Mirel draws her whip and buckler and motions for Anevia to stay close. "Just in case that thing comes back for more."
"WHAT thing? Am I the only one confused right now?"
The plant is a serious threat, if its still alive. Its best we avoid it completely if possible. Its also a symbol for Baphomet. We may be nearing an area dedicated to him.
Lirrathan looks at the mongrelmen's reaction to the scene, "So, the fungus was your pet or your friend? Either way, you guys REALLY need to get out more often."
He too is distracted by the gear on the men, "That IS decent looking armor. I'd definitely consider wearing it over what I got on now. Add the coin they have to sweeten the pot, and I'm good to go."
Freya smirks. "I am not objecting to anything that requires you to take your shirt off Lirrathan, but do it quickly."
"Yeah, the armor really is nice. If the plant-thing is still a threat, though, do we want to try to get them?"
The plant is mobile when its alive. But it not moving now so maybe its safe to recover the gear there.
Lirrathan cocks his head toward Freya and crooks an eyebrow, as if to say 'Oh really?' Once he hears all is good, he makes a move toward the bodies, and wrestles one of the shirts off of them. Playing coy, he turns his back on Freya as he removes the one he's wearing, before he turns back around to put on the new one and give her a peek. After he wriggles into it, he flexes and stretches a bit to work it into place before nodding in approval. "C'mon Terry, there's one left, slip into it and see how the finer things feel."
"All well and good, Lirrathan, but my current leather armor has a few straps to help it hold close against me." He looks over at Mirel and Freya. "If I can get some help with the straps, this will go faster. Then we should see if your old shirt and my armor will fit around any of our other unfortunate companions. I'm betting we would need both to fit around Gwerm, though."
With or without help, he will change from his leather armor into the second MW Chain Shirt.
Freya chuckles. "Oh how convenient, you need help" Regardless, Freya admits she knows a thing or two about armor and comes over to help.
Mirel rolls her eyes, but helps Lirathan and Terry with their armor, exhanging glances with Anevia.
The wizard casts Detect Magic. Make sure you get the potion and scroll. And grab that ring, but do not put it on. I wonder if the plant's spores could still be active. Those two could have been trying to harvest some spores when they were attack and killed. Can we determine cause of death on the two bodies? [/b]
Arc will go up and carefully examine the plant. Does he think he could safely harvest some spores? He is also wondering what might lie beneath the plant.
As Terry suggests offering their old armor to the others, Lirrathan gets a mischievous grin and offers, "My old set is fine elven make leathers. If one of you ladies would like it, I would gladly help you remove your current set."
"I will take it." Mirel replies
"Baphomet! Disguised as Iomadaeans?! This is unacceptable! I cannot believe they would stoop to such depravity!"
"Yes! This is what I needed! They'll be glad to hear..."
"Both of you calm down. The Templars of the Ivory Tower have been known for years to pass themselves off as followers of other faiths. We must take this to whomever is alive and in charge above."
"I must get back to Ira...it must be known that the ranks have been infiltrated. Immediately!"
"Dear child, we need proof. We should bring these bodies back with us."
"We have no time. Who would carry them?"
Will not the ring, and our good word suffice? Arc asks. He is certainly not carrying bodies.
Terry looks around at the group. "Nobody wants to wear my old leather armor?" He shrugs and moves on.
As they start discussing the revelation of the bodies, Terry chuckles. "I didn't know you guys cared so much. You want to take the bodies back up top, you carry 'em. Or, you could make one or two fo us a promise that we believe about payment and you MIGHT be able to convince us to carry them for you. I doubt you'll make an offer I like that much, but the others might be more agreeable."
Lirrathan smirks in disbelief at the suggestion, "Look Blinky, in case you haven't noticed, we're already working to haul three bodies back to the surface." he points to Blinky, Hobbles, and Worm, before realizing that the one he's talking to can't see him. "Now, you all aint dead weight, but that don't mean I WANT literal dead weight to make up for it. Whoever it is that this evidence needs to be shown to will just have to take our word for it, like Arc said. Don't worry, I can be pretty persuasive in a pinch." with this last he winks at Mirel, Freya, and Anevia.
"You are of course course. I believe I was simply over excited to have physical, bodily proof."
If we can help these Mongrelmen get the evidence back we should help them do so. They can always be dropped at any sign of trouble. With that Arc will move to one body and pick up the hands, ready to try to help carry it.
"I agree with Arcs...Arshes...the wizard." She smiles apologetically as he tries to get the name around her accent.
Mirel laughs at Lirrathan's last comment as she dons the elf's armor. Sobering, "We should help, if we can. The favor may be returned us, in the end." She moves to help Arc with the body he is carrying.
Lann motions to the mongrelman who was trapped before. He comes and hefts one of the bodies over his shoulder.
After about 15 minutes of walking you come to a large, round stone door. Four mongrelmen guards stand in front of it. They give a hearty welcome, "Lann! Dyra! AND Crel! Welcome back to Neatholm!" As soon as they spot you a scowl starts to form. Before anything else happens though, Lann responds back "Thank you Drot, Ezzl, Frit, and Wel. It is good to be back. These are dwellers above who helped us save Crel from a cave in. They are good people and it would be wise for us to show them all courtesies." The guards relax at this and open the stone door. "Welcome then, strangers, to glorious Neatholm!"
A small, dark lake ripples in the center of this two-hundredfoot-wide cavern, the walls and ceiling aglow with thick sheets of luminescent fungi. In the center of the lake, over two dozen low stone buildings cluster on a rocky one-hundred-foot-wide island. Lights glow in the windows of the buildings, giving the settlement an almost welcoming look. Rafts made of mismatched planks of timber bob along the length of a crooked pier at the lake’s closest shore.
The largest home, atop the island's central peak, is where Lann leads you. Dyra and Crel break off from the group at smaller buildings along the way. Mongrelmen look distrustful at first of you, but seeing Lann so confidently walking amongst you they turn more into questioning looks.
Inside the largest building sits a bloated man-rat of a mongrelman. Lann greets the person, "Salutations Chief Sull. I regret to tell you that my mission to find your son or any of his belongings, including his mother's brooch, were unsuccessful. Crel was trapped beneath a cave in and were it not for these above dwellers he would have died there."
The chief opens his mouth to talk, his many jowls jiggling, and says in a surprising and pleasantly mild-mannered voice "Thank you kind folk for rescuing one of ours. It is not every above dweller who would show such kindness to mongrels." Lann winces at this word. "Please, do tell me of how you came to be down here? What happened that brought you to dear Lann here?"
"Well . . .. You see . . .. Uhhhh . . .. How to say this?" Terry looks as uncomfortable as he sounds. "A daemon broke the wardstone, ripped open the ground, we fell through, and then the ground close above our heads. For now, we're just trying to get back to daylight. I'm a lot nervous about the breaking of the wardstone and what that's going to mean, though. I'm not sure what things are going to be like if we get back up there. There may be a great need for everyone to help each other, so that any can survive."
He looks to the others. "Did I miss anything 'earth-shattering?'"
The wizard introduces himself and his friends. He then adds to the story, talking first about the silver dragon, but not about the scales, then about the injured they have with them, and finally about the fights they had already. He pays special attention to the mad dwarf and finally comes to the most recent find of the false paladins. Look up their bodies. They are not of Iomedae. They lack long swords, and one bore this ring. He presents the ring wrapped in a piece of cloth. Also, I have harvested some of the plant creature's spores, thinking they might prove useful.
"Did we not find a brooch among some other remains and belongings? Is this the brooch you are seeking?"
Freya looks like a small child as they enter the underground, looking up in awe as she takes in the civilization, her wanderlust getting to her.
"Well met Chief Sull. I was leading another party when we were attacked and captures, They rescued me as well, and upon hearing their mission decided to help see it through with them." She smiles. "Wouldn't have been able to pass up on the adventure anyways."
"That brooch...that's...it. Please...tell me how you found it...did you see my son?! He was a half rat man as myself."
As the stories about how you came to be here are told his watery eyes widen and he squeaks. "Demons?! They did it! They brought demons into our underground realm. The fools! Why did they follow that witch Hosilla!"
He looks up at the spores Arc mentions and says, "Yes...our alchemist could make you a dose of a strong poison with those."
Lirrathan pipes up, considering everone else told all the exciting stuff already. "We found it in an old pack, not far from a recent campsite. There was a body next to it, but it wasn't a ratman like you, it was more snakey, like this guy," he points a thumb at Lann, insensitive to the fact that it could have been a relative.
With that he turns to the others, "Hey, you think if this Hosilla witch helped the demons get in, there would be a sweet reward for her head... or capture I guess?"
"That brooch...that's...it. Please...tell me how you found it...did you see my son?! He was a half rat man as myself."
As the stories about how you came to be here are told his watery eyes widen and he squeaks. "Demons?! They did it! They brought demons into our underground realm. The fools! Why did they follow that witch Hosilla!"
He looks up at the spores Arc mentions and says, "Yes...our alchemist could make you a dose of a strong poison with those."
The young man's internal conflict is becoming more obvious, as he doesn't seem to know where to look, or how not to stare. He keeps trying to look away instead of staring, but then he finds himself looking at an apparently completely different kind of creature. Lirrathan's question manages to grab Terry's attention, though. "If anybody could prove her involvement, maybe. The army's not real big on rewards, though. But if she helped the demons get in, wouldn't she be up in the daylight with them?"
"If she helped get demons into Kenabres, we must find her. She could be partially responsible for the death of Terendelev." Mirel's face turns red hot with anger, and tears well up in her eyes as she speaks.
The chief sighs in relief, "Then he could still be alive. It is unfortunate that his friend Rast is dead. I will have to tell his parents. May I...have the brooch back please? It is all I have left to remember my wife and now, possibly, my son."
"Makes sense to me that you should get it back, but I'm not in charge."
"I am not in charge either, but the brooch is yours, Chief. It belonged to your son." She proffers the brooch to the mongrelman leader.
The wizard nods his agreement. And what about these fake paladins? he asks.
The chief slowly takes the brooch out of Mirel's hand and thanks her. He stares at it wistfully for a moment, then shakes his head. "I'm sorry...the fake paladins. Hmmm...we've heard Baphomet's being worshipped by our traitorous kin. A group broke off from Neatholm and made a camp along the passage to the surface. I've heard the name Hosilla as some leader speaking furor about Baphomet. You will run into these mongrels on your way...would you folk undertake trying to rid the world of this leader Hosilla? Maybe some of my fellows will come back to us then." He nods to an attendant who reaches into a chest and pulls forth a morningstar.
"This is a legacy of my heritage. One of the First Crusaders' weapon used in battling demons. I would one of you have it if it would help purge this Hosilla and her Baphomet god...and bring my people back. If you agree to this, I will give it to you for returning a part of my family back to me." He looks at the brooch once more and his watery eyes become more so.
"But you should take word of these fake paladins to your leadership up top. I would ask only that you speak to those in charge about an alliance with us. I will rally what tribes there are of us mongrels. We will be more than ready to help kill demons as our ancestors did. We will keep the bodies in a cool place and when ready, they can be brought to the top. Send us a messenger with your leader's response to our offer of alliance...we will bring the bodies with us then."
He coughs a couple of times and waves Lann away—who had hurriedly come to the king in concern. "I must beg to retire for the night. Please, feel free to tour our fair village. Lann will take you and ensure that you stay for free at the hostel."
"You make it sound like this Hosilla's on our way out, anyway!" He indicates his companions, "They seem to think she's our business regardless, so between those two inputs, I think we'll be hard-pressed NOT to try to do something about her. As far as the weapon goes, I'm certain we all appreciate the gift, and what it represents."
The conversation continues . . ..
"Again, I think things may well be bad enough that those up top will be unable to refuse any assistance they can get! The odds are good if they don't make that we won't either, so I'm pretty sure we'll be trying to get them to ally with you!"
After he's gone . . .. "So, I'm thinking most of us CAN use a morningstar. Does it fit how anybody prefers to fight?"