"I'm happy to help someone else talk with them, but I'm not sure what to say," Poole says, spinning around, still taking in the horizon...

Anzir, huffs as the conversation runs in circles. He stomps over to the edge of the cliff, drawing his war pick.

"Hey," he shouts over the edge. "Anyone there to give us directions?"

There is a moment of silence followed up three large creatures diving off the nest area and after a few seconds circling back and gaining height. The keep gaining height until they are about 200 feet higher than the plateau and only then come closer and observe. One stays in a holding pattern far above you and the other two are taking in the rest of the plateau from a similar height.

Eventually, after about 15 minutes or so, they converge for a minute or two and one then approaches, diving and settling on the edge of the plateau about a hundred feet west of you, ready to jump off at any moment.

It shouts something and between the all of you after some discussion you decide that it must have said, "Directions where? And for what price?"

Audio chimes in finally. “Negotiable. And we’re looking for someplace that’s full of necromantic power. Or you might just know someplace what’s seen a lot more activity than usual?”

Melanthios backs up surreptitiously and hides.

Stealth: 7

It..

says, "A human looking for necromantic power? Talk to the withered one," and it points in the direction of the hut with the crone. "Or to the magic user at the floating rock," and it points towards the floating rock far in the southeast.

It cocks its head to one side and continues, "All of the jungle beyond the marshlands to the east and south is full of undead. All the way to the ocean on the east, the lake on the far side of the floating rock in the south east and all the way to the burning mountains to the south and south west."

“We are looking to stop the power from doing bad things, and that is helpful to know about the undead. Unsettling, but helpful. What is the ‘withered one’s’ deal, anyway? She gave me the creeps, and for some reason she doesn’t like you. That fellow over there wants to set up shop on the other side of Mbala with some friends of his - do you think you and yours would be open to talking to them about how to help each other survive the undead? Maybe you help keep an eye out far away, and they watch your back for things crawling up the side of the pinnacle? Allies are rare in Chult, it seems. Just thinking out loud.”

It replies, "There was a village here until the withered one ate them all over the last hundred years. She has caught a few of us as well, but we have not been able to get rid of her."

It looks out over the plateau, checking out the rest of your party and companions. "We can be peaceful with a new village if you get rid of the withered one first."

It then takes flight and circles back closer to you once, saying something along the lines of "... behind the hut...", but you can't decipher the rest of it.

Poole just looks at the party, then peers back at the hut, and then at all of the party members again, mouth completely agape.

Ord approaches you with the others after canvassing the rest of the plateau.

"I saw one come nearby.. what happened? It looked like you had a ... conversation with it?!"

"Yes, they actually seem pretty straightforward. Let us know where undead were -- they can see a lot from up here. Said the old woman with a skull for a face is in fact creepy and ate all of her villagers. So she might not be a good neighbor, but maybe she could also be bargained with." Poole looks a bit helplessly at the rest of the party.

Anzir let's out a long breath. "Okay, back to the old woman," he says. "Better stay close."

He walks over to the hut, keeping his weapon ready. "Hell auntie," he says. "Tell me again about the...uh...kingdom that was here. How did they die?"

Melanthios will try to hang outside of the old woman's vision, prepared for things to turn ugly.

Stealth: 19

Poole's also staying out of sight (stealth  12), but close to Anzir. Basically trying to hide in peripheral vision and behind others.  

It's... difficult for a dwarf with all the facial hair to change color, but Ord manages it as he becomes pale as death hearing about the crone eating people.

He waves his group closer by and repeats what he just heard.

There is a lot of anger and drawing of blades right away, but he calms them down again. "We will rid the world of this evil, but we need to be smart about it. There was a whole village or kingdom here and if what the flying creatures said is true then she managed to overpower them all."

Ord nods to Anzir, "We will stay close and ready. Following your lead. But just letting you know that the Order was born to deal with threats like these and we will."

----

You walk back to the hut. Bone chimes tinkle slightly in the wind and a few of the monkeys are seen on nearby trees, but otherwise nothing else. Anzir calls out and you can hear her call back to you from what seems like the other side of the hut, "I'm behind here, come around."

Melanthios, hiding behind a nearby tree can indeed spy her shuffling around out there amongst the plants. She orients herself and walks a few steps closer.

As you approach and repeat the question then she falls silent for a bit. "I thought I was hard of hearing, but you must be - I told you - the flying predators picked them off one by one at night. Officially there was truce, but people kept disappearing from time to time and a pile of bones started appearing below the nest and elsewhere."

You can hear Ord growl behind you, but restrain himself for now.

Anzir licks his lips as he pauses, unsure of what he is about to say.

"That's not the whole story, Auntie," he says. "Tell it right. Don't leave out the good bits."

The crone shifts a bit and looks Anzir directly in the eye. "The good bits, eh?"

She shifts a bit side to side, taking in the all of you. 13

"It took a long time and there was a lot of sadness. Many of them came to me for help. I helped them."

She backs off a bit and snaps her fingers.

You can hear some shifting behind the hut, but not see exactly what's causing it.

"Come and see for yourself - they're not all gone.. well, not all of them are gone."

As you carefully shift to be able to see then something large and muddy and vaguely human-shaped seems to have crawled straight out of the earth in the garden.

“That’s fine craftsmanship... certainly protected you from the pterafolk I presume.” Aurok appears to be looking at the others to see how this plays out.

The paladin's jaw tightens but he speaks in an even voice. "How did this help them when they are clearly no longer here, Auntie?" he says.

The crone chuckles, "Well they came to me with a problem of being attacked by pterafolk. They are no longer attacked by pterafolk, are they?"

She then says, "I will let you go if you leave one of you up here for me. Can even be a halfling or a dwarf, I don't eat much any more. Should last me a good long while."

The monkeys in the surrounding trees start screeeeaaaaaaming....