Episode 2: Welcome to the Jungle!

Erden looks in and then briefly recoils. Once he realizes it's alive, he says to Ybus, "Stop that," and then shows the others what's inside.

"Kaliya-te, goat-headed death god in Bimar. Horse head, goat head; I do not trust it." Rydler states plainly, as he stares in the Bimari made pot.

"I'm sure if we cook it really well, it will taste the same," says Ybus, elbows upon the lip of the jar. His Mage Hand tries to pry open the eyelid.

Baracus doesn't know what to make of the weird thing in the red clay jar.

"This is not life. I say kill it, let it go to its ancestors."

"Wait!," Urban intervenes. "I saw these horse men fighting against wicked goat-headed cultists on a great battlefield. The horses are noble - I feel certain of it."

Urban pushes in quickly to see what he can do. He is at a loss for words when he sees the gravity of this horror. What can he do to help this creature? He is not even sure if the poor soul wants to be helped.

He cannot stand idle and do nothing though. Urban puts his hand on the suffering beast-man's head and takes the risk.

Lay on Hands. Going to start out with a mere 2 HP to see if this is a good or a bad thing to do. Yikes!

"Speak if you can, resilient one. What is your message, or what can we do to give you peace?"

"I think he said, blurble gurgle," says Ybus. "Sorry, I don't speak seahorse."

"If what Urban says is true, this burial or whatever this is was most likely out of disrespect. If what Urban says is true, I say smash this jar. Free this thing from it's bounds. If what Urban says turns out false, we simply kill it. If we are giving thos rats a pass, a potential ally deserve far more." Rydler looks to Urban and Baracus

Urban cracks the giant urn with his shield and helps the animal man, removing his gag tie but momentarily cautious, slow to remove other restraints until the situation is clarified.

"We can help, but first would know who you are and why you are here. Tell us, and speak only the truth."

Baracus doesn't need any more encouragement to smash things. He breaks the container with a well-placed knife-hand strike. but Urban beats him to it.

"Oh no! He'll suffocate!" Ybus tries to splash more of the liquid over the man-seahorse.

Ybus splashes more liquid, getting most of it onto Urban. After the tikbalang falls unconscious, Ybus pauses and lowers his head. "Dearly beloved, we solemnly gather to mark the passage of our most favorite meal. Let us not forget the precious moments of life we held together and instead reflect upon the many years of joyous companionship we shared, before our ties were cut from this mortal coil."

The halfling points in the direction of the well. "BA, time to flush this noble soul to his watery afterlife, where he may frolic in the dense kelp fields and cavort with scaly mermaidens."

Urban tries to revive the horseman.

Sending another 8 HP in via Layeth on Thy Hands.

Also, checking for injuries.

As Urban channels healing energy into it, the horse-man jerks awake and sits up with its equine head in its hands.

"Who are you people? You don't look Pradeshi." Without waiting for an answer, the creature gets up, strength returning to its bruised limbs. Then he lays eyes on Wormtail and Wormtongue in their cages, and he goes crazy. He leaps on top of the cages, raining down blows with his hooves, til the bars are bent and broken. Then he tries to claw at them with his bare hands.

What do you do?

"Aiee, he's back from the living!" Ybus screams, evidently not caring about his choice of words. He leaps upon the creature's back, trying to grapple and restrain them from damaging the cages further. "No! Learn to share!"

Baracus wonders if allowing this horse-headed creature to crush the ratmen would accomplish justice and free Urban of his guilty conscious. He looks over at Urban, and realizes that it would take a being much stronger than Baracus to free Urban of his guilty conscious, so he acts.

Urban intervenes in an effort to restore some order.

When he can get enough calm to speak with the horse-man, he asks him pointedly, "Did these shapeshifters wrong you, traveler? Capture and restrain you for torture and slow death?"

Just moments before the horse-man was gagged, tied, and packed in a cask flooded with ichor. Urban remembers the melted sludge of flesh and deformed bones they had found in the tanks when more time had passed - a cruel and sick ritual of total depravity.

Urban looks down at Wormtongue in the battered cage as he continues to ask lead questions to the muscular tikbalang warrior, "Do you charge them with crimes and seek justice?"

With Baracus and Ybus (mostly Baracus) restraining him, and with the sobering effect of Urban's words, the tikbalang eventually regains his composure. Though still visibly shaking with rage, the creature draws himself to his full height - almost as tall as Baracus - and speaks formally with an accusing finger pointed at the terrified wererats.

"The wretched creatures are in league with the kalding - the goat-men who serve dark Kaliya-te. The kalding have tortured and defiled our people, our land, and even our dead for generations! I am Makisig, son of Handyong, and I do seek justice. Allow me to slay these vermin now, or bring them before my chieftain, Apo Mai'ngor, and the Council of Elders to face judgement!"

Ybus slides down the tikbalang's wet body until he comes to rest upon the ground, clutching the hoofed leg. Noting that a relative calm has returned to the room, Ybus lets go and scoots free.