"Yeah. Still makes them heroes in my book."
"Anyway, we can walk and talk. We should keep going before the vultures get here. Who knows how big those things get around here."
"Oh that...an admirable trait for certain. One must make sure the progeny continue..." Mateo said, patting the allosaurus on the head before he looks over at Joran. "You alright, friend? You seemed partially chewed on there."
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Atia stepped carefully toward Joran, sporting The Look the barbarian was so terrified of. She stops near his feat, looking down at him with her arms crossed.
She would wait until his conversation with Mateo was finished, face still sporting that terrifying expression, and then catch his gaze. "Joran. Dearest. Darling. My love? Please warn us when you are going to go charging at something." She sounded pleasant enough, but the glint in her eyes was dangerous.
Landing with a solid *thud* and tumbling out of the dead dinosaur's mouth, Joran rises and rubs some of the pain out of his backside before holding his arms out wide to examine the massive amount of slobber that he's covered in, watching some of it just hang from his appendages before slowly dripping like snot onto the ground. "Ugh. He slimed me."
"Oh that...an admirable trait for certain. One must make sure the progeny continue..." Mateo said, patting the allosaurus on the head before he looks over at Joran. "You alright, friend? You seemed partially chewed on there."
Looking over at the swashbuckler, the barbarian shrugs. "Not too bad really. Just covered in all this disgusting slimy slobberiness is all." Cutting his focus to the oracle, "Thanks, Destinie."
Then looking over at Atia, Joran grins sheepishly and shrugs, hoping she won't be too angry with him.
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Atia stepped carefully toward Joran, sporting The Look the barbarian was so terrified of. She stops near his feet, looking down at him with her arms crossed.
She would wait until his conversation with Mateo was finished, face still sporting that terrifying expression, and then catch his gaze. "Joran. Dearest. Darling. My love? Please warn us when you are going to go charging at something." She sounded pleasant enough, but the glint in her eyes was dangerous.
Seeing that "look" once again from his petite lover, Uh-oh, Joran's anxiety rises quickly as he realizes any hope of her not being "too angry" with him is now nothing more than a ridiculous dream. Hanging his head in shame while reluctantly angling his eyes toward her, he cringes at the scolding he's receiving. Yes, she sounded calm and collected and no hint of anger in her voice could be found whatsoever, but the barbarian knows that tone all too well and he dared not say anything to make things worse.
Taking a moment to see if he could find the words to explain himself, a moment to find the words to tell her why he did what he did, Joran takes a deep breath, and with his head held high, says, "Yes, dear," before dropping it down again and grinning uncomfortably, hoping to take some of the edge off of that "look" that shoots daggers at him.
He then ponders something else and works up the courage to quietly ask, "Um, darlin'? I don't suppose you could use your magic to get this slime off of me, could you? Please? It's...," he points to his head, "It's in my hair and I don't really like that. Please?"
Leaving the site before scavengers come for the giant meal, you continue along the trickle of the river for another hour, when you discover the first sign that Mateo's "The Nagas aren't going to kill themselves...hopefully," may have been prophetic.
The river forks, the streams beyond the split barely enough to be called creeks. The water is two feet deep at most, and never wider than five or ten feet across. Lying ten or fifteen feet from the water's edge, you find a dead naga. The body has been here long enough to dry out and become food for other creatures, the torso a grisly ribcage and most of the tail eaten, but her face shows she was so thin as to be emaciated when she died.
Taking the time to scout along either branch, you find more of the same. The drought, stealing their watery abodes, has killed naga by the dozens. Some have starved, some dried out, some, their gills coated in the mud that remained of their former home, suffocated. Most are scattered, territorial creatures in life.
Just ahead, you see what resembles a beaver dam. Branches and rocks have been piled to create a small pool of water. As you approach it, you hear a gasp, and a splash.
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He then ponders something else and works up the courage to quietly ask, "Um, darlin'? I don't suppose you could use your magic to get this slime off of me, could you? Please? It's...," he points to his head, "It's in my hair and I don't really like that. Please?"
Atia stared at him for a moment longer, letting him simmer in discomfort. She could let him just deal with the slime, but then the rest of them would also have to deal with it...
Her resolve broke at the bashful, apologetic expression and his quiet pleading, and she broke out into a grin. "Oh, fine. I can't stay mad at you, Joran," She said quietly, kneeling down next to the barbarian and using her prestidigitation cantrip to clean all the slime out of his hair and off of the rest of him. Dark gray energy surrounded her hands and seemed to siphon away the dirt, slime, and grime, leaving the barbarian clean.
"You don't need to explain yourself because I trust you had a good reason, you just need to give us a warning if you're going to attack a big giant reptile, alright? Give us some time to prepare." Now that the barbarian was cleaned, Atia leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on his forehead before standing up. "Let's get going, love."
As they explore the river's edge, discovering more and more dead naga, twisted in agony and starvation, Atia finds herself feeling somewhat sorry for the creatures. While the naga were not friendly, pleasant creatures, and her side still stung from the fight the day before, she didn't think they deserved this long, slow, horrible death. "Sad, awful way to go..." She says quietly before the gasp and splash at the dam catches her attention.
The wizard narrows her eyes and gestures toward it. "Looks like something's there." She will cast Detect Magic as they approach (if they are approaching) just in case.
"Why? Are we going to chase after barn owls hunting mice and rabbits, too? You SHOULD have died, there, Joran. Nearly did before Mateo got in a good strike. I'm glad you're alive, but, seriously?"
Terry looks flabbergasted. Not angry. Not confused. Not really frustrated.
It was harder for the oracle to hold back her disgust of the bodies littered across the area. She didn't realize how bad the drought has been for the naga.
Hearing the splash, she motioned towards the dam. "I think it went into the water. Just be careful." She followed anyone who pressed forward while taking note of any sudden movements.
Des and Atia crept forward just ahead of the rest of you, and peered into the pool.
There, staring back at them fearfully from under the water, was a young naga boy He looked to be the equivalent of a five year old, by human standards. He was very alone, and seemed terrified of you.
Atia stared at him for a moment longer, letting him simmer in discomfort. She could let him just deal with the slime, but then the rest of them would also have to deal with it...
Her resolve broke at the bashful, apologetic expression and his quiet pleading, and she broke out into a grin. "Oh, fine. I can't stay mad at you, Joran," She said quietly, kneeling down next to the barbarian and using her prestidigitation cantrip to clean all the slime out of his hair and off of the rest of him. Dark gray energy surrounded her hands and seemed to siphon away the dirt, slime, and grime, leaving the barbarian clean.
"You don't need to explain yourself because I trust you had a good reason, you just need to give us a warning if you're going to attack a big giant reptile, alright? Give us some time to prepare." Now that the barbarian was cleaned, Atia leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on his forehead before standing up. "Let's get going, love."
Giving a firm nod of agreement, "Absolutely, my dearest Atia." Joran lets out a quiet sigh of relief before rising and breaking into a wide, dopey grin.
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"Why? Are we going to chase after barn owls hunting mice and rabbits, too? You SHOULD have died, there, Joran. Nearly did before Mateo got in a good strike. I'm glad you're alive, but, seriously?"
Terry looks flabbergasted. Not angry. Not confused. Not really frustrated.
Pondering that a moment - a long moment - Joran takes a deep breath and smiles at the rogue before simply shrugging and giving a wink.
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Moving along, he perks up when Atia and Destinie seem to notice something. "What is it, ladies?"
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"That was a solid strike Joran, a real fearsome blow. Surprised the thing didn't keel over just from that first strike." Mateo said as they made their way forward now, his weapons sheathed and a soft whistle leaving him as they left the allosaurus's corpse for opportunists to savor.
As the trip moved on, the smell of old corpses filtered in and a frown spread across his face. The sight of many of these creatures, dried out and desiccated, brought a frown to his face as he stayed his blade. It seemed that nature had had its way with them and there was no more need for violence.
"How...unfortunate. Seems like there will be no fight left here." The splash of water caught his ear and Mateo would turn, following behind the oracle and wizard towards the edge of the makeshift dam. He would approach the side, staring down into the water to see the young naga looking up at them with fear in its eyes.
"A child." Mateo said softly, letting out a deep sigh. He shook his head, looking down at his rapier, before becoming resolute. "I'll make it clean and painless, if need be. It'd be a shame to let it suffer the same fate."
Lanni stays back as the others go to investigate the pool. At Mateo's announcement, he finally comes forward.
"A child?" He peers into the water. "Oh, a Naga child. Poor little one."
He calls out to it in Aquan.
"A child." Mateo said softly, letting out a deep sigh. He shook his head, looking down at his rapier, before becoming resolute. "I'll make it clean and painless, if need be. It'd be a shame to let it suffer the same fate."
Atia frowns at his comment, nodding slowly. "Depending on how things go while Lanni speaks to him...that may not be a bad idea. These things are not our friends." She glances up at Joran for his reaction--she had a feeling the barbarian wouldn't be too keen on that course of action.
Mateo becomes as still as a statue as their captain speaks to the tiny naga. He gives the slightest nod towards the wizard's word, his blade half-drawn but not fully brought out.
Seadreamer wipes his axe clean and then heads back to his dropped crossbow and picks it up.
Laddie, we were clear, and letting nature take its course. But you decided to get chewed on. Ah well, good strike but please let us know when you intend to do something like that again.
waving a hand in front of his face.
Ug, it kind of smells like a fishmongers
When they hear the gasp and spot the small Naga, he pauses and looks over at Lanni as he starts to talk to the thing.
The child doesn't answer Lanni, but calls for his mother, in Aquan. He cowers in the far end of the pool, only his head above water, baring his tiny fangs. No one answers his call.
Lanni shrugs helplessly at the others. "I don't know what else to do for him. He won't talk to me. Just keeps calling for his mother. Atia, you mentioned that Naga aren't any more inherently evil than any other race, right?"
Looking hurt himself, Terry will try Aquan as well.
In common, though "This whole thing is very wrong. Nobody deserves the kind of destruction these have been facing. We should help however many are left."
"That was a solid strike Joran, a real fearsome blow. Surprised the thing didn't keel over just from that first strike." Mateo said as they made their way forward now, his weapons sheathed and a soft whistle leaving him as they left the allosaurus's corpse for opportunists to savor.
With an uncomfortable nod, "Yeah, um, thanks. I don't know. Just kind of responded naturally, I guess." He shrugs.
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"A child." Mateo said softly, letting out a deep sigh. He shook his head, looking down at his rapier, before becoming resolute. "I'll make it clean and painless, if need be. It'd be a shame to let it suffer the same fate."Atia frowns at his comment, nodding slowly. "Depending on how things go while Lanni speaks to him...that may not be a bad idea. These things are not our friends." She glances up at Joran for his reaction--she had a feeling the barbarian wouldn't be too keen on that course of action.
Looking quite shocked at the two, Joran shakes his head emphatically. "No! No no no! We can't just kill it! C'mon, Atia, Mateo, look at it. It's just a child! Yeah, I know it's one of those crazy snake-like creatures but... I don't know... we just can't kill it. We can't. We shouldn't anyway. It just feels... wrong."
Looking hurt himself, Terry will try Aquan as well.
In common, though "This whole thing is very wrong. Nobody deserves the kind of destruction these have been facing. We should help however many are left."
Pointing at the rogue and nodding definitively, "See! Terry thinks so too. I'm with Terry. Totally agree."
Mateo didn't turn his attention towards Joran or Terry as they put up their opinions, his focus entirely on the scared child that was before them. His eye flickered towards them, watching them carefully before he gave a shrug.
"I don't think a ship is much of a home for it either. We cannot guarantee its safety, its survival, or assuage their fears. If I was gone and my child was left behind to wither away, I would wish for their pain to be swift and merciful." There was no glee in the swashbuckler's voice, not like when he fought against the grindylow or even the antkeg upon the island. This was, to his mind, a true act of kindness rather than an enjoyable kill.
"As always though, I stand by what the crew chooses. Officers?" He turned his head towards Des, Seadreamer, and Lanni, waiting for their opinions.
"I'm also not sure he would do well with us on the ship. Let's see if we can find any more living Nagas. I don't think he is going to wander off anywhere right now."
Lanni takes a look around the area.
"I don't suppose you know anything about this area."
:⁂:
"Should have more water." He echoes in a deadpan. "You need to work on your humor."
Terry shakes his head. "Lanni's got the idea. I don't want to adopt it, but if we can find adults to take it and raise it, that's got to be preferable to just killing it out of hand. Assuming we can figure out how to do something about this drought."
Lanni shrugs helplessly at the others. "I don't know what else to do for him. He won't talk to me. Just keeps calling for his mother. Atia, you mentioned that Naga aren't any more inherently evil than any other race, right?"
"They're mean and territorial, but no, not inherently evil, I don't think," Atia replies, sighing heavily.
To Joran, she shrugs. "I suppose we should see if there are any sane naga left to take in the child, as you all said. Otherwise, we are either adopting a child, or we can out it put if its misery."
I care not for either choice. So let us find more of the snake ladies and ask them to take him in.
Seadreamer looks around, and then looks towards the river bed upstream.
I guess we should be going that way
When Terry spoke of his mother, the child stopped yelling. The offer to try to find her seemed to calm him just a little bit.
As you considered searching further upstream, you looked at the small trickle of water in the riverbed. The further upstream you traveled the smaller the tributary would shrink. If it was this bad near the shore, the headwaters were bound to be worse.
Lanni calls back to the Naga child, "fi 'ayi tariq dhahabat? lays ladaya taeam alan , lakiniy sa'ajid baed altaeami."
While Terry and Lanni continued talking, she addressed her opinion to the group.
"I think finding the remaining naga may be our best chance, even if it's slim. I'm... morbidly curious to see how bad it's up there. Checking upstream wouldn't hurt."
Pulling some dried meat from his gear, Terry offers it to the child.
"If we can't find anyone, we could always see if someone at Rickety's could take care of it...tame naga are rare, but he's young enough to be taught who the enemy is," Atia suggests. "Better than us adopting it."
"I'm not entirely convinced that the people at Rickety's aren't more of an enemy than the Naga are."
Aria shrugs. "Well, we have several options. Let's look around for more, then go from there, I suppose."
If we haven't found a solution by the time we reach the headwaters of this creek, then lets take him back to Riketys
The boy takes Terry's offering hungrily, struggling to chew the jerky but swallowing big pieces of it anyway. He's too reticent to thank Terry, but as you all leave his little pool he watches nervously.
His mother had been gone for days, and as skittish as he was around a group of landwalkers, he was not enjoying being alone.
You all spent the next couple hours continuing upriver. The news seemed to be much the same. The naga you fought yesterday may well have been the last of this population to survive the turn in the weather. Even the fish were struggling in the low, murky waters, and water naga needed much more space to survive.
If we haven't found a solution by the time we reach the headwaters of this creek, then lets take him back to Riketys
"Yeah, that sounds like the best idea. We can at least figure out what to do with him from there."
He calls out to the little Naga in reply, "bialtabe sawf naeud." Then follows the others upstream.
The naga you fought yesterday may well have been the last of this population to survive the turn in the weather. Even the fish were struggling in the low, murky waters, and water naga needed much more space to survive.
Lanni spends a bit of time trying to catch a fish or two.
But just ends up wet and muddy. "This isn't going well."
The further they moved upward, the more desolate the river became. It seemed like there was no hope for finding anyone else. And of course that allowed a possibility to dawn on her.
"Could that naga we fought have been the mother?" she asked somberly.
"It could have been, but I don't think it's worth dwelling on. We didn't cause the drought, and the naga was out of her mind." Atia touched her side lightly, frowning at the memory of the naga's teeth sinking into her flesh.
After they had spent hours traversing the uncomfortable, hot terrain, Atia heaves a sigh and pushes sweaty hair off of her forehead. "Well, shall we head back? I'm not sure it's going to be worth it to keep going forward."
"A river like this has a headwater. There should be something to see, something to identify what's happened. If the drought was bad enough for the river to have vanished this completely as a consequence, the vegetation should all be dead and burning in the heat. Right? Gotta be something to find."
The further they moved upward, the more desolate the river became. It seemed like there was no hope for finding anyone else. And of course that allowed a possibility to dawn on her.
"Could that naga we fought have been the mother?" she asked somberly.
"It could have been, but I don't think it's worth dwelling on. We didn't cause the drought, and the naga was out of her mind." Atia touched her side lightly, frowning at the memory of the naga's teeth sinking into her flesh.
"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. I mean, it's a possibility." He shrugs. "I sure hope not though, for the little guy's sake."
"A river like this has a headwater. There should be something to see, something to identify what's happened. If the drought was bad enough for the river to have vanished this completely as a consequence, the vegetation should all be dead and burning in the heat. Right? Gotta be something to find."
Nodding, "There's gotta be, Terry, there's just gotta be." While the barbarian hopes, his tone clearly indicates he's not very positive about it.
Only thing I can think of is to keep going upstream and see what comes of it when we get to the headwaters.
Seadreamer then turns back to the trail, and sets off with a rolling gait.
You continue on a ways, but eventually come to the conclusion that this is just an unfortunate natural phenomena. The trees are, in fact, suffering , though they get enough water deeper into the ground not to perish entirely.
Your search has gained you the comfort of knowing there won't be a second naga attack on the town, as well as a child in need of assistance, be it a long term solution or Mateo's offer of mercy. By the time you make it back to his pool, night has fallen.
"So what will it be? I will not let the child suffer, one way or another." Mateo said, eyeing the brush carefully. They had seen the hunters that lurked here, who said that they were not being watched even now. He pulled out a torch, setting it aflame to give them some light as darkness began to overtake all.
"Take it back to Rickety's, and if they won't take it...we decide whether we're all going to be parents," at the thought of being responsible for a child, Atia shudders with disgust, "or if we're going to show the poor thing mercy."
The wizardess crosses her arms over her chest, exhausted, sweaty, and sticky. "I don't think this is anything other than a natural drought. Nothing we've seen points to anything nefarious."
Lanni returns empty handed to the pool and is clearly not pleased about that. He sits down on the bank and looks downstream towards where the small village would be. "I don't even know what the little guy eats. But I suppose our first step is to make camp here. I don't relish the idea of trekking back through the mud of the river in the dark. In the morning we can figure out if the Naga will even follow us back to Rickety's place."
It was almost disappointing that it was nothing other than a drought. It made their decision even more difficult to do. When they were back, she rubbed her hair off anything that remained sticking before answering.
"Agreed. I can look up to see if I can get any info on naga and the food they eat," She gave out a deep sigh. "It's not exactly what I had in mind with adding a child to the ship."
"Why in the world are you looking to add children to the ship, anyway? That's a horrible idea." Atia asks Destinie incredulously as she looks at their surroundings, trying to determine a less...muddy place to make camp.
"I don't!" She replied quickly. "Hopefully if we can find a place it won't come to it."
"Take it back to Rickety's, and if they won't take it...we decide whether we're all going to be parents," at the thought of being responsible for a child, Atia shudders with disgust, "or if we're going to show the poor thing mercy."
The wizardess crosses her arms over her chest, exhausted, sweaty, and sticky. "I don't think this is anything other than a natural drought. Nothing we've seen points to anything nefarious."
"I like Atia's idea of taking it back to Rickety's. Let's do that and go from there. Good idea, darlin'." He smiles, nodding in relief.
In that case, how do any of you propose to get the little bugger so that we can bring him to Rickitys?
Atia shrugs, quirking an eyebrow at the dwarf. "Probably talk to it? Tempt it with food?" She shrugs. "Terry had some luck with it...maybe he can talk to the thing, tell it we want to bring it somewhere safe?"