They continue travelling, whilst taking it in shifts to polish one of Runmae's breast plates to make a new temporary mirror for Valaari.
Bhaltair begins crafting some armour polish, to speed up the process. They'll finish it tomorrow.
24th Dravago, 999 YK
Bhaltair finishes making the polish, so they now have the means to polish Runmae's armour to a mirror finish. They make enough polish to last four days.
Valaari can use the polished breastplate as a makeshift mirror, for the time being.
25th - 26th Dravago, 999 YK
Nothing happens for two days.
27th Dravago, 999 YK
They come across the remains of a Carrion Tribe patrol.
Warren, scouting ahead, finds the corpses and immediately goes back to the group without examining any further.
Valaari asks him to go examine them, please.
Warren goes and gets a better look at the corpses. They belong to a carrion tribe, but their tattoos are unfamiliar to Warren. One of them has pristine, white gloves on, unmarred by the ground or the conflict. All four corpses have had their chests ripped open and their hearts removed.
Warren examines the gloved corpse, and notices their (non-chest) wounds have been cauterized. Weird.
Warren takes the gloves off the corpse, and examines the corpse's hands. They're in the condition one would expect from somebody living in this environment.
Warren has a quick look at the other corpses, but can't determine what might have happened, so he goes back to get the cavalry.
Bhaltair, Runmae and Valaari have all heard of a creature that would consume just the hearts, a Peryton. But a Peryton wouldn't cauterize wounds.
Naze wants to examine the corpses. Runmae and Bhaltair keep an eye on the sky in case the Peryton is still around.
Valaari observes as Naze examines one of the corpses. Naze determines that the chest wounds were inflicted post-humously, and the cauterized wounds were cauterized recently. He also thinks the wounds were caused by weapons.
Naze goes to examine the other corpses, and observes that the tiefling with the sword's wounds are not cauterized, they likely bled to death.
They call Runmae over to see if she can identify the weapons that killed them. She thinks the tiefling was killed by an axe.
Examining the other two corpses, their axes have dried blood on and they also have cauterized wounds.
Valaari tries to identify the sword, but it eludes them. Warren mistakenly identifies the gloves as Gloves of Cleanliness.
Naze also gives the sword a go, as does Runmae. Neither of them get anywhere.
Valaari puts the sword in their backpack and calls Bhaltair over.
Valaari turns around and sees Warren wearing one of the corpse's gloves, and asks where he found them. They ask to take a look at the gloves, please.
Valaari takes over watching the sky and Bhaltair goes to take a look at the gloves. Bhaltair isn't sure what the gloves do, but is certain the magic on them is powerful and definitely not "Gloves of Cleanliness".
Bhaltair says they'll hold onto them for the moment, until they know what they do.
Valaari and Runmae sort out looting the other corpses, and then Bhaltair notices a giant owl swoop down. It flies completely silently! It lands, and repeats something Valaari said in a mocking voice. It then brings its humanoid hands up to its chin. (oh)
Another two owls land nearby while the first one has their attention.
Valaari quickly identifies them as Karinas, or "Plague Birds". They're demons.
Valaari tells the birds to leave or they'll attack. The birds mock them.
Violence is the only language some people will understand.
Valaari is aware that Karinas aren't intelligent, and don't actually speak. They're just mimicking.
Valaari begins combat by throwing their spear at a bird. They also yell out to be careful, as the birds carry diseases.
Another Karina silently flies down and attacks Warren. He swears, and it swears at him in his own voice (but mocking). Repeatedly.
Runmae runs over, hooks the Karina that attacked Warren and drags it to the ground, where Bhaltair uses magic to tie it down.
The bird that Valaari threw their spear at swoops down and attacks them, raking its humanoid fingers across their shoulders.
The final bird swoops down and attacks Naze, who fails a save against the disease.
Naze blasts the bird that attacked Valaari with a Holy Light, which it very much is not a fan of. It responds by yelling "Can you leave please!?" in Diabolic, which is the last thing Naze said.
Warren is very demoralized at the birds mocking him. Pieces of shit.
Valaari chops into the closest birds head and kills it, and then throws their spear (which explodes!) near another one. It was very cool.
Bhaltair tangles the blue Karina and then squeezes between two rocks to take cover.
The blue Karina, closest to Naze, flies up and away, mocking Bhaltair's spellcasting.
Warren, finally having lost it, stabs the karina that is mocking him to death.
The final Karina flees, flying away.
Naze tends to their wounds, but actually wounds Valaari more.
Bhaltair and Valaari harvest the parts from the Karinas.
They then go and hide somewhere so that Bhaltair can refocus and Naze can tend to some more wounds.
They then continue their journey
28th Dravago, 999 YK
In the morning, Naze seems to be sick. He's hot, sweaty, and has a headache. When he looks around, he realises his entire party has been replaced with demons! Even Zaphkiel!
Bhaltair identifies the gloves as Healer's Gloves!
Naze looks through Zaphkiel's eyes, and everyone still looks like a demon!
Bhaltair comes over, to give Naze the gloves. Naze hides behind Demon Zaphkiel. He looks really sweaty.
Runmae asks what's going on. Valaari thinks Naze has been poisoned.
They approach and Naze freaks out, yelling at them all to stay away. They try talking to him but he doesn't understand them, he's too confused.
Bhaltair asks Zaphkiel to restrain him, but Zaphkiel isn't sure. They ask if Naze is well. Naze frantically explains that he doesn't feel well, and he doesn't know these people! They're demons!
Valaari suddenly remembers what the disease that the Karina carry does: it confuses the victim and makes them see all others as enemies. Karina infect their victims and then retreat to a safe distance and just watch it unfold. If Naze doesn't recover, the disease will eventually kill him.
Valaari explains the situation to Zaphkiel, they need to restrain Naze for 8 hours to treat him, and he thinks they're trying to kill him. Zaphkiel tries to communicate this to Naze. Naze sits in front of Zaphkiel and begrudginly allows it, but he's terrified.
Bhaltair asks Runmae to stay close, in case they need to physically restrain him.
Everyone failed to identify the sword they got off of the hexgeists.