Now that she has spewed her colors all about, Bea chants quickly again making her hand turn pale and glow like a corpse light. She reaches for the boggart in front of her.
Then she scurries away from the potentially vengeful creature.
Amaya winces when Alak takes the blow to the head, instinctively, she reaches out to touch the Armiger, allowing power to flow through her like water to knit his wound somewhat, before casting another jolt of lightning.
◆ Lay on hands
Electric Damage
Beau says farewell to the simian with a parting shot. He then drops his bow and draws his rapier in the same action, pointing at the boggard in the corner of the room. "Drop your weapon or we'll make you croak, you bastard!"
It only then dawns on Beau that perhaps the frogman doesn't speak Common.
Gofran gives persuit to the fleeing simian.
Kyrie's shield comes down with force, and the simian creature collapses under the blow, while Karana, Amaya and Beatrix fling spells at the other two whittling them down. Gofran delivers the killing blow on the boggard, lodging his greatsword in his neck.
Seeing this unfortunate turn of events, the remaining simian drops the chunk of stone they were holding, falling to their knees and chittering in that unknown language, arms raised in a clear gesture of surrender.
Karana doubts the boggard survived, but she stabilizes the fallen simian immediately.
“I wonder if this simian is loyal to the boggard. He did not hesitate to surrender.”
Bea frets a bit. "I think they are all just lost and scared. If their land is remote enough they might have never seen people like us?What would most do when faced with monsters with weapons drawn?" but she sighs "But... we should tie him up maybe with the other one?"
Karana is not sure. But upon hearing ‘lost and scared,’ she attempts to cast Stabilize on the boggard as well.
Regardless of her ability to stabilize foes, Karana says to the party, “Before we proceed further, please know that I can heal the wounded.”
"Thank you." Alak nods at Amaya in gratitude, looking a little disconcerted. "I... did not expect them to hit this hard."
The boggard is too badly injured to be saved, but Karana manages to stabilize the fallen simian creature, while the one who surrendered watches the proceedings with wide eyes, continuing to utter what sounds like questions in that unknown language.
"These arre charrau-kas, also frrom the Mvangi, so the porrtal theorry is morre and morre likely to be the trruth... it vould be grreat if ve could talk to it and learrn of vhat is happenin'."
Amaya smiles at Alak, glad that she was able to be of some use that makes her feel better about herself.
While the others discuss the enemies that they just defeated, Amaya's attention is drawn inwardly to the source of her power; he eyes even roll back partly into her head.
Beau collects his bow, dusts it off before checking the string, and then puts it away. "Charrau-ka? Now that sounds exotic. The odd thing is that they seem to be in cahoots with the boggards - we should proceed with caution because we won't be facing lone foes from here on."
Kyrie sighs as the room quiets once more. She gives a slight smile away as she notices her new comrades stabilizing their foes. It feels good to be traveling with people who take the value of life seriously. It always feels good to protect people, but protecting kind people soothes the soul. ”I can heal someone if we are waiting. I would have time to focus my strength once more.”
Once the group has rested, she readies to continue onward. ”I think we should continue. I think we are holding up well.”
"I'm okay" Bea says to the offer of healing. Not many creatures think hey lets attack the small unarmed gnome over massive towers of legs and weapons, thankfully. "To this door then?"
Bea points at the door to the north, which is hopefully headed toward the bear.
Unless there is any objection, Karana casts Heal on Alak, whose wounds are worse than Gofran’s.
“Kyrie, perhaps you can heal Gofran while I heal Alek?”
She then chants in Druidic and emits a beam of positive energy from her hands to Alek.
Kyrie nods and administers so more mundane healing to Gof, as her lay on hands would not be enough to heal him fully on its own.
"Amaya, mind if I use your healer's kit and take care of Alak?" It's been a while since Beau had to administer to someone's wounds, but how hard could it be? He learned how to steady his hands by yoinking splinters from his dad's hands as a kid, and then the basics of medical herbs and ointments by taking care of his hands but also his neck and feet, plagued by various forest pests one runs into as a lumberjack.
Or whatever it is his dad did for a living.
Amaya nods at Beau, and removes the bandolier, which carries all of her healer's tools. "I'm not that good at it, other than basic First Aid stuff, but I always try to keep my tools organized."
Alak puts out a hand to stop Beau. "I am fully recovered, thanks to your friend." He gives Karana a grateful smile, then nods at the still-conscious charau-ka. "Do you want to try and talk to this one before moving on? I doubt they speak either Shoanti or Varisian, but let me try something..."
Alak speaks a few syllables that Kyrie recognizes as Infernal, but the charau-ka does not seem to understand. The armiger shrugs. "It was a long shot, anyway, but that's all the languages I speak."
Karana attempts Druidic, then says words in the Goblin tongue that are not the same, but serve the same purpose.
"Thanks verry much, Dame Brreakspearr." Gofran bows in a sign of respect. He then looks around for clues that might give them some information.
The two chaurau-ka show the same incomprehension to Karana as they did to Alak. They both chitter in their unknown language to the elf, then to each other, then one of them says:
Gofran pats down the boggard and the two charau-ka, taking away their weapons and gear. Thinking back on the encounter, the two simians seemed to be somewhat less invested in the fight than the boggard, but whatever that says about their numbers or their command structure - if any - is difficult to say.
The room itself seems to have once been a sitting room or an antechamber of sorts, although the once-fine seating made from mahogany and velvet has been mostly broken to pieces and used to fashion crude shelters. The breaks are recent, so this must be the work of the boggards and charau-kas. The door to the north is heavily barricaded with debris.
"OH!" Beatrix nearly jumps as she UNDERSTANDS. She wasn't fully paying attention so goes through her languages and asks 'The tongue of the great glorious who?' in all the ones she knows, starting with gnomish and then Draconic, Elven, Goblin, and Sylvan.
It seems that Draconic is their second language, and the charau-ka who surrendered gets a reverent look on his face as he answers.
Beau gets out a pocket notebook - he might've liberated it from his uncle's loft - and a charcoal pen. Whatever they're telling Beatrix ought to be mighty interesting and worthy of putting into his first journal! "Say, Bea, mind giving us a quick rundown of what's what?"
While she talks with the creatures, Beau tries his best at sketching their forms. Deft fingers, yes, actual training and practice at drawing, no, but this doesn't stop Beau from trying. He can always get a book with proper sketches and pictures of these beings later and touch his sketches up, after all.
"It's Draconic. He is saying 'Glorious. Dahak. Our. God. And. Soon. The. Greatest. God. Of. All." she repeats slowly and carefully as Beau writes it down.
To the captives, she'll turn and sit down on the floor to talk to them.
"We are sorry our meeting turned to violence. We don't want that and won't hurt you anymore as long as you do the same. Why are you here? And who is Dahak?"
Hearing what Beatrix is translating from the creatures, her mind starts to wander, visiting memories and knowledge, some of it not hers.
The charau-ka cocks their head curiously at Beatrix as she sits on the floor, glancing warily at the rest who are still standing.
Beau whispers out loud the words he pens down as Bea tells him what's what. Once most of this oh-so-vital information has been immortalized, Beau reflects on the unfortunate choice of name of the Charau-ka god. "Dahak. The hack. Now, that can't be a coincidence."
Amaya stiffles her gasp of surprise at her revelation, and gestures for Kyrie, Karana, and Gofran to come closer. She would call Beau and Bea, as well, but they seem well engrossed in the coversation.
Once they are close enough to speak without being overheard, she relays the information that she has gleaned.
"I don't think that they are going to be peaceful, at least not without using force."
Karana replies, “Oh, dear… I do not want us to take more lives than necessary, but…” Looking to Kyrie for answers, she continues, “Is it necessary to leave the fallen be?”
Leaving the fallen be means they die. Karana cannot bring herself to say it so plainly, even in the presence of one very dead boggard.
"There IS a portal!!!" Bea exclaims nearly bouncing in glee, ignoring the horrible portents of the rest of the speech. Getting control of herself she repeats all she can remember to Beau.
"Dahak is their great god. He has blessed our leader Malarunk. Smart, powerful Malarunk, he opened the portal for us to come through, conquer our lands." she pauses "That is when he starts cackling. Then he ends in 'The Cinderclaws will rule all!'" she tries to mimic the crazy parts of his inflection.
Kyrie shakes her head, solemn as she considers the situation. ”I do not think they will cooperate. I think we do not have any place to keep them. I do not presume that they can be convinced to abandon their faith. I think we do not have many options.” She dislikes executions, but she is finding few other options. Leaving them bound up to slowly starve is far crueler than a quick death, if those are the options.
Karana says, “Can we maybe just…?” But she cuts herself off. “We talk to them through Bea. Either they take their frog into the portal and never return, or they die.
“I will not revive another invader.” She is hesitant to add, “Dame Kyrie, if you think it best to execute… I…” Karana does not want to kill, but by reviving enemies, she has put others in this position. “I will…” Vomit?
What she will not do is finish her sentence, it would seem.
Unlike Karana, Beau isn't feeling 'it'. Every Andoran is told of the vileness of the Chelish crown and the things their oh so willing lackeys do in the name of the Empire, and if you aren't told, you probably got to experience Chelish cruelty and you don't need no telling.
So for Beau, if these Charau-Ka truly are religious zealots - why couldn't they be touched by Shelyn?! - there won't be no reasoning with them. The group either has to submit and bow, or suffer the consequences.
"I'm pretty sure the only way to get them through said portal is with a swift kick to their furry behinds, Karana. They've seen the power of their God and His dark blessing when Malarunk opened this blasted portal. Who knows, maybe they do carry an aspect of Dahak in them and if so, do powers truly stand a chance? Something tells me they won't just go 'oh, sorry chaps, alright then, off we go, ta-ta'."
"Sounds like the start of a war." Bea says ominously. She's been through a revolution. Despite the positive outcome overall, it is still terrifying when it happens (and you are on the wrong side of it especially). "So it is bigger then us and what we think is right and wrong. We should take them to the town council." she up at the others.
Gofran thinks about their options. "I believe Beatrrix and Dame Kyrrie have the rright solutions. Ve arre not judges, so I feel ve have no rright to kill them IF therre is an alterrnative."
"How about ve drrag them back to the grround floor o' the citadel and lock them on those cells ve have found? Then ve talk to the council about theirr vill."
Gofran then turns to Karana. "I can see ye arre unvillin' to decide theirr fates, but pushin' them back thrrough theirr porrtal is also a decision, a decision that could cause otherr people to die, since they vorrship a God o' destrruction. If ve do that, ve should aknowledge it is possibility."
Karana shakes her head, “I do not want to kill them, yes. But I do not want mercy to make me an unwitting accomplice in innocent deaths.
“I… forgot about the cells. Yes, Gofran.” Karana is at peace with this decision. Her forming smile reflects this. “Let us lock them up for now.”
She draws her spear, then says to Bea, “Can you kindly tell these two dragon-worshipers to please move as directed? If they ask of alternatives, the alternative is death.”
Beatrix nods and speaks to them in Draconic, chatting amicably like with two very odd and slightly crazed friends.
The charau-ka seems relieved at the news that they won't be killed - perhaps some of the meaning of the previous discussion had filtered through in tone of voice and expressions - and moves along as indicated without much fuss.
Karana drags a KO’d boggard to the cell.
Bea chats in Draconic as the prisoners are taken to the cell. You hear her mention Cthulhu a few times, placing the back of her hands on her chin and wiggling her fingers down like tentacles.
Once the prisoners, conscious or otherwise, are dragged to the holding cells, the Bumblebrahers eagerly volunteer to guard them. Most of the tribe gathers to watch them, chattering amongst themselves and commenting on their "guests"' strange appearance.
Back into the catacombs, it takes a bit of work to dismantle the makeshift barricade that blocks access to the northern door behind which Big Bumble presumably resides, but after some concerted efforts the way is clear.
Kyrie’s shoulders relax as the situation is resolved, at least for the moment, without any need for final violence. She offers to take the boggard from Karana, as she can carry a great deal without being drained. She also takes the lead on moving the barricade, having both the strength to move the biggest pieces and the architectural knowledge to understand how to move it without cause structural issues or a collapse.
Beatrix just stays out of the way when the barricade is being dismantled. Small and studious combine into being a poor lifter.
Before the barricade is finally removed, Gofran voices his concern. "Perrhaps it vould be vise to keep the bearr herre forr a bit longerr, considering ve have those exotic birrds down the hall. Once the bearr is frred, therre could be a fight and lots o' noises frrom the meetin' o' the animals."
Reconsidering their visit to Big Bumble, the group continues exploring the lower level of the citadel. The eastern door leads to a short corridor that opens into an irregularly-shaped room, almost mirroring the one with the tents. Pieces of furniture are still intact here, although hanging from the ceiling's rafters in the center of the room is a strange structure made from ripped and knotted curtains and sheets.
"Odd-looking beehive, that." Beau points at the haphazard construction hanging from the rafters. "Could it be a make-shift pantry? Or a goblin crow's nest?"
"Orr vherre the charrau-kas sleep." Gofran offers. He then moves forward, taking a look on the place.
Indeed, three charau-kas were hiding in the curtain jungle, dropping down on any who approached, but they are quickly subdued. Unlike the boggards, they show a lot less inclination of fighting to the death and are quick to surrender when it becomes clear that the odds are not in their favour. Soon they join their comrades in the holding cells upstairs, watched over by the goblins.
A search of the room reveals that anything of value has been long stripped from the space, and the charau-kas themselves carried nothing more than their weapons and a few items of personal use.
Two doors lead out of this room - one to the north-east, and the other straight east.