Uragum walks up from behind the other.  His tall Goliath form towering over the others.  He just stares down at the kobold lending his presence to the others.  

"Ah! Yes! Ixas send us," the kobold cowers beneath the glares, speaking in broken Common, "He tells us take books and magic and burn the rest. Then take prisoners on boat to boat!"

The kobold thinks for a moment, mentally counting and replies, "Six of us. No, seven. How many is more than five?"

Sylyra kneels down before the kobold, thinking, "What an idiot. He's going to tell us everything." "How many more are on the boat?" the elf asks, his voice a little more friendly. "Show us on your fingers."

Hopefully after he reveals the number:

"Now, tell us about Ixas. What kind of creature is he? Kobold like you? Human like him?" he asks, pointing to Arnald. "Elf like me? Does he have powers?"

"Five! Maybe seven," the kobold answers again, quickly losing track as it counts. At the mention of Ixas, the creature gulps. "Ixas human, like him. Ixas have statue, he use and make prisoners talk. They answer all Ixas questions, but when done, they...broken," it says.

"So, it is a cult and is it some cursed artifact," frowned Ola. "And that Ixas is searching for some magic items. Or one specific and for some reason in the remote lost villages." Ola did not interfere with Sylyra's interrogation but instead asked Elisande: "Do you have anything magical in the village?"

Elisande scrunches her face up as she thinks, but only shrugs. "Mebbe da crones ha' magics? I don' 'member any magics though," she answers.

"The Crones have magic.  They summoned that flesh monster to help defend the towns folk.  I bet they're keeping secrets of some sort here," Uragum says while looking the direction they were last in.  

How many medium-sized creatures can fit in one of the longboats?

Losing patience with the kobold, Sylyra turns toward the others. "Arnald could paint himself to look like an undead and dress in the clothes the human on the roof was wearing. The rest of us could pretend to be knocked unconscious and tied up as prisoners. Once we're on the boat, we would have the benefit of surprise. If we think some of these infuriating townsfolk might be more inclined to help now that they know we were telling the truth, all the better."

"It still leave the questions of rowing the boats and ability to climb anything in the storm in the total darkness open - ones again, neither me, nor Arnald can not see anything out there without light. Not sure about my personal artistic abilities to impersonate anything either. And I still do not trust locals with our  horses and luggage".

Arnald nods his head at Sylyra's idea. "A little disguise and some torches to allow me to see and maybe mess up their night vision? Sly can fly above and guide me. It's not much, but I've attacked with less of an edge before."

Elisande jumps up, thrusting her hand high. "Ooh! I will watch da horsies. Dey no gon' nowhere wit me eye on. Promises! But...I only do it iffen ye take me wit, Outsides. When ye come back..." she says.

"I would take you with me, Elisande," once again promised Ola, "if I come back." She smiled to show reassurance she did not really felt. Personally, Ola was not afraid of water, of course, and learned long ago that she can even breath underwater (a trait not even her siblings possessed) but drowning is not the only danger in the storm sea. Still, the idea was sound, of course. "If you think think you can handle the boat, we can try it, of course."

DM, were there more than just the one non-kobold-sized "undead"? Would it be reasonable to suggest Uragum could also pretend to be one so there are two managing the oars? Also, you didn't say how many could fit in a boat.

OOC: It was mentioned in #520 and #527, it looked like 6-8 people could fit inside of each longboat (closer to 6 with gear). There were multiple creatures that were larger than kobolds.

OOC: Thanks.

Sylyra squints up at the rain and into the wind. "Perhaps Uragum should also impersonate one of the attackers and help row."

OOC: Ready to advance once the next action is taken. Sounds like we have a plan, just need someone to kick it off!

Sylyra uses both hands to push his wet long, blond hair out of his face, smoothing it against the back of his head. He looks at Ola, the one who seems the least keen on taking the fight to the ship. "There's room on the boats for six comfortably. If Arnald and Uragum dress up like undead, you and I and two more townsfolk could pretend to be either knocked out or tied up prisoners. We could question the kobold some more to find out exactly what is to be expected at the ship. We take the fight to them and find out exactly what's going on. With any luck the creature is right, and there are less than 10 left to subdue."

"I'll dress up and row this boat but in now way does this make me a fairy-man," Uragum responds.

Arnald snickers and dresses up with Uragum. As they walk to the boat Arnald start skipping and says in a sing song voice "I feel as free as a fair-eeeeeee" and then looks back to gauge the goliath's reaction.

Ola did not laugh (not that someone expected her) and instead with a visible disgust decorated herself with the bones from "undead" disguise. Her blue skin was "nonhuman" enough to add to the disguise (at least she hoped it worked that way) and she was ready to sail.