With a shrug Bel adjusts the straps holding his pack to redistribute the weight and makes to continue on.
"The spiral continues. We should get back to the boat."
Gad makes sure the city's doors are fully sealed shut and that Kessen's key is in the Captain's hands for safe keeping.
Brezik moves along humming to himself listening to the soft clink and jingle of the metal in his pack. As he and his friends crossed the gates out of the city he felt like a burden was lifted from his back. He turned to his allies when he caught sight of Allister and Vivian armorless. It only takes a moment of looking back at the entrance to the city to realize what has happened.
BWAHaHAHA... It seems that what was given to us for free can’t leave the city... Thought it was too good to be true... hehe...
Before they press on Brezik helps both Allister and Vivian to don their old armor , chuckling the entire time.
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For a moment Allister believes the weight off his shoulders to be relief. How naive.
When the increasingly-greedy young paladin looks down upon his unarmored body, he nearly cries. The others' words sound muffled as if they were speaking to him through a door. My armor. My gold... We've done so much good - can we not for once be rewarded? Through his tough exterior a slight tremble breaks and the big man looks like a child about to cry.
He opens his mouth to speak, but there is no sound. Only bitter dryness like a mouthful of sand.
Later, as Allister don's his old masterwork plate, he looks upon it with disappointment.
"You'll always be shiny to me Allister" Qina said as she slipped her little hand into his. Her other hand she placed on his armor and started rubbing it as if she was buffing it out, something she had seen Brezik do before, although she didn't have a cloth to use. She chanted arcane words as she worked, turning the dull metal grey into a bright, shiny gold.
"It won't last long, but I can do it again when it wears off" she said.
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Once everyone was ready to continue forward again, Vivian scans the island immediately surrounding the City's entrance. "It'll be a hard go, but I think we should push back to the coast without another rest. I'm sure Walren isn't enjoying it in those waters. This is our fifth day on the island, correct?"
Silent and downtrodden, Gad seems to take their basic success as more of a failure in the end. He rarely speaks unless spoken to, and just keeps moving on, simply following orders as they are given. The dark storm swirling overhead is just a constant reminder of the island's continued curse.
The tunnel stretches, longer than you remember, though you don't have the thrill of the chase pushing you ever faster anymore. Now it is time for wary retreat from Tar-Baphon's insidious slap in the face of mortal-kind. You push through the foliage blocking the entrance to Xin-Graffar and find Dusan close by. The Pathfinder has killed a wolf and several lizardmen in your absence, and smeared something even more foul on him than when you first met. His leg does seem to be healing and his blade is just as sharp as you left it.
"Alive! Undead? No, stink not enough for that. Here!" He thrusts some offal and mud at you, "Get stink back for safe trip! We leave now?"
Gad nods.
"We leave now."
Dusan takes a few minutes writing in his notebook, taking note of all of your injuries and pains before leading you back on the trail to the swamp. The rain has started to let up, though your instincts tell you it will be a few days yet before the storm completely lets up. You put about 16 miles under your boots as the blackness in the sky turns to a darker, pitcher black, the temperature falling a bit as the night does.
I agree.
You continue on through the night, working with Dusan to avoid the well known wolves dens and lizardfolk tribes. Once you even see a shadow demon flying high overhead when lightning flashes just the right way. You make it back to Fort Landing and remember what Walran told you, two signal fires far enough away from each other to clearly mark it as your signal.
You find some nice spots, but it'll be difficult to light the fires with the rain coming down.
Brezik starts rummaging through his bag...
I have a tent here we can cut in half to make two leant-too’s to keep the wind off of our project. I also got some twine and paper we can rap around something to get a good fire going... anyone got some oil or an alchemists fire to get this a fire really going.
Gad spends some of his inner energy (1ki) to ignite his hands and feet with fire.
"I can light it. That moss there might burn."
As Gad'larr says, the moss does ignite, but not before releasing a foul odor, even for Brezik and Dusan, and belching thick dark smoke that seems to follow you in an effort to get into your lungs.
Your group reconvenes at Fort Landing and wait. And wait. And wait some more. A half hour after lighting both fires you finally spot a vessel heading toward the shore, the same leaky rowboat that dropped you off. Walran is rowing and whistling as once again Mabon the Destroyer is bailing water and cursing heavily the entire way.
"Land ho! Good day! Evening? Egh, whatever. Good time to you! I see you have another with you, and you're still alive. So, take care of those cultists did you?" Walran is in high spirits, though it seems a bit forced, especially with the heavy darkness and negative energy in the air.
Gad helps steady the boat as the others board in the rough waters.
"We succeeded...sort of."
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Vivian is quite agitated at the prospect of being out over water again. She clumsily enters the anxiety inducing rowboat, "Easier to say the Island took care of them, but aye Captain Walran our mission is complete. I'm glad the seas were safe enough as well. By your count, how many days were we gone?"
"A false god's plans have be thwarted. A great temptation faced and refused. We all live to tell others of the lesson we have learned. The spirals twist ever inwards but we are not yet at our centres. I'd call that a win."
Razmir still speaks his lies. Viv's father... Tar-Baphon...
"We've got a lot still to do though."
Walran sucks on his lower lip and looks at the sheet of black overhead. "Best estimate puts you at 6 days. Difficult to tell with all the durned negative energy up there. But we're glad you made it back. Time now to head back to the ship." He waits for everyone to board, hands another bailing bucket to Gad, then pushes off, heading for his ship, whistling all the while.
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As they row away from the island and its darkness, Allister can feel his breaths deepening as if the lungs inside him had been shriveled and now grew again to their full size. The salt water felt refreshing and cool, and even the bobbing up and down over the waves and the hidden horizon do not bring back the nausea that first plagued him when they set out.
The island had taken a toll on the lot of them, and even the paladin's strong spirit had been dampened. He could feel it returning like sip of warm soup in his belly.
"It's a good thing that we did back there. I don't know there's many people but us that could've done it, either. We're not leaving with our packs full of riches, but there's plenty of reward to be had - just not one you can grab hold of like a shiny coin or flashy new armor... I'm just glad to have my friends with me. There were a few times I thought we might not make it out... But we did. We made it through that, we can make it through anything."
Allister sits silently for a few moments, then says a last word. "I'd go just about anywhere with you guys. Though it sure would be nice to go home."
He looks at their faces like he had known them for a thousand years, though it had been less than one. More like family than friends. But good family, like his Mom and Dad, and Baeloth too, before he turned rotten.
Home. Home? HOME.
Gad furrows his brow, and focuses on bailing out the boat silently.
Brezik has spent most of the trip out in the jungle with both a figurative and actual cloud over his head. He didn’t feel the same sense of disappointment over the lost treasures. He would rather have a little something made with his own hands then allot of something given for free. The weather was dark and somber but the rain, wind, and occasional flash of negative energy in the clouds above didn’t really bother him. The sense of success that they had accomplished something big and important would come eventually. The closeness of his friends certainly kept him from getting to low. What really was putting a damper on his mood was the fact that the last time he went for one of his snacks he had realized that he was completely out. No more potted meat, or sweets, or dried fruit, or salted nuts, or hard bread. This was what he had been thinking about all day.
Then at the mention of home his stomach involuntarily growled. I can hardly wait to se what Ma has on the hearth when we get home.... Of course your’e all invited. ... the second part had been an after thought.
Walran doesn't push for details, though it is clear the dwarf is curious about your journey to the island. Not many have made it back from the Isle of Terror. Dusan continues to write his notes throughout the journey, slowly learning to write them privately rather than publicly muttering the words being scratched down in his tattered notebook. A few days on the barge and Walran is again running along the coast. Luckily no further craziness with hags occurs on the way back and the storms abate behind you as you continue to head further toward Tamran.
The Black Mist floats into a dock in Tamran without fanfare, without shouting, cheering, or crowds of people screaming your names. It seems no one knows of the mission you undertook almost 2 weeks ago. The sun is low in the sky, rapidly descending as you touch down on the pier, one hooded figure waiting for your arrival.
Throwing the cowl back Reginar reveals himself, smiling as he sees all of you alive, "My friends, welcome back. I take it you have retrieved the key and finished the cult?"
His attitude had been worse when they first set sail, but the sea journey helped to buoy his spirits: He no longer scowled continuously. Waving, Gad helps tie up the boat upon landing, letting Vivian do the talking to their 'contact.'
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"Reginar." Vivian clasps the man's arm as she disembarks onto the dock. "We have been successful. It is almost best that a storm rages on that island, preventing anyone foolish from spreading the evil there. How has the town recovered from the fall of the cult here?"
Vivian scans the city of Tamran as it builds up from the docks. She would say that is felt normal, but she is still unfamiliar with the large city.
'I guess we'll grabs supplies here and head home. It has only been about a month but it feels like it has been forever.'
Reginar nods, "Yes, those negative energy storms do well to keep the Isle shrouded. I dread the day a vampire or lich decides to take up residence there. The town is...recovering. There still hasn't been much travel through here, but as word spreads that the Razmirans are out of here I expect it to pick up again. Their 'Faith Barges' will hopefully learn these waters are not safe for them."
He leads you to the Forest Bounty for another feast. When everyone is seated and ready to eat he leans in and whispers, "Would you mind showing me the key to the city? I'll see if I can separate it once more."
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"It will be good to see the Lake free of privateers." Vivian agrees.
Once in the Forest Bounty, Vivian's hand instinctively raises to hide the keys that hang on a necklace beneath her armor as Reginar asks to see them. "I, had thought to return them as they were to the Crypt of the Everflame." She looks around the table to judge reactions and the situation.
Reginar grimaces, not enthused with the idea of the key being kept as one piece. "I can understand wanting to get the two pieces back to Kassen and Asar. How about I travel with you back to Kassen and we see to breaking it apart there? I'll take the final piece far away, hopefully so no one will be able to get in that horrid city ever again."
Stepping up after helping with the boat, Gad listens to tail end of the conversation.
"The key? I feel we should destroy it completely if possible. Kassen's tomb is...compromised now really. Is it not?"
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"I, yes. You are both right. Sentimentality has no place here, that is what caused this to begin when the three of them couldn't let go of it themselves." Vivian removes the key and hands it to Reginar. I agree. Destroy it completely. Smelt it into a thousand beads and scatter them across the world."
Gad stares at the key.
"If that's even possible."
Qina had been quiet for most of the journey back. Part of her was trying to process what she had been feeling and the rest of her was still somewhat fearful of Gad becoming pure fire again. While Brezik could use fire to shape nearly any shape from any metal, he had never been fire. He had always been Brezik.
She knew that Gad was still Gad, still her friend, the same boy she had known as a youth but something deep inside her still whispered uncertainities inside her head.
She had sat withdrawn as the others discussed plans for the keys before finally speaking up. "Maybe Brezik could melt it down and make into something else?"
"it should be Brezik."
Bel has not spoken for some time and his voice cracks, he seems young again.
"Brezik, you're our Smith. You have played such a huge part in our quests, and I think this last task should be yours in the end. Finish it. If everyone agrees and Brezik is able, we could craft each of us a momento..."
Reginar nods, "We can certainly try to destroy it. I don't know if this key was created by the Lich King himself or if he found it." Reginar leans into the table. "Now, who was that peculiar fellow you had with you on the boat? Smelled absolutely vile, and scruffier than a woodsman just returned from a year long trek."
With a smirk, Gad hooks a thumb at the man.
"That's what some call a 'Pathfinder." Crazy as a 'loon, except that would be insulting 'loons of course. Trust me, he's a lot better now than he was earlier! Is there a Pathfinder Lodge in town? They actually might be able to help us figure out what to do with this key....and we can drop off a certain individual so as to return him their ranks."
Reginar twitches and looks wide eyed. "That was my plan, hopefully the Decemvirate will lock it away forever. And I'm the only game in town," he says pulling out a Wayfinder. "What was his name? None of the expeditions sent to the Isle of Terror have ever returned."
Gad shrugs.
"Says his name is Dusan...but like I said he is a bit off his rocker. So that could be a nick-name or what 'this' personality calls itself."
He ends the last part making quotation marks with his fingers in the air.
As the others talked about Dusan Brezik grabbed hold of the key and pressed his nail into the metal. Then he harrumphed to himself and unceremoniously bit the key testing the malleability of the metal. As he pulled the key away a single strand of drool connected the key to his mouth and then snapped disappearing into his beard.
"Dusan? I haven't heard of any agent by that name, but I'll bring him with me to Absolom after our trip to Kassen"
The key seems crystalline in nature, rather than malleable. Brezik's fingernails nor teeth leave indents or cracks at all.
If Reginar is offering a free feast again, then Gad won't turn it away, but later on he will quietly seek out a temple or shrine to Irori (if he can) to meditate and try to recapture his inner balance.
Reginar bites off a hunk of leg and shakes his head, "Nothing spectacular, but those dogs don't have the cajones to try anything major. So eat, drink, and tomorrow we'll get everything underway."