We were traveling along the road the next day, and it was almost midday when the attack came. Frostmane barked a quick warning, as his nose detected something on the wind. That bark startled the hungry flock, for a flock it was, of birds into the air, emerging from the tall grasses to our little more than sixty or seventy feet from where we walked upon the road. As they clumsily flew towards us, it was clear what they were. They were Cockatrices!

Initiatives

Frostmane (27)

Melinda (18)

Siora (18)

Cockatrice x12 (11)

Vestele (5)

Frostmane’s Attack (C3): 1d20+8 = 22 (Hit)

Bite Damage: 1d8+10 = 15 (Piercing)

Freezing Bite: 1d6 = 3 (Cold)

Frostmane growled, and charged up to the flock of cockatrices, showing no fear! I didn’t know whether it was simply bloodlust or confidence in his ability to withstand the petrification effect the birds’ bite carried, but he launched himself at the closest of the cockatrices, and savaged it with his powerful jaws! It wasn’t dead, but I could see that it was gravely injured.

Melinda’s Attack (C1): 1d20+10 = 15 (Hit)

Damage: 1d8 = 1 (Bludgeoning)

Blast Damage: 3d6 = 9 (Cold)

C1 Fort Save: 1d20+4 = 15 (Fail)

I took wing to join Frostmane in the attack. However, I was not as confident in my defenses as the wolf was, so, instead of charging at the center of the pack, I attacked one to one side of the flock, closest to the rest of our party. I had some confidence in my ability to avoid getting bitten, I had less confidence in their ability, or that of their horses. Wreathing my fist in icy blue magic, I fused the Hellrime Blast with Hideous Blow, and hit the cockatrice squarely between its eyes. While my attack may not have been as devastating as Frostmane’s, I could see frost spreading from where I hit the creature, indicating that the secondary effect of the magic was taking effect. It would be easier for me to hit it again, now.

Siora spurred her horse forward, walking it towards the action. She stopped twenty feet behind me, and I heard her call out the words of a spell. The next instant, all around me ghostly swordsmen appeared out of nowhere, filling a square twenty feet on a side with their spectral bodies. There was even one appearing half inside my body, and I could see one standing literally with his legs sprouting from the cockatrice’s back! It had to be an illusion of some kind, but that did not mean illusions could not bite.

C1 Attack (M): 1d20+9 = 18 (Miss)

C2 Attack (M): 1d20+9 = 26 (Hit)

Damage: 1d4-2 = 1 (DR Negates)

Melinda’s Fort Save: Not needed

C3 Attack (F): 1d20+9 = 27 (Hit)

Damage: 1d4-2 = 1

Frostmane’s Fort Save: 1d20+12 = 29 (DC 12)

C4 Attack: 1d20+9 = 11 (Miss)

Legion of Sentinels Attack of Opportunity (C5): 1d20+7 = 23 (Hit)

Damage: 1d8+2 = 9

LoS Attack of Opportunity (C5): 1d20+7 = 18 (Hit)

Damage: 1d8+2 = 7

LoS Attack of Opportunity (C5): 1d20+7 = 27 (Crit threat)

Confirm: 1d20+7 = 27 (Critical Hit)

Damage: 2d8+4 = 11 (Dead)

LoS Attack of Opportunity (C6): 1d20+7 = 15 (Hit)

Damage: 1d8+2 = 9

C6 Attack (LoS): 1d20+9 = 21 (Miss)

C7 Attack (LoS): 1d20+9 = 27 (Hit)

Damage: 1d4-2 = 1

C8 Attack (F): 1d20+9 = 18 (Miss)

C9 Attack (LoS): 1d20+9 = 21 (Miss)

C10 Attack (F): 1d20+9 = 12 (Miss)

C11 Attack (LoS): 1d20+9 = 18 (Miss)

C12 Attack (LoS): 1d20+9 = 27 (Hit)

Damage: 1d4-2 = 1

The Cockatrices were… not incredibly intelligent. Instead of going for the obvious spellcaster, they simply charged ahead at the nearest prey. I had a moment of panic when one of the two cockatrices near me managed to nip me, but the bite did not even draw blood, and so the magic of their bite did not affect me. Very fortunate, indeed. Frostmane, too, seemed to be all but unaffected the one time one of the birds managed to bite him.

The ghostly swordsmen, however, turned out to have far more bite than one might have believed to look at them. When one of the cockatrices tried to move through them to attack me, the three closest ones slashed at it with their swords, the three massive blows enough to kill it. When another cockatrice got a glancing blow from another of the specters, the beasts recognized the ghostly figures as a danger, and attacked. Most failed, but a couple managed nipping bites to the ghosts, which were solid enough to be hit, but they were not flesh and blood, and so could not be turned to stone.

Vestele’s Attack (C10): 1d20+8 = 13 (Miss)

Vestele rode up on her horse, keeping some distance from the fighting, as Siora had done. But, unlike her sister, she did not fire off a spell into the flock of cockatrices, but instead swung herself down from her horse, raised her enchanted crossbow, and fired. Unfortunately, she missed, but a miss was better than risking our healer being turned to stone, in my opinion, especially as it appeared that Frostmane and I were not in any real danger from the pecking beaks.

Frostmane’s Breath Weapon: 4d6 = 16 (Cold)

C3 Ref Save: 1d20+7 = 17 (Fail) (Dead)

C6 Ref Save: 1d20+7 = 15 (Fail) (16 damage)

C7 Ref Save: 1d20+7 = 24 (Pass) (8 damage)

Recharge: 1d4 = 3 (3 Rounds)

Frostmane chuffed in laughter, despite the nip he’d gotten. He breathed out, and from his mouth a cone of icy cold erupted, spreading out over several of the cockatrices. The one he’d savaged in his last attack dropped dead instantly, and one of the other two caught up in it did not look much better.

Melinda’s Attack (C1): 1d20+10 = 28 (Hit)

Damage: 1d8 = 2 (Bludgeoning)

Blast Damage: 3d6 = 14 (Cold)

Seeing Frostmane’s success out of the corner of my eye, I tried to replicate that success on my own foe. Once again, icy magic coated my fist, and the cockatrice in front of me paid the price. However, despite how bad off it looked, it was not dead, not yet. I had to keep myself from spitting in disgust. The wolf would be insufferable after this.

Siora’s Attack (C6): 1d20+7 = 24 (Hit)

Damage: 1d6+2 = 3 (Dead)

Siora raised her shortbow, and placed an arrow to the string. The string sang in the midday air as the arrow flew, and hit one of the cockatrices that had been engulfed in Frostmane’s breath attack. Though the blow was not exactly something that would slay a man in an instant, it was enough to drop the already badly wounded cockatrice, leaving it dead upon the grass.

The rest of the fight was, frankly, rather dull. Once it became clear that the cockatrices posed no real threat to either Frostmane or me, it was simply a matter of time before they all fell. Siora and Vestele pitched in with their ranged attacks, but neither one wished to waste their spells on what was essentially just us mopping up. Soon, the last of the magical birds was dead in the dirt, and the Will of the World spoke to us.

You have defeated 12 Cockatrices.

Melinda gains 1575 XP.

Frostmane gains 750 XP.

Vestele gains 750 XP.

Siora gains 750 XP.

This news interested me quite a bit. I knew I got more XP from the fight because my level was a good bit lower than Frostmane’s, but if Vestele and Siora had both gotten the same amount as he did, then it meant they were the same level as he was. And yet, their magic did not appear to be all that much more powerful than my own. Perhaps, then, their being Fey’ri conveyed some advantages that had not yet made themselves apparent?

Tracking the cockatrices back to where they had flown out of the grass revealed what looked like the beginnings of a burrow, freshly dug out of the soil. Inside, there was a clutch of four eggs, freshly laid. It seemed like the creatures had just come to this area, and were defending their new nest, which explained why they had fought so ferociously.

Turning to the rest of the group, I grinned. “All right, I guess we ought to decide what to do with these eggs. I see no reason to leave them, and just let wild monsters make a nest near a traveled road like this, but what do we do with the eggs themselves? And what about the birds? Does anyone know if their meat is safe to eat? And could these eggs be cooked?”

Vestele shook her head. “As far as I know, the flesh of magical beasts like a cockatrice is not necessarily deadly, but I’ve never heard tales of it being especially tasty, and the only stories I’ve ever heard of someone eating it was forced into that situation by desperation. As for the eggs, I expect it is the same thing.”

Siora nodded. “It is as Vestele says. While we could eat the birds, I don’t see any reason to bother with it, especially as the meat may draw scavengers to us in greater numbers. The eggs might make for a decent meal, but again, I doubt it would be worth it. If we were headed back to Northport, I might suggest holding on to the eggs, and we might find someone to sell them to. There’s always idiots out there who like the idea of having exotic pets, and a domesticated cockatrice would be a strange status symbol for one of those types.”

Frostmane chuffed. “Leave them. We can’t use them where we’re going, and I doubt any rich collector is going to be out in the woods. Maybe scavengers will get them. Maybe they’ll hatch. Maybe they’ll die. Or maybe, when we’re coming back, they’ll still be here, and we can take them then, when we have more chance of selling the things. No point in taking them now. At best, they’ll be destroyed without causing any harm other than ruining whatever they’re wrapped in. “

I looked from one to the other of the sisters, and both of them shrugged. I joined them, and stood up from the nest. “Fair enough. I’d rather not have to deal with trying to rear baby cockatrices while fighting werewolves. Nothing about that sounds like a good time. Since that’s settled, let’s keep going. We shouldn’t be too far from where the merchants were attacked by the trolls. I’m sure scavengers have picked over things by now, but who knows? Maybe we’ll find something worth keeping.”

Siora shook her head as she looked back at the nest. “That nest may be recent, but it is definitely more than a day old, and so close to the road… Why didn’t the cockatrices attack the swordsman and merchant? Injured and weak as they were, they would have been easy prey, and that flock looked like it was starving. I don’t think there’s any way they would have passed up a free meal, especially if they attacked us so soon after those two came the other way.”

Vestele frowned. “That… is an excellent point. There might be some magic about it, of course, but most spells that would cause a group of magical beasts to ignore easy prey that wandered up on their figurative doorstep would be of a high enough level that the caster would be easily capable of dealing with the cockatrices outright.”

Frostmane sniffed the air. “I don’t smell anything off, but it has been long enough since they passed that I wouldn’t be able to scent them, anyway. We should definitely keep alert, however.”

I frowned. “Maybe they were some kind of spirit, and not actually alive? Don’t dead spirits like to lead people into traps?”

Vestele shook her head. “No, not always. The undead do, at times, because of their twisted nature, but spirits that are trapped on this plane may simply not know any better. And many of the spirit-type of undead are not comfortable in the light. I do not know what the answer is, but I suggest we remain alert moving forward. Whatever is causing the werewolf problem is stirring up a lot more issues than just flea-bitten wolves. I doubt this will be the last monster sighting we see on our way to Moonwater.”