The party made their way back, trudging through the dirt and grasses by the cover of evening and then dusk. The shifts of nature also changed, with different animals emerging from gopher holes and gods know where else. Within hours, the away team makes it back to...
home. The home front is currently surrounded by what appear to be bricks drying in the sun and nervous energy. There isn't food ready, but with minimal hassle, the gryph meat is whisked from Lupi's hands as soon as she stops staring at the gnome corpse that Xarl carries.
Pharysene exhales with relief and ushers the rest inside.
"I imagine your day has been as busy as ours." she says, looking over to the pacing, irritable Kent.
"Let's get dinner ready for those who need it."
"I'm not sure how to cook these... things. Lupi, should we just pretend they're turkeys or something?"
At that moment Valaravans feels his ears ring a little...
"Well, that's what I intend to do, Tuich, though I'd ask that someone with a good constitution try the meat first, yadayada." Lupi says, screwing her eyes at the birds.
"They are a little greasy, don't you think?"
"No, I think they're a lot greasy. But at least they won't stick to the cookware!"
A very productive evening leads to the firm possibility of dinner. The half-orc is encouraged to help in the "kitchen", which just ended up being the outdoor vat.
The stones gathered migrated into a marked pile.
The woman was quite pleased, and whilst she was relatively quiet, she used the ground at some points to ask for stories from her guests.
When the time came, she rummaged some old straw and gathered it into corners of her hut. There were rags for blankets, but the adventurers had their own ways of sleeping.
--The rest---
It turned out the gryphs were a salvageable meal. In fact, their natural grease allowed them to be a very, very filling meal that reminded one of fried duck.
Though eating on salvaged crockware and by hand made the situation more rustic.
A majority of the party turned in right after eating, with Kenith volunteering for first watch.
As before, Tuich heads outside for a good while before turning in for the night.
Fajra's sleep is restless. The dreams she is having aren't cohesive enough to be called nightmares the only thing she is sure of is fear.
She bolts upright finally startled out of her restless slumber. Not wanting to go back to sleep and feeling alert she decides to let Kenith get some sleep no point in both of them being awake.
" Hey Kenith. I'm not able to sleep. I'll take over watch go get some sleep."
Fajra could not find hide nor hair of the elusive dwarven warrior. In fact, the main room was completely empty of life save for the chirping of some irritable crickets.
Kenith's shield told a different story, though, as well as the blanket he'd been sitting on. If he'd up and left, they would have gone with him.
"Uh Oh!" Fajra said in a slight panic. Then quickly moves back to the rest of the group.
"Guys you need to get up! Now! Kenith is missing!"
Eliah helps prepare the meal as best she can, supplementing the dish with a few bits of dried sausage from her rations.
"A story? Hm, can't say a blame ya," she responds to the woman's request.
She scratches her chin a moment, gathering her thoughts. "I once set up an expedition in Sargava. I'd heard rumors of a lost halfling settlement deep in the Laughing Forest. After a long sea voyage, I set up a crew in Port Freedom for two weeks. We secured a small barge, and set out up the Korir River. A few days later, we landed on the northern shore and shifted to the overland portion of our journey. The jungle was thick, the going rough. I lost a third of my men to disease and hostile halflings alone. But finally, after a week of slogging, we reached our destination. It appeared as a tiny stone structure, covered in moss and lichens, but the real structure laid underground."
Eliah's voice lowers, and her tone becomes more serious. "A few chosen hands and myself entered the complex, leaving the rest as guards for our supplies. The ruins were, to say the least, well-guarded. We braved pits, arrow traps, animated constructs, hidden blades, poison darts, cave-ins, and I'm pretty sure there was a least one ghost involved... I barely made it out alive, and I lost all the men I brought with me. Despite all that, I managed to find the hidden treasure within: a circlet of golden leaves made for the halfling kings of old. It was priceless...!" She wrings her hands for a moment, clearly uncomfortable reliving some coming memory.
"But of course, it wasn't finished. I emerged from the temple to find one of my men had betrayed me. A full squad of Aspis Consortium agents (they're a ruthless organization that steals artifacts for profit) had killed all my other hands, and stole the circlet I'd recovered. I barely managed to escape with my life..."
"I wasn't able to recover the artifact-- not for lack of trying." The disappointment is plain in her voice. "I tracked the Aspis squad once I recovered, but I was too late, they had escaped the forest and sailed away... I heard that the circlet turned up in Cheliax a few years later, but I was never able to track it down."
"That also happened to be the start of one of my chief rivalries." Her tone shifts to one more of a begrudging rival. "The leader of that squad was a cunning Mwangi agent called Aziman." An angry look crosses Eliah's face. "That was the first time we crossed paths, but it wouldn't be the last. He hampered a number of my expeditions for years later, including the one that somehow brought me here..."
After a few moments silence, she turns her attention back to the meal before them. "Anyway, that's all I have for now."
Tuich stirs, then sits up groggily and rubs her eyes with a tired groan. "Unh. Kenith did what now? What time is it?"
Xarl simply gets his blade ready in case something tries to come after them.
"Where did he go?"
In order to discover more, the party would have to move around and look for signs... of which there are little aside from the shield and blanket.
Lupi stirs with Fajra's warning and immediately presses her head through a broken window depression to look outside.
"Kenith?" she calls out, before repeating the mantra in an increasingly louder volume.
She pulls her head back inside, alarmed. Obviously nothing responded outside, either.
Pharysene doesn't fare much better with her blessed eyes in the darkness when she steps outside.
"Is this the work of your shade from earlier, Niu?" she asks.
Max stands and waits for those with better vision to give him a target.
"Could be, could be..." replies the cloud thoughtfully. "Said it eats fear!" "Feeds on fear." "Well, yes."
There's a short pause. "Perhaps we should go find it." "Tonight?" "In the morning?" "We mustn't let it hurt you." "No, it mustn't be allowed."
Half-awake and only slowly getting a grasp of the situation, Tuich looks around worriedly. "What do you mean, missing? Who saw him last?"
She stumbles into the front room and looks around. "His stuff's still here, he couldn't have left." By choice, she thinks... but doesn't say out loud.
"Shade?" she asks, then checks for any lingering auras.
"We need more light," she mumbles as she moves around the room flicking various objects and causing them to illuminate.
Tuich's illumination and subsequent spell casting reveals no new information at all, unfortunately.
"Do you know where the creature dwells?" Pharysene asks hurriedly.
Xarl looks suspicious.
"Why am I only now hearing about this creature that feeds on fear? It seems that would be something important to know about. Where, how, and when did you encounter this creature?"
A chorus of dangerous grumbles is heard from the direction of the cloud. "How dare he speak to us like that!" "How does he dare?!" "Interrogating us like common criminals!" "Shh..." "His kind are rash, he probably means no harm by it." "Rash and rude!" "Yes, but we must deal with them as such." "Oh, fine..." "Very well..."
The grumbling dies down, and a few seconds later a single voice speaks up in answer. "We were outside. We felt it calling. It spoke with us, and we told it you aren't our slaves, and not to harm you."
Xarl simply gets his falchion ready, and begins to look around the house for any tracks.
Fajra prepares to cast Communal Protection From Evil.
"I don't like this," mutters Tuich. "Not one bit."
"Is there a way," she says after thinking a moment, "that any of us can tell if someone or some... thing came into the tavern?"
"I don't think so. Aside from a scanning with some sort of detection... but even then, I've no doubt that this thing is messing with us."
Despite a serious search, nothing is found in the inn. No new traces or tracks, and nothing overly suspicious.
"So we can't do anything? We have to find out what happened to Kenith!"
Tuich turns to Niulamayu. "Of course we're not your slaves, why would it think so? And what is a 'shade' anyway?"
"Bullies enslave people sometimes." "Yes..." "That they do!" "But not us." "We're no bully!" "Quite right, quite right!" "No bully are we!"
The cloud shifts slightly as if in agitation. "Fear, it wants your fear!" "Don't be scared!" "Don't feed it." "Don't let it win." "We'll stop it, don't worry." "Don't worry!" "Won't let it hurt any of you."
"But what are we supposed to do tonight is the more pressing question as I see it. Afraid or not, are we going to venture out to wherever, or...?"
There was nothing to be done that night on either front.
The stories in the odd creature's hut were greeted with a rapt clap and the thanks of a woman with gloves on stone.
In the inn's remains, a frantic night of worry eventually had to give way back to rest as a rushed search of the premises provided no information. Kenith was gone; it was almost as if he had never been in the place at all.
So, it was with one less member that the primary party awoke.
Meanwhile, Salty and Eliah stirred in the same place they'd bedded down in, refreshed and very much alive.
Salty lets a loud fart out, while licking his tusks.
"Damn it! I miss the rocking at night... I am not able to sleep well with all this... steadiness... and the sea is far away..."
He stands and looks at Eliah.
"How are you, mate?"
Dejected, Pharysene and Lupi waken the others for another day of hunting and exploring.
Missing so prominent a member takes a toll on morale, but life has to go on.
Eliah squirms under her furs, poking a bedraggled looking head out. "Eh.. ten more minutes mate, This is more comfort than I've had in weeks...and I want to enjoy it." She smiles and yawns widely, then pauses to sniff. "Can't say much for the odor though." A cringe quickly passes over Eliah's face before she buries herself back in her bedroll.
Shortly, a soft snoring can be heard, muffled by the thick fabric.
Salty licks his tusks, smiling...
"I can make you some company under those sheets, if you want..."
He starts lifting a border of the bedroll...
After Max spends his time consulting with his diety and preparing his normal spells for the day, he stands on the porch staring at the marks they found. He seems lost in thought to anyone who sees him.
A steaming cup of herbal tea in hand, Tuich pads quietly to the inn's entryway. Spotting Max deep in thought, she catches herself before offering the intended greeting. She savors a sip of tea while staring out at the field before them.
Xarl not needing much sleep just waits in the inn's common room sharpening his blade as much as he can.
A foot shoots out of the bedroll, catching Salty in the shin before retreating to the warmth of her furs. From underneath, Eliah's voice, raspy with morning weariness, can be heard. "Keep it in your pants, there, lover boy."
Salty growls, his tusks seemingly bigger.
"You can't blame this old Sailor for trying. As with the oysters, you don't know what you are missing until you try..."
Breakfast is a somber and quick affair, consisting only of wheat grass bits and carrots. By the end of it all, the question has to be asked of where the party was going, and if the inn was safe to man in the absence of Kenith.
Free sits up and just listens to Salty and Eliah go at it for a moment before moving to work with the spoils of the night before. Some of the food is salvageable, and the woman holds out hunks of root and cooked meat.
Salty licks his tusks after breakfast.
"Not that I don't like your place, Free, but a fish needs an ocean, and I will dry up here. I think I will be moving towards the waves. Eliah, I can't ask you to follow me, but you are invited to."
He gathers his stuff and prepares to leave. The adventure awaits.