Rigel slowly puts his hands up to show he's not going to attack anymore, and, choosing his wording carefully, begins to speak. "Ni s-a spus ... cineva despre aceste tuneluri, care a spus că unul dintre prietenii ei a stat aici, dar că nu l-a mai văzut de ceva vreme și a auzit zgomote ciudate venind de aici. Am fost trimiși să investigăm. Nu căutăm o luptă, vrem doar să aflăm ce se întâmplă." He's obviously very tense as he says this, but he does his best to keep it out of his voice.
Jisara's eyes dart back and forth from her comrades to the crow people, a confused look on her face. Six languages I speak, and everyone's jabbering in two of the ones I don't!
The crow-person’s eyes narrow as she slowly responds. ” Eu și…uh…” She snaps her fingers several times as she wracks her brain. ”Eu și ,,frații-frați” am fost singurii aici în ultimele zile. Acum, dă-ne un motiv bun pentru care nu ar trebui să te înjunghiem și să îți luăm lucrurile fanteziste."
If you critically succeeded, open the spoiler below
Jisara, completely consumed with irritation at her own inadequacies, and is thus totally oblivious.
At their response, Rigel begins to back away, trying to think of ideas. His foot hits a small box, causing him to stumble momentarily, but the jolt gives him an idea. Keep them talking. If I can stall them enough, that would give us time to think of an answer or an escape plan. "I don't know, why shouldn't they kill us?" he says to the group in common, perhaps somewhat more nonchalantly than he should have, before switching back to Varisian. "Într-adevăr, nu cred că știu suficient despre motivul pentru care sunteți aici pentru a vă oferi un răspuns. Din câte știu, motivele pentru care cred că nu ar trebui să ne ucizi sunt aceleași motive pentru care crezi că ar trebui, așa că spune-mi: ce faci cu toții aici? Ce te-a adus aici? Poate că dacă aș ști asta, aș putea să îți dau un motiv. În plus, dacă doar ne vei ucide și ne vei lua lucrurile, nu e ca și cum ai spune de ce o să ne doară, nu?" As he talks, he shifts his weight a bit, and adopts a much less defensive posture and a much more cheerful attitude.
That’s 6 hp and a +2 status bonus to AC for 1 round, yes?
Vitalis whispers to Chance. "What are they saying? My skill in linguistics is lacking. Are they friends of Laria? Or Nan? Nan was Varisian, right? That would make sense. Are they hungry? Laria said she left meals at the stairs that were getting eaten, but she only mentioned one guest...not five."
“They’re wondering who we are and why they shouldn’t just kill us and take all our stuff. I’m going to tell them about Nan.”
Chance stands and holds out his empty hands. “Am fost trimiși aici de prietenii mortului din cealaltă cameră, pentru a afla ce i s-a întâmplat. Ar fi trebuit să fie în siguranță ascunzându-se aici. L-ai ucis tu și surorile tale?”
He smiles, a little sadly. “Ai mâncat mâncarea și ai băut vinul pe care prietenii lui l-au dus jos pentru el? Asta nu poate fi suficient pentru voi toți.”
“Have you been eating the food and drinking the wine that his friends have been bringing down for him? That can’t have been enough for all of you.”
One of the other crow-people suddenly turns to the Varisian-speaker with concern in their voice. ”’Ucis’?! Soreha 'korosu' to iu imide wa arimasen ka?! Karera wa Chough-san, onēsan ni tsuite s$~#te imasu ka?!”
“Karera wa Chough-san ni tsuite shirimasen! Shori sa sete kudasai.” She returns her attention to Chance and Rigel. ”Watashitachi wa sono—“ She shakes her head when she realizes she’s speaking in the wrong language. ”Nu l-am ucis pe acel om; Habar n-am despre ce vorbești.”
” Bine în regulă! Nu l-am” She motions to herself and the other crow-people. ”Ucis; fratele nostru...uh...nu-sora Chough a făcut-o.”
The other crow-people immediately start to panic. ”Naze anata wa karera ni Chough-san ni tsuite hanashite iru nodesu ka?!”
“Shori sa sete kudasai!” She returns her attention to Chance and Rigel. ”Chough e...violent. Nu este prima oară când ne pune probleme—a ucis doi surorile de când am venit aici și singura persoană care ne-a ajutat de când am venit aici. A devenit o problemă, dar,” She looks askance with sadness in her voice. ”Nu am...uh...organe care să o dea jos—ne-am îngrijit de când a eclozat.”
“Okay, fine! We” She motions to herself and the other crow-people. ”Did not kill him; our...uh...not-sister Chough did.” ”Chough’s…violent. This isn’t the first time she’s gotten us in trouble—she’s killed two of our sisters and the one person that’s helped us since we came here. She’s become a problem, but…I don’t have the…uh…organs to put her down—we’ve cared for her since she hatched.”
”Apparently a ‘not-sister’ of theirs killed Nan, along with two of their sisters. The not-sister has apparently been a problem for a while, but they don’t have the heart to put her down.”
"What happened to your sister that turned her so violent? Is she still down here?" Jisara asks. She turns her head to whisper to her familiar. "Keep an eye out for another of these crows."
”Not-sister. We aren’t related, but she’s family nonetheless even if she isn’t a tengu. And…she just…did. No warning or anything. Even as a chick she was violent, but back then she couldn’t really do anything. When she got older, though…Well, after what happened to Nan, we did the only thing we could: we put her in time-out.” She motions toward the northwest.
"All right. We'll deal with it. If the tengu prefer not to be involved, they should wait here." Vitalis starts heading towards the northwest then thinks for a second and turns around. "Your sister is the only other one down here? There isn't anything else?" He shivers recalling his recent experience with the alligator.
Chance keeps up a running translation between Varisian and Taldane, speaking as quickly as he can. He translates Vitalis's question - changing "sister" to "not-sister" to match the tengu's emphasis - then adds one of his own.
"What do you mean by 'time-out'?"
As everyone is talking, Rigel is mostly hanging back, absentmindedly pacing and hopping from one foot to the other while occasionally offering translations. He wanders over to one of the crates and hops up, barely making a sound, and starts making his way from one crate to the other before realizing fully what he was doing. He looks down and taps one of the crates with his foot. "Any idea what's in these?" he asks the tengu.
Jisara looks back to the northwest with an uncomfortable expression on her face. We had our backs to this...Chough, and nearly got killed by the people she's been terrorizing. Her own family!
At Vitalis’s mention of taking care of the Chough situation, the tengu flinch and look askance, but do not object.
"Your sister is the only other one down here? There isn't anything else?"
”She’s the only one there. Except maybe some rats that nest here.” She quickly adds. ”Not the big kind of rats! The normal kind.”
"What do you mean by 'time-out'?"
”She’s not allowed to leave the room until she’s learned her lesson. But I’m not sure if she will.”
"Any idea what's in these?" he asks the tengu.
”Random stuff, mostly. We ate a lot of the food that was in there, though. We’ve been surviving on the bits of bread-treats left out every night since we ate through the stuff here—unfortunately, it hasn’t been enough to feed five beaks…”
Knowing that they are going to be dealing with a violent crow-person, the PCs—and the tengu—work to patch up their wounds.
Vitalis casts lay on hands on Rigel (fully healing him) then Refocuses again while Thatch tries to patch up Chance.
This particular room seems to have once been a common room—various furniture for Medium- and Small-sized creatures fill the room, once possibly giving it a modicum of comfort. Now, however, the furniture has been ripped to shreds and smashed to bits.
In the far corner of the room is a crow-like humanoid figure—Chough—kneeling over as they rip through a couch cushion and tear out the stuffing within. When the PCs enter the room, Chough slowly stands up, and even from this distance it is clear that she is not related to the tengu by blood—Chough stands several inches taller than the tengu at least; and while the tengu were lithe and thin, Chough’s body ripples with pronounced muscles that accentuate her form. Most prominent, though, is the sheer amount of killing intent in her eyes as she stares straight at the PCs!
Round 1
==============
Chance/Rigel
Jisara
Chough
Vitalis
==============
“Well, isn’t this exciting,” Chance mutters to himself. “We came down here to restart the Silver Ravens, and instead we keep getting attacked by crows.”
That sure doesn't look like a tengu - so what is it?
He moves a few steps further into the room to take cover behind the nearest pillar, and begins to sing.
"Where have all the Ravens gone, in the name of all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Nursery maid to fight the rising odds?
Isn't that one of Shelyn's knights, wielding a blazing glaive?
All Kintargo tosses and turns and dreams it will be saved... "
The gnome trails off, humming. "Still a work in progress," he murmurs.
Round 1
==============
Chance
Rigel
Jisara
Chough
Vitalis
==============
"That is definitely not their sister by blood, in case anyone was wondering!"
Stepping forward for a better look, Jisara does a double-take when she catches sight of the muscle crow. "What the Hell were they feeding her?" she mutters in disbelief, before firing a lance of freezing energy across the chamber at Chough.
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Rigel looks at the crow with a mix of confusion and utter disbelief, and sighs. "What--" he starts to ask, before cutting himself off. His eyes glow a similar starry color as Stargazer's as he gives the crow a glare that causes the crow to confront the endless and crushing void of space, the vast distances of emptiness that await surrounding us, the terrible and awe-inspiring blackness that we have feared and worshipped since the dawn of time, before he casts another spell to protect himself.
Chance moves behind a pillar as he continues to sing.
Jisara sends a frigid ray hurtling toward Chough, but the muscular crow dodges away from it, even with Jisara’s help from Chance’s song.
Rigel steps forward and unleashes a splitting headache at Chough.
But the crow-thing mostly shakes the effects off.
Chough charges forward, letting loose a bone-chilling caw throughout the length of the advance in an effort to intimidate her foes! Seeing this occur Chance quickly increases the volume of his song in an attempt to drown out the crow-thing’s cawing!
Success
Success
Failure—>Success (counter performance)
Success
Chance is far too distracted putting his all into this performance to notice Chough’s cawing, and while Chance’s music drowns out some of the bone-chilling screeching for Vitalis, he, along with Rigel and Jisara, cannot get past the absolute terror of a violent, bipedal crow charging right toward them!
Round 1 —> 2
==============
Chance
Rigel {frightened 1}
Jisara {frightened 1}
Chough (-2)
Vitalis {frightened 1}
==============
Vitalis steps back, frightened by the bird's scream. He then swings wildly at the creature hoping to land a hit.
Chance sneaks a look at the raging not-a-tengu and winces. “I think I know why your not-sisters put you on time out, Muscles.”
He hums a few bars and sings a little more.
“Ba dum ba dum dum...
Ba dum dum ba dum dum BA dum ... through the Chelish night...
We’ve gotta be strong, and we’ve gotta be fast
And we’ve gotta be ready to fight...”
“No, no, that’s not quite it,” he mutters. After a moment of thought, the gnome shakes his head, clears his throat, points at their attacker, and calls out, “Flugantaj rokoj por ĵokeoj!”
A hunk of what was once the arm of a heavy wooden chair rises from the rubble-strewn floor and flies at Chough.
Likewise, Jisara steps back to keep herself out of Chough's reach. Her last spell had gone wide, so she falls back on her old favorite: a blast of electricity!
Vitalis swings his glaive at Chough, but the crow-creature completely dodges out of the way of the paladin’s attacks! She begins rearing up when she is hit right in the side by a flying chair sent by Chance—said chair shattering into splinters as it hits!
Chough is then immediately accosted by the sudden burst of electricity from Jisara!
She manages to dodge the brunt of the lightning and her murder-filled eyes fall on Chance!
Round 2
==============
Chance
Rigel {frightened 1}
Jisara
Chough (-15)
Vitalis
==============
As the crow creature runs towards him, Rigel lets out a yelp and instinctively casts another spell at her, trying to drain some of her energy, before moving very quickly away.
Rigel places a hand on Chough and attempts to drain the crow-thing’s life force before running away.
Chough audibly grunts as she is minorly hurt by Rigel’s magic, but her eyes still fall on Chance!
”CAW!!”
Chough rushes forward toward Chance and swiftly swipes at the gnome with her talon!
Vitalis quickly reacts as he hooks Chough’s ankle with the blade of his glaive, distracting her enough for Chough’s talon to be slightly less effective and for the paladin to lash out against the not-tengu!
But the paladin’s protection does not stop Chough from grasping Chance with her talons and holdin him in place as she slams the gnome’s back against the nearby pillar!
Round 2 —> 3
==============
Chance (-5) {grabbed}
Rigel
Jisara
Chough (-17)
Vitalis
==============
For the record, Vitalis, you did forget about the bonus damage on the second attack from forceful (not that it really mattered).
Vitalis's reaction slashes into the bird's leg.
With his composure regained, he steps behind the bird to attack it's flank. He tries not to hit grappled Chance but the process costs him a clear shot.
"Put him down! Face me, big girl!" he shouts. He realizes the beast likely does not understand him, but it still feels good to vent.
"Let him go!" Jisara shouts, switching back to her freezing ray spell. Suddenly mindful of how exposed she is, she also pulls a protective ward into place between her and the crow.
"Why is she going for him?" he mutters, before casting a spell to protect Chance. Worrying about leaving himself open, he also casts a protective spell on himself.
"Maybe she doesn't like epic ballads?" Chance is a little woozy from the not-tengu's blow and continues translating the party's comments into Varsian.
"De ce te duci după mine? Lasă-mă jos și înfruntă-l pe tipul cu toată armura și sabia pe un băț, fată mare!"
The gnome continues half-singing, half-humming his unfinished song.
"Somewhere in the caverns under our devil-ruled city
Somewhere just past Barzillai's reach, a red gnome’s gonna end up big crow feed..."
If I get out of here, I'm definitely going to rewrite that last line! Speaking of...
Chance's head clears enough for him to make an attempt to escape the anthropomorphic bird's clutches.
Escape, inspire courage: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 5 + 1 = 13
I mentioned here that only Strikes and spell attack rolls count as “attack rolls” and would benefit from inspire courage, but it gets iffy since you clearly used your unarmed attack bonus. I’m honestly unsure how to rule this. You still failed, mind you, but it’s a weird circumstance.
Vitalis’s retaliation cuts deeply into Chough’s back, but the bipedal crow easily dodges away from the paladin’s follow-up attacks.
Jisara shoots a ray of frigid cold that collides with Chough’s arm!
Rigel goes full defensive as he protects himself and Chance.
Chance continues to sing while attempting—and failing—to break free of the crow’s grasp!
Chough takes a deep inhale and then shrieks directly into the grabbed gnome’s face—her open beak looking able to squash Chance’s head like an apple!
”CAAAAWW!!!”
Chance—equally terrified of the bipedal crow now as he was when she grabbed him—is lifted two feet above the ground as Chough leans down and moves her beak directly toward the gnome’s stomach!
Chough pecks directly through Chance’s armor and opens and closes her beak, making a wound big enough to fit a small portion of her pointed beak into! Vitalis desperately attempts to interpose himself to save Chance—narrowly keeping the gnome conscious—but he is too little too late.
Chough bit something she shouldn’t have!!!
Chough maintains her hold on her gnomish prey.
Round 3 —> 4
==============
Chance (-16) {grabbed; sickened 1; slowed 1 while sickened}
Rigel
Jisara
Chough (-34)
Vitalis
==============
Vitalis strikes at Chough's back again but her attention her attention inexplicably seems focused solely on Chance.
"By Shelyn, this woman is more beast than man."
Vitalis is nearly nauseated at the sight of the bird pecking into Chance's chest. He swings once and when that doesn't succeed, he rushes to Chance's side to try to keep him alive.
"Shelyn heal and protect this gnome." With a touch, he closes part of Chance's wound and Shelyn grants him a minor barrier to ward off another attack. "This is the second time I'm bringing you back from death's door today, my friend."
"Don't think I don't appreciate it, but AAAAAAAAARGH!" Chance gasps for breath and coughs up blood. His voice weak, he sings again, changing his tune for something slower and quieter.
"I want to live
Chances are I won't
If y'all don't kill
This nasty bird..."
He makes a feeble attempt to escape.
◆: Cast a Spell, inspire courage
◆: Escape
Jisara's face pales dramatically as her stomach performs a number of somersaults at the sight of what Chough has done to Chance. She recovers just enough wits to begin screaming obscenities at it in Undercommon, before slinging another beam of freezing energy at the monster.
Rigel winces at Chance's agony, and frantically works to cast spells to aid him.
Vitalis desperately attempts to slice at Chough, but the muscular crow dodges away from him!
Chance desperately continues to sing despite serious internal bleeding. He futilely attempts to escape from Chough’s grasp, but fails.
Jisara attempts to scream at Chough, but fails miserably. She then shoots a ray of frost at Chough and solidly hits her back!
Rigel continues to aid Chance by healing him and keep his magical protection going.
Blood begins sticking to Chough’s feathers, but the bipedal crow nevertheless turns to Vitalis and swipes at the paladin with her free talon!
She caws angrily as she swipes once more.
Blood loss seems to be affecting Chough’s aim as she misses the paladin twice. She digs her talons into Chance’s shoulder as she caws angrily.
Round 4 —> 5
==============
Chance {grabbed; sickened 1; slowed 1 while sickened}
Rigel
Jisara
Chough (-49)
Vitalis
==============
Vitalis steps back around to the crow's flank but he still struggles to properly hit the beast.
Jisara continues hurling insults and magic at Chough, trying to pull their attention off of Chance even if just for a few moments.
"Thanks, Sta-- Rigel! I feel much better! I ... still feel awful, actually." Chance groans, but his voice is stronger as he sings another few lines of his work in progress before making another attempt to escape Chough's talons.
"We've gotta strike true, and it's gotta be soon
And we've gotta be larger than life..."
◆: Cast a Spell, inspire courage
◆: Escape
"Thanks, Sta-- Rigel! I feel much better! I ... still feel awful, actually."
"Don't thank me yet." Rigel says, repeating his warding incantation under his breath before giving the crow another void-filled glare.
Vitalis desperately attempts to attack Chough, to minimal avail.
Jisara launches her ray of frigid cold at Chough and narrowly connects with it!
Chance desperately tries—and fails—to escape from Chough’s iron grip!
Rigel once again sends a splitting headache right at Chough!
Chough freezes straight in place—Chance feeling her grip loosen slightly. The bipedal crow’s eyes roll back into her head and Chough falls forward—collapsing right on top of Chance!
Soon thereafter, the echoing of quick footsteps reverberate throughout the corridors. The PCs go on guard, ready for the worst, when a panicking Rexus and Laria turn the corner, clearly ready for a fight themselves. An awkward moment of silence permeates the air as Rexus and Laria look at the PCs in confusion. The silence is pierced by the sound of clear sobbing coming from the south. Rexus glances over toward the sound and does an immediate double-take.
”Uh…”
Laria notices Rexus’s divided attention and looks in the direction of his gaze and is immediately taken aback by what is more than likely the sight of an emotionally distraught tengu that she didn’t even know existed. The two then look behind themselves and see the corpses of both Nan and an albino alligator at the end of the makeshift dock. They then return their gaze to the PCs, standing over the corpse of a muscular, bipedal crow.
Rexus shakes his head. ”Nope.” He sheathes his sword cane and turns heel toward the secret door to the Wasp’s Nest. ”I’m not dealing with this. I don’t wanna know. I’ve documents to decode. I'm out of here.”
Laria doesn’t even acknowledge Rexus’s departure, as she is absolutely dumbstruck at the sights all around her. She eventually manages to spit out some words over the echoing of a distraught tengu. ”W-what?”
Chance, covered in gore (his own and Clough’s), tries to shove Clough’s body off of him. He moves it a couple of inches at most, then retches and lets the corpse drop with a groan.
“Somebody get her off of me, and I’ll be happy to tell as much of the story as we know.” The gnome groans again. “But as much as I enjoy new experiences, I could have gone a few more centuries between watching a giant crow-person rip out my own guts and eat them in front of me.” He stifles a moan and adds, “Now that I say that out loud, first, ewww, and second, I think I know why I still feel so awful. Is it possible that even after my wounds were healed, there are ... parts ... still outside me that are supposed to be inside?”
After a moment, he says, “And who’s crying? Is it me?”
“And who’s crying? Is it me?”
"No, it's not you. I believe the tengu are mourning their lose."
Vitalis, pushes the crow-woman onto her back and using two fingers, gently closes her eyes. He whispers a prayer to Shelyn while slowly piercing the crow's heart with his dagger. Afterwards, he takes out his harp and plays a song to usher the woman's spirit to whatever plane her deity resides on.
Next, he walks over to the stunned Laria and wraps his arms around her. "I'm sorry for your loss. I know Nan was a good friend of yours. We are still piecing together the entire story ourselves but it seems like Nan's death and the death of two tengu women was caused by their 'sister', this larger avian, whose race we have not determined. How they came to be down here still needs to be explained. I'm sure you need time to grieve, so why don't you let us continue to handle things and you can talk to us once you are ready."
He then speaks to Chance and Rigel. "I'd comfort the tengu as well but there is a language barrier between us. Although, the woman needed to be put down, she was still their sister and it is clear they cared about her despite her violent nature."
Laria stands dumbfounded for several more moments before snapping back to reality. ”Okay…He’s not looking too good.” She motions to Chance. ”Take care of his…everything. I’ll try to take care of this situation.”
Laria leaves the PCs on their own as she goes to talk to the tengu sisters—one of whom is bawling her eyes out.
The PCs find a few items on Chough’s person: three copper bracelets and a silver locket etched with the Elven word for “mother”—inside of which are small shards of eggshell.
Eventually Laria returns and leads the PCs back toward the tengu sisters, the distraught one having significantly calmed down.
”So!” Laria exclaims with a clap of her hands. ”These folks are apparently the ‘textiles’ that Nan was smuggling into Cheliax from Varisia. Their, uh…’not-sister’ got them into serious trouble up north and they had to flee the country. And Nan was keeping them here until he could find them a covert way to safety. So when Chough killed their only safety net, they panicked. They were afraid of getting on the wrong side of the law again, which is a much worse thing in Cheliax than Korvosa.”
The tengu with red puffy eyes—the one who was apparently crying—points to the bracelets and locket that were on Chough’s person. ”Sorera…sorera o hokan sa sete itadakemasen ka?”
Laria folds her arms. ”Now, I don’t know Tengu, but I’m pretty sure they want those.”
The kukri-wielding tengu speaks up. ”Vrea să le păstreze, în memoria lui Chough.”
Laria nods. ”Yup, I was right.”
Jisara, breathing heavily, leans against the nearby wall for support as the adrenaline high wears off, leaving her dazed. By the time she comes back to herself, Laria is translating their request. Still moving a bit slowly, she takes the bracelets and locket and holds them out to the crying tengu. After a beat, she says simply "I'm sorry."