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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 8218845" data-attributes="member: 6816692">A cornered cat           Auryn adds that we two only recently learned of the conflict between the colonists and the Bagheva, which is why we would like to speak to their chief Betronga. Talios stays in her tiger form for a little longer before she calms down and transforms back. She seems still wary, but agrees to lead us to Kanta Mahala.After a not too long journey and several animal calls from Talios later, we finally arrive in a small village consisting mostly of tents and huts that are built near the Sanctum of Ingatan and its surrounding platforms. Talios calls to her kin and states that she got two visitors from Sentosa who would like to talk to Betronga. Of course this attracts the attention of a larger number of the Bagheva who are curious about the newcomers.Then, suddenly, Auryn feels as if something at her side is moving on its own and she understands that this is her blade drawing itself. She immediately tries to stop the weapon and the moment she touches it, she senses that it, or more specifically the part that was added by the Arsenal of Dhebisu, considers the Bagheva to be its enemies. What makes matters worse is the fact that the Bagheva seem to understand from the tiny flashes of the weapon that this must be the weapon which once killed their god. Or ancestor. Or whatever the relationship of these people and Hewanharimau would be.“Stop it! You asked me to fight an 'evil', but these people are clearly not evil. We have a common enemy. This is my choice, not yours. Let go.” she says sternly, keeping the hilt of her weapon in a firm grip.Of course, the Bagheva are still wary to the point where they seem to be unsure whether to attack or to watch and wait. Several growl and draw their weapons, but they stay at a distance for now. With a deep exhale Auryn places her rapier back in its hilt and tries to appear as harmless and calm as possible.“It is true, I carry the Arsenal of Dhebisu with me. But the Star of Dhebisu didn't choose me to fight you, it asked me to fight evil, and I believe that there might be demons, or Rakhshasas out there somewhere. But as I told the star, you are noble warriors who fight to defend their home, who have long outgrown the ancient strife of the fallen god. We share against a common enemy, these humans     who try to invade your lands. So I humbly ask you to accept our assistance.”“What is going on here?!”The strong voice of a male Bagheva silences the occasional growl of the others, and he introduces himself as Betronga, the rajah of this clan. We are glad to finally meet Betronga in person and repeat that we came here to help the Eladrin defend their lands and also to find the ancient artifact known as the Arc of Reida. Betronga seems to be both curious about the two of us and also cautious as we are not exactly what he'd call allies at first glance. So he asks us to follow him to his hideout and wait in the company of his warriors while he finishes his talks with the noble emissaries first.We immediately get that these emissaries would most likely be the very same winged creatures we saw in the sky earlier, so we calmly warn Betronga that these people are potentially dangerous and that their help will come at a price.“These winged eladrin are sent by a person who calls himself 'King Vardanis', but don't be mistaken. There is nothing noble about him or his kind.” Auryn says.“At worst, they will simply take what they desire. Just like they did with the small villages far to the north”, Carlyle adds.“So you're augurs now? How can you know so much about them? And how shall I know that it is not you who are playing mind tricks with me?” Betronga replies, although his voice seems very unsure this time.We explain in return that we simply encountered them in the past and know a bit about these “Mad Kings”, but we wouldn't dare deny Rajah Betronga the opportunity to get an idea of his own about these people. Betronga smirks and then asks us to wait near some ancient stone buildings. We nonetheless follow him silently until we are in hearing range of his meeting point, the inside of one of the stone buildings.As we see that several other Bagheva are watching from the outside, we just join them and see what the chief has to talk about. While the dignitaries and Betronga are busy exchanging traditional welcomes, we see that a lot of the villagers and warriors appear to be injured in one way or the other, and we get that these wounds could stem from their conflict with the Crisillyiri. Regarding the Feladrin, the talks proceed as we thought: They merely exchange empty words and utter the prospect of support against the human invaders, but require the sworn loyalty of the Bagheva and submission to their King's rule in return.Fortunately, the emissaries leave as quickly as they came and fly away to the north. After the talks are finished, Betronga asks to meet us in the same house. We introduce ourselves again and ask him how his meeting proceeded.“Frustrating. Just as you foretold, augurs.” he hisses with a hefty sigh.We return that we already guessed so from his sour tone, and comfort him with the fact that they didn't outright threaten or attack him like they did when we had the “honor” of talking to some of them. Now Betronga is all curious about our encounter with the Feladrin and we tell him all about the Covenant enclave and Sawyer, and their raid on our allies. Fortunately, we were able to save the abducted people from a cruel fate, be that either to be sacrificed to their demonic allies or to be enslaved as laborers or wives. And these allies, Auryn adds, were just what she had in mind when she let the Arsenal join her.“Then our situation is dire indeed, it seems my choice is between poison, leash, or sword to the chest. Oh if only my father was still alive. He'd know what to do...”Betronga then tells us about his father's death in a battle against the humans and suddenly, we understand how such a young man could have become the Rajah of the Bagheva. He says that he already sent out the arrow of war to the surrounding tribe, but they never came to help him. He then sent the same request to Sentosa as they are distant relatives, but they would be too much concerned with their own safety as they didn't bother to answer either.We guess that maybe someone of the Crisillyiri or even the Feladrin intercepted the scouts as Matriarch Athryalla would have told us about the request once we asked her for permission to get the Arc of Reida. So we offer him to send the Matriarch another arrow of war as we're pretty sure that she'd at least let us bring supplies to the Bagheva. We also offer to heal the wounded with our magic, an offer the young Rajah gladly accepts.So we interrupt our talk for a while and do a healing session with the Bagheva, who are truly grateful to receive the work of such skilled healers. We explain that this is the grace of Srasama, not just a skill, which inspires even more awe.Once we return to Betronga, he appears to be impressed that we gave our help without asking anything in return first. We explain that we'd also like to make sure that the Bagheva are safe in their Kanta Mahala and that this shouldn't be too much of a problem as the Crisillyiri soldiers appeared to be worn-down as well. Still we are no savages, and we do know mercy, so we'd ask Betronga to solve this problem our way. When he asks him what “our way” would include, we just tell him that we'd like to give the humans the choice to leave peacefully and never return.Carlyle is a bit more skeptical regarding the chances of success as he knows more than anyone else about the zeal of the Crisillyiri, especially if there is one godhand among them, but he agrees to at least try the peaceful route first. He promises Betronga that, should the humans show any sign of betrayal, he would not hesitate to fight them. Betronga is unsure whether this plan could work at all, but he is willing to try it our way as we are clearly wiser and more experienced than him.Finally, we get to the Arc of Reida and the Sanctum of Ingatan and explain that this artifact is why we came here at the first place. Betronga doesn't care too mucha bout ancient faiths and artifacts, but he can tell us that this thing must have been secured very neatly by the old Guardians of the Sanctum as no one who dared to enter this place as able to come out alive. So his father eventually forbade his tribe to enter the inner Sanctum at all.We both agree that the Arc can wait just a bit longer and leave Kanta Mahala to go look for the Crisillyiri encampment once more.</blockquote>

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