Tasked to kill? By who I wonder...
San lowers his bow so as to not antagonize the subterranean creature any further. Hoping he really doesn't understand common San comes up with a plan. "Maybe it's best we move away, at least for now. There's not much hope progressing without conflict with this creature. I'd prefer to not have it in such an advantageous position to start. We move away, one of you stealthy people keep a lookout to see if it moves away from the edge. If it does, someone can sneak back over and climb up there. If it doesn't... we'll have to come up with something else I guess."
After Bastiano finally produces a rusty translation, and the others chime in, Autumn furrows her brow. “Agreed,” she responds in a low whisper to the others’ suggestion to move on, “but which way?” She glances briefly at the dero’s gesture. “It wants us to go back the way we came, which means back over the rope bridge and abandoning this path. Unless we wait until tomorrow when the sun is high—those huge eyes make me think it normally lives underground, so maybe it won’t like bright light.” She pauses, considering. “Or we press on, and run beyond the range of its crossbow. Worst case, it follows, but at least then it won’t be on the ledge anymore.” Here she looks at San, as that addresses his concern about the creature’s advantageous position. “Definitely better than climbing up there.”
Vildran frowns. Others notice that as he thinks his antennae subconsciously rub ends together like the palms of two hands would.
I think we need to keep heading west, whether or not this creature agrees. The best we can do with this one is telegraph that we will be going that way, give him a chance to accept those intentions, and move on. If we wait until day, I believe he'll just inform others between now and then. I... suppose he may well attack or signal to others.
Bastiano yelps, then mumbles a translation to the rest of the group. "We're moving on, don't worry," he calls back in rusty Aklo. "But who have you been tasked to kill? And why?"
Autumn tilts her head ever so slightly at Vildran and curls her lips into a faint smile. “So honorable. Don’t you know it’s better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission? Let’s go.” Turning to face the dero, the sorceress nods with a pleasant, agreeable smile while she replicates the dero’s shooing gesture to the east, as if to indicate that that they will comply by shooing the east away behind them. Consequently, she promptly walks away to the west, feigning ignorance and misunderstanding at charades.
Your discussion in Taldane earns a nervous twitching from the dero, but it doesn't seem to have understood you. It's only when Bastiano answers back that it says (in Aklo) "Our quarry is not your business... unless you seek her as well?" After a calculated pause it adds slyly "That meeting can be arranged. You need only wait until the sky grows dark. My kin corner her as we speak."
Sidonie is with Autumn for a couple of reasons. First, there is a decisive difference between making a hard climb while going toward someone shooting at you and hustling away from someone who might shoot at you if they were unhappy with your direction of travel. Second, she happens to know that the little hand crossbow causing so much consternation doesn't have the range of a proper field crossbow. It won't take so terribly long to be out of range anyway. Besides, it seems like they're all sort of guessing on the east versus west thing anyway.
She tries to telegraph a friendly and cooperative smile, accompanied with a wave, before she starts walking away with Autumn.
"Couldn't hurt to set a brisk pace" she mentions to the other woman.
"That's a pretty good plan. Just run the way we want to go. He'll have to come down after us or let us go. Way better than trying to wait him out. Ready to run when you all are."
"Our quarry is not your business... unless you seek her as well?" After a calculated pause it adds slyly "That meeting can be arranged. You need only wait until the sky grows dark. My kin corner her as we speak."
Bastiano translates again for the group and adds, "We should definitely be ready to move, but let me try one more thing before we go."
He responds to the dero in Aklo. "I don't think we'll know if we're seeking her until we find her! Whatever your quarry did must have been pretty bad for your whole family to go chase her. How come you were left behind?"
Just as it answers, Autumn attempts her deception. The dero is so puzzled by her gesture eastwards that it is left looking with confusion in that direction as the whole group briskly jogs the other way, past the body and into the cluster of trees clinging to the start of the rocky rise. You look behind you as you slip into cover, in time to see the dero turning back toward you all and raising its trident in anger. It doesn't however go after you, seemingly content to keep its position.
You each gain 30 XP for bypassing the dero.
---------
Having caught sight of the faint trail of blood earlier, you follow it up the western rise an into the copse of trees. There, you find evidence that someone had briefly stopped here to address their wounds. A small potion bottle has been dropped here, its cork nearby, and a few strips of bloody cloth suggest that someone swapped the dressing on a wound. The blood is well dried, but a little liquid still remains at the bottom of the potion bottle.
You know the dero lies the way you came, and the sun is setting. It'll be properly dark soon.
Vildran smiles mischievously all the while that their plan works. Perhaps he's enjoying being brought along to get in some trouble.
Well, that was too easy! he remarks as the dero raises its trident and shakes it angrily.
He then sobers a little.
I guess it won't be so funny if any of his kinsmen find us overnight. We're going to have to find a safe place to camp, and take turns keeping watch. Tomorrow is another day.
"Agreed, finding somewhere defensible would be a smart move. The dero will have an advantage if they come after us in the dark. Does anyone know what to look for? I've..." San hesitates before admitting the next part, "not camped out beyond the town before."
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After fooling the dero so completely, Autumn celebrates with a tiny smirk and a knowing look at the others. But her satisfaction quickly fades when dusk falls and her companions discuss making camp. Conflicted, she lights a torch and takes some time to examine the scene before them while mulling over their options. She picks up the potion bottle, gives it a tentative sniff, then offers it to the others for examination. “Healing, I assume?”
So not a hero. Autumn has absolutely no desire to meet a band of dero in the dark—indeed, she would much rather be safe at home in Sandpoint—but … An image of Titus fills her mind. It’s bad enough that the princess is a priestess, but to return completely empty-handed, without anything whatsoever to show for her journey … The image is replaced by one of her mother. Damn it.
“Bastiano,” she begins with a sigh, “you said the dero’s kin are cornering some woman, and that it was willing to lead you to her after dark?” The sorceress frowns uncomfortably. “That means it’s able to leave its post after the sun sets, and warn its kin about us.” Her discomfort deepens. “I don’t like the idea of going after the dero in the dark, but at least they won’t know we’re coming, and it will be on our terms. Better than them finding us unawares while we sleep. And … it sounds like they’ll move in on the cornered woman tonight. Tomorrow may be too late.”
She searches the small alcove among the trees where the person must have hid and sees trampled scrub and bent branches, but she quickly loses the trail less than a few steps away. In the light of Autumn's torch, you can see there's no sign of further bloodstains beyond those that led to this spot. It seems whoever left this spot continued heading west and further into the interior of the island.
Sidonie is conflicted. She isn't confident they'll accomplished much more than getting themselves lost if they continue on in the darkness. But, on the other hand, she doesn't like the idea of stopping and potentially being found by the dero.
"I think we should keep going for a while, at least as long as we have some idea of a trail to follow. If we get lost, at least we are on an island. Any direction will take us to the coast before too terribly long."
"Also, if the dero are also trying to find the priestess, we might be giving up our only chance to find her first if we wait."
"That sounds reasonable. They did say they were cornering the priestess so we may actually be in time to make a difference. I can see in the gloom pretty well but not if it gets too dark. Thanks for the torch bt the way Autumn."
Uncertain, Bastiano shakes his head.
“I … don’t know, Autumn. I think maybe it was more like a threat? Because after dark she’ll be dead? Anyway, I think we ought to try to find her before that happens, whether she’s Martin’s priestess or someone else from the ship. I can see well enough in the dark but I think that might not be true for everyone in the group.”
Autumn acknowledges San’s thanks for the torch with the slightest of shrugs. “Magical light would be better—easier to conceal or extinguish if we need to hide.” She gives both elves a questioning look, as if implicitly asking if either knew such a spell.
The sorceress leans against a tree and gazes upward for a long minute, still in silent thought. Finally she looks over at Bastiano and asks “Could you scout ahead in the dark, while those of us who need light follow at a distance? That’d be the best way to stay hidden. We could communicate quietly through magic.”
Autumn pauses again—she’s very reluctant to reveal the spell that is so integral to her life as a con artist. But self-preservation wins out in the end. Damn it. With an uneasy sigh she continues. “I could disguise myself as a dero. You could pretend to tie me up and gag me, like a prisoner. Not a good first impression, but that should stay their attack for some parley—maybe pretend to do a hostage swap for the priestess?” Her skin tingles at the thought, in a mixture of dread and excitement. This encounter with the dero will be risky and dangerous, but somehow she feels safest when she’s pulling some kind of con.
With an afterthought, she glances at Bastiano, the only one of them who speaks the dero language. “Or I could disguise you as one of them, if you feel confident playing the part?”
Vildran gets anxious but concedes.
Onward we go then.
He notices Autumn's look, gesticulates and points to the end of his staff, which alights. He holds it up and returns her glance, confirming her implied question.
He can't help but let slip an instantaneous expression of disgust at talk of disguising one of themselves as a dero, and shudders slightly.
Quickly shaking it off, he turns to Bastiano It's remarkable that you know their language. I might ask for some lessons in it when there is time.
Deciding to continue rather than rest, you make your preparations and then head off toward the interior of the island. For now, your passage is lit by the moonlight above, Vildran's glowing staff and the flickering light of Autumn's torch. You keep your eyes open for any further sign of the priestess' passage, but find nothing conclusive. At least, not until about 20 minutes into your search.
Your travel is interrupted by the *thwck* *thwck* of arrows or bolts fired through the underbrush. At first you think you're under attack, but then realize it sounds like it's coming from further away. Then, a strident female voice shouting "Think you can take me, you weasels!? Come out where I can see you!" followed by a yelp as more bolts fly. The altercation seems its coming from the south, likely no more than a couple hundred feet away!
Talking as they race the setting sun, Bastiano grimaces at Vildran's comment. "I learned it as a child. It's surprisingly useful where I grew up, but I don't like speaking it - it hurts my throat. And I usually end up with a headache after any conversation much longer than the one we just had."
To Autumn, he says, "I can help with magical light for a few of you if you'd like me to cast it on you directly or on something you're carrying, but I've had more practice sneaking around than pretending to be someone I'm not. Better that I scout ahead to try to give some warning..."
Your travel is interrupted by the *thwck* *thwck* of arrows or bolts fired through the underbrush. At first you think you're under attack, but then realize it sounds like it's coming from further away. Then, a strident female voice shouting "Think you can take me, you weasels!? Come out where I can see you!" followed by a yelp as more bolts fly. The altercation seems its coming from the south, likely no more than a couple hundred feet away!
"Right!" Bastiano casts light once on an item of Autumn's while Autumn or Vildran casts message to let him communicate quietly with the group, then moves cautiously into the dark towards the woman being hunted.
Reacting to the sudden arrows, thoughts of tricks and misdirection flee from San's head. "Perhaps in a different situation, disguises would be the play. I fear a more direct method is called for at the moment. Let's move, but don't reveal yourselves too soon unless you want to be a target."
Rousing speech delivered, he follows Bastiano into the gloom, sticking to the thicker underbrush to use for cover.
Sidonie whispers her opinion just in case dero hear better than she expects they do.
"They will have the advantage in the dark if we try being too clever surprising them. They also don't seem too keen on getting up close in a fight. From the sound of it the woman is alone and they're still hanging back shooting."
"I say we move in quick and just mob the first one we see, take 'em down quick, and move fast on the next one after that. It'll throw their game completely off balance and force them to improvise in ways I don't think they'll want to."
Sidonie prepares to move out following Bastiano, keeping close enough so he'll still be in sight given the poor visibility.
Autumn simply nods to acknowledge San’s and Sidonie’s advice. With quarrels already whizzing through the dark, there just isn’t time to properly prepare a ruse. But without a disguise for armor, she cautiously stays at the back of the group, sticking close to the trees and bushes for much needed cover, and communicating with Bastiano through her messaging spell.
As soon as she spies a dero, she quickly hides behind a tree, carefully positioning both her torch and her sheathed dagger, whose hilt softly glows with Bastiano’s magic, squarely behind cover.
Vildran uses Message to communicate with the others.
Perhaps we should purposely get their attention to draw them away from the priestess. We can likely handle them.
He slinks along behind Autum, presuming that she's picked a reasonably discrete path.
You approach the source of the shouting, moving as swiftly as you can while trying to stay quiet. While you move, you hear the altercation ahead progressing, with more crossbows firing and the sounds of metal clacking off stone. Bastiano breaks through the denser copse of trees and is the first to take in the scene at the shore line.
The rocky shore here is elevated - sheer cliffs looking out across the sea. An older woman stands near the end of a promontory to your south east, her figure silhouetted in the moonlight. She has a rapier and the ready and pointed directly ahead of her, though she seems to be backing up. Slinking through the brush near her are three dero, one with a crossbow and two with tridents in their hands. They have her cornered, but they're approaching cautiously despite their numbers advantage.
As you start trying to sneak closer, Bastiano accidentally steps through a dry dead bush. The cracking of branches attracts the attention of one of the dero, who immediately raises the alarm. "More surface dwellers!"
-
|||| INIT ||||
Sidonie
Autumn
Pink dero
Blue dero
Green dero
Vildran
San
Bastiano
??? Woman
There’s no need for Bastiano to translate the dero’s cry of alarm—they’ve been spotted! Acting instinctively out of self-preservation, Autumn immediately darts towards a nearby bush, trying to hide herself behind cover.
-
-
At the cliff, the dero with the crossbow calls out in Aklo "Finish her quickly. I will hold off the interlopers!" The two trident wielding dero rush forward to try to attack the older woman. While one dero acts as a distraction, the other gets in two painful looking stabs. At the same time, the last dero circles the bushes until it gets a clean line of attack on Bastiano and fires its crossbow. The bolt embeds itself in Bastiano's arm, exposing him to its poison . Luckily the dosage is small enough that he's able to fight it off.
|||| INIT ||||
Vildran
San
Bastiano (2 dmg)
Sidonie
Autumn (hidden)
Pink dero
Blue dero
Green dero
??? Woman (7 dmg)
San dashes forward trying to get the dero trying to intercept them within range for his bow.
Vildran doesn’t even bother moving. Instead he concentrates and focuses all his magical energy into a long-range barrage of pure force. Three shards of arcane energy slam unerringly into the crossbowman.
Autumn winces uncertainly when the dero’s trident bats away the older woman’s rapier and stabs her repeatedly in the side. Conflicted, she dithers. She doesn’t want the woman to die—what an utter disaster that would be! Good luck salvaging anything from Titus. But neither does she want to risk her own life for the other woman.
It is San’s perfect shot and Vildran’s powerful display of magic that spur the sorceress to act. Newly confident in her allies, Autumn rushes out into the open, waving her arms to draw the woman’s attention and inspire hope for escape.
“PRIESTESS!! Run over here! Now!”
“Ow! Damn! Sorry, everybody, I’m not used to the woods!”
Bastiano squints through his glasses at the blue-garbed dero to look for weaknesses, then moves closer for a better shot. He quickly slides his rapier into its scabbard and draws his bow, then fires an arrow at the nearest of their attackers.
Vildran jogs along in his awkward way to keep up with the others.
Sidonie resigns herself to the necessity of just flat out getting to where she's going without anything fancy added. With so many people thrashing through the forest, the dero is going to have a target rich environment anyway. Maybe she'll get lucky.
She leaves Vildran behind in the stream bed and then Autumn a little farther on. Once she's out to Autumn's left, Sidonie turns to go straight at the dero. The last few feet before reaching the creature takes her through a thicket, from which she emerges to strike at the dero. She expects to have the dero's full attention afterward, so she keeps her buckler at the ready.
-
The older woman looks between her two opponents and the group of strangers approaching and doesn't take more than a moment to decide. She takes a single stab against the pink dero, missing, and then dashes around the creature to join Sidonie. She raises her voice in response to Autumn "You dears could not have picked a better time to be passing by. I was in a little spot of trouble."
The two remaining dero, somewhat daunted by the numbers now arrayed against them, still rush in to try to finish off their target. Both land their stabs, and the priestess is left looking significantly injured.
|||| INIT ||||
Vildran
San
Bastiano (2 dmg)
Sidonie
Autumn
??? Woman (19 dmg)
Pink dero
Green dero
Sidonie thinks she and the priestess are both in a spot of trouble now. "It's been a helluva day" she responds to the woman.
It doesn't go unnoticed to her that the dero ignore her in favor of the priestess even after she has killed one of what the ridge-top dero had called 'kin', assuming Bastiano's translation had been correct. Either way, they seemed determined and focused on carrying out their assignment regardless of anything else.
Sidonie thinks she might just be able to use that to her advantage. She orders the priestess to "back away into the thicket behind you and keep going until my friends get here."
She then turns her attention to the dero in front of her. Sidonie sidesteps to put some distance between herself and the other dero, making it look like she will strike with her rapier as she moves. Instead, that move is just a quick gesture, immediately withdrawn. She waits until she's repositioned around to the dero's side to make her true attack.
Sidonie opens up the dero's guard with her feint and strikes true, felling the second of the creatures.
With an admiring look, Autumn watches Sidonie skewer one dero after another with effortless grace and pinpoint accuracy. “So fetch,” she remarks in a voice that may have just fallen in love with the rogue.
Buoyed by this impressive display, the sorceress dares to dart around the bush to face the final dero. Raising her left arm, the air crackles and darkens around her extended index finger, as if disintegrating into nothingness. A shimmering void extends into a sharp, conical spike, gently pulsing in and out of existence. She points at the dero, and the magical bolt flies away from her finger, in a direct line towards her target, phasing through the outstretched branches of the bush and even, surprisingly, through the priestess in its way.
“Glad to help,” Autumn responds to the older woman in a suitably calm and collected voice. “Now get behind me,” she adds, before she realizes the consequences of such a request.
San clambers over rubble and mud to get closer to the action. With his last step, he places his feet just right and looses an arrow.
Meanwhile, the remaining dero looks a little less certain. With its path to the priestess looking more and more difficult, it instead steps in to Sidonie and attempts to stab her with its trident. When she nimbly steps out of the way, the dero decides its time to flee rather than attempt a follow up. It begins heading eastward, but its short gait doesn't take it very far.
|||| INIT ||||
Vildran
San
Bastiano (2 dmg)
Sidonie
Autumn
??? Woman (19 dmg)
Green dero (3 dmg)
Vildran is exasperated in the dry creek bed, clearly only barely keeping up with the others.
He puts his all into jogging over to catch up to the action and arrives at the enclosed space between several bushes where his friends seem to have cornered the final dero.
Ah, I see you've made short work of the others. And this one believes it will escape to go find backup?
Without spelling out the necessary conclusion, Vildran draws a simple sigil in the air, and taps it causing it to deploy an orb of biting cold: swirling vortext of snow and ice, that swarms the dero. Its body seems to begin to freeze in place...
He then raises the other arm on which he manifests a shimmering shield of force.
Seeing the dero beginning to flee, San gives chase. Working off Vildran's premise that this one will get backup, San tries to hold the creature in place.
Sidonie isn't sure what the dero might do next. But, given the determination they've shown in word and deed so far she doubts the creature is giving up on assassination attempts, even if it is fleeing for the moment.
She hurries over to see if she can help San as he tries to restrain it. She decides on a leg wound and a warning. Stabbing the dero in it's thigh, she warns it to give up.
"Be still and drop your weapons. We're going to talk to you."
Seeing her companions surround and restrain the fleeing enemy, and hearing Sidonie speak of interrogation, Autumn calls out to their wayward scout. “Bastiano! Translate please.” Meanwhile she decides on a nonlethal approach. Without even trying to fumble through verbal communication, she simply grabs its attention with a snap of her fingers, then tilts her head ever so slightly—just enough to be unmistakably ominous—and stares. No words are needed to convey the threat: surrender, or die. It is a deadly, menacing glare, one that pierces directly into the dero’s mind with its supernatural intensity, for one of her vibrant green eyes withers into a dull, dead gray, as if leaching magic for her spell.
“Oh, yes, right!”
Bastiano jogs over to the remaining dero. Pushing his glasses back into position, he peers at the dero with faintly glowing eyes before addressing them in Akko.
“Hello, we’re going to ask you some questions now. Please answer them truthfully and completely, it will go so much easier for you that way.”
Combat Over! You each gain 80 XP.
The priestess, winded, steadies herself against a nearby tree and takes deep breaths as you decide what to do with the remaining dero.
With their final foe subdued, Autumn leaves the details of its fate to her companions. Instead she focuses on the sole reason for fighting alien creatures on an island in the middle of nowhere. Time to salvage this mess. With a deep breath she composes herself, then turns to the priestess with an appropriately relieved expression.
“Thank the Lucky Drunk we found you in time!” she exclaims, doing her best to ingratiate herself. “We were ever so worried. Though I must say, you managed amazingly well. How ever did you fend off three of them all by yourself?! And for so long!” Her eyes wander to the woman’s wounds and grow wide with concern. “Please, allow me to tend your injuries.” From a small satchel on her waist, she produces some bandages and ointment, but waits for permission before beginning.
While performing treatment the sorceress makes sure to introduce herself. “By the way, I’m Autumn Forfallan. We heard about the attack on your ship from one of the guards—he washed ashore in Sandpoint. Do you have any idea why they were after you?”
When the dero goes limp in San's grip, Sidonie steps back. Now that the fight is over, she doesn't feel so good. The intense activity has left her sweaty. As the adrenaline in her system drains, Sidonie begins to feel nauseous. Afraid of what might come along with the feeling, she walks a short distance away to lean over with her butt resting against a tree and her hands on her knees.
Sidonie has never killed anything before, not so much as a chicken (insects and a rat or two don't count). She was able to keep a clear head, and her mother's training certainly showed its worth, while it was all happening. But all she can think of now is the feeling of an instant of initial resistance before her rapier penetrated skin, followed by the ease of the blade sliding into flesh.
Quickly! Bind it's hands and we can safely question it once it comes to!
Vildran retrieves his rope again and gets help from the more handy team members in binding the dero.
After, he turns to the priestess.
Ah, yes. So I'm Vildran. As Autumn states we were dispatched to find you and any other survivors from the ship. We're glad to find you in good health.
San helps to tie up the dero he was recently grappling. Observing Sidonie separate herself from the group he wonders what is going through her head. I hope she'll be ok. I didn't see any injury...
Shaking off the curiosity, he turns back to the presumed priestess. As Autumn is taking some time to bandage the wounds, he also introduces himself. "San Thevin from Sandpoint. One of the other dero said they were sent after you. You wouldn't happen to know who or why someone would send goons after you do you?
He never strays too far from their prisoner just in case he decides to wake up an choose violence.