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The shoanti are not really keen on talking shop with Jakob, so their answers are rather short and he soon finds that somehow, they all seem to be occupied with something else. It looks like he'll have to try again later. The drake gives him a curious look, sniffing him closely as if to determine if he's edible or not. In the end it settles on too-dangerous-to-eat and maybe-will-feed-me. It turns out that, while the feeling of sitting on a drake is somewhat different from that of a horse, the basic instructions remain pretty similar. He'll probably feel somewhat sore in the evening because of the new position, but the drakes do have an advantage over horses. Hardier in nature than horses, their reptilian origin makes them uniquely adapted to the harsh climate of the plateau and they are a less likely to scare at the faintest sneeze as they are scavengers and hunters.

  Illora makes her way to the Shoanti healers. She looks for who she assumes would be in charge and says that she is ready to help in any way that she can.

Kjell finds that the drake he has chosen is a nice fit for a big man like himself and it doesn't try any funny things after he's made it clear that he's not going to get thrown off, nor getting fooled with. Unless you want it to be more stubborn.

With Ilora's help, bandaging the wounded, the group is soon enough assembled and ready to go on. You find that those drakes that don't have a rider right now follow easily enough, their herd instinct pushing them not to simply quit the group. They do give Aylmora's steed a rather wide berth though, and the horses are not really comfortable being so close to the omnivorous drakes.

You head right towards the stairs and by late afternoon, you can see them towering over the plains. You approach with some caution, keeping to the dells of the rolling grasslands and Shaleska sends out a scout - unless you want to take over that task.

While you walk, you have the leisure to put some more questions to the Shoanti and while Kasseel is quite happy to tell you to bugger off, the rest of the Shoanti is more easy to talk to - at least for those of you who are not ex-clan-members. But then, Ulm already knows quite well that Shoanti are a proud people, who do not take well to strangers asking weird questions about their scales, or the tatoos they are wearing, but can admire strength in battle even in lowlanders as you are. In fact, boasting somewhat about one's own exploits is expected among Shoanti - but ware to those who can not follow their claims with facts if they are called out to prove themselves in a fight. Often, those fights end up being fist-fights, but contests of archery, hunting or even less militaristic tasts as foraging food and other supplies such as herbs are also common.

(I've not got the Stairs encounter ready yet, so I'd be happy if you could talk a bit more among yourselves and to the Shoanti. And plan your approach somewhat.)

Asked about the setup the giants have at the bottom of the stairs, Shaleska says, to anybody who will listen, "The terrain at the bottom of the stairs is mostly quite flat and there's not much in terms of hiding places. The giants have put up some loose barricades and even dug hidden pits in front of them to keep us from just riding into camp. When we tried to attack them before, they simply pelted us with boulders from afar before we even got close enough to properly engage them. And once we retreated, they then sent a renegade strike team after us to harry us. Their numbers vary, but our problem are mostly the giants. We'd prefer to engage the renegades and keep clear of the giants ... What do you think?"

Jakob finally manages to get one of the younger Shoanti to talk, who replies, "No, not often. We normally live in the mountains and only come here occasionally for some infrequent trade. And it's usually only the more experienced warriors who get to come down here ... " It sounds like he's begun to see why that is so. Jakob gets the impression that if he were human, he'd be something like fifteen or sixteen and that gets him to wonder how it comes that he's ended up in this group. Jakob also notes that while young, he does have quite a collection of tatoos running the length of his right arm.

The Shoanti however does not really dwell on the topic, returning the question to Jakob instead, "I've seen some of your fight ..." he hesitates a moment, letting himself fall back from the group a bit. Only when they are somewhat out of earshot - of Kasseel, Jakob guesses - he then says, "How does it come that lightning favours your group so much? Is that a lowlander thing? Do you venerate lightning? How can you venerate random destruction?"

"We will take the giants," Aylmora says with confidence in response to Shaleska, the first words she has said of note since the groups joined. "As long as you can deal with the renegades and the dragon stays out of it, though we owe that beast another good beating at the least."

Initiative (1d20+13=24)