"Well, as luck would have it, I have one cold spell."
"Unless Maxim has a stronger cold spell, I guess it will have to do."
"Might take a while, though, since it is a bit weak, as spells go."
"Would firing that spell at the door do the trick?"
Just in case:
For all the good that does!
They're obviously totally on our side!
"Well, if we're really concerned with getting through that door..."
Kikinnin steps up, bracing for the cold, then brings his axe down on it, with the intent to do damage to the wood, which stands little chance against metal and stone. He drops his shield, to get two hands into it.
Maxim shakes his head at Juraan's question;
"Just your minor enchantment Drakblood. Have at it!"
The gun-mage slumps on an overturned barrel as his fellow dwur steps up axe in hand...
Juraan waits to see if Kikkinin's direct approach works.
Or not …
Seeing JJ with his hands in his head, Ryan swings his attention back to him.
"JJ what do you know about this Triel? Can we find her when we return to Cauldron?"
Juraan shots his ray of frost at the door once an again. The coldness starts retreating and Kikinnin starts to chop the door with his axe. The combination of cold magic and dwarven edge finally breaks through the door.
The temperature in the room is near freezing. A thin layer of frost coats the floor and walls of the northern portion of the room. A low, circular well sits in the center of the room, its mouth partially covered
by a few planks of wood.
Near the well you find the silvered hair, and dusky skin Shensen meditating. She barely notices you as you enter into the room. She is currently in poor shape from the fight with Tongueater and his goons.
"Shensen!" shouts Fario as he jumps to attend the woman. She finally seems to react "Is... is it you Fario? Meerthan has let you know..." she faints into the floor.
"Well! Nothing like a combination of magic and brute force!"
Juraan will follow the half-elves into the room.
He will try using his wand of CLW on Shensen:
And tries it once more for good measure:
Healing:
JJ shakes his head miserably at Ryan.
"Yes.. I ... ahhh.. I met Triel at Orin's bathhouse a couple of months ago. "
He shuffles his feet a little, obviously omitting some stuff.
"Anyway, I did a little digging. She is a former town guard who killed another guard... And I think, but I'm not sure... I think she is the one who killed Terem's parents. They were town guards you see."
"Oh m-my g-goodness," Marigold gasps as they come upon the weakened Shensen. As Juraan applies healing from his own wand Marigold tries to determine what, if any, ill effects have befallen the woman due to her ordeal.
Kikinnin takes his clue from the cold, and retreats to the top of the stairs, keeping an eye out for any further hostilities. The dwarf decides that JJ will come around with his dirty past sooner or later, as the boy acts like he's weighed down, and looking for a way to cut the stones of guilt away.
As the other start to leave the room, JJ gestures to the Well.
"Could anyone be hiding down there? We still haven't found Orin's family. Well, maybe Maple will know something."
He quickly checks down the well to see if anyone is hiding there.
Maxim strokes his beard in thought, posing another question to JJ;
"Surabar... This Triel. She affiliated with anyone or anything in particular? Might help us narrow down the search when we start shakin' things down..."
JJ searches back through his memory.
"Not that I recall. She wasn't an Allybasher. We just met one night at the bath house and.." he blushes.
"But I had other things on my mind. We just found out about being infected with the Vanishing, and then she vanished as well. So I made some inquiries of Orek."
He pales.
"Orek! Maybe she was tied in with that other lot that was smuggling people in and out through his cellar. That would explain how she got into the city.. and out again. If she was wanted by the guard she would have had a hard time at the gates.... I didn't think..."
He sits down again and buries his head in his hands. Maybe it was the dead bodies all around. Maybe it was that he had contributed more than his share of them. Or maybe it really was just memories of the one night months ago, and who they might have been with. Suddenly its all too much.
"I didn't want all this Maxim. A few months ago, I was living in that orphanage myself. It could have been me that was taken, not Terram. Well, at least it wasn't Triel that killed my parents."
Shensen Teseril gets better under Marigold and Juraan's cares.
The well is 30 feet deep, and filled with 10 more feet of water.
"I do not think is anyone inside" explains Shensen "When I returned from my daily jungle walk, I found out the inn under attack. I joined the remaining defenders and cornered we retreated into the basement. The bandits were after the High Priest of Abadar" his expression turns dusk "When Sarcem was killed by Tongueater, I knew I had only a few seconds to live if I didn't think fast. I ran to the cold storage room, grabbed the metal box of brown mold, then fled to this room. I sealed the door with a wood shape as the bandits were finishing off Sarcem, and then I threw the metal box at the door from across the room. It burst open as it hit, scattering brown mold all over the door and the immediate area. I then managed to stagger over to huddle behind the well's coldness, where you found me. I communicated with my boss in desperation, and I was hoping to survive the night long enough to heal myself and escape."
She rejects with the head "I arrived when the attack has already begun, I saw no trace of Orik's family"
Fario and Fellian also say "We haven't found them neither"
Maxim continues to mull;
"None o' us want trouble lad... Figure we're just magnets for such sometimes..."
He wryly smiles, clapping the young swordsman's shoulder;
"Leastways we know she has a soft spot fer you Surabar... Could be useful iffen things go South!"
At the prospect of Orin's family being abducted or worse, the gun-mage scowls;
"Anyways we can track 'em?"
"And c-can you remember wh-who else was f-fighting against the inv-vaders? M-might g-give us an idea of wh-who m-might still b-be alive..." Marigold adds, desperately hoping that perhaps Orin's wife and daughter might've somehow made it to safety or were captured rather than killed.
"Perhaps the mother and daughter escaped into the surrounding jungle. Having lived here they can probably survive better than most." Ryan offers . Looking back to Maple "Where did Triel contact you?"
"With any luck there are more survivors."
Then, speaking to Shensen:
"I don't want to sound ghoulish; but do do you know what happened to some wands Sarcem carried?"
"We came here looking to rescue Sarcem, not realising how bad things were here."
Juraan will also cast a Dancing Lights spell to look down the well to see if there might be anything (or anyone) down there.
"I'm not sure Triel has any soft spots." admits JJ
"I think I was more of a nights entertainment."
Kikinnin keeps an ear out, frowning as the elf speaks on Sarcem's demise, and the innkeeper's family's peril. As JJ continues going on about his regrets, the black-beard snorts. "Show some respect, boy. There's death all about, and you're bragging on rolls in the sack with black souls? Get to repenting your reckless and youthful deeds some other time. We still have folks to locate, bodies to prepare for transport, and wands to discover."
Kikinnin continues to champ at the bit for a bit of forward motion, either finishing the clearing of the Monkey, or roaming around the outskirts, maybe check out the stables. Wherever things or folks can be hid.
Maxim eyes his fellow dwur with a hard look, before grumbling to the black-beard;
"Skær Drengen slap bror. Vi er opmærksomme på luften af død omkring os ... Ingen grund til at minde eh? Jeg trykkede ham på den røde hoved. Hvis du har skændes gøre det med mig!"
"Cut the lad slack brother. We're aware of the air of death around us... No need to remind eh? I pressed him on the red head. If you have quarrel make it with me!"
The gun-mage re-lights the tub of his cigar, then nods;
"Folk to find and bodies to bury..."
He joins his fellow dwur in the search...
"Du glemmer han forstår os, når vi taler vores tunge? Helveder, de alle synes at. Vi har brug for en ny tunge. Noget, de ikke kender. Jeg bliver nødt til at komme op med håndsignaler, og dem vil være almindeligt nok for nogen at forstå."
"You forgetting he understands us when we speak our tongue? Hells, they all seem to. We need a new tongue. Something they don't know. Otherwise, I'll have to come up with hand signals, and those will be plain enough for anyone to understand."
Kikinnin keeps his attention on Maxim, while he slips from Dwarven to Common. "I'm only concerned JJ will act rashly, to his own peril. Especially if his head is muddled. I'll still my tongue, bror, if it brings you peace." The black-beard snorts, then renews his efforts.
JJ sniffs and directs an angry look in Kikinnin's direction.
"I wasn't bragging." he says stiffly.
"But you are right, there are folk to find."
He stalks out the front door and starts to circle the inn, looking for signs of whether Orin's family may have fled into the jungle.
Marigold sighs as JJ stalks back upstairs and outside. "I'll g-go k-keep an eye out while he's s-scouting around," she says quietly before padding off after her friend.
"There were some merchants trying to defend themselves too" explains Shensen to Marigold.
Maple answers Ryan "She recruited me and other alleybashers in the streets of Cauldron"
Shensen answers Juraan "Magic wands? I saw nothing of that. Of course Sarcem might have had them"
Down the well, Juraan's light reveals nothing else than a pool of fresh water.
While Kikinnin and Maxim work on piling in the corpses of the fallen, JJ finds in the edge of the jungle a large pile of corpses. Most of them seem merchants and other travelers the bandits have taken out of the inn. After some search around the house you do spot the roof of the building is specially high, which brings the idea to check back the upstairs.
Shortly before midday you do discover a trapdoor in the ceiling. On opening you find Orin's scared family and a couple of other inn workers there hidden. Tessa, the mother, is armed with a club and cries as she waves it at you "You bastard monsters get away of my family!" after a moment of confusion Sara and Denny do recognize the group "JJ! You have come to save me!" the young girl jumps over the swordsman in a hug while crying.
"It has been horrible, horrible, they entered the inn killing everybody. Crazy baboons were with them" Sara cries "That red woman was leading them"
Further search does not bring up any trace of the wands.
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JJ is more than happy to return Orin's daughters hug. It looks a bit like be feels he needs one too.
"Thank goodness you managed to hide. We've... we've handled the thugs, and the baboons. But it's not pretty."
He looks at Tessa grimly when he adds, "Apart from Shensen you are the only survivors."
He sighs, it has been a very long day. "We need to get you all back to Cauldron...And then work out how to find their leader. She wasn't here when we arrived."
Juraan helps tend to the survivors.
He asks Sara: "Had you ever seen this red woman before?"
"When you say 'red' woman; was that the colour of her skin, or her clothes?"
As soon as he asks Sara that, something occurs to Juraan.
He describes Kallev, the tiefling they fought earlier, to see if that might be this 'red woman.'
Failing that, he'll see if 'Jill', who they met earlier (and whom Juraan doesn't like one little bit) might fit the description of the red woman.
To the rest of the group:
"Remember when we were here last and I thought we shouldn't kill our prisoners?"
"I changed my mind with this lot!"
"They didn't just come to kill a priest!"
"They planned to kill everyone here from the off."
"Seems things are at an end here, we need to find the wands, and Triel seems to be the most likely suspect. Maple what part of Caudron were you in when Triel recruited you? Remember the wands she stole are meant to prevent the flooding in Cauldron during the rainy season and when we left the lower commons were close to flooding already."
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JJ shakes his head at Juraan. "Red will be Triel. A former Cauldron guard who I ran into a few months ago.."
Then, unexpectedly, JJ yawns. He'd been up the best part of 24 hours, a long ride, a horrible battle with a supernatural creature that had once been an assassin who had tried to kill him and then in turn been eaten (or so JJ thought) by baboons. People he knew and respected had been butchered and it was all just a little too much.
"Sorry.." he admits.
"I could go outside and check for tracks again, maybe she left by horse from the stable. But then why leave the others here?"
He joins Ryan with Maple. "Maple, this is your chance to help make up for what has happened here. Where did Triel go? When did you last see her?"
Then quietly he adds
Juraan ads a bit of weight to Ryan's chat with Maple.
"There's still plenty of room on our bandit bonfire!"
"Keep that in mind!"
Sara and Denny shiver, tears coming to their eyes at JJ's words of no survivors "B-but father, father escaped isn't it?" Tessa Marsh remains serious.
"None of those are the person. She had the hair red and tattoos all over her skin" Sara tells Juraan in an effort.
Maple shrugs "I did not know what she wanted, she was just paying good" she then answers to Ryan "She recruited us in Ash avenue, just in front of Minuta's Board"
Maple is trying to down her implication, she probably knew there wasn't anything good on the job.
You do know the Minuta's Board is the inn where you can most easily get into contact with the Alleybashers.
You do know the Minuta's Board inn lodges the Alleybasher's guild in the basement.
"Triel left soon after Sarcem's defeat. She seemed quite happy and was saying she had business to do and we could stay in the inn and do whatever we pleased with it" explains Maple.
To Orin's wife, "We can stay long enough to pull the trash outside, I'm sorry, but we must return to Cauldron. Shenson, can you and your friends help them return the inn to working condition? Should they wish it." Ryan isn't here to steal from them and will leave the family in Maxim's care concerning the loot that was found.
[B]"That is probably for the best, I doubt Orin's wife is feeling the least bit charitable towards any invloved in the murder of her husband."
"How was she travelling?" JJ asks Maple
"Horse?"
He thinks for a moment about Minuta's Board "That is heart of Allybasher territory. If we go there, after words gets out of this... Either we won't come out, or there won't be any Allybasher organisation left.
To Tessa he sadly shakes his head "[b]We found him dead with a crossbow in his hands. Time is of the essence. I'd feel better if we took you and the other survivors back to Cauldron, but if you want to stay here...We can't stay and help at the moment. But I will come back."
He tiredly shakes his head. "I'm sorry we couldn't get here sooner. The woman you described is definitely Triel and she is bad news. If you stay and she comes back, just do what she says and what ever you need to stay alive."
Tessa inspects the treasure, her face expression hard as a rock "Most of this was taken from the inn's guests. I do not think it will be any easy to find their inheritor's. Just take it all, you have saved my children lives, we are enough in debt with you"
Shensen rejects with her head "I am sorry but I cannot stay here for long. I should trip to Cauldron and met my master. We can see each other there if you tell me where you do live. I would like to make a gift to you for saving my life"
Sara and Denny break into tears while Tessa tries to hug them.
Tessa nods to JJ "We cannot stay here. Please, take us with you to Cauldron. I will need to make arrangements to see how we can start the business once more, but I fear the most probable is we have to sell to someone"
"Yes, she had a white horse" explains Maple to JJ.
⋮
To nobody in particular:
"The dead bandits should go outside to give the crows have a feast."
"Their victims should be buried, though."
"We're not going to take any prisoners, are we?"
"Prisoners would just slow us down."
"It's not like they deserve any mercy after what they did!"
Maxim listens to the interrogation, gauging both word and expression displayed by Maple;
:
:
"Lass, coin can dull the morals, but it ain't justifyin' what occurred here. Reckon you knew that... My advice, if you make it out o' this butchery is find a new line o' work. Something less murderous eh?"
The gun-mage takes a long draw of his stogie, then mulls on their next move.
"Minuta's Board? Mean anythin' to anyone. Ain't ringing bells with me, but its been a hellish day so maybe none o' us are thinkin' straight no-more..."
At Juraan's words he chips in his grim thoughts;
"I'd bury 'em all. Dead are dead... Souls are wherever souls go, good, bad or whatever. You leave 'em hill folk to rot an' yer invitin' all sorts o' hungry to come callin..."
"I guess you're right about burying all the dead, Maxim."
"But I think the bandits and their victims should be done separately, at least."
And then in a somewhat grim tone himself:
"I don't think any of our prisoners should be left alive after this."
"Including this Maple creature."
"She obviously didn't care about what happened here."
Ryan looks to Juraan "Are you sure they are irredeemable? In this case right now, concerning Maple, I am not. I will stand judgement for the two assassins on our return to Cauldron previously. If you choose this, it will be your hand to draw the blade. I'll not stop you."
Ryan offers to help Maxim with the burial detail.
JJ shakes his head at Juran.
"I think we should haul them back to Cauldron. We don't have the authority to kill them out of hand. " he pauses then adds
"And to be honest, I don't think I could just kill someone in cold blood like that."
He yawns. "I wish we could crash, and I know Tessa and the others will be tired, but we'd all be much safer back in Cauldron."
"With prisoners." he adds meaningfully to Juran and Kikinnin.
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Juraan acts a bit pouty like a toddler who was told "no" (again):
""
"We'll keep the prisoners alive."
"But we should keep them tied up on the way back."
Juraan also offers to help Maxim with the burial business.
And ask the group about their past dealings with Triel.
" … apart from her being a nasty piece of work, I'd like to know what we're up against."
After checking the fallen bodies, you find out two alleybashers and five hillfolk are still alive. From those, both the alleybashers and three of the hillfolk are barely surviving and will require immediate aid to avoid death. All of them are unconscious and even if waked up, none are in conditions to make a long walk.
As they begin burial detail Maxim nods toward the prisoners-near-death;
"We either heal 'em, leave 'em to die or leave 'em in the care o' the Lucky Monkey. I ain't got a preference..."
"Triel likes sharp things. She is good with swords. She gave me a few pointers as I mentioned.." says JJ.
"Look, to be honest, she is much better than me. If it came down to a fight with her, she'd hand me my liver in less than a minute. I've picked up a trick or two since we last sparred, but... she was much, much better."
He pauses before adding.
"Even if I had the skill, I'm sure sure I could kill her... even after this."
As discussion turns to the prisoners, JJ goes to the stables to see if there are horses or even better... a cart, for carrying them.
"They don't need to be comfortable. If there is no cart, we can make a travois, and drag them behind. It won't be comfortable, but their comfort is not high on my list of concerns at the moment."
JJ finds a couple of empty merchant carts in the stables as well as spare horses, enough for the survivors.
The sunrises up in the sky marking the pinnacle of the day.
"I'll leave he healing of the prisoners up to an expert."
"Since that's not my field of expertise, as you all know."
Regarding Tiel:
"Well, if she's a better fencer than you JJ, I wouldn't stand a chance against her."
"Not in a sword fight, at least."
"We're all still spent after killing these bandits and not having any sleep."
"We definitely won't do well against her in our current state."
"I doubt she'll be facing us. Sounds like she wanted those wands, and just used everyone use as chumps to get it." sighs JJ.
He loads survivors and prisoners into the wagons.
"Let's head back, a couple of you might want to try and grab some sleep too. Then if my eyelids grow too heavy, you can take over driving.."
Loot, family, Watchers and finally well secured prisoners are all loaded into the wagons. Horses hitched or ridden as required, and JJ eventually settles into the driving seat (unless a surviving merchant offers to take the reins).
"Are you s-sure we sh-should t-take them all b-back?" Marigold asks quietly as she renders enough first aid to the prisoners to keep them from bleeding to death. "It'll s-slow us d-down even m-more and then we'll have to d-deliver them to the g-guard b-before we d-do anything else," she points out. "B-but if everyone thinks it'd b-be for the b-best then I w-won't argue."
"I th-think we sh-should take T-Tessa and her ch-children to the T-Tipped T-Tankard unless they w-want to g-go somewhere else," she adds quietly.
JJ nods to Marigold.
"Either the tankard, or they can stay at my place. It's not much, but its dry and safe."
He scowls at the prisoners, but apart from Maple they don't appear to be in a position to realise it. "We can't just leave them here, and I'm not for hanging them myself. There's been enough death here already..."
He starts to swear.
"You just made me realise, we should burn that lycanthrope. I'm sure that assassin couldn't survive the baboon attack, but he did. What if he survives that... or something eats him and turns into what he was. We have to burn that body, wouldn't be right not to."
And we lose more time
"Look, I don't like the delay any more than you, but we can't just kill folk because it would be inconvenient to do the Right Thing. Quite frankly I have more than enough on my conscience already, I don't need any more."
"W-whoa, it's o-okay," Marigold says quickly, raising her hands in a placating manner. "We'll t-take them b-back and l-let the g-guard take c-care of them. If she h-has to, T-Tessa can v-vouch for their g-guilt and I d-don't think anyone will c-cry over h-hanging some Alleyb-bashers and m-murdering h-hillpeople."
Wrinkling her nose, she glances over to where the body of the former-bard-turned-lycanthrope lay. "And you're p-probably r-right, we sh-should at least b-burn that one. Oh! And l-leave s-some s-sort of n-note on the d-door for any t-travelers that p-pass by here, so they'll kn-know wh-what happened."
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Ryan saves MG the trouble on treating the injured.
"Abadar, the secured here need to stand justice for the crimes they have committed against Orin and his wife Tessa. Provide you blessing upon them so they can be returned to Cauldron for that justice."
Those still needing healing to make the return Ryan will separate and use once more.
Gladly burning the remains of the we're creature before they leave once more.