The pugwampi flees towards the stairs.
Rubbing the dust out of his eyes, Ohrmizd turns back and sees Manuun in the ground where he was trying to grapple the small pugwampi. Instinctively he goes down the tunnel looking for the pugwampi without noticing he is giving Manuun the chase show he was so eagerly looking for "Where is it?"
As he reaches the corner, the edge of the scimitar's light reveals the gremlin going upstairs. Ohrmizd rushes towards but the weight of his armor holds him down "Tell me you remembered to put the statue back blocking the exit as I suggested Man!"
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"Ouch!" Manuun grabs only air and slides along the floor seeing the pugwampi run away.
Next thing he knows Ohrmizd is almost running ove him asking silly questions. "Of course I did."
"I only hope you closed your side too."
Manuun stands up and decides to better check on the other stairs . After all Ohrmizd is known for hotly rushing forward.
"Nothing could have gotten over from our side. Rashav is still back there."
But from where he was at, it was clear that he wasn't going to be close enough for any of his spells to have an effect on it.
Heshan and the Dancing Lights followed Ohrmizd down the hall way in the hope that something may slow it down enough to hit the creature.
"Well, this is... an occurrence," Rhava thinks aloud as she watches the men frantically chase off after the Pugwampi.
The pugwamipi rushes further up the stairs around the corner and out of sight.
Ohrmizd puffs as he runs upstairs following the pugwampi "I really hope Hadrah knows how to cook pugwampi stew"
As Ohrmizd comes up the stairs, he finds the pugwampi pushing on the door in vain.
"I have you! Surrender before it is too late!" Ohrmizd points the creature with his scimitar readied to skew it at the first opportunity.
The pugwampi uses his magic on Ohrmizd's blade.
By now, Heshan was well behind the others, but he made an effort to make his away towards the stairs, lighting in tow.
Ohrmizd attempts to slash the pugwampi and utterly fails "Bastard!"
Pissed off, Ohrmizd slashes at the pugwampi "You are not going to dirt the Princess' panties! Your days of shit have come to an end critter!"
Heshan has arrived at the scene... and tilted his head to see that the battle was already over.
"It wasn't so tough once we had it cornered," he nodded in triumphed.
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Ohrmizd takes the pugwampi down in one strike and dismembers it in a few more. This annoyance is put to an end.
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Running back to join the others in the hunt for the pugwampi Manuun arrives to find the sarenraen standing over the corpse.
"Well we won't make this one our pet I assume. Are you hurt Ohrmizd?"
"We probably should get up again and check how much damage it did to the others."
If the others don't object Manuun is going to check on Father Zastoran and then upstairs.
"Hello Father, I hope it didn't create to much of a mess. Do you need any help cleanign up?"
Ohrmizd picks up the body slowly and shows it to Heshan and Manuun "I am ok, thanks Man. The critter tried to do that nasty magic of them on my blade. Fortunately it is of better manufacture than the shield"
Nodding to Manuun, Ohrmizd states "Ok, I will show the thing to Garavel"
Before going to sleep the Keleshite will show the dead pugwampi to Garavel to reassure them they can rest.
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"Let us hope there are no more surprises lurking in the basement. With a sigh, he would follow the inquisitor to report their findings to Garavel... only to snicker at a recurring thought.
"You rather care for the Princess, do you," he grinned.
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Nodding to Manuun, Ohrmizd states "Ok, I will show the thing to Garavel"
"First lets check that nothing further happened upstairs. If the pugwampi was just a distration for a gnoll attack, we probably fell for it hard so Garavel might not be too pleased with us.
And I don't believe Garavel is to keen to be shown dead pugwampis, especially not when they look like this one and the princess might be around. Its probably enough to say we handled it."
"Omg! For Sarenrae! Do you think that was a diversion?!" alarmed Ohrmizd runs down the crypt and emerges at the other side looking for trouble with his blade at hand "Where are them?! Are there more assailants?"
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"I need a bigger note: Don't tell Ohrmizd to run or he will just do that."
Manuun sighs when he sees the huge Keleshite "sprint" of as soon as he mentioned aa possible danger to the caravan. With a <I am sorry> look to Heshan and Rahav he hurries to collect his crossbow from where he dropped it and follows Ohrmizd.
As Ohrmizd emerges from the basement he only finds Dashki standing in the room guarding the secret entrance, as told by Manuun.
"What?" he inquires.
"The pugwampi attack!" Ohrmizd raises the carcass to showing it to the gnoll hunter "Where are them?! Have they made it to the rafters? Please don't tell me they made it to the rafters!!"
Dashki shrugs.
Ohrmizd shrugs too, then looks back to see Manuun arriving upstairs.
Later that night, Ohrmizd reports to Garavel about the pugwampi and assuming there is nothing else he heads back to the groups chamber and rests for the night.
The next day, the Sarenrite will gather for breakfast at Hadrah's and discuss the finer details of the plan of attack they made the previous day with Garavel "Attending for what we said yesterday, this time we probably want to reach Kelmarane from the river side"
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"Sorry but I dont get your plan. First, if we approach by the river we will still be on the wrong side and have to cross it at the bridge. So isn't it saver to approach from the pesh fields again and sneak though the ruins, where we know its reasonable safe.?"
"Also, what exactly do you want to fight? The flying goat thing, even the gnolls are afraid? Or do you have another plan?
We might be able to fight the harpye on our own, but thats awfully close to the watch tower?"
"I think I need to understand it better for it to be okay with me."
"Excuse my interruption, but not everything may needed to be fought," Heshan pointed out as he joined the conversation.
"We do not even know whether they are our enemies or not. For all we know, one of them may be prisoners of the gnoll. What I do agree with is that we need more information as to what is going on."
Rescuing the previous discussion "All three, the wolf with antlers they feed with goats, the flying woman and the watchtower are at the other side of the river" Ohrmizd explains, then goes on about his idea to cross the river "If we approach from the other side of the river, we will not have to risk crossing the bridge. We can just approach the mill"
"Maybe we can just barricade the entrance door so they cannot get out when the gnolls make their goat visit"
"To deal with the watchtower, I can try to disguise as a gnoll and go tell them the boss ordered a relief, or we can just try to sneak in and cut their throats"
"About the flying woman... I do not know yet how to deal with her"
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"but we are currently on the westerns side of the river. and we did not see any bridge nearby. So the only way to cross to the eastern side is the bridge in Kelamarane. Or am I missing something. I also understood the watchtower to be on the western side of the town , but I am sure Rahav can easily clarify that."
"Well... I should have supposed you would not like that but I kinda expected us to swim to the other side if we don't find a fork" Ohrmizd arches his eyebrows and lips in an embarrassed expression for what the revelation might pose to Manuun, while soothing his own backhead hair with his right hand "If the observation tower is in the central area of the town, then we leave it for after dealing with the mill area I guess"
"But really, there are no certainties here other than we are going to find ourselves in danger and surprised by one or another turn out of the events" Ohrmizd negates "Other than that we can really face this in multiple ways, we just need to come up with one and bring it forward so everyone of us has an idea on how to better contribute to our success"
"Would you prefer to first deal with the watchtower?"
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"Well I never was any good at swimming. Its not something you need often in the desert. But how about we ask Dashki if he knows of a place where we can ford the river more easy?"
"If he also can't spot us to a crossing, I think we should try to approach the town from the other side. Scouting the temple on the western end of the city and check if more gnolls live there seems reasonable to me."
"Oh, I see..." Ohrmizd smiles open up "You know, I actually think this might be a good moment to take some swimming lessons. The river here is not that bad, and I am not appeased of you walking around without knowing how to swim. You shall be calm, Rahav's mother was a great swimmer, or so I understood, Rahav would you help me teach Man how to swim?"
Then looking for Dashki "Hei Dashki! We want to teach Man how to swim. Do you know a good place in the river we can practice and cross?"
"Check for no crocodile. Then all river is good." Daski replies.
"A good lesson to take to heart, I am sure of that," he nodded.
"And it is indeed great luck that was have Rashav at our side. Surely she can guide us on how to forge a river."
Ohrmizd smiles and pads Manuun's back "Crocodiles! Wow, that would make for great motivation to swim fast"
The Keleshite will make a last visit to Garavel to let him now they are leaving. Then he devotes to show him all kind of reasons a good Sarenraeman must know how to swim "Because evil lurks everywhere, even in the depth of rivers and the glass of water"
"Ok, first think to know is don't panic, ok, it is normal if you feel out of place, just keep calm and give your body time to assume the new medium" once the group reaches the river, Ohrmizd looks around to make sure there is no immediate danger.
"This is a good place, just don't worry, we will be by your side, if you get tired just grab on one of us" Ohrmizd puts the day snack and other sensitive equipment on his waterbag, and the rest of the stuff, including clothing in the backpack "Ok, see, if a dog can swim you can sure do it too!"
Ohrmizd goes into the waters of the river and tries to set foot marking an entry point for Manuun.
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"Now I know why you always fell through the roof. Just because a bird can fly you believe you can too. Well you know how that ended. I think we better stop right here."
Manuun looks very unconvinced by the whole plan. "And you are sure there are no Pinatas in this river? I have heard the can eat a crocodile in a few minutes." Manuun looks about until he finds a lengthy piece of wood and starts to hit the water with it. "You know you have to beat them with a stick. And when they finally burst they drop treasure."
"Simple. It's only a matter of sending a piece of meat into the water. Those fish would eat it up in seconds." Heshan took out a bit of rations and dangled it over the water... only to put it back in his pack as he smiled coyly.
"Oh don't tell me you are scared of a little water are you?"
"Piratas? Never heard of river piratas" Ohrmizd spats the water with strength and makes a signal for Manuun and Heshan to approach "Now, the time for excuses has run out, you are going to do it great, let's go, let's dance the waters!"
Ohrmizd steps out into the depths of the river and disappears with his head down the waters, just to appear seconds later "Glup glup! I was only testing the bottom. He! Here! It is certainly deep here"
He then starts to swim stopping at times to wait for the others and specially to help Manuun if necessary, before fully braving the waters to the other side.
Things looked to be great in the beginning. But it wasn't long before regret the teasing. Three rounds later, he was still flailing in the water.
When Heshan finally cuts the crap he swims over to the other side and joins into the long walk to Kelmarane.
About an hour later you arrive at the town. A ledge offers a good viewpoint over town while also providing some cover.
The view over town doesn't show any activity right now.
Heshan laid down on the ground next to the sylph as he listened in on the idea.
"I may not be able to sneak well, but I can turn invisible for a couple rounds. That should be enough for me to take a peep without being seen."
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"For a first peek I meant to go alone, since I don't want to start a fight. I don't think we want to spend one of our precious spells just yet."