Brows furrowed in concentration, the gnome taps her fingers as she searches her memory for a definitive answer to the question. Finally, her face brighten as she concludes triumphantly, ”Malvor Pastak!”
We clearly need details, probably copious details! Like, is it edible? Sounds like either a dish or gnomisch first world super booze! Svetlana asks Odelai
Gnomish first world super booze? Sir Pounce indicates his great interest by flicking his tail and raising his eyebrows in an almost morse code fashion.
Odelai chuckles. "First World liquors with a mule's kick? That would be Dandelion Wine, often called Dandy-188 - because of the proof. Malvor was a worse sort of hangover. He was my husband. I was dumb to get married in the first place. And Malvor was, by far, the stupidest man I've ever taken to bed. So I was dumb in two ways."
So, emergency edible but requires good booze to wash down? Svetlana manifest her bite attack, clearly in jest.
On the subject of really strong booze,
and perhaps the second dumbest thing I even did, so there was this refugee from Sarkoris, the weird thing was that it was the other side of Sarkoris from where Irrisen is, like, Sarkorian-Wordwound-Numerian border, so it didnt make all that much sense for a refugee from there to turn up in Irrisen, but yeah, I am not the bestest at geography She continues
So, we chatted a bit, and then it obviously got to booze. You see, we Irriseni are pretty proud of our booze drinking abilities, and so are the Kellids, so I literally had a drinking contest with a guy nicknamed "boozebringer". Seriously, dont ever drink a "BALOR-69".
Its their special drink they intended to use against the worldwound, because it can even get demons drunk. He did later admit that Numerian rocket fuel is a key ingredient for that stuff. Oh boy that stuff kicked. The really dumb thing is that the demons left that tribe alone, in return for booze sendings.
Svetlana finishes a not all that unlikely story actually.
The drink delivered by the well smelling male was most well received by myself! My understanding of the world has greatly increased from its consumption! The 2 legs just dont know whats good! Sir Pounce indicates by prancing around a bit.
Listening to the conversations around her as she consumes her rations, tending to the fire as the group starts the day, Elowen considers the question.
"I suppose my biggest mistake was confusing pokeweed berries with muscadines once. That was a very uncomfortable few days." she says with a shy shrug.
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Penelope's face grimaces "Ugh." she knew enough plant lore to know what a mistake that was.
The morning is nice and cool but it is warming up. Birds are loud though out the woods. You all entered the forest early enough to not run into the lumberjacks, which is nice.
After an hour of walking there is a strange scent on the air that Sir Pounce notices, sweet but metallic. Sharing this information in the way the bond he shares with Svetlana.
Alert, to arms, quietly, the smell of blood is in the air.
Svetlana fluidly shifts into a clawed and fanged form and motions Odelai to dismount.
She looks a lot more feline now.
Sir Pounce and she both sniff, an Sir pounce motions into the scents rough direction.
Svetlana leads you all about 50ft left of the direction you all were walking. Pinned to a tree with long iron nails are three tiny humanoids, pierced though the chest. Wings hang limply. They are pale and streaks of glittery blood stains their hair. Limbs are bent unnaturally and each of them have thin gashes on their arms. Oddly there is no blood on the tree.
...and motions Odelai to dismount.
The gnome slides off the tiger without a word and follows along, eyes honed for any signs of trouble.
Pinned to a tree with long iron nails are three tiny humanoids, pierced though the chest. Wings hang limply. They are pale and streaks of glittery blood stains their hair. Limbs are bent unnaturally and each of them have thin gashes on their arms.
Coming upon the scene, Odelai's eyes narrow and she hisses loudly at the sight. Her hair writhes and flares like albino cobras. Rage radiates from the tiny woman as she closely examines what was done to her kinfolk.
Banking her anger, she says coldly, "This coin must be repaid in kind. I'll have those nails when we're done here."
Penelope's knuckles turn white where she squeezes the grip of her bow. She doesn't have words to express her own need to see the murderers brought to justice, whatever that justice might be.
Before they all approach the scene, her keen eyes quickly look for tracks that might tell them where the attackers went.
"Aw, poor little folks..." Jenkin says, sincerely upset at the sight. "Should we bury them? Do fairies do that sort of thing?"
[spoiler=History DC14] There are various legends mortals believe about the Gey. But those bodies have no blood. There is one old and violent myth that the blood of the Fey can turn lead into gold.[spoiler]
As the half elf looks around for tracks, she admits "Our town doesn't have a good relationship with the Fey, but I've not heard of anything violent."
Nothing good comes out of wars with the fey.
These are keld pixies. Kind of like a mix between a dryad and a pixie. Though they are not bound to one tree, instead its a forest. She pauses
This is bad, the forest will likely know and demand vengeance.
There is a stupi myth that Feyblood turns into gold. Complete b*#*%+$#. But it may be what happened here.
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As far as I know, Fae tend to conduct Sky Burials, though I do not know where exactly. On any account, this vile display stops now.
She almost snarls as she approaches the tree.
She removes the nails with great care, making sure to not damage the tiny fae further, and then prestigtates each of them to look less in pain and more in peacefull slumber as she gently closes their eyelids.
Thy pain has ended, may thee return in laughter to the first world
She repeats 3 times.
I think placing them on the top branches of the tree is a good idea, perhaps affix them were with some long grass or vines. Who is the best climber among us?
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Odelai shakes her head, "Not this tree. It would be better to take them deeper into the forest before committing them to the sky. We want no trace of them remaining here."
She uses her cloak to carefully wrap the bodies.
She pulls a dagger from her belt and carves a reply into the tree where the bodies were hung, You're next.
"Well, if you guys find an appropriate tree, I'll set them up top. I'm pretty good at shinnying up trees.."
"I seem to remember you using them as escape routes any time you got into trouble." Penelope might have added 'which was a LOT' but she'd have been a hypocrite which she tries to avoid. Not indulging in Hypocrisy was one of her lessons from her guardian.
Might be she was just trying to deflect the horror of these deaths into the past.
"We pick up life skills from all sorts of unexpected places." Jenkin agrees, wisely and perhaps completely missing the point.
Elowen's reaction is a blend of sorrow and rage,as the leaves in her hair rustle with a agitation, her posture tense, features drawn as the vines wrapped around her right arm writhe in anger. As much as she was human, her heart was very much fey and at her core, she belonged to the forest and felt a deep kinship with the poor keld pixies.
Silently seething, she helps taking the impaled pixies down, nodding at the plan to place tier bodies in the tree canopy as a sky burial.
"I can climb but may not be the best at it." she volunteers. Looking over at what Odelai carves, she twitches slightly at the carving though seeing the carving not go too deeply beyond the bark is not overly distressed. Nodding, she gives the gnome a grin smile. "I agree, whoever did this will pay dearly."
Respectfully pulling the bodies from the tree and wrapping them up for safekeeping. Three long and thin cold iron nails are tucked into Odelai's pockets. The mood is more solemn now.
The sun is overhead now. You all will reach the lake in about half an out if you keep walking. You are deeper into the forest now and there are plenty of tall tree if you wish to place the pixies in the higher branches. Plenty of birds will find the bodies long before lumberjack would ever show up and disturb them.
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Odelai is strangely gratified by Elowen’s visceral reaction. For a child not born of the First World, she clearly feels the abomination of this. Watching the shaman’s eyes linger on the carved tree, the gnome feels obliged to answer the concern that mirrored her own initially and explain her nascent plan.
”This tree is healthy and she will heal if the lumbermen leave her alone… But we need to flush out the murderer or murderers. Whoever displayed my – our – kinfolk,” she amends, including Elowen in the First World family, ”did so for a reason because they didn’t need to do it here. They bled and murdered our delicate cousins elsewhere. So, this was purposeful. Maybe they want a war with the Fey. Maybe they want everyone to think the lumbermen did this. The murderer will return to see his work. The innocent will find this message curious. The guilty will have reason to fear… and they may start to act strangely. When our business in the forest is finished, we will put eyes and ears in the lumber camp and the town to see who is reacting oddly. I hope we can unmask our killer.”
She holds out the handful of cold iron nails, ”Then, I plan to ‘return’ these nails from where they came.” Odelai places the nails in her spell component pouch.
She regards the team, "I'm not asking for help in this. I would appreciate it... but if this goes against your conscience, do what you feel is right."
It seems incredibly petty to murder these fae like that, for lumberjacks that would likely prefer less rather then more problems. And they cant be dumb enough to think that Fae are weak. Some third party could have done this, with the aim of f+!#ing things up. Unfortunately we cant speak with the tree that held them, at least I cant, that could have been insightfull. The Oracle says.
"Yeah, my lumberjacking days aren't too far in the past, and I never hung with a crew that went around pinning up fairies after our shift..." Jenkin says as the group marches along.
Elowen gives a hint of a smile at Odelai's grasp of her nature, nodding in agreement as the group assesses the nature of whoever had committed this heinous action. She definitely felt a kinship with the gnome, despite knowing her for only a day.
"It is possible that someone is trying to make the lumberjacks appear monsters, but whoever is responsible will be held accountable. There are few places one can hide from nature."
Odelai nods and frets, speaking only half her mind. "This could start a blood feud. To catch the right fly we must be patient as spiders in spinning our web."
Unfortunately my somewhat tolerable honorary near-cat is about as patient as a Spider, who has consumed the dust of dreams through her nose and who had then partaken in the energizing drink of midnights blackness. Sir Pounces communicates by sniffing in a straight line, before making an energetic drinking motion.
Penelope nods along, happy blind vengeance is not on the table. "What does 'midnight blackness' taste like?"
The lake is closer now and the trees are thinning. But there isa nice and sturdy tree that looks like Jenkin's could scramble up high enough to lay these three fey to rest. To let nature reclaim them.
Jenkin stops at the base of the tree and looks at Odelai for approval.
Odelai nods, "This is a good tree. You have my thanks, Jenkin."
Quite energizing! Sir Pounce indicates by jumping up and down like a very very energetic kitten, giving Odelai a bit of a jump scare in the process.
A bit bitter Sir Pounce continues, seeking to show this by taken a bit out of a type of relatively bitter grass.
As Jenkin prepares to climb, Elowen ocks her head, listening for a moment.
"Something is breathing...heavily.. a good distance from here. I think I heard a whimper as well." she whispers, looking off in the distance with a troubled expression.
Penelope was contemplating the response from the fuzziest of her companions, when Elowen whispers about breathing. Instinctively she starts to reach for an arrow, but the whimper part makes her pause. "Like someone hurt?"
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Jenkin pauses in the act of removing his armor to get a better grip on the tree. "Alright, we'll go check that out. I'll be as quick as I can here." He finishes taking his scale armor off and then starts up the tree, carefully tying the cloth with the three fey wrapped inside it to his belt.
Once there, he ties the three fairies to a branch using some long grass and reeds gathered along the way, says a quick prayer to Pharasma, and shinnies back down. At the bottom, he makes hasty work of putting his armor back on, not wanting to hold up investigating whatever Elowen has heard. Of course, speeding through, he misses a few fittings and straps.
"Y'know, it's weird, you called it 'sky burial', and I figured they'd just... evaporate or something when they were left exposed to the sky. But they just stayed there, tied to the branch. Did I do it wrong?" he asks as he tightens his hauberk.
The fey are laid to rest as high up as Jenkin could get and in time their bodies will return to natures cycle. Souls long gone and bound for the First World. But the Darkmoon Woods always seem to have something new and problematic within a stone's throw. Rocky steps to your right and forest to your left. The lake is Infront of you and that was the source of the noise.
Its a quiet sounds, the slightest whimper. Odelai and Penelope, you both hear it now to. Moving towards the water its easy to spot the source of the noise. A little orange fox has its is stretching towards the water from behind a bush. Its oversized ears are down and it cannot seem to reach the water.
Odelai slides off of the tiger's back and catfoots silently toward the sound. She stops as she sees what's ahead, then points silently to a high branches of a tree up-slope as she moves a bit closer beneath the protective canopy of a nearby tree. She doesn't like this trap at all, especially what she presumes is the 'bait'.
What are they hunting that would eat a fox? And do I ruin this hunt?
"A trap!" Elowen whispers quietly. "Up in the trees...there's an arrow head...someone clever is hunting, using the fox as bait." she explains be fore creeping forward, following Odelai's path along the treeline.
I dont see him, I can be our counterbait. So you get the drop on him? Svetlana whispers back.
Her steps had already been moving toward the fox, but Penelope stops when she hears it is a trap. Her worry turns to fury. She wants to spring it NOW. Pulling an arrow out of her quiver, she sets it "I'll back you up." she tells Svetlana.
Elowen nods in agreement with Svetlana's suggestion, keeping her eyes on the hidden archer.
Lazily drawing her shield (AC now 19/17/12) and with fangs and claws ready (although they would not be that apparent from a distance) Svetlana cautiously approaches, looking quizzically at the fox.
Jenkin draws both his hatchets as quietly as he can. He has no illusions about his ability to step quietly in the forest, though, and simply walks in the path the more light-footed ladies of the group set.
The little orange fox looking over at Svetlana. It doesn't try to run or growl, just whines tiredly. There is no movement yet from the hunter up above.
Svetlana makes some extra cooing motions, as we as showing her throat to the fox, so show she is no threat, as unplausible as this may seem to the fox given her own fangs and claws.
She approaches the fox seeking to free it.
The foxes overly large ears perk up and it stays very still as Svetlana moves towards it. There doesn't seem to be any other traps in the area. And no bone is exposed which is quite lucky for the small Firefoot Fennec.
An arrow flies infront of the tigress, inches from her face. When the arrow is let loose two over-large rooks with distinctive, jagged beaks and unkempt, oily black feathers burst out of the trees and fly down, One arcs around towards Jenkin's and the other flies over Svelana and circles back.
"Birds?" Jenkin says, clearly confused. "Are we actually supposed to fight... HEY" he calls out for the benefit of the sniper, "If one of these feather dusters comes pecking, it gets plucked! Call 'em off!" He raises an axe menacingly.
Cursing something semi-foul, Penelope quickly drops her arrow and grabs one of her others, a blunt one with at least a chance to not kill the feathered attackers. A pull of her string later, the arrow shoots forward to hopefully clip the wing of the nearest rook.
As the arrow barely misses Svetlana, and the massive rooks burst from the trees, Elowen sets her sights on the archer, calling upon the spirits inhabiting the trees and forest, reaching out to the grasses and other forms of plant life to restrain any that would try to act or escape the area.