"Friends of yours?" Abomentolor whispers. He casts a spell and slowly rises into the air.
That said.
Gregof holds his hands out, clearly away from his weapons in a very non threating way.
Good followers of The Inheritor. Please! We come in peace. Just give us a moment to talk.
We would speak to your leaders, as there is evil that you do not know afoot in the land. Beyond what you guard, we track a group trying to raise a lesser evil, but one that still could cast this land back into darkness.
You ask us to throw down our weapons, but I tell you to do so would be to let evil win and cause great risk your mission. So I can not comply, as to do so would end up with both of us being dead.
Instead, I ask you to accompany us to your leaders so that we may coordinate our efforts to the glory of both our Gods.
While we are here, I Brother Grergof Varsk, do swear by my faith to The Dawnflower that neither myself nor my companions will do violence against any good soul, unless we are not attacked first.
If you doubt my words ask the good father here, he nods at Darius for he is of your church and has seen my character. He knows that what I say is true, and has seen me stand honorably against much great evil.
Then he waits to see how the others react, simply looking intently at the knights and opening his divine sight so that he can tell if there is evil around.
"What he said." Darius acknowledges Grergof's speech. "We're after that Whispering Way, who is after some shady undead business. And them moving here makes it necessary that we follow."
"Well then, stay at our fire and let's talk. These are dire times and one can't be too careful around here." The knights are still not excited about your presence, but sheath their weapons.
They yield to the party, and follow back to their smoking campfire.
"I'm Miras. If you actually want to speak to a leader above my rank, you'd have to come along out of Virlych anyway."
"See over there? That's a normal Varisian woman, won't you think? But the fire of hell burns in her eyes. That's why we arrested her and take her to Vigil to be excorcised."
"And more often than not, something is wrong with people here, no matter how unsuspicious they look on first sight."
Spugnoir eyes the woman suspiciously. He wasn't all sure about the warriors, but if Varsk and Darius say they are ok then he will let it be.
Have you noticed any particular movements of undead or other people? Heading towards Renchurch? We have learned that is a destination of those we pursue.
Grergof scans the woman and everyone else around for evil.
Everyone can tell there is something wrong with that woman. The animalistic growls, wrenched limbs, and sulfuric fumes, the indigestible
materials such as eggshells, small bones, and other debris that she vomits forth every few minutes.
"There is a new powerful presence that hungers for flesh. You see the smoke over there? I bet it's the work of this witch here." Miras tells.
Is it almost like there is two entities here? Is that why I'm getting conflicting readings. He will focus to try to get the max information from Detect evil. Like could she be possessed or cursed?
After that he wants to see if he can determine the greater evil location.
Possible... He looks at the women more intently. But I have never seen evil flaunt itself so openly. Normally it tries to hide. And her aura does not look like that of those who I have previously met that are truly evil... Do you mind if we study her for a moment, something seems off.
Darius looks at the woman too and it's really strange. "That has to be the worst farts ever, that this woman lets out. What do you feed her?" he inquires as he can't make sense of her behaviour.
I am afraid that this is outside my area of expertise.
Mr. Stam, your advice could be really helpful here.
Abomentolor comes back down from his flight and joins the group at the campfire. But he makes sure to always have someone from his new companions between him and those overzealous do-gooders. His experiences with that kind aren't the best.
"This woman clearly shows the signs of a possession from a demonic creature." Stam concludes after watching the woman for a while.
So perhaps Darius can aid the paladins in driving out the creature?
"Sure, why not." Darius tells, gets up, walks over to the woman and casts a spell.
The spell works - kind of. The woman drops to the floor unconscious and next to her appears a creature that looks a lot like a skinned horse, the head even only a skull.
Abomentolor cast chain of light on the creature.
The daemon jumps away and attacks Darius with magic.
"Ewww, I don't think I feel so well."
AC 17/12/15 (21/14/17 with mutagen)
Saves F12/R12/W9 9 Fear Poison Immune
Weapon in hand:Mace+1
Special effects: Mutagen CMW potion in sipping jacket,
Bombs:17/19
Ack! Darius! Spugnour unleashes two holy bombs, making sure to exclude his allies and somewhat allies. Including the woman
DC 20
Spawn of Evil! You shall fall in the light of Sarenrae!
Then he moves up and smashes at the demon with his Flail
The knights join the fray to bring down that evil creature. They, like Grergof declare the demon their smite target. But the evil outsider is hard to hit.
That's not as big a problem for Spugnoir and Grergof who deal a good amount of wounds to it.
Darius takes a step back and casts searing light on the uninvited guest.
Abomentolor fires a bundle of fiery rays at the demon.
The spells cast on the demon have no effect. The demon disappears.
Which way did it go?
"That's why you don't do this in the open field. In virlych we would have the proper environment, to make sure it doesn't get away!" Miras calls out in an angry tone.
He shakes his head sadly as he puts away his flail and examines the woman before her to see if the evil is gone.
Yes there were some preparations that should have been taken.
He looks down at the woman.
At least this one should be better. But we may have just cursed another to become possessed.
Um.. Spugnoir mumbles before looking at his friends.We should leave before things get worse.
The woman opens the eyes and looks more normal. She doesn't detect as evil anymore, but she still looks like shit.
No we will not leave. These knights need to be informed what is happening. I would not have a new born Lich comming down on their head unprepared. These knights are doing valuable work guarding great evil.
Gregrof turns to the knights.
I would still like to see your leaders so that we can let them know of the new danger you could be seeing. So I think you said we need to go to Virlych.
"A lich you say? That is indeed grave news. How do you know this?" Miras inquires.
Well that is a long tale indeed. Spugnoir then settles in and recounts the tale of how they all followed a trail of clues that started with an old friend's funeral.
"Interesting story." Abomentolor comments
"I don't think it is necessary that you come along. Why would you delay your pursuit for a week, only to inform my superiors. I can do that."
"You should hurry and see if you can prevent this coming to pass." Miras suggests.
Yes, of course. Once again our apologies on this mishaps, we will make haste to stop the nefarious plot. Spugnoir is ready to leave.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I'm a bit rusty on the proper procedure for excrocism." Darius adds.
"You wouldn't know the shortest way to Renchurch from here? After that teleporting attempt failed I have a hard time orienting properly here."
I told them we should have taken magic steeds... but they wanted to teleport.
Gregof makes his tone light to take the sting out of his words.
So any help you could give us getting to Renchurch will be most appreciated.
"I can show you. I need to get back to my family to protect them. If you accompany me to the Witherleaf Barrows, you just need to move on on that path, to get to Renchurch." the now demonless woman suggests.
Miras comments "That's not the shortest way, but it's easy to follow the path from there."
Sounds good to me.
Lead on
The knight wish you a successful journey and a for you to bring quick death to those of the Whispering Way.
Once you left and brought some distance between you and the knights the woman relaxes.
After half a day's travel you reach Witherleaf Barrows. The blackened remains of an old village burned centuries ago dot the landscape between large earthen mounds. Many of these barrows have been excavated or have collapsed, and the once-sealed entrances of several of these tombs have been sundered open. Smoke still rises from the charred remnants of almost two dozen Varisian wagons scattered haphazardly among the mounds. They lie around like the toys of a child not caring to clean up after playing.
The woman breaks into tears on the sight of the destroyed caravan.
Grergof asks very softly.
So you know what happened here good woman?
Spugnoir drinks his Extract of Heroism just in case something lurks around.
"I knew it! I knew it! They told those bastards, that they need me for protection, but they took me away. And now they are all dead." the woman cries.
Let us gather them together and give them a blessed burial so they won't rise as undead and head to The Boneyard.
Looking through the ruins you find only a few dead. The rest of the caravan, about 50 people are nowhere to be found.
What did you think was threatening them? We don't see many of the dead, so maybe the others were taken? If we know the whole story it might help us get them back.