Beastland wanderings

[Anastasia]

"In my homeworld, the shocker lizards number in the many thousands and infest a mountain range to the south of Balmuria. They threaten entire towns and have to be fought back. They aren't cute and cuddly, they're a menace that has to be held at bay." Jessica goes on, voice still flat. "Truly in Creation everything can vary."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Oh? Hm. Maybe I can send a few of my awakened ones there to form social structures and set territories or bring more in for us... if we can set up a hierarchy in the wild, then their areas of expansion might be controlled and redirected.

I also have ideas about altering them. Different elemental alignments. Earth would be fabulous,  if I could. Have them infiltrate an enemy stronghold and start a cascade earthquake and bring the whole thing down.

Or fill every open space with fire. Acid could simply eat through the structural bracings or any weapons and equipment they can find. Food stores, too."

[Anastasia]

"Mystra," Jessica murmurs. "I often wonder where mages who create strange things come from, such as hippogriffs or strange halfbreeds. I wonder no more. Thank you but no, that problem is delicate enough not to send a rash means of possibly destabilizing it."

"Have we had this conversation before?" Jarem murmurs, "It sounds familiar to me."

"Regardless of that," Jessica cuts in, "Let's just go then, we waste time on nothing important to our current task."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa crosses her arms and pouts, starting to walk, looking for any sort of path.

"That's just mean. Lizards are perfectly normal pets and familiars, but throw a little magic in and everyone loses their minds. You don't even know what they want or think. Any animal that out breeds their ecosystem causes the same strife, and no one goes crazy when they see a rat, viper, or large cat familiar. And, I'll point out, each of those find their ways into settlements and attack people."

[Anastasia]

"Would you like to see some settlements past Parsifal when they were overrun?" Jessica retorts, anger leaking into her voice.

[Iron Dragoon]

"I'm sure they're horrible. I never denied they were, but it's a thing of nature that happens when populations run out of control and treating it as some sort of diabolical plan by creatures with an animal intelligence isn't the right way to respond.

If their populations are that outrageous, maybe consider investigating what happened to their natural predators. Any druid can help. You're jumping straight past figuring out why to it being an organized plan of some sort by animal that has no sentience.

I'm not denying the problem or dismissing it in any way, but talking to animals is a pretty low level spell, and for as much of a personal issue this seems to be for you, it doesn't sound like you've tried to understand the problem, only exterminate it.

Take for example: lizards are one and all cold blooded. What are they even doing in a mountain range in the first place? They normally settle near bodies of water and rarely wander. If the mountains are their natural habitat on your world, what's causing these normally fiercely territorial lizards to leave it? Unless they're a recent import into your world, they've been in that ecosystem for who knows how long and there was balance..."

Alyssa trails off with a blink, "... well, I guess Ianvasah left more of a legacy than I thought... my point still stands. Any druid can investigate what's out of balance and an electrical immunity spell is nearly child's play for almost any of your wizards. Have you sent one to find out and start working to solve it, or does it do more good to just try and exterminate them? What if there's something else they're keeping in check that then goes out of control? Exterminate that too? Ianvasah's Grove is sure to have a druid visiting it at some point, and I have no problems with asking one to help and even providing the transportation and protective spell personally, if need be, but wiping them out as a plague is wrong."

[Anastasia]

"You don't understand. They don't have natural predators," Jessica begins, "Not even a lion or bear can withstand more than a few, and they almost never go alone. A stray one is the exception, not the rule. They kill and they work with a steady, unblinking, hostile aggression."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Then they're probably getting pushed out by something else then. It's still something to look into."

[Anastasia]

"Ladies, we're getting close to a path I know," Bastian says, "Or one that's like one I know." He cuts in smoothly, "Weapons up, it might be dangerous."

"Oh? How dangerous?" Emily asks.

"The weak who try to use this become the strong's food," Bastian smiles just a little bit, "This won't be some trivial thing."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa nods,  "Let's go, hopefully it won't be too bad."

Since we got a path now, my sense telling me anything?

[Anastasia]

Bastian's going in the right direction, you can sense, at least as far as this path goes.

[Iron Dragoon]

"I get the feeling this is the right way..."

Alyssa tries to move into the shadows to help scout.

[Anastasia]

"With me," Bastian nods, at your side.

Perception.

[Iron Dragoon]

Perception:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+58 : 11 + 58, total 69[/blockquote]

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d20+45
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 57 > [d20=12]

A simple dirt path, but they hide and stalk. A black jaguar, several wolves, a bear. All far larger than the norm yet hide with an unnatural grace. Far superior to normal animals, more like shadows skittering away from being seen. Were you less skilled, you would fail, you believe.