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Lough's shield arm quivers, in parallel tune with his nerves.
The look on his face is as he has already seen a ghost - perhaps a mild hallucination brought about by once again entering the same swamp within which he has already had so many close encounters of the third kind. His breathing is short and fast, and his eyes twitch towards every chirp of insect or snap of twig as the party makes their way forward.
When Kka advances to inspect the entrance, he follows with caution, awaiting the inevitable snap in tension that will bring his anticipatory fears to animation!
Giyozara will step up and cast his gaze around the ruins for anything magical.
Cherry Berry looks left and right while moving to be a little closer to the center of the group.
"It's bigger than I thought. I was expecting a tower, not a complex."
Cherry shrugs but sounds cheerful. "Still, all we need to do is get to the center and go up right?"
Kka checks the door for traps and finds none. She opens the door - it's harder than she thinks, the door is stuck in its frame, waterlogged by the years of damp environment. With a squelching sound, she pulls the door open.
Swaths of mildew and mold cover the damp surfaces of this watchtower, appearing as green and black smears on the dull stone walls. The doorframes in the walls to the north and south rotted long ago, while a few collapsed chairs lie on the floor amid small heaps of foul‑smelling gray lumps. Thick sheets of dusty cobwebs hang from above, obscuring any view of the ceiling.
As you walk inside, you hear several high-pitched voices from beyond the cobwebs. They speak in a snarling language not all of you can understand.
"Dobrodošli v našem salonu! Pazite na zlobne žuželke v glavnem skladišču. Toda naše čarobno blato pixie vas bo zaščitilo pred njimi. Samo podrgnite ga po koži in ga tudi pojedite!"
"Welcome into our parlor! Be careful of the mean bugs in the main keep. But our magic pixie mud will protect you from them. Just rub it all over your skin, and be sure to eat some of it as well!"
"Who's there? We don't mean any harm, we just want to know what is going on."
In a much quieter voice. "There's a crawlspace above us. It's designed for something my size."
Kvit listens to the language before letting the rest of the group know in common: "I don't know who is speaking but they are speaking undercommon. They claim that this is magic pixie mud and that it will protect us from them, and we have to consume some as well. I've personally never heard of something like this, and I'm not sure how much we can trust invisible voices, but it's worth investigating further. Maybe we can figure out what his mud is before we eat any..."
Kvit will wait until the party moves into the room fully and then move up to one of the piles of mud and poke at it with his staff, trying to figure out what it really was. Sniffing at it too, he says: "It looks and smells like plain old gross mud to me. It could be magical though. What do you think Giyozara?"
He looks to Cherry and whispers, "Do you think the voices are coming from the crawlspace?"
Kka doesn't understand a word of what the voices in the ceiling are saying, but she doesn't like the sound of the snarling language they're using. She's pretty certain they wish them no good and presses herself further into the shadows hoping that they hadn't noticed her yet. When things got ugly, as they were bound to, she wanted to get the drop on as many of them as possible.
Giyozara points at the mid.
”That mud is. . . NOT magical. Pixie magic or otherwise. I mean, unless illusory magics have made it appear it isn’t but, I mean, why would anyone do that?”
Giyozara points at the mid.
”That mud is. . . NOT magical. Pixie magic or otherwise. I mean, unless illusory magics have made it appear it isn’t but, I mean, why would anyone do that?”
Kvit thinks a moment "Alchemical items don't register as magic. I wonder if it could have non-magical qualities? I've been dabbling in alchemy recently, and even have the tools here." He pulls out a set of vials and catalysts to inspect the "mud's" properties.
Kvit sits down and takes his time analysing the components of the mud. The whole time, the voices from up above keep chatter-snarling.
"Napake, ki so pred nami, so res velike in strašljive! Toda pixie blato prikrije vaš vonj. Prav tako vas bo okrepil, da jih boste zlahka premagali."
While Kvit is busy with his tools, what do the others do?
From her hiding place in the corner, Kka listens to her companions' discussion. "What in all the hells are they going on about? Don't they realize that there are dangerous creatures lying in wait directly over their heads? Are they really discussing the mud on the floor?"
Kka looks down at the foul‑smelling gray lumps, then up at the ceiling where the voices came from. A feeling of deja vu runs through her as she flashes back to her early childhood. "Magic pixie mud my hoof! I know a roost when I see one. These creatures are just trying to distract us. I wonder what they are? Birds? Bats maybe? No; too intelligent for that. Up to no good though, that's for sure."
She wants to call out and warn them of the imminent danger, but decides to remain quiet for the time being so as not to give away her position. Perhaps the evil-sounding creatures above them were just having fun. Perhaps they meant no harm to them after all. "Yeah, right! And the stuff on the floor was magic pixie mud." She tightens the grip on her sword and waits for the inevitable.
Everyone can hear what you suppose is high-pitched snickering coming from up above as Lough rubs the mud over his body.
”Those voices are saying that there are ‘big bugs’ up ahead and that the mud will mask our scent and make us stronger but, I mean, probably not. First of all, they are speaking in Undercommon, so that’s a bit suspicious. I don’t think pixies tend to speak in Undercommon, right?”
As soon as Lough hits the ground and splashes pixie mud everywhere, the snickering from up above transforms into high-pitches squeals of laughter. After a few moments, two shapes come crashing through the cobwebs and fall onto the ground, laughing. They keep pointing at Lough, blow raspberries at each other, and laugh even harder. After a few minutes of this, their laughter is so loud they're gasping for air, and eventually fall unconscious.
"Well, I guess they aren't an issue anymore are they?"
Cherry Berry dips a foot into the mud and doesn't move for a little while.
"Tastes like normal mud to me. Maybe a little higher in minerals than the mud around town."
Cherry will walk over the Lough and give him a bit of a look-over.
Lough, feel free to describe what's physically going on with you. I don't want to presume.
Sam sticks to the shadows, but she will draw her bow, string it and nock an arrow in case she needs to fire at a moment's notice.
Quietly, she stays behind Kka, ready to support her in case any hostilities break out.
Kvit looks up from carefully examining a sample vial and looks around annoyed. "Can you all quit messing around? I'm trying to work here."
The rat on his shoulder takes another sniff and tries to talk but gets shushed. "Hey boss, I think-" Kvit stops him "Hush, I said I'm trying to work out what this is-" He raises his voice "before more of us start rolling around in an unidentified substance!"
Cherry indulges in the mud for as long as the party lets them.
"Hmm, this is really nice. Remind me to bag some of this for later. It'd make a nice treat after hard day."
"So, uh, Cherry, is that normal mud or . . . I mean, IS it special for you? If it is, or even if it's not, I think it's time we head on. I'm not going to follow strange voices that are clearly lying."
Seeing her potential adversaries fall out of the ceiling and laugh themselves into unconsciousness, Kka decides it's safe to come out of the shadows. She looks down at the annoying creatures and tries to figure out what they are with no luck.
"So whaat do we do with these two? Should I <criiiik> them before they cause more trouble?" She moves her sword in a slicing motion to indicate what she means by <criiiick>. "Not sure I waant these two coming up behind us laater." Kka was not a big fan of summary executions, but bad guys had a habit of causing trouble unless they were permanently removed from the board. Her only reticence in this case is that though clearly obnoxious creatures, they hadn't yet tried to cause them real harm. Hells bells, Cherry actually seemed to be enjoying her excrement experience.
While Kvit finishes up his experimentation, Kka will make a thorough search of the room, and their unconscious antagonists.
Sam will attempt an identification.
Sam also has to pull her eyes away from staring at Cherry Berry rolling around in the mud. She rolls her eyes and begins examining the two unconscious creatures.
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...the ruse lasts a few moments.
Lough gets up and grins "Thought I was a gonner, did I get you going?" revealing the joke, it's a no wonder nobody believes his stories, what with his propensity to play at faking his own poisoning. He pokes at the passed out creatures with his shield "That funny, huh" attributing the success to himself - whether comedically or combatively. He confesses what really went on: "Mud is foul like bland but also bitter. Turns my whole body it does, magic pixie muck!" His silver eyes shoots with paranoia - am I really poisoned but don't know it yet!?
Crafting (*) +5
Lore: Swamp (*) +5
Nature (*) +3
Occultism (*) +5
He moves into the room and, returning to "business", albeit somewhat frantically, covers the opposite door, trying to listen to the other side, wondering if his stomach will suddenly turn on him!
Cherry Berry checks Lough out, and determines that while Lough's stomach might be in distress for today, there should be no adverse side effects of ingesting a small amount of pixie mud. If you'd eaten more, throwing up would solve most of the problem as well.
Lough hears nothing coming from the other side of the door.
"Yeah, really nice mud..."
Kka had not been all that concerned about Lough; it wasn't the first time she'd seen him feign poisoning and then play possum as a prank; and she wasn't going to fall for it again like that first time in the tavern a few years back. Until she actually saw him change color and start frothing at the mouth, she wasn't going to worry.
So when he pops up and reveals his joke, Kka yawns and with a deadpan tone dripping in irony, says, "Oh, were you down for the count there, Lough? Oh dear, how saad, never mind."
She then turns and sees Kvit still messing about with the mud and becomes irritated. "Oh, come on Kvit! Let it go. It's not maagic pixie mud, it's shi... I mean, poop. Probably caame out of these funny guys here." She indicates the two unconscious pranksters. "Now put it down and let's move on before they wake up."
Once again, she does her usual door routine . If all is clear, she grips her shortsword and nods to Lough to open the door.
Sam quietly signals to her companions. In a low voice, "These two are called mitflit gremlins. They are wretched fey creatures, lowest on the social totem pole, and easily bullied into servitude. They typically tame insects and spiders, seemingly the only creatures that want to hang out with them. They usually blindly lash out at enemies, enraged by their miserable lives and social status. There might be more, so we better watch our step. Not sure what we want to do with these two though." Sam points to the two unconscious mitflits.
"Summery execution seems a little harsh. After all they just pulled a prank. Didn't even attack us. Can we just . . . tie them up? I guess?"
"Tying them up probaably won't hold them forever, but if they haave a boss, then it might stop them from raising the alaarm and robbing us of the element of surprise. We'll have to gaag them as well, just to make doubly sure."
She looks down at the pitiful creatures. "Then again, these mitflits don't look real smaart. If we're not around when they waake up, they might not even remember we'd ever been here. Not sure we can take that chance though."
"We could try to make them talk. Have them tell us what they know of this area."
Kka looks around the room for treasure and other valuables. There's not much to find, but in one of the... piles, there's a small peridot bead with a few teeth marks on it. One of the mitflits probably assumed it was a candy and swallowed it. You estimate the bead to be worth around 2 gp.
The mitflits themselves each carry 10 darts and a shortsword.
Kvit finally finishes his evaluations and seems to get more frustrated as he completes the job. It's hard to tell with all the fur, but you think you can make out that he is flushed with embarrassment. He quietly packs away his alchemist kit and looks around. "Ah, well it is uh, benign, just normal uh, you guys already figured it out. I guess I was too excited to try out my new toys. And it appears I have a long way to go to become a proper alchemist since it took me so long to..." He sighs in defeat as he finishes packing the kit up.
It appears that the two pixies are being handled and are little threat so Kvit just looks around the rest of the room and moves up near Lough, ready to move on and leave the embarrassing start to the job behind him.
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"I say let them be" Lough sympathizes with the wretched creatures: He feels somewhat of a "mitflit" of the human species.
He waits until Kka and the others are ready to execute "the plan" opening the next door - nice and slow and cautious! - his eyes darting thither and fro.
*hick*"Let's tie them up for now." *Hick* "If they don't remember us maybe they'll think someone else did it. If they do, we they won't be able to run off and tell anyone else."*hick*
Cherry Berry looks around at the room. "You don't think they lit the lighthouse do you?"*hick*
Kka cooes to herself as she wipes the magic pixie mud from the peridot. "Niiice!" She was already picturing herself with the fancy new shortbow she'd seen at Keeleno's weapons stand in the market the other day. She pops the now clean gem into one of her pockets for safekeeping.
When someone mentions intimidating some information from the mitflits, Kka perks up, but quickly discards the idea. That would require them to wake the creatures and possibly make a lot of noise in the process of interrogating them. "Better to leave sleeping mitflits lie than to risk them waarning their friends by waaking them up." She ties up and gags the mitflits in the way she's been trained, then kicks their weapons out of sight under some of the rubble.
As Lough attempts to open the next door, he finds it's completely waterlogged shut. As he puts his shoulder against it for added force, the door completely comes out of its frame, the hinges completely rusted through.
A wooden drawbridge, its timbers gray with age and decay, spans the 20‑foot gap between the outbuilding and sprawling ruin on the island. Rusty iron chains hang from the ruin’s northern wall to the drawbridge’s southern side. The chains look ready to fall apart, giving the drawbridge’s structural integrity an extra layer of dubiousness.
You can easily see this bridge isn't capable of supporting much weight. Small creatures can cross safely, but medium creatures need to cross one by one, or the whole bridge will collapse.
To the east, tangles of reeds grow in thick clusters around the edge of this muddy pond. The water appears murky with algae, and the half‑decayed body of a three‑foot‑tall scaly humanoid lies on the pool’s northern bank, half‑buried in mud and leaves.
"Hmmm, looks like I might be able to make it across that bridge, but I suggest going one at a time just to be safe."
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Lough grabs a handful of darts.
"I will follow after you" stowing his shield on his back, Lough reaches into backpack and grabs some rope "Hold this side" and handing one end to Giyozara prepares to wait for his turn to cross.
"Hope we don't end up like him..." pointing to the body in the northern bank.
Sam crouches down on one side of the bridge. She draws her bow and nocks an arrow.
"Head across," she says, "I'll cover your backs"
Kka gives Lough an impressed look. "Nice job with the door Lough. Doesn't look like aanyone's come in or out through the doors recently. The mitflits must use the windows to aaccess their little cubby hole."
She then examines the bridge carefully to make sure there aren't any hidden surprises.
"I think Giyozara is right. The bridge should be aable to support the little ones, but it'll only support one of us bigger folk." She looks over at the doors on the other side.
"Okaay. Everyone staay on this side. I'll go over and check the doors." Kka then carefully steps across the bridge. Despite her height, she is actually quite light; like all Tengu, her bones are hollow; a vestige of their distant flying ancestors. Once she gets to the door, she gives it the standard working over.
(2) Listen at the door.
(3) Test door to see if it is locked.
(4) Pick lock if it is locked.
(5) Make sure everyone is ready before Lough opens the door.
(6) Look into the room before following Lough in.
Once the door looks ready for Lough, Kka comes back over the bridge so that Lough can get on the bridge by himself to open the door. As soon as Lough gets the door open and steps through, Kka will quickly cross over the bridge and follow him through, clearing the bridge for the others to follow.
Kvit winces as Lough pulls the door off it's frame. "We'll alert everything here if we keep that up."
He nods to Sam. "Great idea. Just don't miss and wind up shooting Lough. He'd probably assume we'd all gone mental and either attack us or run away. I'll be ready to cast something as needed, maybe an electric Arc."
Cherry Beery calls out in a hiss. "Wait, there's something in the water over there. A Big frog, maybe a crocodile? It hasn't noticed us yet, but I am not sure if we want to get its attention or not."
Halfway across the bridge, Kka freezes when Cherry brings their attention to the strange thing in the pond. She looks over and spots the immobile creature. "How did I miss that? I'm getting slow in my old age I guess." She brings a finger up to her beak in a shushing motion. After a moment in which the creature hasn't moved, she whispers, "I don't think it's noticed us yet. Let's keep it that waay." She proceeds across the bridge to the door, though perhaps with a smidgen more care that before.