Harmony heard Abraxas, sighing as she nodded. "If we do have to wake it up, hopefully we will be able to defeat it without too much trouble." she said back to him as they waited.

"You are wrong. You speak of what you do not know," the bugbear growls in answer. "The Warlords fill us with glory of battle. The Warlords show, they teach, to the worthy, how to find victory in greatest battle. Your friend should be grateful. If your friend go crazy, it is because your friend is crazy - not because Warlords make your friend so."

"Do we know how to awaken the wolf?", Garu asks the group.

"I think I do," Abraxas says. "While on the statue, I had visions of myself as great and powerful and releasing the wolf and defeating it. But given what we've heard about the statues and, well, perhaps my trust issues, I worry that the visions of power were a lie. The visions of how to release the wolf, however, seem true."

He thinks about this for a moment. "Why do I interpret the vision in a way that assumes the worst? Perhaps we would be powerful. Perhaps the wolf wants to be destroyed and is willing to give us of its power to that end."

He looks at Garu and Harmony. "Perhaps we ought to trust the entire vision and free it."

Harmony was hearing Abraxas, still unsure. "I don't know. Let's find out if Aisha found anything that could help us first and ask her." she then said back to him, a little worried.

As Aisha turns to leave, she says in parting Oh yes, he is blessed indeed. leaving her meaning vague, though she referred to Ginan and the others. Barring her being forcibly stopped, she would, whether by walking, or running if suddenly pursued make her way back to the camp to share, word for word her exchange with the goblinoid. If pursued, she would attempt to use the tree's to evade, though if not, she would simply make sure she wasn't followed. And if she was being followed like a stalker rather than an attacker, she would also attempt to lose them.

Survival if 'stalker/pursuit': 10

After hearing Aisha's words, Abraxas says, "It seem like the only way to know how honest the visions are is to trigger the statues, the wolf. I hope I am wrong, but I don't think I am. How else can we know?" he says. "What else might we try or how else can we prepare?"

Harmony hears Aisha as well, thinking when she listens to Abraxas too. "Shouldn't we take care of those bugbears first?" she then mentions.

Aisha interjects saying Depends on how you want to prroceed. If we attack them near the statue.. it may summon the wolf, so.. if we are going to try to not do that, we should pull them away from it. But aisha will let you decide. Aisha's brain hurts from thinking too much.

The bugbears at the statues seem uninterested in following Aisha as she returns to the rest of the party at camp. If any of them are following her, they are hidden from her view. For the moment, you appear to be alone in the forest.

"We can address the bugbears first," Abraxas says. "If might be smart to do so, so that statues have fewer beings to corrupt. Corrupted beings will almost certainly seek to attack us." He thinks for a moment. "They seem, however, proud rather than extremely hostile. They didn't attack Aisha, for example. But we might need to slay them to keep the wolf from assembling allies."

Abraxas looks slightly embarrassed by what he is about to say. "We should also, somehow, vow or assure each other that we won't, to whatever extent possible, fall under the influence of the statue." He snuggles under his book bags. "The only other thing to consider, that I can think of, is fighting the bugbears at a distance from the statues. We don't want to accidentally trigger them." He will look at his friends. "What am I forgetting?" he says.

"Don't forget that I am also carrying a bunch of scrolls of owlbear summoning and 2 scrolls of ogre summoning. You know - if we need to level the field."

Harmony hears Aisha and Abraxas, thinking of how to take care of the bugbears. Then she had heard Garu, surprised as she remembered that now and smiled. "That's right. We could use those to help with leading the bugbears away from the statues before assisting us with fighting them too." she said back to them, nodding.

As much as Aisha hates to do this, she can see no other course. We're not.. smarrt enough to figure out this puzzle, then the only thing we can do is prevent it from being 'possible' to do in the first place. Take them from the statues... hoping 'distance' is enough, and .. end them all. Then destroy the statues so they can never be rrremade. Use whatever you think we must. Aisha will assist as best she can. 

"How about, then, if I draw them here. I can use my foot speed and Misty Step to lure them. Before I do that, you can prepare traps or good locations to launch attacks from. Once we have slain them, we can destroy the statues, hopefully without triggering the arrival of the wolf."

Harmony had heard Aisha and Abraxas, thinking of how to help. "How about I draw them here? Remember how we stopped the ritual to summon that snake god? I could disguise myself as a bugbear and convince them to follow me here. Then like what happened with the ogres, I can cast a spell to hopefully knock out most if not all of them so we can kill them easier than having to fight all of them at once." she then said back, feeling confident that she could pretend to be a convincing bugbear.

Aisha doesn't mind Abraxus' plan but reminds him Don't use too many of your spells just to lure. Try to get them to follow you, poke and prod them if they don't chase until they do, but always keep yourself safe. As for yourr idea Harrmony, Aisha does not know the limitations of your spells but you would have to grow another two to three feet and becomes atleast four times wider to properly look the part.... but knockign a few out as we had done last time is a sound strrr.. stray... Stragetti. Aisha will be waiting, unfortunately she does not posess anything that could make for a good trap aside from .. purrhaps settins some pittons in a specific area... like a spiked grround, but she has a spell that accomplishes htat much better and can be places.. wherever and whenever.

As Aisha said, she does not like the thought that this is our only 'semi-sure' solution, but if the choice is killing a few goblinoids who may or may nyot have been attacking farms... or unleashing doom upon the world.... It is not so hard a choice.

Garu and Aisha shall be waiting at the edge of the learing here..

She says pointing to *dm specified/chosen area) and we should be ready for what's to come. But we also cannyot plan all day, they may change guards again.

Abraxas looks around. It seems like there are trees close by. He could use those as cover. "Harmony, given Aisha's reminder, you maybe the better lure. I'll hide out here and prepare to ambush the bug bears you bring over."

Harmony was hearing Aisha's concerns, nodding back as she grinned. "I can make myself a foot taller and even fat too, so it shouldn't be too odd. Thanks to having talked with the Blood Tusk earlier, I'm pretty sure I can talk like a bugbear too." she said back to her before hearing Abraxas. She nodded back before casting Disguise Self on herself to look like a 6'5" female bugbear like the ones at the Blood Tusk camp, fat but muscular. Getting an idea for how to lure the bugbears here, she would have added cuts and wounds on her bugbear body like she was just in battle. Then she clears her throat, thinking of how the chieftain spoke as she gives everyone a thumbs up. Then Harmony would make sure the others are all hidden before heading over to where Aisha found the bugbears and then approaching with a slight limp with an expression like she was in pain. "Blood Tusk, weak traitors.." she would say out loud to herself in a voice like a female bugbear's so any of the bugbears could hear.

(Disguise Self, Actor Feat to talk like a bugbear and Advantage on Deception/Performance)

Abraxas does the best he can to hide among the largest tree trunks. He casts Mage Armor and Blade Ward, then readies Crown of Madness. He plans to cast it on the bugbear farthest from the front of the group of bugbears, so that they will be divided, at least some of them having to turn from him and his hidden friends (WIS save DC 16).