Ary looks from person to person as they discuss what to do, and then when Ehren finally chimes in to shop first, Ary nods. "Yeah, probably for the best." she acknowledges.
[b]"The city is huge, but all of the small roads eventually lead to big ones. The big ones lead to everything important, so it's hard to stay lost for long." she finishes, rolling her shoulder slightly.
Ary leads Valaria, Markus and Ehren out into the morning light, leaving Isilme, Hinagiku and Annabelle behind at The Hunting Vrock.
Ary is familiar with Nerosyan – it was the Crusades’ base of operations after all, and also not very difficult to navigate besides. They travel to a row of shop fronts to a small store named Dawnflower Goods, which stands out for the distinctive sunbursts painted on its walls both inside and out. Though inside the store most of the goods cater to followers of Sarenrae, holy symbols of many good and neutral religions hang beside the Dawnflower’s religious paraphernalia. Mixed among the varied religious and crusader-themed objects on the shelves, as well as several hidden inside of glass cases, are Sarkorian artifacts and weapons.
A familiar voice in your head:
”Heeheehee, hey boss, long time no see. Glad to finally catch up with ya here… Much more pleasant than the Worldwound, hmmm?”
”We’ll see how long that lasts.”
The shopkeeper is a middle-aged blonde woman clad in a steep breastplate adorned with the image of Sarenrae She is currently ladling out soup for a group of what appear to be beggars. She looks up at the heroes. ”Ary Bishop! It’s been what, a year? You’ve somehow gotten bigger. Is that a Captain’s badge I see?”
She pauses, then offers a soft smile. ”Just one moment,” she says to the others in her shop. She nudges a young lad. ”Dylan, take over for me will you? We have customers.” She has a strong Ulfen accent.
”Welcome pilgrims! May the blessings of the empyreal lords be upon you, and may the Dawnflower illuminate your endeavors. Just as each sunrise brings new light, so the arrival of stout souls such as yourselves brings new hope to a wounded world. What humble assistance may I provide?” she says, striding over to the group confidently.
Val follows along behind Ary as they head off to the store.
"Oh, fine - no fun for me. Though I'm surprised you've gotten rid of the hag. Bravo!"
"How'd ya do it? Make a deal with a devil?"
Just before the others leave, Hinagiku remembers of a single item she would be interested in acquiring. Catching up with Valaria just outside the inn, she nicely asks the tiefling for a favor, asking her to buy a cold iron kyoketsu shoge. Realizing that the woman probably does not know what that weapon looks like, she quickly describes it, explaining that it is similar to a hooked dart attached to a rope with the other end of the rope bound to a metal ring.
Hinagiku returns to the Hunting Vrock to keep company to Isilme and Annabelle.
"Isilmeさんは、瞑想は、あなたは時が来れば、可能な限り準備になるようにcome.Itはそれをご案内するための私の喜びになり、今日の危険の前にいく つかの穏やかなを見つけるのに役立つかもしれません。"
"Miss Isilme, meditation might help you find some calm before today's danger come." she begins, referring to the fight they will soon be bringing to the hag "It would be my pleasure to guide you through it so that you might be as ready as possible when the time comes."
"It is, but call me Captain, and I'll put you in the same spot I keep the other one that did." she says with a grin, clearly referring to Annabelle who wasn't there for -other- reasons.
"The normal kind. Really bad things happened that we'd like to be able to do something about next time. Do you have any sturdy and flexible breastplates? Cold Iron glaives? Oh, and weapon cords and some spring loaded wrist sheath things. To keep things easily at hand. They've got a laundry list of stuff they feel we need, though... they're the brains of the operation." Ary says with a smile.
The Sarenrite grins at Ary, grabbing items off of the shelves to trade for the things Ary was prepared to sell. "Glaives? Oh, of course," she eyes the commendations and laughs. "Wow they've given you a good budget Cap-... I mean Ary."
"Kyo-what? I'm not sure what that is, darling," she continues when Hinagiku's request is brought up. "But I should have the rest of those things. Hold on, let me riffle through some scrolls..." she mumurs as she pulls out Isilme and Markus' requests.
"Well I think that's everything. I have some things on sale too, if you're interested..."
Ehren opts to accompany Ary on their shopping venture. There was nothing in particular that he himself needed, but he could not pass down another opportunity to look around Nerosyan. Asides from Kenabres, such large settlements were mostly unfamiliar to him.
At Dawnflower Goods he peruses the available healing wares, but decides that they are more luxuries than necessities. They were tools he could do without, a fact he gleaned a small bit of pride from.
Markus follows his fellows into the store. It's not exactly that he doesn't trust the Sarenite, but he scans each magical item they gain with sense magic before purchases are finalized to confirm that each item is what it's advertised as.
He stores away the fly scrolls in his scroll case, and puts the glaive and breastplate for Annabelle under his arm to carry around for later.
"Did we get everything?" Val asks. "Because I don't want to leave Isilme alone for too long. She'll probably get bored if we leave he sitting around the inn with no one to talk too."
"I think so. Except for her Ko-ket-su-Sho-gay." Ary adds, shaking her head. "It leaves us with mostly shiny rocks and bits of metal. It won't hurt to simply walk about with Daisy and see if we can't run into one." Ary says with a small shrug. "Better to find one that suits her aesthetics, anyway."
"If no one can think of anything else we need, I'm as ready as I'm going to get."
The group reunites at the Hunting Vrock - it is now late in the morning and the inn is mostly empty. Isilme, Hinagiku and Annabelle are upstairs meditating together when the other four arrive laden with their new goods. Before they leave the common room, however, a haggard young crusader with thick, curly hair and bright, piercing blue eyes approaches the group, saluting Ary.
"Ah..... excuse me. You are Captain Bishop, yes?"
Ary nods to him, giving a short salute. "Mmhmm. Can I help you with anything?"
The man grins, his smile a sunny contrast to the dark circles under his eyes. "I thought so... That green shield...." He pauses to admire it before remembering himself. "My name is Aron Kir. I'm looking for my sister Annabelle, and all I could figure out is that she was assigned to Captain Bishop's squad... Is that right? I haven't heard from her since the Battle of Kenabres."
Markus has sit down to have a bowl of porridge real quick before they have to head out to do more pressing things. He doesn't really pay the Crusader mind when he first approaches Ary, knowing that she's fully capable of dealing with... supplicants...
When he mentions Annabelle, though, his head snaps up to appraise the man. She had said he was the reason she joined the Crusades. Because he was a criminal and she needed to keep him straight.
Not exactly the best recipe for predictability. He stands up, and surreptitiously walks to the stairs, up the stairs, and to Annabelle's room. He knocks politely.
Val manages to avoid an outward reaction to the young man's arrival. "Well s+@~." She makes a silent prayer for luck and tolerance before she says a word. "Ah, so you're Aron. Your sister's talked about you before. How have you been?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"'Belle? Oh, yeah. Of course." she says with a smile, then pauses for a moment, suddenly aware that Annabelle meant very different things to very different people - both before and after.
"Mmmm... she might be a little bit different than you remember her, we all went through a lot in the Hall of the First Fatalities. Hers was..." she looks to the side for a moment, "A bit different than what most of us went through." then she looks back to the young man, "A lot of really bad things happened, and she's one of the few people who survived. So she might be... different." she adds again.
She only just notices Markus slipping quickly away as he reaches the stairs. "Ah, I think Gloomy is gonna go get her for you, or maybe just ask if she wants you to come up. Want to tell me a bit about yourself while we wait? Any friend of 'Belle's is a friend of mine."
Annabelle creaks the door open, revealing a large room with two beds (where Hinagiku and she were spending the nights) and windows blocked off with bits of wood and several layers of curtains. Isilme and Hinagiku are busy meditating within.
"Hey Markus!" she whispers, giving him a small smile. "Sssssh, they're busy. What's going on?"
Aron frowns, looking anxious. "What do you mean? Was she injured?" He watches 'Gloomy' move up the stairs and he sighs, taking a seat.
"About myself? Ah, I'm just an engineer," he grins. "Finished a... very short... internship with some dwarves. A few months ago I accepted a temporary post at Clydwell Keep to help an engineering team overhaul and maintain the traps and defenses of the place. We were barely halfway through when the demons attacked..." He frowns. "My lover is here is in Nerosyan, I almost abandoned my post to return to them but... I stayed. At the end a pair of these huge demons, ulkreths I think they're called, attacked the keep and destroyed several of the outer walls. We were about to die when... the wardstone exploded and holy fire slew all the demons and saved everyone there."
He grins. "And if the stories are true I have your lot to thank. So thank you, Captain Bishop. You and your team saved my life."
Ary nods, pursing her lips. "Yes. But she's mostly fine now. Just different." Ary flinches slightly as he mentions them having detonated that. "Annabelle was instrumental in us reaching the Wardstone, actually... and try not to say that too loudly. Not everybody was saved by it... and a lot of people are upset. Best decision we can at the time, yeah? How did the traps do prior to the over-running. And... I'm not very familiar with Ulkreths, unfortunately. Or maybe fortunately?"
Markus' eyes flit to Isilme and Hinagiku for only a moment before returning to rest on Annabelle's face. He examines her for a moment, checking to see whether she looked alright. I mean, obviously she was still undead, but...there was a spectrum.
"Well," he begins. "Your brother's here, in the Hunted Vrock, looking for you. I thought I'd come up here to warn you first, as when he sees you he might be a little bit surprised."
"He seems alright. Wearing a Crusader's tabard and everything. Do you want to go and meet him?"
"A lot of people are stupid," Val mutters. "Your sister's doing alright. Though she's still adjusting to her new... state. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to see you in one piece after everything that's been going on the last few weeks."
"Ulkreths... ulkreths... I think they have something to do with destruction. I don't recall off the top of my head."
Isilme accepts Hinagiku's offer to help her meditate, appreciative of anything that might help calm her mind. She begins to respond in Tian, but gives an exhausted smile and just defaults to common. "Thank you dear, I can use the help." She focuses on Hinagiku, trying to clear her mind as the monk had shown her briefly on their trip on the boat before heading to Storasta. "I hope for everyone's sake that the hag is here with me still," she thinks briefly, gazing about the room as if she might see the hag. "If I can get her stone... I just need her to remain confused for long enough to snag it."
When Markus knocks and enters, Isilme tries to block them from her mind, but loses her focus when Annabelle's brother is mentioned. She looks at Annabelle and attempts to gauge her reaction. She couldn't remember what Annabelle had mentioned about him, but obviously given her current situation it would be difficult to have normal relations with any family or friends. For now though she remains silent on the matter, thinking it best to let Annabelle think about what she wants to do about him.
Hinagiku's first thought when she heard Markus speak was that they were now ready to report to the crusades, and get rid of Isilme's visitor. Stirring, the monk prepares to leave her meditative state, a chance which is precipitated by Markus' following words: "Your brother is here".
Opening her eyes, Hinagiku quickly but silently stands up, and walks to Annabelle's side. There, she puts a supporting hand on the vampire's shoulder.
"Annabelle, if you desire, we can leave the room so you may meet in private. Or stay with you if you believe you need our presence." she says softly.
Aron drums his fingers on the table. "Oh yeah, the traps did great! But not much against thirty-foot tall four-armed gargoyle demons, not really, no." He gives Ary a lop-sided smile, then nods at Valaria.
"That's right! Yeah, I've heard all sorts of rumors, and that's a pile of bullcrap. You're a bunch of heroes in my eyes. None of this,"" he gestures around them. "Would be here today if you guys weren't brave enough to make that call. So don't forget that. I've heard the tale a few times over now. 'With whirling knives, striking blades, holy magics, and glorious songs did they defeat the horde and drive the demons into retreat. And thus was the day won in the name of all righteousness!" he recites, smiling.
He thinks for a moment, then frowns. "I didn't know Annabelle was there, though. She isn't mentioned at all in the stories."
Annabelle stiffens, her eyes wide. "Oh gods.... Aron?" She groans, stalking back into the bedroom, her head in her hands. She scratches at her scalp - the blonde hair only just beginning to grow in. At least she looked like a real soldier, right?
"I....I.... I don't know," she whimpers. "In any case, I can't go downstairs. Lotta windows down there," she mumbles.
"That... is odd. I mean, blame Val I guess. She apparently didn't strike the point home. She actually cut a Babau in half... so maybe you heard about that? Also... you were kinda there. No retreat. Just there, then gone. Bright shiny light. Have you heard of any stories of folks near the wardstones when they exploded? As in 'in the same room'?"
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Haha, yeah... I may have been very, very drunk by the time that I actually wrote that. I probably shouldn't author epic poems about our heroic exploits when I'm four or five mugs in."
Markus follows after Annabelle, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it'll be alright. He's your brother, and you're still you. It'll be fine when he meets you, and we can bring him up here if you want."
He smiles, sorta. "More privacy this way anyway. Of course, we can also make up some lie about you and you can meet him when you're more ready..."
Annabelle winces. "I... yeah... Okay. I can do this." She meets Hinagiku's eyes. "Don't go. Please."
Aron purses his lips. "In the same room? Yeah. They died - explosion from the wardstone shattering." He looks at Ary curiously. "But you were there. The gods must have saved you. That's the only explanation, right?"
He grins. "You know I was never the religious sort... but now since I've become a Crusader..." he fingers a pendant he wears around his neck - the multichromatic songbird of Shelyn. "I'm a new man."
His musings are interrupted by the sound of a distant explosion, and the sounds of war horns in the city. Then finally, the ringing of bells. Aron stands with a jolt, drawing his shortsword, and several of the patrons rush to the windows to see outside. Several buildings in the distance have been set ablaze, and while there are no immediate threats outside, it is clear that the city has come under attack.
"Oh gods, Sosiel," Aron mumbles, staring at Ary pleadingly. "My partner, Sosiel, is a cleric at the temple of Shelyn just a few blocks away. Please, I need to see if he's okay. Can you help me?"
Annabelle stiffens, reaching for her glaive. She glances back at the sealed up windows of her room out of habit. "Oh no. What's going on?"
Ary rises, casting longstrider on herself and intoning, "First into Battle." as soon as the explosion occurs. The war horns only back it up. She's actually caught more off-guard by the question of whether or not she would. At what point had running towards the fire become instinct? No time to dwell on it, she nods. "Of course." she adds, before looking towards the stairs. "We need to go!" she calls.
"Alright, so... quickly - Annabelle would come if she could. She has a problem with sunlight now. I'll explain once this is settled if you need me to, but I didn't want you wondering where she was, and why she wasn't coming."
"Annabelle, of course I .... " Hinagiku had started answering to Annabelle until the explosion interrupted her.
Quickly, the monk reaches for the side of the bed where laid her longspear, and the scimitar Ary had given her the first time they met. Hinagiku did not like carrying the curved blade around. Yet, she did. Not because she was attached to an object, but because parting with it would be insulting to the captain. It would simply be a statement that Ary's gift were useless.
Hearing Ary call from the main floor, Hinagiku makes her way back to the door.
"Ary, should we help Annabelle get to the basement for safety?" she asks, her voice calm yet carrying all the way to the main room.
"Don't know. Does she want to?"
"Is there a basement?" she asks someone who works there, catching them as they pass, or approaching if they're all near the door.
"Sunlight...?" Aron echoes, dully. "...What?"
Annabelle's face falls as she realizes that yet again, she was being left out from the action. She stares down the stairs and into the well-lit common room, then ducks back into her room. She reaches for Daena's silken mask to tie around her face, sitting on the bed sullenly.
The innkeeper, a kind looking elderly woman is currently ushering in civilians into the basement which functions as a wine cellar for the facility. She is about to lock the trapdoor that leads down when she hears Ary's question.
"Course there is! Are you coming? We need to shelter here - the streets aren't safe!"
"Captain! Your orders?" Annabelle calls down the stairs.
Aron perks up at the sound of his sister's voice. "Gods, Annabelle! Are you alright?"
Annabelle groans, massaging her temples. "Yeah! Yeah, j-just peachy" she calls back, her voice shrill.
"I don't do that sort of order. If Markus can protect you and you want to come, come. If not... then it's your choice." she calls up the stairs. "There's a basement that should be safe, but if you feel its safer up there, that's fine, too."
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
"The gods had something to do with it," Val says. "Kind of. It was..." She doesn't even have a chance to finish her sentence as the explosion goes off and the bells begin to chime. "Son of a b*tch! Can we go two days without the world dropping something else in our laps?! We still haven't even had time to kill the night hag we picked up two sidequests ago!"
She grabs her knives and gets up. "Fine. Let's go kill whoever did this so we can get back to our own business."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Suddenly shaking, Markus fumbles n his scroll cases for his last scroll of protective penumbra. He pulls it out and it unfurls itself. "Hold up a sec. We need to get you outside and into a stone building if you're gonna be safe anyway, and there's no point leaving you out if you're gonna be outside anyway."
He examines the scroll for a moment before he recites the arcane words on its surface, and casts a protective pall of shadow upon her. "C'mon downstairs. We're going into battle."
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
He tried his best not to show it, but Ehren was rather apprehensive around Aron, to say the least. His friends did a fairly good job of skirting around the topic of Annabelle's condition, something he was not at all certain he could do himself. In the end, they could only buy time for her and Markus to decide on how to break the news to him. It was not an position that he envied.
Ehren is sitting down and quietly listening to their conversation when the alarms go off. Without standing he turns his head to look out the window, at the burning buildings in the distance. Right away, memories of Armasse come flooding back to him. The candied apple, the rooftops, the boy who had outgrown his shoes. It had all gone wrong so quickly. With a calm fostered by falling into bottomless chasms and stepping onto the Abyss' doorstep, the druid slowly unseats himself.
"Even here of all places," he murmurs as he rubs some dirt between his fingertips, granting himself some much needed mobility. "Their timing is impeccable." Looking up at the others, the corner of his mouth tilts up slightly. "To the temple, then?"
Isilme gets up at the sound of the explosion and the commotion. "Well this figures," she thinks as she realizes they'll likely be investigating that instead of taking care of the hag that had decided to consume them one night's worth of terrors at a time. She sees Annabelle conflicted about what to do regarding her brother, especially when he calls up the stairs in response to hearing her voice and pats her reassuringly on the shoulder. "It'll be alright, for now we just need to get moving to find out what is going on." she says to Annabelle.
"Thank you for the help clearing my mind Hinagiku, but it appears we our lesson has been interrupted," she says as she heads out the door and down the stairs. She turns back to check that the others are following and then continues downward, "Hopefully we can continue when we return, I feel much calmer already."
When she gets down to where the others are, she turns to Ary. "Do you know what happened? Are we needed out there?" she asks her Captain.
For once, Annabelle doesn't look thrilled to be coming along, but she doesn't argue either. She holds her hand out in front of her face - her entire body appearing to be cast under a shadow thanks to the effect of Markus' spell -
"Aye aye, lieutenant necromancer," she says softly, before forcing a smile for Isilme and Hinagiku. "Okay! Let's go kick some ass."
She takes a deep breath and heads down the stairs, pausing awkwardly as Aron comes into view. It takes him a moment to notice her, but once he does he rushes over to scoop her up in a hug.
"Gods, Anna, why haven't you written? I've been so worried." he says, his voice muffled in her neck. Annabelle grimaces, returning the hug awkwardly. She presses her lips together into a thin line, then turns back to Isilme and Hinagiku. "Ah, um. This is Aron, he's my big brother. Aron this is Isilme and Hinagiku, they're my friends..."
"You're so cold," he says then lets go, inspecting her with a frown. "What happened to your hair? What's going on? Are you... cursed or something?" He sighs, his thoughts interrupted by the distant sound of war horns. "Nevermind, we don't have time for this. We need to find Sosiel."
You feel something slip into your pocket. It is a potion labeled cure moderate wounds
"Ah, um. Yeah. Okay! Let's go!" Annabelle responds, with a thin-lipped smile.
The group heads out into the midmorning sun - pushing their way past civilians headed the opposite way for the safety of the center of the city. Aron moves ahead to accompany Valaria and Isilme slightly ahead of the group. After five minutes of hustling down the street he stops and whispers to the pair, "Alright, slow down, his temple is just around the corner... You guys should just go ahead, I'm carrying way too much equipment to be real sneaky."
They slow to a stop on an empty street, though the sounds of yelling and combat echo from out further towards the great walls of the Diamond City.
For just a moment, Val's almost happy that yet another problem has dropped in to stall the undoubtedly awkward conversation that is brewing when they actually have to explain how Annabelle's not quite among the living anymore.
She sighs and takes her usual place near the front of the group to help scout the way forward. No telling what's waiting for them at the temple. She moves as softly as she can, slipping forward to the next corner, peaking around to see what's ahead.
Isilme takes a brief moment to invoke heroism on Valaria, tracing the rune for bravery and imbuing it with a portion of her divine spark. "Ok, you are good to go Val," she whispers.
Isilme then moves alongside Val, keeping her eyes peeled as they move quietly down the street.
Ary tilts her head as the word 'his' comes up. That was actually rather unexpected... but she doesn't say anything, nor overly scrutinize the man. "Right, stay close though. Val and Isilme usually lead the way... the rest of us tend to be pretty clanky, ourselves."
The temple appears to have been attacked. There are a pair of enormous Hezrou demons in front of the temple, defiling a once beautiful statue and garden of Shelyn - the vile demons' mere presence is enough to cause the flowers to wilt and curl up dead around them.
Isilme moves slowly and stealthily, but the wooden post Valaria leans against to peer around the corner creaks slightly, and one of the Hezrous stops in its destruction to listen closer...
These hezrou demons are fairly powerful - possibly too powerful for your group's capabilities.
Hezrou demons are formed from those souls who in life delighted in poisoning others, poolluting their environment, or tainting their flesh with toxins and drugs. Hezrou demons are colloquially known as 'toad demons'. They are surrounded at all times by a horrific stench, that is actually a horrific 'crust' of congealed filth, caked refuse, rotting flesh, gelatinous wastes, seeping pollutants, half-solidified toxins, noxious fungal growths, fragments of decaying refuse... and worse. It is impossible to tell where this mass of horror ends and the demon's actual flesh begins.
Areas where hezrou demons dwell become foul-smelling and polluted.
Hezrou prefer to engage a foe with their crushing hands and bite, and can unleash magic against enemies at range, though they quickly become frustrated with this tactic and teleport away.
You recall a passage from one of Yaniel's scrolls: "There are regions in the Abyss that even most demons avoid. In some such regions, the ground is too changeable or yielding to allow for the passage of feet, much less the erection of mighty fortresses, yet true fluids are few and far between. They are vast reeking plains of stinking ordure, shuddering fields of semi-gelatinous slop, and tangled mires where only half-mad plants, unable to exist wholly on land or entirely at sea, expose undulanting roots. It is here, in these endless wallows of wretchedness and stinking castoff wastes, that the hezrou is king, for few others would want to rule an empire of dung."[
"Oh f*ck us," Val mutters. "These things are way out of our league. Hezrou demons are well outside the level of creature that we can fight on our own." She frowns considering her options while trying to remain very still and hoping that the demons don't bother to investigate too much closer. "These things have a lot of magical abilities and they're next to impossible to hurt without good-aligned weapons, but they often serve casters, especially undead ones. Maybe someone summoned them here. If we could find their caller, we might be able to stop him, but someone who can command demons this powerful would be equally challenging to fight."
"Yeah, well we can't allow Trash Demons to take over Shelyn's Church. They're the absolute worst tenants. They'll turn it into a place full of waste if left alone. Yeah, I know, finding the diamond in the lump of coal, but... ew."
Ary responds as they start to move forth. "You'll want to cover your face. Might be able to blow them apart if they go gassy. Avoid breathing They'll do bad things to us with their blasphemies... like paralysis... maybe death. But it'll be guaranteed death for anyone else. I don't think they'll be able to use it on 'Belle."
She looks over to Isilme, "Regardless, be ready to sing as soon as the little toads start to speak. That, or we can start playing the music box now-ish."
"Hezrou..." Muses Markus. "Toad demons, right? We've fought some serious threats. What are we if we don't try? We just take a moment to align and bless weapons and we be a little more careful than we usually are. And we focus on one at a time."
He focuses for a moment. He lets out a small hum, which spreads throughout the group, calming it and centering everybody for battle.
"They are vast reeking plains of stinking ordure, shuddering fields of semi-gelatinous slop, and tangled mires where only half-mad plants, unable to exist wholly on land or entirely at sea, expose undulanting roots. It is here, in these endless wallows of wretchedness and stinking castoff wastes, that the hezrou is king, for few others would want to rule an empire of dung." Val whispers, reciting from Yaniel's scripture. She really needed to get a more complete collection of her works at some point. "I share your sentiment, but I'm not sure we can take these things in a straight up fight. They'll hammer us with spells, then go back to the church to finish up when they get bored."
"But we have Aron, and hopefully some Shelynite clerics are home." says Markus. "Listen, we don't have time to stand around and avoid jumping into a fight."