Daegan, currently occupied with the skeletons, does not respond to Cervin's suggestion. A small chuckle and a sigh is the only thing that escapes his lips. It had seemed that they had won, and yet they found themselves fighting foes that seemed more dangerous than the last. A wearying day, to be sure.
"I fear we'll be even more outnumbered if I let them out of their bonds," Igmar shouts as he prepares a spell. He voice weaves into a song, a slow-sounding lullaby he companions have now become familiar with, his eyes directed at the only living enemy around.
Arkady's orb hits one of the slowing moving zombies in the elbow, and while the acid is enough to cause the arm below the hit to fall to the ground, the zombie lumbers forwards, unconcerned. "Get them!" Rokhar shouts over combat, remaining near the eastern doors. He hears Igmar's lullaby, but when his eyes meet Igmar's, he smiles, seemingly unaffected.
Aishe lets her acid towards the skeleton at the foot of the stairs, and scores a lucky hit in the blue-lit skull. The majority of the skull melts away from the acid, and the eerie blue light that suffuses the animated bones pulses strongly in response. Daegan brings his sword down hard onto the skeleton, cutting through bone until the living skeleton collapses to the ground. The blue light pulses strongly before fading, with a sudden final frigid blast forcing Daegan and Yagello to inch backwards. Unfazed by the cold, the remaining skeleton moves down the stairs to attack.
Daegan bears the brunt of the cold, barely getting a moment before defending himself from the remaining skeleton. Yagello moves quickly, but the sheer exhaustion finally catches up to him and he falls to the ground, unconscious.
Finally in a position to properly attack, Cervin looses two arrows through the crowd of zombies at Rokhar.
"You will not triumph here, spawn of evil. I am the hand of Erastil and your death is at hand!"
At Igmar's voiced worries, the half-orc gestures with her bound wrists. "I didn't sign up to be a stinking zombie. I'll help you if you free me, but give me something to fight with!"
Across the room, Rohkar sneers. "Snake! After all I offered you to join my bandits! You will suffer for this treachery!"
"I was just looking for some small-time thieving, you know?" she growled back across the room. "This right here is what I was trying to get away from!"
Next to her, the awake human bandit looks between the intruders on one side and the undead on the other, reluctant to take sides.
From the corner of the fireplace, Arkady watches Cervin loose his arrows. Taking stock of the result, he forms another blob of acid and lets it loose.
Igmar moves over to the bound half-orc and begins to undo the rope. He leans down and whispers in her ear.
"If you betray us, I swear to the gods that I'll see you dead, in this life or the next."
"We need to back up! And I need help with this skeleton!"
Daegan lifts and heaves Yagello over one shoulder, and retreats backwards, depositing Yagello outside the eerie aura of the skeleton.
Daegan's cry for help sounds strained, his face covered with frost, and as he bends over to pick up Daegan, he too sucumbs to the frigid aura. "Attack!" Aishe nearly screams in desperation, her pointing finger sending another bolt of acid towards the remaining skeleton before Growler comes bounding into the lodge.
Aishe's orb strikes true, and Growler jumps towards the skeleton, defending Daegan and Yagello.
The cold aura surprises Growler, who snaps short of the actual bones.
Across the room, Cervin sends two arrows into Rohkar, who appears visibly staggered by the hits. Arkady tried to keep the zombies at bay by firing another orb of acid, but he misses and they keep coming.
Cervin easily dodges the lunge, but he knows that the approaching zombies could soon easily overwhelm him.
Igmar's surprisingly deep whisper makes the half-orc's go wide in attention, and she nods carefully at his threat. "I'll help you, don't worry," she says, "But for the love of Gorum, give me a blade to fight with!"
Seeing no reason to stop his assault, Rohkar orders his zombies to attack, and continues to move about, trying to avoid more of Cervin's arrows.
The icy skeleton attacks Growler as the nearest target in a series of uncontrolled slashes in some kind of animal-like rage.
Igmar reaches to his belt and pulls out his regular heavy pick and hands it to Ten-penny Tacey.
"This is all I have. Use it as well as you can."
As soon as he finishes speaking, he begins vocally weaving another spell, again in the direction of Rokhar. This time, his song is quiet, but punctuated with sharp, loud notes.
Rohkar coughs a bit of blood up onto his white fur coat. While his sneer remains defiant, shaking off Igmar's spell, Cervin sees the beginnings of doubt in his eyes.
Cervin is rocked by the vicious blow from the zombie, slamming him back into the fireplace.
So this is how I die. So be it.
"Draw the undead out of here! Get them away from Daegan and Yagello!"
Cervin looks around wildly and leaps past the zombies, trying to dodge their claws before he clambers the fireplace to get to the roof. He then turns and looses a shot at Rokhar, his arrow trailing a white light.
As Igmar arms the half-orc bandit, Arkady raises his crossbow, still loaded from the fight outside. He takes aim at the zombie nearest to him and says a prayer to Desna as he fires.
He then moves behind the fireplace to give Tacey the position in the corner. "Please tell me you know how to swing that thing."
Cervin avoids the zombies by climbing up the fireplace, making it nearly to the roof before sparing a shot back at Rohkar. Rohkar nimbly dodges the arrow, but frowns as he looks up at Cervin. "Fine, run and hide like a spider!"
Arkady hits the nearest zombie, and while the lumbering body makes an easy target, the bolt does not seem to hurt the bandit as much as it would have when he was still among the living.
Tacey regards the pick skeptically. "Dwarves love to dig, don't they. Oh well, it'll do!" She barrels around the corner and swings the pick at the zombie marked by Arkady's crossbow bolt.
Tacey connects, but the pick merely catches in the bandit's torso. She pulls the pick out, and prepares to swing again. "These picks don't work so well on these brainless bodies, you may want to grab a different weapon!"
Aishe remains in a state of near-catatonic shock at seeing her beloved companion fall to the ground. All she can muster is another orb of acid towards the offensive skeleton.
The skeleton begins to collapse to the ground, but not before another blue blast of cold leaves scars of blue frost along the stairs and the floor.
"Try to hold them off!" Igmar shouts as he begins to vocally weave another spell, the same as before. He directs his voice at Rokhar, hoping against hope that it works better this time.
Rohkar is still staring at Cervin when Igmar's noise distracts him. Angrily, he looks over the room at the dwarf, only to have Igmar's spell take hold. Igmar sees his eyes lose focus for a moment, sensing an opportunity.
Without any direction from Rohkar, the mindless bandits advance on the party. The one with Arkady's arrow and a wound from the pick tries to attack the half-orc.
Tacey manages to barely sidestep the lumbering bandit, but there are too many for her to handle alone.
Igmar sees his chance, and draws his bow. Pulling back an arrow, he looses it toward Rohkar, hoping to take down the one controlling the zombies.
Rohkar stumbles to one knee as Igmar's bow hits him, and cries out in pain. "All right!" he roars, dropping his blade on the ground. The zombies stop momentarily at his command. "Let me go, and I will take my zombies with me. You can kill me if you dare, but my zombies will not fall with me. They will continue, and they are still hungry!" As if in appreciation, one of the zombies groans.
Rohkar pauses, and waits for a response from the party.
Cervin crouches from his perfect vantage, an arrow trained on Rokhar's heart. For a moment he looks ready to shoot before he looks to his fallen companions. His hand trembles before he lets out a shout of frustration.
Remember your oaths and why you are here.
"Damn you! Get out of here NOW!"
Rohkar calls out to his zombies, who shuffle towards him. Rohkar rises with his sword, draws his hood up, and backs slowly out the door keeping an eye towards Cervin and his bow. His undead minions follow him out the door, and soon the only sounds left are the howling wind blowing through the open doors and the crackling logs in the fireplace.
Cervin scampers across the roof and hops down onto the ground. He looks at Tenpenny Tacey for a moment, a dark expression on his face.
"Thank you, I understand you were just being practical but I appreciate it. Can you tell us what happened here? Also - where the Lady is being kept?"
With that Cervin kneels down by Daegan and Yagello. He looks over Growler for a moment, bites back tears, and turns to help his companions. However, with his emotional state he's unable to do much.
The half-orc helps where she can, but avoids Daegan, obviously remorseful in her earlier fight with him. "He probably won't forgive me, will he? I'm not much a healer, unfortunately."
As the others tend to the wounded, Tacey tries to explain herself. "As you may have noticed, I haven't always been with these people. I'm from Demgazi, but certain business has forced me to leave town. Tacey is obviously not telling the whole story, but most of the rest of the party are too exhausted or busy to immediately notice. "I was making my way through the Border Wood when I ran into Rohkar and his raiders. They gave me shelter and food after a long journey, so I stayed with them for awhile. I was mainly taking care of food and fire, but then it got cold, and Rohkar apparently took over this lodge. I wasn't sure how they found such a nice fort, and I didn't ask a lot of questions at the time. They gave me my own bedroom, so who was I to complain! I heard the rumors from the other raiders that Rohkar was some powerful wizard, but I never saw him lift a finger until today, and I definitely don't want to be working with a necromancer!"
"Two days ago, they brought in a woman. I only saw her briefly, and I know they've been giving her food." Tacey moves into the trophy room, and pulls up the bearskin rug, revealing a trap door with a padlock. "She's down in the cellar here, but only Rohkar has the key. If you give me my keys back, I might be able to pick the lock for you."
Likely story, but she has a better chance of living with us than apart. Cervin finds out who has the keys and hands them over.
"Fair enough. I'm going to make my friends comfortable while you look at the lock." Sadly, he looks to Aishe by Growler's body and then nods over to Igmar. "Help me with these two, would you?"
Cervin then hauls Yagello and Daegan over to the beds in the north rooms to let them rest up comfortably.
Tacey takes back her thieving tools eagerly, then fidgets with the lock for a moment. After a minute of quiet work, the padlock hits the wooden floorboards with a loud clank. She smiles hesitatingly, hoping to win over the party with her help.
"No problem! She should be down there." Tacey points to the lock, waiting for someone else to open the trap door.
Cervin heads over to the trapdoor and slings his bow over his shoulder. He crouches and then yanks it open.
"Hello? My Lady, the bandits have been defeated. We're here to get you home."
As Cervin opens the trap door, Arkady approaches and peers between his fingers, looking for any signs of danger.
Arkady peers into the gloom as the light from the trophy room spills down into the cellar below. A half-dozen boxes and barrels take up the majority of this underground cellar. A rough blanket lies spread on the floor in the southeast corner next to a bowl of half-eaten food. A human woman sits on the blanket, covering her eyes as she peers up at the source of light.
Arkady does not detect any magical auras and gives Cervin a quick nod. The woman below stands up on her blanket, allowing the light to fall onto her face. Her red hair frames a bruised and cut face, with her gown slightly tattered but otherwise intact. She calls back up to Cervin. "Who has sent you? I'd rather not trade one set of captors for another, so you'll forgive me if I'm a little skeptical of your rescue."
I'll ignore my distaste for the nobility, that poor woman has been through hell.
Cervin remains at the edge of the trap door, leaning over in obvious pain with a thin trail of blood showing at the edge of his mouth. His normally clear voice is a croak as he looks down.
"We have been sent here by the Council of Heldren to ensure your safe return home. My name is Cervin Kelinson and I am a devout of Erastil. My companions are Igmar, Aishe, Arkady, Yagello, and Daegan. We have been joined by Tacey who joined us upon seeing the true evil of Rokhar. The bandits have been slain or captured and their vile leader routed. The lodge is safe now."
He winces a bit and shifts his footing.
"I'm afraid we are badly injured from the fight and must rest here until our healer has recovered from his wounds so we can travel. In the name of Erastil, community and family I pledge myself to your protection and will faithfully serve until your safe return to Heldr--" Cervin cuts off, his face contorted in pain before he continues. "Heldren."
Arkady picks up as Cervin finishes. "Lady, as Cervin stated, our healer is recovering from our battle, but if you would permit me, I would use some minor magic to at least make you more comfortable by clearing away the dirt of your captivity, and also see that you have food and drink."
Even while still in the cellar, the lady rolls her eyes in obvious cotempt. "Well, I suppose you lot will have to do until the Taldan guard arrives. I suppose this Heldren is looking for favors from my house of Malassene, as well!" Lady Argentea considers Arkady for a moment wearily, then gives a defeated shrug and accepts his aid in climbing out of the cellar.
After Arkady repairs some of the damage to her clothing and cleans her skin, she stands up tall, trying to project an air of nobility despite the obvious disadvantage of her situation.
Dismissive of the others and their injuries, she looks about the lodge and the turns to Cervin. "Cervin, is it? When will your companions be ready to travel? I don't think I could stand another night in this dreadfully rural cottage." She sighs as she looks out the window and the blowing snow. "I trust one of you worshipers of Erastil have appropriate clothing for me to wear outside in this unseasonable cold?"
Cervin looks at Argentea with a flat, unfriendly expression.
Spoon-fed parasites living off of the hard work of the common folk. I killed something like six men for her. Bah, I will not waste words.
"You're welcome. We'll get you some winter clothing and leave as soon as our healer is upright and can address our wounds." Cervin then turns his back to her and looks to Arkady, Igmar, and Aishe.
"Let's explore this place from top to bottom. Igmar, if you have any healing spells left please use them on Daegan. If we can get him up this night he may have more healing magic and this night will be far safer and pleasant. Aishe, let us know if you wish anything done for poor Growler. If you don't mind, I pray at dawn and thus should take last watch."
With that, Cervin limps off to explore the lodge from top to bottom.
"Lady, I fear we will not be in any shape to travel tonight. We will inspect this lodge and do what we can to help you be comfortable. On the morrow, I can prepare magic that will enable you to ignore the dreadful cold, as I am currently doing."
With his last comment, he indicates his completely inappropriate attire, and smiles. After that, he assists with searching the lodge for whatever it may have to help them (food, blankets, etc.)
When Cervin mentions keeping watch, he adds, "I will need to study my spells in the morning, so I prefer to watch either first or last, so that my sleep is as uninterrupted as possible."
Igmar looks around, seemingly disappointed in himself.
"Alas, I have no magic left to heal. I'm afraid I'm spent for the day—I beg your forgiveness, m'lady," Igmar says, bowing to the Lady.
Lady Argentea stirs at Igmar's deep voice, and turns to face him. "Oh, it's quite all right, my dwarven rescuer." She moves closer to him, and offers her hand. "In any case, staying overnight will give me the opportunity to tell you of these evil fey that are invading the Border Wood."
Meanwhile, Cervin and Arkady search through the rest of the lodge, leaving Aishe to mourn over Growler. They start on the top floor, where the skeletons were hiding before. The room hosts an impressively detailed map of the Border Wood, with various markings and circles. Some of these markings have notes detailing ambush tactics suitable for the region. The plans look like they are being used to plan ambush sites and other points of interest.
Cervin peers into the storage closet. Dozens of small boxes, bottles, and papers fill the musty storeroom. A small iron cage sits on the top shelf, emanating a flickering light like that of a candle. Upon closer inspection, Arkady realized the candle is really one of the sprites the party had fought among the trees in the woods. Upon seeing the unfamiliar faces, the sprite glows bright blue, nearly blinding Arkady and Cervin in the windowless dark room.
"Oh, thank the gods! Rescuers! Please help me! That nasty Rohkar has kept me here, his personal prisoner! Please free me! Please, I beg you!"
Initially hesitant to help the sprite, Arkady searches the room and finds numerous magical items, including three scrolls, three magical oils, a small lockbox containing coins and gemstones, as well as numerous flasks of alchemist's fire.
Arkady and Cervin leave the room with the treasures, much to the protest of the sprite, who shouts and screams for release after the door is closed again.
Sweeping the rest of the lodge reveals little besides the two locked chests in the bedrooms on the main floor. Tacey has already broken one, which contains a variety of curious treasures, as well as four more scrolls, but she remains seated on the second chest, waiting for Arkady and Cervin.
"That other chest was in Rohkar's room," the half-orc explains, "So I have no problem breaking that open for you. But this chest," she indicates the chest she is sitting on, "Was mine. Since you took everything I had on me, this is all I have left. So I'm asking you to let me keep it."
Arkady and Cervin both feel like the issue of what to do with Tacey can wait until the morning, and setup watch for the night.
The howling wind makes it somewhat difficult to sleep, but the crackle from the fire is the only disruption for the night, as Arkady takes the first shift, Igmar taking over in the middle of the night, and Cervin waking early in the morning to relieve Igmar. At the beginning of their watches, Igmar and Cervin look in on Daegan and Yagello, who remain asleep. Aishe remains with Growler throughout the night, and the rest of the party keeps a respectful distance for the time being.
"Good morning!" Lady Argentea says to Cervin as she comes out of her room, stretching slightly and seemingly behaving much better. "I did say that I would talk to you of these fey, but it seems I could not resist getting a proper sleep when given the opportunity!
Waiting until the party gathers around, Lady Argentea tells her story. At first, it sounds much as the party assumed. Her caravan was skirting the Border Wood when it was attacked by Rohkar's raiders and an overwhelming force of icy fey. While the sprites she describes match what the party has seen, including the one locked upstairs, she also mentions the leader of the assault.
"They referred to her as Izoze," Argentea continued. "Rohkar and all of they fey deferred to her, although Rohkar didn't seem like he enjoyed taking orders. She was much bigger than the other fey, similar to you, Igmar. She regarded the dwarf. "But unlike you, she has blue leathery skin and wings, and during the assault she actually breathed ice. She froze one of my poor guards in a solid block of ice!" The lady was slightly worked up by this point, as the party remembered the frozen guard back on the main road.
Lady Argentea calmed herself before continuing. "But Izoze isn't the main leader. I haven't met him, but while I was captured, I heard my captors speak of a Teb Knotten. I think he's the one that is in charge among the cold fey that foul our Border Wood!"
Upon awakening before the others, Cervin moves out onto the porch and checks for feed for the horses to care for them. He heads back to the porch, ignoring the cold for a while to enjoy the outdoors and pray. When finished he heads back in to remove his winter clothing and armour to inspect the vicious black bruise spreading on his chest.
Broken ribs. Perfect. Some healing magic would be just fine right now.
With that in mind he heads over to Igmar and gently shakes the dwarf's shoulder.
"It's morning. Are you rested? If so please do what you can for Daegan and Yagello."
After that conversation Cervin heads to the main room as the rest of the party gathers to listen to Argentea.
"So we have this Izoze and then Teb Knotten above her. Perfect. Well if we can get everybody up and healed I'd like to get you back to Heldren as fast as possible. Then see if we can do something about these fey." He glances over to Tacey and the bandits. "Anything to add? Also, what's the story of the captive fey upstairs?"
Upon awakening, Arkady uses the early light to study his spellbook. He immediately expects one Endure Elements on himself. Once done, he collects the various magical items and attempts to identify them.
He also looks over the parchments for any information they may contain.
When the others arise, he offers to cast Endure Elements on Lady Argentea (or, if there is appropriate cold weather clothing for her, anyone else who is lacking it). He listens to her story, and nods in agreement at Cervin. "Agreed, first things first, get everyone prepared for travel and back to town. We can take the fey with us in its cage, and determine if we trust it enough to release it later."
Tacey shrugs at Cervin's question. "I didn't know he had someone stashed up there. The princess here," Tacey fax-courtsies to Lady Argentea, [b]"is right in that Rohkar didn't get along with the fey. I'm guessing he secretly captured one to find some way to get back at them. With the fey coming and going, he probably didn't want to have him out in the open. Although Izoze didn't really come into the lodge much. I don't think she liked the warmth."
Arkady rifles through the parchment in the portfolio. Most of the rest are blank, probably for Rohkar to inscribe more scrolls. The rest have fairly mundane bookkeeping notes in common, keeping track of food and supplies in the hostile weather.
Seeing no value in the mundane writing, Arkady pores over the magical writings gathered last night. The scrolls that were stored in the room with the sprite are similar to the one Rohkar had used in battle, capable of raising corpses from the ground. The scrolls from Rohkar's chest perform a variety of functions, from enchanting weapons to conjuring an invisible servant to surviving the cold weather. The oils from upstairs also enchant weapons.
Upon waking, Igmar feels somewhat refreshed, until the events of yesterday come flooding back to his mind.
I suppose I'll have to get used to this. I'm caught up in it, now.
He moves to his still unconscious companions, starting to hum a soothing tune. He reaches out to touch Daegan, hoping the healer can help Yagello when he arises.
For a moment, Daegan lingers on the border between unconsciousness and the less comfortable reality of his pain. Groaning, he squirms and grimaces before opening his eyes. Above him stands Igmar. Daegan blinks at the dwarf in mild surprise before shaking his head and sitting up slightly.
"I take it that means we won, yes? I'm glad... and am sorry that I fell."
He casts his gaze about, settling it on Yagello with a frown. "He's still not awoken, either? Let me see to him..." Daegan stands with a quickly muffled hiss and moves to sit on the edge of Yagello's bed, clutching at his symbol.
"That should do for now. He should awaken momentarily. I can do more with an hour of preparation." He looks at the dwarf questioningly. "Once Yagello rises, I'm sure we'd both like to hear what happened."