, let's explore once more the whole monastery but more carefully just in case we left something important. We might find some boards to work out your idea for exploring the rafters" for the rest of the day Ohrmizd carefully looks room by room on the monastery for anything of relevance that might be missing.