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"Firean's a former military commander who took up a life of banditry," Martin says, leading the way to the jail. "She's rallied some of her former comrades and other ne'er-do-wells and taken up residence in that cursed keep."
The bandits remain silent as they are led through town. Martin gives the group a momentary glance before continuing. "I assume that's why you three are here, are you not? That keep draws adventurers and well-meaning folk every so often. In fact, we had four others come through today asking about it. Haven't seen them come back yet...no telling what's happened."
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"I see... why did she switch from an honorable life to one of banditry?" Missea asks as she walks with them. "Perhaps there is a way to get her to return to honor and the light? That is the true reason I am here, after all... to spread the light of the Dawnflower to those who need it most."
Missea smiles to Martin and continues. "Perhaps those four are in need of Sarenrae's light to guide them back here. What do you say, friends?"
"Firean's reasons are her own, one can only speculate," Martin says. "If you are going to try and make her see goodness again, then I wish you the best of luck."
You arrive at the small stone building that serves as Vinse's jail. A portly man with a bushy black beard sits in a chair propped against the wall. His hat is pulled over his eyes and he lets out some raucous snores. Martin gives the man's chair a light kick, startling him awake.
"Baulthus, you've got a couple prisoners," Martin says.
The man called Baulthus grumbles and adjusts his hat. "My eye, Martin! What's this? Hirin' folk out of the wild to clean up th' bandits?"
The man gives a hearty laugh before opening the door. He looks to Orym. "Inside, if you please. There's a couple empty rooms in th' back. 'Ells, this whole jail's been empty for a good decade...In the back'll be fine, though."
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Orym nods, leading the bandits into the jail and depositing them in the cell Baulthus mentioned. "Now sit tight, lads. I imagine they'll find somethin' for you t' do, soon enough."
Baulthus slams and locks the cell door. "I wish I had a reward to offer, but, what with all going on in th' Shadowed Keep, ain't much money to be passing around here."
What's going on there? Bandits? Anything else?
"Well, there are th' wild animals," Baulthus says. "An' goblins. Then there's talk of curses, ghosts and other dark rumors floating about."
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Hmm. Sounds like something worth looking into. What do you think, fellow travelers?
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Missea nods.
"Yes, that sounds like a plan, though if others have already ventured out we might wish to see if there are survivors... or at least make sure that their bodies are properly laid to rest. As for reward, the only one I could ask for is that you try to help these men see the error of their ways and attempt to convince them that there is another path than banditry. Farming, perhaps... or carpentry."
She smiles and holds up her left hand toward both the men on her side of the cell and those inside it, exposing the birthmark on it in the shape of an ankh.
"May the light of Sarenrae bless you, keep you safe from all evil, and bring you to happier days." As she says this prayer the mark seems to glow a little, as do her eyes. When she finishes, she lowers her hand and smiles warmly to all of them.
"So, which direction was that tower those adventurers set out for?"
Baulthus harrumphs, but smiles at the Cleric. "I'll see what can be done."
"There's a hunting trail at the edge of town," Martin says, as you exit the jail. "That'll lead to a main path to the keep."
He points to the east edge of town.
Tosom overcomes the poison and swings at the spider once more.
;
Tosom finishes off the spider.
Putting away here bow, Vishanti cuts herself free of the rest of the webbing, cursing the freakishly lucky spider as she does.
Derika has to take a few minutes to calm down, and then retracts her claws.
"Alright then....that could have gone....worse I guess. Lets look this area over and then get back to town. I think a few of us need to be looked at more closely."
Derika walks around the room to see if there is anything of use, or anything else they need to do before heading back to town for a bit of healing. She knew what Tanna said about the bite, but it didn't look good and many creatures in places like these had diseases.....if one of them had infected Tanna then finding out sooner rather than later would be the wisest course of action.
Vishanti studies Tosom and Tanna carefully.
"One of you is infected with a disease, the other poisoned. We should head back to town as swiftly as possible before either of you gets any worse."
At hearing Vishanti's statement, Derika kinda turns her head being pulled back down to reality out of her apparently dazed condition.
"What was that? I'm sorry I musta been thinking bout something?" She looks around abashedly trying to hide how embarrassed she felt at being caught staring off into space. That was one of her other traits that she was often scolded for at the academy, her attention span.
Vishanti also diagnoses Tanna's disease as filth fever, which deteriorates ones body and motor skills.
"I would suggest heading back now. We can always come back."
She nods, "Sure, okay." She makes sure Tosom and Tanna can make it out on their own and once everyone is out she closes the doors to the room they were in and wraps the chains around them once more.
Looking back at the others she motions to the doors, "Just in case. Alright lets head back."
Nothing impedes the party as they retreat from the keep, though they can hear faint laughter coming from the watchtower. As Tosom, Derika, Tanna and Vishanti arrive back in town via the hunting trail, they come across an orc, an aasimar and an elf preparing to head toward the keep.
Derika cocks her head to the side quizzically as she regards the three strangers.
"Well....I guess we were gone for a while, but I didn't think they'd send a search party for us this soon. There was quite a bit to deal with and now we have one diseased and one poisoned and we need to get back to the sage.....Sorry, don't mean to seem rude or anything...."
She shakes her head, feeling flustered by their utter inability to handle what should have been fairly straight forward.
She sighs and looks down, "It was tougher than we had imagined at any rate. You all aren't going there right now are you?"
Even though there's a light breeze, beads of sweat can be seen along her blue tinted skin as she gets a look of concern on her face along with the frustration of their failure.
"If so we can lead you back there after we take our companions to the sage to be taken care of while they need to recover." Vishanti chimes in.
Missea looks at the weary adventurers as they arrive seemingly on cue.
"We weren't really a search party as such, I am afraid, as we had just arrived in town. We were dropping off a few bandits at the jail and heard both that their boss might be further in that direction and that you had set out earlier but nothing had been heard from you since. Given the troubles that seem to be darkening this poor town's skies, I thought it might be a good idea to shed the light of Sarenrae on some of them, starting with whatever you might be facing. Speaking of, do you find yourself to be in need of the healing light? It looks like you fought with a cave bear."
Missea smiles, but there are concern lines on her face as she looks over Tosom and Tanna.
"Oh, where are my manners. I am Missea Reinobese, priestess of the Dawnflower."
Orym looks the returning band over with a discerning eye. "Greetin's," he says, once Missea's introduced herself. "I'm Orym, an' normally I'm just a wanderer. But this town speaks t' me, an' I felt it would be best t' help you folk clear out that keep." The tattooed half-orc smiles calmly at the tired and battered folk. "Pleased t' make your acquaintances."
I am Telsyn Setiva, from the elven lands. I, too, would like to help make things safer for the good folk of Vinse.
She gets the closest thing to a smile anyone has seen so far on her face, her bluish hair blowing in the breeze.
"Then it's very nice to meet all of you, and we are happy to have you. I'm Derika and these are my companions whom I also just met here in town today. Let us continue this discussion once we have Tosom and Tanna here taken to the Sage though."
She seems a little abrupt perhaps, but it's clear that her mind is on the health and well being of her comrades. As they walk to the Sage's house, Derika fills the newcomers in on everything so far, including the ordeal with the disease ridden rats and surprisingly agile spider.
Getting to the door of the Sages house she knocks as she turns her head to look at the others, "And that's about all we know about that so far."
"I see. Well, let me see what I can do for your poisons and diseases, as we await the sage."
So saying Missea goes to work examining and attempting to treat Tosom and Tanna.
Missea determines that Tosom is no longer suffering from poison, though his strength has been sapped. Tanna is suffering from filth fever and Missea is able to alleviate some of the oracle's discomfort.
She nods her head and bows slightly to the cleric, "Thank you, we are grateful for your assistance."
She seems a little uneasy as if she's not used to being in social type situations.
She looks down at her feet and shuffles them a bit before saying, "So....bandits huh? That must have been an exciting way to arrive...I umm...er nothing. We'll just add their boss to our growing list of things that have to be dealt with I guess." She clams up again feeling very awkward and unsure of herself.
Yeah this is really gonna be good for me, good at making myself look like a fool maybe. Thanks a lot master.... As she berates herself silently, she doesn't even realize she's started frowning. It usually happened that way for her in social situations such as these.
Talking to people wasn't one of her strongest points and it was proven over and over to her again while at the academy how pointless trying to engage others was when you looked like a freak.
She subconsciously tightens her hands into fists as she starts thinking about things again.
Let's find lodging so your afflicted companions can rest. Then maybe a hot meal and a cool drink for us. We can start out fresh in the morning.
She nods at Telsyn, "There's the Gilded Axe over yonder, that's where the rest of us are staying. If you all want to, why don't you head on over there and get your rooms and stuff set up. I'll be over as soon as I see that they're gonna be okay." She says motioning to Tanna and Tosom.
"Food sounds really good right now and I could really use a drink."
Once she is satisfied that her companions will make a full recovery, she heads over to the Gilded Axe with Tanna and Tosom.
"Man....it doesn't feel like we were gone that long....but, I'm starving."
Isotalo stands outside of his home, watching the sky once again.
As they make their way back into the Inn she looks around and spots the others.
Going over to the table she looks at everyone before sitting down, "Sorry if I kept you all waiting. Were you able to get rooms for yourselves?" She then sits and looks around to see if that same serving woman was there as before.
"You've returned," Isotalo says. "Quite soon at that. Is something the matter?"
Telsyn listens, not quite knowing what's going on.
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She nods, "There were these nasty rats and one bit Tanna and now she's got some disease, and then there was this persistent spider that refused to die and it bit and poisoned Tosom. I think that's everything..."
She looks back at Vishanti, "Are you alright?"
As Derika rattles off things to the Sage, it's pretty clear that she isn't used to this and is feeling quite flustered with herself, and maybe just a little ashamed at not being able to protect her new companions a little better. She holds her fists down at her side, tapping one of them absently against her leg.
Isotalo's face remains impassive. "I can help your friend hurt by poison, but diseases are a bit beyond my knowledge."
He touches Tosom's shoulder.
"Well, all I can say is to be more careful. And keep looking for those maps," Isotalo says with a smile.
She nods, "I understand, thank you. We will stay in town tonight and rest. Hopefully Tanna will feel better tomorrow and this illness will leave her."
She looks down again, something she seems to do quite often as if trying to make herself seem somehow smaller. "I'm sorry we had to trouble you, we will be more careful in the future. On the bright side we met some nice folks who will probably going back out with us, so maybe it won't be so bad. I better get back to the others. Thank you again." She waves a farewell as she, Tosom and Tanna head back to the Axe.
Yes, says the elf. A few more people should make things a little easier, I think. Nasty business, those vermin. We'll get 'em!
The barmaid comes by Derika's table. "Welcome back, are you alright?"
"I am checked in, I suppose, thank you for asking. I should be ready to set out with the dawn." Missea smiles warmly at Derika and follows with, "Was the sage able to help your friends further?"