Dorn raises an eyebrow at the wizard. Looking back to the elf and then back to the wizard again, "Ya got all that from what he just did? Yer better'n me, lad. This'd be a lot simpler if he'd just tell us," he says with a bit of irritation in his voice.
Mahath lowers his head in thought. He looks to Dorn and says "I think this other place is where the stone came from. And I think we need to take it back there. Either to restore it to where it belongs, or to destroy it safely." He watches the elf's face for a glimmer of confirmation.
The elf doesn't contradict Mahath's conclusions; his demeanor, however, is grim and serious and his manner thoughtful as he takes his leave of the roc.
Watching the elf take his leave, "I've got ta say, lad, that is one strange elf," he observes, shaking his head. Returning to the task at hand, "Well alrighty then! I'm guessin' our next step is ta inform the others what we've learned?"
Watching the elf take his leave, "I've got ta say, lad, that is one strange elf," he observes, shaking his head. Returning to the task at hand, "Well alrighty then! I'm guessin' our next step is ta inform the others what we've learned?"
"Is there any other kind of elf?" He stands. "Yes, let's go find the others. Thank you for coming with me. Without Skyreaver, I don't know that he would have shown himself."
The dwarf laughs. "Good one, lad! You'll definitely get no argument from me," he says with a wide grin. "And not a problem. Reaver's always glad ta help. Aren't ya, boy?!" he says to the bird whose moving at his own leisurely pace with a look that says ... well ... nothing to be honest. "See? I told ya. Always glad ta help," he declares, nodding confidently as they head out to locate the others.
Mahath and Dorn return to Sanctuary to rejoin Marikel and Alicia.
A genuine smile crosses Marikel's face when he sees Mahath and Dorn. He quickly hides it again under his business like manner.
"Once again, thanks for your assistance. None of what I’ve learned bodes well for Trunau."
He continues on with a speech that you suspect has been rehearsed.
"I’ve learned far more about Necromancy than I’d ever wish. During the reign of the runelords of ancient Thassilon, necromancy was associated with the sin of gluttony, and was therefore the specialty of the ruler of the realm of Gastash. I have no idea if we’re in or near where that realm once was. But there are things that hold those dark powers and leech them to their surroundings."
He pauses for effect, or to remember his next line.
"Black blood is a chillingly cold black liquid found only in the vault of Orv after which it is named, the Land of Black Blood. My geography isn’t good but it seems a long way to bring any liquid. However, Mister Dorn, Lazurite is a magical ore that can generally only be found in the Darklands realm of Sekamina. A rock that creates undead may be what we have. Have any of you heard of this?"
Instead of waiting for an answer, he plunges on.
"Brother Hound remembers Katrezra speaking with a well-dressed traveller. It’s safe to assume he and Gorewillow knew each other in some manner. However, I suspect neither of being the mastermind behind the attack on Trunau. Both I suspect of being pawns of some greater and even more nefarious power. Omast Frum himself points out that the Twisted Nail are little more than savages and are incapable of using either siege weapons or saboteurs. Someone, or something, went to a lot of trouble to attack Trunau. No matter how powerful this stone, I find it hard to believe it would be the sole cause of all this."
Marikel looks to the others, and now appears to be listening intently to what they have to say.
Dorn shakes his head and shrugs. "Can't say that I have, lad. Doesn't ring a bell. But I'm curious: Who in the blazes would want to attack this little town and why? I mean, this place isn't big enough for anythin'. Doesn't really make a lot o' sense if ya ask me."
For three days, Ali has slipped out of town to check the rock formation where Skreed Gorewillow is to leave a message for them; for three days, she has found nothing. Today, however, there is a scrap of parchment under a rock....
With a careful glance around to see if she's being watched, Ali retrieves the parchment.
Ali looks around intently, making doubly sure she isn't being watched before snatching the parchment up and moving to the cover of the nearby boulder. She checks her surroundings again, then opens the parchment.
There are no words on the parchment. A dot, some clustered sets of small, cramped runes, a flowing line.... There's something that might be a female figure. Perhaps it's a map, but Alicia can make heads nor tails of it.
Alicia scowls and rolls the parchment up again before stowing it away. Another look around, and she heads back to show the others what she's found.
Alicia returns to Trunau and displays the parchment to the rest of the group.
"Are you alright? You're not meant to be going out on your own. It's not safe with that scum around."
Marikel sighs.
"Well done."
Nodding adamantly, "Yeah, well done, lass! You are a sneaky one, I've got ta give ya that," he says, grinning. Taking a look at the parchment, "Well okay, looks like we've got ourselves a map." He then takes a moment to look over it. "Okay, that line right there is probably Kestrel River. Which is a few days travel give or take. But if you look here," he points at the bird-like drawing, "THAT is where we're ta meet this Gorewillow fellow. I'm sure of it."
Mahath frowns down at the parchment. "That might be a drake. I only say that because there are supposed to be river drakes in some caves along that river. If he's wanting to meet in one of those caves, he'd better be pretty confident about which one he picks."
Marikel scowls.
"He probably wants us in the wrong cave so he can take the stone from our dead bodies. Well, I'm ready to disappoint him. But the girl must be our priority."
The river indicated on the map is about 18 miles north of Trunau. That's a long, tiring day on foot, but taking horses would make it a shorter and easier journey, particularly returning with Zola.
Alicia grunts indifferently. She never did like Zola much.
"Well whatever the case, we'd be better off takin' horses. That's a long way ta go on foot; especially when we bring the lass back with us," he nods emphatically. "So, with that bein' said, when do we leave? The sooner the better I'm guessin'?"
"It is dangerous territory. The ability to move quickly would be good. Though we might be able to move more stealthily on foot."
Raising an eyebrow, "Stealthily? Are ya joshin' me, lad? You do know this one's comin' with us, right?" he motions toward Marikel, grinning slightly. "He's about as quiet as a troll movin' through the middle of town wearin' bells." He looks over at the cleric, "No offense, lad." He says, giving a wink.
"Stealth isn't really an option. They know where we're going. Speed will help. Let's get some horses and see if we can get there before they get too set up."
It's either a sign of the respect the party has earned during recent events or Baseil Sawyer has been quietly greasing the wheels for them behind the scenes; at any rate, the Patrol readily agrees to provide mounts for the group to ride out with for a few days, no questions asked.
Leaving immediately should (barring any adventures along the way) get the group to the river shortly before nightfall; if the party were to wait and leave at dawn, they could expect to arrive at the Kestrel by noon and have more daylight ahead of them to deal with whatever they find there.
" Let's just get this over with," Alicia grouses.
"Agreed, Miss Alicia. No time like now."
Shrugging, "Fine by me. The sooner the better."
"My family doesn't have a riding horse, and I don't know that Agrit has one that I could borrow."
"The Patrol is providing them," Alicia says in about as condescending a manner as to expect from a teenage girl.
It's either a sign of the respect the party has earned during recent events or Baseil Sawyer has been quietly greasing the wheels for them behind the scenes; at any rate, the Patrol readily agrees to provide mounts for the group to ride out with for a few days, no questions asked.
The party mounts up and heads out, leading an extra horse for Zola on the return journey. For a while, their path parallels that taken by the Twisted Nail on their approach to Trunau, and they see the ruts left by the siege engines and the bracken trampled by the horde; however, the trails soon enough diverge, as the path of the Twisted Nail winds toward the Skittermounds and, past that, the Mindspin Mountains, while the party heads directly north toward the Kestrel River.
While most of the Hold of Belkzen is watered only by spring snowmelt from the mountains, here in the Conquered Lands, the Kestrel and Esk Rivers flow year-round. They will be deeper and faster-flowing themselves, however, when the spring comes and, with it, the snowmelt from the Mindspins. At present, in late winter, the Kestrel is flowing well below ground level in the channel it has carved over countless springs. As the party approaches, in late afternoon, the sound of the current is the only sign they are nearing the river until they are almost at the lip of the overhanging bank and can look down at the water.
From this vantage point, they can see up and down the Kestrel for some distance in each direction. On Gorewillow's map, the rendezvous point appeared by be directly north of Trunau, but it was hardly a masterpiece of meticulous cartography. The party walks along the elevated bank for a while, looking for a cave which could be a river drake nest.
Narrowing his eyes to focus, he brings his horse to a halt. "Hold a moment, lot. See that ledge that's just above the river? There's bones about it. And some of 'em are very big bones. So probably best ta keep an even sharper eye out, make no bones about it," he says, grinning at his cleverness.
Marikel slips from his mount and slides his shield onto his arm.
"Hardly the time for humour, Mister Dorn."
Instead of drawing his sword, he leads his mount forwards by the reins while looking to the sky and back to the distant ledge of bones.
Shaking his head at the poor, stick in the mud cleric, "Bah! Aw lighten up a little, lad, will ya? Life's too short!" he claims with gusto, smiling. "And I'm thinkin' ya probably need ta get a bit more sleep at night, lad, yer kind o' cranky. Just sayin'." He says in a kind enough tone while grinning wryly.
Alicia dismounts and moves closer to the entrance, taking it upon herself to scout ahead (with or without Marikel's permission).
There appears to be no immediate route down to the ledge, but after the group has walked farther eastward until the bones are almost out of sight, Dorn spots a narrow foot trail which seems to double back toward the west as it leads down toward the water's edge.
"Can we get the horses down there? Leaving them seems a bit unfair if there's a predator about. I don't want to explain that to the patrol."
He looks up and down the river's length.
"Hmm, not a bad place for an ambush... Don't go too far, Miss Alicia."
The trail proves rough and uneven; it's far too narrow to ride the horses, though they might be led with enough caution and care. Leading them down will inevitably interfere, however, with any hasty retreat that might be called for.
Alicia takes the lead, heading back west and downward past rocks, exposed roots, and dry clumps of dead grass which will be soon be washed away in the spring flood. As the pile of bones again comes in view, she can now see that they are scattered in front of a cave mouth hidden from the overhanging bank above at ground level.
Alicia sneaks closer to the cave mouth, ignoring Marikel's word of warning (as usual).
Marikel looks about and tethers his horse in a suitable location.
"We'll leave the horses and then... Where's Miss Alica?"
He looks down the path with a shake of his head and strides off.
"We'd better catch up."
Placing her back to the riverbank, Alicia silently edges up to the mouth of the cave and peers in. She can see that it continues into the earth at least twenty feet, but it bends upward and back to the east so she can't see to the end of it without possibly making herself a clear silhouette to anything watching from inside.
Ali pauses, waiting for the others to join her outside the cave mouth. No sense going in blind--or alone.
Marikel slows his approach as he sees Alicia waiting at the entrance, though his stern look of disapproval remains.
As the party rejoins her, Alicia nods and grunts. "Hard to approach any closer without being backlit. Figured I wouldn't push my luck with 'Padre'."
Marikel sighs. "We're expecting an ambush. Please stay close, Miss Alicia."
He glances at the size of the bones in the entrance before adjusting his shield, pulling out his sword and advancing carefully forwards.
When Marikel raises the specter of an ambush, Mahath casts mage armor on himself and clutches his cudgel in both hands. He watches around them as they advance, expecting an orc behind every rock and pebble.
Dorn pulls out his warhammer and shield and moves along with the others, keeping an eye out for any form of movement.
The party makes their preparations, and Marikel begins slowly to advance into the cave.
The dwarf stops in his tracks and simply shakes his head. "Ya know, that one sure is a piece o' work. There's somethin' about 'im that just flat irritates the life out o' me. He's dead ahead of us, lot. Just smilin' like he's got the upper hand and there isn't a blasted thing we can do about it. Blast I hate that grin. Or maybe it's just him. Or his grin. Or him. I'm torn. Anyway, he's just standin' there waitin' on us. Like he's bored or somethin'."
"Oh, I wouldn't say 'bored,'" Gorewillow's voice comes out of the darkness ahead of you. "There has been some unavoidable delay, of course, between sending the message and your receiving it and traveling here, but you mustn't blame yourselves. You really haven't kept me waiting that long."