The first hole is covered without opposition and Ohanzee finds that it is empty of life. It looks well used and is most certainly a roost or nest of the creatures for the floor is covered with bones, and dried vegetation. Peering closer he can see that there are many niches in the walls used as nests.

Moving quickly to the furthest most hole, the braves run the net across the hole, this time causing a stir below, though nothing comes up to investigate.

Henal asks the others as they crawl over to the other hole. "Ready for it?"

He passes his javelins to Amara and draws his sword before casting charms on himself and drinking the potion of invisibility. "Did the potion work?"

"Stay here cats till its safe".

Amara nodded, grinning in satisfaction as Henal handed her the javelins. "When we come in, try to keep them away from me as I throw javelins. I need some room to throw. Once I've run out I don't need the space."

From the little they can see the final cave, like the other two, is accessed by a hole in the roof, and if anything like the others about twenty metres to the ground.

To get down they'll either have to jump into a handy pile of nest material or descend a rope.

So far no one has tried peeking over the edge...

"Henal, no-one can see you. Have a look over the edge."

About a minute after Henal drinks the potion, first mixing some water with the silver powder, he suddenly keels over, gripping his stomach and frothing at the mouth.

Whatever it was, it wasn't a potion of invisibility, though that was what was marked on the flask when found.

Amara glanced quickly, rushing to Henals side as she saw he was in distress. She tried to make him throw up, to get rid of the poison that was now in his system.

Henal is on all fours vomiting out black bile and poison racked by the spasms of his body expelling the toxins.

"That merchant's lucky he's already dead or I would have hunted him down to give him a slow death" he chokes out in a whisper.

Ohanzee doesn't talk but instead grabs some leaves from a pouch and chews then into a pulp which he then transfers to Henal's mouth holding it shut "Shut up and swallow!"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:47, Fri 23 Oct 2015.

Henal's poisoning is both messy and noisy, though whatever Ohanzee had used seems to do the trick as it stabilises and then heals the luckily small amount of damage that had occurred.

Nevertheless Henal is stuck with a nasty stomach ache and a pretty much constant desire to empty his bowels for the next few hours.

It's whilst the healing takes place that Amara, whilst watching the hole that they now crouch beside, spies a Harpy who is attempting to hover in the centre of the hole, whilst seeing what is happening. Luckily it's looking the wrong way....

Amara didn't pause, throwing the javelins Henal had handed her. "Get up quick. We might have some uninvited guests soon."

Henal struggles back to his feet and readies his sword with goyo root venom and casts a spell of protection on himself.

"So do we climb down or jump?"

Whilst Henal begins applying the poison to his blade Ohanzee moves over to the edge of the hole and hooks his bow over his shoulder as he casts shimmer. Then, Amara's gifted axe in hand, he leaps for the relative softness of the nest below unless there is a harpy in the air that he can leap upon.

The first javelin cast takes the Harpy in the back, and is almost immediately joined by Ohanzee who leaping through the air, uses the struggling creature to make a controlled landing of sorts twenty metres below.

He lands with a crunch and a jarring pain in his shoulder where he landed hard. Luckily the now dead Harpy had broken most of the fall. Looking up the Raven brave sees that there are around ten old and decrepit Harpies sat in niches and perched on ledges, each and everyone staring down at him with feral eyes.

He can tell what they're all thinking... Dinner has just dropped in from above. On mass they flap, jump and fall down to the bottom of the large cave, intent on feasting on the slightly stunned looking human...

Up above a rope has been tied to a large boulder and is ready to be thrown down by Henal and Amara who can see clearly all that transpires below.

"Lets try and drop the boulder onto one of them" Henal says as he helps line up the boulder over the hole.

"Reckon you can hit any of them with javelins from here?"

"I'll keep you covered from up here until I run out of javelins. Try to entice the hapries closer." Amara said as she hefted another javelin in her hand. "These ones are the old ones, so be careful."

Pulling Amara's javelin from the downed Harpy Ohanzee hurls it at the closest airborne creature before swapping back to Amara's copper axe.

Perhaps because of the influence of Storm Bull on his holy day the Raven brave charges the beasts.

As Ohanzee gets his act together the group of elderly Harpies advance. They might be old, cranky and without much skill at hitting things, but compared to the younger ones they're strong in magic.

The Raven brave finds himself assailed from all sides by charms that bewilder, bind his limbs and tear at his flesh. After a finger breaks from the force of a charm he becomes unsure with what is going on and can only stare at the advancing creatures.

From above comes a shadow that turns into a large boulder.

*Splatt*

One of the creatures....Is it his friend?....Should he be worried about who is throwing rocks?....collapses under the weight of the rock. This distracts most of the Harpies who turn and look upwards.

Unfortunately the Raven brave knows no more as from behind, his head receives a crushing blow from a deftly swung club.

As he falls to the ground a flurry of javelins fly down thudding into two of the Harpies, giving Amara and Henal time to swing down on the hastily thrown rope, the other end tied to a hefty boulder above.

Swords are unsheathed and the two Thunderbird braves put to good use their experience of combat and killing.

Chaos dies in bursting explosions of feathers, guts and severed limbs. They make quick work of it and are soon wiping their blades clean of the disgusting gore that had splattered everywhere.

The floor of the cave is littered with years worth of debris, guano and bones and moves as if alive. All kinds of vermin scatter through the tinder dry rubbish, doing their best to escape the sudden noise.

Apart from the hole in the roof, there is only one other exit from the cave. Situated 6 metres up the Western wall is a wide mouthed tunnel, coming from which is the sounds of drums and chanting.

The wall is climbable...Just.

Henal uses his healing magic to rouse Ohanzee before climbing up towards the tunnel.

"I hear fighting from this direction as well as the chanting so it must be our comrades. Let's get down there to help them now these harpies are done".

"I agree with Henal. We're running short on magic and healing. We need support from the others if we are to prevail" Amara climbed to the tunnel finding the path relatively passable.

Hauling the still groggy Ohanzee up after them the three Rangers begin to search for their friends. The stench from the inhabitants' waste  is debilitating and it's slow going. Scraps of cloth are tied around faces and vision blurs.

After around 80metres they come to a T junction, which with careful thought likely leads to the other two caves with holes in their ceilings. With the Southern tunnel leading to the only other cave that noise came from it's an easy decision to avoid that and take the Northern one.

These tunnels are dark and it's almost impossible to keep quiet due to the dry debris and waves of fleeing vermin. Luckily the noise from further away....Drums, screams and chanting drowns out all but the most serious stumbles.

Another junction is reached, the righthand one leading to what must be another roosting cave, as a shaft of daylight can be seen at it's end and the left, after a short distance opens into a smoke filled cavern. From where they peer from around the corner of the junction several dead Harpies can be made out lying on the ground of the cave.

Henal with his sword and shield readied speaks quietly "Looks like the others must have been here recently. Lets press on to try and catch them".
This message was last edited by the player at 08:46, Mon 26 Oct 2015.

Ohanzee's ears are still ringing from the resounding crash to the back of his helmet and every now and then he raises his sword arm to his helmet and holds it in place as he pushes his head inside it trying to relieve the pain at the back with pressure in another point.

He twitches his shoulder blades as Henal talks, something tickling his back between them as it crawls up his spine, no doubt some insect that found it's way under his armour as he lay unconscious on the filth. He tries not to linger on that thought and to put the... whatever it is out of his mind.

"What?" he shouts without realising it, his ears not only ringing, but blocked with concealing blood. "Let's move. The others have been this way let's catch them up."

link to a message in this game