Welcome to the Jungle!

Remembering the monkeys.  i wouldna consider anythin friendly unless proven otherwise...

Berrus gives another scan of the riverbanks

Shae, as you think about the sketch that Mulligan made, you at first struggle to identify what could have made them. There's some vague resemblance to Fang's own, but the toes are far more outstretched. As your focused gaze glides over your staff though, it lingers on the raven at the top of it, when suddenly you have a flash of recognition: Of course! They are very large bird's feet! You had heard about birdfolk before, it could be a tribe of them out here!

You've all spent enough time in the jungle to know that  an organized group of any kind could be a dangerous thing. But at least with some level of organisation, there might be a chance that they'd listen before fighting. So far, they hadn't attacked yet, but it might just be that they're waiting for the right opportunity. Or, it could be that they don't understand what you are saying and might need a demonstration that you have peaceful intentions, or an other means to communicate that.

Shifting your gaze to the dam and illuminating it with your boomerang, you shudder when you realise that the plants within the dam's structure look like a large cluster of yellow musk creepers, but somehow twisted and larger. The smell definitely is a match though!

     Mulligan shifts position on the ship once, then again... Still scanning out into the darkness trying to get a glimpse of basically anything at all.  His eyes immediately grab onto and follow the light of the boomerang (Brilliant!) "Is this natural...  We under attack...  Anyone know yet?" He calls out in a stage whisper to any close enough to hear and respond.

I think if we be under attack already ye'd be knowin by now. Berrus hoarsly whispers back while giving the Professor a sidelong glance with a who is this guy raised eyebrow

(On mobile. Apologies for the delay).

Slowly, Shae would float down from the sky. She’d hover beside the Professor to share her thoughts with him and the others gathered nearby. “Are you familiar with bird folk? The tracks, they’re avian in nature.” Her vibrant blue eyes look around. “I believe they’re just as curious about our intentions as we are theirs.” She’d say passively.

Gesturing to the dam, she’d nod to Snively agreeing with his instructions to the captain. ”The dam is formed of yellow musk creepers, but somehow twisted and larger. The smell definitely is a match.”

     Mulligan whips around to retort to Berrus but holds his words at the last moment...  No reason to make things more tense than they are.

     "Avian?  Like... bird people?" Mulligan will ask after hearing Shae a moment or three later, immediately shifting his eyes from the surface of the water to the air around the boat.  "Could the dam be nest?  Ok, ok, stupid question but what do I know of avian??"

As Shae drops closer to the deck Berrus instinctively moves into position between the spellcasters and the unknown figures.  He utters a low curse at mention of the creepers

Shae pulled out her notes as Mulligan strung together questions out loud. “I wouldn’t expect the Yellow musk creepers to intentionally be their nest…” She’d peak up from her book for a moment before going back to flipping through. Turning the book over, she’d show some of her original sketches and research with Mulligan, and any one else. The image was a vine plant with an orchid like flower. “Do you see any bulbs or bulbous features on our approaching companions? Are they avian, like the prints we found earlier?” She’d crane her neck a little, raising a little higher in the air before looking to Berrus first then the Professor. “Professor, are you familiar with any avian races and what language they speak?” 

Perception19    trying to get a better look

(And not doing well at it lol)

Glasses:

“Indeed, quite interesting,” says the Professor.  Now that he is not expecting to be immediately attacked, he considers what he knows about Yellow Musk Creepers and avian creatures whose talons may match those sketches.

OOC:  If he has time, he may consult his Gazetteer and/or consult with Fang.

Nature on the Yellow Musk Creepers:  22

Nature on the Avian Creatures: 27

In the meantime, he suggests, “Captain, can we get together some long lines with grappling hooks on the end?  We may need them to help pull down that dam from a distance.”

Glasses:

If advantage applies on those nature rolls:

The Professor quickly takes a glance at his gazetteer, by now almost three times as thick as it usually sells for, since so many notes, sketches and other scraps of knowledge were added to the leather-bound volume by the old scholar. You don't remember making any notes on birdfolk yourself, so you quickly flip to the index and find only one matching entry and a note. Checking the entry, you find the following brief bit of information:

KIr Sabal

Kir Sabal is an ancient monastery overlooking the jungle from its perch on the cliff of a tall plateau rising about twenty miles east of the river Olung. It belongs to a monastic order of aarakocra, or bird folk. Some rumour, they are as old as the land and carefully keep the secrets of the old empires, whilst others claim that the birdfolk migrated here from the southeast and settled in the abandoned monastery and made it their own.

Since you're far from the river Olung, you flip back and check the note in the index as well: See also Kenku. Flipping to the indicated page, you find another snippet of information:

Once, the kenku held the wind in their wings, embracing the gusty sky and singing the sweet language of birdsong. Serving a master whose identity is now lost to their memory, the kenku coveted the glittering baubles of his household, and longed to speak so that they could cajole and swindle others out of such treasures. Stealing the secret of speech from a volume in their master’s library, they disguised themselves in rags to beg for pretty things. When their master learned of their greed, he stripped away their wings as punishment, forcing them to beg forever.

Kenku can mimic the sound of anything they hear. When mimicking voices, they can only repeat words and phrases they have heard, not create new sentences. To converse with a kenku is to witness a performance of imitated sounds and almost nonsensical verse.

It is unclear whether the ravenfolk are the only avians on chult. Some travellers rumour of winged humanoids in bright plumage, parroting their speech. As always, it is difficult to judge the veracity of these claims, given the nature of the travels many of these witnesses have gone through.

Looking for information on the yellow musk creepers, you flip to your own notes on the horrific flowers and take a moment to compare Shae's sketch with the bulbous plant before you. The distance and dim light make it difficult to tell, but after two minutes of study, you are sure that they are not the same plant. What you have before you is something viler, and, you figure, more dangerous. As you hear the croaking of a frog and see it swallow a dragonfly, you're suddenly struck by a horrifying insight: those bulbous parts below the waterline were all large enough to swallow a man whole and you counted at least five bulbs...

Glasses:

     “These avian talons could be from an intelligent feathered race of bird folk called the Aarakocra, but it is more likely to belong to a race of raven-like cunning imitators known as the Kenku.  They are known for imitation of sounds and speech and covetousness of shiny baubles, but are not to my knowledge inherently evil,” shares the Professor, indicating the relevant passages in his Gazetteer, “We should attempt to make contact once I perform my Comprehend Languages ritual just in case they have their own language.”

”These plant creatures are a larger and more dangerous variety of the Yellow Musk Creepers, with their bulbous bodies below the waterline likely capable of engulfing a human-sized creature.  We should stay well away and attempt to deal with them from a distance if possible,” he counsels, “I can control water well-enough to batter the dam at its weak points, but it will likely not be enough by itself.  I can also enable us to breathe water if that becomes necessary, but it takes me time to invoke that ritual.  Unfortunately, my command of earth magic is not strong enough to meaningfully affect the dam from a safe distance.”

“Let us attempt to communicate with the creatures and see if we can work together to safely eliminate this dam threat,” he concludes with a slight smile at his wordplay.

     “Plant creatures?!?” Mulligan can’t help but exclaim, though he goes so softly.  Ok, so bird folk are one thing but…  he had thought they were talking some kind of heavy, maybe flailing kind of vine?  But actual plant creatures?!?

     Unconsciously the bard lets loose a low sigh like whistle before softly, almost under his breath, starting to sing even as he continues scanning the sky and the water for visitors…

”Be kind to your web-footed friends
For that duck may be somebody's mother,
She lives in a nest in a swamp
Where the weather is always damp.

You may think that this is the end,
Well it is, but to prove we're all liars,
We're going to sing it again,
Only this time we'll sing a little higher.“

     He notices what he’s doing by the 3rd or 4th verse and abruptly shuts his fool mouth…

i be nae good from a distance. Berrus mutters

Armed with the Professor’s share of knowledge, Shae would snap her book shut. She’d catch herself wanting to hum a low tune along with Mulligan, but the moment Berrus admitted he couldn’t see from where he was, Shae would nod. With that, she’d take to the air once more. Filled with too much curiosity, she’d scout while Snively prepared his ritual. With her soft tune, she’d carry herself with grace out over the water, at a safe distance from any bulbous concerns, and would look to approach the figures if they appeared to be any of the described by the Professor.

     Hey!  Wait!  Where the heck are you...  Mulligan thought, but kept his yap shut.  Truth be told it seemed Shae had far more experience at this type of thing and perhaps he should be following her lead instead of trying to keep her safe behind him.  Still, some instincts are hard to overcome...

     He does run to the edge of the ship closest to where she flies out over the water, but stops at the ship's rail.  He can't just fly after her and he's not quite sure yet if diving into the water is all that brilliant an idea.  But he hangs at that edge and does his best to keep the wild woman within his sights...

O'Malley listens carefully to the theories of what lay before them, particularly to the Professor. "If you haven't started already, I'd say breathing water would be the more pressing need here, in case these plants become dangerous and someone gets pulled under. Then understanding another language, if indeed they speak another language, would be nice."

The fighter prepares herself, calling her weapon to her hand and securing her shield. She looks to see how close the plants are, and peers into the darkness to gauge the proximity of the figures on the bank. She'll ready an eldritch blast for any incoming/threatening plant or creature. But she won't feel comfortable closing with the plant bundle until she doesn't have to worry about drowning.

She also tries to remember if she came across any similar plants or bird creatures in her time in the jungle:

Nature/History: 20
Survival: 22

Glasses:

Nodding, the Professor settles in and starts the Water Breathing ritual first, saying, “Very well.  Have everyone gather near me in about ten minutes’ time.”

Reng nods in thanks, eyes looking about, trying to ready herself for anything.