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Western Bank of the Faergach River

(Twilight)

The air is still and quiet from the shock of your experience as the boat settles into the muddy shore. Just the sounds of waterfowl and crickets in the high reeds, and the beating of your own hearts, as you watch the river eels scatter and disperse under the wake. 

The boat is lodged in the mud for now but remains untethered.  Seig & Talon remain unconscious, but both are breathing. The river-muck that seeps from Talon’s mortal wound occasionally writhes with life… Something, maybe even a colony of somethings moving under the surface continue working on the wound… Healing it? Maybe? You hope?

Glancing around, you see that you’re in uncultivated land. Looking at the map, you figure you’re about a half mile from the southeastern tip of the Bramblebottom Woods (See below).

Pal & Nib would recognize this area from their earlier travels and Pal at least would recall that the boat wreck was slightly north of here. 

Ashley helps with getting the two unconscious members off of the boat and onto the shore.  Once they have dragged them away from the muck and found a decent spot to rest for a bit, she watches what moves on Talon's body and worries what that means.  "Do you all see that?" pointing to Talon's mortal wound, "that ain't right.. is it?  I mean, I've never seen anything like that before."

Keeping her distance of it, but really hoping it works and that their little tour guide is right as rain when he wakes, she looks over at the elf they had with them and sees if she can help with his wounds at all.  (Medicine check 3) Not seeing any actual wounds she shrugs and sits back, turning to Dardek.  "What do you think that kiss was supposed to do?  Are you alright?"

Dardek shuffles over to Sieg and helps administer aid with the limited supplies and herbs around them (Med 10) He answers quietly to Ashley “I think she wanted my magic….she was going to drain me of it is my guess”

They're on the bank for awhile before Talon wakes up.  When he does...well.  There's just something not right about the feisty little Kobold.  The first sign is that his skin begins to change color.  The vibrant red fades away, slowly becoming a dulled, sallow gray-purple instead.  The second sign is his eyes.  His eyelids crack, and...well.  They just don't look like eyes anymore.  They're a soft violet color and absolutely glittering with...something.  The irises are gone, as well as the pupils.  His eyes are simply one solid color, making it impossible to determine where he is looking as he sits up.  

The most distinct changes become apparent only once he has set up.  Talon pushes himself up until he is sitting on his haunches, and he looks around with very slow, fluid motions.  He looks confused.  Then his head tilts down so that he can look at the healing devastation once done to him.  He traces a finger over the squirming scar as something inside him does its work.  

"Once, I was afraid."  He says.  Even his voice is different.  Somehow dirty, waterlogged.  If a peat filled bog had a voice, this would be it.  "Nolonger."  

Nib frets back and forth between Talon and Seig, helping to keep an eye out for anyone approaching, and traumatized for sure from the events.  He looks at Talon but realizes he has no idea of what to do to help him.  He frequently looks at his friend Pal, seeing that he has been similarly traumatized.  He starts to look at the river, the back, and recognizes a few landmarks.   “We came this way!  I remember, I can lead us back to that boat crash, if you want to check it out.  Whenver you all feel able to travel that is.”  Nib sits and waits, working on holding his dagger, switching it one hand to the other, figuring out the weight and balance, and watching.

Dardek fixes up Sieg as best as he can before moving over to Talon. He doesn't know what to do for him with all of the Hag's magic taking hold. He stares at the little creatures repairing him but snaps out of staring when he hears Talon say "Once, I was afraid." Dardek looks at Talon startled by Talon's new look and responds "I was petrified!"

Ashley smirks at Dardek's response, swearing that phrase rang a bell, but she just couldn't place it...

"I'm ready to go check out the boat crash when everyone else is, we should go soon, in case someone else finds that chest you were talking about."

Talon stands, his fingers reaching behind his head to trace one of the weird little barnacles that had grown there.  He seems satisfied after touching it, like this was the most natural thing in the world.  Without a word, he walks over to Seig and sits down, hip to hip, with his friend while the Elf recovered.  

It's a bit hard going making your way up the river with the recovering Seig in tow, but you manage it. Nib begins to recognize familiar landmarks and start to get excited about returning to the crash site.. However, as you approach the place where the craft should be, you start to hear a groupvoices. Big heavy voices talking to each other in a brutish dialect of common,

"Gotta be something better than this..." Another, narrower voice commands, "Look again!" A third voice pipes up in protest. "Why don't you look!" A fourth voice, speaking seamlessly as if picking up where the third voice left off, speaking in more of a thick Dwarven brogue.  "Tired a you bossin' me around day 'n night."

Nib turns to Pal to confirm whether or not this is the right spot... But you don't see him anywhere. Somewhere along the line he must've fallen behind or slipped away. He's not with the group.

Dardek looks at the others and wonders what they're thinking. He whispers "Maybe they will leave....or I could make a deal with them...the boat for the wreckage"

Ashley flinches a bit as she overhears the 4 talking.  Still reeling from the encounter with the sea hag, she has no interest in running into other strangers.  Especially ones that are arguing.  Hearing Dardek's suggestion, she smiles, "That's a pretty good idea, any clue how we carry it out?  Or.." she swallows and tries to steel herself, "We just go say hi, maybe we're making this out to be more than it is."

Talon remains pretty quiet on their journey to the wreckage.  He seems to be lost in his own thoughts, though it's hard to tell what he's looking at with the featureless eyes he uh...returned with.  Still, he does turn his face toward Seig from time to time to check in on his friend, though it's near impossible to tell what he's thinking with his expressionless face.  

As they draw close to the sound of voices, he pauses...and then instantly goes into Kobold mode, some part of his old self surfacing long enough for him to slip into the underbrush and try to get a look at what is going on...

Dardek whispers to the group "I could just stumble out of the woods say hello and tell them theres an abandoned boat up the way...might be worth more than this wreckage....Being one fella I couldn't do anything with the boat but if they hurry...."

Nib nods to Dardek, saying quickly and quietly, “You go ahead and do that, ask ‘em whas goin on.  Meanwhile, Talon and I will scuttle off through the bushes and hide to observe.  I’ll use my bow if I need to!  I’ve shot a couple of arrows with it… maybe I can cover you in case they get all rough and tough like.”  Nib heads off into the bushes, going at a different angle than Talon and trying to stay hidden.  

Talon moves close enough to get a look at the scavengers... about 60' away.

It takes him a moment to fully process what he's seeing, and at first it's hard to tell whether what he's seeing is real or some strange hallucinogenic side-effect of his recent "return".

Instead of several humans, dwarves halflings, he sees only two figures... both humanoid, but covered in black feathers like a raven. They're pulling apart the wreckage of a small river craft, scavenging. However, before Talon has a chance to fully process this information, something else moves into his line of sight.... It's Nib, moving not-so-gracefuly and not-so-well-covered through the brush nearby, keeping roughly the same distance from the scene that Talon is.

Nib spots the same two humanoids that Talon does. Unfortunately, his surprise, he takes his attention off his footfalls. He steps on a loudly cracking twig, drawing the attention of the two ravenfolk. One of them speaks in the voice of a frightened halfling woman. "What was that?" The other begins growling in a stunningly accurate mimicry of a large dog.

The one with the female halfling voice turns, draws a dagger, looks into the bushes, spots Nib and looks him dead in the eye.

Nib looks back into its vacant black bird eyes. Impossible to get a read on this creature's mental state.  "We know you're out there. Come forward and show yourself!" The ravenperson calls out in an entirely different voice than it used before. This time the tone is that of a grizzled mercenary veteran.

Dardek here's the folks shouting and popps out of the woods "Hello there...I heard you shuffling about and thought I could offer assitance. Oh, I am sorry I scared you. Do you need a boat? This one doesn't look too salvagable, but I did find a boat back that way in tip top shape. You could probably shuffle people across the river for a fee and make good coin! Or transport goods...It's a decent sized river boat...I couldn't really use it....I am just traveling north but if you want it,it is about 1000 paces south right on the river bed. I tied it up good in case someone could get use of it." Dardek smils and bows

As Talon and Nib head off into the underbrush to check out the situation, Ashley is surprised as Dardek just walks full on to chat with the apparent four person group.  She can't help but be a little impressed after seeing his trademark moves upon the ship and after dealing with that hag.  She felt a little trigger shy after all that.

She stays back with Seig unless things start heading south, she'll step in to help.  She doesn't want the others to feel threatened by a larger number.  But she starts getting nervous as she hears even more voices...

Worried for her friend, she starts creeping a little closer, trying to get at least a look at who he's dealing with.

Nib steps forward just a foot or so, since he’s already been spotted.  Not fully out of the brush but halfway out.  He looks at the creature, he’s never seen a bird-man like this before.  He says out loud, “You should be careful… my friend and I found this boat crash a couple of days ago.  There were a couple of mushroomy type … things… that crawled out of the body that was sitting there.  Did you see them?  We mean you no harm, I was just… curious.”

Dardek yells at Nib popping out of the woods. “Mushroom men!! Ahh do they eat people?” Dardek scared looks all over moving back the way he came slowly

The raven-like humanoids respond to the sudden appearance of Dardek with as much of an alarmed expression as their birdlike features will allow.  They look between him and Nib, unsure what to make of the situation.

One of them speaks with the voice of a frightened woman in a tone that doesn't quite match his readied posture, "Please. We don't want any trouble!"

The other one nudges the first and they nod to each other indicating that it's time to go. The first one hitches up its bulging, threadbare backpack while the first stands guard, ready for you to make a move against them.

They then try to make their exit... The one without the backpack walks backwards, covering their departure in case one of you decides to try something...