...oh no?

Why.

Aaaaaaaa??

At first glance, the village looks abandoned; though fairly destroyed, from their vantage point it doesn't look like anyone's actually there.

Except...

Astarion places a hand in front of Lae'zel, halting her movement, and frowns.

Shadowheart also stops walking, narrowing her eyes and looking up.

"What is it this time, k'chakhi?"

"Look," Astarion whispers, nodding up towards the roof of one of the buildings by the town gates.

“Oh. Ambush. … should I turn into a squirrel and sneak around to be ambushy backup?”

"...yes. Yes, that could be useful. Might not be necessary, but having the option..."

"You want to avoid the fight," Lae'zel accuses.

Not being particularly invested in this becoming a fight, but being very invested in being helpful, Ivetrielle does in fact turn into a squirrel. A red one, with little ear tufts. Being adorable is important, okay.

She will wait until told to go running off, though, because she is attempting to grow as a person.

"Lae'zel, darling, we will always have the opportunity to slaughter these goblins later, but for now we need to have a better understanding of what's happening. And it might become a fight anyway. Truthfully, it will become a fight once we find and rescue druid Halsin. But until then, we still need to find him, and investigate whatever these goblins know about the transformation."

"You always have reasons not to fight."

"Not true! We decimated those goblins in front of the Grove, did we not? And in those ruins, too, we definitely very much killed those bandits."

"...hmm. Granted."

"So! I'll vanish, count to thirty after I do then walk peacefully into the village, please, Lae'zel and Shadowheart. Ivy, dear, hang out in a tree nearby for support, jump on one of them to warn us to back off and regroup.

"Does that seem acceptable?"

"Yes."

Affirmative sounding squeak!

"Very well."

And so he vanishes.

Ivy gives a little goodbye squeak, then she’s up a tree to get an excellent vantage point overlooking the soon to be ambush. Counter ambush? Maybe not even a fight? Who knows, she doesn’t, she’s just happy to be here.

Thirty seconds later, Lae'zel and Shadowheart do as instructed.

"Well, well, well, what 'ave we here!" says one of the goblins on a roof. "Git over there!" she calls to her peers. "Surround 'em, like—"

"No, darling, I don't think so," Astarion says, suddenly appearing behind her with a dagger at her neck.