If Mica is content to pass as a Comyrian with the armor as his costume, Eryndor will suggest that Ran take Mica's robe.

Ran curls his lip a little at the idea of putting the robe on but sees the value.

If Mica’s good without it he’ll put the robe on.

”Might looks suspicious if we go low with these disguises. If we’re really red wizards and their merc, we’d strut along the high road knowing we have protection from above.”

"Ran looks enough like a merc to me." Meili held the robe loosely in her hands, still unsure whether to wear it herself. "I say Eligos or Nalomanterys would make the better Red Wizards than me or Ran. The rest of us can pass as whatever we want - mercs, jungle scouts, random traders, even prisoners. It shouldn’t matter."

She extended the robe toward the remaining wizards. "Here," she offered simply. "Put it on and let’s go. Ran’s right - we don’t need to hide from the ship above."

Eryndor looks about, then whispers to Ran, "Who are Eligos and Nalomanterys?"

[Sounds like we have one of either Mica or Ran disguised as a mercenary and the rest disguised as red wizards?]

The party tried to mimic measured confidence as they hurry along the raised stone walkway.  Their hearts hammer beneath their disguises, but they keep their heads high, hoping their feigned authority will be enough to dissuade any unwanted attention.  Above them, the Thayan airship drifts lazily, its crimson banners barely shifting in the damp morning air.  No alarms sound, no spells descend upon them—so far, their deception appears to hold.

The ruins of Omu stretch out around them.  Great slabs of broken stone litter the pathways where the ancient roads have buckled and split.  Once-grand buildings now stand as little more than skeletal remains, their walls entwined with thick, green vines and their rooftops lost beneath creeping moss.  The occasional statue still stands, their once-proud faces now featureless and hollow-eyed.  To their left, the shattered remains of a ziggurat loom, its upper terraces collapsed into rubble.  A deep, murky pool has formed at its base, teeming with reeds and strange, glistening insects that hum lazily in the humid air.  To their right, a colonnade of cracked stone pillars marches toward a collapsed temple, its entrance blocked by a massive tree whose roots have twisted through its foundations, prying it apart like a patient predator.

Despite the glory and decay around them, the party does not slow their pace.  They move quickly.  Then, as they near the northern end of Omu, the Cormyr Company’s fortifications come into view.  It is a ramshackle thing, more desperate than disciplined, built for function rather than longevity.  The wooden palisade stands at ten feet, sharpened stakes lining the top like teeth. Despite its height, it looks haphazard, a fortress of necessity rather than design.  The gate is thick, reinforced with rough-hewn planks and iron bands and broken pillars scavenged from who-knows-where.

Beyond the walls, a tangled web of ladders, rope nets, and crude scaffolding stretches skyward, zigzagging up the sheer cliffs like a giant’s abandoned plaything.  Partway up, a wide wooden platform juts out from the rock face, supported by thick beams and lengths of knotted rope. Anchored there, its black hull looming against the cliffside, is the second Thayan airship.

Its design is sleek and unnatural, too perfect for something that hovers by the crude ropes tethering it in place. Crimson sails, furled for now, hang limp against the masts. Runes shimmer along its hull, occasionally pulsing with faint cinnamon colored light, barely visible in the midday sun. A gangplank extends from the ship to the platform, and even from this distance, figures can be seen moving along it, loading heavy crates.

As the party considers how to approach, something very large-sounding roars off to their west... near enough to be of concern but unseen for now.

Ran looks to Eryndor when he asks about Elinor’s and Nalo.

”People who were here but aren’t here anymore,” Ran says. He pauses for a moment, not sure how to explain what happened to them. “Let’s just leave it at that. Meili hasn’t let go yet.”

When they get to the other end of the city, Ran starts looking at the walls, looking for a way in besides the main gate. But then the roar of a massive beast distracts then inspires.

He looks over at the others.

”Whatever made that noise is a right big bugger. What if we lure it this way and get it to knock a hole in the walls. Or at least act as a distraction.?”

Meili cast more than one glance at the ships. "The colors are a bit menacing, but still... I’d love to fly on one of those," she murmured, half to herself. With a quiet sigh, she pushed the thought aside and focused on the task at hand.

"It’s only natural for cautious people to move closer to the wall but to the side..." She glanced at their sole remaining magician. "And maybe you can paint an attractive magical target on it when we safely step away?"

Eryndor raises a brow, lips curling into a mischievous smile. "A painted mark? How quaint. But why waste art when I might simply… converse?" He gestures smoothly. "A well-placed word, a nudge of intent—who’s to say the beast wouldn’t prefer them over us? Even beasts have ears, after all."

"What do you say, mate?" Ran says to Mica. "Let's go find this beast."

[While we wait for Mica's input as the big game hunter, is there a plan forming here?  You're thinking about walking in the direction of that roar - find roar - ??? - lead it somewhere?]

[Meili's idea was to wait for the roar to come to us, hide and let something on the wall that Eryndor can summon, provoke the creature to hit that wall. But if the roar is not moving towards us - Ran suggests to help it to get to the wall.]

[Understood.  At this moment it isn't clear that the roar is necessarily heading in your direction, but it is somewhere close.  It could probably be lured in this direction with some noise - assuming its the sort of roaring thing that chases noises - or a short walk might find it.

Keep in mind also that at the moment you are still visible to both the airship and now the fort if anyone at either location is keeping lookout.  Though presumably you still look like Thayans with your red disguises.]

Mica looks over at the direction of the roar. “I can track it, trap it, hunt it.  Luring it someplace?  Well, how fast can you run?” Mica grins at Ran. 

He pats his pouch.  “I got some mating scent and other things in here.  Might be able to find something that works.  And our new friend is right, if it is smart enough and doesn’t try to eat us first, we might just be able to have a chat with it.” 

He tightens the strap on his pack and looks back toward the walls.  “Might look suspicious to head toward the ruckus, but let’s go at least see what kind of beastie we are dealing with.”

"Well, if we can hear the roar - so do those watching us. Only logical that our group of Red Wizards went to check out the noise". Meili was ready to follow Mica (at a distance, if the hunter needed some space).

[Eryndor can cast Animal Friendship, which could make it a bit easier for Mica to get it to do whatever else we want. Short of prestidigitation Eryndor does not have much in the vein of summoning or illusion that isn't an attack]

"Let's go find the wee beastie then," Ran says. He looks at the wall then the direction of the noise. "Have a nice chat and see what it says. There's bound to be some tasty bits and pieces on the other side of the wall."

Eryndor moves with the others through the tangled ruins, every step deliberate, every sense tuned to the echoes of the monstrous roar. When they come upon the creature—he stops, studying it with quiet intensity. 

If the creature is a beast:

The party winds their way down from the stone walkway into the northwest quarter of Omu, the city tightening around them like slowly closing jaws.  Gone are the open plazas and wide causeways—here, the ruins press in close, with narrow alleys half-choked by creeping vines and crumbled masonry.  The air is thick and damp, and the buzz of insects that once filled the jungle canopy has fallen deathly still.

Then comes the smell: musk, rot, and something primal.

They press on, and then the cramped alleys open into a wide thoroughfare and at its end, a vast amphitheater.

It looms above the surrounding buildings, carved from stone and overgrown with vines.  The outer walls rise in broad semicircles of broken steps and cracked stonework, covered in moss and strangler fig roots that have grown fat feeding off the ruin.  Vines drape what the party can see of the tiered seats like a shroud, and crouched along the higher stands are weatherworn animal statues—jaguars, ibises, serpents, and bats, all carved in lifelike poses, watching silently over the stage below.

At the center lies the ruined stage, now cracked and overgrown, its flagstones pushed up by roots and time.  Perhaps this place once held public debates or lavish pageants - now it has been reduced to a battlefield of claw marks and splintered stone.

The ground outside the amphitheater is stripped bare of all vegetation.  No grasses grow, no vines curl.  It's as if the soil fears what sleeps within.  That fear is contagious—no birds flit among the branches, no monkeys chatter from the rooftops.  The jungle, for all its usual noise, is utterly silent here.

And then there are the footprints.  To the party’s experienced eyes, they’re unmistakable—and terrifying.  Six feet from toe to heel, the clawed tracks look more like craters than imprints, pressed into the mud with bone-jarring weight.  Scattered between them lie long, iridescent feathers—scarlet, emerald, and gold—some longer than a longsword.  Nearby, a heap of dung the size of a cart sits drying in the sun, crawling with fat beetles and half-digested bones.

A closer look at the amphitheater’s ruined edge shows what the roar was about.  Part of the grandstand has collapsed, blasted outward in a jagged fan of rubble and dust as if from an explosion or powerful spell.  The collapse blocks a wide tunnel that must have once been the main entryway into the amphitheater—a passage that, until recently, was clearly used often  by something huge.

Behind the jagged stone and scattered rubble, a guttural rumble echoes through the amphitheater, like thunder rolling through a cave.  Something enormous has been trapped here, inside its lair, and it doesn't sound pleased.

In addition to the collapsed main entryway, there are a pair of side passages - much smaller - that appear to lead under the grandstands.  It appears the path into the amphitheater is either up and over the rubble, or down and underneath.

Meili walked cautiously behind Mica and Ran into the clearing watching for trouble, then stopped to take in the scene.

She crouched near one of the cratered tracks, tracing the ragged edge where claws had torn deep into the earth. A flash of color caught her eye - she reached out and picked up one of the long, iridescent feathers. Scarlet and emerald, gold near the shaft. She turned it slowly between her fingers, watching how the light shimmered off the barbs.

Meili rose to her feet, tucked the feather into a loop of her pack, and glanced at the dung heap with a smirk.

“This is the jungle in a single picture. Beauty and rot. Something magnificent right next to the filth.”

She shook her head. “Still, at least this thing’s alive. I mean, sadly alive, but at least not undead like...” She shuddered at the memory of that mad, hopeless sprint for her life.

She looked toward the collapsed entryway. “Looks like the thing is trapped. Maybe. Do we try to free it?” Meili paused looking at others. “Honestly, I’d rather not. We need a distraction, not a disaster. And if our ‘friends’ are watching, they’ll have plenty of questions about a nice group of Red Wizards deliberately unleashing a monster on a palisade.”

Ran looks from the huge pile of dung, to the massive pawprint, and then to the sounds of something trapped behind the rubble. Then he sighs.

"Whatever it is, it's massive and would have done a number on that palisade wall," Ran says. "But I don't fancy our chances at digging it out from behind all that rubble."

He looks over at Mica and smiles.

"Want to still take a look?" Ran asks. "Not much of a hunt though if it's all penned in."