Temple of Ishassara

She reads the room and gives a small, warm smile at Gregor.

”The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Isn’t that what you people say? My name is Allani, leader of our clan here in the jungle. I have been very curious about your developments on the beach, and would like to welcome you as my esteemed guests to our home.”

With a small nod to one of the guards, he opens the cage you are kept in.

”Please, accompany me outside if you mean no harm.” She slowly walks out in long, slow strides, elegently stepping one foot infront of another in a line, similar to a catwalk. The large leaf is oulled back, spilling in light to the hut.

“You have a funny way of inviting your guests over for tea...”

Gregor follows the beautiful woman out without a second thought. “Gregor and friends just be simple mercenaries, here to explore and protect the innocent dwarfs who work to feed their families. Maybe we can be acting as the messengers if you be having problems? Neutral party and all that you know, although Gregor would not mind being part of your party.” 

 As the vines retract themselves from around his wrists and ankles, Liam raises a cautious gaze to take in the elfin woman before him.  He listens quietly to what she has to say, warily keeping an eye on the guards as well, but does not say anything.  When she turns and invites them to follow, he slowly rises to his feet and does so without saying a word or looking at anyone else.

She eyes the druid warily, getting up. "Esteemed guests, eh? You had us tied up. Oh, but you knew that." She says sarcastically.

Chubby had it right, and she didn't like this at all. Crispy didn't trust but a few people. Annoyed, she tries to focus on something positive.

"Hey." She slaps Chubb on the shoulder. "Thanks. I owe you one." She makes a few gestures with her hands to him, indicating to keep on your guard and do not trust this woman, and we should get our things back. She also indicates that Gregor is clearly smitten, and hopefully won't need saving again. She hand signals an eye roll.

She takes a moment to lean over to Nia as they walk. "Are you alright? I'm sorry for getting you in this mess." For a moment, she seems like a completely different person. "But, I owe you one, too, because I knew something was up, and i'm glad you saw my note. If we get out of this, maybe we can talk sometime." She gives Nia a quick smile before calling out to the Druid, turning back into her sour self.

"Hey! Where's our things? If we're guests, and mean no harm, unlike your welcoming party, surely you won't mind if we have them back?"

Nia attempted to subtly give Liam an affectionate shoulder bump as they walked without letting their 'hosts' notice. When Crispy leaned over Nia winked and mouthed "We will." It was obvious she wanted to say more but was waiting for somewhere safer to say it.

Crispy makes a few hand signals, clearing indicating that she is greatly yearning for that moment, and until then she will forever watch Nia's back for the selfless actions she took the night before. She looks at Chubby, and they have a moment of recognition of the same oath.

Sometimes people didn't understand Chubby. Some people have ambitions and dreams and actual good things they want to achieve in their life. Crispy, at the time, was the exact opposite.

As they walked, she remembered the night. Years ago, there was an evening where fate introduced two people together. Racial slurs were mentioned, insults about mothers. In a bar, tables turned, chairs sprawled all over the floor, Crispy didn't remember the details, but THAT night she had enough of people picking on a fat, old dwarf just trying to have a drink, maybe find answers, also searching for a place in this world. But one thing those drunk scumbags didn't count on was Crispy defending him. She had just lost her partner, lost her job, she had nothing left. At her lowest, it took her back to a dark place she didn't want to remember, and she sprung into action.

As the barfight went on, it was an incredibly painful feeling of getting a chair smashed over your back, or getting your nose broken, again, from a wild haymaker. But Chubby and Crispy swung back, and it was clear, eventually, who were the better brawlers. Laying on the ground with a beer mug in your hand, sitting in a pool of blood and sweat, about to get kicked out of the bar by local law enforcement, they realized a friendship that would last for decades to come.

The laughter lasted all night.

Liam, you had some banana leaves over your skin. You can see some cuts which have healed quite quickly you think due to a gooey substance on your skin under the leaf.

As you all walk out, you see a ginormous canopy open below you into a lucious valley of colour, greenary and bustling people. It seems like a small druidic city of sorts, with it’s own economy, families, people and heirachy.

”The... Yuan-ti aren’t our welcoming party.” she responds. “Our scouts caught you and them just outside of our boundary and we brought you in- taking our own precautions of course.” She eyes Crispy up and down, almost to see right through her into her past. “... Would you trust you?”

She continues to escort you along the ridge of a plateau which looks down on the village.

Crispy’s eyes narrow at the remark.

”Pff. You dont know me..” She mumbles to herself.

Gregor enjoyed his initial rounds of flirting, but his eyes hardened upon seeing the city, and his voice sounded much more calculating and business like. 

“Gregor and friend‘s employer swore up and down that this island was uninhabited, and have been working on island for at least weeks if not months, yet Gregor and friends be finding snake people, demons, and now secret city of druids in just a few hours. Have you made no efforts to contact the vary visible and vary noisy construction crews? Gregor finding entire situation difficult to believe. 

You get no response from Allani, as she continues to guide you around a small wooden plank bridge before entering a large, hollowed out mammoth of a tree. You all climb several spiralling stair cases which eventually opens up in a large room at the very top. A huge oak table adornes the middle of this room, which has wooden planks as the floor. You can see the entire village from this tree and the surrounding tops of trees on the island. (Map update incoming) You see your gear, which has been polished, cleaned and shone, sitting laid out on a large tree branch which serves as a table and on the large round oak table, sits a scale model of the island, in all it's natural glory made from living plants. Bonsai trees represent the larger trees and real rocks have been shaped to form land marks all over the island.

Allani walks to a large, circular window and looks out over the island as you enter and take in this room. Her guards wait on either side of the room enterance. Without looking back at you, she says "Yes, I understand your confusion. The construction on the beach over the past two weeks has been of interest to us, but we have larger issues on this island which have kept us pre-occupied. I was hoping we may be able to come to an arrangement. Help each other out."

Liam remains quiet and reserved, barely even acknowledging Nia's shoulder bump, throughout the impromptu tour.  He keeps close enough to Allani to hear everything she says, but not too close.  To Nia at least, because she knows him best, it's pretty obvious that he's battling between his curious need to know what's going on and an apparent sudden need to keep his distance from everyone.  If anyone is paying attention, they would note that he winces when Allani mentions the yuan-ti, after which his head and shoulders sag just a little bit deeper.

He tries to take in the sights of the city as they go, but isn't able to take in much as he's constantly avoiding making eye contact with anyone.  When they finally make it to the grand chamber with the miniature model of the island, he's at first relieved to see his belongings off to the side and awed by the detail of the model, but he quickly reigns himself in to present a mostly stoic facade.

When Allani mentions having bigger problems than the construction crews, and the possibility of coming to an arrangement, Liam looks like he's about to speak but hesitates.  He draws back, waiting to see if any of the others will speak first.

Nia cast Liam a sympathetic look at the wince and stayed just close enough that he could see that she had not turned away from him. On entry to the room and seeing their gear had been taken care of she blinked in surprise and made a little pleased noise deep in the back of her throat. Biting her bottom lip she spoke up to see what would happen. "What do you have in mind?" she asked Allani.

Chubby walks over to the refreshment table (assuming there is one), and starts inhaling food and drink.  Between gulps and chews, "Before"  chew chew "you mentioned" gulp chew "the enemy of your enemy" chew gulp swallow "is your friend."  <burp> gulp swallow "What did you mean by that?"

Crispy was on high alert.

This particular situation had her on guard. It was mostly her past shaping her personality, but at this moment in time, violence wasn't the answer. She would listen to what this tree sprite had to say. She eased up a bit seeing her beautiful blades on the table, and she took them and examined them closely as Chubby ate and nearly choked as he talked. She was still a bit bitter at getting her friends in this mess. Chubby and her had an understanding built on years of friendship, but Nia? That she regretted greatly, and swore to make up for it. Anger and frustration growing again at thinking of putter her in danger, Crispy had another urge to be sarcastic - a typical defense mechanism built upon years of abuse, and something she struggled with to bury deep down, and to try and show the person she could really be.

Roll to sarcasm: 14

The urge completely backfired, and instead of the sass came something completely genuine and thankful. Gratitude...?

"Thanks for cleaning my blades. They look amazing."

She then shakes her head, as if something was loose - as if the act of being nice was foreign to her, like her mouth said something her brain didn't agree with. She returns the blades to her holster.

"It's no wonder your... Employer did not realise we were here- we make a point of staying hidden when we want to." Allani steps away from the window, her flowing silk trailing behind her and motions slowly at the scale model in the room, her hand stopping at a particular point.

"Here is where our lead pack hunter Zeen, found you encountering the Yuan-ti." She looks at Liam ever so briefly, the slightest amount of hesitance can be sensed in her voice as she continues. "W-we know what the Yuan-ti on this island are like, and so Zeen thought she'd bring you in. (Your minds flash back to a female figure riding a large white wolf) It looked like you could use some aid and it appears that our assumption that you are from the beach is correct. This is what I mean by the enemy of our enemy... The Yuan-ti cult, on this island, are up to something big. Their numbers are increasing rapidly and they will soon take out this island. They have made alliances with the Coven on the far side of the island and this puts our very way of life on this island at risk."

Her face narrows. "I'll be right up honest with you. The developments on the beach? They're the least of our worries. Right now, if something is not done about the evil growing on this island- your people will be wiped out too."

<< Zeen

"A coven..." Liam says quietly to himself, before looking at the rest of the group, "didn't we find something indicating the presence of a coven or cult?"

He then shakes his head as though trying to stir up his own thoughts, before finally addressing Allani.

"What can you tell us about these enemies?  The yuan-ti and this coven?"

"Perhaps the demon we encountered has something to do with it..." She says, half to Liam, half to herself. She then addresses Allani, still wary. Still not convinced.

"Why should this be our concern? We were hired to map out this island, not team up with you guys and solve your lizard problems. What's in this for us..?"

Allani smiles, not a smirk, but a soft, understanding smile. “With our help, you can map this island a whole lot faster. We know the location of every rock, leaf and bug. It would speed your progress through the jungle greatly. Not only that, up until a moment ago, it seems you wern’t even aware of the covern on this island and you definitely don’t have the intel on the Yuan-ti which we do. We can additionally offer you a safe haven here in our home, which once again, is a lot closer to other parts of the island than the beach. All we ask of you is that we help each other at this time and negotiate the beach ongoings prior.” She turns gracefully and looks out the window again.

”Of course we can also return you to where we found you and let you go on your way. No bad blood between us, I understand. However, my warriors may not be so hospitible next time we see you’re in trouble.”