(OOC: Ring seems like it was meant for a ranger)

Ran finally sits down on his bedroll, back against a wall and takes a few deep breaths. 

"Yeah, I won't be much use without some kip. That last tussle took a hair too much out of me," he says.

He looks down at the sword in his hand and then over at Nalomanterys. 

"So you'll fix the curse later, eh mate?" Ran says. He then spends time examining every inch of it for knicks or weaknesses (attuning with it).

The battle had passed by in a mere moment, quick to start and quick to end unfortunately. As soon as the serpents had run and mercenaries returned, Danica was quick to level a calm stare at the new leader of them that was pointing their swords at herself and Nalomanterys, demanding that they disarm and surrender. She was nodding and about to suggest to the others that they cooperate when further hell broke lose in the form of the Red Wizard suddenly reappearing and a lightning bolt. Yet not at them, but at the three mercenaries. Instantly killing and cooking them and only leaving the lone elephant handler who raised her crossbow to point at the one who killed her comrades. Seeing Ran run to strike her down, Meili and Danica cried out simultaneously, "No!" But it was too little too late, the fighter just as quick as he was deadly.

Letting out a fatigued sigh at the severe loss of life all around them, the elf ignores Meili and the suspiciously colored wizard in favor of checking the fallen to see if all were truly dead or if any were still lingering on the precipice. Closing their eyes and whispering brief Selunite funeral prayers. Only half listening as the others begin to loot the battlefield, interrogate the red wizard and inspect the trap he was caught in. Perhaps it's because she isn't fully paying attention to them that she notices how much quieter the rest of the jungle around them had gotten...

And then she saw it. She dared not move but to breathe and it seemed like that was all they and it were to do for a long while before it began inching forward just as they inched back. But the predator only wanted to enjoy the free meal of the fallen elephant. Grateful that they weren't on it's menu just yet, she beat a hasty retreat along with the rest of the Seekers, red wizard in tow. Laughing somewhat maniacally as she belatedly processed what Mica had whispered upon seeing the dinosaur she whisper shouted, "You're a right crazy b@$t@rd, y'know that Mica?!" Shaking her head. 

Danica was hesitant to let Eligos lead them to a secondary location of his own choosing but kept her head on a swivel and other senses on high alert along with the others to make sure they weren't being lead into another ambush. The sailor was hesitant to hear him out, still a bit raw from what she considered was a bit too much loss of life for not good enough of a reason in her mind... But she sat and worked on healing Ran and Mica as she listened, her Starry Form finally fading. Eyes narrowed slightly, trying to discern if the man was simply trying to redirect their ire or if he was speaking the truth. There were plenty of details and specific names...and more importantly, he knew the noble that Ran's sister had been with. Definitely not all lies then... But to think that there were Theyans that weren't power hungry evil necromancers...

Sighing, the elf interjects after Nalomantery's introduction, "Danica Amastacia. We're the Seekers. Currently Seeking an end to the Death Curse. ...Among other things." She adds with a nod to Ran. Looking over the sword and ring as Nal goes over their magical properties, she looks at the sword a bit warily. "Greeaaat, just what we need, more curses. Feel like making a matching sibling set Ran?" Danica teases before tilting her head at Mica. "That ring might help you tame that big dangerous dino you're after. Or at least maybe one of its smaller kin." 

Danica blinks in surprise at Meili's gasp and vocalized realization about the city being buried, frowning with a deep furrow of her brow. "Well sh!t... Suppose it isn't called the 'hidden' city for nothin'.... Still that does put an extra special sorta complication to everything. Whenever the prophecy was talking about 'deep down', I just sorta pictured stairs or a dungeon..." 
Hearing the monk's quiet resigned addition, Danica is quick to give her a gentle push and tried to joke lightly, "Hey speak for yourself Meili. I have a sweet big @ss boat waiting for me. Though after all we've been through and likely still will have to deal with before we return, you can bet that I'll be demanding one o' them fancy sky ships." As big as the elf is talking, it's clear to see how pale, drawn and tired she looks. Holding it together with determination, bravado and spite. 

"Here, let me see what I can do about your leg Eligos." Moving over to kneel and cradle his ankle in her hands, pouring just a little of her healing magic into the wound. After that she goes even further and clutches her Selune holy symbol at her hip, starlight beginning to emanate from her faintly as she channels just a little bit of divinity to preserve the life of her comrades. Giving some healing to Nalomanterys as well as Eligos. Letting out a ragged breath, Danica pauses after and takes a long drink from her water skein, clearly close to being magically tapped. 

2nd Level Cure Wounds to Ran and Mica since they're the lowest out of their max. 
Ran Heals: 19
Mica Heals: 17
1st Level Cure Wounds to Eligos
Eligos Heals: 15
7 Channel Divinity: Preserve Life healing points to Nalomanterys and 3 to Eligos, using up all 10

((Apologies for the longer than anticipated absence once more, many thanks for covering for me! Yeah one curse is enough for Danica haha, whoever wants it feel free. I'm assuming Meili doesn't need healing? Didn't look like her hit points were down on character sheet. If I'm wrong though I would split the last points between her and Nal! I made sure to leave one last 1st level spell slot for the night time protection spell.))

The envenomed skin around the site of the arrow wound (which Meili had closed up) returns to its normal ghostly hue as Danica magically heals Nalomanterys back to full health. "Thank you, Captain." He says. "That feels much better now."

Turning to Mica, the wizard inquires, "Have you ever used magic to try speaking to the bird?" He gestures at the ring on the ranger's finger.

Eligos watches as Danica heals his leg, hesitantly at first, and then with some relief.  "Ah, so much better, darling.  You have my thanks."

Listening to Danica and Meili, he backtracks a bit.  "No, the city isn't buried.  Not quite.  It is well below the level of the surrounding jungle, surrounded by cliffs of greater than 100 feet.  But it is open to the sky.  Some of it is flooded, and some of it has collapsed deeper into a subterranean magma chamber.  But most of the ruins are exposed.  Valindra's expedition, though, seems to be excavating something in the northern portion of the ruins."

He concentrates and a small, illusory map appears on the floor of the chamber.  "I apologize... I'm no cartographer, and this is the best I can do from memory.  We were only able to observe a few times from the cliff's edge.  The whole reason the others took the risk of trying to sneak in was so we could learn more of what is going on down there."

"Other than scaling the cliffs, which would have to be done at night or under cover of spellcraft, the only path into the city is a narrow, sloped ravine in the southwest.  Of course, they know that, and there is a large, well manned guardpost covering that spot."  He points to the north side.  "They had one of their ships moored here, and below it they had built a fortified camp.  Again, it looked like they were excavating or at least sending people underground, but we had no good vantage point.  Again, they have mercenaries stationed at the top of the cliff here," he points, "keeping us from getting too close."

"And once, we saw then fighting in the streets with a large force of yuan-ti here," he points to an area near the lava-collapse.  "We couldn't stick around long enough to see who won."

He leans back and the map disappears.  "While I appreciate your enthusiasm in continuing to pursue this, we are still left with a fundamental problem: between us and our goal is an superior force of wizards and warriors, who guard the access points.  And, I haven't even mentioned the second airship, which patrols the skies above."

Ran nods his thanks to Danica, feeling much better after her healing takes effect. Then he looks at the map for a bit then at the group.

”The captain here can sail. Air boat water boat, have to be similar, right? Why don’t we just go take the one that’s anchored there and use it to knock the other one out of the sky. Then we don’t have to think about climbing down a cliff in the dark.”

Eligos steeples his fingers and nods at Ran.  "Hmmn... yes.  That should work.  We'll just board the vessel, commandeer it from its crew of Thayan wizards and their elite bodyguards... after, of course, fighting our way past the mercenaries guarding it from the top of the cliff.  Then, once we six get the airship flight ready and take to the skies - without alerting the mercenaries and wizards in the city below us - we defeat the other airship, which is already airborne and would have advantages of tactical positioning and magical firepower (but who cares about that).  We send them packing, and then we have complete and total air superiority over the ruins."

He nods in contemplation.  "Yes.  Did the bird come up with that plan as well?"

"We can keep this plan as a plan B," Meili even smiled a little. "But maybe that cliff scaling is not such a terrible idea. With enough rope and me guiding everyone all the way, it might work."

She realized Eligos could not understand what she meant and explained. "We acquired a few magic items on the way here. I can fly at night because of one of them. Not sure if I can lift up or down a person but certainly can tell during descent where to put feet."

Ran nods along as Eligos fleshes out his airship stealing plan. That is until he gets to the part about the bird coming up with the plan.

”Don’t mistake saving your life back there with caring whether it continues or not,” Ran says.

He looks over at Meili.

”They’d never expect it. But yeah, I suppose we can try the climbing one.”

Mica looks up from studying the map illusion, trying to commit its details to memory, as Nalomanterys hands him the ring.  He puts it on and flexes his hand as Nalomanterys gestures toward the ring. “Thanks.  What? Oh, yeah we tried to talk to the bird.  Damn thing will not shut up, but doesn’t really say anything.  Keeps repeating something about feeding little birds for a tuppence or some such nonsense over and over again.  It’s not really a bird, it's under a powerful spell.  We think it’s…”

Mica pauses and shares an uneasy glance toward Ran before continuing. “Something else.  Hey, you can take care of curses now?  Try it out on the bird, see what happens.”  He looks over at Eligos “Or how about you, can you do anything about getting rid of curses?”

Eligos shakes his head at Mica.  "I'm afraid not.  Hexing and abjuration aren't my specialty.  I'm an evoker by trade and training."

In a conciliary tone, he responds to Ran, "In fairness, absent my companions, my own best, final plan was little more than 'throw lightning bolts at an airship and hope to bring it down.'  It is an unfortunate reality of our circumstances that we do not have a lot of good options." 

He has a hint of a smile as he considers Meili's idea.  "Not bad.  I can see how that equipment could be most useful.  I myself can cast a spell known as feather fall.  If you can take care of getting yourself down, we could skip the ropes entirely... provided you trust me enough to take the leap.  If we find a quiet, dark corner of the city to descend into, five us could float down with my spell and you could descend on your own.  Now, once we get down into the ruins... well one step at a time, right?  It is hard to develop a plan when one is lacking so much information on what's really going on down there."

"Which reminds me," he adds pointedly.  "You mentioned a prophecy?  Were you given a reading or other divination about this?  Our own seers were capable enough on day-to-day and navigation items, but any augury cast at the location of the death curse was met with nothing.  Please, tell me, what was foretold to you?"

"An old priest of Savras in Port Nuanzaru could peer through the magic for us. It cost him... a lot." Meili sighed remembering Inete. "I can repeat you his words if you wish."

She closed her eyes summoning the message and recited the prophecy:

"Our sight drifted over the jungles... south, always south.  The sun rose and set thirty three times before we slowed and stopped our journey.  There were mountains to our left, mountains to our right, and before us, a rift in the jungle, and at the bottom, a hidden city, built by minotaurs and crawling with snakes.  Within there was a monument; a black obelisk, and it concealed something deeper and darker.  I saw a skeletal face and hand; the foe.  He was surprised at our arrival; surprised we had found his lair and the source of his curse.  But he is strong there; he pulled me away from Savras, pulled me down, down into the dark.  There are hollows in the earth; tombs of death and mockery and absolute darkness where he hides he terrible secrets.  I thought my soul would perish there. 

But it was not over.  It became wet... something hot and viscous was pouring over me... filling the darkness.  Blood.  Red Blood was pouring into the tombs.  And then we erupted forth, a torrent of blood toppled the obelisk, filled the city and then spread, covering from horizon to horizon; all the world drowning in a tide of Blood."

She opened her eyes again. "All signs point to the ruins down there. You see, we have to go there."

Eligos listens to the prophecy as relayed by Meili.  A few times he opens his mouth as if to speak or venture a comment, but each time he purses his lips in silence while his brow furrows in contemplation and concern.

At last he offers, "That is most unsettling." 

He moves to his own corner of the little enclave.  "Now, if you don't mind, it has grown late.  I don't imagine any of you are in a condition to attempt an infiltration tonight.  I myself have much to think on, and need to study my spells."  He lights small pebble next to his bedroll which illuminates the area like a torch and then settles down with his books.  "Come the morrow, I will lead you to the ruins and we can finalize our plans for assault."

[The party can take a long rest.

Also, here is Eligos... this picture would be what he looks like with the spell mage armor active...]

Ran listens to Meili repeat the seers words then thinks for a moment.

"So there's lava down there," Ran says. "Maybe that's the blood. Maybe we just have to flood the whole bloody city with lava."

He then settles himself down to sleep after cleaning his armor, again, from the effects of the bird.

[Should not Red Wizards be bald with tattoos covering the head? Guess Eligos is a true radical.]

There was certainly a lot to think about. Even if the prophecy had been part of the group's life for quite a while, it sounded even more menacing and scary at the threshold of the lost city. It took Meili an extra quarter of an hour of meditation to calm enough to fall asleep. And when she did, merciful tiredness took care of the dreams, taking them away.

[I suppose we still set the watch. Meili's Perception: 21]

Mica watches as Eligos moves back to his corner of the cave. “Do you think we can trust him?” he whispers to the others. As they get ready to turn in for the evening, he places both hunting traps along avenues leading into the cavern as an extra precaution.  He takes his turn standing watch over the others, thoughts focused on the challenges lying ahead of them in the ruins.  Perception: 18.

.

.

Ran shakes his head at Mica's question. "No, but if that trap could nearly take him out I'd wager we could if we had to."

Nalomanterys shakes his head at Mica's question. "I tried to remove the bird's curse while we were awaiting the Dwarven scouts' return. No luck, it has a tight hold on it - her, rather."

"I reckon the airship shall not be a problem for us, a small group on the ground. Naturally, I also know the spell feather fall. Therefore, I suggest we jump down behind their defenses and wipe them clear out. Or perhaps we can rain destruction on them from above?"

[The party also rises to Level 6 overnight.  Congratulations.]

Ran wakes in the morning feeling very refreshed and strong, actually stronger than he's felt in a while. His body must be finally adapting to the rigors of packing his armour and weapons and gear through this damned jungle.

"Well, lets give his rift a look then." Ran says.

Nalomanterys spends much of the night in study, racking his brain for the formulae of a few spells he thinks might come in handy in the upcoming days.