Fiona whirls as the voice bounces around, her face filled with rage. Her voice quiver as she growls, "I am going to kill that thing."
Noticing that the drake is dead, the tall warrior kneels to begin cleaning her weapon on the grass, though she keeps an eye out for any other enemies. After a few moments of cooling her anger at the fae, she looks over at Merlan. "What was all that yelling back and forth about? It sounded like my voice, but I don't speak whatever language that was."
Giving up (for the moment) on trying to get Drake-Ash out of his ,... everything, Merlan raises an eyebrow at Fiona's question.
"Well, the little fae-fu,... erm, fellow, was speaking draconic in order to infuriate the Drake into attacking us. Quite successfully I might add!" Merlan explains. He is his usual animated self now that he seems to have cleared most of the ash-blast from his lungs.
"He has many magical gifts which seem to come naturally to some Fae-folk. Including natural invisibility, and mimicry. And he hinted that he knows how to cast spells and charms. He admitted he was using a simple Ventriloquism charm to make it seem as if WE were talking. Egging the drake on. Heh. 'Egging'. The drake attacked because he told it that I stole its egg."
Merlan puts two fingers in his mouth, makes a face as he realizes they are still covered in ash, and whistles for his four-legged furry mount. He catches his breath as he waits for his ride to arrive.
We should check the area swiftly. I dont think he'll be back today. He said as much, pretty much told us he doesnt want to fight us fair, just wants us to leave or 'He'll Be Baack'!" Merlan says the last in a deeper, slower voice with a heavy accent.
When 'Tiny' arrives, tongue & tail wagging, Merlan digs out another 'chewy-heal' potion from the saddlebags and drinks it. He makes a face, then looks thoughtful and makes a few experimental chewing, lip-smacks.
"Hm. Tastes like licorice. And Oak bark."
"Too bad I never learned how to skin properly. Drake skin would make excellent armor. I still want a few samples. Drakes aren't 'true' dragons, but they are close enough that their bits make very suitable magical components! And I want to examine the alchemicals used and see exactly what, or who, the fae used as bait. The more we know about how he works, the better prepared we will be for next time."
Merlan looks around, thoughtfully.
"And keep an eye out for a large egg. That fae told the drake that I stole its egg, so it's likely that the fae took the egg in order to make sure the drake came running, erm, flying, when it saw any disturbance. Like say, a signal flare? If it's here, and still intact, it could be very valuable."
While you didn't get a good view of it -- that in and of itself makes you pretty sure that your little friend is a Quickling. Evil fae, generally hates other living things. Supernaturally fast -- so much so that they're a blur when they're moving -- and naturally invisible when they stop.
"Wait... so we have an invisible tiny person who hates us for some reason? Or who has some unknown agenda in town and doesn't want us helping the villagers? OR who is part of the orc plot and... oh, hells. This is speculation. Does anyone know who that is or what they want?" Sahar poofs out a breath in exasperation, then starts the hike back to the mounts.
"Xia, why don't you heal people. I'll fetch the horses. Whether we're moving on or back, we need them. We should probably check out the fire, too. Maybe our little friend left us a clue."
Merlan absentmindedly pats Tiny as he muses.
"I didn't get a good look at it. Which pretty much verifies my suspicions. It almost HAS to be a Quickling. A branch of Fae almost universally evil. They hate,... well everyone. All living things. They are fast. Supernaturally fast. You can barely see one as a blur when its moving. When they stand still, they are naturally invisible. I most likely only saw this one because he wanted to be seen."
"They share all fae's love of pranks. Theirs just tend to be a little more,... well,... permanent than most. Still no idea why it would care if we stay or went back to Lastwall though."
Merlan turns, and claps his hands together, rubbing them briskly.
"I'm going to take some trophies, erm, samples of the Drake. For research purposes. We should search the baited area, see if there are any clues. Oh and someone keep an eye on the flying feathered dino." His eyes roll up, as if he can see his familiar through the huge brim of his hat.
"Not THIS one, THAT one, the big one chewing on the orc-leftovers! It seems to be more intelligent than it's kin, and a nature-magic-manipulator to boot. As much as I would love to examine it closer, I'll settle for making sure it doesn't think we're still on the buffet!"
Lysander quirks his head as Merlan describes the Quickling Fey folk; "Sounds about right, whatever it was seemed to be fast and very tricky. Though how it knew about us....well our patron did say he was going to make us Heroes...>" Lysander says his tone is dubious.
"I can help you with the skinning of the Drake, maybe a few strange ashen steaks?" Lysander offers.
|
Reflex:
Somehow catching the incoming drake out of the corner of her eye, Xia ducks behind the rock, avoiding some of the hot ashes, but still getting burned slightly.
When her companions quick responses make short work of the dragon, she lets out a sigh of relief.
What is happen? Why all look confuse?
"Help with skinning would be GREAT Lysander! I'm likely to mince the entire thing into Drake-burgers!" Merlan says cheerfully.
Hearing Xia ask what happened, Merlan turns and waves to her then motions her to come closer. He points to his own eyes, then to the dino enjoying it's 'Happy Meal' to make sure she is aware it is still around. Even if at a (Fairly) safe distance.
Once Xia is close enough to 'speak' to, Merlan gives her the 'short' version. (COmpared to his usual, he is really quite brief) He tells her, speakling aloud, but softly, making sure to enunciate his words carefully and not speak (TOO) fast.
"Trouble was all caused by Fae. Quickling. It bragged about setting up bait-trap, and signal flare, and I think it stole the Drake's egg. It used magic to make it sound as if WE were taunting the Drake to get it to attack us. It sounds like it wants us dead, or to go back to Lastwall. But it did not say why." Merlan explains, lightly bouncing on his toes at the effort of staying still enough to make speaking to Xia easier.
Merlan directs his familiar to fly around the area and hiss if he sees anything 'interesting'.
Apparently this makes sense to the dino-bird, because it shakes its head as if saying 'I can't believe you have me doing this. Again.' and launches itself into the air, once again shoving Merlan's hat over his head in the process.
Squeaks seems to be more interested in the bait itself than anything that might have been attracted to it,...
Fiona glances at the remaining raptor. "Maybe we should let it think we're still on the menu," she comments, hefting her newly-cleaned weapon thoughtfully. "Sahar, what do you say we act wounded while we check the signal fire, see if we can get it to attack?"
Based on your link, Squeaky seems to have found 6 sites of 'curiosity' and 3 sites of a mix of attraction and repulsion.... and, of course, the smoke - again, mostly 'curious'.
Fiona glances at the remaining raptor. "Maybe we should let it think we're still on the menu," she comments, hefting her newly-cleaned weapon thoughtfully. "Sahar, what do you say we act wounded while we check the signal fire, see if we can get it to attack?"
"Um... sure? You think it will fall for that? It has been smart enough to stay out of the fracas." Sahar starts for the fire site, feigning a limp.
Sahar slowly limps to the source of the smoke, and finds a pile of yellow-grey ash -- including eight perfect spheres of ash about the size of her closed fist forming a ring... and, in the center of them, four spheres that are in the process of burning, generating the smoke... and a single yellow-green sphere in the center of those, seemingly not yet ignited.
As she closes, what she first thought was a rock as she approached, she now gets a better view and sees that it's a greyish leathery egg... and there are a number of broken fragments near it, as if something clawed its way into the egg to feed on its contents.
;P
Merlan looks up from helping Xan with the skinning (mostly just following the others directions VERY well) And waves at the warrior women.
"Sahar, Fiona? Squeaky seems to think there are half a dozen spots he's curious about where he's circling. And about three both attractive and repulsive. I'm guessing THAT's the alchemical bait that was used." Merlan calls helpfully, then goes back to assisting Xan. He also takes a few samples on his own, teeth, claws, a vial of blood, etc. for alchemical and research purposes.
Lysander thanks Merlan for the help with the skinning and takes his time to get the best piece's of scales, some fangs, claws and ash fire making glands, Wrapping them individually and carefully. The young feral tracker looks covered in gore as Kruss licks the blood from his limbs.
Fiona shakes her head at Sahar's attempt, then reaches over to the drake's corpse and takes a handful of gore, spreading it over her arm in a believable pattern. Then, holding her polearm in one hand with unfeigned difficulty, she lets the bloody arm hang limp and moves after Sahar with a groan.
"Oh no... that might be useful," Sahar exclaims on seeing the unconsumed sphere. She draws her blade and scrapes aside any hot coals to clear a path to the outside of the fire, then uses the flat of the blade to roll the intact sphere away from the heat so it doesn't catch.
She squats and taps it with her fingertips to see if it is cool enough to handle, peering around the area of the fire for any little thing she might have missed at first glance.
As Merlan and Lysander work on removing the Dragonhide, Sahar starts to search the area around the broken egg. She notes that the egg itself has had a stripe of a slightly sticky, viscous substance placed on it near the crack -- which seems to have a similar sickly-sweet rotting smell as the bait, though the scent of the egg itself makes that a little more of a challenge.
Within the egg are the remains of a small-sized dragon - roughly two-thirds the size of Kruss, though most of its torso is missing.
Doing a wider search reveals the corpses of six orcs, corresponding to Squeaky's locations - and, for that matter, the initial positions of the raptors. Each of the orcs has been chewed on, mostly through the torsos to access the organs, and one is missing an arm. Each of them has a red gauntlet with a number of bones and spikes, very similar to those you found on the orcs in the grove -- marking them as Bloodtalons.
There are a number of small, precise wounds, no wider than Lysander's thumb on the legs of the orcs.
The area around the wounds are puffy and swollen, and slightly bluish... Suggesting the wounds were poisoned....
Searching the orc corpses you get:
- 1 (damaged) suit of masterwork scale mail
- 4 Longbows
- 1 Composite Longbow (Str +3)
- 130 longbow arrows
- 1 Heavy Crossbow
- 28 bolts
- 4 Falchions
- 1 Masterwork Greataxe
- 1 Earth Breaker
- 6 orange liquid-filled gourds
- 18gp, 68sp, 44 cp
- a necklace of predator teeth
- 6 daggers
- 18 javelins
- 3 bone whistles (which you can't hear, but Kruss does, and isn't a fan)
- 1 large muzzle attached to a chain (for a large sized creature)
- and 6 more gauntlets (as above)
- scraps that used to be 4 suits of studded leather and one of hide
In each of the spots indicated, you see a thick, sticky substance covering the ground/rocks -- and the remains of what looks like a burst bladder. The stuff visually calls to mind a mix of tar and blood, with tiny bits within it -- but the smell is something else entirely -- a mix of sweetness, like honey, and of rotting meat - calling to mind almost the scent of flowers at a funeral... if someone let an animal mark them all with urine first.
The bright raptor with gossamyr wings continues to watch you all warily, only reacting as you first explore and move the egg, and again as locate and search the corpses that Squeaky found (and the other Raptors had been feeding on). Each time, it seems to glare and almost hiss, but then settles down and keeps its careful watch. You get the feeling it is largely waiting for you to leave.
The messy remains of the orcs are too much for Sahar to stomach examining closely.
She hands the smoke signal to Merlan. "Is this any sort of a clue as to who might have made or used it? I'm unfamiliar with these things."
"What now? Do we want to burn the bait or leave it for scavengers?" Sahar asks the group, careful to face Xia so she can read lips.
Merlan takes the smoke-signal sphere and examines it gleefully.
"Ooo, nice. Simple compressed alchemical powders. Easy to make, tricky to get just right. Burning with colored smoke when lit, should be visible up to 5 miles or more in ideal conditions. Definitely useful for luring overconfident adventurers into a well-baited trap. I wonder if this was mass-produced, or made by an individual filling an order? Most of us types who like to make things usually leave our makers-mark on our items. Somewhere,..." he explains, turning the orb over in his hands as he takes turns peering at it closely and sniffing it.
Merlan seems saddened when shown what Fiona and Sahar have found.
"So it wasn't enough to steal a Drake's egg, and bait a trap for orcs and whomever, the lil !@#$%^&* had to go and put some of the bait ON the egg, just to make sure it didn't get passed over in the feeding frenzy over the fresh meat!"
"Oh,... look here. There are a number of tiny wounds on the orcs legs. And judging by the puffiness of the wounds, well I know a half-dozen alchemical & natural poisons that would make the wounds appear like that. So our 'little friend' drew them in, and then made sure they couldn't fight back or get away once the invited guests showed up for dinner! Genius level planning. Sociopathic, evil little B@$#@&% he may be, but he planned this and thought it ALL the way through. We are going to need to be VERY careful dealing with him."
The wizard looks up at Sahar's next question. He turns to peer at the colorful dino waiting (patiently?) for them to leave while enjoying his 'snack'.
"Well, I wouldn't begrudge a halfway-decent torching of the bodies, but I doubt that the orcs would pay us the same respects. Besides, we've already destroyed the 'queen-dino's' hunting party. No sense in making her MORE annoyed with us. Unless you plan to hunt her down too, just to be thorough." Merlan's tone indicates clearly that he dissaproves of that idea.
"Leave the rest to her and any pack she has left. Who knows, maybe she'll remember us fondly the next time our paths cross. At the very least, she can't get any MORE annoyed with us than she already is." Merlan opines.
"That poison is troublesome. What is to keep the little fiend from doing that to us as we sleep? Does anyone know a way to alert us of its presence? I never even saw the creature."
"In the meantime, we should continue for the farm. We can load the salvaged weapons on the horses. This armor is a mess, though the scale mail may be able to be mended. I do not think the leather can be repaired, though. It may be too far from its armor form for the magic to know what to do with the scraps," Sahar offers. "Would anyone want a bow to carry with them now, before we leave?"
She starts tying the gear into bundles that can be loaded on their mounts.
Merlan starts to talk (BIG surprise. NOT.)
Then pauses with his mouth open, closes it, and ponders a moment.
(Slightly more surprise. For reals.)
"I think,... the question is not so much 'Is the smoke a signal from the Fey, or just to attract the attention of others'? But rather, 'HOW did the lil B@$#%$& Know where we were going, and set the trap HERE? On our path? Out of all the possible places we may have gone today?"
Memnon looks around and adjusts the wide brim of his hat to a more rakish angle.
"The most likely answer is, 'Because the lil' F#,... erm, Fae was THERE!' The note, the pranks, the baited trap, smoke to make sure we didn't miss said trap,... The bloody lil' bugger has been spying us on this entire time. IN town! We have to presume that up til this very moment, he knows everything we have said out loud or discussed with anyone. And since he's trying to stop us, he most likely knows MORE about what's going on around here than we do. That's just wrong!" Merlan directs the last bit upwards through his hat brim to Squeaks. Who chirps in apparent agreement.
"Exactly. Which is why I ask again, is there any way to know of its presence? I could not see it here. Chances are, I will not be able to see it in town, even knowing it is around. It could be here, listening to us plan. How do we guard against it?" Sahar looks troubled. "Lysander and I found a tiny spool of clear thread in the stable... well, actually, the smith gave it to us, thinking it was ours. I feared it had been used to harm the animals, but we could not find any sign of it tied onto the creatures to cut and hurt them. Here it is... you were in the midst of deep discussion when we rejoined you, and it slipped my mind." She digs a tiny spool of clear thread from out of her belt pouch and hands it to Merlan to examine along with the smoke bomb.
"And I agree that these green balls were meant to lure us and the poor drake to our unfortunate meeting. Can you tell anything about them, wizard?"
Sahar tries to divide the burden equally among the equines, then swings into the saddle.
"Shall we go? Time passes. With the orcs waylaid here, I am hoping our way to the farm and back to the village is clear. We can reassure Daven on our return that the orc party is probably no longer a threat."
Merlan takes the spool of thread from Sahar, and after peering at it a moment, holds up his poor abused component pouch. The threads are a perfect match.
"Lil fae's been busy. Your bow. My spell pouch. I'll keep this if you don't mind. Might come in handy. Stuff is stronger than it should be. Nice."
Merlan tucks the spool away,
"As far as detecting this particular Fae, You have to be VERY observant. And a little lucky. He could be bouncing on your shoes and if you blink, you'd miss him. I know of a detection charm that allows the user to see invisible creatures. But I don't have that one in my spellbook. Yet."
"And I agree that these green balls were meant to lure us and the poor drake to our unfortunate meeting. Can you tell anything about them, wizard?"
Merlan grins slyly. "Welllll,.... Since you ASKED!"
"Based on your description, the ring set up was probably used to ensure that the outer ones would ignite the inner ones, while also being semi-stable... And an observer would see the smoke "narrow" as it shifted inward -- which, come to think of it, we did!"
"The Ball itself is simple alchemy: alchemicals meant to burn slow and smokey, mixed with some that change the color of the smoke. Each ball's probably good for about 45 minutes I'd guess, based on the size, in the slow burn we're seeing. Probably make more smoke and burn faster if you tossed it into a roaring fire. Nothing magical, and alas, nothing identifiable."
Merlan seems personally insulted by this last bit. What self-respecting crafter doesn't mark his items?
"Now that I think about it, The flashes and booms might have been actual alchemical fireworks as I first thought, or spells - The ghost sound charm for instance can make very loud noises, up to that of roar of a lion -- or a small dragon. Either way, it was just another way to make sure that we caught the attention of the Drake."
"Shall we go? Time passes. With the orcs waylaid here, I am hoping our way to the farm and back to the village is clear. We can reassure Daven on our return that the orc party is probably no longer a threat."
"Yes. Yes we should go! I suggest that we continue on to our original destination post-haste. As we planned. We have survived ONE of the Fae's attempts to deter us. Let us not give him a chance to regroup and have yet another surprise waiting for us tomorrow."
Merlan climbs up into the saddle of his furry, (currently drooling) mount and shakes the reins, causing 'Tiny' to become more alert.
After gathering up the gear, you start heading toward the farm once again, keeping a careful watch for more Drakes, smoke, or rustles in the grass that might indicate an invisible, annoying fey.... but each time there's movement, it would seem to be the wind -- or in one case, a small colony of praire dogs. Checking your trail makes progress a little slower than you'd expected, so it's probably three quarters of an hour before you catch sight of what you assume to be the farm -- not the house, first, but rather the remains of fences and what looks like a collapsed grain silo.
You pause for a moment, watching --- oh, there's the farmhouse, in the shadow of the silo -- but the only movement you see is a hawk atop the silo, craning its head, probably looking for a snack like the prairie dogs you saw earlier.
Sahar reins in, examining the farmstead from afar.
"Lysander, should you and I each take half the group and circle around the farmyard looking for tracks? Tracks led us to the last stash, after all, and we wouldn't be out of sight of each other."
From this distance, the house seems mostly intact, almost the opposite of the fallen silo... whereas the barn behind them seems somewhere in between the two -- at least, you assume so based on the way it's leaning.
"That sounds sensible, Milady. We check for tracks, and circle around before doing a better search and finding more clues." Lysander agrees, gently wiping his arms clean of the ichor to try and appear much more presentable.
"Hakkar and Nerlans friend could circle to see if there's anything else....however I wouldn't want them too far....If there's been a Drake in the area." He pauses; "However new perspectives are good, especially since we can all go to the fore."
Merlan whispers to Squeaks, and the feathered dino gives another excellent impression of long-suffering sigh, and launches from Merlan's hat once more. This time he doesn't, quite, shove it all the way over the wizard's eyes.
Squeaks goes up,... and then lazily circles the area, searching for something that might catch a tiny dino's attention. While Merlan keeps an eye on the hawk, making sure it doesn't mistake Squeaks for a self-delivering meal.
"Well. That's curious. Squeaks found something behind that house. But he didn't like it. I wonder what is disgusting to a dino?"
"A salad?" Sahar guesses. "Do you want to go straight in and search the area, then, or should we circle around looking for tracks."