Batman and Ravenna miss, but Nox and Sylva both land critical hits! Glass shatters as they badly damage the construct and reduce its armor! The animated cabinet launches several of the vials of poison inside of it at Sylva in retaliation!
A bottle breaks over Sylva’s head. Bloody and wet, she teeters and totters… and falls flat on her face!
Sylva’s wounds mend quickly! She awakens!
“I drn mrnd cold eggs mummmwha?? Thanks, Nox!”
She rises into the air, striking a knob with an uppercut—
—she tries to follow with a roundhouse kick, but slips on the wet floor and almost face-plants again!
Sir Batman frowns at the mean furniture. The Champion of Mazludeh Reacts quickly by granting Sylva Liberating Step!
The Bronze bat then Raises his Shield and Strikes twice!
'Bout ta turn ya into un disco floor!
Batman and Sylva's critical strikes destroy the animated cabinet! It topples to the floor with a crashing thud.
Nestled in the remains of the apothecary’s cabinet is an antidote that can cure Deniigi’s poisoning. In addition to the antidote, you can also find two moderate cheetah’s elixirs, two moderate eagle-eye elixirs, two barkskin potions, and a +1 armor potency rune on a runestone inside the cabinet.
Sir Batman begins measuring the area for the new flooring.
Best get to work!
After spending a full minutes trying to decide which tool to use for laying wood, the bronze-colored sprite shrugs.
More your field of expertise, Ravenna. We best bring this cure to our drunk Huntress.
Gathering the gear (he smiles at the Rune), he begins the parade back.
Sylva hops on Ravenna’s shoulder. “Hope you don’t mind me pulling myself together up here while you do all the walking!”
She whips out her med kit and—
—“Yabba!”
Sylva hisses in pain as she makes a cut worse dislodging a tiny pice of glass from her thigh! She manages to stop the bleeding, but it almost seems as if she’d have been better off leaving the wound alone and letting magic do the trick.
“Ohhh, I almost envy Deniigi lying on the floor half naked and stoned… except for the part where we know nothing fun left her that way.”
And now that she’s done whining…
“I shouldn’t have said that. Let’s go help that poor woman.”
Sir Batman will flutter up to Lay on Hands Sylva every 10 minutes while they walk back to sober up the Huntress.
Duck....duck....duck.....
The antidote works wonders, and soon Deniigi is lucid once more, if a little hungover. She thanks you profusely as she puts her clothes back on and checks her equipment. "It was a mistake trying to fit in with those ruffians. Let's get out of here."
You escort the huntress back to the Smiling Wolves' camp. There, Sakuachi expresses delight, then concern, at seeing Deniigi, who’s clearly still feeling the effects of her poisoning. Deniigi waves off her concern. "I'll be fine. Just... give me a day or two."
There is still one more person to find...
Sylva finds the Huntress’ outfit very impressive. She uses her Dweomerweave robe’s magic to make a less bulky sprite-sized version (when Deniigi isn’t looking) and is ready to find Pamak. She recalls that he is vaguely to the northish-westish.
But she can’t keep track of direction with all the weird magic, so she says to Nox, “You point; I scout.”
Sir Batman seems to be a bit confused as to which direction(s) is northish-westish?
The bronze-colored sprite decides to close his blue eyes, Twirl around really fast, and fall in a random direction.
Opening his eyes, his head still spinning the sprite sighs
Huh. Looks like we go northish-westish.
Ravenna happily carries Sylva along, taking some time to check her jezail for obstructions in the barrel. It had performed unusually poorly against the...cabinet.
Sir Batman seems to be jumping around Ravenna holding his damaged (but still majestic) Shield and Batmaning his blue eyes at her.
Heading north-westish seems to work, as you manage to navigate to where the Smiling Wolves saw somebody matching the chronicler Pamak's description outside the city gates. Fortunately, the slushy soil outside the city has left Pamak's tracks plain. Ravenna and Sylva both spot the boot prints.
The tracks lead southwest for about a half a mile, where they terminate at a cave. The thin layer of snow outside this shallow rock cave is spattered red with blood, and gibbets of flesh lie scattered here and there.
A few moments after you arrive, a green draconic creature emerges from the cave! It spreads its wings wide as it hisses in Draconic!
Sylva says to the others, ”I think people get eaten here. Not sure why the wyvern’s telling us to flee though. You’d think it’d want us to stay if it’s gonna eat us.”
She asks the wyvern some questions.
“Ace-bray or-selves-yay.”
The dragon roars angrily!
Sylva backs away from the Wyvern, and says to the others, especially Ravenna, “The wyvern says there is no goodness in his heart. Maybe we can overcompensate for the lack of goodness with bullets.”
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Ravenna nods, taking a moment to try and remember what she knows of little dragons like this one.
Smiling wider than a hungry dragon presented with hors'deurves, the proud Champion of Mazludeh skips along holding out his newly repaired majestic shield.
Thanks, Ravenna! Your skills are unparalleled!
The happy bronze-colored sprite continues to gleefully skips all the way to the thin layer of snow outside this shallow rock cave is spattered red with blood, and gibbets of flesh lie scattered here and there.
His blue eyes frown at the mess outside. He narrows those same blue eyes as the most likely creature responsible approaches.
Hey! Hey you! You can't eat your pudding if you don't eat your meat!
A confused expression seems to be rapidly spreading amongst those in audio range....
When Sylva and It-Who-Eats-Like-A-Slob begin to converse in a guttural, almost lava flowing down a volcano type tone, the bronze sprites blue eyes just ping pong from each speaker with zero comprehension.
Are we supposed to go inside?
"I suspect he's eaten the person we came here to find," Ravenna says, unslinging her jezail. Switching to Draconic, she addresses the dragon.
"We're looking for someone who came this way. What happened to him?"
”Allow me to show you!” the dragon roars as it surges forward to attack!
Sylva makes sure to be within 60’ of the dragon and 25’ of the team!
The dragon roars as it seems to draw energy from the land, sheathing itself in raw destructive energy. It gestures with its tail, creating a detonation of force around Ravenna!
Sylva calls out to Sir Batman, “How do you feel about slaying a dragon?”
As soon as the bronze bat rushes into melee, Sylva warp-steps and strikes!
Well that was rude!
Sir Batman Raises his Shield, Strides into a Flank with Sylva and Strikes!
Ravenna's quick reflexes save her from the worst of the blast, and she snaps off a shot in retaliation before ducking behind some cover to reload.
"That's the best you've got, little lizard?"
Ravenna hits the dragon with a bullet as she runs for cover. Batman misses, but Sylva wraps behind the dragon and lands a solid blow. The angry dragon sinks its fangs into Sylva, a critical strike! The destructive force around its fangs discharges, further wounding the rogue. A follow-up tail strike leaves Sylva down and bleeding. The dragon continues its frenzy, raking Batman with its talons!
Sir Batman grimaced at the violent display perpetuated by the dragon to Sylva! His blue eyes tighten a bit as the frenzy focuses on him!
Reacting by Shield Blocking a bit of the tumult, the Champion smiles at the dragon.
We heard that there was a real Dragon around here?
The bronze-colored sprite then reaches out to touch Sylva.
He then Shield Bosses the dragon in the Netherlands region!
EDIT!
EDIT! EDIT!
The sprite Raises his Shield!
"Sylva!" Ravenna shouts, firing two more shots in quick succession at the monster.
Sylva rises and…
…actually lands a blow!
“Frry… berts… drrgunn…” she slurs woozily.
Nox's projectile and Ravenna's bullets skip harmlessly off the dragon's scales. Batman bashes it with his shield, though, and Sylva gets back up to deliver another solid blow!
The dragon snarls with annoyance as it whacks Sylva with its tail! It tries to take her down with its talons, but she somehow manages to avoid its attacks!
Sylva is barely able to stay up, and surprised by her dodges! She wants to warp-step to safety, but—
“We gotta throw everything we’ve got!”
As her other attacks do nothing, Sylva asks herself why she didn’t warp-step and braces herself for the inevitable!
Ravenna fires again, but her aim just seems to be getting even worse.
Sir Batman Reacts quickly, granting Sylva a bit of respite.
Get off my kool-aide!
The Champion of Mazludeh then Raises his Shield, screams at the dragon and Strikes it in the dragon ball Zs!
Batman leaps up and delivers a brutal blow to the dragon's maw! Blood and teeth fly from its mouth as it whimpers in pain. Ravenna's shot goes wide, but Ravenna delivers another swift kick to the dragon's backside. Badly wounded, the dragon shrieks, flaps its wings, and flies off into the hills!
Heaps of bones fill the corners of the damp stone cave that served as the dragon's lair. The tops of several stalagmites have been broken off to form crude pedestals, atop one of which sit a pair of severed human heads. Tragically, the severed heads are those of Sakuachi's companion Pamak and the missing Smiling Wolf Hissoi.
Among several worthless trinkets situated throughout the cave is an astrolabe of falling stars and 100 gp worth of small esoterica (figurines, scrolls, etc.)
Sylva is surprised by the grotesque revelation. “Wha..? Why..? I just assumed dragons would eat the heads.” She can’t bear to look any longer, now that she’s pretty sure those are the heads she’s looking for (despite the Smiling Wolf’s lack of a smile).
She helps the party rob the dragon blind as much as a tiny person with tiny muscles can. She’s too horrified to not blather on. “Yeah, wow… I guess we can’t exactly give the victims a proper burial, or, I dunno, just roll them away?” She struggles to move a figurine. “And, ha! When he comes back, he’ll be like ‘my doll collection! Nooo, raaah!’ And we’ll have… showed… him.” She pauses for breath as the figurine she’s dragging is a life-size statue to a sprite. She turns to the heads. “This is the closest we can get to avengi… oh, should not have looked again.”
In the interest of not throwing up, Sylva stops talking or lugging or looking, and gets her med kit out.
[oops! Sometimes I forget which character did what thingy...lol.[/ooc]
Sir Batman watches in disappointment the dragon retreating. He does seem especially proud of the bashed dragon snout!
That counts as a win!
The bronze-colored sprite then looks inside the den to witness the grotesque display of trophies.
Place them in a sack. We should bring them back for proper burial rites.
The grim bronze-colored sprite then begins those duties. He also will offer Lay on Hands for those injured.
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Nox watches as the Wyvern flies away quickly, "Whew hopefully we don't have to deal with that one again."
Once they get inside Nox takes in the scene and shudders, wondering if it'd have been any different if they'd showed up earlier. "As much as I want to agree and take them back. I have reservations about taking a disembodied head in a sack with us."
He helps Sylva load some of the figures and smaller objects inti Hildy's saddle bags.
"We should return to rest very soon thiugh."
You return to the Smiling Wolves' camp where you gently break the news of your grim discovery. Sakuachi takes Pamak's death hard, holding back tears as Deniigi wraps her arms around the younger woman. Innumma swears under his breath, and Ulikuq grimaces but says nothing. Matz accepts the report of Hissoi's fate with a grim nod.
"You've fulfilled your end of the bargain, helping to secure the city. It's time I fulfilled my end," Matz says. He orders his men stationed at the docks to open the locks, then provides you with a raft and loads it up with a cedar box full of treasure. Inside the heavy chest is 200 gp in mixed coinage, 200 gp in rare gems, and a traveler’s any-tool.
Once you have rested and Sakuachi has had a chance to mourn, you prepare to leave Skywatch. Matz sees you off at the docks. “I’ve been talking with some of the smarter Wolves,” he says. “This raft will get you to Winterbreak Bay, no problem. The Lake, though, has a mind of its own. If you’re going west to Sarkoris, the port you want to reach will be Egede, in Mendev, and that’s a long way off. The raft is good, don’t get me wrong, but you’ll need something bigger to make it all the way.
“There’s a ship graveyard,” he continues, mock conspiratorially, “not far from Winterbreak Bay. It’s called the Jundlan Wrecks. You’ll find dozens of ships there, some no doubt seaworthy enough for your voyage. Don’t heed the ghost stories—pure poppycock, I’m sure. But hey, who knows? You’re good at this treasure-hunting thing. Maybe you’ll find more than just a ship among the wreckage.”
With a smile and a wink, Matz helps shove the raft into the river. The other Smiling Wolves offer friendly waves and a communal howl as you begin their voyage.
Sakuachi looks ahead, the cold wind blowing her hair about her face. "I'm sure the journey will not be easy. But I am glad to have you all by my side. We follow the stars. Destiny awaits!"
Sir Batman smiles, bods, kisses babies and shakes hands while venturing about the camp.
Listening intently to the briefing by Matz, the bronze-colored sprite seems to be wearing a worried face.
Do we have time to find a pirate hat? I bet we won't be bother by pirates if we all wore a pirate hat.
Nodding sagely at his logic, Sir Batman spends time searching for pirate hats for the crew....
Sylva is sympathetic toward Sakuachi, but gives her space to mourn after simply saying, “Sorry for your loss.”
She takes a different tone with the Smiling Wolves. “The dragon was not easy to defeat, but the four of us chased him off. If you want to avenge your friend, come at him with ten. You’ll need healing magic, ranged weapons, or any means to impede flight.
“I’m not suggesting you should avenge your friend. I’m saying, if you do, don’t fight fair. He’s a coward who keeps heads as trophies, so he deserves no mercy or quarter.”
• • • • •
On the day they set out, Sylva offers Sakuachi, “If you want to talk about… y’know… I find it helps to talk.”
Sakuachi sits beside Sylva on the raft and stares out at the water. "Parnak volunteered to escort me on my holy quest. He was a loyal companion and a good friend. He would have done anything to ensure my safety. I knew things would be dangerous, but I... I never thought..."
She sniffles and wipes tears from her eyes. "I've never lost somebody who I cared about before. Have you?"
Sylva shakes her head. “I haven’t really let anyone get close. I mean…” She gestures toward Nox, Sir Batman and Ravenna. “…my friends here are it, after all we’ve been through together. Ravenna especially helped me through some stuff. I feel like I’m a better person for knowing her, knowing them.
“I wish I had the words.” Sylva places a hand on Sakuachi‘s fingertip. “But I think it’s good for you to shed tears for him and talk about him. If I outlive a friend…” She considers that she will outlive her companions by a hundred years or two, or about a millennium in Ravenna’s case. “…I hope I have someone in my life who’s willing to let me mourn as long as I need to, and not tell me when I’m supposed to be over it.
“If you need to talk again, or if you prefer the opposite, like you maybe want me to play an upbeat tune? Just ask. The answer will always be yes.”
Sylva doesn’t harp on this point any longer. If Sakuachi wants quiet time, that’s okay too. Anyone who cries for a friend this long must be a good person, and must be in need of a friend.
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Nox places a comforting hand on Sakuachi's leg as Hildy curls at her feet.
"I... yes I have. It was quite a time ago now, but the pain of it lingers still. I wish I could say it gets easier but I don't think it should ever fade really. With time and good company though."
He looks to the crew of Fey and tall-folk assembled, "The wounds seem less open. They slowly turn to scars that simply ache. You may want to shy away from it but you have to open yourself to it and accept that it hurts and it will continue to hurt."