It takes hardly any coaxing for the pair under the wagon to crawl out. They are human teenagers, whom Skalla recognizes immediately. The boy is Ulis, and the girl is Nilda, both students of Skalla's in the recent past.
After a moment or two for some slighly awkward clothing adjustments, they are both ready to move. Ulis jumps up into the wagon when he hears what the little group has in mind.
"We were up here before the wolf came, and I saw some things that will be useful" he explains.
He grabs a couple of sacks of vegetables, one of which turns out to contain a smaller sack holding 25 gold coins.
While this is happening Azure proceeds down the alleyway to see what's ahead. He sees that they only need to cross the street to reach the trees that border the Riverwood Shrine. The roof of the shrine is visible over the treetops, but it's otherwise blocked from view by the foliage.
A new worry strikes Azure. The shrine!
Deadeye, if there be anything left of your house, let me preserve it. Let me not fail this test.
"Hurry," he says gruffly. He points toward the shrine and says, "There."
"It might have drawn the hobgoblins as it has drawn us. We should be wary as we approach," counsels Caeleron. "The civilians should wait somewhere safe while we assess the enemy disposition of the enemy."
Azure looks around and surveys the town. He addresses Caeleron without looking at him, "Where is safe? Nowhere is safe. You and I are safe. Skalla, Faunra, Callistria. Aubrin. We are safe. We leave these people, they are not safe."
After assessing the horrible situation, Azure turns his gaze to Caeleron. Azure's eyes are entirely golden, with pinprick pupils-- like an eagle staring at the sun. "If we leave them here, there is no telling what may come from around the next corner. A wolf, a hobgoblin, or worse. Look at them," he gestures to the unarmed survivors with his empty hand. "It's not what we asked for, but we ARE their sanctuary. I don't like it any more than you do. But they stay with us. Agreed?
Azure wipes some of the ashes in the air from his eyes and looks plaintively at Caeleron, then to the other survivors, lingering especially on Faunra, Skalla, and Callistria.
"We have to go," he says.
"Yes, we have to go. Nilda, Ulis, stay behind me. Well done, spotting the provisions, Ulis. Now you're in charge of distributing them to the others to carry, yes? Not to the people with weapons, they will be fighting if anything bothers us, yes? Good."
That little bit of business taken care of, she sets her sights on the shrine, ready to move out.
Faunra had to hold herself back from dashing to the temple the moment Azure pointed it out.
Her parents could be there!
And Dr. Oreld, and Kining, and Noelan, and Rhyna!
She figetted with her clothing and hair, trying to stay calm but, she wanted to move.
She cared about the villagers, but she was a villager too! Her sister had just stabbed a wolf in the neck! They had both been villagers less than an hour ago!
She could hear the fire, and screaming, the shouting of hobgoblins, the howling of worgs and wolves...
She was trying, so desperately hard. But she could feel herself failing.
She hated them. And she hated herself for not being able to do anything about it.
Caeleron considers Azure's words for a moment, reflecting on what they have seen and what they have had to do already to make it this far. "You are right. We will protect them." His thoughts flash to Nithvel, to the deaths, to the burning. I will protect them, he resolves. "We must keep moving. The village will not last long, nor the villagers."
Choosing a moment when there is nobody to see them, the group crosses the road and threads through the trees at the edge of the shrine's lot. A wooden shack is the first thing they come upon. It is near the trees and serves as the caretaker Noelan's modest home. As you round the edge of the shack to get a clearer look at the shrine itself, you see Noelan's assistant, A young woman named Rhyna, clutching a spear and leading two men with swords on a charge toward the wooden deck that fronts the shrine. A snarling wolf bounds off the deck and charges back at them.
If she has a shot Callistra will take it before the wolf reaches Rhyna.
"Another one! Wolves belong in the forest. Git!"
Skalla bounds forward, swinging her flail as she moves. The wolf can either run or die where it stands, as far as she's concerned.
Caeleron sees the danger too late and the wolf is moving before he is. He swiftly draws an arrow as he moves laterally, trying to get a good shot past Skalla and the others. Once in position he knocks the arrow and lets it fly at the wolf.
Round 1
The wolf closes on the little group of townsfolk quickly. They do their best against it, but the the wolf is agile. It darts past Rhyna's spear, and only one of the two men manages to tag it lightly with his sword. The other man goes down hard as the beast leaps on him, tearing at his throat. He is left on the ground, bleeding out, as the wolf turns for another run at the acolyte and her companion.
Round 2
Both Callistra and Caeleron takes shots at the wolf, but bolt and arrow both miss their marks. Skalla rushes forward to assist Rhyna and the man, but her flail misses as well.
Rhyna stumbles back, away from the wolf, jabbing at it with her spear. She catches it solidly in the flank, leaving a bleeding gash. The man with her tries again to strike the wolf, but his sword misses this time.
Azure's features reshape, and his muscles bulge. Reflexively, he exhales through his nose with a a snort. Despite himself, there is a comfort here, something of the chaos and carnage that reminds him of home. In clear-headed moments, he would never admit to this, but the smoke and fire and blood suit Azure like a tailored glove. His anguish at seeing his town destroyed is real. Azure loves Phaendar and Nirmathas and all the people who make them up. But Azure's soul, the real wolf part of Azure, feels the answer to some unvoiced question in the presence of carnage.
Azure stalks toward the wolf engaged with Rhyna, attempting to set up a flank.
Faunra weilds her short spear defensively but her focus is on the man bleeding out and once again she brings her magic forth to stem the flow of blood spilling from the man's neck.
The wolf deftly avoids Skalla and Azure as they enter the fight. Faunra stops the fallen man's bleeding. He remains unconscious on the ground.
The wolf turns on Rhyna in response to the wound she has given it. She narrowly avoids its snapping jaws though.
Ryna punches back at it with her spear, catching it in the throat. At the same time, the man with her approaches the wolf from behind and brings his sword down across its back. The wolf goes down immediately under the two blows, and moves no more.
After taking a couple of gasping breaths to calm herself, Rhyna turns to look at the newcomers who intervened in the skirmish.
She's young, barely out of her teens, with blonde hair and bronze skin, suggesting perhaps some Taldan blood in her past. She wears blue robes, and a Desnan butterfly pendant of wood and glass hangs from the chain around her neck. The pupils of her eyes are huge, giving away her fear, but she's still smiling.
"Thank you!" she says. We need your help. The wolf's masters are inside the shrine, and so are Father Noelan and some others. We hid in Noelan's house, there are some people still in there, but then we heard yelling and screaming from the shrine. We have to hurry!"
For his part, the man with her staggers over to Faunra and the man on the ground. He seems stunned, and in a shaking voice asks the Shaman "is Jakob dead?"
"He's alive, just unconscious. I've stabilized him and stopped the bleeding but he'll need better healing than what I can give him to fully recover."
She looks over to Callistra.
"Can you bandage him up? I've never been very good at it. I'll help if you need me to, but I can't do more than I've done."
Faunra still felt weak, but no longer useless. It took her this time to appreciate that keeping people alive her way was just as important as how the others were doing it.
She still wished she could do both.
Callistra reloaded the crossbow, feeling more secure with it ready to be used. She smiles when Faunra speaks to her. "Sure, we can get him fixed. I mean healed, he probably wouldn't like being fixed."
"How many villagers are inside, and how many invaders?" Caeleron asks the young woman. She appears to be some sort of religious leader, and is clearly capable in a fight, which suggests that she is trustworthy and reliable.
He grips his bow before creeping towards the shrine, trying to hear through the door or peek through the window to get a measure of the situation inside.
Skalla watches as Callistra tends to Jakob, then follows the elf towards the shrine. If they can catch the ones inside unawares, she has a trick or two up her sleeve for them.
Should they manage to come closer without being detected, she casts a spell that she usually keeps for unruly students during break, one that would make them drowsy and less energetic. If not... well, she still has her flail gripped in her hands, and a burning desire to use it on these invaders.
Azure crouches slightly. It is awkward with his supernaturally increased bulk. He pads toward the shrine toward the wolves' masters, his scimitar still readied in his hand.
The group, now including Rhyna, moves forward toward the chapel. The man who had accompanied her stays behind to move his badly injured friend back to the cover of the shack. His nerves are obviously shaken by the encounter with the wolf.
As everyone moves forward, Rhyna answers Caeleron in a low voice. "I'm... not sure. There were several, but we saw some leave. That's why we thought we could go back after the the ones inside."
Up onto the deck that wraps around the front of the chapel and there is nothing in sight. The doors of the chapel are open and you hear hacking sounds and grunts from inside. A board squeaks under Skalla's foot, but there seems to be no response from within the chapel. Azure and Skalla peek around he corner and see a scene of carnage and mayhem. Bodies lie all about the place, at least a dozen hacked to death.
One hobgoblin is busy hacking at the statue of Desna that stands in one of the alcoves along the wall. The statue of Erastil in another is already rent with cut marks. Colorful cloth banners have been ripped down, and offerings in the various alcoves have been smashed and scattered.
A second hobgoblin is closer, leaning over a sack and rummaging its contents. He looks up to see you just as you look at him. He opens his mouth to call out...
"Seržant Semfet, ľudia pri dverách!" he yells, leaving the sack alone and standing up fully. He readies himself, sword in hand.
Seeing the bodies and the broken statue of Erastil, Azure is almost incandescent with rage. In a fleeting instant, he recalls the savagery and incessant violence of his upbringing. He recalls the torture and the pain he was born into. It was through the blessings of Erastil that he was effectively born into civilization. It is by Erastil, Serenrae, and Desna that he was shown that there is not only another way to live but that the way is blessed by beings of real power: that love and compassion toward others and kindness of spirit were not effete any more than the heat of Serenrae's light or the tip of Erastil's arrows are effete. Here, in sight of awful blood and broken idols, fury overtakes Azure.
With the need for stealth mercifully discarded, he bellows loudly and attacks the hobgoblin rummaging in the sack.
Like Azure, Skalla is enraged. Her nostrils flare, taking in the overpowering stench of blood. What point to this slaughter and destruction? Truly, these invaders were worse than savages. They were evil and rotten to the core. Destroying life, destroying beauty...
With a roar, Skalla leaps forward, swinging her flail at the hobgoblin's knees as Azure's sword descends from above.
The invaders seem to care little for the shrine to the human gods. They are not Caeleron's gods, but they are important to his new companions, so they are important to him. He steps into the doorway and sees a hobgoblin defiling a statue at the far end while another is being cut to pieces by Skalla and Azure.
Swiftly drawing an arrow, he nocks it to his bow and draws back the bowstring, sighting carefully along the shaft before loosing it towards the hobgoblin's throat.
The hobgoblin hears the commotion and turns at the last second, sending Caeleron's arrow smashing into the wall behind him.
As the others move into the shrine Callistra lifts her crossbow and keeps watch as best she can outside.
Faunra looked past Azure and Skalla and froze in shock. Everything began to move as if time had slowed down.
Lucas...
Maria...
Mr. Illune...
Body after body of people she knew. Some might have been visitors, but it was hard to tell who they were given the damage.
She looked over at Azure and Skalla who flung themselves at the nearest invader. At Caeleron as he steps next to her, loosing an arrow at the farther hobgoblin but it moves out of the way just in time.
Where were her parents?
The forest... they have to be... they didn't come here. They...
She looks back to see her adopted sister wielding a crossbow bow and guarding the rear.
They've ruined everything.
In the last moment, she breaks. She runs towards the hobgoblin that avoided the arrow, stopping when in range and hurling her shortspear at it.
They were going to pay for this.
Round 1
Azure and Skalla rush the hobgoblin guarding the entrance. The hobgoblin left his guard low. It's a fatal error. Azure's scimitar strikes above it with cruel accuracy, killing the hobgoblin instantly. Skalla's flail strikes right behind Azure's, but her blow breaks the leg of a corpse.
Meanwhile, the hobgoblin hewing at the statue of Desna looks over her shoulder to see her soldier struck down. Her axe is buried deep in the statue's wood, and it takes her a moment to pry it free.
Round 2
Caleron's arrow lands wide of the hobgoblin sergeant as she she turns to face her attackers. Faunra's spear does not, but the padded armor on the sergeant's leg absorbs most of the impact.
Skalla almost stumbles as her swing meets less resistance than she had expected. Righting herself again, she takes one, two, three strides towards the second hobgoblin, her flail whirling at her side. She launches the weapon at the desecrator, snarling. Her vision is red at the edges, hazed in blood and fury.
Eyes wild with feral bloodlust, Azure slides the blade from the body of the fallen hobgoblin. In this moment, he is not half-orc or half-human. He is the wild. He is the animal. He attacks with savagery devoid of grace...
...but his strikes are too clumsy and too never find purchase through the hobgoblin's armor.
Seeing nothing threatening outside, Callistra turns and takes a shot at the hobgoblin inside the shrine. The bolt from her crossbow just grazes the Ironfang sergeant.
Skalla arrives within reach of the hobgoblin and lashes out with her flail, also striking true.
While none of the three wounds she has taken are serious, they are landing so quickly the sergeant begins to look worried. She tries to return the favor to Skalla with her axe, but misses.
Round 3
The party is up!
Caeleron moves quickly across the shrine, keeping Skalla out of his line of fire, nocking another arrow as he moves. He steps carefully over the pools of blood and the wreckage of the hobgoblins' depraved attack and fires an arrow at the last hobgoblin.
"Monster! Vileness! Murderer!"
Skalla punctuates her blows with epithets as she continues her attack on the sergeant, eyes glowing with fury. She shifts to make room for Azure, taking advantage of the distraction that his presence provides.
Azure slashes as the sergeant attempts to attack Skalla. He reflexively grunts as the blade slashes under the armpit of the hobgoblin...
... and tries to remove the sergeant's arm with a solid upward slash.
There would be no time to collect the fallen shrine. Azure was so uncertain what to do. He ought to honor Erastil by repairing this place. But Old Deadeye doesn't care about ceremony. He cares about community. Right? This was the only place Azure was comfortable, in the throes of battle, in a sword cutting through flesh. The good people, the best people, could make the world whole from the ruins of war. Did that mean Azure wasn't a good person?
Faunra drew her dagger. It was the only thing she had left. She was shaking and angry and finding it harder to control her emotions. And with Azure and Skala screaming and attacking, she felt she didn't need to.
She charged at the hobogoblin, tears staining her face, there was no holding back now.
Turns out attacking emotionally wasn't the best idea for a non-combatant, though missing her target only made her angrier rather than alerting her to that fact.
Azura does indeed sever the hobgoblin's arm. She stumbles and falls in a splash of blood, bleeding out quickly.
With the hobgoblins dead the shrine is even more of a ruin. Broken furniture and pools of blood mar the floor, and destroyed and desecrated icons are strewn around.
Caeleron pulls a still intact arrow from a wooden pew and slots it back into his quiver. "We should look for any supplies or items of use. I do not wish to offend any of you, but I think we need to be pragmatic and take anything that will help us survive."
Caeleron begins searching the shrine, looking for food, clothing, weapons, or other items that will help the group escape Phaendar.
Skalla rushes to check the bodies of the villagers on the floor, seeking for signs of life. The rage leaves her as quickly as it had ignited, and tears streak her face as she takes stock of the deaths. These people had not died gently; their contorted bodies and faces twisted in fear and horror attest to that. Once more, the half-orc curses the savagery of these invaders.
Faunra begins shaking, the adrenaline of the battle leaving her body weak and sickly feeling. She holds onto her dagger a while longer, gulping in sir before she can process that it's over.
She drops her dagger and runs over to Skalla.
"My parents!? Did you find my parents anywhere!? Rosemary from the herb shop and an Elven male? Are they here!?"
Faunra cares about all the villagers, but she can't help but care about her parents the most. She wants to find them, now!
"What should I do, Miss Skalla? What should I do?" in the light of all that's happened, Faunra seems to revert back to a child in front of her old teacher.
Back to a time when Skalla knew everything, always knowing what to do and how to help a child find their way home.
Back to when her mother was always at the markets, at home, or near the forest. When her father was either in Kyonin, at home, or in the forest. They could always find each other, because they liked the same places.
Now...
Azure surveys the carnage, and his features return to normal, his muscles shrinking, his eyes becoming less taurine. He looks at Faunra, but he feels inadequate to the task of comforting her. He places his hand delicately on the shattered things of the shrine, gingerly avoiding the bodies of the fallen.
"Avenge them, Faunra. That's what you should do. Avenge them all. Caeleron, find anything?"
He is barely paying attention for the answer. He closes his eyes and mumbles under his breath what little he could remember from the Parables of Erastil
"Yes, avenge them, but first we help those who can be still helped. Faunra, check if any still live. You take that side of the room, I take this one. Calistra, you can help as well, if you will."
She continues to check the bodies on the floor, turning them over to get a look at their faces, checking for any distinctive signs - clothing, amulets, birthmarks, scars.
Faunra nods. She feels a numbing sensation kick in, like she is detached from the whole thing.
She begins to go through her side of the room, pulling bodies into a line to help her be more thorough.
Face up, feel pulse, close eyes, pray.
Face up, feel pulse, close eyes, pray.
And still she could feel the whisper.
The forest
Faunra and Skalla move through the bodies in the chapel, checking each one. Among them they find faces they recognize. Old Noelan, the shrine's caretaker is there. So is Zena, the widowed washer-woman who most everyone knew. She was friendly. Hobard, who had become a carpenter and handyman, had been a student of Skalla's several years back.
Almost everyone is a person they know, at least by sight. All of them are dead, the hobgoblins were thorough. Faunra does not find Rosemary or Nameer among them.
The sack of loot on the floor the hobgoblin soldier had been looking through contains an elm wand, a silver cup, a hand-sized darkwood carving of a
butterfly, three bottles of Oldlaw whiskey, 100 gp worth of gold dust, 27 small semiprecious stones, and 76 gp, as well as a round ivory amulet engraved with Erastil’s bow-and-arrow holy symbol strung on a leather thong.
The hobgoblin carries equipment similar to the others: a longsword, a handaxe, a small steel shield, a longbow and 16 arrows, studded leather armor, and a backpack with water and some rations.
Sergeant Semfet is better equipped with a finely made battle axe, padded armor, a composite longbow (+2 Str) with 20 arrows, handaxe, backpack, bedroll, blanket, mess kit, a small tent, and 3 gp. She also has 2 vials marked as potions of Cure Light Wounds, and 2 vials of alchemist's fire.
Skalla recognizes the holy symbol of Erastil. It belongs to a local half-elven hunter named Lirosa. Lirosa is in the habit of leaving the pendant at the chapel when she's in town to "recharge" its luck.
While checking a body beside the alter, Faunra notices a small alcove the hobgoblins missed. Tucked away in it are a bag of silver dust worth 150 gp, a short metal wand, and a finely made and decorated metal pendant on a chain.
Faunra stifles a sob. It feels like all she had done since this all started was cry.
In morning for her friends, for the destruction of the village and, guiltfully, with relief her parents weren't among the dead.
She gathers what she finds the small alcove, retrieves her short spear and dagger and gathers a lobgbow with a quiver of arrows.
She's never used one, but it was better to have options. She needed her spear for melee and couldn't afford to throw it every time.
"We should take everything we can carry, leave them nothing they can use."
She turns to Rhyna, sympathy in her eyes. If anyone was to feel the impact of Noelan's death, it would be Rhyna. She was his assistant and they spent most days together.
Seeing the shrine in its current state, especially when she and Noelan had cared and maintained it for so long...
"Rhyna, is there anything else were should take with us? Anything left in the shrine? We can't stay here, more will come. It's time we left for the woods. The forest had protected us before and it will again, but let's deprive these monsters of as much as we can. So if there is anything you can think of..."
Faunra stands in the centre of the shrine, looking up at the high ceilings, decorated walls, and sacred statutes. They had almost all been damaged or destroyed. Desna, Erastil, The Green Faith. Many had been worshipped here. Now it was full of blood and bodies.
"Part of me, Faunra struggles with her words "Part of me wants to burn down the shrine. Haul the goblin bodies it and dump them and then burn it and everyone inside. So they can't use it or violate it any more than they have. So that Noelan, Zena, Hobard, Lucas, Maria, Mr. Illune, so that everyone can have some kind of burial.
I'd rather raise the whole town than let hobgoblins use it, but the shrine. We can't let them. To leave Noelan in this ransacked place, the place he took such good care of. It's too cruel.
The fire might serve as a distraction too, but that's not why we should do it."
She walls over to Azure and gently touches his arm.
"Will you be alright? Is there anything you need to do before we leave? Something Ersatil requires in times like this?"
They aren't here! They must've made it to the forest! They aren't here!
Faunra felt ashamed to be happy that her parents weren't the dead. They needed to stay focused and she needed to keep her expectations in check. Everyone dies eventually.
Skalla climbs to her feet after checking the last of the corpses, wiping angrily at her eyes. The pain was almost too much to bear. Her heart felt like it would collapse unto itself, crushed by the immensity of loss. Why couldn't she save them all? Why couldn't she protect them? Not even when Alina had left has she felt such soul-rending pain. It's all she can do to stand and look around, bleary-eyed, at the ruined shrine.
"Yes. Burn it. Burn it all. Flames will cleanse, and their souls will rise with the smoke to the heavens. Pharasma guide you, my friends."
She wipes her eyes again, then stalks outside, desperate to get going. If they move fast, they may yet save more of the villagers. She looks around, hoping to find more signs of life.
The destruction in the shrine is astonishing. It's clear that the hobgoblins butchered everyone they found sheltering inside before taking their blades to the artefacts and icons. Even though he doesn't know any of the dead or feel any connection to the village's gods, Caeleron feels sorry for those that cared about these people and this place.
He realises that he can provide scant comfort as an outsider and a stranger to the group, so makes himself busy collecting up the equipment and valuables - anything that might prove useful in their flight from the village. He works quickly and quietly, not wanting to intrude on anyone's grief.