" No.  You've been very bad, go to your rooms!", Maltilda said stomping her feet.

"Tch, some gnomes you are. I don't know what forest you guys are from, but in mine, we don't attack others," Titaani scoffs, hoping onto Tiny's back so as to give herself more height. Her eyes begin to glow purple as she toys with the crystal around her neck. "Matilda's right, you have been naughty. I think it's time you went to bed, hopefully you'll sleep off that bad attitude."

Titaani casts sleep (1st level) on the redcaps - 5d8 for creatures she can affect: 29

Quote from queen_of_ashes19 >>

Titaani casts sleep (1st level) on the redcaps - 5d8 for creatures she can affect: 29

 (29?? Damn I may have overcompensated)

The sleep spell seemingly having no effect upon them, the redcaps scream in fury. Then they unleash a torrent of foul curses before turning and stomping away into the forest.

"Aw, no fair! That should have worked!" Titaani says sulkily. "Now what do we do?"

"These redcaps are all bluster, it seems, without their weapons. We're thankful there was no more bloodshed," says Amaryllis. "We will return your owlbear to you if you can keep it calm, but what do we do with Zarak?" She looks at the chicken pecking at an insect. "He seemed bent on killing Lamorna and cutting off her horn. But he's a greedy one – gold is his first love. We read his mind and learned he is being paid by a human sorcerer named Kelek of something called the League of Malevolence, which Zarak is a member of. They are occupying the Palace of Heart’s Desire since Zybilna's deposal. But while Zarak is a zealot to his own desires, his allegiance is not strong to his league of villains. Perhaps you could carry him away from this place?"

" So are all Zaraks weapons part of the chicken now?"

" I'm happy to carry him for a while....how long til he pops back to himself?"

" Maybe theres something in the palace we can use against the Hags or to release Zybilna?"

Ben:

”Well, I do have this cage he would fit in as a chicken, but it may be a bit tight once he has transformed,” offers Ben.  He looks on the ground at the chicken’s feet for any weapons or equipment that would be dangerous for Zarak to retrieve once he transforms, then picks them up.

(You recall that Zarak indeed had a pair of sharp daggers before he transformed, together with leather armor and a few other things. Presumably they were all transformed into chicken.)

Ben looks around, but there is no weapons – even makeshift – to be found nearby. The redcaps' sickles were all thrown deep in the woods.

"We can't maintain the transformation for more than about an hour. So he has, maybe 45 minutes left," responds Amaryllis.

"Well, put him in the cage for now, and maybe we could pool our resources and offer him a bribe," Titaani suggests. "I have...um..ten gold. How much do you guys have?"

Ben:

Ben gets out the cage and tries to gauge if the chicken and/or the assassin would fit inside.  He says, "I'm not sure paying money to an assassin to convince him to leave the unicorn alone is going to work...I think we just have to convince him to move along, perhaps to another line of work, because his current employer is about to have all kinds of problems with us.  Stripping him of his weapons and such might make him less dangerous too..."

" If we run into that dragon thing we can use the chicken to distract it......", Matilda said deadpan.

"Are we really threatening enough to convince him to leave Lamora alone?" Titaani asks skeptically, Tiny scratching his ear behind her. "I mean, he didn't seem afraid of us before."

Ben takes out Sir Talavar's arcane cage and finds that it has shrunk significantly. But even as he examines it again in the open air he can see it enlarging. A chicken would fit in there nicely.

(But you'll need to make a DC15 Acrobatics or Sleight-of-hand check to catch it, first!)

Sleight of Hand: 11

Ben:

Holding the cage open, Ben says, “Alright, someone grab the chicken and put him in here.”  

Seeing Matilda’s attempt, he says, “That’s a wily chicken…We may need to work together here.”

He continues to maneuver the open cage to hopefully make it easier for the next try (Help action).

Matilda mutters unkind things about the chicken and tries again.

16

Matilda grabs the chicken by its neck and stuffs it into Ben's cage. The door snaps shut with a satisfying >click<. Ben pockets the key. The chicken squawks and pecks and flaps its wings but soon settles down.

The pixies laugh with delight. "Thank you, friends! Please take our little chicken pet far away from here!" They laugh some more.

The tangle of vines, you notice, has completely vanished.

"If you're looking to find Loomlurch, Granny Nightshade’s workshop, it's that way." Amaryllis points through the thickets at distant hills covered in fog. "It is carved out of the interior of a gigantic oak that has fallen over. But be careful, for she is crafty."

"Shall we go to granny nightshade's lair?" Titaani asks. "If we do, we could try asking Will and his friends if they'd like to join us, I mean, four of us isn't - oh right! We should really pick up Horatio first, shouldn't we?"

Titaani turns Tiny around and begins to ride back to the unicorn's pool.

Ben:

"Would any of you like to join us and help freeing the children and the unicorn?  The more help we have, the more likely we will succeed," says Ben, hoping to not have to go back to Will with no additional allies.

Persuasion:  14