Hrathen perception: 21

On the second day of traveling among the sand dunes, the party sees vultures circling the area ahead. The sand dune in front of you is blocking you from seeing what is on the ground.

What do you do?

If the vulture, and therefore sand dune, are ahead of us, we're headed this way anyway so... Duncan, seeing the vulture flying, runs up ahead of the group to get to the top of the Dune to get a better view of the area, always hoping to get more information about what's around them; Shai dashing up behind him, amazingly stable on the falling sand of the dunes.

Duncan sees a tangle of bodies and blood spatter on the sand. There in the middle of blood bath is a giant scorpion eating away at their flesh. Not too far away is a dead camel with a what looks like a child hiding behind the carcass.

What do you do?

Duncan signals to the others to hurry up the dune behind him and then dashes down towards the scene, weapon in hand. But once he gets closer he slows down and begins circling around. He knows it's a bad idea to get between a wild animals and its dinner, so hopes that he can keep enough distance and appear unthreateningly enough that it'll not bother leaving the meal in front of it to bother with him (though is ready to fight if it dashes towards him). He's hoping to circle around towards the child, to then slowly back away together.

Kasbis follows Duncan to the top of the dune and surveys the situation.  “I might have another way.” he whispers to Duncan.  “I’ll tell it that we are no threat.  I can talk with it.  Haven’t spoken with a scorpion before, but … it should work.  Do not attack the scorpion as I do this.  Get the child and get away, I will back away from it.”  

As the others spread out, Kasbis descends down the dune toward the scene and once he is within 30 feet of the scorpion, he casts animal friendship, targeting the giant scorpion.  He says to the scorpion, “We mean you no harm, continue your feed.  We are here for the young one.  Everyone must protect the young of their clutch.  We will back away and leave you alone, continue to eat.”  (DC 13 wisdom save to charm the scorpion)

Giant Scorpian Wis Save

5

For a moment the giant scorpion raised its stinger againts Duncan. Then the spell takes effect. It lowers its guard and continues eating.

With that Duncan is able to grab the child and retreat.

Once back in relative safety the child turns out to be a young adult halfling. Standing at 3 ft in height, he numbly mumbles "They're gone. Dead"

Kasbis says when they have left and gotten to safety, “Who, who’s gone?  Who’s dead, your parents?  How did you get here, where are you from?  My name is Kasbis by the way, nice to meet you.  You should stick with us.”

Kasbis words shook him out of his numbness "They were my friends we were running away from Evenviel Enclave. We ran for most of the night. So stupid I should have seen the giant scorpion"

Tears stream down his face and he angrily wipes them away "I am Oriyas Mossbrush. Yeah I'll follow you"

He looks over towards his dead friends "I need to bury them. I can't just leave them to the scorpion. I..I need to give them a proper burial. Can you help me?"

“Where are they?  Right in front of that scorpion?  If so, I wouldn’t advise it.  The spell lasts a good while, a day in fact, but I wouldn’t push it.  If they are off to the side and away from the scorpion perhaps we could get their bodies for burial, but otherwise I would leave them Oriyas.  I’m sorry…”. Kasbis looks to Duncan and Hrathen for their ideas about the matter.  

“Your friends deserve a burial, though taking food from a hungry beast is no easy task.” Duncan says. Then looks to the boy and, looking back to the scorpion tightly grips his weapon and adds, “If we help you here, you will have a debt to pay, as it appears you already do to your friends.” Then, if the boy seems to acknowledge this, Duncan readies himself to attack the beast, looking to his companions to coordinate their actions.

initiative: 13

"Its the ones the scorpion is feasting on. Please they deserve better" says Oriyas

"This is not a good idea, Duncan. The dead are important, but the living are more so. We should not risk attacking this beast." Hrathen frowns. "I will of course aid you, should you decide to attack this, but know that I am against the action."

Kasbis pulls Duncan back, saying “No.  We don’t want to confront the scorpion unless we have to.  Hold back.”  

He surveys the scene (please describe further) and tries to see the location of the bodies of Oriyas’ friends.  He begins to walk down toward the scorpion again, have the others walk behind him.  Since he knows creature is still under his spell, he says to it “Take camel and go, peace to you, go home and leave this place safe.  Leave the little one’s bodies, they are for us, you do not need them.”  

The scene is the same as before except the scorpion has eaten a 3rd of the body. The scorpion grabs the camel and begins eating it, but it does not stray to far from the singular pile of mangled bodies.

It is 10 ft away from the bodies

Kasbis cautiously advances, then when able at the 10 feet closest to the scorpion, uses prestidigitation 3 times to create a horrible, horrible odor around the bodies, trying to make them less … appealing.  

The giant scorpion lets out several unhappy clicks. It then takes the camel and moves away deeper into the desert.

Oriyas moves to his friends. He closes their eyes and begins digging a grave with his hands.

Kasbis ritually casts unseen servant to assist with the digging, as he considers the halfling.  He looks over the appearance of the bodies.  “Oriyas… can you tell us about the Evenviel Enclave?  About why you were fleeing from there?  What was happening?”