Haetae's page

As is usually the case when danger rears its ugly head, Twyl had bravely turned his tail and fled into the safety of his mistress's backpack. From there, he shivered in trepidation as he heard the usual screams and explosions that were part and parcel of his mistress getting irritated by something.

This time was a little different though. Twice in quick succession, Twyl felt a painfully sharp mental jolt as he experienced some of his mistress's pain through their shared empathic connection. It had never been that bad before and he really hoped everything would turn out ok in the end.

He needn't have worried. As usual, his mistress had taken care of things and everyone was safe again. Where would he be without her, he wondered for a fleeting second, but the thought of losing her is too much for his little brain to handle so he shrugs it off.

As his mistress is being repaired by the strange little man, the green man comes up and makes some noises with his mouth. Twyl is used to people coming up to him and making noises with their mouths, but this time it was different: The noises made sense to him! He understood what they meant! Twyl was somewhat shocked by this turn of events and wasn't sure how to react.

The green man gets closer and presents his two fists. Normally this would have been enough to send Twyl flying into his mistress's backpack, but this time he understood what he was meant to do. The green man had a surprise in one of his hands and Twyl had to pick the correct hand to get it. Being more intelligent than his less magically enhanced ilk, Twyl notices that one of the green man's hands is a little bigger than the other, and reaching out with his own human-like right hand, he points to it and says,

This is the first time Twyl has ever spoken.

Haetae is admiring the big horse and its beautiful gold pelt when suddenly, the strange blue-skinned fellow that's been following them around goes berserk and starts attacking it for no apparent reason. She guesses it's probably due to some unresolved horse-related trauma he'd suffered as a young boy, or maybe he just really didn't like horses.

But when her master starts throwing spells around, she knows something's up and that things are about to get ugly. She turns to Haechi, and slightly ironically, says:

And with that, she slips into her master's backpack and finds and nice cozy corner to ride out the fireworks.

When Calisro had suggested that her master put on a performance, Haetae rolled her eyes. She knew that he would now become insufferably cheerful as he went about his preparations. Despite his apparent query as to her opinion on the matter, Haetae already knew that the playlet they would be performing was predetermined. It would be Ulthun in We be Heroes yet again no matter what she said. In a bored tone, she responds.

Haetae is a small bronze-colored winged lizard, though to the untrained eye, she might be mistaken for a miniature bronze dragon. When not snoozing or hiding in Haechi's backpack, she's usually found hanging off one of his shoulders to get a better view of what her master was getting up to.

Keeping her master alive and out of trouble was Haetae's main job, or at least that's the way she saw it. She knew that the minutiae of the theater were of little interest to the average person, so when she realized that her master was about to bore the venture-captain with a long-winded dissertation on the subject, she decided to distract him by digging her claws into his shoulder and whispering something into his ear.

Haetae had been quietly sitting on Haechi's shoulder drowsing this whole time, but sits up suddenly with wide eyes when she notices the approaching zombie hordes in the distance. She digs her claws into her master's shoulder slightly to get his attention.

But her master seems to ignore her comment as he somewhat grudgingly follows Haka to the stairs and heads up to the second floor.

Curious, he approaches the kobold to gaze at his familiar.

"What manner of creature are you, " he asks the familiar curiously, "I do not believe I have seen such a beautiful creature."

At first, Haetae eyes the strange man that approaches her warily, but he seems harmless enough, and though she couldn't understand what he was saying, he clearly seemed to be admiring her looks. In response, she puffs herself up and preens a little, opening up her small wings for better effect. As she'd expected, this causes one of the wings to slap into the side of her master's face, catching his attention.

Haetae watches in amusement as her master struggles to find the letter. After a few seconds, she tires of the spectacle, rolls her eyes in an exaggerated manner, and dives into Haechi's backpack. She emerges a moment later with a slip of paper held in one of her unusually dexterous hands. She flaps it where her master can see it.

From her usual perch at her master's shoulder, Haetae looks down at the map on the table and sighs heavily. She then gives everyone at the table an experienced looking over and mumbles something into Haechi's ear that is barely audible to the others.

Haetae had been snoozing peacefully in the back of the wagon even as the sounds of battle raged on nearby, but the call from her master was not something she could so easily ignore. "No rest for the weary I guess." She leaps into the air and follows their shared mental connection right back to her master.

Getting her instructions from him, she once again takes to the air and scans the indicated area for anything of interest. Finding nothing, she heads back to her master to report. As she approaches, she sees that her master is so entranced by the nearby statue that he walks right past something shiny in the sand without glancing down. "Sigh!"

She lands next to it and clears her throat to catch his attention. "Ahem!" Nothing. She tries again, louder this time. "Ahem!" That does the trick. Her master looks over at her. She points to the shiny object with her wing, and finally noticing it, he comes running back to see what it is.

She flies back with her master and his friend, and reclaims her place in the back of the wagon.

Haetae finally tracks her master down and comes flying into the room at full speed. At the last instant, she barely manages to swerve around the unexpected presence of a small red flying cat in her path. "Whoa! What's all this then?" she thinks to herself as she recovers and momentarily hovers nearby for a closer look at the strange new creature. Finally she lands on her master's shoulder and carefully folds her wings back against her body.

Haetae, now hanging by her claws from Haechi's cloak is a small, but draconic-like creature with wings and a bored look. With her matching bronze scales, she's almost a mini-me version of Haechi. Then, loud enough for everyone to hear, she looks at her master and says,

Haetae had been snoozing on her master's shoulder when a rumbling noise woke her up. Looking about, she wonders where it came from. Then it happens again, and she realizes it's her own stomach making the noise. Her master was still lost to the world examining intricate wall carvings, unusual architectural features, or something equally boring to his familiar. Lunchtime had passed unnoticed and he'd forgotten to feed her again.

She tries to get his attention, but he waves her away distractedly. "Sigh! Looks like I'll have to go foraging for myself... again!" Fortunately, she knew exactly where to go. Slipping slyly off her master's shoulder, she takes to the air on her bat-like wings and flies out the open window. Her destination is the nearest palm tree with its delicious clusters of ripe dates. Sliding into the cool shadows of the leaves to avoid detection, she settles in for a good meal, and soon thereafter, falls into a contented sleep.

Hours pass and she suddenly wakes. Her master had apparently noticed her absence and was mentally reaching out to her; calling her back to him. "Ah well. It was too good to last." She once again takes to the air and flies back, following the mental thread connecting her to her master.

Haetae was not a big fan of her latest assignment. From her usual perch she'd seen the torn carcases and taken several whiffs of the increasingly dreadful stench as they'd approached the cave. Not wanting to end up like one of these poor creatures, she'd decided to wait this one out in her master's backpack.

So it was with some trepidation that she poked her head out of said backpack at Haechi's prompting.

After her master explains what is required of her, Haetae pauses for a second in stunned silence. Without any mirth, she replies,

When Haechi insists, Haetae pulls herself out of the backpack and onto his shoulder.

But her master was serious. After telling her to be careful and assuring her that he'd take care of things if anything happened to her, Haetae's little shoulders slump in resignation. She sighs heavily. It's not like she had any say in the matter; he was after all the master and she the familiar. Their lots in life had been determined long ago and there seemed little point in railing at the unfairness of it all.

Haetae takes to the air and flutters down the corridor toward the main room, keeping as far away from the filthy floor as possible. As she turns the last corner, she recoils at the blast of fetid air and the sight of the ogre leaning on his pile of rotting garbage. "Pee-ew. This is worse than I imagined"

She then spots the shrews that Haechi had mentioned. They do not seem happy to see her but neither do they seem all that inclined to chase after her. The noise they were making though was threatening to catch the ogre's attention, so she better do something. Picking a relatively clean area of the floor, she flops to the ground and puts on a show of being injured. She makes some low wimpering noises and drags one wing a little as she creeps slowly along the floor toward the corridor opening heading back to where her master and his friends are waiting.

This is literally the first time Haetae has made any sort of skill roll. Unfortunately, Deception falls into the category of other skills and she only gets Haechi's Level (2) as a modifier.

Deception (Lie): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22

Apparently, she's a natural.

After scouting out the top of the cliff, Haetae had once again returned to the warmth of Haechi's backpack. She's just getting comfortable again when her master starts moving in an strange way.

Haetae pokes her head out of the backpack and sees Haechi getting ready to climb the cliff. She looks up to see if anyone had lowered a rope to help him out, but there was nothing; no rope, no piton, no climbing gear of any kind. Her master had apparently taken it into his head to free solo climb up a 25ft cliff!

"Is he insane?"

Haetae decides that her near-term life expectancy will be very much improved by flying out of the backpack and watching her master try to kill himself from a safe distance. She takes to the air and hovers nearby, but not so near that Haechi could reach her in a desparate bid to avoid a fall that would almost certainly break every bone in his body. From there, she watches in amazement as her master scampers up the cliff face as if he was born to it.

"Huh. That was unexpected."

Her master didn't often issue her with orders, so Haetae was a little surprised when he asked her to go for a quick look around to see if there was anything amiss.

She rolls her eyes and in a voice dripping with sarcasm, says,

She then launches herself into the air and makes several flights around the camp, skillfully cutting left and right through trees. She spirals inwards as she goes, but remains a safe distance away. If anyone at the campsite seem to notice her presence, she says "Hoot, hoot" in a terrible impersonation of an owl.

Haetae then returns to her usual place at her master's shoulder and reports on what she saw.

Haechi will relay the information to the rest of the group.

Haetae listens to Karla's rundown of the upcoming mission and can almost feel her master cringing through his cloak. When Haechi looks over, she stares back at him blankly before twisting her lips to one side, raising an eyebrow and shrugging.

From her usual perch at her master's shoulder, Haetae gives everyone at the table an experienced looking over and then mumbles something into Haechi's ear that is barely audible to the others.

From her somewhat safe haven in Haechi's backpack, Haetae had been listening to the goings on outside. It started with the screams of the panicked crowd, followed by the constant pounding of the hail and the wailing of the wind, before ending with the jolt of an electrical discharge that even the familiar felt from within her shelter.

Now that things have quieted down a little, she pokes her snout out of the backpack for a look and says:

Hearing the odd additional Zzzzap! as people cross the threshold, as well as the grinding of metal and shattering of glass within the museum, she pulls her snout back in.

When the main player goes down, the understudy takes over.

When Haetae sees the zombie brute, her first thought is "Oh, no; not again!" She then turns to her master and says,

As usual, her master ignores her suggestion and continues into the room. Haetae then decides that discretion is the better part of valor, and with a...

...she proceeds to dive into Haechi's backpack and wait out the trouble with a modicum of safety. No sooner does she find a comfortable corner to hide in that she feels a jarring thump, quickly followed by a falling sensation as her master slumps to the ground like a dropped bag of potatoes.

Haetae waits a second and then pokes her head out of the backpack to see what's going on. She sees a large lump beginning to form on the side of her master's head and sighs.

Haetae was at her usual perch on her master's shoulder; a little bored, as was the norm when he was engrossed in his research. She was wondering when her next meal would be when she noticed the piece of parchment fly out of the book he was reading.

Knowing all about mysterious bits of paper hidden in old books of magic, she thinks, "Uh oh. I have a bad feeling about this." Fortunately, the short lady runs up at that very moment and distracts her master. Haetae quickly falls off his shoulder, flies down to the ground, snatches the paper in her jaws, and returns to her perch as if nothing had happened. She decides to make a snack of it and is in the midst of chewing and swallowing when her master's attention returns to his work.

When he inquires as to the current location of the slip of parchment, Haetae pretends that she doesn't know what he's talking about. She's had better tasting snacks, but the paper would probably tide her over until lunch.

From her master's shoulder, Haetae scans the room. It's just as spooky as she imagined it would be when she heard they would be visiting a haunted house. When Haechi approaches the door, Haetae says,

When Haechi mentions that the last mission is the retrieval of a body from a haunted house, Haetae rolls her eyes and in a rather sarcastic tone, says,

As they went up the stairs, Haetae had closed her eyes and put her fingers in her ears knowing that she wouldn't like what she found at the top. Despite her best efforts, flashes of light and muffled shrieks still managed to get through.

When her master suddenly wrenched to one side, she quickly pulled away her hands and grabbed onto his cloak to avoid being thrown off. In the process, her eyes opened wide and she saw and heard the full horror of what they faced.

As fast as she can, Haetae springs off her master's shoulder and plunges deep into his backpack. From deep inside the pack, a mumbled voice can be heard:

While her master is nodding eagerly, Haetae is shaking her head just as hard.

Zelphari can use the scroll of disrupting weapons also. A scroll of heal would likely be for the party's use, so will let the party decide if we need more healing.

I'm thinking that out of those two, Heal will come in handier. If we run into undead, Heal will hurt them more that Disrupting Weapons and heal us as a side-effect. Since we're apparently devoid of healers except for Zelphari, then I think he should take the Heal scroll.

Now onto the Naga rescue...

Haetae takes one look at the restive crowd and says,

and as she always does when it looks like trouble is brewing (and Haechi doesn't command otherwise) she dives head-first into her master's backpack to avoid getting involved.

Haetae is still somewhat stuffed with the sausages and bacon she ate earlier, but when Haechi picks up a handful of crispy cheese sticks and turns his attention away from them, she can't help herself. She reaches over with one hand, grabs a couple of them, shoves them into her mouth, and quickly returns to her original position as if nothing had happened. A little later, you hear, "<crunch, crunch>"

Haetae notices that her master is being unusually reticent and turns to look at him. She recognizes that open-mouthed stare and the beads of sweat, and follows his glassy-eyed look to the source of the problem. She spots Zarta and thinks, "Oh no. Not again!"

Fortunately, she knew just what to do. She swings her tail around and smacks it hard into the side of her master's head.

Haetae was elated; she'd timed her escape perfectly and her master was none the wiser to her absence. Reaching the food table, she ducks under the tablecloth and out of sight beneath.

Peeking out, she sees that Haechi is deep in conversation with the important looking gentleman. Knowing her master, she estimated that she had only a few minutes before her disappearance was noted and she was called back.

She waits a few seconds, and creeping out the back of the table, takes to the air and hovers at tabletop height just long enough to grab a plate of something and dive back under. Knowing her time is limited, she starts ravenously stuffing the pigs in a blanket into her mouth, barely chewing them before swallowing. Soon, her tiny body is sated and she takes her time finishing the last of the delicious bacon-wrapped sausages.

Haetae bides her time, waiting for the right opportunity. When her master is in full swing talking to the important looking gentleman, she makes her move. Carefully, she slides off his shoulder and using her wings, breaks her fall to the ground. She then makes a beeline for the nearest table of food.

Haetae is happily snoozing on a nearby shelf when Haechi receives the invitation. When her master wakes her and informs her of the upcoming party, the familiar rolls her small eyes, and in a bored flat voice, replies:

Her master enjoyed such events immensely, but they always struck her as rather tedious. The only saving grace of these get-togethers was the food. If Haechi got sufficiently distracted, she could slip away and grab a bite of something without him noticing. Her master was usually a tyrant when it came to what she ate.

The smell of the ghoul coming through the hole had been enough to cause Haetae to take to the air and fly away a distance to avoid it. She didn't know how her master could stand it. "I guess his sense of smell isn't as good as mine."

To kill time, Haetae flies over to Goldy for a chat.

Haetae's eyes open wide when she hears the voice. In her mind, no good could come from talking to creatures that were still compos mentis after so much time imprisoned in a small room. She was surprised that Haechi wasn't more agitated by the situation. As her master leans into the hole to converse, she says,

From her nice dry spot on top of Haetae's removed belongings at the top of the stairs, she watches as her master wades around the filthy water picking things out of it for a closer look and discarding them when they prove worthless. "Better him than me," she thinks to herself, but calls out,

Haetae had dived into Haechi's backpack as soon as she spotted the zombies and remained there for the duration of the short fight. When all the loud crashing, slamming and screaming noises had died down, she waited a couple more minutes before hesitantly poking her head out to see how badly hurt her master might be.

She wasn't really all that surprised to find Haechi unharmed. Her master seemed to have a talent for getting through the most unpleasant encounters with nary a scratch to show for it.

As Haechi walks around looking at the elaborate decorations in the room, Haetae pulls herself out of the backpack and back to her usual place on her master's shoulder. Looking at the mural of Aroden, she says,

When Haechi goes back down the stairs to tend to Annabelle, Haetae looks out for Goldy, and catching her eye, waves and says,

Haetae sticks her head out of the backpack to see what's going on. It all seems very dark until Annabelle lights her torch. The familiar then leaves the backpack entirely and resumes her usual perch on Haechi's shoulder. She looks around; spotting Goldy, she gives the bunny a wave hello.

Haetae is not at all impressed by their wet and spooky surroundings, and those creepy statues were only adding to the sense of foreboding she was feeling.

She whispers to Haetae...

Haetae was beginning to form a real dislike for these sewers, not that she'd been particularly fond of them to begin with. First there was the crocodile, and now these mercenaries were trying to kill them. She was far more used to lounging around in quiet libraries while her master spent hours with his snout in books; all this continuous commotion was starting to wear on her nerves.

She whispers something in Haechi's ear...

...and then works herself into her master's backpack for a snooze. Perhaps that would calm her nerves a little.

Haetae looks into the cave and the box way down deep in the water. Turning to Haechi, she raises an eyebrow and says,

Haetae is shocked! (Shocked!) when Haechi steps closer to the crocodile. What in the blazes is he doing? she thinks. She starts looking about for an escape route of her own, but only manages to say "Utinam uh!" before the crocodile explodes, throwing her off Haechi's back and covering her in crocodile viscera. Fortunately, she managed to open her wings in time and catch herself from falling. She flaps around a little and rejoins her master once all is clear.

Haetae had never seen her master perform on stage before, but she had often seen Haechi super confident about his abilities only to watch him crash and burn in the actual execution.

So when Haechi leaves her behind and strides onto the stage to perform the goblin king's play, Haetae can't bear to watch the looming disaster; she covers her face with her wings and flattens herself against the ground. Upon hearing her master's booming voice reciting his lines with some degree of skill, Haetae lifts a wing and peeks out. Not seeing the expected screaming and running, she refurls her wings and watches the whole performance. Her opinion? "Better than expected. At least nobody died."

Haetae mulls over Goldy's offer of friendship, but before she can reply, her master suddenly takes several steps forward. After some loud talking, he moves his arms violently, flinging her unceremoniously into Haechi's lowered hood. By the time she recovers enough to pull herself out, her master is back where he started. "What in Apsu's blazes was that about!" she thinks to herself, slowly regaining her composure. She then hisses in his ear "In futuro, primum monent."

When Goldy and Annabelle return from their performance, Haetae looks over at the golden rabbit and says, "Ita vero. Sine me, esset mortuus iam. Sit scriptor esse amicos. Ad auxilium occupandi temporis causa."

I'm going to quit with the Latin and stick to Draconic spoilers from now on. The Latin was fun, but somewhat time consuming.

Feeling the need to stretch her wings a little, she calls over to Goldy,

Haetae gets the ok from Haechi for a short flying demonstration and launches herself from his shoulder.

Assuming that Goldy joins her.

Haetae and Goldy fly around the large room, swooping and turning in synchrony; sometimes side-by-side; sometimes apart. Their golden scales catching what little light is available and reflecting it around the room in beautiful flickering coruscations of brilliance. They soar and dive; loop and twirl; pushing each other to ever greater heights of acrobatic excellence. They end their performance by hovering side-by-side before the king with their tiny wings fluttering behind them. After a bow to Zusgut, they fly back to their respective magic users to recover their breaths.

I'm going to go with an Acrobatics check for their performance. I'll use Haetae's Acrobatics of +5. I'll let the GM decide if Goldy's Acrobatics of +2 should be used instead.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

Haetae eyes the two new familiars. The small rat creature seemed harmless enough, but he didn't understand a word it just said. The golden rabbit was a different story. More intriguing by far. "Those scales are a little bright for my taste, but at least we speak the same language." In a matching casual voice, Haetae replies, "Salve! Haetae est nomen meum. Et nomen tuum?"

At her master's theatrics, Haetae rolls her small eyes. "O frater!" she opines in a higher-pitched voice than one would expect. She looks over the dwarf and goblin without much excitement. Turning her head slightly, she says to Haechi, "non valde infigo sunt" in a loud whisper that carries easily across the room.

And, this is Haetae, Haechi's lizard familiar.