The day progresses quickly after camp is torn down, and it seems as if the weather does as well. Clouds darken across the sky as you make your way along the road towards Friendly Arm, and showers of rain occasionally sprinkle the caravan.
Garok takes the time to pull Kiley to the side and spends a few hours giving her hints and recipes about how he cooks while on the road. He is a good teacher, providing her with plenty of knowledge in the subject.
Not much else happens for a few more hours but around midday, as you are riding alongside a small copse of trees next to the road, a large roar echoes out from the treeline.
Ari and Sasha are aware enough to see a large black bear crashing through the trees towards your cart, seeming extremely angry.
With a sharp, loud whistle Sasha signals her animal companion, a young male tiger, from out of the woods where it has been quietly tailing the caravan. "The tiger is mine! He will help deal with the bear!" explains Sasha by way of introduction for Pheliks. "Don't attack him - he's on my side!"
Ari catches sight of some movement in the trees and snaps a dagger into her hand as what appears to be a very riled up bear greets the caravan.
Lisyil too is aware of the bear's presence before it makes its appearance. Keeping a calm head, she chants through the words to a spell and with a finger jabbed straight towards the animal, an ominous-sounding toll of a bell follows the end of her casting.
Registering Sasha's words - the tiger? - Ari flicks the woman a quick look before scanning the treeline for another beast. She has questions, but they can wait. Which is also what she decides to do for the moment. Charging straight at the bear seems a crazy idea and she's not about to put her body on the line to be swatted aside by those sizeable paws. Instead she calls, "Going toe to toe is probably not going to do me a lot of good, but if you can keep it busy then I'm sure I can find a place for my blade." She spins it easily in her hand to emphasise her point.
Seemingly unaffected by anything else going on, Lisyil follows up her spell with a curse of bad luck. Ari has only seen the half-elf use her powers a couple of times - their previous time together was far more about having a good time, though it had been necessary to defend themselves on the odd occasion. She's seen enough, however, to be glad of her companion's abilities in a tight spot.
Kiley looks at Air with a raised eyebrow before moving to a spot where she can shot the bear with her bow.
"I'm no huntress, but I think we'd be better off not getting in too close at all," she tells the blue-skinned woman as she moves to the back of the wagon and readies her bow. She sights down the arrow shaft before letting it fly.
Or at least that was the plan before the wagon hits a bump and she drops the arrow.
"I don't disagree,"Ari replies to Kiley's advice, "but does the bear know that it's not supposed to come any closer?" She rides the unfortunately timed bump and swiftly draws her own bow, letting her dagger clatter to the wagon bed. She's happier blade in hand - when sensible to do so - but she can't argue with the other woman's assessment that now is probably not that time. Nocking an arrow, she pulls back the bowstring and lets fly.
Ari hits it in the shoulder with an arrow, piercing its hide only a little bit but still inflicting damage. This causes it to roar in anger before charging the wagon and attacking the biggest threat, Shaggar.
The bears’ jaws look to snap into Shaggar’s leg, but an unfortunate drop in the road curses its aim and the attack goes wide.
Kiley follows the bear and sees who it goes for.
"Shaggar!" Her call is filled with fear as she sees the bear try to maul her friend.
Kiley’s loose arrow clatters loudly around the inside of the wagon barely rousing the gnoll whose head had been lolling as he fought a strong desire to nap. ”Eh, what?” Shaggar wakes quickly when the bear tries gnawing on his tibia. He jumps off the wagon, grabbing his axe on the way.
The gnoll studies the enraged creature briefly and considers trying to calm the beast. But he was fairly certain any creature this mad was beyond his reassuring tone. As bears were not native to The Sword, the ranger knew very little about them. He’d always heard such creatures were shy and rarely a threat. He wonders what could have angered the creature so much that it attacked a caravan.
He snaps his jaws in the bear’s direction. ”Go away, bear! Predator to predator… I don’t want to hurt you.” He holds his axe in a powerful two-hand grip, then tries to smack the bear with the side of his blade, attempting to drive it off without killing it.
HP: 12 / 12 | AC:16 / T:11 / FF:15 | CMD:16/15
Arrows (20):
Arisen (1):
Effects:
Arisen - Die at -18 HP
Female Chaotic Good Half-Orc Oracle (Stargaser Archetype), Level 1, Init 1, HP 9/9, Speed 30
AC 17, Touch 11, Flat-footed 16, CMD 10, Fort 3, Ref 3, Will 3, CMB -1, Base Attack Bonus 0
Light Crossbow +1 (1d8, 19-20/x2)
Longspear -1 (1d8-1, 20/x3)
Morningstar -1 (1d8-1, 20/x2)
Scale Mail, Light Steel Shield (+5 Armor, +1 Shield, +1 Dex)
Abilities Str 9, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 20
Relevant Skills Disguise (to look human, took 10) DC 25
Perception/Sense Motive +3
Survival +3
Conditions None
Male Neutral Tiger Animal Companion, Level 1, Init n/a, HP 17/17, Speed 40
AC 14, Touch 13, Flat-footed 11, CMD 15 (19 vs Trip), Fort 4, Ref 6, Will 0, CMB 2, Base Attack Bonus 1
Bite +2 to hit, 1d6+1 damage (20/x2)
Two Claws +2 to hit, 1d4+1damage (20/x2)
Special Attacks Rake - Two Claws, +2 to hit, 1d4+1 damage (20/x2)
No Armor Worn (+1 Natural AC, +3 Dex)
Abilities Str 13, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10
Special Qualities Low-Light Vision, Scent, Link, Share Spells, Bonus Tricks +1
Feats Toughness
Relevant Skills Perception +6, Stealth +7
Condition None
"Pheliks, Flank!" commands Sasha as she tries to move to the side to get a clear shot of the bear with her crossbow.
From out of the woods comes charging a small male tiger, presumably "Pheliks," who leaps to flank the bear with Shaggar and attempts to shred the larger predator with its claws.
Crossbow: , , , . Please ignore the critical rolls if they don't apply.
Pheliks will move to flank with Shaggar and attack the bear.
Bite: , , , . Please ignore the critical rolls if they don't apply.
Shaggar strikes the bear a mighty blow, and it staggers to one side but doesn't fall. Sasha's bolt does hit it in the shoulder but still doesn't bring the big beast down, though it does look nearly finished.
Kiley hops out of the wagon and moves to get a better shot.
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With the bear snapping at Shaggar and the appearance of Sasha's big cat, Ari decides that now is a better time to get up close and personal - comparatively, she doesn't look like the biggest threat. Leaving her bow behind, she nimbly steps around the creature to join the tiger. Flicking her wrist to drop another dagger into her hand, she cockily spins it in her hand and stepping forward at just the right time to bury the blade up to the hilt in its rear flank.
The fight seems to be going the way Lisyil had expected it to. A smile curves onto the half-elf's lips and she throws her head back in a high-pitched laugh, one tinged with a little madness and magic. Knowing her role and with no desire to tangle with the bear directly, she then reaches forward and up to place a hand on Shaggar's mighty forearm. "Luck guide your strike," she says.
Ari's strike swiftly takes the bear down; alive, but unconscious thanks to Shaggar's attempts to keep it so.
As you examine the bear's body, you notice something peculiar: streaks of a viscous silvery liquid cover its teeth and lips. It's shiny and very thick, but not like anything you've ever seen again.
Lisyil takes a look at the substance, and also can't identify whatever it might be. Garok, who spent the entire fight trying to calm the horses and save the wagon from tipping, finally accomplishes his task and pulls the wagon to a stop.
"Well that was...unexpected. Everyone okay back there? What happened?"
"Big angry bear decided Shaggar looked tasty," Kiley says as she starts looking for her arrows.
It seems she has some luck, still, and finds both the one she dropped and the one that hit the dirt beside the bear.
"Is everyone alright," she asks the others. She doesn't remember anyone getting hurt, but she's not exactly willing to trust her memory given that she has, by all appearances, forgotten how to handle a bow.
Shaggar frowns. "I don't know much about your bears, but I have heard they are shy. This one attacked. Look at its mouth. The silver liquid, I've never seen anything like this."
Sasha takes a moment to vigorously scratch Pheliks under the chin and around the back of his head before clicking her tongue and directing him back into the woods to continue tailing the party. "Best stay out of sight and not frighten anyone, buddy," she whispers encouragingly as he turns to bad away.
Looking to the unconscious bear, Sasha makes it a point to look at its silvered teeth and mouth. "That doesn't look healthy at all...I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before. Think it made it lash out? Is it safe to leave the poor beast alive? It might attack other travelers..." she asks the other PCs sadly.
Kiley shrugs. She's curious about the tiger, but figures that now isn't the time.
"I'm about as much an expert on wildlife as I am on magic, which is to say that I'm not one at all."
The gnoll looks to Garok, ”Would Elara or Seraphi be willing to look at this?”
”Thats actually a great idea, Elara would have a better idea as to any strange beasts it might be from. Let me have her brought up.” A few minutes go by and then finally the wizard is at the front of the caravan.
”Well, this isn’t my usual specimen, but let me see what I can do.”
She takes out a pair of thick leather gloves and puts them on firmly before picking the bear’s head up and looking inside the mouth. She takes a finger, runs it through the liquid, and holds it up to the sun so she can see more clearly.
”My best guess would be some sort of blood? It’s coagulating even now, becoming more solid than liquid. I have no idea what sort of animal or beast would have blood like this, though. Sorry I can’t be of more help.”
She pulls out a glass vial from one of her many waist pouches and takes a sample of the supposed blood, and stows it away back in the pouch.
”I’ll do some more tests and investigate a bit more, see what I can find out. I suspect that whatever the bear got the blood from is the cause of its random attack. Most bears would ignore a caravan of this size unless they were starving, or mad. It might be better to put it down, for its own good if nothing else. I’ll leave that up to you, though. I don’t think eating its meat would be safe, in case you were curious.”
With that the strange elf takes her leave, returning to her wagon farther back in the line.
"Should we burn it, then?"
Shaggar digests the wizard’s words cautiously. He regards the unconscious bear, not enjoying the idea of putting it down, but understanding the logic of it. ”I’m sorry, bear. You did not ask for this turning of the wheel.” He brings his axe expertly down on the bear’s neck. "If the meat is tainted, we do not want other creatures to eat it. Burning it is a good idea, Kiley."
Task done, the gnoll puzzles on Elara’s theory, ”If the blood is starting to dry, then the bear must have bit the creature recently. Garok, can you delay the caravan for a little while? If not, I can catch up. I would track this bear, if possible, to find what it bit.”
"If we start looking while someone else builds the pyre, we might be able to find it while they are tending it," Kiley suggests.
The bear dies quickly, thankfully, as Shaggar’s cut is a good one. More of the strange silvery liquid splurts out from the head onto the ground in front of you.
The orc thinks, looking up at the position of the sun in the sky before speaking.
”I think I could spare an hour at most. I don’t really want to be out here when they close the gates on the walls of Friendly Arm at dusk.” he says, sounding reluctant but understanding. ”Especially with whatever was going on with that bear.”
”I’ll take care of the burning of the remains.” Garok says, moving to collect some wood from the forest. ”Be quick.”
Shaggar nods and begins quickly searching for and following the bear's tracks back into the woods.
Kiley follows with her bow out and an arrow nocked. She keeps an eye out for any trouble that may come their way.
With a tug Ari extracts her blade, it having bit deeply into the bear's hide and striking a vital organ. She cleans it carefully while the others begin to examine it. She nods in agreement that putting it down is the right decision, also that it's worth spending a little time for the source of the silver blood.
She reloads her blade in the sheath strapped to her forearm and retrieves her dropped weapons from the wagon. While she still has questions about Sasha's pet - which admittedly was a useful card to have up her sleeve - now is not the time. "Hold up," she says as Shaggar starts following the bear's trail, "I'm in." So saying, Ari, too, dagger drawn and eyes darting, heads into the woods.
The gnoll appears to have some skill in tracking and while she can't add much on that score, another pair of eyes and another blade or two would seem only prudent in the circumstances.
"Pheliks can probably help too - he's got a predator's nose," suggests Sasha as she takes up behind Shaggar. With another sharp whistle she calls the big cat to her and directs it to smell the bear-corpse and then try to track it backwards with Shaggar.
Shaggar and Pheliks work together to follow the trail of the bear, Shaggar working with his eyes and Pheliks using her nose to track the scent.
After about ten minutes tracking through the small forest, they find what appears to be the beginning of the trail. A small campfire sits amongst a small clearing, with a few haphazardly strung up tents in no obvious pattern nearby. The obvious trappings of a goblin camp cover the ground: old crunched-on bones, dirty rags that might pass for clothing, piles of trash, the usual gross fetishes and collections.
At the centerpiece of the camp is a broken cage, one wall's bars smashed and twisted: quite obviously where the bear was held before it evidently escaped. Scattered around the camp are the broken bodies of numerous goblins, many with chunks of flesh or entire limbs missing from them.
A quick search of the camp reveals a lot of blood splatters, clearly indicating what the slaughter must have looked like. The most interesting thing, however, is what looks like a broken barrel next to a wheelless wagon that looks to have been stolen from a local town. The barrel remains are covered in that exact same silvery liquid the bear had on his face and mouth, although this liquid has obviously been drying longer. A small fragment of the barrel holds a single symbol: a large spiral with a single line of chain across it.
This makes far more sense. He keeps an eye open for any goblin survivors. "Do any of you know this symbol?"
Ari was correct in her assessment of Shaggar’s skill as he leads them to a scene of debris and violence. At the question she picks a path through the chaos and goes over to examine the symbol on the silver-smeared barrel.
Luckily for you (and unluckily for them), there aren’t any goblin leftovers hanging around. There don’t even appear to be any recent tracks away from the camp besides the bears’ that you followed to get here.
There’s no religion that Ari knows of that uses this particular symbol, it’s much more likely it represents a trade guild or similar group. She remembers seeing it several times, actually, during her stint as Aamina at the Inn. On crates of supplies, sometimes the odd piece of jewelry worn by a stranger here or there; it’s just never seemed overly important until now.
Shaggar’s thorough search of the camp reveals a whole pile of detritus unfit for any treasure hoard but a goblins’, but does uncover some useful treasure. A total of 25 gp and 15 sp are splayed across the ground throughout the camp, but the most valuable treasure is an ivory carved statue of a goddess that is clearly depicting the Moonmaiden. It is exquisitely crafted, and definitely not owned honestly by these goblins. A quick glance shows it to be worth 150 gp, but the church it came from might pay even more in reward for returning it safely.
Kiley says a brief prayer over the statue for the safety of whomever the goblins took it from. After the moment of silence, she looks at the barrel and the cage.
"Did the bear get loose and then into the barrel, or did the goblins give whatever is in the barrel to the bear and then it got loose," she asks. She also takes a look, as much as she would rather not, at the goblins to see if their blood was similarly tainted to the bear's.
"There is a human expression: Don't poke the bear. It seems they did." Shaggar picks up the coins, the statue (if no one else does), and the scrap of wood with the symbol (assuming it isn't coated in goo), and puts it all in his backpack for safe-keeping. "I think the bear must have been enraged to destroy the bars. I would guess they gave the bear some of the substance and then it broke out. Shall we go?"
"Yes, I don't want to leave whatever that is where other animals could get to it, but I don't think we can stay long enough to burn it out."
Having looked at the symbol, Ari hands it back to Shaggar. "Not the symbol of a god," she says. "But I do recognise it - I've seen it in a few places, marked on boxes and things." She screws up her face in concentration. "Some kind of local trade group, I think, though I can't completely place it."
To Kiley's first question Ari just shrugs. "Makes as much sense as anything," she replies to Shaggar's theory. To Kiley's second point, she adds darkly, "Or something worse." She looks again at the silvery substance. "There's not so much of it. Not my area of expertise but if we just lit it, would it destroy whatever harmful property it has?"
Sasha spends much of the time the others are searching the camp keeping watch with Pheliks, concerned that while their heads are down they might be attacked by something else. "This is pretty awful, anyway you look at it," she says sadly, absently scratching Pheliks' ears to comfort herself as she watches and listens.
At the suggestion of destroying the silvery liquid she pipes up a bit. "The elf collected a sample - we should bring more, just in case we need to show it to others or have some to counter its effects alchemically," she suggests. Then Sasha looks around for an unbroken flask or bottle in which she can share a larger bit of it for later.
If the materials to start a fire are available she will help try to dispose of the rest before helping to lead the party back to the caravan.
The scrap with the symbol seems to be mostly safe, and you can just wipe what silvery liquid is on it off on the grass easily enough.
Sasha does manage to find an extra glass vial with an intact stopper, a veritable miracle in a place such as this. She’s able to collect a small sample of her own safely, and then when the group works together to set fire to the rest, you are surprised to see that it burns quite readily. Within a few moments, the rest of the silvery liquid has burned away completely. Luckily the goblins seemed to have been camped here for quite some time, as their stomping of the grass in the clearing saved the forest from the intensity of the flames.
The gnoll is contemplative as they walk back to the caravan. Eventually, he speaks. "I will speculate. But you have a right to know my bias, as I told Miss Sasha - in a different context - I don't believe in coincidence... So, we are hard by the Wood of Sharp Teeth, known for ferocious monsters. We come to check on a village in the woods, dedicated to the Moonmaiden," He waves a claw in the direction of the statue Kiley is holding. "Our caravan is attacked by a ferocious bear that has been 'poisoned' with something that drove it mad, possibly more." He doesn't clarify that statement before continuing. "And now it seems that some goblins stole supplies and uncovered this poison. Where was the poison bound, presumably concealed in a normal cask, if the goblins had not stolen it? Is it possible that someone in the Woods is poisoning the creatures there and set them on the village?"
Kiley lets out a sigh of relief when she realizes that the smoke and flames are relatively innocuous. Ari had brought up a good point and the young woman was worried that they'd return to the caravan to see a scene of carnage and madness.
At least, that is, until she finds herself distracted by Pheliks. Tigers are not a common sight, even in Waterdeep, and she takes out her journal and a pencil to sketch the magnificent cat while the fire burns. She loses herself for a few moments in the act of drawing. On the way back, she keeps glancing over at the tiger, now that the immediacy of tracking the source of the silvery poison has passed. Shaggar's questions, though, bring her back to reality.
"I think those would be questions we need to ask the person we're meeting at Friendly Arm," she says. "I don't like this, at all."
In Shaggar’s purveying of the camp and cage, he notices an extra detail that doesn’t seem to quite fit in with what you’ve seen: the broken and twisted metal of the cage only seem to fit the size of a medium creature, not a large one. The bear you fought on the road was certainly larger than this cage, at least at the time you took it down.
"I'm not certain our contact would know. If they did, the mystery of the Glade would be solved. We must be careful in revealing this information. Friendly Arm may not be as friendly as its name. And the statue... from where and whom was it taken? I worry that it was stolen from the church in Silvermoon Glade."
The gnoll growls, having too many questions and not enough answers.
Sasha watches and listens to Shaggar, her interest increasing as it becomes clear the others are performing some service in the name of Selûne. With growing confidence she nods along as he thinks through the situation and expresses his concerns. "If you will continue to have me, I'd like to help," she offers as they walk back. "Pheliks too, of course. We weren't there when you were given this task, but I worship She Who Guides too. I've never been to either Friendly Arm or this village, but will continue to help as best I can."
Kiley puts a hand on Shaggar's arm and looks up at his face.
"If it was, we'll have to return it. In the meantime, we'll just have to be careful. We should probably warn our hosts about keeping this quiet, though we should also try warning others about possible dangers. You said that cage was too small for the bear we fought. I don't think a warning about large, vicious animals would go amiss, and it might give us some clues."
She turns to Sasha and bows.
"Forgive me, I suppose we should let you know that we've been asked by the Church of Selune to look into why the Silvermoon Glade has gone silent. We are supposed to meet someone at Friendly Arm that will guide us to the village. It was something we didn't want others to know about and possibly interfere with, so we tried to keep it quiet," she tells the priestess.
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"I'm not certain our contact would know. If they did, the mystery of the Glade would be solved. We must be careful in revealing this information. Friendly Arm may not be as friendly as its name. And the statue... from where and whom was it taken? I worry that it was stolen from the church in Silvermoon Glade."
The gnoll growls, having too many questions and not enough answers.
"I'm assuming we won't be broadcasting to the whole place," Ari replies. "You get all sorts at the Friendly Arm - it's a fortified waystop where they're few and far between so most folks will stop there. But for what it's worth, it generally lives up to the name from my experience." She fiddles with the clasp of her cloak. "The owners don't like trouble in the place so all weapons are peace-bonded. And I was treated fairly too, so." Ari throws her palms wide as she finishes.
"If you will continue to have me, I'd like to help," she offers as they walk back. "Pheliks too, of course. We weren't there when you were given this task, but I worship She Who Guides too. I've never been to either Friendly Arm or this village, but will continue to help as best I can."
"About that," Ari says. Most of her initial anger from the appearance of Pheliks during the fight has dissipated, but she's still irked enough to mention it. "Anything else we should know about?" She gestures sweepingly towards the tiger as she speaks.
Ari is still a bit rattled from the revelation of the young behir and the general reaction of curiosity towards what she sees simply as a vicious predator. She's aware that she's not being entirely fair to Sasha - it's not her behir and she wasn't even there - but the casual way the others seem at ease around large clawed and fanged predators has left her feeling ill at ease.
"Don't get me wrong, everyone's entitled to their own secrets under the Mistshadow. I'd just prefer to know about those that might eat my face before I stumble across them in the woods." Ari can feel her temperature rising and her words have more than a bit of both heat and bite. "Sure, he knows you but would he know whether anyone else was friend or foe? And say I'd stumbled across him sleeping and saw the opportunity to take out a dangerous predator - my first thought would not have been 'Is this someone's pet?'"
She looks directly into the other woman's mismatched eyes and stops, realising that she's said her piece. "It's done and no harm done. We'd be happy to have you along," she says by way of an apology - of sorts. "But by Tiamat's scales, please tell me now if one of you is secretly harbouring a bloody dragon." With that the tiefling pulls her hood down over her head and stalks quickly off down the trail back to the caravan.
Sasha's smile at Kiley's response dims as Ari turns to address her. While the blue-skinned woman shows her lack of trust Sasha's expression darkens, turning into a defensive scowl by the time Ari apologizes - of sorts. "Secrets are shared once trust has been earned or there is no other good choice. I keep Pheliks out of sight to protect him, because he's earned it. He's well-trained and no man-eater, so you don't need to be worried about him unless you make it an issue. He will protect me and defend himself - don't cross those lines and you have nothing to worry about," she says, somewhat coldly.
"Ari, can we really blame her for not wanting to tell us everything when we haven't exactly been forthcoming ourselves," Kiley asks.
As she strides off down the road, Ari hears Sasha's riposte and Kiley's attempt to play peacemaker but bites her tongue and chooses to ignore them. She's not in the mood for an argument and doesn't trust herself to keep her temper in check just now. A childish urge to raise her hand in a rude gesture rises in her but she resists, knowing that while it might give her an amused immediate satisfaction, it would only make things more difficult later. Right now she wants some time to herself but that doesn't seem like it's going to come easily as before she knows it she's back at the caravan. She huffs and goes away round the other side of it, leaving it to the others to show Garok what they had discovered when they catch up.
Shaggar watches the exchange without comment... and continues walking.