Subject: Noyakin

Kayla crouches in the grasses, listening to her friends who are trying to reason with the tribesmen.

She waits, expecting a cue to tell her when it is safe to reveal herself.

Subject: Bringers of the Grass Demon

?She is like me! Just another race!?

Elotai's words die in his mouth as he realizes what he just said. One of the men looks back at him with wide-eyed horror, surely now convinced that Noyakin could grow to the size of men. When they reach the wagons, Elotai is shoved up against the donkey's flank with a spear held a foot from his throat, and a look of panic in the tribesman's eyes.

The party stands by their wagons with hands splayed to the sides, watching the warriors spread out to an offensive formation. Telwyn recognizes their intention immediately, and further understands that any move to reach for his weapon now would likely be met with a spear through his neck, certainly one through Elotai's.

A flurry of conversation between the tribesmen passes in their native tongue that the Noyakin has moved to the grasses, likely circling for better position to attack. They wonder aloud how many of the grassfolk surround them, and nervously fidget with their weapons. There are five warriors, Kubalc and the shaman, the latter two growing increasingly unsettled.

Holn and Buchek grow nervous, watching how the warriors carry themselves and shift their weight. They have become the enemy somehow, suddenly. Their association with Kayla brought suspicion, and her disappearance into the grass confirmed the tribesmen's worst fears.

Buchek attemps to calm them. "Cousins! Cousins! It is safe--there is no Noyakin here. She is...there is no word for it in our tongue, but she is what the Sunset people call a 'halfling'. She is a person, despite what she looks like! I have travelled with her, and she sleeps and eats as we do. She is harmless--she stayed with our beasts because she was afraid of Koftak's avatar!" [Diplomacy Check 13 v. DC 20, fail]

Kubalc speaks loudly for all to hear. "You travel with the Noyakin? The grassfolk, bringers of pain and torment? She has deceived you! Returns-From-Death's-Sands, you have brought evil to this place! You have brought a grass demon, a stealer of babies! She used you to bring her to this place, to punish us as did Khoftak's earthly form! She stayed with your beasts only to see if the Great Weasel finished us first!"

Holn edges toward Erk. "Master Dwarf, you did something to calm the mob that was ready to kill our friend here. Can you do that again?"

Erk responds quietly, trying to show no aggression, "I cannot. I have called upon my god many times today in the service of healing, and I used the grace he granted me for that prayer to heal the shoulder of the warrior with the axe to your left.."

The shaman shouts at Buchek, shaking his staff high in the air. "I spoke that death does not let go of its victims lightly, Returner, and it has sent a devil spirit to plague your steps and bring ruin on those that aid you!"

"The Noyakin has fled to the grasses to attack us, clad in the skins of the dead, looking for fresh blood to renew the painted sigils on its face! It calls to its kind, and surrounds us!"

Kubalc looks back down the hill and calls in his own tongue: "Barash t'lek!"

Immediately Telwyn's eyes widen. "Torches? There is no need for torches, great chieftain..."

Kubalc speaks again. "We will burn the Noyakin from these fields - it is the only way to ensure the safety of our people."

In the grasses, Kayla hears this entire exchange, and her pulse quickens at the mention of torches. Glancing around, the grass is dry and brown, the same as the thatch from the Inn's roof. It would light quickly, and spread even faster. Without being able to see the tribal warriors, she has no way of knowing how long it will take for them to bring torches and burn her out of her hiding place.

It starts to dawn on her that maybe diving into the grass was not the best course of action, but writes that thought off as the clarity of hindsight. It also occurs to her that even if she fled deeper into the grasses, away from the fire, she would never survive the trek back to Caro - if she could even find her way through grasses well taller than she was.

Her mind raced, deciding how to act, as she began to hear agitated chattering from the barbarian warriors in a language she didn't understand.

[ODM: For reference, all quoted english dialogue is spoken in Common.]

Subject: Re: Bringers of the Grass Demon

"Would a Noyakin have allowed the healer to restore the men of your tribe? No! Noyakin would have chosen the moment that you had killed the avatar to swarm against the camp--that was your moment of greatest weakness. You know their ways! If I call this girl out from the grasses, let you, noble Kubalc, and you, wise shaman, see for yourself that she is but a person, will you let her live?" Buchek says, hoping both that Kayla would listen to him if he asked her to step forth, and that doing so wouldn't mean her death.

Subject: Re: Bringers of the Grass Demon

[ODM: Buchek Diplomacy check take two 4 vs. DC 25, fail]

"The demons of the grass are unpredictable and cruel - it is just their way to give false hope before death! You who are tainted with death, *you* have brought this curse upon us!"

Kubalc's hand plays lightly against the handle of his axe, the same axe that was used to split the chest cavity of the Great Weasel.