Melanthios shrugs.

"Not there is the best place to fight corpses."

(Poole has no idea what these flying creatures would be)

Ord says, "We should look for a way up while we have daylight. Should we split up left and right or stick together? If there is even a slight chance to find our way partway up before nightfall then I would suggest taking that chance."

"Anyone have a message spell? Splitting up does not good if only half of us find the way."

Poole nods at Ord's suggestion, offering to take the north side, scouting ahead, but mainly looking for a route up. "I think those are large sparrows flying around up there, by the way."

Ord says, "Ok, we'll head south, you head north. Lets be careful, but quick. Meet up on the other side whether we find anything or not."

They set off at a slow pace, spread apart to cover more ground and have more angles to look at the cliff face.

Your group sets off the other way. In about 40 minutes roughly in middle of the north side you come across something that looks like a path heading upwards. It's full of weeds, rocks and roots, but seems like an actual path.

Assuming you still go and meet up with the rest of the people and then come back to this place then the last rays of the sun are barely reaching over the jungle. The heat starts to dissipate and you have a very treacherous climb ahead of you.

Ord insists on getting to higher ground. It's a very rough going, but in about 20 minutes before it's completely dark you make it through several switchbacks on the path, a total of probably around 200 feet off the ground.

There isn't a lot of room, but the bends in the road are a bit wider and spreading people between three of these bends you manage to make kind of a camp for the night.

----

Day 13

The morning comes with less heat and thankfully the wind has died down completely. It takes almost three hours to carefully clear your way to the top. About a hundred feet from the top though the path turns into a ravine of sorts that has steps heading to what must once have been a gate.

The stone steps emerge onto the top of the plateau beneath a once grand, but now decrepit wooden gateway. The gates that sealed this entrance are rotted away; only their rusted iron hinges and reinforcing bands remain. In their place are heaps of human skulls. Picked clean of all flesh and bleached white by the sun, they grin up at you from the roadway and down from atop towering mounds.

Mbala was once the seat of a small kingdom. Most of the structures were wood and thatch, and they’re now just crumbling compost heaps demolished by rain, wind, and time. A few stone foundations and overgrown ramps poke up through the debris, indicating this was more than just a simple village.

The only structure still intact is a lone hut about a thousand yards southwest of the gate, at the edge of a boulder field. The hut is made from thatch and animal hides stretched over the rib cage of an immense reptile. Animal skulls, wind chimes, and totems of feathers and shells rattle in the breeze, and smoke drifts from hut.

A creature shuffles slowly around the hut, hunched over in an animal-like posture. You realize it’s a human woman: impossibly old, crippled by arthritis, blinded by cataracts. Her dark face and bald pate are outlined with streaks of yellow clay suggesting the shape of a skull — or perhaps it’s her shriveled flesh creating that illusion.

Ord stops very far away from whoever that is and says, "Well, we found our way up here. We'll canvas the rest of the area and see if there is enough material to build something or we have to bring it up ourselves."

He points towards the crone, "I'd appreciate if you figured out who that is and if she would have anything against us coming here."

Anzir approaches the woman with a casual gait. "Pardon me, auntie," he says, translating a dragonborn term of respect for one's elders. "Do you know anything of the people that once lived in this place? I come to remember them."

She jumps as she hears someone speak to her.

Then orients herself towards your voice and says, "Hello"

"Ah, the people, yes. It's been many years now. We were picked off one by one by the pterafolk. They have a nest on the south side of the plateau. We had a ..." she trails off and starts gnawing on a root of some kind. About a minute later she "wakes up" again, "It's been many years now. We were picked off one by one by the pterafolk."

She turns from side to side. "Are you there? Did I sleep again and dream of N'gare? I was sure someone spoke to me.." She trails off again and continues gnawing on that root.

"I'm sorry to startle you, auntie," Anzir says. "Yes, I am here."

He reaches out to rest a hand on hers.

"How did you survive the pterafolk while the rest of...N'Gare? Was that the name of this village?"

Poole stays about 40 feet back and to the side, watching Anzir and the old woman closely. What's the hut like, does she see anyone else there, any other watchers, etc? Does it seem mundane or is there anything odd there? Anything else that seems skeletal apart from her face?

Does Aurok know anything about N’gare?
History 16 

She shudders slightly as Anzir places his hand on hers.

"Eh? N'Gare? Oh, he was a nice young lad, liked helping out around here. This place was no mere village, it was a kingdom! King Kashyapa ruled here for many years!"

(both names mean nothing to anyone, including Qawasha)

She seems re-orient herself towards the sun and then points vaguely in the southward direction. "The pterafolk - I'm too wily for them! They make a lot of sound when flying and I never stray far from my hut!"

Poole observes the woman and the hut and everything seems to be more bones than anything else. There's a few low trees around the area that all have bones and shells and stuff like that hung from the branches. At a closer look there's a few birds and monkeys in those trees, but otherwise nothing odd. As a breeze comes through then there's quiet jingling from all the dingly-dangly things. There seems to be a garden of sorts around the hut - a few similar plants are growing in a vaguely orderly placed spots.

She takes a few quick breaths and continues speaking, "I won't mind if they were not around any more though. I could maybe expand the garden or catch more birds if I could go a bit further."

She pats the hand of Anzir, "That's a good boy, N'Gare, that's a good boy. Could you fetch me some water and tell your father that your mother didn't make it? Neither did your sister." She starts brushing something off her hands, "I need to clean up."

Anzir leaves the old woman to return to the others.

"She's not all there any more, but, from what I could tell, she is probably the last of her people from this little city. It was the pterafolk, who reside on the south side. They will be a problem for an who set up here."

Melanthios sighs.

"And probably a problem for us, then?"

"If the Commander has his way, yeah," Anzir says with a scowl.

"Wait, are we talking about eliminating, or evicting?" Poole says. "Never met a pterafolk. Don't know what they are. Does anyone?"

“This commander better make this worth our while, or this will be a big waste.” Aurok grumbles a bit. “Although, we might get the Pterafolk to tell us what we need to know. With their mobility, they can scout most of these jungles free of its dangers.”

You meet up with Ord a few minutes later.

"Yes, there's some weird flying creatures there all right. Large ones. We didn't get too close, but looks like they might be a problem."

He points in various directions, "There's some... stuff around here. Couple of very old water cisterns dug into the rock. Doesn't look safe and definitely has water in them. Definitely not drinkable. And bunch of old ruins, but enough of them to put together a couple of new ones it seems. We didn't see any other dangers, other than falling off the side of course."

He makes a sweeping hand motion, "The view is magnificent though from the east side. There seems to be a ... thingie floating in the air southeast from here as well. Looks to be across the whole swamp area and then some in the jungle. And there's a ziggurat to the west. We didn't get too close to the south side due to the aforementioned large flying creatures."

Ord indicates towards the hut and the old woman with his chin, "What's going on there?"

"An old woman," Anzir says. "The last of her people. Those pterafolk picked them all off."

Ord nods, "Yeah, feels like they would be a problem. We saw about a dozen of them fly out in formation to the southeast towards the marshlands. Might be a good time to check out the nest before they return."

You've been keeping the area to the south in your sights during this conversation and there is no sign of the pterafolk. At least from this vantage point it doesn't look like they keep guard on top of the plateau.

Ord points that way, "After you."

Poole darts forward to scout ahead. 

Stealth: 22
Perception: 18