Stilgar politely pretends not to hear Auric's words, focusing on neatly arranging their newly acquired items for packing. After a while he pauses, a frown on his face.
"Is this over then? Now that their 'god' is dead?" he asks nobody in particular.
"I wouldn't bet on it. There is certain to be fallout from this attack, but as far as I'm concerned, we've done our job today. Let's just head back into town." Magnus says, offering what help he can carrying, limited as it may be.
Jon grunts. "I agree. Time to go."
Would you like to head to Three Oaks, or to Dunshale? As the crow flies, Three Oaks is the closer settlement.
"Shall we head to Three Oaks, then? It is perhaps best that we keep our distance from the jarldom, for the time being."
Auric shrugs his pack on and picks up the bundle of firewood.
"Sounds fine to me. I could use a pint and some hot stew... and maybe some sausages, nice black bread, a few pickles and an onion...", he says, trailing off to describe what must be the Huntsman's entire menu.
"The attack was to be made upon Dunshale though. Should we not check in to ensure that this was the entire group? We are still unsure of the scale of this assault. What if the people of Dunshale still need us?"
"Your words ring true..." Stilgar starts, considering Magnus' words. "Their leader yet lives, no? Perhaps we should ask him before taking our leave."
Yes, the old man and the young lad are still tied up at the top of the waterfall.
"We should interrogate them and determine our next course of action based on what we find out from that."Kayala says quietly. "Oh and bring that thing's head, that should take the bluster out of the old man."
Stilgar's expression falls, if only ever so slightly. "Ah, I believe its horn should suffice..." he replies, looking to Jon.
If nobody objects, the cleric would make his way towards where the restrained leader is.
Auric assists in grabbing the sleeping cult leader/his young ward and hauling them to where they can see the fallen form of their god. He shakes them a bit.
"Hey. Wake up. We got questions for you."
The boy sits there slack-jawed for a few moments then gazes up at Auric with fear in his eyes, while the old man lets out this low, keening wail and begins rocking back and forth, his eyes not leaving the broken body of the great beast.
The paladin kneels next to the boy to look him in the eye.
"Listen; no one is going to hurt you. But we need to know a few things. You give me a straight answer, I can help you out. All right? Now what we heard is that your old man had plans to attack Dunshale and Three Oaks and hurt a lot of people that may not have deserved it. Was this your only camp?"
Diplomacy:
The boy gives a sniff, wiping his nose on his sleeve, and nods affirmatively in answer to Auric's question.
As Auric interrogates the boy, Stilgar speaks to the old man with a firm tone.
"This creature was not a god," Stilgar attempts to convince him, "It was not the Horned Lord - it was not Kurnan. How did you come to worship it?"
"He was the god of the forest," the old man replies, not taking his eyes off the dead creature, "and he was my god. What the others called him did not matter, so long as they followed and struck back at our enemies. Now my god is dead, and you tunnel-dwelling longbeards will continue to do as you will. Baal is truly merciless to his foes."
"Your enemies? Your enemies?!? Your God had you attack defenseless villagers and children today. Children for goodness sakes! Humans, for what it's worth, and good people! Whatever enemy you may have in the dwarves, the mindless slaughter of entire villages is not the way to go about it. You're lucky I don't cut you apart in strips and feed you to your own animals for what you've done!" Magnus' passion flares and he rises tall to face the man, then spits in his face and growls "Violence is not the way to seek equality. Remember that."
The old man's eyes turn their gaze from the body of his fallen god and find Magnus.
"Once this forest covered most of two valleys, with the forest god lord over all. The dwarves are my enemies, true, but it were human axes that felled the trees, slicing away strips of forest, more with each passing year. Every human that pledged loyalty to me and to the forest god were spared, would be spared. Now there is nothing. The dwarves and their forge lord have won. Do what you wish with me. I no longer care."
His gaze wanders away again, his face fallen, heedless of the spittle running down his cheek.
The dwarves and their god will one day learn the same lesson you have just been given. There are far older and more powerful things in this universe, and there are those who serve these beings." the young witch says ominously.
"That you fight against the occupation and oppression of the dwarves is a good thing, but you attack the innocent, slaughter your fellow victims of oppression. Your "god" was nothing more than a greater beast of nature, mindlessly preying upon the weak. It met with greater hunters and died as any other simple beast. You have power despite using it recklessly."
She looks into the old man's eyes. "You know that I had multiple opportunities to kill you, and chose not to. Do not waste the life I spared seeking vengeance for an animal. Use your gift to help humanity out of the repression the dwarves would see us in. Humans may fell a few trees, but envision dwarven smithies burning wood night and day to fire their forges. Know who your true enemy is and use your power against them, it would be a shame to waste."
Auric continues with the boy, keeping a wary eye that things don't take a violent turn with the other prisoner.
"What's your name? Do you have any family around here?"
The boy shakes his head, reaching under his coat and pulling out a piece of slate hanging from a leather cord around his neck. He fumbles in a pocket for a piece of chalk, scrawls on it and turns it to Auric. The slate reads "GARAN".
The dwarven priest observes the old man's dejection with a pitying expression, quietly sighing when it becomes clear that he has lost the will to live.
"There is no use in patronizing him. With his god dead, I do not believe he is capable of causing any more harm," Stilgar says, his tone sounding more hopeful than confident. He turns his attention towards Auric and the boy.
"He on the other hand... might there be someone in Three Oaks willing to watch over him?"
" Let us take the boy with us and find a place where he may be protected and cared for." Magnus sneers at the older man "We protect our young here and we do not make them suffer on the account of their parents."
"Garan. I'm Auric. Sorry to meet you under the present circumstances but it can't be helped. We're gonna take you someplace safe. You're more of the outdoorsy type, eh? It may be I know where you can stay near the woods, but you're gonna have to help out okay?"
Auric turns to the others, before asking Jon.
"Think we're pushing it too much if we take them to the House of the Pearl? They are hosting that... other guest."
"The boy's parents are dead," murmurs the old man. "Killed by bandits. A dwarf outcast had cut the lad's tongue out by the time my men and I had caught up to them and levied the Horned God's vengeance upon him and his band."
Garan seems relieved at Auric's response and nods affirmatively in response to his questions. Upon closer inspection, you note he's younger than you originally took him for. Probably only ten or eleven, but easily the size of a lad four years older.
The House of the Pearl would be a small side trip on the way to Three Oaks. You could stop there and still be in town by nightfall.
"Well. All too common a story nowadays, isn't it. All right, I think we can settle you at the House of the Pearl... and before nightfall besides. Are you all ready to go?", Auric says.
"Indeed. I believe everything is in order," Stilgar replies, giving the old man one last glance.
"I'm ready whenever you are." Kalaya responds.
The group sets out to the southeast in the direction of the House of the Pearl, following one of the branches leaving the waterfall pool and following it to the old mill.
Once there, you find the building and the surrounding woods quiet but for birdsong and the drone of insects. Calls and knocking on the door bring no one around to greet you. Checking the door, you find it open. Inside, the place seems to have been hurriedly abandoned. Supplies have been removed and everything else has been stowed as if in preparation for a prolonged absence.
The only clue is upstairs where the great mobile continues to whirl and turn. On a slate board filled with a bewildering array of diagrams and mathematical formulas, you see a single word in block print and underlined, which reads: STARFALL.
"Well," says Liam, scratching his head, "this is odd. I suppose I could take young Garan with me. This has been a heck of a story, but I think I need to get back to work. I can teach the lad the finer points of fishing, and mayhap introduce him to a few friends of better breeding than that last lot."
"Very well then, for the time we worked together, it was a pleasure." Magnus nods to Liam before turning back to the slate board. "What is all this?" He attempts to decipher something more concrete from the formulae and drawings.
"I think... that would be for the best," Stilgar says, nodding slowly. Though the place as a whole was unfamiliar to him, the word on the board bothered him perhaps more than it should have.
Kalaya studies the diagrams and the whirling mobile, trying to connect any of the information to anything she might know.
Knowledge Astronomy
Knowledge Nature
Knowledge Arcana
"They were studying the stars.", Auric says,"A woman came down from the mountains in the spring, saying a shooting star was on its way. I guess they went to find it.... I'm not an astronomarian but I wouldn't touch any of that stuff. Who knows how delicate it is."
"Well, Liam, it was good working with you even if we didn't see eye to eye that much. Sorry if I gave you too much of a hard time.", he says, extending his hand.
"Yes," Stilgar says, pulling his eyes away from the incomprehensible mess of equations. He nods to Liam. "I pray that my kind one day gives you reason to think better of us. Best of luck, to you and Garan."
Liam shakes Auric's hand and puts an arm around Garan's shoulder. "It's okay, lad. My friends will have a warm fire and food. Plenty to do and plenty to learn. On the way, I'll tell you how I nearly landed a fifty pound trout..."
Auric thinks to check the basement, and finds the prisoner is also gone, presumably taken along with them as there is no sign of a breakout.
"It appears to be a star chart. Tracking the movement of one star in particular. This strange "new" star that has been so unusual lately."
"The one that Gaius spoke of?" Stilgar asks, raising a brow.
"Yes and even moreso, it's expected to make Earthfall tonight somewhere in the Iron Marches. That must be where they've gone." Kalaya says, an intense expression in her eyes.
"This talk of new stars is troubling. As if the world had not enough troubles as it was." Jon frowns.
"It is out of our hands," Stilgar replies, sounding not at all pleased by Kalaya's words, or with the situation in general. "Let's continue on our way - we can still make it to Three Oaks by nightfall."
"Do we know for a fact that it's a bad thing?"
The trip back to town is without incident, though once you are clear of the wood it's difficult not to keep one's gaze from wandering into the sky where the new star blazes brightly just above the horizon.
At a crossroads, Liam bids you farewell, taking his new charge along the southern road while the party continues to the west.
Night has fallen by the time your group arrives in town. Things are relatively quiet, though the occasional bit of laughter carries from the open door of the Huntsman's Rest. As your group makes its way towards the welcome light of the inn, a lightening of the night's darkness catches your attention, followed by a sound--a low rumbling that rises to a roar as the light continues to grow. Looking back over your shoulders, you see that the star has been replaced by a great fire in the night sky, lighting up the landscape as if it were daylight as it streaks overhead, the light dimming as it passes over the valley to fall behind the western peaks. In the wake of its passing a great thunderlclap sets ears ringing and shutters rattling, shaking shingles from rooftops.
Then a second thunderous boom and once again the night is banished by a great blast of light as the star strikes the earth. When the flash and roar has subsided, all that remains is a great glow from the west, distant, yet bright enough to turn the dark of night into a purple twilight. The light casts a dreadful pallor on the shocked and confused faces of the townsfolk as they spill out into the streets, trying to understand what has come to pass.
Auric shields his eyes and stares at the distant glow.
"Baal's breath.... hope no one's hurt.", he mutters.
"It must have landed quite a distance away..." Stilgar remarks to nobody in particular, his expression both awed and haunted. "What could it mean?"
"That answer won't come from sitting around waiting here. We should try to get there as soon as possible before the authorities make the area off limits. It's so hard to conduct research with the bureaucrats breathing down your necks."
"Most of the 'bureaucrats' I've had to deal with were carrying axes, but I get what you're saying...", Auric sighs. "Can we at least stop for a pint before we tromp out there again?"
"It would give me a chance to prepare some additional spells," Stilgar suggests, feeling weary himself. Aware of the fact that he is still injured, he casts an additional healing spell onto himself.
2nd (3+1/day)-
1st (4+1/day)-
0 (at will)-create water, detect magic, stabilize (DC 12), 1 empty slot
The townsfolk spend some time milling around outside, watching the glow with trepidation and chattering with their neighbors about this strange development. Gossip runs rampant, proclaiming everything from demons to the end of the world. Eventually, the local militia suggests that everyone go indoors, saying that they will keep a watch posted through the night and warn folk should any danger come their way.