Sannang raised his trunk up to steady Zand. "I think he's offering to help you down, if you want the help," said Nimol. "Maybe you remind him of when he got the bottle of healing potion down for us earlier today. An elephant never forgets, you know."

"Mm, yes," said Ravnar, thinking. "Whether Zand wants help or not, when he gets down, we should definitely head for that building..."

After his simple action, Syrio heard the sound of one man landing into two unexpected allies with a crumpling thump and "OOF!" from the ground below as the rope fell to meet them.

"Where'd 'e go? Go find 'im in de city bef-ore he gets away. I'm stayin' put."
After that, over the lip of the building, Syrio heard their footsteps as they spread out. He tried pondering where to go.

The right hand side of the building had another rope connecting to the next building or two, with clothing and bedding hanging in the breeze. Syrio thought he saw the horses come from around the corner in that direction. Another major road he could take to be away from the Aoom neighborhood.
The left hand side of the building (towards the Bird Tower) looked like it had a large number of planks, enough for him to be unseen if looked from down below.
Behind, the man was still calmly poking at the nest, looking for coins thanks to covcay activies.

If Syrio stayed here for a moment, maybe in time they would leave the scene? Suspecting he had already gone the distance?

Zand didn't want help, he really wanted to do it himself. But that matter was decided for him when he almost fell, but Sannang caught him anyway. An elephant had enough for sightseeing to match it's memory to see how that might go.
Zand just had his arms crossed in embarrassment. "Let's get going before something happens." He tells Sai whereabouts he saw the building and it takes no effort to get to their destination.

***

It wasn't a bad building, it just wasn't exceptional. A typical city home building. If the families were large enough, each floor would be about one families worth of people, so all home necessities were emulated.
The most atypical detail was the fact that there were indeed covcays trying to get into the building, causing lots of noise from their wingflaps, to their own bird noises and the clinking and clanging of their precious trinkets bashing into each other in mid flight.
But their own infighting meant there wasn't much success. Just another case of "No honor among thieves", that isn't just true for humanoids, Jin or Gods.

"That is almost horrifying, think of all the stuff they must have taken by now." Sai muttered, or sounded like from all the noises of the bird infighting. "Do animals fight this badly for anything, Nimol?"

"This is patently unnatural, we have to kill whatever, or whoever is doing this. Before they have humans doing the same... or worse." The Kali preacher proclaimed.

"Let's not be too hasty. I think the problematic end of this matter is the one at the palace. Remember, for all we know, the birds could be attracted by some powerful magic... perhaps the court wizard is in here somewhere, bound by dark magic... or there may be some other victim who needs our help... The important thing, it seems to me, is to get into the building without letting any of the birds in... I hesitate to just open a door and walk in for fear that the birds will swarm in, too... Anyone have any ideas...?"



(Ravnar tries to Discern Realities, studying the situation for something that would help...)

10:04, Today: Ravnar rolled 9 using 2d6 ((3,6)). +2 wis bonus: 11

Time out-- what horses?







I think I know what Syrio's next decision will be, but I want to hear about the horses first

Answering the question
[*] What is useful or valuable to me?

As Ravnar looks around him, seeing if there is something that can answer his problem, he finds that there is something. A cart that is currently unoccupied and unmarked. It is a near complete box on wheels with a door on one end, capped with a pretend ceiling like it was a mini building.
With the keen eye - caused either by practice from being on the lookout of demonic activity, or by his birthright of being a weretiger, the cleric made a quick judgement that the door on the cart makes for a perfect seal of the door to the building.

There is also a long tapestry on the wall which can be used to climb up to the 3rd story, where some of the birds try to get in through the balcony.

2 Questions remaining

When Syrio was being tormented by thugs one way and a tiger another, Syrio thought he heard the sound of hooves, but he couldn't stay around to see who the riders were. But he now got a clear listen in now.
"What's going on here? Where is that woman? We were told she would be here." One man said with a whining tone, like he used his nose to speak and not his mouth.
"Hey big guy. You see where some woman by the name Abrisham went? About yay tall with gray hair but a young face?" Questioned another man who had a voice like a bay wave flowing onto the shore.
"Ugh. Nope sirs, I ain't seen nuffin at all."
With a moment of silence the first man whined "So what are you doing with that barrel?"
"Ugh, nothing!" Then Syrio heard the sound of a barrel smash against a wall, while also feeling a shudder from the area under the impact. The barrel contents spilling onto the wall and ground where it impacted.
"What the hell man? Why did you do that for? I'm going kick th-"
"Hey man, no worries, her place ain't far from here, right? We just wait there and detain her. Then we get off work. Lets get going." The second man reassured. Syrio can hear the beginnings of the sound of horse hooves.

• What happened here recently?
• Who’s really in control here?

Blast! Abrisham was in trouble for talking about Kilamu... maybe Kilamu was really Nifeema... in any event, Syrio didn't know where she lived... he could only hope that she'd leave before the men looking for her found her. So he had to get to the Bird Tower...


Syrio decided that the best way to go was probably to head for the planks, that would lead in the direction of the Bird Tower... but as quietly as possible, at least for now... give anyone still down below extra time to get bored, and off their guard...

(Syrio attempts to leave the area, starting with the aforementioned planks.)

• What happened here recently?

Seeing the footprints and scuffles in the sand, Ravnar is able to grab an approximation of what happened.

The people were here in the late afternoon as usual, when the birds had arrived and were grabbing or already holding the stuff they stole. In either case, the people went inside into their homes and seem to be remaining if they are around as these covcay are just too much for the average person to handle. The doors are closed and as many windows covered as possible, but it seems like the birds only had eyes for this building that Zand pointed out to.

The cart must be a merchant cart with the wallpaper torn off, so the birds must have been trying to steal from it, seeing the markings and some pieces of metal and glass and feathers around the place. Except there is a clean, even circle with no debris inside, near the door and little piles of sand on the floor, like something pushed everything loose evenly.
When he closes his eyes in the direction of the sphere, the coloured afterimage - like one gets from looking too intensely at a bright point - is in the same location.
Someone's tried defending themselves with magic and it went off badly, they must of rushed.

• Who’s really in control here?

It was Ravnar's nose which helped him come to some conclusion with this matter. What he thought was just the smell of bird dung turned out to be something else entirely. It was a subtle sensation for others, but to Ravnar, it was over-empowering, so maybe a pheromone of some kind?. The joys of which eluded Ravnar, but it made sense that it meant something to these birds up above.
It was his experience that told Ravnar the next detail, it wasn't natural scent, but one artificially elevated by magic. He could feel the magical magnification. When trying to pin point the magic, Ravnar thought it might come from the apartment above - but no. He felt his skin tingle just a little, just under his holy symbol when looking in the direction of the palace.

Remember the +1 examples for this answer in my mind, it applies in the search for the source or in affecting it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:53, Fri 27 Apr 2018.

So Syrio approached the planks, moving with his vision of the road blocked, he looked to the planks in question, they seemed sturdy enough, though just enough on both sides that it isn't actually dangerous. Taking one foot onto the end of the planks, there isn't a large sound made, especially from the street or a falling away of planks. Seems safe enough.
Short of the bird tower, Syrio sees that there is a flock of birds, a dense lot that seem to be internally fighting over something. Their noise had picked up enough to be heard over here.

The hooves have stopped and a saddle adjusted under the weight shifting before something carries on. A whining tone starts in the form of a man talking.
"Wait, what about the swashbuckler? Have you seen them running about?"

"Ugh... I dunno. I've seen lots of guys drinking and wearing belts. Do you mean a Wavey belt?"

The shuddering sigh can be felt up over here.

Ravnar decides that climbing up to the roof-- tempting as that would be-- is too dangerous with all these covcays going crazy all over the place. Instead he says: "Look, that merchant-stall-box-thing over there could be placed up against the door so that we could enter the building-- one or maybe two at a time-- without letting the covcays in. We can put it up in front of the door... Nimol and I could go in first, then, say, Jagga and one of you fellows, and so on... Shall we...?"

"Sounds good to me... I want to find out what's in there..." says Nimol...

Syrio attempts to cross the planks-- ready to jump and/or run to the other side if the planks turn out to be not as safe as they seem... but he'd much prefer to move silently and be undetected. He must go find out what's going on with those birds over there near the Bird Tower! Maybe they're bothering Abrisham...?!

Syrio takes one stride and then another, nothing yet. He slowly inches across the plank, which seems to have ensured his safety, as with some time, he is across the planks without incident. No noise and no nonsense. He didn't hear the conversation but it is still ongoing just a little bit.
Syrio can move on without anyone intruding on him as he goes towards the cloud of birds, to see the cause of this odd event. It might take him sometime, but at least he has the rooftops to smoothly get there.

"If you're sure your elephant can do that. But I dunno, those birds look" kinda crazy scary." Sai says while looking at the deranged birds.
Zand has a look to chastise Sai and a beaming look to face danger that only a youth untouched can have.
"I say lets go for it. I'll volunteer first, Nimol sir, if that will help at all. I won't cower."
"I'm sure that Kali will grace your elephant with the combat calm to face this storm of feathers. Jagga reassures, though he looks back to this surely demonic magic on these troubles.

However way the group organised their order of entry, Nimol will have to be effective in directing Sannang to make this plan smoothly work and get them inside.

Roll +Wis for directing the cunning elephant to task for the whole job.

Syrio makes his way to the bird-related disturbance, keeping to the rooftops for as long as he can, since they seem to be not-crawling-with-enemies, as opposed to the streets...

11:13, Today: Nimol rolled 7 using 2d6 ((6,1)).

Plus 2 for Sannang's cunning = 9...

9 From the roll +1 for using observations made from the Discern Realities Roll. So it's now 10. Because otherwise I would never remember to

With some trained instructing, careful movements, and a bit of rope Nimol's elephant Sannang transported the cart containing the group right up to the door. It ends up being a simple matter of getting Sannang to move the box-cart both directions so that more people could be picked up after some are deposited within the building. As Sannang is intimidating to the birds, they can't bring themselves to bother the elephant or the party as a whole.

Meanwhile, from the rooftops above.
It had taken some time on Syrio's end, but he is almost there on the scene too. As he is approaching from the rooftops, he found himself closer to the covcay skulk than if he was on the street level. He was suspecting something odd when he thought he heard Sannang at work, but he confirms that it wasn't just him as he sees the street level below. Curiously, Sannang seems to be connected to an enclosed merchant caravan of sorts that was pushed against the apartment building the birds seem to be trying to enter, the rest of the group was no where to be seen.
What a curious scene this was in front of Syrio.

Syrio looks and tries to decide for just a moment if he should go down and rejoin his comrades or make his way to the Bird Tower where--

Oh. Oh no. This building must be where Abrisham lives... she must be in there! The birds must have been sent to attack her and trapped her inside!

Syrio will attempt to rejoin his companions before it's too late for him to join them in entering the building... is that possible...?

Ruling in favour of both "Fan of the PCs" and the fact a complete success was rolled. I'll say yes.

As though Fate answered his question in a prompt fashion, he sees over the lip of his current building to see Sai and a curious man, whom had aplenty of weapons strapped on his body. Both standing there waiting for the elephant to reverse back to where they are.
And in that same moment as Syrio did, Sai happened to look up in boredom and see Syrio, gesturing him to come down before he looks back to the manic looking birds.

"We're about to go in via the caravan if you want to join us? Time with that receptionist not go well?"

The many weaponed man first made a "hum" sound, not really caring for whatever relations others had and then seemingly asked Sai about who the swordsman was.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:26, Tue 01 May 2018.

Syrio should rejoin the team, and let's just montage (as it were) over each side (Syrio, everyone else) filling the other in on what they missed//learned while the other/s were gone...

The others will catch Syrio's urgency regarding checking on//finding Abrisham...

With everyone inside and caught up with each other, they decide to go along with this added objective and go for the upper levels of the apartment, where the likely target seems to occupy. Inside the building there is mainly a stair well connecting to the entrances of all the homes.  The noise from the outside is muffled and the apartments seem quiet, and the only odd sign being the occasional gray, undefined feather of a covcay being found as they rise up the levels.

As the group gets up there, Zand looks to the trio who initially started helping that long ago from this morning, especially Syrio. Looking to them for direction in the manner of adventurism and asks "So how are we doing this? Actually dealing with those birds I mean? I want to, I just don't know how."
Jagga takes the time to give his opinion to the youth and the rest from his own combat experience.
"Surely we will position ourselves to save people first, including this Abrisham that Syrio came across. Assuming we come across her at all, then we do what we can against that horde. Try to avoid swinging towards allies as birds can dodge attacks easily. Ranged weapons will help us easier I imagine and spells will have an easier time."
For all his chatter, Sai seems to have no real means of contribution to this predicament as all his background couldn't amount to much in heroism or resolving the intricacies of magic.

As they were going up the stairs, the noise of the birds is slightly more audible through the walls along with sounds of things been shifted continuously in an effort to search. Those who are perceptive will just slightly hear a reassurance being uttered over and over again. "Be calm and there'll be no harm. Think of a way out, it's not that hard." This likely improv mantra is broken by a shocked yelp in response to one of the birds seemingly hitting a window nearby.

The group, especially Syrio, hurries toward that voice. "That's Abrisham...!" Syrio whispers loudly.

As they hurried to the voice, it was a bit of a shuffle, as there were plenty of men and not much space to work with, especially single person doorways which had a funneling effect.
The door to enter the place wasn't difficult to open as there wasn't much of a lock. The front part was fairly tidy if a little quaint. The fabrics of the sitting area carpet and cushions were old fashioned and were shown a lot of love.

When they get to the other side of the apartment, they see a much messier affair, while windows were boarded up everywhere, these were more manically done here and had entire cupboards to hold back the windows. It was also sent into chaos from what must be the search for her components pouches. Which can be confirmed when they see her.

Abrisham has on clothes similar to her simple clothes for work on, a simple dress with ease of movement in mind and numerous sash/belt like pieces of clothing that are covered in pockets with smells both sweet and sour coming from it. That's what she has for components pouches? Looks disorganized.

She looks to see Syrio there and "Oh Syrio! They have been getting worse since I got here. So manic. I thought it would get better but no. Nothing I do seems to change them. The poor things."

Ravnar sniffs the air. Is one of Abrisham's spell components possibly the same as the smell that's driving the covcays crazy...?


(Do you need me to roll for it...? If so, please roll for me, plus any bonuses that apply...)