(Earthdawn: The Veil of Prometheus) Ch. 1: Lessons on the Serpent River

Kara looks at Meridian "I have arrows and Oliver has a spear. that should help at least a little with your plan. " She then looks over at Oliver. "I am sorry But these are carnivorous birds. they eat dead things. much less dead things brains. their meat isn't going to be worth a whole lot. the meat could have some kind of disease or sickness in it that could cause more harm then good." she explains as she pat Billy Bob, Oliver's horse.
 
"We could use the fishing nets from the Mopps," Lotar suggested. The troll climbed back to his full height, and tugged thoughtfully on the braids of his beard. "More sheep might be a problem. We'd have to go back and talk the town into giving us some." He looked from Meridian to Kara. "Maybe Kara can catch us some bait."

'It is better to attack these guys at a distance', Kara had said. It was a shame Lotar hadn't had time to put together some kind of bow or sling. His reach with his sword was long, but maybe not '10-foot tall giant bird' long.
 
Dagnus stood up to her much less impressive full height. "Well shit, looks like I won't be of much use then. I've only my mace and dagger on me, nothing of any significant range," Dagnus said, placing her mace back where it belongs. "Oi, Dwayne, your arm still good for throwing stones?"

"Yeah. But I'm not sure how well rocks will fair against giant skull crushing birds. I think we may need to leave this in the hands of people with actual ranged weapons. We'll probably have to step in as a back up if they get out of the nets or something," Dwayne responded, tossing a rock into the air and catching it. "That or we work as bait. I'm pretty sturdy, and it wouldn't be the first time it's happened."

"Dwayne, no. Your head may be thinker than Oliver's is empty, but sheep or boars will be better bait than you. Probably tastier too," Dagnus countered.

"True. Well, I'll just help in making the trap then. It would probably be good to dig a hole as well as use a net. That way, if it gets out, it will fall in and probably break something," Dwayne proposed.
 
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"Not sure about that," Yala chimed in, dubious. "I mean, a lot of sheep survived, but they took all three shepherds."

Harl spoke up softly, "There was no one near enough when the attack happened to hear, and all three Namegivers on the site were slain."
 
Yrineda took some time to look at the corpse as well but at the time didn't say anything more. She look at the others and smile when they heard that only the three shepherd were taken "Maybe the Crakbills have developed a taste for human brains."

She look around and saw the plants and trees maybe they could gave her more information that could be usefull.

She use her power and weave a thread to cast her plant talk spell, she then toook a bit to concentrate on the area and talk to the plants "Tell me what happened here?".
 
The spirit inhabiting the little pine yawned audibly—to Yrineda any way. “Oh... That was an ugly thing that happened three days ago. I didn't see much of it, I'm sort of near sighted. I'll tell you what I know, but you should ask the guy living in that ground pine on the hill for more.”

By talking to several plant spirits all around the scene, Yrineda was able to reconstruct the gruesome scene. Two of the shepards had been dozing that night, while the third kept himself awake to maintain the watch by playing his flute. Most of the sheep were asleep on their feet, but some chewed lazily on the grass.

Five tall birds with long necks pounced on the waking Shepard. They bit at him and tore at him with their talons, slaying him. Another eight rushed in through the valley entrance, puffing a gray mist into the bleating and stampeding sheep. Several sheep froze. By the time the other two shepherds were on their feet—one with a pear in hand and the other a knife—the birds puffed their gray fog at the men repeatedly, dodging back and forth. Before long those men—like the sheep—were paralyzed by the magic or venom of the gas. Then the Crackbills gathered around the three namegiver shepherds. They used their beaks first to crack open the skulls of the paralyzed men. A brief fight broke out, and the strongest six won out, supping on the live brains.

The remainder went to the dead Shepard and the fight broke out again, with two crackbills coming out strong enough to feat on the tasty namegiver brain while the remainder spread out to feed upon the brains of the paralyzed sheep.

The crackbills spent a few minutes feasting, then another half hour digesting before they headed out of the little valley. A few hours after sunrise a windling man lead a troupe of humans, dwarves, and orks to the scene—tipped off by finding the surviving sheep that something had gone very wrong. Their was general disgust and lamenting. An argument broke out when the windling instructed them not to disturb the scene 'til expert hunters could examine it, but level heads won the day and the group left. Nothing but ravens had disturbed the scene since.

Harl spoke up. “Parties will be here tomorrow to bring back the bodies for burial. I'm hoping you can deal with the crackbills before then 'lest they endanger the burial party or other herdsmen. If you want to go back to the Mopps for nets, that shouldn't slow us more than three hours. They're going to wait for us up to two days to complete this hunt. If we can't get it done by then, we'll have to catch up in the longboats.”
 
"I suppose if we fail, plan b can be to guard the funeral rites?" Luelalin mused out loud.
 
Three hours later the group was back. This time, they had five very large, tightly rolled fishing nets and several coils of rope along with their normal gear.

Harl gave Kara a swat on the rump with his tail then caught her by the hand and lead her out of the valley. He pointed her to a small smear of blood on the stone. "Your show, dear girl."
 
"Dirty bastard" he would say laughing to harl as he brought the net over having it slung across his horse. "How about we play a Little game, the person who gets the most of these fuckers gets to make the others do whatever they want, anyone in"

He knew what he was going to do if he won and the others definitely did.
 
Dagnus heard Oliver's challenge, and the reward for winning. This riled her up like nothing else. "Ye never challenge a dwarf to a contest Oliver! You'll bet I'm goin' ta compete, and I'm goin' ta stomp ye harder than yer horse can!" Dagnus said, near full dwarven accent coming out.

Dwayne placed a hand on Dagnus's shoulder. "I'll take you up on this bet too. Just know, I will probably just have someone help me make dinner for the next few nights, so be prepared to cut up vegetables and fetch water."
 
Kara jumps when Harl smacked her on the butt. Although rude he was right this was her time to shine. While the others placed bets she looked over the tracks that were left. These were undesturbed tracks and easier to read.

"It looks there are three seperate packs... they kinda get along... mostly when they have to. I count thirteen sets of tracks. Come on we have to find them before we can bet on who can do the most damage. Don't get too eager to win a bet that you forget to keep your distance." She says looking at Dangus and Oliver. "I want every one alive and unharmed when this is over."

She paused for a moment "that being said you can count me in on the bet. I have a few things I could get help with." She said as she eyes Oliver.
 
"Kara is right," Lotar rumbled. "I'm going to win the bet, either way, so there's no sense taking needless risks."

The troll was carrying a couple of the nets from the Mopps, rolled up and slung over his shoulder. He lumbered over to join the archer by the tracks, stopping a couple of steps back. It didn't look like much to him, but he figured she wouldn't appreciate it if he stepped all over them.

"Maybe a couple of you Elves should scout ahead," he suggested. "We can follow a ways behind and set the trap once you signal. Better than all of us blundering into them."
 
Dwayne walked about, picking up rocks to throw once the birds were caught in the trap. He returned after getting five decently sized rocks, big enough to throw and deal some damage to whatever it hit. "It's quite nice that we're able to bond over killing monsters though. More often than not everyone is just moody," Dwayne said.

Dagnus, meanwhile, was just kind of standing watch and making sure the crackbills weren't going to sneak up on them. "Aye. Most of the time, the other people we worked with were pretty ugly too. Both inside and outside."
 
Ok, so hiding and letting them come to us is out, fine, but i still agree, we should perhaps bait them in. Strong arms and backs are needed for the throwing of these nets. Swift feet and quiet steps for the scouts. How fast are they? How fast are they?" She began walking around seeking to put the nets in the strongest arms. "I can move quietly when I want to, but I want the best for the job. Who is trained in moving quietly aside from myself. We need to draw them out and we need to remember that even once we find a group, there are three groups." She notices that there are four nets, "Ok, two nets to be used to capture, the second each is for defense, if another group pounces on us, or they escape the netting, we have one reserve net for defense." She hands two each to the troll and the obsidiman, "Make it count."

Turning to the others, "Ok. range artists, flank the nets, we will head out and once we find a group, I will fall back to let you know, or we will come running back, if it is loud and fast be ready for the birds."
 
Oliver would ride towards Kara making sure to have his spear in hand incase of the birds arrival. "There is a lot you can help me with if I win Kara" he would wink at her before turning round on his horse and making his way to the girl making a plan. "I won't be the most quiet on horseback but I will be the fastest, I'll ride to a middle ground and if you see something signal to me, I will the new travel back to the group to get them ready you will come from behind afterwards that way we will get the most time to prepare."

The spear would be moved into a position much like a lance with his arm rapped around it. "I can skewer the bastards after they are in the nets, unless you want to sell these fuckers to a zoo."
 
"Oliver, that makes sense, I suggest though that you stay a bit behind us as we scout. Since we are on foot, we can have you run relay with the group or main bait to draw the birds back to the nets." This would already have him in motion so that he could wheel around and lance the beasts once the nets fall and before they can rise again. She would make her way to Paws once they were on the return and be a second mounted sweep to skewer the netted or to harass any that were free. Paws made a big target when she needed to.
 
Now that Kara had the trail, it was fairly easy to follow. It took them another three hours of moving through the hills before she was sure they were close to one of the groups.

It seemed to Kara that the crackbills had spent a few days enjoying digesting their meals. They hadn't attacked anyone else, but they'd snuffled around Shepard's paths, and stayed reasonably close to future victims.

Kara and Meridian were out front, moving quietly. A little ways behind, Oliver road beside Paws. The rest of the group was further back, ready to spread out and lay ambush.

Kara and Meridian roll Silent Walk.
 
Meridian missed the constant strength of Paws as she slinked alongside Kara, her steps a whisper as she moved through the underbrush and along the hills. She knew they were close, only when Kara offered her the physical command to stop without words. Not that they had been chatty, just this action was obviously meant to stop the sound altogether. She halted beside Kara, awaiting her confirmation and the next step in their plan.

Move silently roll
2d6+0
2,6+0 = 8 reroll the 6
1d6+0
5+0 = 5 For a total of 13
 
Kara walked quietly along as she followed the trail. her blood racing in her chest. this was her chance to secure her spot in this group. The other elves already seemed to have their own click. She was the outsider. This was her chance to Prove herself. the tracks were getting fresh as she motioned for Meridian to slow their pace not wanting to get too close to them. Kara made a motion to keep her eyes open and to look for any sign of the crackbills. she then pointed up ahead as then could see them. they were bigger in person then Kara imagined. their necks were reddish and seemed quite flexible which gave her creepy feeling.



Move silently
2d8 =(6+7 = 13)
 
Creeping through the brush and around the bend, for a moment Kara and Meridian thoguht they'd come face to face with a wary crackbill not 12 paces ahead...

Except...

The axe-beaked head—which hovered at about nine feet rather than twelve. Twitched hither and yon and didn't notice them at all!

They were able to keep their distance and get a little closer. There were, indeed, four crackbills taking shelter in a little bowl canyon. One of the troll-tall birds was asleep, with his head tucked under a vestigial wing. Two others—the drab brown and gray feathers suggested females, right?--were in a sort of embrace, necks coiled in an embrace as they preened each other. The fourth—with shimmery blue-green feathers—seemed to be standing guard. He just wasn't doing a very good job.

* * *​

Dagnus, Dwain, Lotar, Luelalin, and Yalathael waited a ways back from the scouts, amongst a patch fo hills with rather more trees than most. It gave them places to dodge, and cover to seek, but with preparation still allowed them to prepare clear lines of fire for tossed nets, followed by arrows, spells, stones, and such.

TSkrang_Boatman.jpe


Harlanarander and the lovely--if severe--Eesheeoka took up positions at a little bit of a distance to look on quietly Eeshee deftly scaled a steep hill face and perched on a rocky outcropping, crouched easily. Harl scaled a try about the center of the soon to be battlefield--but a little back--and casually perched on a tree limb about 7 paces up.

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Yalathael kept her weaposn ready and held one of the nets. Glancing at her two dearest freinds--whom she'd endeavored to stay in front of--she flashed them a soothing smile on pink lips. "So, you're both still limited to two spell matrixes, right? What spells are you keeping ready?"

: In the grimoire section of your character sheets are two lines labeled "Spell Matrix." Write into that spot the two spells you have prepared to cast safely for this encounter. Feel free to hit me up for help or more information!
 
Meridian froze, damn that guy was close, a little short for a stormtrooper comes to mind. She motions for Kara to hold position as she smiles and backs away ever so slowly. Creeping back through the brush she makes her way to Oliver, "Four, in the cove ahead, let the others know and get back here. Listen for a bear roar, if it happens we are Go, if not we will bait them when you get back." She then pats PAws on the neck she mounted and awaited Oliver's return.
 
Oliver would upon hearing his instructions ride straight back to he group at a gallop, "four of the bastards, get ready cause if you hear a bear roar they are in their way to us" he would grip his spear tight before riding back towards the other group.
 
Yrineda look at her friends and was ready to fight with her elemental magic.

She look around and nods "I am no good with net but my magic can protect me and i can burn those birds to ashes"

She look at the others and smile "What can i do to help ?"
 
Meridian waved for Kara to come ride with her, motioning to fire from the back of the bear. As she did so, she began talking in a normal volume about this spring that she thought was ahead of them. She waves for Oliver to aim his horse back along the trail as she turns Paws across the trail. "It has the cutest little bank to hang your feet in the water, and honey from the bees in the tree at the headwater. I so need a dip after this ride."

Paws argues the point in normal loud bear grumblings, as he shuffles from right to left, ready to bolt down the path they came. "You got this, keep calm." Meridian pats Paws on the neck as they sidle through the brush towards the bowl canyon. Thinking things over, Meridian actually laughs out loud as she notices their location. If they had thought about it, using fire at this end of the canyon and firing from the rim with bow and rocks would probably have done a safer job. Too late now, she realizes as the first shuffles reach her ears.


1d12+0
9+0 = 9
 
Lea smiles at Yala's question. "Mind dagger, and dispel magic, just in case." She beamed.


Init 1
 
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