The rocs land in the ruined square and look around the bare buildings with interest, the guard give the massive birds a wide berth "That is appreciated, Vin and Neferox... we will observe them from a distance, but please tell them not to move beyond our perimeter until you return, we cannot have them roaming the streets." The dragonborn replies in common, giving the young boy a nod.
Moments later Ömertyr does indeed show up, impressed by the feat that the group has managed he chuckles as he looks to Sam and shouts over something in giant.
After Sam inadvertently steers the Roc he is on he decides to try to do it some more. Slowly and cautiously. Testing out if the beast will indeed and understand his signs and signals to speed up or slow down, to gain or lose altitude. The more the creature responds the more Sam is tempted to try more and more signals but he restrains himself - They are guests of these creatures, more or less, not their handlers and Sam definitely doesn't want to overstep their allowances.
Upon landing Sam helps Elthana dismount. She's surely more graceful than he but it's the polite thing to do... And he assists Hector if he needs it as well. Hootie is instructed to stay on Elthana's shoulder until we're well away from the Rocs. No need to offer a tasty treat unintentionally. And after Muir instructs the Rocs in his Roc language manner that Sam cannot understand, Sam thanks the birds and gives them each and appreciative pat or three. They likely cannot understand his words but he hopes they can understand his gentleness and gestures.
"Huh? Oh no, not at all," Sam says when he hears Ömertyr's voice and turns to look for, and of course quickly finds the rather large man. He smiles in recognition even as he shakes his head at his own foolishness for having initially responded in Common out of habit. He switches to Giant and answers again, more fully. In his reply in giant those around can hear Sam mention Muir by name a couple of time and indicate the druid as well as gesture to the Rocs a couple of times as he seemingly explains something - likely the Rocs presence with the group.
During the flight Sam does indeed goad the Roc into speeding up a little, veering here and there but it remains resolute in it's following of its female counterpart, who in turn is following vin. As Sam attempts a little more the Roc caws and snaps the air in front of it in warning. Still a wild beast after all, it seems there was definitely enough progress for Sam to be happy, though more work needed if he wishes to break in the Roc as some kind of more reliable transport.
On the ground Muir begins asking after meats for the male roc, still helping after all, and Ömertyr, once finished talking with Sam invites everyone to follow him into the mount where khoso and Serafina are waiting.
"Glad to see the good witch could cure you of your afflictions Sam" Serafina says as she greets you all. Hector wastes no time in hobbling up and hugging his wife, much to her reluctant acceptance.
Kohso sighs and casts a familiar spell upon her throat once more before sitting at her council table and speaking, "so, you are heading to Shenoh with the aarakocra as your way in and attempting to convince her to raise an army against Nivara. A simple and vague plan. With the time spent at the good witch's place have you had time to think of the details? Gained any more insights or assistance?"
Muir kicks off the conversation with the hopes others will fill in the blanks. "Hello there. We are hoping that Griff as a representative from another Djin can aid us. I believe honesty is the best policy and telling Shenoh everything we know will help. I personally did not find the witch to be helpful in this but perhaps I missed something when I was not in the room with her." He looks at the others
Vin nods in agreement, "The good witch was helpful in many ways, but not directly in planning this endeavour to my recollection either".
"We did talk about allowing Shenoh to use my crystal ball to attempt to scry on Nivara. If she can see what we saw, that will surely be proof enough. She would have to attune mind, so that plan will take a little time, what with the difference between how magic works between our plane and here", he adds. "In fact, maybe Scrying Vox Tontritor herself might work better", he muses.
"have you already attempted to scry on vox tontritor? Do you know what Shenoh may see if she does it?" Kohso asks, wondering how prepared the group has become with this plan.
"No, only on Nivara. Scrying works best by someone familiar with the target. We can try, but it is not likely to work very well as we don't know her", Vin replies.
"If any of you have items belonging to Vox Tontritor, that would help? Or someone has met her before".
Kohso looks to Ömertyr and then sighs once more, having realised that the giantkin has not understood a word that has been said so far. "Possibly him. Though we have depictions of Vox Tontritor if that would help one of you scry instead?"
Elthana remains quiet as the others discuss. She isn't sure what she has to offer, though the scrying thing worries her, it sure made her feel uncomfortable. "Sorry to bring another thought into the plan, but would it make sense to go back to Akiin first since he is most likely to believe us with Griff being his um, bird. Then with their backing talk to Shenoh? I am wondering if that would go a long ways in convincing? Or is there bad blood there?"
Hector raises his hand hesitantly before clearing his throat and trying to dismiss his anxious approach, "ah as I recall the djinni siblings get along fine with matters that concern the Vox, orders and such like, they are dutiful, respectful. But when it comes to inter isle politics they act like children, scrambling for ownership and resources for their people, trying to look the best, be the best... They're the gods of their own domains I suppose."
Griff sighs and shifts, "Akiin is being all about joy and freedom, protecting his people is not wrong. Though I am meaning no offence" he glances at kohso, "I do not believe he was knowing fully about your people's and being willingly letting them be persecuted with ill intent... Nivara's doing.
Shenoh is all about military might, Gojiin as we are seeing is not being involved much with his people, he is not caring if they prosper. Ginro is being focussed on science and magical development, is being very close to Shenoh, and Duun is being focussed on their culture and arts..."
Gewyn sighs and scuffs his shoe on the ground. "To be expected that it couldn't be that easy. I do think I picked up on a bit of that tension, though it's easy enough of a claim to make retrospectively"
"This was the reason we wanted to go and see Shenoh first. She is likely to be the one to react quickest in the face of another military force opposing her", Vin interjects. "And I am happy to try and scry on Vox Tontritor. Having the depiction will help, and it will take me time with the crystal ball before I can attempt it. Four hours or so".
"Thanks", Vin says to Serafina as he accepts the book and opens it to see the image of Vox Tontritor. "Am I ok to keep hold of this until I am ready to scry on her? Just having seen it doesn't help you see".
"How exactly are we travelling to Shenoh then? Will we be taking the rocs, or has Ömertyr got another plan? There was mention of his pack before, but I will admit it made no sense to me", he asks, knowing Ömertyr can't understand him so addressing the other council members.
Kohso nods, "Ömertyr has readied his pack, though should you wish to, you could travel by roc. He seems excited and so will likely be joining you either way, as for the book, is there any way in which you could note the features now and reproduce it later? I fear this is our only copy and we of course wish to hold onto it." she rolls here eyes as she states this. Ömertyr himself nods aimlessly at the conversation that is going over his head, likely reacting only because he definitely heard his name.
Muir tells the roc where to land and then provides an explanation and directions to them.
The rocs land in the ruined square and look around the bare buildings with interest, the guard give the massive birds a wide berth "That is appreciated, Vin and Neferox... we will observe them from a distance, but please tell them not to move beyond our perimeter until you return, we cannot have them roaming the streets." The dragonborn replies in common, giving the young boy a nod.
Moments later Ömertyr does indeed show up, impressed by the feat that the group has managed he chuckles as he looks to Sam and shouts over something in giant.
Vin passes on the message to Muir, to pass onto the rocs.
After Sam inadvertently steers the Roc he is on he decides to try to do it some more. Slowly and cautiously. Testing out if the beast will indeed and understand his signs and signals to speed up or slow down, to gain or lose altitude. The more the creature responds the more Sam is tempted to try more and more signals but he restrains himself - They are guests of these creatures, more or less, not their handlers and Sam definitely doesn't want to overstep their allowances.
Upon landing Sam helps Elthana dismount. She's surely more graceful than he but it's the polite thing to do... And he assists Hector if he needs it as well. Hootie is instructed to stay on Elthana's shoulder until we're well away from the Rocs. No need to offer a tasty treat unintentionally. And after Muir instructs the Rocs in his Roc language manner that Sam cannot understand, Sam thanks the birds and gives them each and appreciative pat or three. They likely cannot understand his words but he hopes they can understand his gentleness and gestures.
"Huh? Oh no, not at all," Sam says when he hears Ömertyr's voice and turns to look for, and of course quickly finds the rather large man. He smiles in recognition even as he shakes his head at his own foolishness for having initially responded in Common out of habit. He switches to Giant and answers again, more fully. In his reply in giant those around can hear Sam mention Muir by name a couple of time and indicate the druid as well as gesture to the Rocs a couple of times as he seemingly explains something - likely the Rocs presence with the group.
During the flight Sam does indeed goad the Roc into speeding up a little, veering here and there but it remains resolute in it's following of its female counterpart, who in turn is following vin. As Sam attempts a little more the Roc caws and snaps the air in front of it in warning. Still a wild beast after all, it seems there was definitely enough progress for Sam to be happy, though more work needed if he wishes to break in the Roc as some kind of more reliable transport.
On the ground Muir begins asking after meats for the male roc, still helping after all, and Ömertyr, once finished talking with Sam invites everyone to follow him into the mount where khoso and Serafina are waiting.
"Glad to see the good witch could cure you of your afflictions Sam" Serafina says as she greets you all. Hector wastes no time in hobbling up and hugging his wife, much to her reluctant acceptance.
Kohso sighs and casts a familiar spell upon her throat once more before sitting at her council table and speaking, "so, you are heading to Shenoh with the aarakocra as your way in and attempting to convince her to raise an army against Nivara. A simple and vague plan. With the time spent at the good witch's place have you had time to think of the details? Gained any more insights or assistance?"
Muir kicks off the conversation with the hopes others will fill in the blanks. "Hello there. We are hoping that Griff as a representative from another Djin can aid us. I believe honesty is the best policy and telling Shenoh everything we know will help. I personally did not find the witch to be helpful in this but perhaps I missed something when I was not in the room with her." He looks at the others
Vin nods in agreement, "The good witch was helpful in many ways, but not directly in planning this endeavour to my recollection either".
"We did talk about allowing Shenoh to use my crystal ball to attempt to scry on Nivara. If she can see what we saw, that will surely be proof enough. She would have to attune mind, so that plan will take a little time, what with the difference between how magic works between our plane and here", he adds. "In fact, maybe Scrying Vox Tontritor herself might work better", he muses.
"have you already attempted to scry on vox tontritor? Do you know what Shenoh may see if she does it?" Kohso asks, wondering how prepared the group has become with this plan.
"No, only on Nivara. Scrying works best by someone familiar with the target. We can try, but it is not likely to work very well as we don't know her", Vin replies.
"If any of you have items belonging to Vox Tontritor, that would help? Or someone has met her before".
Kohso looks to Ömertyr and then sighs once more, having realised that the giantkin has not understood a word that has been said so far. "Possibly him. Though we have depictions of Vox Tontritor if that would help one of you scry instead?"
Elthana remains quiet as the others discuss. She isn't sure what she has to offer, though the scrying thing worries her, it sure made her feel uncomfortable. "Sorry to bring another thought into the plan, but would it make sense to go back to Akiin first since he is most likely to believe us with Griff being his um, bird. Then with their backing talk to Shenoh? I am wondering if that would go a long ways in convincing? Or is there bad blood there?"
Hector raises his hand hesitantly before clearing his throat and trying to dismiss his anxious approach, "ah as I recall the djinni siblings get along fine with matters that concern the Vox, orders and such like, they are dutiful, respectful. But when it comes to inter isle politics they act like children, scrambling for ownership and resources for their people, trying to look the best, be the best... They're the gods of their own domains I suppose."
Griff sighs and shifts, "Akiin is being all about joy and freedom, protecting his people is not wrong. Though I am meaning no offence" he glances at kohso, "I do not believe he was knowing fully about your people's and being willingly letting them be persecuted with ill intent... Nivara's doing.
Shenoh is all about military might, Gojiin as we are seeing is not being involved much with his people, he is not caring if they prosper. Ginro is being focussed on science and magical development, is being very close to Shenoh, and Duun is being focussed on their culture and arts..."
Gewyn sighs and scuffs his shoe on the ground. "To be expected that it couldn't be that easy. I do think I picked up on a bit of that tension, though it's easy enough of a claim to make retrospectively"
"This was the reason we wanted to go and see Shenoh first. She is likely to be the one to react quickest in the face of another military force opposing her", Vin interjects. "And I am happy to try and scry on Vox Tontritor. Having the depiction will help, and it will take me time with the crystal ball before I can attempt it. Four hours or so".
Serafina gets up and leaves at the suggestion that the depiction would be helpful.
Coming back moments later with a large book made of the odd thick rubbery pages the group had seen before.
"Thanks", Vin says to Serafina as he accepts the book and opens it to see the image of Vox Tontritor. "Am I ok to keep hold of this until I am ready to scry on her? Just having seen it doesn't help you see".
"How exactly are we travelling to Shenoh then? Will we be taking the rocs, or has Ömertyr got another plan? There was mention of his pack before, but I will admit it made no sense to me", he asks, knowing Ömertyr can't understand him so addressing the other council members.
Kohso nods, "Ömertyr has readied his pack, though should you wish to, you could travel by roc. He seems excited and so will likely be joining you either way, as for the book, is there any way in which you could note the features now and reproduce it later? I fear this is our only copy and we of course wish to hold onto it." she rolls here eyes as she states this. Ömertyr himself nods aimlessly at the conversation that is going over his head, likely reacting only because he definitely heard his name.
"Does anyone draw really well?", Vin asks of those around.
"Is this a picture book? May I have a look?"
Kohso waves a noncommittal hand toward Muir, signalling that he can of course take a look.