Jayse moves slowly along the edge of the area Jofram pointed out, hunched over in concentration in the light provided by Ushari's spell.
Jayse looks north and south, "I guess Ushari, Shaggar, and I will go south. Give it an hour then return if you haven't found anything? If you do find something, mark the spot and come get us?We'll do the same."
Filled with purpose and a plan, the two groups of hunters set off across the unforgiving rock in opposite directions...
Jayse, Ushari, and Shaggar set off southwards. They quickly fall into a pattern of leap-frogging over the area where a comrade is searching. Because of the poor lighting, it quickly becomes second nature to overlap search areas a bit to ensure no dark corner is missed. Thankfully, Shaggar's ridiculously accurate darkvision makes him the person to check the shadowy edges of their search areas. It is a long hour and 1.5 miles. Their eyes burn with fatigue at the end of it... only to find no subtle sign of their quarry. With a bit of frustration, they hike back to the meeting point while taking one last look for errant clues as they go.
Jofram and Straehan head North at a quicker pace, the ranger's trained eyes missing no detail as he moves smoothly over the broken terrain. Straehan might match the ranger's pace but he soon gives up on trying to be a full-fledged searcher. Instead he acts as a second set of assisting eyes and, if the polite ranger were being honest, a bit of a distraction. But the hour progresses and Jofram's mounting irritation at the lack of success is only outweighed by his irritation with the gnome. Every few minutes, the sorcerer's voice emerges from the darkness...
Strae: "Look! A broken twig!"
Jofram: "Dry rot... naturally occurring."
Strae: "Hey look at this... uh... whatever it is. It's got a print in it."
Jofram: "Bear spoor with a deer print."
Strae: "Is that a foot scuff?"
Jofram: "Yes... one of yours."
Strae: "Ah, Hell."
Strae: "What about this leaf here?"
Jofram: "No."
Strae: "But it's bent. Isn't that significant?"
Jofram: "Only to the tree from which it fell."
Strae: sigh "I'm not helping much, am I?"
Jofram: "You're doing your best."
Strae: "That's what I feared..."
Jofram calls a halt a mile and a half up-river and an hour later. They have found nothing but he is reasonably sure there was nothing to find. If their quarry came this way, he crossed the stream further up. The ranger turns around and leads them back to the meeting spot where they arrive at nearly the same time as the other team. The lack of success is evident on every face.
When everyone meets back up, Jayse is looking tired and frustrated, "We got nothing. And I'm guessing you would have come gotten us if you had." He wipes a tired hand over his eyes, "Let's find a place to hide away and get some sleep. We can head back or make one more sweep in the morning, but we'll do it refreshed."
Usahri rubs the fatigue out of her eyes as she looks at Jayse, "Yeah, seems a good plan to me. Should we do something about Skelly-boy first?" She indicates the gnoll skeleton with a weary wave of her hand.
"Agreed. I expended quite a bit of energy... before. I'll need some rest if you need my occult help with the Striper tomorrow. Otherwise, the only weapon I've got is my swinging cod... which is formidable enough I suppose."
"By light day, tracks easier to track, yes. TrackMaster will find... then justice."
You move away from the river and into the relative shelter of a thicker band of trees. There you set up your cold camp, establish a watch, and try to settle down to sleep. No creatures disturb your slumber through the long watches of the night.
But you dream... You dream a dream where you are all standing in a circle. An impenetrable mist clings about your knees and all around you is a white-grey fog that shields your view from whatever is beyond the curtain. There is a tang of the sea in the air and you hear a distant singing - melodic and compelling.
Some distance away, though distance is nearly impossible to tell in this place, the mist thickens from the lighter curtain and the thicker ground fog. It coalesces and forms a familiar feminine figure. Slowly color and features seep into the figure as she approaches you and stops a few paces away.
Watch:
Watch Jayse - HR 21-23
Watch Strae - HR 24-02
Watch Jofram - HR 03-05
Watch Ushari - HR 06-08
The exiled Goddess gives you all a genial nod, "I hope your research on me has born fruit. Now that you've had a little time to weigh my request... have you reached a decision? Or do you yet consider whether to assist me or not?"
Ushari glances at her companions, somewhat unsure of how they will respond. After seeing them silently contemplating in their own hearts and minds, she decides to search her own.
This is a huge decision to make...and yet I feel as if it has already been made for us. Like it or not, we are a part of the big picture. The Dweller in Darkness is our mortal enemy, as is all of Miir. To not stand against him now...would be pointless....
...plus I have to think about Father.
She looks up and into the exiled goddesses' eyes. "I...I will help you, Grey Lady."
Naladoria nods her thanks and looks at the three men. "And you gentlemen? In, out, or undecided?"
Staehan considers carefully before speaking, "I don't object to helping you 'back into the game', if that is your intent. So long as your tasks don't offend my conscience, I'm willing to aid you."
Jofram nods in agreement with Strae and Ushari. "I have decided to help you, as well."
Jayse looks around at his group of friends, "Then it seems it's unanimous. You've given us… well, at least me… quite a gift. i don't like having debts unpaid. So what is it that you actually need from us at this point?"
Naladoria practically claps in delight and can scarcely hide her grin. "All I needed, for the moment, was your willingness to help. Soon, I'll ask you to recover an artifact of mine - a corborundrum Seashell. It's locked in a Shaudran stronghold... However, before you are ready to pit yourselves against that keep, I think it wise to have you test yourselves against a less forbidding Shaudran structure - to familiarize yourself with what you might encounter in the stronghold. I'll find a suitable one as quickly as I can."
She gives Jayse an amused smile, "I don't like debts either. So let us agree that what I say now, I say in token of thanks for your offered assistance... the trail you seek is to the South, further than you searched this night."
You see the gnome mouth the word cor-bo-run-drum. He clearly has no idea what it is.
Ushari shrugs helplessly, having never heard of that word until just now.
"I thank you for the information - I do wish to find this tricksome coward, but our first goal is to find those who where taken, and protect the others. Might you know where we could find the missing children?"
"Follow the river and find the trail... then East. Locate the old fort and you'll find the children. You may find their abductor as well."
Jayse waits for the conversation to slow before he asks what's been bothering him since their time in Orfallen. "Maybe you can shed some light on something for me… especially given these tasks you've laid out for us. A memory was triggered from some of Straehan and Ushari's research. I seem to remember that my blood - that of the Bollini - is believed by the Bollini to have contained the blood of the Shaudran. Is that true? What does it mean for me? And what will it mean for me if we're digging through Shaudran ruins?"
Jayse's words also trigger a recollection in Ushari, the very first time she had a vision of the Shaudran ruin and her first glimpse of the Dweller in Darkness.
"And what of myself? I have also had visions tied to Shaudran ruins."
She frowns, "I'm not sure I can answer those questions to your satisfaction, but I will try... Humanity is all that is left of the Shaudran, at least on this plane. Whether that blood runs truer in any particular branch of Humanity - such as the Bollini - I can't say. I don't believe so, but I may be in error. Were there Shaudran with powers similar to yours, Jayse? Yes, but not many of them. I'm inclined to believe that Shaudran blood runs truer in certain individuals... whether through luck or the combination of disparate bloodlines that are once more rejoined after thousands of years apart."
She shrugs off the speculation and continues more pragmatically, "Whatever the truth, I don't know that it will make their ruins any less or more dangerous for you. To my knowledge, the Shaudran had no traps that keyed off the heritage of the trespasser. As their servants, the elves had a great deal of access to their fortresses. But those were in the days before the Downfall. Their structures were different then... which brings us to Ushari's question. Could it be that your visions were received because of some blood tie? Yes. But Shaudran structures, particularly the most preserved ones, have presence. They give strange visions and dreams to the sensitive and merely discomfit others."
Jayse nods, not knowing what else to ask.
When no one else speaks up, Jayse decides to finish up the conversation, "Thanks for the tip on our quarry. It may mean we can save some children. I don't suppose you know what will be waiting for us when we get to our destination?" He doesn't sound overly hopeful, but he switches subjects quickly, "We'll wait for directions to this 'test run' Shaudran ruins. And again, any information to help us prepare would be welcome."
"Your foe is both clever and lucky. Clever in that something about him prevents my scrying. I noted him only by his absence. And he is lucky in that the old fort where the children are is built from the bones of a Shaudran structure. My sight is obscured." She frowns, "In short, I cannot see what awaits you."
She starts to slowly fade, along with the dream. "Good luck."
Once again the vanishing of the Grey Lady leaves as many questions as answers, and once again Jayse pulls out his reed flute and plays a quiet, lonely tune as he watches the group fall back to sleep.
Jayse plays his flute only to hear that the sound that emerges is flat and the world and his companions seem vaguely distorted as shreds of mist hang in the air...
I'm still dreaming...
The fact acknowledged, Jayse succumbs to sleep, and the dream fades.
On guard and quite awake when the 'dream' happened, Jofram snaps to alertness and finds himself leaning heavily against a tree. He stands up fully and resumes his vigil while his companions sleep, there is a trace smell of brine in the air. An hour later, the first tentative rays of sunlight touch the tops of the tall trees. The sleepers awaken slowly and the day begins...
Ushari prays to her deity with the coming of the dawn. She knows in order to save the children in the town she will need to be on the top of her game.
Under the baleful eyes of Shaggar, Ushari considers her folly. Her charm spell wore off of the gnoll in the middle of the night. And while the tall brute looks less favorably on her now... it seems that he is maintaining your loose alliance for the sake of justice and revenge. It doesn't sit well with the gnoll that his people had been decimated by this Striper or that he set the companions and the gnoll band on a collision course that would cost the lives of the nearly all of his littermates. No, that didn't sit well with Shaggar at all.
The gnoll lets out an unconscious growl and hefts his massive axe experimentally.
You cross to the East side of the river and head South across the broken granite and amid the sparse foliage. Some two miles down river, the ranger gets a spring in his step as he spots the telltale signs of the fetid gnoll prints in the morning light. Judging from how far you've traveled, Jofram believes you are now almost directly due East of Bartleby's Cross. The gnoll prints maintain their stealthy quality for only a few hundred yards before becoming more measured and purposeful. They continue to head East towards a medium sized hill a few miles away.
You increase your pace to a slow lope and follow the trail with ease, beneath the massive old growth trees. It seems you have run the Striper to ground at last!
The miles pass...
The terrain steepens and the granite gives way to hard-packed earth and broken stone teeth...
As you mount the hill, the trees thin and then disappear on your approach to the apex. The hill resembles a brooding old man whose hair has fallen out except on the sides. Crowning this old man's pate is a beggar's crown - the jagged, broken bones of a circular tower some 100' in diameter. What it's height was cannot be guessed but, judging by the rubble, it once dominated the hill. Now, it is no more than 20' high in spots. The top and upper levels are gone and the sun shines down the central hole like a chimney in disrepair. It would be a pretty sight if not for the air of black despair that pervades the place - saturating the stonework.
As you approach, you sweep back and forth, trying to get a better picture of the place. There are holes and fissures in the wall where a man might slip through into the central part of the structure. What glimpses you get of the inside shows the place has gone to seed and you see vines growing up and over the section of wall directly in front of you. The ivy is unlike any you've ever seen. The deep green of the leaves at the base of the wall quickly transform into a waxy purplish black as the plant wends its way up the wall.
Ushari watches Shaggar closely, expecting him to turn on the companions. Her look said plainly: Do not seek to cross me here. I allowed you your free will and I can remove it again.
Ushari recoils from the plant. Her vision reveals it to be brutally toxic. Only the base of the plant, where it is green, is the plant harmless.
Her look said plainly: Do not seek to cross me here. I allowed you your free will and I can remove it again.
Shaggar sees the small woman eyeing him in a manner that suggests a challenge to his place in the hierarchy. His canines flash. "You not my pack, not leader. Fight you want? Call out me. I give fight." He looks at her dismissively, "Is dumb, before find peoples - not save tribe, not think like leader." He concludes with a snarl and a snap of his oversized jaws and then follows the ranger.
Straehan silently watches the power play between Ushari and Shaggar. After the gnoll stalks off, he approaches the cleric and begins to say something before thinking better of it - opting to hold his tongue.
Jayse, with blue blade comfortingly in hand, tries to watch in every direction at once, but he pays special attention to the towering gnoll. Ushari, why wouldn't you continue the enchantment spell he was under? he thinks for the thousandth time. Before he'd have stepped in to help you if things went badly… now he's as likely to let you get poleaxed as anything else.
The thought is a distraction, Jayse realizes, and he gives the gnoll one more warning look before focusing once more on the ominous towerless structure. "I have no idea what the best way to approach this place is…" he whispers, "though I don't plan on touching anything I don't have to."
Ushari recoils from the plant. Her vision reveals it to be brutally toxic. Only the base of the plant, where it is green, is the plant harmless.
Here we go again...
Ushari puts the gnoll warrior out of her mind and looks at the Shaudran tower. Studying it closely, she whispers back to Jayse "Agreed. No need to risk anything more here. All I see is the one crack in the wall...probably guarded. Let me look around the outside, we might find sonething else..."
"Why don't you take Jofram with you. He can check for other prints. The rest of us will watch your backs from back here."
If it weren't for the ominous glow around the plant indicating its lethality, Ushari could almost convince herself the ivy is pretty and harmless. Fortunately, she warns her companions about the deadly plant which perks the interest of the amateur alchemist and resident poisoner in the party.
Straehan probes the plant with a dagger and smells the blade before wiping it off on some other leaves. He lets out a low whistle.
"Iocane powder - I'd stake my life on it!" He can't suppress a grin. "I jest... but this is an impressive find. It is Amanita, similar to Black Lotus. Very deadly to the touch, inhaled, or ingested. It tends to liquify the internal organs. I will not be using any fire magic around this stuff. The poison cloud would be... inspired. If we have the time, I'm inclined to harvest some. The sale value alone is ridiculous."
While Straehan clucks over the possibilities... Jofram and Ushari circle the tower.