I don't know what to say. How could some much bloodshed and wrong happen in such sort amount of time. I hope that we, that is all of us here, aren't in any sort of trouble. Are these men with the fey nature in charge here?
Turning all around and trying to take in the whole scene, Nathaniel notices Belladonna looking his way, and he blushes, and turns away.
Careful lad he thinks to himself, there is more going on around here than you can handle, don't let your heart start ruling your head, besides, there might be something between her and that Ruhk fellow that you don't know the details of
Looking down at Bella, Ruhk gives her a reassuring smile.
"Don't you worry Bella, all this unpleasantness will be sorted out soon."
Scratching his chin, he considers for a moment, then he gets hit with a sudden insight.
Kneeling down so he can look her in the eyes he nods.
"If it all gets too much for you, remember what we are out here doing? We're fighting to save lives, you and me and the rest, we're going to get the medicine and save a whole bunch of people.!"
"Cheer up lass, nothings going to hurt you as long as I'm around, and I'm tougher than old leather boots."
Belladonna examines her pair of old leather boots, testing for toughness. "They seem kinda soggy to me!" she laughs. Her fear seems to evaporate as everyone reunites.
Give Bella's hair a tussle, Ruhk laughs.
"Well, have you ever tried EATING one? Now THAT'S tough."
Camp - 12:30AM
The satyr and faun spin around at the sudden intrusion of Caine and Boote; however, they relax upon seeing Ruhk's recognition of his comrades. Xanostar simply nods at Ruhk's comments. "So it would seem. A strange tale to be sure." He then spots the the little pixie's head pop up from Caine's belt pouch. "A survivor? How many of you were there, little one?" He approaches Caine, and holds out his hand for the pixie to climb out.
Syntira tells her tale to Xanostar, recognizing him as one of the wardens of the forest. She then identifies the unconscious men as part of the three men who butchered her and her friends before the coming of the ice fey. She indicates the wounded man as the one who seemed to get a demented enjoyment from the torture, while the missing man seemed to her as the de facto leader of them.
Xanostar and the faun become extremely mercurial during the telling of the pixie's tale. The satyr looks at the gathered company with a grim visage. "These men have committed terrible crimes and will be punished by the laws of my people. Regardless of the claims by the humans of Faclon's Hollow, this is our land and as such we will enact our own brand of punishment." He looks at Greyson, seeming to detect the fury that the man seems to have simmering beneath the surface and nods. "As far as coming with the help you on your quest. If our paths lead in the same direction, I will gladly accompany you, but my job now is to track down this remain human. However, if would gladly remain here for the night to rest."
Originally, Belladonna saw these men as victims who just barely survived a hostile encounter with the fey. They were people who needed help, healing, and any guidance that she could give. Now that the story has become clear, she feels a pang of disgust and anger.
I should have let them die and rot here. She thought before shaking her head. Could she watch someone die if she knew they were bad?
Her sleep is fitful tonight, full of strange dreams in the forest...
"If that is your will, warden, then so be it. Th-These men committed a c-c-crime and s-should be punished. We will stay here for the night."
Zirren went to lay down a short while later and found sleep difficult. Between the aching in his body and the constant feeling of cold throughout his body, he couldn't find a comfortable resting spot. Eventually though, sheer exhaustion took him and flung him into a world of cold nightmares from which he could not wake easily.
Caine nodded to Xanostar. "That's all fine by me."
He knelt down to speak with Syntira, the wounded pixie who'd been in his pouch. "If you end up in danger again, or if you just need help, you come find me. Consider it a standing offer. There's a big bar in Falcon's Hollow called the Sitting Duck. That's where I am most of the time."
As he shook her tiny hand goodbye healing energies flowed forth from him and washed over the tiny pixie.
Caine looked shocked for a moment, then looked around in confusion. Then he slowly smiled. "Well I'll be damned..." He shook his head and laughed in bewilderment, looking at his own hands."You bring things out of me that I thought were dead. I'm sorry as hell for what happened to you, but I'm glad we met."
When Caine tells the little fairy woman he is willing to come to her aid, then shakes her hand and gives her a little "help" Nathaniel looks directly into Cain's eyes, smiles and crosses his arms across his chest, holding his halberd with his left hand, and gives Caine a knowing, and approving nod.
Camp - 12:30 AM
Syntira looks up at Caine when his healing magic washes over her. "Thank you both, for the compassion you have shown me this night. Artegal Boote, Greyson Caine... It was my honor to meet you this night. I would ask of you one more request. Can you help me bury my friends? Kelds do not hold lavish pyres like the satyrs and the faun do, but prefer to return to the earth."
Xanostar looks at Zilka for a moment, seeing the wisdom in her words. "So be it, Zilka. Your words ring of wisdom, perhaps these men could even tell us where the third man is going. However, I have no powerful magic to help the wounded man. I am not even sure I would if I had the power to do so."
Caine was bone-weary. This was his second night without sleep. He was wet. He was cold. He was hungry. His pleasant buzz was long gone and he could feel the beginnings of a hangover starting behind his bloodshot eyes.. He was out of shape and had been hiking and running through the woods for hours. His whole body hated him.
"Of course." He said with a sympathetic smile. "Feel good enough to fly now, or do you want a ride?"
"Don't know, I'll give it a shot. Who's hurt?" Caine said. He shook his he'd at the offer to help though. "I'm alright. No worse than crawling back out from a few days at the bottom of a bottle."
Ruhk leant forward and studied Greyson's face for a moment.
One couldn't have called them friends previously, but there was (at least from Ruhk's side) a certain respect at the very least.
After a moment he nodded and smiled.
"Don't know exactly what, but something changed in your face there Caine, you look...I don't know...more at peace now."
"And here I thought he'd be going through withdrawal!" teases Belladonna. She helps in burying the pixies, but tries to stay away from any dealings with the bad bad humans.
When she does finally get some sleep, her nightmares keep things fitful and uneasy.
Caine shrugged. "Turns out when you're going through hell, the smart thing to do is to not stop."
He looked up at the sky with an expression that was about half reverence and half annoyance. "I think I just got a helpful reminder that I'm an idiot. Or maybe I reminded myself. Hard to tell. Same thing in the end."
Ruhk can't help but laugh a little at that.
"Sounds to me like the bottom line in your story is you being an idiot then? But hey, I'm following you, guess that makes me an even bigger idiot, hah!"
Zirren looked up at Caine's words of asking who was still wounded. Though there were no apparent outward wounds Zirren's body was damaged underneath the skin. Upon closer inspection, his neck and arms had the worst of it and were starting to look as though he'd taken a severe beating in those areas. He was still shivering slightly.
"Glad t-to see you back Caine, and A-Art."
He spent a short while after huddled in a crouch. Not really contributing to the conversation, contemplating all that occurred before responding.
"If you ask me, th-these men c-clearly deserve the fates that they made for themselves. I-it's not our job to find the one w-who ran. We s-should conserve our strength a-and time for tomo-morrow. "
He bit down on his teeth and let out a sharp, visible breath. He didn't understand why but even now he still felt a strong chill throughout his body.
"Damn kid, you look like hell." Caine said, noticing Zirren's condition when he spoke.
Caine laid his hand on Zirren's shoulder and quietly said "How about one more go, eh?"
He smiled, a little surprised when the healing energies poured from his hands and through Zirren's body. "Guess it wasn't a fluke." He glanced upward at the stars. "Thanks."
He offered Zirren an hand to help him back to his feet. "Feeling better?"
Zirren felt a lot better after Caine's magic coursed through him pushing back a lot of the damaged and quickly clearing up a lot of the discoloration on his body.
"Y-yeah much better now. Thanks."
"Good. Grab a shovel. Gotta keep moving to fight off that chill."
No, no, no, you're sure to strain your back that way. Here, give me that shovel. I know how this is done. If it's one thing I know I am good at, it is moving dirt.
Zirren looked down at Art and smiled through his chill.
"T-thanks for the advic-ce Art. Were you a f-farmer before traveling?"
Not exactly, more of a groundskeeper, gardener I suppose. There is a small hill in the bend of the river that flows near my home town. This hill is where the Lady of Mittonwir is buried. Nathaniel begins to talk as he works the shovel in the hard ground I was a Tomb Guard, which meant I was one of six responsible for the grounds around the tomb. We kept the critters out, maintained good drainage from the rains, trimmed the grass and removed weeds or plants that might grow and damage the tomb. I did this for two years, and then I was offered either a promotion, or a leave of absence. I took the leave. There is a story that tomb guards, once a very long time ago, were called upon to defend the tomb from people who would want to break in, and steal a valuable treasure. Now, see, the treasure was considered to important to leave in the tomb, so it was moved to some place much safer, so the tomb guards became, well, more gardeners than guards. I just wish, well, never mind
He then looks down and stops talking, working quietly and quickly with the shovel.
Zirren stood near Nathaniel seeming content to watch him work and taking more of an interest in what the Halfling had to say. It seemed easier to focus on something else than the disheartening task they had set themselves to doing.
"Huh... w-why did you stop Art? Where is your h-hometown? What, did s-something happen that-t you didn't like and that's why you left?"
The combined efforts of the group quickly dig six small holes for the little keld pixies in a small mound overlooking the nearby Droskmere. Syntira says a quick word of farewell to her friends before the earth is gently placed upon their tiny bodies. Once the last mound is covered, a sudden warm breeze drifts through the clearly around the lake... sounding very much like a gentle sigh of relief.
When the group looks back down at the earthen mounds, they notice six short, berried bushes sprouting from the graves. Each bush has exactly eight deep-purple berries growing from them. The fey stare at the strange sight, especially Syntira who lets out a small gasp. "I..." She looks over at Xanostar with a bewildered look.
"Well ain't that somethin'..." Caine says, amazed.
Looking over at Xanostar, Ruhk raises an eyebrow.
"Not to spoil the moment, but by Syntira's reaction, I'm thinking this is not a normally occurrence?"
Looking a little closer, Ruhk compares these berries to what Zanostar had previously given them.
"Woah! That's pretty cool. Did someone cast a spell?"
ow, ow, ow - whew, okay Is there any chance Artegal will know something about this occurrence given his Knowledge Nature skill? ow, ow, ow
Well, that's not normal
|
Zilka sits back, having worked up a sweat and stripped down to her sleeveless undershirt while digging. "Whew! Well, don't that beat all."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Nathaniel realizes this is definitely not a natural occurrence, something magical seems to have happened, but why? Ruhk compares the berries to the ones given to him by Xanostar and they appear nearly identical. Zirren examines the bushes and confirms that the berries seem to be magical and imbued with the magical power of a Goodberry spell.
The gathered fey look between each other and then the group. Xanostar is the first to speak. "I have heard stories of something like this, but have never seen it with my own eyes. Amongst our people there are legends that speak of the forest itself rewarding those who do good deeds for its people..." He stares at the bushes once again. "But... I never thought they were true. Yet..."
He looks at Syntira, befuddled; however, the little fey shakes her head. "I have heard the same, but never witnessed it either." She looks at Boote and Caine. "Please, take the berries. Use them in your quest."
Ruhk gently pokes one of the berries, unsure of what to think, but deciding to add his own two bits anyway.
"Not so sure...I think it may not be what we have done, but what we are TRYING to do...or perhaps even what we MAY do in the future?"
"The forest is about balance, right? Maybe this is natures way to try and balance the scales after what those men...no, I won't call them men, what those BEASTS did."
"Err Ruhk... Did you just belittle beasts in front of the Fey?"
"I didn't say animals, animals don't kill for pleasure or sick inclinations.
But I guess beasts might be a little too close to animals, how about "Aberrations"?"
Nathaniel, when he is finished, listens to the others for a while, and then throws down his shovel, in disgust, and storms off alone, but not too faw away
Zirren nodded at Syntira's request that the berries be taken and starts picking them up and putting them in an empty sack. He was nearly halfway done when Nathaniel stormed off.
"Nathaniel what's..." he paused and then turned to the others. I t-think it would be a mistake to k-keep trying to redefine what those... men did. They w-were twisted murderers, plain and simple. Making them out to be an-anything else makes it seem like that was their nature to begin with, Ruhk. Belladonna would you finish f-filling this bag with the rest of the berries here. I can almost... guarantee we're going to need them."
He then wandered over to Nathaniel.
"Why did you storm off Art."
Ruhks shoulders slump a little, the weight of unpleasant truth falling on them.
"The most savage beast is man" eh? Aye, I suppose it would be too easy to just disown them from humanity..."
Moving away from the group, Ruhk looks truly dejected for the first time.
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Nathaniel looks down at the ground, and says, almost as if he isn’t sure he has thought everything through that he wants to say. He hesitates, closes his eyes, and tries to explain.
Have you ever eaten pork? I mean, I have, and a lot of people eat pork, right. But we don’t talk to pigs. We don’t even try, but I’m sure it’s possible. What those men did. How they convinced themselves that what they were doing was right, in some was it isn’t any different. People lose sight of what is right, and good. They get caught up in greed, anger, guilt, jealousy, desires, and, and, then they see someone else, something else, as less than themselves. They can convince themselves that it is okay to kill someone, or something, because it isn’t like killing your brother, or your sister, right. You’re just killing something, and its life doesn’t matter because you need something. And yet, those men, they were probably good men at one time, but this place, the poverty, the cruelty, the things taken from them, made them hard, made them see things all wrong, and what they did is inexcusable, but they had to have convinced themselves that those fey creatures were only animals, animals that could be killed to make them rich. It doesn’t, and it does, make sense. Where does the blame lie.
He then looks up at Zirren and says past the big man’s shoulder,I mean after all, when you think about it. To cows, people are lawful, and evil.
Zirren looked a little lost at the depth of Nathaniel's morality regarding people and animals. He had never thought about what level eating food made from animals might be wrong, but at the same time he thought that the two weren't comparable on the same level.
"Listen, Art, m-my understanding of magic is limited, but I suppose you're right that it i-is possible to speak with animals. And you're right, only a f-few would think of it and fewer still would make an effort. But I think you're looking too far into it. Hunting a-animals for food is necessary for survival. What those men did wasn't just to animals, it was to thinking individuals. They did it for greed, or sport, or twisted pleasure. What they did was evil. M-maybe they were good but it was their choice to do what they did.
Animals don't have the understanding. They don't have the minds for morality. There is no understanding of right and good or law and evil. They hunt and kill with no regard for others. And what of those that feed only on plants? They grow, wither, and die with time. Yet we consume them as well, does anyone talk to them? Many people don't have a choice abo-out what food they consume? They just know it k-keeps them alive."
He shook his head.
"It's alright to hate killing and taking a life but if you keep thinking that deeply about everything... you're simply going to drive yourself mad or into despair."
Caine had picked two berries, then saw Boote storm off angrily and followed Zirren to check on him. He listened while Boote vented his anger. His lips pursed in thought and he took a swig off a wine skin.
"I know your heart's in th' right place, Boote, but what you're sayin' isn't actually true at all."
"What you're talkin' about is called Moral Relativism. it seems true at first glance, but if you break it down it becomes a kind of ideological poison that undermines every conceivable kind of ethics."
"I ain't exaggerating. I know I ain't much now, but once upon a time, this sort of thing was my whole life. When I learned the Philosophical Sins that was the first thing on the list.
"I know it seems right, but it ain't. That's what makes it such a dangerous notion."
"I can tell you want t' argue, but how about instead you answer me a question first?"
"Is Goodness based on the will of the Gods?"
"Or, is the will of the Gods based on Goodness?"
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Nathaniel waits for Cain to finish, and then, he sighs
Our lady was known to have said, that a halfling’s moral obligation to his fellow halflings, precedes the Gods. I’m not sure anyone really understands what that was supposed to mean. I never meant to try to speak any truth. I was only trying to understand what makes a person want something so badly, whether its food, to survive, or wealth, to be rich, I don’t think it matters. It’s the want, the want for something that takes over all other thoughts, making a person do terrible things. Those men wanted gold, don’t we all, on some level, want more than we have? But those men wanted gold so badly they convinced themselves that killing those creatures was justified. Now, I’m not arguing with anyone. What they did was wrong. But why did these men desire gold so much more than you or I? Is it because we have all we need? Do you? Do I? Who knows? Part of what made those men do what we all agree is wrong, is who they were, but part of it, I’ve already been shown, is this place, and how things are done here. I don’t know anything about moral relatives, I’ve never heard of it before. I can’t even tell you what goodness is, for you, for them, I don’t know. I know what it is for me. I will do good in this world, even if I have to give my life doing it. My idea of what is good doesn’t come from my belief in the halfling Gods. We have Gods for many kinds of good things. My idea of good comes from following the life lived by the Lady of Mittonwir. She put the life, the safety, the future of her people before her own, in everything she did. I cannot do less. I may never understand these philosophies you speak of, but I can see when something is wrong, when something is not fair, and if it is within my right, and ability to do something about it, I will. I only pray to the Gods for the wisdom to know the difference between what I can do and what I cannot.
He turns to Zirren, and smiles, then says, Don’t be too worried, thinking too deeply isn’t one of my families strong points.
Caine smiled and handed Boote a berry. "Aye. Your heart's definitely in the right place. Most often, that's enough. The rest, we can talk more about that another time."
"We all did good tonight."
He popped his berry into his mouth and went back to the others.
Zirren listened to Art and Caine go back and forth about their beliefs and moralities. He could understand the basic meaning behind their concepts but he himself didn't really hold onto the deeper and obviously more personal meaning behind it that the other two displayed. But before he could wrap his mind around it more, a wave of throbbing pain from a sudden headache threatened to overtake him.
Zirren put a hand to his head to ease the pain and watched Caine go. "You know... I think I'm starting to understand the two of you a little bit better... I think that Caine's right though, in spite of whatever drove those men to commit those acts, you did good things to make up for it here tonight."
He let out a small smile as he looked down at Art.
"... We should remake our camp back up and get what rest we can for the remainder of the evening. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.I don't know about you, but my body is telling me that it's about ready to fall over."
Caine shrugged. "it's all in the Order of Numbers."
"Turns out its possible to learn the whole thing and still not understand any of it. Faith can be a hard thing to hold onto when you figure out the words don't mean what you were taught they did."
"Drinking helps."
Caine offered Zirren his wine skin and picked a few more berries.
During the incredible philosophical debate, one might be wondering where Belladonna managed to wander off to. As Caine might notice when he picks a few more berries, Belladonna lay curled up against a tree completely fast asleep. She hugged her fox who cuddled around her front, and mumbled in her dreams.
"...mm pwetty faewies..."