As usual, Ehren starts his morning with a fluid transition from sleep to meditation. It had been a long day yesterday, and it was about time that he reflected on it. Doing so outside would have been more preferable, especially now that there was a sky to behold, but he had other things on his mind. Breathing in and out slowly, he contemplates the mystery of nature, and the toll the Storm King's attack had exacted on the world. It was all so much. And so again, as usual, he limits his ruminations to his own perspective. He reflects on the damage sustained on Truestone Park, its flora dead or aflame. The dead dire wolf, perhaps a companion to another follower of the Old Faith, Crocris. Ehren had seen such bonds formed between beast and man in the past, but he had chosen to bond with the land instead. Perhaps he had chosen wisely - he could not even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose a faithful friend. And of course, there had been the mandragora. A perversion of nature in the most literal sense; his memory of the creature haunted him in a way the howlers had not. With one final breath, Ehren opens his eyes, his mind and body revitalized.
We have another long day ahead of us.
Having centered himself, the druid finally stirs, deciding to make another attempt at binding his wounds through mundane means. Ehren winds the bandages around his upper abdomen, patching up the memento Garil had left him. It was fortunate that the swing had left his head intact. His hands are far more practiced this time, making the wrapping tight and flexible, and tying it off with a small double knot. He tops himself off with a healing potion, curing the remainder of his wounds. Nodding with satisfaction, he rearms himself with all of his gear and joins the others for breakfast.
"It's not as progressive as it seems. I know of...some scholars there. They're interested in unknown, esoteric things, and psychic powers are certainly both of those things." muses Markus. "Motivation is certainly a problem, as you say. But you're important, and we have a very rich friend."
Yesterday
"Hah! As if anyone has time for bureaucracy these days. You joke now, but I'm being serious. You'll probably get a promotion just for wielding that sword - let alone when they get a earful of our report of what we've been up to these past few days." Anevia yawns. "In any case, I think it's time to go to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow. Probably some demon butts to kick. Same old same old."
Now
Aravashnial chuckles. "Horgus? We aren't on the....friendliest of terms. And Abadarans aren't known for charity." He seems pessimistic about the idea. "But I suppose a letter shouldn't hurt, if you'd be willing to reach out to your contacts on my behalf. I believe Horgus has a few messenger ravens."
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It bothers her a bit to hear Aravashnial say that he's useless, and Li'an resolves to do what she can to aid Markus in bringing someone here to help him. Still, there was nothing she could do about it now. She excuses herself, wishing Aravashnial a good day with the children and going off to double-check all her gear. When she finishes inspecting it all, she waits in the entryway for the others.
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Hrut wakes to a familiar soreness of being wounded, doing some morning stretches he begins his morning exercises, hefting his warhammer that was gifted to him from Torag(as he views it), nimbly for a large man going over and over the martial maneuvers, working up a light sweat. Once done with his exercises, Hrut begins cleaning his weapons, armor and shield, making sure each is impeccably clean(fishing out small rat bones and vomited mushrooms), once he is satisfied that Torag is appeased with his follower he heads down stairs to see what the others are up to and get some more food.
"So where are we off to next, to find the crusaders?"
"To Anevia's house, hopefully to find a clue about where Irabeth is. Where she is, the crusaders will likely be, so it's our best bet," Li'an responded to Hrut. "I suspect we'll decide where else to go from there."
After having her fill, Ary is ready to strike out, now considerably lighter that she isn't packed for camping. She's back to wearing her tattered silver and red cloak for some reason.
"Yup. And with luck, they'll also have some more cold iron weapons to go around, and maybe some ranged weapons." Ary continues. "Lots to look forward to. Lots and lots of banished demons. Ready when you guys are."
Val grabs her things and nods. "I'm ready to go. Let's reunite our friend with her wife and find a bunch of daring crusaders and all that."
Anevia grins. "All right, let's go! Don't let these kids trash the whole house while we're gone, Nira!"
Nira smiles warmly at the heroes as they ready themselves to set off. "Inheritor's blessings, friends. Be safe. I'll be praying for you."
The group of seven sets off, north, moving through the ruined city. They make good headway, and soon the noontime sun is blazing high in the sky.
Anevia moves faster than she has these past few days, though if it is because her leg is healing, or because she is spurred on by the thought of seeing Irabeth once again is unclear.
Regardless, the travel is uneventful until they hear a woman's anguished cry in the distance break the silence...
"No! No! Please, no!"
"Looks like we're about to head out, Aravashnial." says Markus, standing up. "If you have anything to say, have Fenna write it down for you - I'll attach it to a letter that I'll write myself when we come back next." Markus turns to go, and then turns around. "Make sure Fenna keeps working on mending, and move on to making sure they all know ghost sound next. They're valuable cantrips. I'll see you in a day or two, Aravashnial."
Markus heads out of the door to meet up with the others, ready to go.
The sound of a woman's panicked cry spurs Markus on for a moment, but he flags back after a few quickened steps. He turns - "Wait.... it might be a trap."
Val seems pleased with Anevia's improved attitude. "Good moods are supposed to be contagious, but I didn't believe it until now." The city is for the most part calm and, despite the ruined city around them, she's in high spirits that they'll find Irabeth and the crusaders.
She jumps at the woman's scream and hurries forward a bit. "Maybe it is, but if it's not, we can't risk someone getting hurt because we're afraid to act."
It was good to get out of the manor again, and even better to do so without needing to care for the entire entourage. Li'an is amazed at how much less stressful the journey is, knowing that the others are as safe as one could manage in Kenabres while the seven of them try to make contact with Irabeth.
When she hears a cry, she stops and immediately looks around, half expecting another howler to jump out at them. Li'an nods in agreement with Valaria and heads towards the sound of the cry. She draws Lleuad in anticipation as she closes and scans the area trying to see if she can see who cried out.
Without even needing to be asked, Ehren follows after the others, already focusing on his spirit sense. He moves a little more sluggishly than before, once again weighed down by his armor and equipment.
Ary rushes after, keeping their rears guarded, but obviously in a rush to help anyone that might be calling for help.
Li'an and Valaria, already in front and quick to action, arrive on the scene first. They find the screams are coming from a small, ruined church of Sarenrae. The church is in ramshackle shape - parts of the roof have been ripped apart, allowing sunlight to trickle into the room. Many of the outside walls have crumbled in, and the main door is completely missing.
The two scouts take opposite sides of the door, and use the doorframe as cover while they peer in.
Inside, in front of a ruined altar to Sarenrae kneels a weeping woman in tattered blue and white robes. Surrounding the woman are six human knights in battered armor. Their faces are sooty and grim and their eyes burn with feverish light. One of the knights, a human woman with fresh scars on her face, says to the kneeling woman, “Your sacrifice aids the cause of good.” She draws her longsword and begins to advance.
The mad knights are armed with longswords and shields, and wear medium armor.
"Six knights, appear to be sacrificing a woman. They must believe that her virgin blood will make their weapons able to slay demons." That anyone believed such a thing was preposterous in her mind, but she wasn't sure given how they looked if they'd be able to be convinced otherwise.
"Val, you're better with words than I am... Offer me in her place to the knights. They might be willing to accept a willing sacrifice in place of an innocent, we can work out the rest once she's safe," she whispered, not sure what else might be able to work. She tried to avoid thinking about the obvious implication that her suggestion drew, hoping that the situation would prevent any of the others from making comments about it.
"They also might react well to seeing Radiance, she added as an afterthought.
"Like Hell they will.." Ary responded, the grit clear even in her whisper. "What is wrong with all these people. Chaleb with kids, now these guys with virgins. Let's just sacrifice the entire bloody city, while we're at it."
Ary draws Radiance as Fen'wen suggests, allowing its light to spring to life... but it isn't clear whether she intends to just show it, or make use of it. She squares her jaw and waits to find out what is going to be done. Thinking better of it. "Yeah, you lot keep them busy, the place is in shambles, I'm gonna try to get around to the other side. If we can get her out the other side, I can stay between them and her." She whispers back, then sheathed her sword as she begins making her way around the outside of the church. "Think you could shrink me?" She asks as she moves nearer to Li'an.
Round 1 four spaces under Fen'wen.
Four spaces away from building, south of '2a', just off the map.
3 squares left/diagonal out.
3 squares left.
3 squares left/diagonal in.
3 squares left (in line with the 5)
Left,left, diagonal up.
Diagonal up, up up... no longer worried about stealth if she makes it this far. Should be two diagonal from girl.
Trying to peer over the comrades in front of him, bobbing his head back and forth.
"Ary what is going on in there?" Hrut whispers to Ary.
I certainly wish the 'scouts' would use the hand signals we discussed for things! I am about to just charge in and ask questions later!
"You've got to be kidding me. How far gone do they have to be to actually believe madness like that?" How anyone can believe some silly folk story is beyond her, but she isn't really surprised that they've lost their minds.
"I can try. If they decide I'm a demon outright, I'm hiding behind you though, because I am still not at one-hundred percent." She takes a deep breath and draws one of her starknives just in case before calling out. "Crusaders! Comrades! Please, stay your blades, we are friends who wish to speak."
"Please listen! I'm a crusader as well, as are several of our companions!" Li'an says, stepping forward.
"Everyone should get up here as quickly as possible, if we're all here they might hesitate to start a fight," she whispers to the others. Just for good measure she signals the same to Hrut since he can't hear directly.
Hrut moves up behind Val,
"What is going on?!" Harsh, but hushed words coming from inside the helmet. Looking past her and taking note of the situation Hrut begins to get very anxious about the girls safety.
Wolves in sheep's clothing or just wolves? Deranged crusaders may be rabid sheepdogs, worse than a wolf...
"Val convince me in 3 seconds you have a plan or I am going to prove to them that their god has left them after all."
"Same plan as yesterday," she hisses under her breath as Hrut approaches. "We distract them and get them away from the hostage with diplomacy and lies and then do what we have to. They seem to actual be crusaders who've gone a bit mad, rather than cultists or would-be demon worshipers, so maybe we can talk them down entirely without fighting."
Markus heads up behind the rest of them, staff and spells at the ready. He sees the knights looming over the little girl, and his lip becomes a pressed line.
He pushes forward, between Valaria and Li'an. "Please, hold for just a second. You don't need to do anything - think about your vows."
Round 1
While Hrut is trying to figure out what is going on, Ary sneaks off, but she manages to make a ton of noise at first.
One of the mad knights in the back, a tall and slender man with pre-maturely grayed hair and sharp eyes, turns at a sudden noise. He doesn't see anything though, with Li'an and Valaria tucked around the corner.
"Captain Rawley. I heard something," he snaps to attention, taking a few steps towards the entrances of the ruined church.
Round 2
Ary circles around and though she is clanking her shield against her sword, there are several walls of stone between she and the crusaders, and they do not hear her. At that moment, Valaria steps inside.
"Crusaders! Comrades! Please, stay your blades, we are friends who wish to speak."
The crusaders are momentarily confused, but they do not put their blades away.
"Tiefling. Mind your own business, or this will not end well for you," growls Captain Rawley.
Round 3
"Please listen! I'm a crusader as well, as are several of our companions!" Li'an says, stepping forward - though the crusaders seem unimpressed.
Captain Rawley laughs. "Crusades?! The crusades are over. We've lost. Can't you see? The world is ending! We must do we what we can to survive!"
The three men in the centre of the building put away their longswords, and draw their crossbows.
Round 4
Suddenly Hrut shows up, whispering to Valaria - luckily they do not hear their conversation. The mad knights stiffen at the sudden emergence of the hulking man. They load their crossbows, but do not fire, waiting for their captain's command.
Round 5
Markus joins. "Please, hold for just a second. You don't need to do anything - think about your vows."
The grey-haired man nods. " I shall wage relentless war against the Spawn of the Pit and their manifold legions ... whenever opportunity presents. I have not forgotten my vows. Desperate times call for desperate measures."
Meanwhile, Anevia sneaks around the other side of the building, bow and arrow drawn. She uses the stone walls to her advantage, but it is mostly thanks to the distraction created by the heroes that she is able to move by unnoticed. She ends up in a room, hidden behind some topped over pieces of furniture, ready to fire should a fight break out.
The men in the centre ready their crossbows to fire on any of the heroes they so far see if they make any hostile movements towards their number.
Round 6
Captain Rawley keeps her longsword drawn. She sighs. "This is all for the purpose of good." She takes a few steps towards the terrified woman, who backs away from her, slowly. "I promise to make this quick."
"Please, think of the people! What would your goddess say if she watched you slay an innocent? You stand in a temple of a goddess who stands for patience and kindness! How can you stand there a believe this justified?!" One of her regular daggers slips into her other hand, ready to hurl at the nearest crusader if he's truly fallen far enough to go through with this madness.
Markus steps a single step forward, and opens his mouth to speak. "Listen, when you begin doing evil things for the cause of good, the cause of good has left you. kill a woman, call it evil, you won't hear me chastise you. I might kill you for it, but I won't argue. But I won't let you kill an innocent civilian and call it goodness."
He points at the woman. "This is the kind of person you fight the demons to protect. If you start killing her and those like her...why fight demons at all? There's nobody left to protect."
He sighs. "It would be better just to leave than to pretend you're still doing what's right."
Ary continues to slip forward, quietly. "Almost in position. Keep them busy for just a second longer." Ary whispers to the others. "I don't want to ruin your attempts at getting them to stand down. If you say go, I'll get between them and the girl."
Ehren had his suspicions about who might have propagated such a bizarre folktale. How desperate and afraid did someone have to be to believe such a thing? Upon seeing the crestfallen crusaders, the druid seemed to find his answer. Following the others' lead, he tries something, anything that might bring them back to their senses.
"Listen to them. Killing that woman will accomplish nothing - surely you must realize that already."
Hrut stays silent, convinced that anything he would add would instigate combat with the 'crusaders'. His weapon and shield ready,
"Val if this gets ugly I am going to try some new combat tactics if you stay close to me it would be beneficial" Hrut whispers, awaiting the signs of aggression from the deranged men.
Val nods almost imperceptibly. "I can do that. I'm starting to get a bad feeling that they're not going to listen to reason."
Keep going Ary, get to the girl and defend her, Li'an whispers, hoping they can buy enough time.
As Li'an stares at the men in anger, she draws Lleuad and twirls it once in her hands, then calls out loudly so the captain can hear her every word, "I've lived and fought through all four crusades, I've seen Drezen fall and burn and I've seen hundreds upon hundreds of good men go to their graves. If real crusaders had soiled themselves and run away everytime something terrible happened, the world would belong to the Storm King already."
"Look, if you believe the war is over and that we've lost, why are you still here? Plenty of civilians fled south, you can still join them. Throw down your weapons and flee Kenabres! Go live somewhere on the far end of the world! Being humans, you'll likely die of old age before the demons become your problem again. I don't have that luxury, so I'll keep fighting here, and I won't sacrifice the lives of the people I'm protecting to do so!"
Ary slips quietly forward as Li'an says to 'keep going'. She'd said the magic word of 'go', but Ary was fairly certain that hadn't been intended... she was close, either way.
The mad knights don't respond to Valaria - she is a tiefling after all, but Markus' speech combined with Ehren's quiet wisdom strikes a chord with the crusaders. As Ary moves into position, Captain Rawley turns towards the two men and frowns.
"y-you're right." She turns to the woman. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't know what came over me." She turns back to the heroes. "Are you all that's left...?"
Li'an isn't quite certain if the crusaders are sincere in their change of heart, not ever really having been good at reading people.
"I think it's alright now, but try to get next to the girl just in case," she whispers to Ary, not willing to let her guard down until she was certain the girl was safe.
"No, we're just a scouting party, there are more of us back at our encampment, and we've encountered another group wandering about who mentioned a second encampment of crusaders elsewhere in the city," she said, being vague about locations for the moment.
Ary moves quietly next to the girl and presses her finger to her lips, letting the girl know to pretend she saw nothing, she then points at herself, pats her shield, and then points at the girl.
"There are always more Crusaders. As long as Good, militant people exist and the Worldwound does too, people will come here." says Markus. "We can see as well as you that Kenabres has fallen, but that doesn't mean the end of the world. Even if the wardstone network falls, that's still not the end - the First and Second Crusades were fought without the benefit of wardstones to fall back to. I promise you'll see friends and allies again."
Trying to relax a bit to not seem too aggressive,
"Clearly no where in your beliefs does it state killing innocents will gain more favor with your god, that is much more akin to the type of people you swore to defeat!" Hrut finishes almost angrily to drive home his point.
The girl keeps her back pressed against the wall. Her eyes dart to Ary and she nods slightly, then goes back to staring at the crusader captain.
"I...I... gods. I don't know. I don't even know anymore. I thought that we were all that was left. The last group of soldiers we came across said that Queen Galfrey betrayed us - she revealed herself as a succubus and fled into the Worldwound! ....That was days ago."
The man closest to her, a half-elf with white hair and a thin nose nods. "How else could a human rule for so long? I had thought it was witchcraft - but it turns out that she is a demon!"
Ary stays quiet, even though she understands what they're talking about. She's in the worst place to send a message to Li'an, after all.
'I don't find it that odd... maybe you've blessed her, or maybe you're holding her to her oath.'
Val frowns slightly, still uncertain if the men are going to snap again. She keeps her knives handy, but doesn't have them quite so ready to attack. "A succubus? Really? How on earth would she have pulled that off for so long? In fact, isn't she a paladin? Even if succubi can fool humans, would your goddess not be able to see through such a deception? Certainly she wouldn't grant a demon her power."
"And why would she reveal herself now if she was? It's not like the entire crusade has collapsed. As insensitive as this might sound, Kenabres is just one city. Giving up such a powerful position when they still have an entire country to conquer would be madness. The entire rumor makes no sense. It's likely just the result of panic. Understandable given the circumstances, but not something we should allow ourselves to give into." She stares pointedly at the gathered crusaders.
"Where did you meet the soldiers that told you that?" Ehren asks with a frown.
Have they truly lost all hope, to believe in such nonsense?
The tall, grey-haired man turns to Ehren. "We hunkered down in the Hall of Heroes for awhile before it was overtaken. We scattered- never saw the other crusaders that were there again."
Captain Rawley shakes her head, wide-eyed. "Demons can use magic, as well! She was just faking it! Even paladins do not live forever..." She frowns. "Regardless, that is no excuse for our actions. We had lost all hope."
The cowering girl hesitates, then takes a step forwards. "The Dawnflower teaches us, that everyone deserves redemption. Each day is another step towards perfection."
Val just sighs, knowing she's not going to convince them otherwise while they're desperate and scared. "Everyone is on edge and desperate. You're hardly the first to lose hope. At least you came to your senses before you did something truly awful, which means you never strayed very far from your true purpose."