Emi smiles graciously as she accepts the bottle. She finishes Soli's gulp and then takes a gulp for her self. "Don't vorry," she teases the paladin, "I'll drink for both of us."
She hands the bottle to the half-orc saying, "thank you Vigny, it's quite nice."
Gkirkhan looks up at Soliana's question from where he was packing up the other tent and thinks for a moment.
"She iz de vun dot healed us, und she does follow de Eternal Rose, bot Hy don't tink she's a priestess," he says slowly. "Ve meet in Riddleport at de beginning ov spring. She und Mueller vere goot people. She still iz. Dot demmed monster got Mueller. Dunno if et iz de same, but et looked like a dead-ringer for dis Soggy River Monster de locals vere vhisperink about."
"We crossed paths with the monster also." Reiko adds.
Reiko dusts her hands and looks around the campsite, assessing the situation. "We'll need to make a litter for Iona or find another way to carry her... and her armor, yes?" She casually indicates the armor suit, looking for confirmation. "Maybe we can divide it up for carrying."
Vigny grins widely. "I'm from Riddleport too. If you know Cayden Cailean have you ever been to the The Broken Manacle, the church there? If you have, I might have brought you your drinks."
"Nein, Hy got et," Gkirkhan tells Reiko as he slings both his and Iona's gear over his shoulders before picking the pale, shivering woman up and making sure the blanket is wrapped tightly around her. She mumbles something as she stirs, but soon slips back into her fitful slumber.
"De Broken Manacle? Jah, Hy haff been dere vonce or twice, bot dot vas years ago," he answers Vigny as he follows the others out of the clearing.
The sky grows dark and heavy with rain as a summer storm blows in. Fat drops fall from the sky and turn the trail into a morass of sucking mud that pulls at boots, shoes, cloaks, and clothing alike. Gkirkhan's long-legged stride is plenty to keep up with the rest of the group, despite the weight, but it's still slow going. The afternoon gives way to evening and twilight is fast approaching when a cabin comes into view.
Vines cover the facade and the eaves sag. From every side, the swamp encroaches to reclaim the clearing. To one side of the fading path is a pile of rotted wood where an outbuilding used to be. The rain begins to fall heavier and heavier and the air grows chill as the group approaches. One thing is clear, though, even through the gloom.
If Megus once lived here, she hasn't for months, possibly years.
The ronin unsheathes her katana - spins it once to warm up her wrist - and steps cautiously along the trail toward the cabin. Her eyes constantly move from the structure, to the encroaching swamp, to the destroyed out-building, back to the swamp, and then to the cabin again. She doesn't rule out the possibility that the Soggy River Monster or some goblins are waiting to spring a trap.
As the discussion turns to Riddleport, Jerukh becomes silent and sullen once again.
Riddleport. Ach. Like an old wound that will not heal...
The big alchemist scowls, then checks on Iona as she is hoisted on the other half orc's broad shoulders.
"Gentle does it apărător. Longer she sleeps better she vindecã.."heals"..."
The healer walks beside Gkirkhah, keeping an eye on his patient whilst keeping a quiet, low profile.
As the witches cabin that-once-was, comes into view, Jerukh mirrors Reiko's cautious gaze;
:
"Hoanghină do not invite visitors..."
"This does not look velcoming, no..." Emi says with some concern, "but this veather is not leafing us many options..."
As the others look around she begins to pull away the ivy around the door.
It takes a little doing, but the door does yield to a fair bit of force allowing all of you inside. It is dark and damp, and even those with keen eyes have difficulty seeing. The vague shapes of benches, bookshelves, a fireplace, and two doors on the sides of the room can be seen, but with night fast approaching and the air growing colder, it will soon be nigh impossible to see anything, unless you happen to have been gifted with eyes just as capable in seeing in the dark as well as the light.
The companions see nothing lurking in the gloom inside or the brush outside. The rain is coming down more heavily now and the distant rumble of thunder can be heard.
No one answers as Gkirkhan steps in with Iona carefully cradled in his arms.
When Soliana brings out her torch, Vigny utters a word and gestures at it. A light appears on the end.
"Teamwork" she says to the paladin through a grin.
Reiko reaches into a pouch on her bandolier and pulls out a small rod. With a hard shake, it begins glowing brightly. She spins slowly, searching the main room for threats. Satisfied they aren't hip-deep in treacherous goblins, she snoops around the house - looking for evidence of Megan, foul play, or mundane dangers like rotted floorboards or snakes.
The layers of dust and mildew are further evidence that this place has been abandoned for some time. There is a brief flash of lightning off in the distance followed by rolling thunder some seconds later. The rain continues to pour down, though it seems that the roof is thankfully free of leaks, for the moment. All of the books have been ruined and there is little, if anything, of worth or note to be found.
Reiko finds the doors are swollen shut and groan ominously as pressure is applied to them.
The door pops open, and though the house groans, it remains steady. Inside the room are more bookshelves with ruined books and a bed with a moldy mattress.
Reiko pats the creaky doorframe, thanking it silently for staying strong. She enters the bedroom and runs a couple fingers across some of the least-destroyed books, finding the loss of so much writing tragic. Turning to more practical matters, she inspects the bed to make sure it doesn't hide snakes in (or under) it and tests to see if the mattress will still support weight or if it has decayed liked everything else.
Thankfully, no snakes await in or under the bed, and while it might support someone small, it's definitely not something you'd want to sleep on.
Reiko backs out of the room and halfway shuts the door. She explains, "Bedroom, but the bed is foul." She heads to the other door and offers a whispered prayer to Shizuru that the building not collapse on her. Then she tries the door.
Vigny goes over to Reiko a hand with the door.
Jerukh moves in behind the rest of the group.
He scans the mouldy surroundings, concerned that there may be health risks lurking;
:
:
While others explore the house Emi does her best to make sure the chimney is working and starts gathering materials for a fire.
As long as you keep Iona away from the mold, she should be okay, though none of you should spend too long in this place.
Reiko and Vigny open the second door to reveal a workshop full of ruined equipment and alchemical ingredients. While some of the sights are strange, such as green glowing fungus and blue spiky crystals, none are as strange and disturbing as the warped skeleton that sits in the chair before a now useless alchemical lab. THe flesh is long since gone, rotted and eaten away. The clothing it wears is little more than moldy rags. The skull looks as if it had melted somewhat, and bony spurs sprout from the ribs, pointing both outward, and in. Given where the heart and lungs must have been, it seems the cause of death is obvious.
Emi, meanwhile, finds the chimney miraculously clear. The slight sulfurous stench she catches a whiff of as she prepares to light a fire might explain some of why nothing has nested there, though.
Vigny lets out a low whistle.
"Poor woman. Looks like she won't mind us staying here tonight."
Curiosity compels her to rummage carefully a bit amongst the table's contents and around the room. Touch nothing icky unless you use your dagger to do it, and even then don't touch anything icky she reminds herself.
"With all that stuff on the table, Jerukh seems like the person to ask."
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"What happened to her to cause injuries like that?"
Reiko cautiously searches the workroom. "Poor choices."
"Umm... there is a veird sulfurous smell ofer here..." Emi calls out uncomfortably, "vould anyvon care to come make sure it's safe to light a fire?"
While she waits for a response she takes a narrow stick and prods around the bottom of the fireplace for anything unusual.
Jerukh moves from his examination of the mold, to the table and its grim sentinel;
"We should not stay here o'er long. The mold and mildew are safe, but I would keep Iona from them none-the-less."
The tall alchemist casts a hard eye over the body and the spoiled lab;
:
"Huh... What secrets did you die with I wonder?"
Emi finds nothing but ash, sadly.
The others, looking about the room find a broken glass beaker that appears to have been dropped from the skeleton's hand.
You find some notes that haven't been totally ruined, and it appears that the skeleton is indeed the remains of Megus, and she had an obsession with creatures and animals that underwent metamorphosis in their lifetimes, such as frogs and butterflies.
When nobody comes to double check the fireplace Emi shrugs and starts working on lighting the fire.
Jerukh shakes his head at Soliana's comment as he recovers some old stained and tattered notes;
"She will be fine. If the fire is on and she is near, any ill effects of the damp will be combatted."
As he waits for the group to camp around their fireplace, the tall alchemist scans the notes;
"Seems she took an interest in metamorphic transformations in the wild... sought to mimic them perhaps?"
After spending some time getting a fire going and cleaning off the floor to make room for bedrolls, Gkirkhan offers to cook supper, which turns out to be amazing even though it was thrown together from various rations.
As everyone eats, the half-orc looks to each of the five young adventurers before asking, "so, vhy did hyu decide to come fight goblins in a muddy swamp? Et izn't de most glamorous ov vork, jah?"
"Oh, thank you," a grinning Emi answers between enthusiastic bites of dinner, "I vas just saying the other day how killing goblins vas so much dirtier then it alvays seemed in the stories... I vanted to come hafe an adfenture because my best friend- Ameiko, you probably met her, she vas the von who ran the Rusty Dragon- vell, Ameiko has such great stories about her adfentures that I vanted to come hafe some adfentures of my own... so far its mostly been valking in mud and cleaning up blood--goblin and our own--but I suppose that it vill sound much better vhen I retell it later, and just focus on the exciting bits..."
Out on the porch, Reiko scrapes the mud off her limbs and observes as night overtakes the swamp. She watches for a few minutes before returning to the cabin and barring the door.
The ronin gratefully accepts the offered dinner and eats it quietly, occupied with her own thoughts or just too weary for conversation at the moment.
There are still a couple of swigs of mead left in Vigny's bottle. She shares them with Gkirkhan. She looks at the others sheepishly and explains "sacrament for us you see."
"I came down to Sandpoint to wait for a friend who is a caravan master. I'll be joining up with him to travel when he gets here. This seemed like a good way to pass the time until then. And it's for a good cause."
She asks in return "What about your group? The two who left didn't seem to be the types for dirty, unglamorous jobs. Why did you take it on?"
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There are still a couple of swigs of mead left in Vigny's bottle. She shares them with Gkirkhan. She looks at the others sheepishly and explains "sacrament for us you see."
Reiko looks up from her plate and practically beams. "Shame you aren't Calistrians... that would be a sacrament you could more readily share." A smile splits her face then she bursts out laughing.
Emi giggles at Reiko's bawdy humor.
Jerukh shrugs his shoulders at Soliana's hypothesis on Megus' motivation;
"I do not know. Perhaps?"
After checking on Iona he then seats himself with the others for the supper.
Atypical to his character, he sits quietly and eats carefully - more than happy to have his chattier companions do the conversational heavy lifting.
At Reiko's innuendo laden jape, the big healer coyly focusses on his plate and the food...