Leonia protects herself with Mage Armor, saying "I know, but sometimes risks are necessary. "

Casts Mage Armor.

Levithian, apparently agreeing with Leonia, summons his dragon aspect.

Lilly just looks incredulously at them: "You people are crazy... I'm outta here! Have fun with the fireflies."

With that, she tries to run.

Leonia tries to bean Lilly with the stock of her crossbow but fails to connect.

Crossbow AoO,improvised = 1 on d20-4.

Levithian's dragon form lunges forward, trying to take a bite off the escaping fae, but his teeth snap on empty air, and the nixie quickly makes her way through the trees and underbrush.

Then, a ball of light approximately the size of a fist materializes right in front of him.

Followed by another.

And another.

The fireflies hover there as if confused.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:27, Tue 13 Mar 2018.

Akane's voice is barely a whisper: "I think we should leave..."

<orange>Roll Knowledge (Arcana), or Int if you don't have it.<orange>

Leonia starts edging away. "I think you're right..."

Knowledge Arcane 23 on d20+10.

14:34, Today: Aran Kalisar rolled 16 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 11.  Knowledge: Arcana Check.

Having no idea what the lights were going to do next, and not wanting to test Lil's theory that they were going to 'have fun' with them, Dakash tensely awaits some sort of action or direction from Leonia, while wondering where their talkative opponent has run off to.

Leonia Withdraws from the area, trying to avoid any personal attention from the firefly ghosts. She can try to follow Lily AFTER avoiding the ghosts.

The fireflies seem to have taken an interest to the group, and follow, slowly.

As the party leaves the area, however, the lights begin to fall behind, with trees hiding them from sight for increasingly long stretches of time.

Eventually, they no longer reappear.

By then, however, darkness has fallen. The only options are to set up a camp or to wander the swamp at night. Neither is particularly pleasant.

Leonia says "Let's find a camp site that's defensible. I'll need eight hours of rest to rememorize spells, so I can take first watch with Midnight. Dakash, you're good with the second watch? Levi for third watch and Aran for 4th? That sound good?"

Pulling a rather large tent out of her backpack, Akane replies: "Zhorr used to tell me that, back in the day, they always let Lia or the cleric take last shift, since they didn't need to rest before praying, while he and the other book moths needed to rest just before studying. Oh, and they usually let their bards make breakfast, since we don't take nearly as much time to ready our spells. I think Dakash should take the last watch. Oh gods... This is going to take a while."

The last sentence is uttered as she surveys the clearing where the camp is going to be set up: wet, mushy terrain does not make for a good camp site, and collecting sticks and dry wood in a swamp is almost a quest of its own.

"You know, I never understood that whole 'Preparation' thing. What's up with that anyway?"

Aran shrugs as he tries to help Akane to prep the site.

"And for the record, I'm still mad. You MIGHT be right about Efreets being evil, but torturing them is evil too. There's not any getting around that, no matter WHAT your reasoning. And like I said, humans are worse. When humans do evil things, they are always making a choice. No natural laws or cosmic circumstance of their birth makes them do things. But I highly doubt you'd be so eager to go and torture and rip out an evil wizard's heart if you had the choice, would you?

So yeah, if we're gonna go after Lilly, fine. Shes a threat and a danger to anyone in the area. If we're gonna take her heart, that's fine too. But we don't need to be jerks about it. Just kill the bad guy and take what we need. No messing around or anything like that."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:47, Mon 09 Apr 2018.

OOC: I seem to have missed this reply... My apologies.

Akane shrugs, and starts collecting branches and leaves: "I doubt the old geezers tortured those Afrit for their magic. It's not like they were hiding some kind of spellbook, after all: wish magic is part of them, like our magic is part of us. I can't explain my magic to Zhorr, and if somebody decided to take a ruby knife to my hide to discover its secrets, I expect they would find my corpse far more cooperative than my living self. If nothing else, I suspect the loud screaming and incessant struggling would prove rather distracting. Hold this."

With that, she hands a few relatively large leafy branches to Aran, and starts working on them with her dagger and the help of some Prestidigitation.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:31, Wed 11 Apr 2018.

Dakash seems torn between two opposing viewpoints. It is not long before he voices his concerns.

"We cannot make a habit of agreeing to complete a task for someone and then change our minds when we encounter an obstacle. This is specifically why ones like us are employed for these tasks; we are problem solvers. The fact that this creature has a personable attitude at our first encounter does not make up for the number of deaths and amount of woe they and their kinds have spread across the region." He seems determined to press forward, ghost fairies or not.

"Just wish the girl was amenable to discussing the fireflies with Zhorr. I'd bet he'd be more interested in that subject that taking apart a fey like Lilly. She might even get something out of the exchange,aside from not dying." Leonia muses aloud.

As she talks, Akane keeps waving her arms in regular patterns in front of the branches held by Aran. With each pass, a little water drips down from the tips of some leaves, then a wave of warm dry air coaxes some more humidity from the wood.

Without taking her eyes off the work, she replies: "We can probably find safer sources of information than a man-eating nixie. I don't think she tried to infiltrate our group to make casual conversation."

She eyes the result of her work critically: "Eh, good enough, I guess. This should work."

Handing over the branches to Leonia and Dakash to split the workload, she collects some more and hands them to Aran: "I mean, she's obnoxious, has a bad sense of humor, and apparently can shapeshift in a number of nasty critters. I'd call her a fey after my own heart, but you know the problem with cannibals: when they call you a tasty little morsel, they don't mean it in the good way."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:17, Wed 18 Apr 2018.

Aran sighs.

"Akane, your cantrips don't seem to be attracting the butterflies. I wonder if that's something we can use to our advantage?"

Akane blinks, then blinks again: "Huh... I wonder why though."

A word and a gesture later, she's scanning the surroundings with detect magic.

A few seconds later she calls out: "Um... Leonia? Would you mind checking the area for magic again?"

Dakash makes an offhand gesture, summoning his own divine ability to detect magical energies. "I admit, most of my own divine power is more useful in direct conflict...but I sense nothing in the immediate area. I hope these things cannot teleport, or turn themselves invisible."

He remains vigilant, though, with a spell of protection readied in his mind, and his will poised to send out a pulse of positive energy should the swarms attack from multiple directions.

Akane frowns, then resumes drying branches for the tent: "Maybe they aren't everywhere? I mean, we did fight that plant zombie thing without any showing up. If we can get Lilly alone without the fireflies, it's going to be a much easier fight."

"That's the challenge then, isn't it?" The blue warrior-priest couldn't contain his disappointment. "She fears the bugs, and therefore so should we...or at least show them a healthy respect. But we cannot detect them until they are upon us, and we must search blindly for a woman who can disguise herself magically. So..." He began to see why so many fierce warriors tended to spit on the ground. It was cathartic.

"So we discover what made the ghost bugs and undo it? Not likely. Find another target for them while we look for her? Not appealing. Daylight, nighttime, neither seems to give an advantage. There must be some reason it was even suggested we could finish this task, if it wasn't for our arcane powers or physical brawn, wouldn't you think?"

Akane grits her teeth: "All we need to do is catch her when there are no fireflies around. We know it's possible, we just have to be careful. Either they are only active during part of the day, or they aren't everywhere. Or both. I really don't want to go back to Zhorr and tell him we failed... Lia does this sad little pout, then tells you it's not your fault, and you've done your best... And then six months later you find that twenty people died and you could have stopped it, and you just feel horrible for months..." She stops her tirade blushing slightly. "Sorry."

"Well, we know that magic lures them, so if we take our time we can probably figure out the spots where we're less likely to find them. Run around, cast some cantrips, and if they show up retreat and find a different area. We'll have to spend the next day or so figuring that out though, but I don't think we're in a rush."

Aran now happily begins engaging with the kindling, preparing to start a fire by lighting the gathered wood with a spark spell.

With a little bit of magic, and a good amount of work, the tent is eventually raised and the sleeping spots set up, with branches and leaves to keep them away from the mushy terrain.

A light evening meal is quickly prepared, and consumed with equal celerity. "Alright... Time to go to bed. I was thinking: mages and priests require an hour to prepare their spells, but bards and sorcerers only require fifteen minutes, so we can save some time tomorrow morning if one of us creative types prepare breakfast, after refreshing our spells. Should we go over the guard shifts one last time?"

OOC: I am currently waiting on the exact guard shifts to post the events for the night.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:45, Mon 30 Apr 2018.