As she finishes her orange juice, Leeta begins to feel a little drowsy. She definitely needs a good night's rest after everything that has happened today. Especially since she usually is an early bird that likes to meditate first thing in the morning to begin the day in a proper state of body and soul. With a chuckle she remembers how she used to protest when Jezza began waking her up at those hours in which the rest of the world were still happily sleeping, and there she was ... out of her stepfather/mentor's view and still doing it of her own accord!

She looked again towards Mizu. Should she wake him up? He definitely needed the rest, but if he kept sleeping over the table his neck and back would surely be hurting in the morning, right...? The monk looked at Soma, kind of warning her that she would be waking up her master, and then proceeded to shake the genasi's shoulder gently.

- Mizu, why don't you go to bed? Your back is going to hate you tomorrrow if you keep sleeping here.

Allowing him a few moments to stand up (or ignore her if he just keeps sleeping there!), the halfling will wish the companions a good night and then go upstairs to sleep in the first free room she finds of those assigned to the group.

Every so often he whips his gaze to Rowarin, wondering if he can even pay attention at this point. "She stays out late, but they say she has to fend for herself..." He quietly muses to himself and Rowarin. "...does that mean she's still perhaps.. immature, in a way? Maybe her behaviour might have to relate to something or someone...?"

Rowarin takes this information in. Zale, so that's the Dragon born huh he thinks to himself, before replying to Rixian "In my years, I've never met a dragonborn who couldn't handle themselves. I think their ego is just an extension of themselves - they make brash decisions as they unwisely believe they are more of a threat. More fool them."

Rowarin will continue to drink his ale, thinking about the events that have taken place. "Rixian, we must remember in the morning to convene with the others. You've got some useful notes there, and I have a theory to share with everyone about where we should continue our search in the morning. For now.." with this Rowarin takes the last of ale, wiping the froth from his mouth, "it seems rest is overdue. I myself need it for sure, I feel a little tender after that fight haha. I bid you adieu." And with that, Rowarin bows his head, turning to who else is in the room and says "Good night all, I too must take my leave."

Rowarin will then head upstairs to the next available room and hunker down for the evening.

Soma hops onto the table to watch as Leeta shakes Mizu's shoulder. 

Mizu groggily lifts his head up, blinking, "Huh?" Had he fallen asleep? Blinking again, he looks around and then nods. He's already feeling stiff, though that may be because of his wounds. Of course, sitting at the counter like this probably didn't help either. 

So, he follows Leeta upstairs where he'll take whatever bed is available. Soma on the other hand follows Mina and perches either in the rafters or in the window of wherever the sea elf decides to rest. Soma (and Mizu) have no intention of letting something happen to her in the night. 

Mina nods to the man's explanation and then asks, "May I ask your name?  Mine is Mina, Mina Holimion.  Anyways, goodnight."

She sees the others starting to head up and she elbows Kulogall, "C'mon, I'm heading up.  You should think to soon.  I'd like to get an early start in the morning."

And not even noticing Soma, she finds a bed and crashes.

The Fire Genasi can relate to what Rowarin said about dragonborns. Most of the time when he encounters them, friend or foe they're never this rash or dependant on someone or something. Upon hearing the Aasimar suggesting to get some rest, Rixi calmly agrees with a silent nod. "Heh. Of course I will remember tomorrow. Oyasumi (お休み, Goodnight). Have a good's night rest, um..." He just realised he forgot to ask his name. Ah whatever. Tomorrow's another day. Hopefully by then relationships will better improve amongst him and Leeta, especially. What he gathered wasn't much, but it is enough to make a start.

Walking upstairs alone, he selects a single-bed room all for himself and shuts the door behind him. Inside and all alone, Rixi takes a moment to turn off the light as he sets his Glaive on a wall and take off his volcanic vest and pendant, which leaving him with a somewhat dirt Grey T-shirt on his chest that compliments his black trousers. He collapse on his bed back first with a thud as he stretches his arms and legs, but recoils and sits up when he pulls the latter too hard and cramps. Still, though, the thought of finally befriending a familiar race is enough to retrieve his long lost smile in such a long time as he squirms in excitement like a young boy, before he rises again and turns behind him...

Gazing at the window that illuminates him via the bright twilight sky, Rixi stares into the spacial abyss, wondering if his Wildland Companions are doing fine with the diplomatic missions and restorations of the cities around the Sword Coast. It's been a few days since he kept progress of what has been achieved, so, thanks to his positive mindset, he assumes that they've been making astounding progress and have completed so much more even in his absence. Whilst unable to focus on the future at this moment, the paladin smiles as he relieves his past memories and losses for 30 minutes, before his fiery eyes shut peacefully as he lays down and drifts into a well-deserved slumber.

He'll be fine. He's sure of it. Tomorrow's going to be a better day, with a better companion, and better self control of himself.

At least, that's what he hopes...

Quote from kqstark >>

Mina nods to the man's explanation and then asks, "May I ask your name?  Mine is Mina, Mina Holimion.  Anyways, goodnight."

She sees the others starting to head up and she elbows Kulogall, "C'mon, I'm heading up.  You should think to soon.  I'd like to get an early start in the morning."

And not even noticing Soma, she finds a bed and crashes.

‘“Ooof!  Hey, watch that sharp elbow!  Definitely worse than what you gave me out there when I was out of my head.  If you coulda hit me, perhaps I wouldn’tve been such a dolt with that wall of water… sheesh.  Embarrassing.”  Stretching, Kulogall lets out a large yawn with a huge intake and output of air, shaking the windows slightly.  “Yeah, It’s time for some shut eye.  Hopefully my mind will process all of this and come up with something in the morning.  I’m too tired to race you to the top of the stairs.  Can you carry me up?”  He shoots a grin at Mina, then trudges upward, falling like a log into bed and snores.  Boy, can Tritons ever snore.  It sounds like he is underwater and snoring…..

((Long rest taken.))

"Embarrassing?  You know what was embarrassing was that I couldn't hit you and I was trying!  Man... you should be happy."  She smiles and elbows him again at his carrying request.

The drow glances at Mina before grunting, "Akyan." Then he nods in response to her saying goodnight.

 After you've all had a good night's rest, you wake and head back downstairs. Bill and Lilliana have already prepared breakfast and begin passing it out as you file into the main room. Cassian and Elenor are already eating when you arrive, and Akyan is back in his corner.

Suddenly, you hear a scream from outside.

Rixi woke up shivering under his covers despite having a internal body temperature that's hotter than the normal. It takes a while for his body to heat up, about 10-20 minutes at most on a cool day as he sluggishly trots out of his bed, does a few pushups on the floor and dons both his flaming vest and pendant again. He does take a brief shower if there is a bathroom nearby and cleans his teeth too; staying dirty isn't something that appeals to him. Letting out a massive yawn as he retrieves his polearm that has dropped on the floor in the midst of the night, the first person he greets upon opening were all six of his comrades, though right now he can only focus on either one or two of them due to his dazed state. "Ohayo-gozaimasu (おはようございます), Ro- Ah! Uh- I mean... good morning..." He stutters, realising that if he speak Japanese in front of his new friend, he'll only make himself more misunderstood. He then hastily speed walks downstairs to grab breakfast as if nothing ever happened.

Downstairs once breakfast is served, he sits by himself again in contrast to the majority of the cast. Already though, he misses having breakfast with the shifters, even going far to think about how much he misses the girls and their splendid cooking. His glaive leans against a wall besides his seat as he eats in silence. As he eats, he backtracks to what he and Rowarin managed to gather that night: A dragonborn named Zale, who can't fend for herself. And had some bad blood with one of the members of the group he's struggling to get along because of... well... anyway. Back to reality, he knows that she stays up late too, which means she'll be up until the midnight sky rises again...

However, If there was anything that fully reignited the flame inside him again though, it was that sudden scream. Almost choking on his meal as heard the noise, he instinctively rises from his seat and grabs his weapon leaning from the wall before he even knows it himself.  Ano sakebi wa nanidatta no ka?! (あの叫びは何だったのか, What was that scream?!) He thinks as his double-bladed polearm immediately slides onto his back, with the upper blade tilting towards his left shoulder; His hair is still ash black, and glossy from having some gel. Nothing hasn't fully prompted him to set alight again for now.

Sitting at the table the next morning, the large Triton has injected bleary looking sclera.  He holds his head, and looks tired.  A cup of warm coffee sits in front of him, he occasionally sniffs it, leaning forward, focuses on it with his gaze and an arc of coffee arches up and into his mouth.  He closes his mouth and a low “Hmmm” comes out.  He sniffs the air to see what is forthcoming from the kitchen.  All of a sudden, a scream breaks the usual sounds of breakfast and he sits bolt upright, a stream of coffee dropping on the table.  “What.  What was that?”  He starts to stand, ready to run to the door.  

In spite of having moved to a bed, Mizu still wakes up sore. It's been a while since he's taken so much damage during a fight, and he's forgotten how long wounds actually take to heal. Sure, he'll be fine after he moves around a bit, but that doesn't mean he'll be particularly comfortable for the next few days. Sighing, he checks in with Soma to ensure that nothing happened during the night. Finding the answer as satisfactory as he could hope, he wearily makes his way into the bar. Leeta likely woke up before him, but if not he'll let her sleep while he orders some breakfast for the two of them. 

He finishes breakfast quickly but slowly enjoys a steaming cup of tea, hoping that the herbal mixture can help him feel more awake for whatever is to come. Though it seems the caffeine isn't needed as the scream erupting outside is enough to tear away all of his weariness and shove his mind into alertness. He leaps from the stool, pulling one of his sabers from his back as he looks to the door. In a moment he rushes out to see what the trouble is. Judging by the scream, waiting even a second could be too long... if they aren't too late already. 

He bursts out the doors, both sabers drawn by the time he sets foot on the street. 

Perception: 8

Rowarin rises a little earlier from his rest - feeling refreshed and recovered from the previous days activities. He opens the window and inhales a large breath of fresh air, allowing the breeze to flow into the room. After doing some stretches and some self-reflection - he sits cross legged at the end of his bed and pulls out his trusted spell book.

Flipping through the pages, he finds what he is looking for - the Find Familiar ritual. He thinks back on how the team benefitted with Soma scouting the skies... maybe something on the ground can help... Ahh yes, I know just the thing Rowarin speaks to himself. He completes the ritual, and a tiny Awakened Rat appears. "Hello there do you have a name?" The rat looks up at Rowarin, twitching its nose momentarily before replying "Hello master. You may call me Podrick."

Giddy with glee that it has worked, Rowarin scoops up Podrick, placing him in his breast pocket and starts rushing downstairs to show his comrades. "Hey everyone, look at what I..." The sudden scream from outside interrupts his train of thought - that sounds bad he thinks. Rowarin will begin making his way outside, following any others who also do the same.

Mina has very restless sleep.  She dreams of Twig, the way they last saw her.. that and the vines.  The fretful thought of the victims being lost is better than death.. but was it?  The thoughts laced her dreams with nightmares and when she woke, it was slow and she had to pull herself out of bed.

She was finally trudging down the stairs when she heard the scream.  This sound erased the night before and she darted out the door with the rest.

Leeta needed less than a minute to fall asleep the previous night. She entered the room, changed into the sleeveless shirt she only used for sleeping, sent her monk vestments flying to one corner of the room - welcoming a little bit of chaos now that Jezza wasn't around to scold her - and literally fell asleep the moment she jumped into the bed. 

Faithful to her training, Leeta did get up super early to meditate. She was still sleepy when she exited the room and in fact realized that she was still wearing only the sleeveless shirt when she was in the corridor. "Oopsie...!", she thought. Luckily, everyone else was sleeping and nobody saw that! The halfling entered the room in a rush and when she exited it once again, she was full dressed in her somewhat wrinkled monk garments, which she fixed as she walked down the stairs to enter the empty and silent bar.

There, in the middle of the room, she sat in the lotus position and stayed there for a good while breathing in and out, aware of her surroundings, but emptying her mind to almost everything at the same time. She did so until she heard the first of the doors upstairs opening. Those steps sounded firm and heavy. Rixian, she thought. Despite that, the first steps that reached the stairs and began coming down where undoubtedly Kulogall's. Some lighter ones followed then, and she smiled recognizing Mizu's familiar steps. At that moment, Leeta stood up, fixed her clothes again and sat in one of the tables, ready to welcome her friends, to whom she waved to one by one as they began sitting at the table. She happily enjoys the breakfast Mizu has ordered (how did he guess that she was going to ask for apple juice for a change !? Amazing!).

When the last of the companions - Rowarin and Mina - appear the mini monk gasps, points a finger at the aasimar and exclaims:

- Rowarin, I don't want to scare you but there's a rat in your pocket!!!

Just as she says that, a scream coming from the street makes all the party stand and rush outside. (OOC: Perception: 9. Nope...)

At nearly the same time as the party rushes to see what the screaming is about, Akyan, Cassian, and Elenor dash outside as well.

Once the group exits the inn, they are met with a large crowd of people gathered just outside the inn and in front of the town hall. The reason for the scream is all to evident. Hanging by her neck from the roof of the town hall, is the dragonborn bounty hunter Zale. At first glance it looks as if someone hung her with a rope, however as you look closer it becomes obvious that it is not rope, but dark thorny vines. However, the most unsettling part are the vines which have sprouted from her chest and mouth with bright red roses blooming from them. Red petals falling from them like blood from an open wound. Currently, the body is still in the shadow of the building's roof, however as the petals fall and enter the thin rays of sunlight, the immediately turn to dust.

Someone yells an accusation directed at no one in particular, and soon the entire crowed is arguing amongst themselves. None of the villagers mention the vines or the roses. Akyan clenches his fists and looks around furiously but clearly at a loss, not knowing what to do.

Kulogall says to Akyan and any of them nearby, “They don’t see the vines or the roses, but I gather you see it, yes?  We need to cut him down.”  Kulogall looks for a window near where the body of Zale hangs, or any way to cut him down.  “I can’t get up there easily, but perhaps someone else can..”

With his attention focused to current scenario, Rixi runs out last behind Leeta and Rowarin. Gasping in shock ... huh? A dragonborn? Why would he or she be... Wait... isn't that... is that Zale?! The dragonborn that Akyan was talking about?! And... no words of the plants coming from the shouting people?  "Hey! Omae (お前)! You all! Can't you see she's hanging by some weird vine?!" He yells out to them as he points and... Huh? No response? What? Can they not see them? 

"Wait... so they can't why this happening... but why can we see it? It is because we're not...?" He gasps in shock. Whatever this spell is, it must have been specially designed to make the entire village and not the six foreigners, he deduces. At least, that's all he can muster without his companion's intellect. He could actually launch a tiny Fire Bolt if he wished, but he'd risk any of the villagers getting burnt if he does so. He notices the petals falling gently before turning into dust... and then his eyes swivel up to the ceiling where the vines presumably are dangling her...

The ceiling. It's dark up there. If these plants are capable of blooming in dark, shady places, this must be the work of somebody... that Rixi cannot even see but assumes is present. "There's someone up there. I think." He assumes without even thinking through it first. His first instinct is to call for the crowd to disperse before he could even tear down the vines that held Zale in place. But then his eyes swivel distractedly as he hears a squeak coming from Rowarin's pocket...

"Uh..." He raises an eyebrow over the cute critter neatly tucked inside. "Sono ikimono wa... doko kara kitano desu ka? (その生き物はどこから来たのですか, Where did that critter come from?)" He mutters without letting the Aasimar know that it was directed to him.

When Leeta exits the inn she's so surprised to see so many people gathered outside - as opposed to when they arrived at Withermore the day before and the first person she saw literally slamed a window shut in her face - that it takes her a moment to realize what they are arguing about. When she does, the mini monk gasps for a second time, only this time it was because of a  body - Zale's body - instead of a rat poking out of Rowarin's shirt. The view made her cover her mouth for a moment. When she recovers from the impact, she mutters:

- This ... this is different to what we've seen so far. Why the public display? - she stops for a moment, thinking about this but not reaching any conclusion. So she adds - We should get  her down.  So we can inspect her, right? That might give us any clue - she turns to her companions and asks - Should we enter the building and try to untie her from there? Or do we have the means to bring her down "gently"?

Mizu freezes upon seeing the hanging corpse. Due to his first interaction with that Dragonborn, he wasn't particularly fond of her, but that doesn't mean he wanted her dead... 

Gritting his teeth, he looks around at the crowd, coming to the conclusion that they don't see the flowers or the vine. Whatever this is... He turns to Akyan, "Is this the first time something like this has happened where everyone could see?"

As he asks, Soma flies up to the building where the Vine is hanging from, searching for the origin of the plant. 

Soma Perception: 12

"We need to get her down," Mizu says, agreeing with Leeta. Then he begins pushing through the crowd, his sabers still drawn to hopefully encourage some of the bystanders to move aside for him. 

Upon exiting the inn with his comrades, Rowarin immediately sees what the fuss is all about. "No time to explain Leeta!" and dashes forward with the group to investigate.

Seeing the thorny vines and blood red rose like petals, he turns to everyone and tries to speak over the noise of the gathering crowd, "Do you think perhaps it is retaliation from last nights actions? Has the creature been angered further and is lashing out?"

Rowarin opens his spell book and frantically searches through, not being able to find something for the... wait a minute he thinks to himself. "Everyone, I think I can help here. But I need a moment to repurpose one of my inventions..." Rowarin then proceeds to pull out what seems to be a small puzzle, shaped like 5 rings of different sizes, copper in nature. He starts to twist and fiddle, then looking up "This will take a minute or 2, perhaps if we can direct the crowd towards something else, away from here?"

Rowarin will continue to tinker and creates a device capable of Feather Fall - "Now about the vines, I can shed a bright light up there which should burn the vines away right? Then this device I have duped "Floaty McGuffins" should be able to bring the body down gently. Just let me know when we're ready?"

If there are no objections and everyone is onboard, Rowarin will click the button on the device, sliding it along the floor near Zale. Then he will cast Light on the device, which will shed the bright light required to burn the vines away, and in reaction to Zale falling it should kick in with Feather Fall.