"Do iruxi build towers? I thought they were all in the swamps, and you can't build a glorious tower of appropriate height on swampy foundations - ask me how I know."
Seeing the excitement and possible puppy eyes of her friends though, she relents. "Fiiiiiiiine. My royal exploratorium decree is hereby mended to begin with the iruxi. Even though it'll probably smell."
"Eh, they don't smell much like anything. I think it's the scales. Everything washes off cleanly." he muses. "We would trade with some of them and they did this thing where they changed color. It sometimes made it hard to remember who was who."
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Russ tilts his head, "I don't actually know. I've never read of such a thing happening, but I suppose it wouldn't be completely out of the question."
He thinks for a bit, "We'll have to charter a boat to the isle once we get back home. Hopefully we can establish a good report with the Iruxi in the meantime. A new trade partner especially one who would be able to share the bounties of the lake bottom with us and tips for our hunters would be invaluable."
"The iruxi aren't gonna smell!" Blaze smacks Ankra. "Except mostly like lizards I guess? Everything's got a smell. No the swampy island is gonna smell."
He rubs the side of his head that she laid her royal smack upon. "Well of course swamps are going to smell. Everything is rooting there."
"And it's all Wet "
"If we are going to visit the iruxi and attempt to establish trade relations, we should prepare gifts. Ankra, you seem to know about them - what do they like? What is hard for them to get in the swamp that we could procure?"
Vesi thinks hard about it as well - scale lotion? scented herbs? iron tools?
"Well they have a lot of fish, but pigs and cows don't do well in the swamps." he says. "So I guess meat would go over well."
"It's because of the mystery? Duh?"
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"Ah yes the implacaable nature of a mysterious unknown tower, being easily overlooked simply because of the mystery. How could I forget such powerful magics." The silvery kobold lets out a hearty laugh.
"Well sir if you've no further assistance from us to reach the capital we'll be on our way. Do be sure to rest up these lands are still quite untamed and there is much work to be done."
Ankra waves at the traders. "mystery tower, here we come."
After Jubilost departs, you head southwest, following his map. After a few days, you come to a particularly swampy stretch of the Murque River. A low, muddy hummock protrudes from the middle of the widening river, surrounded by a palisade of outward-facing, sharpened wooden stakes. The waters of the river itself flow relatively serenely and are surely too deep to simply wade through. Beyond the palisade walls, tendrils of smoke rise from a handful of small mounds clustered around a single larger mound. A simple wooden gate on the eastern side of the hummock seems to be the only entrance to the fortified island.
A group of four iruxis stand sentry near the gate, keeping an eye out for trouble with blowguns close at hand.
Ankra will step forward with empty hands. In his nice friendly tone, he calls out, "Hello there. We come to talk and stuff."
"Russ? Why do we think they'll think we're so bad at not intruding?
"Did we bring the gifts? We brought the gifts, yes?"
Vesi displays the goodwill offerings on their outstretched hands (or arms, depending on size of said offerings) - which also serves to show the undine is not armed.
"We have brought you a small token of our good intentions."
The four iruxis seem taken aback by your diplomatic overtures. They exchange nervous glances. "Gifts? Ssss... Very well, wait there," one calls down. They converse in quiet tones for a few moments, then the one who spoke earlier slips out of the gate to approach you.
"Forgive us. We do not get many visitors. You seem like you are good people, and we are grateful for what you have brought us," she says, but she is obviously nervous and jittery. Her tail twitches behind her. "However, our village is ill at ease at this time. An evil spirit has invaded, and it has been goading our king towards greater and greater acts of cruelty. It has even begun to suggest hunting the humans who have come to live nearby.
"We humbly ask for you aid. Leave now, but return tonight, quietly, and I promise to let you in and lead you to the spirit hut. If you can defeat the evil spirit, you can free the village from its influence. But be careful, because many of the other iruxi, particularly King Vesket, are more enthralled by the spirit. You should avoid interacting with the others until the spirit is defeated."
"Oh! Yeah that makes sense. Just uhh, don't be a trap when we come back, okay? Cause if it is we can run really fast except maybe Russ. Little legs."
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"I can keep pace just as well as you Lady Blaze."
He nods though from their distance the gesture might be a little lost. "This gives us time to plan. You can be sure we'll help you be rid of this ill intended spirit."
"So.. an evil or something is making them more aggressive? Glad we caught wind of this now, it could have spiraled quickly downward into unsalvagable if they'd begun eating people. What are our tools to deal with spirits though?"
"Queen Blaze"
Vesi turns their large, pale blue eyes to Jaethal. "You're the expert here, I think!"
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Making a note to talk with her about this in a more private setting Russ nods to Blaze, "Queen Blaze, my apologies."
Russ nods as they move away to break for camp. "I'm not well versed in spirits and without our dour dwarven cleric. I dare say we may be at a disadvantage without some level of expertise."
"Probably a good thing. I'm no match for Dwarven spirits. They get me every time." It likely takes a second to realize that even Ankra is not that slow. Which is about as long as his poker face stays.
"But I'm sure we'll figure something out." he finishes.
Jaethal causally runs her gloved finger along the edge of her scythe. "Spirits without a body can be difficult to deal with without force magic. However, I can beseech the Pallid Princess to bless my scythe with the ability to harm incorporeal beings. It will carve through ether as surely as it will flesh. Now we just need to reach the spirit without being detected."
***
You wait until nightfall, then return to the iruxi village. The guard you spoke to earlier is waiting for you. She quietly opens the gate and points you towards a smaller hut behind the lizard king's large one, informing you that the spirit dwells within.
Ankra pulls his cloak up and steps with care as he crosses.
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Blaze considers just announcing herself with magically enhanced fanfare, but then after a fight for her life with her impulse control, steps lightly through the gate.
You carefully sneak through the village to the indicated hut. This mound has a deserted, run-down look to it. The mud is dried and cracked, and no smoke issues from its chimney. Within, the air is strangely cold and dry, and the walls themselves have been decorated with images of violence showing lizardfolk fighting in long, bloody wars against humans, dwarves, and elves. In many of these scenes, a single regal lizardfolk directs their armies to great victories.
A few moments after you enter, there is a flash of green light as a floating lizardfolk skull appears, shrieking with fury as it shimmers and flickers!
Before you can react, it unleashes a wave of fear that washes over you all!
Despite his fear, Ankra moves in to engage the spirit.
"Ah! Cheese it!"
Blaze legs it for the gate!
Vesi shrieks as well, taken entirely by surprise by the terrifying apparition. Blaze running away only adds to the undine's fear, who reacts instinctively and conjures a stream of water to push the specter away.
After having made everyone but their target wet, they call for help. "Jaethal! We need you!"
"Annoying," Jaethal remarks, gritting her teeth to fight through the brief fear that flares in her cold heart. She moves to flank the foe with Ankra, slashing with her scythe. She misses the nimble skull, as does Ankra.
With a shriek of delight, the skull swoops at Ankra, striking him once and discharging an electric shock!
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Since he's already moved into position, Russ'ruk takes advantage of the floating skulls maybe distraction, can ghosts even be distracted he wonders. Regardless taking a swing at the thing with all his tiny draconic might from the flank, before raising his shield defensively. "Come on then you overly detailed napsheet."
"Ow, that hurt!" he exclaims redundantly before trying to figure out how to hit this thing. He blasts left, then blasts right, but the creature is small and dodgy. Finally he realizes that They can't do this alone and swings a watery whip to set it up for Jaethal.
Wait, weren't spirits basically undead? And undead reacted very peculiarly to restorative magic...
Somewhat shamefacedly Blaze slinks back, yeeting a quick ball of flame at the specter now that it's drawn closer.
Vesi's healing magic ripples out, mending Ankra's wound but having no effect on the floating skull! It hisses with laughter, and Jaethal's scowl deepens. "This thing is no undead," she mutters.
The nimble creature dodges Blaze's and Ankra's attacks, but both Russ and Jaethal manage to hit the thing, their blades slicing through a core of wispy but substantial flesh. The thing lets out a hideous shriek, then its light suddenly goes dark and it disappears from sight! There is a rush of air as it flies past you out of the tent, fleeing into the night!
Outside the hut, you can hear snarls and hisses as the commotion has begun to wake the village...
"Chase?! That thing was scary! And we don't even know it's causing problems! Let's just get out of here!"
"Yes, it might be prudent to retreat until things calm down," Vesi agrees.
The desire to be anywhere else but here makes the usually clumsy undine a furtive, light-footed creature of the night.
"as you wish." he says, looking back to where the spirit went.
While Vesi and Ankra manage to move quietly, Russ'ruk makes a bit too much noise, while Blaze's noisy footfalls draw even more attention. A patrol of four lizardfolk wielding longspears comes upon you, hissing loudly and raising the alarm! Behind you, you can see a partiuclarly large and burly iruxi approaching, a gleaming trident in his hands. He calls out in Common.
"Stop right there! Explain yourselves! What were you doing in the hut of the ancestor?" he demands.
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Russ freezes almost instinctually at being spotted as if some deep part of his brain convinced hin for a few moments that if he didn't move that whatever may have seen him would continue onward as if nothing occupied the space where he was.
When it becomes clear that isn't the case the Kobolds' instincts fail and he clears his throat.
"By ancestor do you happen to mean the." He looks to Jaethal, "Will wisp?"
"Ehem the Wisp that inhabited the tent over there? We came seeking mutually beneficial relations and were informed by a secretive informant that you were being coerced by a malevolent spirit so we only wished to help. Though it occurs to me now that perhaps we should have spoken more openly beforehand to see if that would tarnish your honor or violate some other code of your peoples. For that I am sorry and humbly request you grant us mercy."
He gave a deep bow in an attempt to show his sincerity to the probably rightful ruler here.
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"Uhhh Russ is right! It was no true ancestor. The Willywisp was just here as a deceiver. We came to speak with your king, but it was jealous, and probably wanted to murder him some time or something. And as his fellow Royalty, I am broadly opposed to regicide, so of course we had to drive it off!"
"A what? A wisp?" the hulking iruxi cries. "No, he is a spirit of our great ancestor, Stisshak. He has promised to lead us to glory in battle."
He grows silent as he ponders the weight of your accusation. It seems he is struggling to accept the truth, but Russ's earnest words and Blaze's charming insouciance convince him of the truth. "We were all of us deceived. This... this is disturbing indeed." He looks to Blaze. "You said you came to speak to the king. I am the king. King Vesket. Who are you?"
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Everyone can see Russ's armor shift downward as the kobold carefully lets go of the held breath at the King's decision.
"Glad am I to see that you are a wise king indeed, King Vesket I hope that you and your people have long fulfilling lives and again I am truly sorry that we have intruded thus. But proper introductions are in order, I am Russ'Ruk of Safehaven, and this-"
He bows and offers his hands to the side towards Blaze. "Is the magnificent Queen Blaze, of Greenbelt kingdom. We all are members of her royal advisory, and as you see she prefers a hands on approach."
He then looks to her as if leading the reins of the conversation off.