Frederick interposes himself between the fishmen and Cyrus, and chops at the one closest to his buddy.
One of the two remaining monsters attacks Frederick with all its might.
And after the strike its spear is blood-stained.
move and
Eitylen kills another one of the vicious creatures.
A wave of healing energy flows into your bodies...
Frederick opts to tap into his reserve of mental energy, foreseeing the best possible path to swing, and intercept his opponent's dodge on the backswing.
And with Frederick's attack, the last of the fishmen falls. You see other soldiers and mercenaries finishing off whatever few of the creatures remain... No more than a minute later, there is no more conflict to be fought... At first sight, it seems the convoy suffered no casualties.
"Damn tyrants..." shouts a man a man in grey plate who spits on the corpse of one of the creatures... "I'll never get rid of this smell..."
Ayren is a few feet away from you. He seems to have fought side by side with the mercenaries that rode with you.
It takes a while for the convoy to reorganize. During this time you see some of the Goldsmith officers discussing the attack, a few Red Eagles polishing their blades and comparing notes about the creatures and a bunch of scared civilians trying to get their horses calmed down.
STill bleeding
Well, It could have been worse - and returning to travelling mode.
"I'm just glad nobody died."
Among the possessions of the group of creatures that attacked you find 4 daggers, a masterwork trident, a net, a spear and a +1 trident. As well as 5 shell-made pieces of armor that are equivalent to masterwork chain shirts. There are also a few rings and necklaces. All of these items are made of shells, reef and bone.
The next days of travel go by without further incidents. During the journey, Ayren is often seen talking to a dark-haired civilian girl in flowery dress. Their chats are usually short, and likely to end up wih her giggling. He also talks very often to the mercenaries who fought with him, often asking about the leaders of the military companies leading the convoy. Occasionally he walks into the forest, generally after announcing to his friends that he needs to make water, and he is always back rather quickly.
He checks up on you every 6h or so, but other than that, he doesn't seem to care what you choose to do with your day (not that there is much to do, calmly riding along the river... Which as you notice, has a number of smaller water streams flowing into it. All but one of them are shallow enough that the convoy can simply ride over it with no problems... The only one that is deep enough to be a problem has a very solid and well-polished stone bridge over it.
- - -
Two days after your encounter with the fish-like humanoids, you reach the mining town of Stonybrook. You notice the higher-ranking officers breaking away from the main convoy with their closest men. They move to a grand house at the end of the main street, next to the foot of the small mountain that touches the edges of the city.
Stonybrook is surrounded by rocky formations that circle around the nearby woods, spreading from both sides of the mountain whose foot the city is built around. Those rock formations are considerably distant, though, and there is plenty of forests inside the perimeter. These natural walls do not form a complete circle, though, they have a gap south of the city, where the road goes through.
Most of the buildings tend to be simple brick and mortar, with only a few having any actual painting. The ground is rocky with a few patches of grass here and there. The Onyx Serpent river is a little narrower around here, but just as deep. You can see it flows down from the mountain, forming a number of small, but beautiful waterfalls. They don't seem to attract many tourists, though... As literally every single person you see around here is either a miner, a man-at-arms, a prostitute, or someone whose living is otherwise directly related to the mining industry. None of them look very friendly, though...
Ayren meets you at the town's entrance.
"Welcome to Stonybrook, friends!" he says with a excited smile "Isn't it charming?"
"Of course it is! I bet you're already charmed!" he adds without waiting for a reply "I gotta check in with a couple of contacts. I'll be back in a flash! There is a tavern around that corner if you're thirsty, it's named "The First Keg", let's meet there in about 6 hours, okay? Oh... If you want to go sightseeing, the waterfalls are really nice."
"Uhm, yes, charming is the exact word I'd use." Frederick says politely.
"Aye, seems lively enough for a mining town. I'm going to check out those waterfalls and possibly read for a bit." Cyrus says while stretching his arms and legs after the long ride.
Despite the sun having barely finished its rising, the city is already moving at full steam. It's actually very difficult to find someone unoccupied or who doesn't have at least one or two mining tools strapped to their belts.
Frederick will go to the waterfalls and spend some time in meditation.
Eitylen goes to the waterfall and spend some time telling frederick all the tales he knows.
"I propose someone get some good food and drink and make this a jolly outing between friends."
The group has some lunch and drinks by the waterfalls. They are truly beautiful, which comes almost as a surprise, considering it was Ayren who spoke of their beauty.
You see a number of housewives washing clothes and/or carrying buckets of fresh water back to their homes, and a few children splashing by in the tiny pond that forms under the waterfall. Occasionally, someone comes around to wash their tools or clothes, but you get the impression that this is not the most used pond in the region.
From the cloth-washing women, you hear just a bit of gossip, the mayor is cheating on his wife, the captain of the guard is a vampire, a necromancer has is in town, the newly-arrived convoy was attacked by "water tyrants", beast-men were seen in the woods, the Whisperer appeared at the town's graveyard, fey have stolen an woman's underwear, the mine is haunted by the ghost of a dead miner, etc...
That said, not even the women themselves seem to take each other seriously...
6 hours are past and there is no sign of Ayren, though his mercenary "friends" seem unworried about his fate, and are happily drinking at the First Keg.
Eitylen would not be surprised if any of those gossip ended to be the real reasons Ayren brought them here, anyways...
Eitylen goes to look for Ayren.
After a couple hours asking around, Eitylen hears that a man fitting Ayren's description has been seen near the main building of one of the miners' camps near the edge of the city.
Eitylen decides to take check it by himself and follows the directions given to him. When he gets to the place, the elf starts looking around for clues. At first, everything seems to be fine, but after a few minutes later, Eitylen sees a small crowd gathering around a backstreet alley... When he approaches it to find out what happened, he sees the reason of the commotion: Three dead bodies lie on the ground of the alley. There are signs of battle all around and a couple of the corpses have charred faces and throw daggers sticking to their faces.
None of the bodies belong to Ayren, but one of them bears the colors of the mercenaries that accompanied him, he was killed by some sort of heavy blade, with a vicious chop to its shoulder.
- - -
While waiting for Eitylen to return, you take a break at The First Keg. Hoping that the half-elf is just late. After little more than two hours, you see the Ayren's mercenary friends being approached by men in common clothes.
"Are you Ayren's friends?" says one of them with a friendly voice "He asked us to bring you to him."
The mercenary replies without bothering to look up from his tankard: "Eh... To hell with that! Ayren wanna talk to us, he can come to us himself!"
"Well..." calmly speaks the smiling man "I understand you, sir. But this is a matter of safety... He can't give you your payment in public. We never know who is looking."
The promise of coin sparks the mercenary's interest.
"Hmm... Okay, then... If it's a matter of safety, I suppose we should go and meet him."
After this little conversation, the smiling man pays the mercenaries' tab and the whole group leaves the tavern.
"...Did that seem a little odd to you, or is it just me?" Frederick asks Cyrus.
Frederick's intuition tells him there is something wrong with the newcomer's words and behavior. The half-orc warrior senses an underlying motive to the smiling man's courtesy... And not a friendly one.
Though he hasn't known Ayren for more than a few days, Frederick was never under impression that the half-elf is the type of person that would spend his own coin to pay the mercenaries... Much less pay it in advance...
Something is definitely wrong here.
"I concur. We should follow them."
uhm, I should be more surprised... - Any tracks or something?
Eitylen notices a few drops of blood, blade scratches on walls, broken glass vials and other signs leading out of the alley, but they are few and far between, often seemingly "moving" in circles, making it difficult to follow them by just glancing at these traces.
Eitylen go back to look for Fred and cyrus
Eitylen meets Brother Cyrus and Frederick at The First Keg, and notices they're about to leave the tavern.
There are problems, there were some murders, one of the dead bodies s of one of the mercenaries that were with Ayren
"Some suspicious men just lured away more of Ayren's mercenaries, we're following them."
Eitylen go ahead, 10 for 23 in stealth.
"Hey guys! That man isn't a friend of Ayren! He might be responsible for Ayren's disappearence." Cyrus calls the man out leading the mercenaries to what may be certain doom.
"Huh...?" the leader of the mercenaries turns to your group "What are you talking about? Ayren didn't -Ugh!-"
Before he finishes his sentence, a blade comes through this neck
"WHAT THE F~#+ING HELL?!" shouts a different mercenary, going for his sword, but before he can for his blade a charge of electrical energy surges through his body, making him scream and smoke before collapsing on the ground.
The two other mercenaries managed to draw their weapons, but they don't look very confident. Behind them, "Ayren's friends" have daggers and scimitars at hands... And the smiling man no longer smiles. Only a look of frustration and anger appear on his face.
[dice="Smiling" Man]1d20+5[/dice]
Eitylen
Thug 1 (Scimitar)
Thug 2 (Greatsword)
Thug 3 (Crossbow)
Frederick
Smiling Man
Mercenary 1
Mercenary 2
Brother Cyrus
Cowards! - Eitylen quickly assemble one of his bombs and throw it at the smiling guy
The previously smiling man swats Eitylen's bomb aside and remains urharmed.
The man with the greatsword slices through the mercenary next to him. His target remains alive, but is grievously wounded...
The man with the scimitar slashes at the other mercenary, but his attack is deflected by the mercenary's solid breastplate.
A moment later, the man with the crossbows lowers his weapon... And gesticulates. An explosion of colorful dust blasts around you.
