Beorn backs up Malgar.Aye, if there are more beasties from the river here, we best get everything sorted out before commencing the plundering!
|
Indeed Malgar, these would work perfect for Tiny. In the morning I can have those boots cleaned good as new. Otherwise the best I can offer is a rinse in the water here. If you want them take them.
Calling out to those ahead of him that entered the north room, Find anything useful in there or more of the same that we found under the stables?
"Just a few bunk beds and a latrines. And another door," Litsy answers, chuckling at Malgar's comment. "Well, that sounds like a real useful spell. Better not have a stammer with those things."
She quickly searches through the room, because you apparently never know what magical stuff you can find in the weirdest of places.
Borgan stands close to the new door, listening intently for something on the other side as Litsy rummages through the room.
Hammer and shield held lossely, he still looks ready to go, should anything dangerous come through the door.
"Find anything useful?" He asks Litsy withut looking away from the door.
As tiny starts to take a look at the door a deafening enraged screech erupts from a nearby pile of sheets. In a flurry of claw and feather a large bipedal raven leaps upon Borgan and attempts to rip out his eyes along with most of his face.
Thankfully for the unaware group it's rage was greater than it's actual skill and precision at murder.
"Oh shit!" Litsy exclaims, taking a backwards step.
Group is 15.4. It is up.
The group rally's quickly and while Borgan is caught off guard his armor is more than up to the task and the group is able to retaliate swiftly.
Malgar blinks. "What in the name of Cayden's tankard?" he exclaims right before the bird swoops in to strike Borden.
However, reacting quickly, he studied the bird and thrusts with his rapier!
Borgan is surprised and taken aback slightly as the creature gets the jump on him. As it scratches unsuccesfully at his armour and shield, Borgan recovers his composure and swings back at it with his mace.
"Oh shit," Litsy repeats, as the creature digs its talons into Borgan's armour. She instinctively moves into a flanking position, following Variel's instructions, but struggles to draw her blade, and strikes clumsily at an enemy that she still can't quite discern.
It hits Borgan's shield, slightly scraping its wooden surface.
"Stop moving!" she shouts at the poor half-orc.
Beorn moves up with Malgar and stabs the crow
attack Beorn
attack Beorn
Damage + Rend
In the panic and scrambling only Beorn manages to land a telling blow on the creature with a shriek of pain and rage. Turning it's attention away from Borgan it turns and throws itself fully into Beorn ripping into his flesh with claws and pulling savagely tearing cloth and flesh into bloody ragged ribbons.
Group is up.
ARGBBLLLL!
"Beorn!" Borgan shouts for his injured comrade in arms and faith.
He shoves more to the front and attacks the creature again with his mace.
In one motion he swings his mace down hard on the creature's head and then withdraws it, slightly tapping Beorn on his chest with it, hoping to slowly nudge Beorn away from the fight.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Malgar's face hardens as Beorn is hammered. "Fall back!" he calls to the bard sideways. "Everyone else - Crossflank! Variel, north and flank with Borgan. Tiny, we take it from the sides!"
"I'll show you a murder of crows, ye pest!" he grumbles at the bird, skewering it only moments after Borgan hits it hard.
Beorns withdraws!
Despite Variel's best efforts the bird creature is very much dead. If Borgan's skull shattering blow didn't do the job malgar causing devastating damage to a number of internal organs certainly would. In the briefest of instances what happened was not so much a fight as a desperate panicked brawl that ends just as quickly, and as silently, as it began.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Beorn casts Cure Light Wounds on himself. Trying to put his insides back in. They clash horribly with his outfit.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Yeah, okay, let me just- oh," Litsy's panicked stammering comes to an abrupt halt as Malgar and Borgan properly eviscerate the bird. "Well, that's fixed."
She wipes her blade clean with her shirt tail, pretending that it somehow got blood on it. It's better than to look at Beorn patching himself up.
"We might need to figure out how it got down here as well."
"I don't know. Someone collects pets?" She kneels down to inspect the corpse. Maybe it's got secret pockets.
Tiny doesn't find any holes not already made by the group. But around one of its wrists are three copper bracelets and a silver necklace with a locket attached to it with elven script written on the tiny casing.
"Interesting. That's a lot of expensive stuff on a bird. Don't suppose anyone can read the locket? Script's always been a tad overly fancy for my tastes," Malgar says, cleaning his rapier on a half-gone once curtain.
Which, in effect, only traded the blood for a lot of dust. Couldn't there just be a convenient clothing source nearby for basic weapon maintenance for once?
He sighed. Maybe he was getting too old for this.
I fear I do not know elvish. Beorn looks much better but his outfit remains slain.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Think it says... Whoever's wearing that is a dunce. Something like that. "Dunce" and "stupid dead raven" sound awfully similar in elvish though, so it's kinda hard to tell."
She pockets one of the bracelets carelessly. For someone who once talked so much about the importance of sharing, she's really rather flippant about the whole 'having an actual conversation about who exactly gets what' thing. Looks like Variel's still got a whole way to go to teach her good manners.
|
|
Not so sure that dunce and raven are that close but I do t speak elven. When did you learn that language Tiny? I never heard you speak elven before. Variel casts detect magic around the room to look for any auras or to see if Tiny’s pocketed bracelet is magical.
Appraise bracelets
Bluff
Tiny, let me see that bracelet. It might be magical and I want to check it out. While Variel has a ways to go to get Tiny to exhibit good social graces that doesn’t mean he lets her get away with it.
"I don't speak elven, Variel, I speak elv-ish," Litsy replies, deadpan, easily slipping back into the snarky back-and-forth that defines most of her interactions with Variel. "You don't know elvish? It's something you pick up as you go. Lots of improvisation involved." She briefly inspects the necklace and the bracelet before tossing them to the magus. "Sure, have a look!"
Meanwhile, Malgar paces to the door the bird just flew through and carefully peeks around the corner, standing guard for more danger.
Borgan shakes his head as Litsy, Variel and Beorn mention speaking Elvish and them fooling around.
Borgan strides after Malgar into the new room and stands besides him.
"It's good they are still light-hearted enough to joke around like that."
After Malgar replies or not, Borgan calls out to the rest.
"We're already heading out to the next room. Going with us?"
The room to the north seems more or less devoid of anything of interest. It's large enough to house a few halfling bunks that are more or less unmolested. To the northeast of that a blanket curtain hides an office bwhind it though the term is loose as ita little more than a table, a chair, and an unlit candle.
Variel thinks that to the right buyer the copper bracelets would be about 15 gold with the loclet fetching much more qt 100. None are magical.
It seems that our attacker was squatting here. Perhaps they were the reason the poor fellow was tossed to the crocodile.
Borgan strides after Malgar into the new room and stands besides him.
"It's good they are still light-hearted enough to joke around like that."
"Definitely. I was worried about morale for a while there, but it seems they've sprung back," Malgar replies. He finishes cleaning his rapier and moves up behind Borgan. He then helps searching the northern room for anything useful.
"Any valuables are nice. Staves off the hunger and the loneliness," he says, then his brows sink as he seems to think on something. "...But where can we go next? Was this it...?"
|
|
Sorry, Tiny, not magical but they should sell for a pretty good amount. And as far as the difference between elven and elvish and elfish I clearly do not have that type of education. Perhaps you can teach me sometime… Variel trials off as some of the others open the curtain to see what else is hidden. Variel scans with detect magic again for anything interesting before resuming his conversation with Tiny. anyways what was I asking. Oh yeah…when do you think a good time would be to learn another language? Maybe we should all learn another language that way we could communicate to each other without others knowing what is being said.
I do know a cantrip that can send my voice in a whisper to another. Be useful for talking across rooms.
Borgan and Malgar search the office room together to see if anything useful still remains.
"Unless we find an extra hidden door in this room, I think we've discovered everything in this secret hideout. Or did I miss a room?"
Theres nothing of interest in theae noethern rooms except space for future dealings. In the main entry room to the south there are a set of steps leading downwars.
Suddenly, the dwarf looks up! "Ah, of course! The basement. Never forget the basement, is what we used to say. Next to 'always keep the pantaloons!' So, forward, recruits! Let's clear out this dungeon."
He confidently strides back along the hallways and takes the stairs down, though slightly wary of danger.
"I'll teach you some day," Litsy replies to Variel with a snicker. She draws her rapier to follow Malgar underground. "Lead the way. Hey, Variel, think you can make more of your magical lights?"
Beorn follows next to Malgar.
|
|
Variel obliges Tiny and sends out the dancing lights ahead to illuminate the path forward. Thanks Tiny. Beorn that sounds like a great idea as well. Anything we can do to keep in communication and not let our opponents know what is going on is better for us. How far away does that ability work?
perception
About one hundred feet.
Coming down the staircase you find yourself in a maze of crates and moukdering tarps. At the center of which is a table with dimly lit lanterns and scattered playing cards.
All this is is just as much as you can take in when entering the room while a chorus of panicked squacks, drrawn weapons and the shifting of boxes see several black feathered figures dive behind crates between you and them.
"Soldiers! Soldiers are here!" One clearly avian voice exclaims.
Another pipes in even more panicked, "our doom is upon us sisters Chough has damned us!"
Abother tries to take command of the situation, "stay down and defend eachother we will cut through if we must!"
"Wow, WOW!" Litsy raises her hand in a gesture of non-aggression, remembers that she's still holding her rapier, sheathes it, and puts her hand up again. "No need to cut through anything or anyone, okay? We're not soldiers. We're pretty much squatting this place as much as you are."
She leans back to talk to the rest of the group in a low voice:
"I think they're tengus... Never seen one in real life." Her voice is almost quivering with excitement. "Actually I didn't even think there were some in Kintargo."
"Tengus huh? I think I've heard of birdfolk before, but wouldn't have known what they'd look like."
"They do look like active little fellows though, that bobbing up and down shows their energetic, but also for protection. Since they're not heavily armed or armoured, it seems like a good tactic."
Borgan hangs his mace back on it's strap on his belt.
"No need to worry, we don't mean any harm. See? No more weapons."