When the boats are loaded and ready to set off. Ben pulls Walton aside a little. "Don't take any chances on the way back. Your a good sailor but these are new water. Get back to Shalla and the boys quick as you can. If you go fishing when you get back don't go too far. Tell everyone I will be home in a few days.
Ben stays and helps gather the remaining bodies to burn. Handling the dead serves to harden his heart towards those that killed them, especially when he lays what remains of Gregor Hosk and Kylie Darne on the Pyre. When the fire is burning he asks Vallen What does your god Torag say about vengence?
Day 14, Ghozran 15
Vallen wakes with the rise of the sun, running a hand over his face and sighing. There had been no time to groom his glorious facial hair lately, and he simply skips looking in the mirror this morning for fear of what he may see.
The dwarf chews on some biscuits that they recovered from the Harpy cave- he had missed their salty aftertaste just a little bit. "I volunteer for making a false trial, I'm fantastic at lumbering through the woods."
The priest tends to his prayers with the rising sun, asking Torag for
the day's blessings. He also finds Edmund, and ensures the nobleman is fully healed for his return journey.
As they are preparing to leave, Vallen speaks to Ben between whispering prayers to Torag, sparks flying from his fingertips and igniting the kindling they had placed on the fire. "Torag is a lawful diety... Typically convincing proof or two witnesses are enough for a dwarf to be convicted of murder...Justice, not vengeance, must be served... For justice must be tempered with the mercy of due process; otherwise it is simply revenge."
The dwarf turns to Ben, gesturing to the bodies. "Unfortunately, we have an entire pile of proof, and Torag would approve of an equally large pile of justice met out. "
Cueta stretches and yawns with the dawn light, her muscles tight and sore from the work and combat of the last couple of days. Joining Vallen wordlessly for a breakfast of biscuits, relishing their salty taste, the Mwangi takes in what she is sure will be the best part of the day, the smell of oceanwater, the sound of gulls and waves, and the early morning mist in the woods all around. Finishing her biscuit and washing it down with Torag's finest water, Cueta draws a hand across her mouth and puts thoughts of the grim work ahead out of her mind.
When it is time to blaze the trail, she asks for help, and grabbing the headless corpse of one of the Kuru, she and Kyle carry the corpse through the woods, walking behind Vallen. Cueta makes sure to stomp and bend plants and branches along the way, flatten grasses, and disturb dirt or kick rocks whenever possible. Once at the end point to the trail, she drags the Kuru corpse north a few hundred yards, and then taking her stone axe, guts it and strings the Kuru's intestines out. She chops off a hand, and then a leg, and walks them in different directions, dropping them into the underbrush. Coming back to the others, covered in guts and gore, and her skin paler than usual, she says flatly, "Not even midmorning, and I need a long soak."
Back at the beach, as the others light the funeral pyre, Cueta scrubs herself off in the saltwater as much as is possible, and then takes the rear guard, again staying close to Manari, as they set off.
Kal'Tos will join his fellow dwarf on making the false trail.
"Abadar teaches that justice is like borrowed money, eventually it must be given and sometimes depending on the nature of the situation, interest must be paid. I believe this is one of those times."
The morning comes cool and foggy again, and the boats set off into a thick mist with promises to be careful. By the time the pyre is lit and the false trail laid, the fog has burned off, and a bright blue sky shines through the trees.
Manari sheds silent tears as the work goes on, but offers no comment.
Before the ships out off, Vallen makes an awkward request of Jaysin, handing him a sack with two Kuru heads in it. "Uh.. Jaysin.. Do you remember when we stopped at that one campsite, and the bugbears were spying on us? Could you set up that statue Cueta and I made there, and put these heads on the platter with the wooden one? I know, it's grizzly, but we need friends here. They probably hate these things as much as we do. It's weird, I know, but I think it will work." He's happy to get rid of those heads, anyway. "I uh.. would like the sack back later though. I'll clean it out, don't worry."
The dwarf does not watch as Manari butchers one of the Kuru, instead heading back to make sure he has stomped out a good distraction. Afterwards he does offer some fresh water to clean the saltwater off, though.
Vallen frowns as he sees Manari shedding tears, but he says nothing, instead leaving the elf to her mourning. The dwarf shoulders his heavy load of their recovered food for the journey, but in stubborn dwarven fashion keeps up his usual pace.
"So.. what are we hoping to accomplish here? Hopefully getting lost in the untamed wilderness is not one of our goals."
Ben leaves the carrying of things to the others because it would slow him down and he is already the slowest member of the group. He takes a bit of food with him though and slips off through the trees in the direction they plan to travel. trying to find a route that the heavily laden big folk can take with out leaving a trail to follow.
4/15 (day 14)
With the pyre lit and the boats departed, Ben, Cueta, Gair, Kal'Tos, Manari and Vallen make their way east. The coast here is similar to the coast you have seen: the waves pound against high cliffs that are broken every so often by inlets with beaches, typically where a stream flows into the sea.
A few hours pass with no sign of kuru, bugbear, zombie, or anything else of the sort. It is the middle of the afternoon when the coast takes a sharp cut to the north. If anything, the shore along this stretch is even more rugged and forbidding, the sheer cliffs running unbroken for the first mile or so, with the waves pounding directly against the base.
Off the shore, to the east, you see a small island, separated from the mainland by perhaps a mile of open water. It looks to be a half mile wide and perhaps two miles long.
The island itself seems to be entirely ringed by sheer cliffs 200 feet or more high, except on the western side (more or less facing you) where the bottom half of the cliff is open to a huge cavern, maybe sixty feet high and thrice as wide at the waterline. The entire entrance to the cavern is walled shut, except for a massive iron portcullis roughly 100 feet wide.
Atop the island is a massive tower, roughly 100 feet tall and 30 feet around, with a smaller spire reaching another 30 feet into the air, capped with an onion-shaped dome.
Columns of smoke rise from the island, as if from campfires.
Kicking a nearby sapling, Cueta lets out a string of foul invectives, and then starts pacing the ridgeline, talking out loud, as much to herself as to her companions. "What I wouldn't give for a spyglass right now... or a canoe. Three possibilites come to mind about the inhabitants of that island: they are a race of peoples as yet undiscovered by us, they are sharkteeth, and they are much more advanced than I had supposed, or they are sharkteeth, who took this home from some other peoples."
Turning to the dwarves, Cueta says, "Kal'Tos, Vallen, what do you know of architecture - can you tell how much skill those towers took to build? Do the styles seem like anything you've seen or heard of back home?"
"Well." Ben says when they see the island. What do you make of that? I can't say I like the look of it myself. I'd wager there are a lot of people over there though. he says pointing to the smoke.
Sorala wakes and sits across from her Garrack statue, silently meditating on it for awhile. Once her mind is clear and fully awake, the half-elf leaves her sleeping spot and munches on a quick breakfast of gnarlyroot and dandelion tea. Grabbing Garrack, her club and a notebook and quill, she makes her way through Newspring, looking for Hassan.
Trudging along the coastline all day is a refreshing distraction from the violence of the previous days. On top of that, Vallen finds all these cliffs with waves crashing in them to be sublime. "What a beautiful, rugged coastline this is. Ah, I'd love to get a nice wall of marble on my hands. Imagine this-" He makes a sweeping motion with his hands, the wall materializing in his mind in front of him. "A high-relief of these cliffs, waves crashing onto them from the angle of the viewer. Atop the cliff, 7 figures march across the top, right on the edge of the cliffs, dangerously but bravely walking on the very edge. But they show no fear, nay, only determin- What..."
The dwarf suddenly gasps and points across the sea as they coast takes a sharp cut to the north, the island and its tower in clear view. "By Torag's magnificent beard, it's a tower on that island! Civilization!" He laughs with excitement and hustles forward to get a better look, growing more excited at seeing the portcullis.
Blue eyes scan over the tower, expertly picking out any details that may give tidbits of information.
Istiel is already up and about before the sign rises, the elf assisting some of the other early-risers that are attempting to smoke some of the meat they brought back. As the sun's rays fully shine through the forest, she finds Hassan, silently nodding to him. Arms crossed, she leans against a nearby tree and waits for the others to arrive.
It's hard to tell much detail about the towers from this distance, but they appear to be made of stone. A round tower of that height with no external support suggests pretty advanced architecture and construction techniques, particularly given that the region seems to be subject to frequent storms, based on your experiences the past two weeks.
As if they had been waiting for your arrival, a pair of familiar looking outrigger canoes appear coming around the far side of the island, each with four of the savages paddling hard, with a fifth manning a steering oar. They head southwest, as if they were making for the beach by the Harpy's wreck. You estimate, based on their speed and the time of day that they would arrive at dusk.
Vallen eyes the tower closely, stroking hsi beard. "They've built the tower well- it's standing under its own weight, and is made to weather the storms. Considering its built on top of a cave... Impressive, very impressive."
His eye catches movement around the corner of the island, and he panics on seeing the outrigger canoes. "Kuru! Get back, get back!" The dwarf edges away from the cliff face towards the trees, frowning heavily. "You don't think... no, the Kuru couldn't have built that tower... could they?"
"I highly doubt they did, could such a structure have been built by dwarves, then conquered by these Kuru?"
Vallen bites his lip as Kal'tos suggests such a thing. "An excellent point, brother. If we got closer, we could see what kind of state the island is in. I doubt they would take very good care of it if it was captured."
"I think we need to get closer - maybe inside. It seems possible we could slip in that portcullis - it was probably designed to keep larger creatures or ships out. If the sharkteeth took the island, we need to know if there are prisoners there. We owe it to our brothers and sisters from the Harpy to get them out if they're being... forced to bear those creatures' children. At least we can try to kill our brothers and sisters and end their misery."
"We have some things on our side. They don't know we are here. We have killed 10 or more of those creatures, and they exist in a constant state of war with the goblins, and perhaps others in the area. Ten more sharkteeth have just left, probably for Harpy Beach, and they won't be back tonight. Now may be the time to strike. We could get to Harpy Beach and lay an ambush, or light a fire here and draw more creatures out."
"If we can't fight them head on, and there are our people in that fort, there may be another option. They have to have a water supply, either in the fort or nearby here on land. We could foul the water supply, make them sick. And then when they are weakened, they should be easier to deal with."
Vallen looks at Cueta, baffled. "Cueta, I was the one that get knocked in the head yesterday, but you're the one that is sounding crazy. You want to somehow swim to the island, through the portcullis, fight an unknown number of ferocious Kuru warriors, all for the possibility there might be survivors? I shouldn't have told you what that hell-seeded Kuru said, he was just taunting to look big in front of his friend, and now you're on some crusade! This is outrageous, haven't we done enough?" The dwarf is extremely flustered, and gesticulates throughout his entire speech.
"There could still be hundreds of Kuru inside that cave, venturing inside is insanity and likely to get all of us killed. If we are detected our odds of escaping are extremely small."
Cueta shrugs at Vallen and Kal'Tos. "We won't know how many sharkteeth are there until we know. Let's be clear - I am not suggesting a head-on assault of the island. I am suggesting this: we go back to Harpy Beach and kill the ones sent out. Or, we light another fire and see what comes out of the island. Either way, if we can, we kill what comes and take the canoes. And then towards dusk, when the sun starts to set behind us, we use it as cover and start paddling towards the island. We circle the island from a short distance, looking for other structures, landings, campfires, anything else that we can use to judge what is there. We explore the portcullis. If there are any canoes left ungarded, we set them into the ocean. We do everything we can to see what is on the island. And then, and only then, do we make a decision of whether to fight or flee."
"There may be hundreds of Kuru, there may be only a few. We will only know when we know."
Vallen shakes his head. "I'm tired of killing, I'm tired of dealing death and watching it be dealt." The dwarf scowls. " If we must do this, we have to cover our back, and make sure those Kuru headed towards the fire do not return."
He sighs, and rubs his hands over his face. Torag, they're going to get me killed before I can complete a work worthy of your name.
Dropping to one knee, Cueta picks up a handful of gravel and lets it fall from her fingers, her eyes looking out to the island, but her mind far away. "Did you know, Vallen, that I had not killed an intelligent creature until we landed on these shores? I had fished and hunted and fought a beast or two, and been in fights, shipboard and portside, sure, but real danger, true danger, always seemed to avoid me. Here, it finds us around every bend. It is a grim business, dealing death, of that we can agree, but we must do what we can for our people. Take comfort in knowing that we didn't start this fight, but let it worry you that if the sharkteeth get their way, we won't end this fight either."
"Ben, Manari, Gair, what do you think?"
Vallen watches Cutea, listening to her speak with a grim look on his face. He spends a few moments in distant memories, and looks as if he wants to reply, but he does not. The priest simply turns to the others present who have not yet said their piece.
In the morning Gair helps Ceuta and Vallen blaze a false trail, hacking his way through the more obstructing underbrush with his axe. He grimaces a little as Ceuta sets to butchering the Kuru's corpse but makes no move to stop her, understand the practicality of it.
Once the group spots the island Gair stairs open mouthed for a moment before crouching down slightly, "I had not expected to find such a fortress out here. Not in the least."
As he spots the canoes heading out he breathes a heavy sigh, "It's as I'd feared. The Kuru have all the advantages here. They are far too well defended on that island. Though I cannot see such as the Kuru raising towers such as that. It is lucky we did not reach land here. The Lillend and Harpy would have made right for the first signs of habitation and just so we would have sealed out fates."
The warrior shakes his head at Ceuta as she talks of heading to the island itself, "Might as well walk into a saber den naked. I have never been one to balk at the prospect of dancing with death but you suggest rolling over and bearing your throat to it. The sea is far to effective a barrier to our scouting as of yet and I admit I know little of these southern constructions but I cannot believe anyone would be so foolish as to construct such a...castle? On such an island if there was no source of water upon it..."
"I do agree about those canoes though. It is foolish to tangle with their fortress but we can still strike at them. They number less than a dozen and unlike our last encounter we would have all the advantages if we take them when they land on the beach. Even if their numbers are great, the loss of ten warriors is not easy to bear for any following. As well, now that we know of their home we may be able to tease some information from them about their numbers if we can take one or more alive?"
He watches the Kuru continue to paddle with determination, "If we are going we should leave soon or they will reach the beach before we do.", he looks at the others expectantly.
Vallen sighs. "We can't communicate with them. I don't want to take any more prisoners and then execute them. What was it you said earlier Gair? Let them die a warrior's death? I think that's preferable to watching them surrender and then get butchered. Why did we even make a false trail and set that fire if we're just going back to the beach? Ugh."
He runs a hand over his face, and points towards the beach where they came from. "Well if we're going to rush back into battle we better get moving if you want to beat them there."
Gair nods, "The hunt changes with each new wind. Honestly I did not expect to find them so quickly. The trail was to delay an unknown number of them from either hunting us through the bush or following after the boats. The fire has itself has more than served it's purpose. We will see about other concerns once we have met them in battle."
Taking his axe in hand, he slaps Bern on the shoulder, "Come, quickly now."
His son in tow, Gair begins a light jog back to the beach, careful to keep far enough in from the coast so as not to be spotted by the canoes.
As the group starts jogging back toward the beach Ben speaks up. "I have no problem with going back to the beach I think it is pretty clear that we can't learn anymore about our enemy with out going out to that island, but I don't think fighting the ones on the canoes is a good idea. They out number us even if you count me. They are likely coming to investigate the fire we set. I think if we can beat them back to the beach we let most of them go in land then kill who ever is left to guard the canoes and then take off in the boats. If we can't take both we destroy one and take the other. We can't aford trade even one of our live for ten of theirs or even twenty of theirs. We can't fight that kind of war. There is too much of a risk of losing someone if we try to fight this group. . . . I also think it would be hilarious to have most of them come back to the beach to find the guards they left behind killed and their canoes gone."
Gair stops and looks at the halfling, determination in his voice, "These Kuru have are vicious but they have no heart. We here are more than a match for them. I agree with your plan though. We wait until they split up and take them in two groups. We will cut them down in answer for the violence they delivered to the harpy's survivors. We can then decide what to do with their watercraft."
Once the others have joined him Hassan nods, looking each one of them in the eye, "Good, are we ready then? Remember, we cannot be gone longer than this evening. I have organized our remaining guards to cover while we are away but some of them are missing sleep already to allow us this time. Each of you keep your wits about you. Weapons at the ready. We don't know what befell the others but we have lost enough lives to it already."
He turns to Istiel, "Yours are the keenest eyes among us, take point and lead us to where you discovered the body. It will be the best place to begin our search."
"Keep an eye out for the dragons as well, perhaps they can offer us further aid."
On their way out of the village, Hassan collects a days worth of meat from the stores. He is reluctant to lose any more of their stores but he feels a debt is owed to the pseudodragons and means to thank them if he can.
Ben stops and turns to face Gair. So you are willing to risk one of us to kill these men. I thought you were the warrior here. You do realize it could be your son that dies. There are seven of us and ten of them. We are a halfling, a teenage boy, an escaped slave, two priests, a wizard of unknown ability and you, against ten vicious, hardened warriors. You did see what that one did when Cueta gutted his mate didn't you? He didn't even flinch he just tried to have lunch.
They ain't the only ones missing sleep because of this. Gaross growls back at Hassan. The young dwarfs eyes shine with excitment that belies his ill humor. He stands waiting in his leather apron. A long handled Warhammer with a stone head slung over one shoulder.
As they head out Gaross says to the others Whats this I heard about little dragons in the area. You can make some great things out of dragon hide.
There were two columns of smoke that you could see, though it is difficult to judge the size of the fire, they are at least big enough to be seen from a mile off. Also worth noting that the island doesn't seem as thickly forested as the rest of the country that you've seen.
As the group rushes back towards the beach, Manari speaks quietly.
"If we can get one of their boats, we will be able to at least get a better look at the island," she says. "I think waiting for them to separate is ideal, but there is no guarantee that they will. The last group we encountered did not leave a guard with the boats. They do not seem to be terribly cautious."
Vallen jogs along with them, stumbling over a root now and then, but huffing to catch up. "Aye Manari, they don't seem too bright! Ben is right, we could easily steal those canoes and take them back with us! If they don't split up at all, we can gets some boats at least!"
Istiel wordlessly pushes off of the tree she was leaning against, and begins to make her way into the forest. The elf starts from the tree she was guarding from the previous day, and heads along the path the pseudodragon took her.
Without even glancing at Gaross, she says "They would sting you to death before you could land one blow. Leave them be."
I was simply commenting that I have heard that amazing things can be made from dragon hide. I was in no way suggestin that we try and get some.
Gair gives Ben a hard look, "We all die little one. The real crime is to hide from that death, cursed to a life of inaction. One of us might well fall but I do not believe so. These Kuru lack resolve, that same one you mention surrendered readily enough and their lack of concern for their fellow warrior is a weakness not a strength."
"I think you do not give your companions enough credit Ben. I see a savage warrior, not broken but hardened in resolve by years in captivity. Two dwarves, well armored by their faith, a leader of her people, skilled with a bow and backed by magic, two strong warriors of the Red Wolf, and lastly a man who has proven himself far more resourceful than his size would suggest. Yes Ben, I would pit these few against a dozen of these Kuru any day but it should not come to that. There will be much for them to check on once they hit the beach. They will provide us an opportunity to divide them."
Cueta opens her mouth to offer a rebuttal to Ben but falls silent as the northman begins speaking. Listening and nodding along, she chimes in at the end. "I have seen you disappear into the trees like a panther on the hunt, Ben Sandlock. You need to heap more praise upon yourself, as Gair says. I look forward to seeing what this panther does!"
As they head back towards Harpy Beach, Cueta looks along the coastline for good potential beaching points near to the island but far enough from the island that it is out of view. She hopes to find a beach with a good, manageable way to get up to the cliffline, preferably with a canoe.
Yes we all die, but that is no reason to rush towards it. If they split into more than one group, I don't doubt we could take each group seperately, but we can't make plans based on what the enemy might do. I think our main objective should be thier boats and if we have a chance to kill them with out taking too many injured ourselves, then we can take it. I have lost close friends to these demons and I intend to make them pay in blood, but I want them to bleed not us. Ben replies and then again starts jogging toward the beach. Time is wasting. We must hurry if we want to beat them there.
Gair continues to talk, his long legs allowing him to keep pace with the halfling easily, "You do not fight often, little one. A warrior unwilling to bleed for his victory is doomed to lose the fight..."
There are a half-dozen places where it seems likely that the canoes could be beached between the island and Harpy beach. In the interests of time, none are thoroughly investigated, and the group heads in a relatively straight line rather than following all the ins and outs of the serrated coastline, in order to beat the kuru to their destination.
Finally, the group reaches the beach, somewhat winded, but well ahead of the enemy. Bern is hopping back and forth, near exploding with nervous energy, and Manari sits at the edge of the forest, apparently calm.
"I will lend what support I can," she says. "But I am no warrior. You must decide when and where we strike."
In Newspring, the halflings bury Valentinian. They thank those who brought him back and if there is any ill will towards anyone, they do not show it.
Istiel leads the group to the ravine where she found Valentinian's body. Ingwe follows, a short distance off, neither entirely with the group nor entirely apart from them. Nothing seems to have changed since Istiel was here, yesterday, though the pseudodragons are nowhere to be seen.
Septimus stays towards the back of the group, still only with a quarterstaff to protect himself.
Gair nods to Manari, "Of course. When it comes to battle, Ceuta, Kal'Tos, Bern and myself will make up the front line. These Kuru are simple fighters, we will do well to draw them to us."
He looks at Ben, "Find yourself a hiding spot with a full view of the beach and dig in. We will wait further behind you and out of sight. We will see how our enemy arrays themselves."
Hassan eases his sword in it's scabbard, "I take it there is no trail to follow then Istiel? We shall have to make a sweep of it. Start on the west side then back around, cover as much ground as we can before we must turn back. There must be more signs of what befell the others."
He looks back at Ingwe, "Do you mean to join us in the search then?"
When the search gets underway, Hassan draws his scimitar and keeps his eyes peeled for any clues.