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Sometime after the conversation winds down, Ehren leans back against the wall and closes his eyes. Falling asleep there and then was a sorely tempting prospect. He was not too modest to claim that he deserved the rest. They all did. But being left to his own thoughts made it easier to think on the challenges that still awaited them. Knowing that Jorsal was still out there and that Drezen awaited them made him feel like he was wasting time. There was still something he could do, that only he could do. A few minutes pass before he sighs and picks himself off the ground.
"...I shouldn't put it off. If I leave now, I could reach the army by day's end," he says, already in the process of picking his belongings back up. "While I'm at it, I'll see what is going on with Jorsal. Once I've reported to Irabeth, I can relay everything to you all with an animal messenger."
Ehren takes flight out of Icerift, soaring up and above the towers of Icerift and circling down to go down the mountain. The mountain, which took several hours for the heroes to climb on their own, takes less than an hour for him to pass. From above it is clear that the original wikkawak army returned to Icerift - the population here has increased by an order of magnitude, though for now they seem content with the new status quo. Further down the mountainside, Ehren finds Ser Jorsal's forces still present at the watchtower near the base of the mountain. Will Ehren get closer, or will he move on towards Mantarin?
Hinagiku nods to Ehren as he states his intent. She understood how tired the young man was, and respected him for taking upon himself to fly now. She herself was quite exhausted. So, she stands up and accompanies him to the door leading out into the cold. As the druid prepares to leave, she gently gently redirects him so he faces her by grabbing his upper arm.
"I'll take care of the stone while you are gone mr. Ehren so you won't have to worry about anything." she says, apparently believing Ehren to be concerned by the matter. She then smiles gently and watches him off.
The rest of the night, Hinagiku spends as usual, meditating, reading, and practicing while she watches over the others.
"Stone can last forever," Ehren repeats with a smile, glancing at the menhir one last time. "It's you all that I will worry about." As he reaches the door, the druid points toward the ceiling. "Keep an eye on the roof. I don't know how long a messenger will take to reach here, but that's where it will wait.
"We'll meet up again soon. Until then... stay warm."
With that, Ehren exits the building and takes on his favored gyrfalcon form, before flying off.
Ary awakens and redons her armor and weapons, double-checking that their supplies and loot went untouched in the night, before kneeling near the menhir in prayer, Radiance resting behind Faith to project her holy symbol onto the wall as she did so. After her not-so-brief rest, she moves out into the snow to perform her katas, after which, she kneels once more, and upon rising, stands straighter than before. While her normal stance since TheDeadening™ had become somewhat wider, ready to maneuver quickly, this one seemed at once regal and laid-back. She softly rolled her shoulders and rubbed her neck, as Radiance bathed her in a warm light, before she finally swished, flicked, and sheathed the weapon.
"I'm going to go check on the armory now. I'm sure the majority has been torn apart and reassembled, but there's likely to be something in there, probably quite a bit hidden, if they'd made it that far in the development. If any of you would like to come with me, more eyes will be better. If we're going to try to reestablish ourselves with the army, arming those that can fight here will be of use... and we'll never know what sorts of things were hidden or just plain overlooked if we don't check. Do you think the chorus box will help with the Wendigo curse?" she asks, looking to both Xanderghul and Isilme in turn.
The courtyard around the watchtower is swarming with demons and cultists - mostly babau, dretches, and schir. The numbers here are significantly less than what you previously saw fighting on the mountain - they are down to barely over a hundred demons, a few dozen cultists, and only four abominations. A number of wikkawak ghouls lurk around the courtyard and - looking up - you see them slinking around a building on which the monstrous nabasu is perched.... but it's not a nabasu at all. Rather, it is one of Ser Jorsal's creations - a monstrous thing with the head of a goat stitched in where its head once was. Noticing the foul creature, Ehren circles around and starts flying down the mountain towards Mantarin.
It is late in the afternoon when Ehren arrives at Mantarin. The small town is bustling - clearly Nurah's forces and caravans arrived recently and the soldiers are busy dealing with the new supplies. It doesn't take long for him to find Chevalier Irabeth out on the streets, who stands with Anevia, Nurah, Sosiel, Aron and Markus.
Lying on his back to rest, Xanderghul sees Ary get up, re-arm herself and begin to practice. His gaze lingers on her tiredly for a moment before he heaves a big sigh, flips himself over with a grunt, and fumbles in his handy haversack for a moment. He pulls out his own spellbook, and makes some room for it on his bedroll. Next he pulls out a quill and ink, and begins to transcribe new things in the book's last pages, continuing his ever-progressing spell research.
"I bring word from Icerift," he announces, deciding to start with the abridged version. "We've made contact with the castle's current occupants; they're a tribe of violent creatures called wikkawaks. Jorsal's army has been trying to take the castle from them, but the demons have suffered heavy losses. They're currently encamped around the watchtower near the mountain's base."
Ehren sighs before moving onto the more colorful part of the report. For his companions, he supposed it was a typical development.
"While the bulk of the wikkawak forces were away fighting Jorsal, we infiltrated the castle. Long story short, we had little choice but to slay their chieftain. For now, the tribe seems to have acknowledged Valaria as their new leader."
The druid pauses to let that all sink in, and to await the inevitable questions.
Ears twitching to attention at Ary's words, Hinagiku slowly transitions from her meditating motions into a casual stance.
"I'm willing to come with you Ary, but, wouldn't it be wiser to wait for the wikkawaks to depart before searching? Some might notice it and take advantage of it."
"I do not believe that the box will have any effect on the psychosis, unfortunately," Isilme answers after pondering for a moment. Thinking Ary's idea to search the armory a reasonable one for now, she stands up and offers to accompany her. "I will come with you to the armory. If I recall correctly, the Gray Garrison also had a well-stocked hidden armory, so you are likely right that there may be something of interest."
"I do not think it will pose a problem now, Hinagiku. Since they serve Valaria in theory now, they should not be able to act without her blessing. We should be able to take everything of value and bring it back here without intereference."
"If anyone complains about you searching the area, tell them they can take it up with me. That should at least keep them in line for tonight. I think I'm going to stay here and keep an eye on things with Xan. Plus a warlord doing manual labor would probably look weird to them."
"We could, but likely, by that time, there would be something still wiser to be doing." Ary says with a small helpless shrug. "We have to do what we can as we can do it, or we're likely to miss the chance entirely."
Ary nods to Isilme, "I was sort of thinking the same thing, there. If dwarves were involved, there's probably a hidden space. But on the other hand, between the renovations that have been done and the way things ended, I'm not sure it'd be recognizable, or even in use. A hidden door may have just been left open given what occurred." Ary says, massaging her stiff shoulder. "That also means if you're not coming with, you guys should probably look over the loot we got from the hoard." she adds, inclining her head towrds Valaria's bag, before putting her own on.
"I'll be back in a bit." she announces as she heads out of the menhir room, to head for the armory.
Xanderghul is keeping an eye on his spellbook, scribbling lazily. "Uh huh, don't die." he says, absent-mindedly.
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"With shining advice like that, one wonders where you were when we ran into those Hezrou." Ary quips.
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Xanderghul's eyes stay on his book. "Behind enemy lines, guiding a squad of Crusaders to safety. Obviously."
Isilme accompanies Ary, heading out alongside her. "Perhaps we can manage to find my bow as well while we are out," she says as they head for the door. "We will be certain to remind them of who they serve, Warlord Blood-knives," she says with a wink. Isilme just rolls her eyes at Xanderghul, not bothering to respond beyond that and a nod for the initial "don't die" offered.
"Why don't you ever lead us to safety, Xander?" Ary asks, grinning, "Oh, wait. Cause we're with the Crusaders. We have to get in over our heads first. You stay safe, too." she adds, before finally committing to heading out.
As Ary leaves, Xanderghul kind of mutters under his breath, "Uh, just now? Wasn't this my plan?"
Hinagiku nods in understanding to Isilme and Ary, the risks seemed to be worth it. As the commander prepares to leave, she moves to the door, opening for the others and looking outside. Only after patiently waiting to see who would get the last word between Ary and Xanderghul does she step out and follows the others to the armory.
"Wikkawaks?" Nurah perks up, quill already in hand. "Oh, now this is an interesting development! They're.... arctic bugbears, yes? Interesting... and exactly how did you manage to overthrow their leader? What was his name? How long were they occupying Icerift? Was their society more of a tribal one, or had they evolved to a more distinct hierar-"
Irabeth raises a gauntlet-clad hand to silence to overly excited halfling. "There will be time for these questions later. But for now we need to know what to do now. Does the Commander request we move now? We have nearly a hundred cultists underneath at the moment, complicating our ability to move quickly."
Sosiel rubs his chin. "Jorsal is a problem, though, and if his forces are weakened perhaps we need to take the opportunity to strike. How large of a force does he command? Perhaps we don't need to bring all of our forces..."
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While Ehren is en route to Mantarin, Ary, Isilme, and Hinagiku leave for the armory. They simply cut straight across the courtyard to the opposite side of the castle, passing by large numbers of wikkawaks loitering around or quarreling. The creatures give the three a large berth, eyeing them cautiously as they pass with fear and suspicion.
Finally they arrive at the armory. It is a two story building connected to the adjacent towers by skywalks, though much of the top floor appears to have collapsed under the weight of many years of snows. The ground floor, however, is sturdy. The three open the door and find four wikkawaks inside - they appear to be engaged in some sort of bizarre game where they walk around blindfolded and attempt to stab one another. They hear the door open and take their blindfolds off, appearing alarmed.
"What you want?"
"Warlord here?"
----
A little while after the three depart, a lone wikkawak approaches the menhir building to address Valaria. He is the aged one who was seen amongst the prisoner pens. He bows deeply and addresses the two in Common, with a deep and fluid voice uncommon to his kind. His intelligent eyes dart around the room at Variska and Ayavah before he speaks. "Forgive my interruption, Warlord, Nathru wishes for an audience. Nathru wishes to know if the Warlord will call for a Gorging tonight. We have many sacrifices now, and Nathru has waited long, so long - Nathru's stone is covered full with his waiting.... I beg of you, Warlord, is it finally time for Nathru's sky-walk?"
"The plan is to have the army to finish off what remains of Jorsal's forces. Our hope was to direct the wikkawaks to Keeper's Canyon, but with the watchtower still occupied, their way might be blocked. None of us were certain of Jorsal's position until I saw them on my way here; I still need to relay that information back to the others."
"We're here on her behalf to investigate the state of our armaments and investigate this old armory." Ary says simply, mostly ignoring them, and letting the others do more talking if they want to.
She then focuses her attention on looking over the walls, floor, and ceiling. She was quite hopeful that the Wikkawaks hadn't redecorated this particular room.
Isilme lets Ary speak first before interjecting as well. Shaking her head at the wikkawaks to indicate that the warlord wasn't here, she adds "The Warlord wants you to leave for now," gesturing towards the wikkawaks and then the exit, hoping it would be intelligible.
As she waits for their response she gazes about the room looking for anything of note.
"Они говорят правду. Вы будете подчиняться им и уходить." Hinagiku adds, thinking that the dark speech of the abyss and her appearance would be enough to force them into submission. And, though she does her best to say it gently, the language doesn't lend itself to it, giving her speech an even more intimidating tone.
Hinagiku than takes a few steps inside, calm, unafraid of the wikkawaks, and looks around, surveying the walls, wondering if she could spot any hidden caches.
Aron visibly flinches at the mention of shadow demons - Sosiel places a comforting hand on his shoulder as he mutters, "Invidiaks. Great."
Irabeth nods. "We'll need to increase security, then. They'll likely know we're here soon... a few of the prisoners got away in the night, despite our best efforts to maintain guard on their longhouses. We suspect there were a few magically inclined cultists among them."
They listen to the rest of Ehren's report. Once finished, Anevia laughs. "So, wait. Valaria's gonna send a whole squad of bugbears to fight demons? That's so like her. You remember, right, Irabeth? I told you about the time she waltzed right into a stronghold of Baphomet..." she says, elbowing the half-orc.
Irabeth can't help but crack a smile at her wife's good humor. "Yes, I remember. I'm not surprised your group has managed to make the best of a difficult situation. It seems that Sosiel is right - this may be the perfect opportunity to wipe out Jorsal's forces once and for all. But what would the Commander have us do about the prisoners? We cannot possibly mobilize them with us, they'd be too much of a liability. Should we leave guards? There are so many of them, that without a significant force left behind, there is a significant chance they'll attempt to overthrow any men left to watch over them."
Nathru bows deeply. "Warlord Blood-Knives merciful and generous. Nathru not disappoint. The snows run red with their blood tomorrow"
He turns to leave, then suddenly stops. "But Nathru concerned. The demons hold an old home, cursed with dwarven magics. Krogmot do not dare to pass the - what you say- hakhaal'tuuraan? A great dwarven statue protects that place. Many Krogmot die. Ugmitok unable to stop it, command us to avoid hakhaal'tuuraan instead."
It takes a moment for the wikkawaks to comprehend what is being said to them, but once they do, they jump to attention. "Okay, okay. We go."
"You tell Warlord we go? Okay?"
"Warlord Rhuul-Megaan need Megaan? Good stuff in caves down below. Here sleep-sleep place," adds one helpfully, before closing the door behind him.
Once they are gone, Isilme, Ary, and Hinagiku work together to scour the armory. It was once also a smith - though the forge has not been awakened for many decades - the bugbears are not known for their metalcraft. Pieces of discarded armor and weapons lay scattered about haphazardly - all ruined by the wikkawaks as they've ripped them apart into their components for re-assembly. A pile of cold iron arrow and bolt heads lay in a small bucket, next to a curious vat filled with beeswax.
The most notable thing in the room is an eight inch tall metal statue of Torag, standing before an anvil with a hammer in his hand. It is placed into a small recession in the stone wall, and around the base is inscribed in Dwarven - "ᛒᚢᚨᛚᚨᛞᚺ᛫ᚠᚺᚨᛞ᛫ᛋᚨ᛫ᛒᚺᚨ᛫ᚨᚾ᛫ᛏ᛭ᛁᚨᚱᚨᚾᚾ᛫ᛏᛖᚦ"
Isilme's keen eyes notice a barely visible seam in the stone wall with the statue at its center. Is something behind it?
It reads: "Strike while the iron is hot" - a well known idiom amongst worshippers of Torag.
"There seems to be something here," she says, leaning in and tracing her finger over the seam she had found. "This statue must be related to it." Recognizing the runes as dwarven and that this armory once contained a Forge, Isilme thinks back, trying to recall if she remembered anything related to Torag that the text before her might represent.
Ary finds that Torag's arm can be pressed downwards like a lever... but nothing happens when she does.
"I'll look." Hinagiku simply answers to the commander before rummaging around to find wood. Of course there was the arrows, but they might come in usefull.
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Hinagiku doesn't find any wood, but she does find a burlap sack filled with coal - unused and forgotten under a pile of rubbish.
"Nathru lives to serve, Warlord Blood-Knives." Nathru shuffles a bit, shifting his weight from one leg to the other as he thinks. "Krogmot climb up and down mountain to hunt. Sometimes we go many days to find food. Nathru not know about demons. Nathru commanded to watch sacrifices, and care for bears. Nathru too old now to climb up and down mountain."
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"Wonder if we'll actually have to move something hot between the two." she suggests.
The three women work together to load the furnace with coal, then, using Ary's flint and steel and the bellows, it is trivial to ignite the forge. The room is suddenly filled with the smell of burning coal, and though the heroes barely notice the cold thanks to their protective magics, the warmth from the flames is still comforting on their cool flesh.
The druid reaches into his belt pouch and touches his other pearl of power, recovering the magical energies he had used to cast animal messenger earlier.
"Are there any other developments I should relay to Ary? I can send her a message, but she won't be able to send back an answer. But once they've been made aware of Jorsal's position, I'm sure that they'll be able to think of something."