Fellas draws his newly purchased dagger, it shines and looks really well made. Seeing hear beetle approach his eyes widen and he takes a step backwards. Should any bug approach him he'll wave his dagger wildly in front of him.

Wondering if there will be any kobolds following the beetles out of the hole, for the moment Averdante focuses on the insects. They seem to have some kind of painful toxin in their bite. Not wishing to hit his friends and knowing they're capable of handling the beetles they're fighting, he takes aim at one of the pair caught by Haazheel's spell.


07:55, Today: Averdante rolled 26 using 1d20+6.  Shooting arrow.
07:56, Today: Averdante rolled 6 using 1d8.  damage for arrow.

The crow seemed pretty damn pathetic right now.  For a deity., even a minor one, it also seemed pretty stupid.  "Love you?!  You tried to enslave them.  Love is not about control, or domination...that is fear.  Have you never heard the saying, "If you love someone set them free?"  If you love someone you give, with no expectation of receiving anything in return.  The Stone Tree thrives for that very reason.  You have also by your actions broken faith with them.  Even if you said you want to start over, it would be difficult for them to trust you.  You would have to mend that trust, and that is no easy task."  He then realized that perhaps he had spoken out of turn.  His tone had not been very kind, as he was still angered by what the crow had done.  He looked to Lantamori somewhat, but not completely apologetic.

Volsh turned to see the young elf with her mouth half open and a perplexed look on her face.  She seemed in mid gesture and looked at him as if she'd just seen him shake hands with a crocodile.  She glanced over the edge of the nest and then back at the loquacious barbarian before coming to a decision.

"Never mind," she said, dismissing what she'd been about to say, stepping away from the edge.  "Continue."

She held her lowered bow before her in anticipation of further peculiarity between man and crow.  The minds of men were full of never ending surprises.

Bruenor was glad he’d stayed behind to help stand with the others…he’d thought of following Volsh and Lantamori up the ‘nest’ at first.  Hells there were a lot of beetles coming out of the hole.  Hopefully this was it.

His sword missing the mark, he winces in pain as the beetle’s pincers lance his skin…acid burning as his armor does little to repel it.

He growls in anger, and puts a boot under the nearest beetle, kicking upwards and attempting to upend the putrid insect.  He curses as it feels like the insect's legs are anchored to the ground, more stable than he thought...but follows through nonetheless.

Up The Strands





The crow lifts its head a little, looking astonished at the verbose barbarian.  "I must... set them... free?  Expect... nothing?  Giving... gives you... love?"

Its head flops back down, and more golden blood trickles into the nest.  It breaths a few more times weakly, and suddenly struggles upright again.  "I... will... give... it back for... another... chance."  It turns over, pushing upright, and raises its wings.  As its beak parts it gives a thin cry, the sound seeming to make it glow, as the crow dissolves into globes of light that rise into the thinning mist, merging with it, as if dawn has come twice in one day.

A golden feather remains atop the nest, along with the pools of golden blood, along with a peculiar sense of calm.

---------

Upon The Ground



Going after the toppled beetle on the right, Averdante strikes it through a leg joint, making ichor spurt out of the wound.



  Narthian and Thunder flank the nearest beetle, scimitar and teeth slashing.  While Narthian can't quite get through the beetle's carapace, Thunder chomps into it with a will, making the wounded beetle dance in rage.

Farian takes a swing with his mace at Aberlayne's beetle, but it bounces off the beetle's armor.

Sir Aberlayne slashes down with her axe, keeping herself between the beetle and Dellas, and opens up a wedge in its defenses.

08:53, Today: Sir Aberlayne Nump rolled 6 using 1d6+1.  Axe damage.
08:53, Today: Sir Aberlayne Nump rolled 18 using 1d20+6.  Attack with axe.



Bruenor manages to upend the beetle, despite its many legs, but his return swing to skewer it is at a bad angle, and just makes a squealing scrape as it shrieks against its carapace.

Dellas has no beetle come to chew his tender epidermis, much to his relief.

Haazheel fires his crossbow into the beetle still down from his grease spell - managing to hit it squarely as it flails about in the muck.

The two beetles in the grease remain flailing about.  The three others continue their vicious attacks on Narthain, Bruenor, and Sir Aberlayne, but this time everyone's reactions are sharper (or the beetles are more wary and respectful of their foes) and their chitinous jaws chomp on nothing!

Fellas regained his senses and takes a few steps around his sister. He extends his hands and his fingers, keeping his thumb and index finger in a circle together. Flames sprout from this motion as he tries to burn as many bugs as possible, hoping to get at least the two greased ones. "WUHAHAHAHA BURN YOU VERNIM!"


I want to try and hit at least 3 bugs, one in front of Abby and two that are greased.

Volsh looked over at Lantamori, back to the golden feather and pool of golden blood, then back to the elf, not really sure what had just transpired.    "What did we just see?"

Narthian continues to tag team the bug with Thunder.

Narthian attack with flanking bonus: 13:50, Today: Narthian Goldleaf rolled 12,1 using d20+4,d6 ((8,1)).

Thunder attack with flanking bonus: 13:51, Today: Narthian Goldleaf rolled 14,8 using 1d20+8,d6+2 ((6,6)).

Bruenor keeps control of his longsword as it glances off the beetle's carapace...  With the beetle now on its back and flailing its legs in the air, Bruenor swings his sword over his head and brings it down hard on the upended beetle.

With no wish to risk hitting one of his companions, Averdante takes aim again at the one he'd clipped. Best to get them before they get clear of the spell's effect and can again present a threat.

He takes a quick glance toward the hole they emerged from before firing, however -- just in case there's something else emerging that is a more urgent target. The beetles are using the kobold tunnels, and he's doubtful the insects painted themselves.


[OOC: If he sees Dellas sighting in on the beetles, knowing the halfling's proclivity for burning things, he'll hold his shot to see if it's even needed.]

"I'm don't know," Lantamori replied to Volsh and what they'd just witnessed.  "It sounded as though it was going to try again but taking heed of your advice.

"I think we've done what we needed to do here," she added, looking over the edge at the beetle battle below.  "We should really help the others now."

The elf slung her bow and climbed up onto the edge of the nest to descend.

Up The Strands



It's not entirely certain, but whatever did happen, it seems to have passed for now.  The sense of calm still holds sway, but you can begin to hear the faint sounds of combat drifting up from below.



Lantamori can see what look like entirely oversized beetles scurrying about on the ground, nearly as many as those left behind, attacking all and sundry!  She grips the strands and descends, though nearly slips partway down, and has to just pause and grip hard so as not to fall.

----

Upon The Ground



Averdante sights on one of the beetles with a quick shot, but sees Dellas targeting the wounded greaased beetles and switches targets.  He zings one into the one facing Bruenor, wounding it further.




Narthian and Thunder attack their own flanked beetle with fine precision, Narthian slashing at it to distract it as Thunder finally hits something vital with a ripping of his fangs.  The beetle thrashes and dies, making a high-pitched squealing sound.


Both Farian and Sir Aberlayne miss with their attacks on the beetle they have between them.  Sir Aberlayne spies Dellas about to fan the flames and shouts, both Farian and her retreating to leave the field free for the fires.



Bruenor slashes down and cuts a deep gash in the beetle below, making the creature screech and writhe painfully.



Dellas' fire flashes out in a wave of burning heat, igniting the grease and licking at the carapaces of his three chosen victims, including the one in front of his sister.  While the bugs try to get out of the way, between their wounds or the grease, it doesn't particularly matter, and all three fall, crisping!

Haazheel reloads and fires his crossbow at Bruenor's beetle, but misses.

Bruenor's beetle tries to get to its feel, but Bruenor whips his sword down in a fatal stroke, decapitating the insect!

A stillness falls upon the clearing, deep and profound...

Volsh wondered if they should leave the feather here or not.   The elf did not take it, and probably was wiser than he in such matters, so he left it as well, and began his descent.

Narthian gives Thunder a congratulatory scratch behind the ears, then cleans the ichor from his blade. He looks up, planning to follow the others into the nest, only the see them descending. He waits for them to reach the ground and report.

Dellas grins broadly, he claps his hands together and watches as the last beetle dies. He takes a step forward and looks up at their two companions who climbed to the cloud and sees Lantamori climbing down. "EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?" He asks

Pleased the fight with the insects was brief, Averdante takes another look around for any further targets or threats. Overhead, he sees Lantamori and Volsh are already returning; they look unharmed, so perhaps the crow hadn't been in the nest?

Lantamori took more care on the rest of her descent as the beetles seemed to have been taken care of.

"Volsh took care of it," the elf replied to Dellas as she settled onto the marshy ground.  "They talked it out and the crow... left."  She cocked her head and looked questioningly at her large human companion with the completion of her statement.

"It was surprising," she concluded, giving up on further explanation.  She looked around and added dryly, "I see you've started another fire."

His face showed signs of surprise "It just... left? Where did it go? What happened?" He smiles mischievously when she mentioned the fire "Only a little... but I got them all." He looks up the... web or whatever it is and thinks for a moment before yelling up to Volsh "Could you help me to get up there? I'd like to take a closer look."

Sir Aberlayne wiggles a finger in her ear at Dellas' bellow so close to her head.  She takes a moment to clean her axe, and grimaces at the burning wound on her leg.  She takes out some of the healing herbs they'd gotten from the village and applies them with a look of relief.  She squints up at the descending elf and human.  "Well, assuming they're not charmed by that crow, I'd rather guess so.  And I somehow doubt the crow was so considerate of others to have them climb down when it could give them wings."



Volsh climbs down easily, and is soon standing amongst the brightly-painted beetle carcasses.  Bruenor, Sir Aberlayne, and Narthian are nursing wounds, but none seem to be on the verse of collapse.



No targets present themselves, luckily.



"Left?  As in bodily departed?  Died?  Became a ghost?  Went invisible?  Dissipated into the ether, what?" Farian demands a little frantically.

Haazheel sends his owl familiar Mystique aloft, and shakes his head.  "Well, there's no crow-corpse up there, that's for certain."



"Come on, you curious mouse.  Let's get up there and see what we can before you shake yourself into a froth in impatience," Sir Aberlayne says.  Putting her shield below, she'll help Dellas and Lantamori (and anyone else ascending) carefully make their way up.

Over the edge of the huge nest, big as a Guild chapterhouse, you can see it is littered with a visual cacophony of brilliantly-colored feathers, mosses, flowers, fabric, and shed scales.  It looks like many of the items were fashioned together in some skill, often depicting something that looks like a dragon in flight.  In the center is a heap of puffball mushrooms with some gold liquid spilling over the top of them, a large golden feather perched atop the heap in isolated splendor.

--

Narthian, as you look about, Thunder is giving no more indication of anything living.  Kobolds, you recall, often keep beetles as guard "dogs," decorating their shells to indicate who they belong to.  The decorations, you realize upon closer inspection, are a little bit worn, as if they have not been renewed in some time.

Dellas is glad for his sister's help or he would really not have been able to get up there.
His eyes widen when he sees the puff mushrooms, the gold and especially the golden feather. He slowly walks forward, testing each step before putting his full weight on it. He smells around and then puts Vish down. Before touching anything he pulls a scroll out from his robes and asks his sister and Vish to wait a moment.
His voice recites the last part of the spell and he quickly looks around, especially at the feather and the mushrom with the gold liquid.

"It turned into balls of light," Lantamori tried to explain for Farian.  "Then it just drifted up and away.  In the end it was very weak and Volsh was able to sway it with just his words."

Lantamori chose to remain below.  It just didn't seem right to remove anything from the nest.  She wasn't sure if it were the after effects of Volsh's words or the fact that the little god had gone from menace to mouse.  She worried that it's departure was but a ruse to collect their souls in some other fashion.

The elf wanted nothing to do with anything found in that nest.

Narthian shares the information regarding the beetles with the others. He stays on the ground as ground as well. With the reports of the crow disappearing, he keeps his eyes on the sky while Thunder watches the tunnels in case of additional beetles.

Bruenor remains on the ground with the others, not sharing the halfling's intense curiosity.  He wipes his blade clean, and looks down to inspect his wound.

He'll follow Sir Aberlayne's lead, and apply some herbs if he can find some in his pack.


"That's very odd," Bruenor says to Lantamori...interjecting as he overhears her words with Farian.  Giving a bit of a hrmph, he adds, "It was very deceptive in strength.  I would expect nothing less in weakness."

Volsh shrugged, also not necessarily convinced, but it had left in a way.  "There is a golden feather left up there.  Not sure what that means."