The Dauntless II

"I agree," Antoinette replies. "Perhaps it would be better to heal them, but they are members of the cult. We do not have the time to heal and rehabilitate these individuals. They will suffer in agony if we leave them."

Suki looks over the group, a very small few of them faces she recognized. Closing her eyes, she sighs and shakes her head. "If the situation were reversed, I am quite certain none of them would hesitate. And if we heal them, they'll probably just run straight back to the main camp with warning about us," She says solemnly, before raising her Fauchard. "At the least we can spare them the suffering."

After looting the mining camp and finding a map, marking the locations of two remaining pillars, you set out for one in the morning that is relatively close while sending Renali for the boat to get you across the river. After completely bypassing the river on crocodile-back, you follow the map, but when you draw closer you find you no longer need it as the shouts of anger and pain ring out from the marked site. When you reach the swampy clearing where the totem is, you see what's happening: another battlefield, this one littered with the corpses of crocodile-headed humanoid creatures who seem to have been slain by two sources: one, a pair of orcs led by a half-orc woman with a lizard tattoo on her neck, and two a pair of giant, angry avian reptiles. At the edge of the clearing, an orange-headed dragon pillar fires piercing bolts of orange light that narrowly miss the orcs and leave smoking holes in the ground that continue to melt larger for a few seconds after.

Antoinette, in crocodile form in the swamp, surges over to the pillar and works to topple it before setting up around one bird while Suki and Fleur go at it. Django rushes into the middle before any of the beasts are wounded to heal the injured half-orcs, and Dorrak covers the northern one with his crimson shield. The leader of the half-orcs, who fell unconscious from an early flurry of attacks from a beast, rises up and fights back aggressively, opening up wounds that Antoinette tears into lethal gashes, then she moves onto the next, finishing it off.

When the fight is settled, Antoinette transforms back into a humanoid to try and bottle fresh samples from the quetzalcoatlus, and as she does so the two orcs let out a startled cry and immediately raise and knock their bows. Before they can fire, their leader raises a hand and shoots them a stern glare. She speaks to them in Orcish, and much like the Ekujae's dialect it's mixed with Mwangi words, but much more similar to Avistani Orcish, allowing Dorrak to understand. "You will not repay our rescuers with violence," she snaps. One of the orcs frowns at her.

"It is isiqingatha," he attempts to argue, but she cuts him off with a glower.

"And if we'd met it any other day I would be fighting you for the right to put its head on my wall and turn its skin into boots, but it and its comrades saved our lives, and that makes it a friend."

”She,” Dorrak corrects them in Orcish, hoping that he can be understood clearly enough in return, ”Will not hurt you. Her curse is under her own control, I swear on my honour.”

The orcs regard Dorrak suspiciously, but lower their weapons. The half-orc nods. "We will trust in your honor then," she says before speaking to the group in heavily accented Taldane. "I am Ifiok of Long Night, hunter of the Lake Serpent tribe. Your aid is appreciated."

”Dorrak Hakdarson, paladin of Ragathiel,” Dorrak returns the introduction with a respectful nod, also pivoting to Taldane. ”It’s fortunate we came upon you on our own hunt,” he gestures to the toppled pillar.

"Your prey was this pillar?" Ifiok glances back at it, then to a partially healed acid burn on her arm. "We saw it guarded by the bilokosm" she gestures to the crocodile-headed creatures on the ground. "And knew it must be something dark. So we filled them with arrows from beyond the treeline. When we approached it, it attacked us back, as you saw, and the birds attacked us shortly after, attracted by the sound. Didn't expect beasts of that strength when we arrived in this region."

"It protects something of the Cinderclaws," Dorrak explains. "They have all been guarded by powerful beasts or warriors thus far. What brings your hunt here?"

Ifiok scowls. "A few weeks ago was to be my nephew Akkala's coming of age ceremony. He would be annointed as a full member of the tribe and join me on his first hunt. I carved this spear and engraved it with runes myself, as a gift for him." She takes the spear she had been fighting with and turns it over in her hands. "But then he met a human boy his age who befriended him. He would go out near the village near our tribe's camp every day and return with such swooning and sighing. It was adorable. The day before his ceremony, he went to invite his 'friend' to attend, with our blessing... and did not return. When we went to search we found him broken and bloodied, his arm and leg mangled, barely alive. A boy with no arms can be taught to stalk and track. A boy with no legs can be taught to use a bow. A boy with only one of each cannot be a hunter." She turns and glares off into the jungle. "His new friend turned out to be no human at all, but a kishi named Itoro who had disguised himself as a boy to seduce and betray my nephew. So now, since he cannot wield it himself, I will drive the spear meant for my nephew into that son of a bitch's back."

Dorrak listens to the story with a deep frown, his own fists balling with anger when he hears of the betrayal. "I'm afraid that you may not be able to take your vengeance yourself," he explains. "Unless there are two kishi in the region. We came upon one earlier on our travels who had captured an angel and slew him ourselves." He describes the kishi's face as best as he can remember.

"That matches what Akala told me," Ifiok frowns. "If a bit older." She sighs wearily. "I can at least take satisfaction in knowing that my nephew is avenged, if not by his tribe's hands. Thank you. It seems the Lake Serpent tribe owes you two debts."

"Knowing that I could help avenge such cruelty is enough for me," Dorrak replies simply.

Antoinette wanders over somewhat frustrated at her inability to get good samples from the creatures, but lightens quickly. "Helping people is just what we do. Apologies if I gave you a fright, by the way."

Ifiok shakes her head. "No fright. No offense, but normally we hunt things like you."

"Understandable, to be honest," Antoinette replies. "I am quite unusual."

Ifiok glances at the sky. "The sun is still high. Which way will you be heading? I wouldn't mind traveling together until we must part ways."

"Southwest," Dorrak replies, "Our companion scouting is bringing our river boat there, which we take in the morning to the last of these pillars."

Ifiok nods. "We head east, so this is where we will part ways. But here." She reaches into her pouch and pulls out a clay jar with a cork stopper. "I was going to drink this in celebration when I killed the kishi, but as you've done the deed, you're welcome to it as my thanks. Drink it responsibly, though, it is very potent."

"Thank you," Dorrak accepts it gratefully, "We'll celebrate with it once the Cinderclaws have been laid low."

Two days later, you arrive at the place the last totem is marked on the map. A crumbling stone temple juts out from where the forest has grown around it. Sinister towers, partially collapsed but once carved in the shapes of grimacing dragons, provide support for the cracked walls. A flickering red light pulsates within the hollow of the central ruined tower. As you approach the tower, there's a vicious hiss from within, and a huge, black, serpentine figure with frills along its body and glowing red eyes emerges, wrapping its long body around the tower. It rears up and flashes its frills.

"Trespassers upon this ancient and hallowed shrine to Dahak," it hisses out in Draconic. "By what right do you think to intrude on my temple?"

"The right of all heroes to slay evil wherever they may find it. Let's not mince words, beast," Antoinette replies in Draconic. "Your life ends right here, right now."

The wormy wyrm doesn't take that well, and with roars from it and Dorrak battle is joined. The group quickly surrounds it, laying into it, before Suki successfully decapitates it with a wide sweeping blow. Moving past the cooling corpse, they similarly surround the pillar, and in moments have it toppled and destroyed.

Thick roots of gnarled trees crisscross this portion of the jungle where the map marks a dragon's skull, as the sodden earth gives way to the waters of a darkened swamp. A squat fortress made of red clay rises out of the murky water, surrounded by towering dragon-shaped pillars, each with a different colored head and a large crack running down the side. Boggards stand watch along the walls of the fortress.