Gruk assures you that you’re all welcome to stay, and to Shae’s concern, he points out that the village has more healers and supplies to help them all.

OOC: We’ve been playing with the slow healing rules, so you can spend hit dice during short breaks, after the usage of a healing kit, but unless you spend a week resting, your HP doesn’t reset over night, only abilities and spell slots do. 

The Professor:

”Let’s get to the village and bury the dead,” says the Professor once the Floating Disk is ready to transport the honored dead.  “We need rest and healing, for we must be strong to deal with the hag tomorrow.,” he adds as the others make preparation for travel.

Gathering the dead carefully on the floating disk, you slowly and carefully make your way back to the grung village, to try and put as little strain as possible on your wounded. The scene upon arriving at the village is quite unique: almost the entire village is gathered on the main plaza, seemingly spellbound, all awaiting Gruk's arrival. As the crowd sees the three dead elites and no sign of Koro-arak, the tension is palpable. Sensing the need his people feel for either direction or an explanation, Gruk steps in front of his people, and speaks some well-chosen words, based on his conversations with the Professor and B'ark:

"Brothers and Sisters, we grung know our place and we know to do our duty to each other. These three brave warriors have fulfilled theirs by making the ultimate sacrifice. Despite our pleading with the ill and decieved Koro-arak, they remained loyal to him until his final moments. However misguided, such loyalty is brave and commendable. As such, these grung are to be buried tonight, as heroes. Their families are to be treated accordingly. At sundown, the ritual will begin."

With a task at hand, most of the green and purple grung went ahead to prepare for the aforementioned ritual. But some of the remaining grung seemed to struggle more. Although they had accepted Gruk, it was difficult to accept he had been responsible for the death of friends and fellow grung. Seeing their looks, Gruk spoke up once again: "Priests, elders, our friends are wounded and need looking after. The professor is a learned man who speaks our language, and the lady with the long hair in rough shape is trade in healing. Give her access to our supplies and teach them some of our methods, as they have shown me theirs."

With that, several of the hesitant grung approach your group and take a hold of the worst injured among you, including Shae. Professor, Gruk looks like he wants to speak with you, but the other priests seem to wait for you to follow them.

Berrus follows along with Shae

The Professor:

Seeing Gruk’s look and, surprisingly, not being injured himself, the Professor goes over to speak with the new chieftain.  “Well-said, Chieftain Gruk,” says Snively, continuing, “This is a delicate situation, but you have put your people on a path to peace.”

"Bro- Fasser, I thank you, on behalf of these grung. We have a future as a tribe now. But it will take many days and maybe even moons to make them think and act for themselves, free of the life determined by the colour of their skin, free of their caste. But no longer do we have to live in fear of the outside world, and this is something they are starting to feel already. As per tomorrow however, I am not sure how many volunteers I can find to join you on your mission- B'ark and several of her grung will follow you, I am sure, but beyond them, many are still reluctant to trust outsiders, much less take commands from them. Many only know the lizardfolk as enemies, and I am sure on their side it will be the same. For everything you've done for us, I thank you deeply, and I will do as much as I can to support you, and to make sure you are in the best possible shape to face the challenges of tomorrow. But I cannot force my people to die under the command of a stranger- you've seen their looks. I promised them peace, and I returned them three dead heroes. It is time I deliver."

The Professor:

Listening to what Gruk says, the Professor nods, saying,  "I think the important thing is to show up with a reasonable number of Grung warriors tomorrow at the arranged meeting with the Lizardfolk.  When we spoke to the Lizardfolk, we convinced them that the Hag was a threat to all of us--Lizard, Grung, and traveler alike.  Koro-arak's madness is a direct result of her influence, and it has cost us much.  Furthermore, from what I know of their culture, we need to make sure the Lizardfolk see the Grung as a strong ally in defeating a common foe, not a weak species trying to manipulate others into doing their fighting for them.  We travelers need to show up in strength, the Grung need to show up in strength, and the Lizardfolk need to show up in strength.  Three strong allies, working together, will have victory over the evil of the hag."

"But you are right, this is a tough time for the tribe and some of your best warriors lay dead before us.  Perhaps if you tell the tale of why they are dead--they followed Koro-arak, whose mind was poisoned by the hag--more of the warriors will join us to avenge their brothers.  B'ark can add her words, and any who join tomorrow can follow her orders, not ours.  All we can do is tell your people the whole truth as best we understand it and trust them to make the right decision as far as their personal involvement in the struggle for peace," concludes the Professor, partly talking to Gruk and partly thinking aloud as he works through the issue.

OOC:  For me, the matter of numbers of Lizardfolk and Grung attending the battle tomorrow has implications for the regional balance of power between the tribes, but as long as that is satisfied, the actual number of allies is unimportant.  I envision a scenario where the Lizardfolk and Grung learn to work together and fight some of the Hag's minions, allowing the party to move ahead and directly confront the Hag and her elite guards...

Lockal politics - however important - interested Maxine from the practical side only, meaning whether the group will be eaten, turned into slaves or let go free. But Professor kept it all well under control and Maxine could concentrate on more understandable things, like healing, for example. Should rest //long rest// be possible and village medicine not enough to heal others, she would use spells to help as much as she can (combined with Shae's magic it could even be enough).

But grunk's herbs and extracts interested her in other ways as well. The only problem was language. She hoped for help of Draconic - if grung can talk to lizadmen, some should know either Common or Draconic, right? But even if not, some pantomime could help here as well - point at the remedy, point at the body part, point at the herb. Not very specific, but some general ideas could be communicated that way.

The Professor:

     When he is done conversing with Gruk, the Professor will notice Maxine's efforts to communicate and join her.  Though he doesn't use the Comprehend Languages spell, Snively realizes that he has been working with the Grung language long enough to learn to speak it passingly well without magic!  As he helps translate among Maxine, Shae, and the healers, he asks to borrow the magical pearl for use in identifying the magical trinkets they have found more precisely.  Thankful that he has finally deciphered a few more magical incantations from his nightly studies, the Professor first uses the pearl in a ritual to identify its own properties in detail.  He then asks the captain if he can borrow the magic dagger and identify that as well. 

     Once he has finished his rituals for their known magic items, the Professor joins the others in the ceremony for the dead and the telling of the events of the past few days to the tribe, though he defers to Gruk and B'ark, only interjecting when his thoughts seem like they might be welcome.

OOC: Still waiting on Shae, before continuing with the burial but I know the Prof is dying to find out what this dagger actually does :P

One of the first items the Professor identifies is Gruk's necklace. Much as he had assumed however, whatever magical properties the necklace once held, they were gone now. His own property held no unexpected properties. Then, the Professor heads to the Captain to examine her dagger. At first he smiles, as he discovers the common patterns of divination magic he'd excpect for a dagger of warning. As he focusses more on the object however, the pattern starts to unravel, or rather, warp. The dagger has magical properties that help the Captain be more alert in fights, but the weapon also seems to be cursing the wielder to attracting danger, making the wileder more likely to be hit by projectiles.

Weary from the day and travel, her memory of the arrival back to the camp was foggy at best. She had no energy to even protest being swept away to be taken care of by the grung. When the Professor did not follow Shae became a little anxious at the realization that she would not be able to communicate clearly with them, but at the beginning, she didn't feel like she had too. Instead, she simply took comfort in knowing Berrus came with her to be tended too. The warlock did not want to bombard the healers with questions at first, it could only cause frustration or confusion. Instead she watched intently as they worked, providing the gruk with visual cues that she was interested in learning. She would do her best to engage with them and take notes to learn what everything was and what it looked like based off her existing knowledge and what she managed to study while in the jungle. Shae would encourage them to show her how they treat her wounds and then to allow her to practice the same technique on Berrus, they could correct her should she miss or forget something. There would be a sense of relief when Maxine and the Professor would arrive in the area to help clarify and add some context to what they were learning.

The Professor:

     Breaking the bad news to the captain, Snively returns the dagger to her.  He considers if he might come up with a way to break the curse and make the dagger function only as a useful item.

Arcana:  15

     OOC:  Did the Professor find any more secrets out about the pearl itself--all they know now is that it can cure disease.

OOC: I'm sorry, I thought you used that Pearl for the identify spell, which is why I didn't give you further Details on the black Pearl itself. Do you have another Pearl to identify the black one? Also, I bent the rules a Little in letting you identify the item as cursed. As the rules are written, identify doesn't reveal curses. In this case, I don't want to retcon, and instead I'm saying that you knew to look further because you've seen the weapon behave differently than a mere weapon of warning would. In the future though, the curses won't show up when you cast identify.

The captain can't help but give you a weak smile: "And here I was thinking I had gotten old and my reflexes were letting me down... Guess I'll be partin' with this until you figure out a way to make it useful without turning me into a pincushion." Smiling back, the Professor nods: "I'll try."

In truth, curses weren't his area of expertise. The magic involved often relied on much older, more archaic spells and rituals. Blessings and curses could be created in moments of intense Anger or hatred, or out of feelings of pure love for another Person. This artifact though seemed more like a Twisted gift, as he'd expect to find in the hag's territory. As far as he could tell, the hag took pleasure in preying on the weaknesses of her enemies, and what better than the lure of magical weapons to use against brave heroes? Unfortunately, most means of dispelling curses he knew of required some form of divine magic, and all they did was to remove the curse from the Person, not however the object that was cursed. Maybe they'd find a means to break the curse when dealing with the hag. Alternatively, there might be a way to dispel the magic on the dagger, which could remove the curse, but would also erase the other beneficial properties of the weapon.

Although you heard the Captain say that she'd wanted to part with the dagger, you see her hide it on her Person again. You can only imagine that this unwillingness to part with the dagger is one of the curse's effects too.

Shae, to your surprise the grung utilise a lot of similar techniques to what you'd expect from herbalists and druids, but thanks to the more potent ingredients in the plants here, the effects were far more intense. After realising that Shae had an interest in learning, one of the younger red grung, seemingly female, took the time to show her the different plants she would grind together to form a soothing paste which she then liberally spread across the cut and scraped legs and feet of both Berrus and Shae. At first, the mixture was soothing, almost cool, but then the scrapes started tingling. Shae couldn't help but giggle at the feeling. Best of all, the pain was gone almost completely, and she felt as if the world around her was sharper. As the effects took, the grung priestess Bound her feet, hands and knees with some Kind of fabric, that felt almost silk-like.

The Professor:

OOC: No problem, I was hoping to use the pearl as part of the spell to identify itself, but I can see why that wouldn't work. 

Ticking through the other members of his group, Snively realizes that there is no one particularly skilled in purely divine magic for countering this curse, but perhaps Shae might be his best bet.  Returning the pearl, the Professor speaks with Shae, saying, "The magic dagger appears to be useful in combat for heightening awareness, but it also is cursed to attract attacks towards its wielder.  Our captain spoke of wanting to be rid of it for now, but put it away on her person instead--I think this may be part of the curse, much like the Grung Amulet poisoned their minds.  Do you have any ideas on unweaving the curse on this item?"  The Professor will offer the Hag's journal to Shae as well, hoping that maybe she can find something in there he missed that may either help with the cursed item or with the upcoming battle tomorrow.

Shae would be relieved to recognize a lot of similar techniques, making it easier for her to focus on learning the type of plants and their properties. She would be sure to take moments to document what she's learned to reference back in the future. The scholar was very appreciative of this young red grung's willingness to step out of their comfort zone to teach an outside their ways. The experience left her lighthearted and rejuvenated. Shae would place her hand on her chest to communicate her name and appreciation to her mentor. "I am Shae. Thank you." She'd bow to the grung.

The scholar would turn her attention to the Professor when he would approach. Having the dagger and the pearl in the groups posession definitely made them a guaranteed target for disaster. A part of her would even chuckle at the realization that the dagger in fact made the Captain a living pincushion and that her terrible luck was due to this item. The poor captain... Finally, Shae would address the Professor's ask. "No immediate ideas come to mind. Though," She'd pause for a moment, "I could try consulting with Kam. Would any of the grungs have any more information on this object, or even old legends surrounding it or something that we could consider? I'm willing to study it to see if we can find a way to remove the curse."

If the young red grung was not able to communicate her name to Shae, she would then add to the end of the conversation with the Professor, "I would like to know that grung's name and pass on good words to Gruk directly and their head of healing. I'd like her to be recognized for the extra efforts she made to assist us and share their knowledge with us today." Assuming that would not get her in trouble.

The Professor:

OOC:  Sorry, Shae, by the time the Professor made it over to you, the captain had already taken the dagger back.  We are welcome to try again with her, though.  Also, no problem translating whenever--Snively doesn't even need a spell for that now, as he has learned their language!

The young priestess recognises the Professor as the man who spoke before them earlier, and eagerly starts speaking to him: "Grung is N'ala, priestess of grung tribe. N'ala knows plants of forest and can help Shae and hairy friend. N'ala glad to see travelers restore peace, but N'ala know one of the elites. Brave fighter, G'uruk'ang, big sister to N'ala. N'ala thanks travelers for giving G'uruk'ang hero's burial." With that, she bowed and headed out of the cabin, getting ready for the funeral tonight.

A few moments later, Gruk steps into the cabin, and you're all amazed to see that several patches that he had previously covered up with bandages were now sprinkled with gold. He smiled at their amazed looks: "Seems the elders have chosen me. I'm glad to hear YOU are doing better. It would mean a lot to me, if you would join the funeral. My people need this, and it would be good to see the travelers join them too. And Professor, I've been thinking about what you said, and I'd like to support you. But it will have to be you who convinces them, if I speak, most will understand it as an order from their chief, and they will have little choice but to obey- which goes against everything we wanted to accomplish. But just like you negotiated with the lizardfolk, and with B'ark before that, I'm sure my people will hear you, and that you will find those among them who want to take the fight to the hag."

Turning to the group, Gruk says: "The funeral will begin in half an hour. I'd be honoured to have you there by my side as we honour our dead."

"half an hour, i guess i ken get a little cleaned up afor then

Shae would stand attentively when Gruk would arrive, happy to see that he has embraced his new colours and wears them with pride. She will sneak a look to Maxine to share the excitement from them noticing it earlier. Nodding to the Chieftain, honoured to have his personal invite to join them to honour their dead. She would also be willing to stand with and support the Professor through his speech to the grung, understanding why Gruk would ask this of him.

(To provide the Professor with Help and Guidance if applicable.)