"There are few that do enjoy being beholden to the whims of another...and those that do I don't hold in a high regard." As they walk, Leandros occasionally turns over a rock with his foot, seemingly testing to see if it would move of its own or not. Couldn't hurt to see if it scampers off at least. Apogee follows behind them on horseback, thoroughly curious about the fellblood. The family hadn't had too many encounters with fellbloods, but Zarius was certainly far from the stigma that seems to surround them.

"Other than guards and priests caught in the temple, no." Lee is far from the trained liar and smooth talker that Zarius is, so it's subtle but there is enough there that Zarius would know he's not being entirely truthful.

Back at the ruts, Gilder takes the bow from his back as they walk but neglects to knock an arrow just yet. His owl swoops down in a lazy circle to rejoin the scout and get out of the way of the dragon.

"Ruts end somewhere....could be a hole.....or could be that." As they crest the hill, Gilder cocks an eyebrow. He certainly wasn't expecting neatly organized rocks, though the fact that they are neatly organized is a much more obvious clue this might be the rock formation they are after.

Zarius' eyes narrow and he fiddles with a pendant tucked into the collar of his jacket before he steps around Leandros and cuts him off, standing his ground firmly despite the knight towering over him. 

"Was there a young girl there? Blonde hair, red horns, wears armor?" He asks, the friendly smile is long gone and instead replaced with a sharp glare. 

"I think we found the geonids!" Snow interrupts the confrontation as they call from the top of the hill.

Zarius glances over his shoulder then back at Leandros. He could press the issue, he could get answers from this man one way or another. Or he could drop it. It was possible that if Astrid was part of what happened, that she asked Leandros not to say anything. Shaa might have insisted...though that would be shockingly out of character for the minotaur.

He lets out a slow breath, a whiff of smoke gets carried off by the slight breeze. He'd relent for now, and he backs off from Leandros. 

"I would appreciate a truthful answer," he says before heading up the hill to catch up with the others.

Joining the rest of their companions at the crest of the hill, Zarius looks down at the piles of out of place round boulders. There were dozens, potentially hundreds of them. It wasn't clear why they were gathered in the valley the way that they were, perhaps they were tired after stampeding through the town earlier. 

Snow looks at Zarius. "Any ideas?"

The fellblood rubs the back of his neck, still irritated by the conversation with Leandros that was cut short. "It probably is not a good idea to try and kill them. Perhaps we can herd them elsewhere? I do not know much about geonids."

"Herding rocks?" Snow asks with some skepticism.

"If anyone else has a better idea, I would love to hear it."

Meanwhile, Shael has Indra increase the size of her circling overhead. The dark elf leans over to look at all the trails crisscrossing the nearby fields and sees that they lead back to a forested area with some large protruding boulders.

"Hold on, Jitters."

The drake swoops down closer to the treetops and eventually they spot a couple of old stone ruins peaking out through the treetops. The forest had mostly taken over the structures, but there was a dark gap in the canopy. When they fly over it, they can see there is a gaping hole that looks like it goes underground a few stories.

"Think we can get those geonids to go back into the hole?" She asks Theobo.

Leandros offers a short laugh and gently clasps the fellblood on the shoulder, "Do I seem like I have the capacity to lie?" A lie by omission at least as he moves past Zarius with that answer to move past the others.

"Herding is an option, but...rocks aren't exactly sheep so...don't know how well that will work." Gilder seems to share the same skepticism that Snow does, but Zarius does make a good point.

"Well it doesn't seem like any of you brought hammers or picks so unless you want blunted blades, herding is better." Apogee offers a light chuckle as they look over the options they have. "If your friend on the dragon can come close, I'm sure the wind from his wings and size could scare them off. After that it's just up to us to make sure they go the right way."

Up above, Theobo has started to relax his grip a bit as they begin to fly more. He loosens back on the death grip around Shael's torso as he barely stretches his neck to look beyond his shoulder and down at the groun. The height gives him a good jolt of vertigo and he turns his head.

"We might be able to, but I don't know how we are gonna talk to rocks!"

Zarius thinks for a moment. "It is worth a shot."

He looks up at the sky and sees the the drake is nowhere to to be seen. He realizes that he didn't give Shael any way to communicate with the group on the ground and just pinches the bridge of his nose. Alright, it's fine. This is all fine. 

The fellblood looks over at Gilder and their owl. That could work. He rummages around in his bag and pulls out a piece of parchment. Focusing on the parchment, script starts to scrawl across its surface, writing out instructions for Shael.^[1] He then rolls up the parchment and offers it to Gilder. 

"Can your owl deliver this to those two?"

Meanwhile, Shael and Theobo swoop over the gaping hole again before circling back up. 

"I wasn't suggesting we talk to them. Probably can give them a good spook with some lightning, right girl?" She pats the drake on the neck and it lets out a throaty rumble in return. "Let's head back and let the others know what we found."

They start to fly back towards the group and the colony of slumbering geonids. 

---

[1] Wanted Poster

The owl does puff up and flap its wings just a bit as Zarius approaches, but is quickly settled down by Gilder. "Yer not scaring anyone Rhys, stand down." Gilder takes the parchment and starts to fasten the message to the owl's legs before sending him of with a push of his arm.

"Ain't personal, he's just....an ass." Gilder shrugs before looking over to a slightly disapproving look from Leandros. "The kid ain't around...plus he's fought hell hounds and giant spiders, I think he can hear the word ass."

"It's not chivalrous to use such language."

Up above, the last thing on Theobo's mind was whether or not he could say or hear any curse words. In fact, he had probably muttered some in the initial ascent into the sky. It is a lot more relaxing now that the adrenaline has settled.

"Hold on, that's Gilder's owl!" The halfling waves to the owl as it approaches. He was not prepared for a midair message, but the halfling takes hold of the saddle and stretches out as best he can. For his size, he has a surprisingly strong grip.

"Allllmost...THERE!" He sighs as he manages to grab the paper, handing it forward to Shael. "I think this is from your lord." Zarius had to be a lord right? He had nice clothes and a bunch of people following him, it made sense.

“That is alright. I have a cat at home that attacks everyone on sight.” He glances back at Leandros. “And here I thought chivalry was a dead and outdated concept. Do the knights of Sol City really still hold their own to such questionable standards?”

It was kind of laughable to even think about. Theobo didn’t look that young, surely he already knew a plethora of swears from having traveled across Charon. It was even funnier that currently the young squire was with the most foul mouthed member of Zarius’ team currently.

“LORD??” Shael bursts out laughing. “Oh boy, that's rich! He’s a fucking cheating jerk bastard and a legit criminal mobster and a devil-blooded asshat and-” Shael goes on ranting and getting more vulgar as she lists off all the unflattering things Zarius is.

Eventually she does take the parchment and reads the message. “Ugh, whatever.” She shoves the page into her belt and taps her heels on Indra’s back to direct the drake back to the group. She lands the drake next to the grounded adventurers and points back towards the forest. “We found the ruins and there’s a big ol’ hole we can round these geonids up into if we can figure out how to chase them that way.”

“Good job. Perhaps they will stay there if no one else bothers them.” Zarius turns to Leandros. “We will need to make sure the geonids stay as a group, if we flank the colony on either side we might be able to keep any stragglers in check as Shael’s drake herds them from behind.”

"Not enough of them do." Leandros responds before looking over to Gilder and Apogee, giving them both a nod. The ranger and his wife can take up the right flank. With Apogee on horseback, it will be easier to keep pace along the side of the geonids if any straggle too far away. Gilder can also travel quickly enough to keep up with the corralling.



"I'll watch from the back here as well, the wide reach of a halberd should keep any of them from getting away."



Theobo truly hadn't heard too many of those words before, at least not in such a tone and spoken about someones boss. It was the implied insubordination that really surprised the halfling the most if he was being honest. When the ride ends Theobo does climb down and thank Shael for the ride.



"I can start riling them up and getting them moving." The halfling perks up, taking his sword and shield out. Pounding the pommel against the shield should create enough sound to get them going.



"Let's round them up then!" Apogee smiles as she turns Byrr to head off towards her part of the group, letting everyone take a moment to get set up.

Zarius and Snow take the left flank with Theobo as well while Shael gets Indra back up in the air and circles around to the back of the colony of geonids. Once everyone is in position and ready to go, the drake swoops down and lands with a heavy thud before letting out a roar that sounds like a raging storm.

The geonids rattle and start to roll down the slope a bit before gaining unnatural momentum. They race across the ground, ping ponging between one another as they knock into one another. It's like watching a landslide of billiard balls the size of pumpkins all spring to life and start to stampede. 

Indra flares out her wings to help drive them forward while the rest of the party makes sure to knock any stragglers back into the mass. 

It's not...easy...and the group certainly doesn't make it look easy either. Zarius ends up punting one back into the group and nearly breaks his foot for his efforts, wincing and limping along for a few moments afterwards. 

Snow tries to spook the geonids along by roaring at them, but his little leopard roar is nothing compared to the storm drake which keeps the geonids moving at a manageable pace. To say Shael has never herded something before would be a lie, she knew how to watch the movements of many creatures in front of her and anticipate how they would act. Perks of being an ex-Dvoryanin racer.

Eventually, working together, they manage to get the geonids across the open grassy area...and into the trees, where all hell breaks loose. The geonids bounce off roots and trees and rocks, scattering through the underbrush and it soon became apparent that those on the ground would have to take over the responsibility of herding the creatures as the drake was too larger to effectively move through the dense wood. 

When they arrived in the words, the Aurthurian team seemed to be a bit more adept and ready to herd the stragglers back into place. Theobo seemed particularly efficient after his experience with the goats escaping into the woods. The young halfling pushed some of the rock creatures back into line with his shield, banging his sword on his shield to keep them together.

Leandros' halberd offered a nice wide reach to use the flats of the head to push geonids around and get them back into the group. He gently nudged them when needed or gave a little bit more forceful of a push wheen needed. Gilder was much less gentle, simple pushing them back together with his foot when needed.

The only one seeming to struggle was Apogee as managing the horse and the geonids in rough terrain like this was a bit harder than she was used to. You can train to ride horses and learn to corral livestock all you want, but putting the two together can be tricky.

With the help of Zarius' team, it hopefully isn't getting too far out of hand. They are at least still moving forward, just at a much slower pace than they had been until now.

They were making good progress, but it definitely was significantly more chaotic amongst the trees. 

One of the geonids bounces backwards off a tree trunk and totally takes Snow out at the knees. The catfolk yelps as they're knocked face first into the ground while the geonid bounces off through the forest. 

Zarius leaps over a few gnarled tree roots to help the catfolk back up onto their feet before sprinting after the errant geonid.^[1] He manages to catch up to the geonid and cut off its escape from the rest of the colony. He exhales a stream of black smoke and his eyes flash blue. An aura of unease and intense intimidation emanates from the fellblood making the geonid skid to a stop and shudder with fear.^[2] It rolls backwards back towards the colony, nearly taking out the catfolk a second time. 

Snow hears it coming and leaps up to cling to the side of a tree and avoid getting bowled over again. 

After a few more minutes of herding cats, the group manages to get the first few geonids to the hole in the ruins. They stop at the edge and start piling up on one another until more push forward and tumble the whole group over into the hole like lemmings to a cliff. 

The ruins rumble and shake a bit from the hundreds of geonids tumbling down into the hole until they nestle down amongst the rocks. 

Zarius breathes a sigh of relief once the last of the geonids fill in the hole, though his breath catches in his throat and he goes into a fit of coughing. 

Snow gives the fellblood a concerned looks. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," he clears his throat. "Just some dust caught in my throat."

The catfolk looks a bit unconvinced but does not press the issue as the fellblood turns to Leandros and his group. 

"Good work," Zarius comments to Leandros and his troupe as they gather. "With any luck, the geonids will stay put and leave the local's farms alone."

---

[1] Dashing
[2] Invoke Fear

By the end of this adventure, the Authurian group certainly looks exhausted, Theobo especially. Even from the back of the horse, Apogee is a bit winded trying to keep up with all of the different rock creatures. Lee, while having broken a sweat, holds a wide grin as he gently guides the last geonid into the hole.



"That certainly was some effort. I assume there was something that drove them out from the ground, the next steps then would be to figure out what is behind that....Perhaps they were digging new irrigation channels? More wells?"



He runs a hand through his hair, pushing it back out of his face as he thinks. This was certainly too many appearing at once for it to be a simple group going rogue. This was too sudden and random to happen unforced. What could prompt them would be hard to figure out though. A remote town like this didn't often do enough building to upset the earth and it didn't seem like there were any mining operations nearby.

Indra squeezes through the trees and breathes down on Theobo's head. The dragon's breath sparks with static electricity and smells strongly of ozone. Snow shakes out the sweat caking their fur. 

"Actually it was an archaeologist. The village watch currently has him detained until authorities from Eclipse City arrive," Zarius explains to the knight. "I would like to have a word with the man, but they will not let me near him. Perhaps you will have better luck convincing them." 

It was a long shot, but perhaps this little venture has garnered the fellblood some goodwill with the knight. He still hadn't forgotten Leandros dodging his earlier questions, but he was pretty sure his hunch was correct. 

Meanwhile, during the time that the two groups had been dealing with the geonids, Eirynor managed to locate where the villagers were keeping the archaeologist detained. He moves without being detected as he infiltrates the back of the house which is used as an improvised jailhouse. While he could easily break the man out, his freedom was not actually that important to their group's goal.

Eirynor carefully steps about the room and searches for where the farmers would have put the archaeologist's confiscated belongings, checking drawers and keeping an eye out for any nearby storage chests. Luckily for the half-elf, most of the villagers were too busy to be standing watch and instead are either working on repairs or rubbernecking to see if the geonids had been dealt with. Still, they probably would not be happy to find someone snooping about, so the swordsman works as quickly as he can to find the goods. 

"With your charming personality? I find that hard to believe." Leandros smiles, half-joking. "I will see what I can do....I don't exactly have the authority to do much outside Sol City, but you always fail when you don't try."

Theobo felt his hairs rise up and tried to pat them down and scurried away from Indra. He was a little less afraid of the dragon, but he was still very unsure about the rider. The halfling was still alive, but Shael seemed a bit of a loose cannon.

"At the very least, you could relay your questions through us if they are adamant at keeping you away." Apogee chimes in from the back of Byrr before climbing down. She gently motions to Theobo who takes hold of the horse's reins at this point.

Leandros led the groups back into the city to a small crowd of very thankful farmers. After a bit of glad handing with the crowd he does speak up, "We are glad to have helped, but where is the man responsible? We would like to question him further about this."

The one farmer spits on the ground and looks towards Zarius a moment, "Not with him along. Or any of them."

"Now then sirs," Apogee reaches out to gently touch his shoulder which seems to stun the man a moment, "They all had equal hand in saving this village. I am sure if you just allow my husband and him to talk with the archaeologist, it should be over in a moment."[1]

The farmer stammers and blushes and looks around, kicking at dirt in an embarrassed fashion. "Five minutes, that's all you get."

---

1. Smooth Talking

"I do not think you should be flattering me so much in front of your wife, sir," the fellblood teases, giving Apogee a playful wink before addressing Leandros again. "I appreciate any aid you can provide."

The return to the village is easy enough, though the reception is more favorable towards Leandros and his entourage compared to the cold shoulder Zarius and his companions receive. Seems that the farmers weren't going to keep their end of the bargain after all. 

It was fortunate that Leandros had such a noble heart, otherwise he might have told the fellblood and his group of shady allies to bugger off. Though he is surprised to see the faire Lady Apogee lay on the charm to aid the knight in convincing the townsfolk to back off for a moment. She certainly wasn't as valiant as her husband it seemed.

Zarius has Snow, Indra, and Shael stay back while he accompanies Leandros into the building the town was using as a temporary jail. 

Eirynor hears the sound of Leandros' heavy armored footsteps coming up to the door and he quickly closes the storage chest he had managed to pry open with his rapier only moments before. He silently steps back into the far corner of the room and watches them enter the room while he remains invisible. 

The archaeologist, who had been sound asleep while Eirynor rummaged around, awakens and sits up, looking about the room bleary-eyed. 

"Ah, the guard are here already. Joy." He sighs and rubs his face. Seems he's just as fed up with the farmers as Zarius is.

"No need to read me the riot act, I will cooperate without any fuss, sir knight and..." He frowns a bit and tilts his head, confused about Leandros being accompanied by someone who clearly was not a knight. "I'm sorry, what is going on here?" He then takes a another gander at Leandros, eyeing the man up and down. "You're not from the guard in Eclipse City."

Zarius glances about the room, staying behind Leandros so the knight does not see him scanning the room in his periphery view. The fellblood notes the storage chest that has some evidence of forced entry. Hopefully Leandros wasn't as perceptive.

"An astute eye, I am sure that serves you well in your work." He smiles and pulls over a chair to take a seat, motioning for the man to sit up from where he is sitting. "We are looking to get a more objective series of events to perhaps help you when those guards arrive. The farmers are close to calling for your head with all the damage done to their fields. Crops ruined, tilling lines destroyed they have a good reason to be upset...but they speak from a place of anger. So, we are curious to hear your side of things."

He is in earnest enough man that he hopes it comes across well in his speech. The anger of the farmers may be played up a bit, but it was true they were pissed for a myriad of reasons. Leandros leans back in the chair a bit.

"And you are right we are not guards from Eclipse City, I am Leandros Authurian of Sol City. A knight of those lands, but I hold no land or title here, so you're under no obligation to talk to me. Just offering a chance to have some friends on your side when those guards do arrive."