Nathaniel winces as he settles himself down to sit on a fallen log.
“This place ... it almost forces you to choose from a bunch of bad choices. We just have to do the best we can ... help where we can but realise that we can’t save everyone in this land that even the gods seem to have forsaken.” He glances up at Res and Eliva. “Well, not entirely, thankfully.” He sighs. “It’s been a long day, we’re all tired and hurt,” he says. “Better reason to watch in pairs. Ange, how about you stand first watch with Urdrin, Erfan, you watch second with Eliva, if no one minds much I’ll get some sleep and watch last with Res.”
That said, the ranger stands and begins gathering wood and tinder for a small fire, careful to make one that will produce heat but not too much in the way of light or smoke.
Res looks at Nathaniel's injuries and then touches his neck which is still red from the Surgeon's scalpel. "Nathaniel, you still look the worse for wear. Take Eliva's last healing spell. My channels will be refreshed in the morning, and I can finish healing us then."
Res sits at the fire and then retires to bed after awhile.
To the relief of all, the night passes without incident. Surely more terrors would have been the last thing the group needed after the events of the previous day. The sun rises feebly over a forest shrouded in a damp morning fog.
Once dawn breaks, Nathaniel goes foraging nearby, the rest obviously having done him good, looking for edible roots, mushrooms, rabbits, fresh water – anything to supplement their rations. He makes sure not to go too far from the camp. While he’s out he looks about for tracks of any large creatures or humanoids.
Over breakfast he asks, “Where now? We have a lead for Gilbraith, and the quicker we’re away from here the better I say. If we’re lucky it might be days before our attack on the Surgeon is discovered, but if we’re unlucky someone has already realised something is wrong and we’re being searched for. My only hesitation in leaving right away is Tiff and Belanos ... we still don’t know where they went last night. No signs of foul play, but still ... should we look for them? Try to get a message to Brenner? Though it might make trouble for him and us ...”
After his meditation, Res feels revived and he can feel more potency to his positive energy. As the group gathers for breakfast, he says, "Friends, some of us are still injured after our battle with the Surgeon. Feel Gorum's healing power so that we may be better prepared for whatever awaits us." He lifts Gorum's symbol up and positive energy springs forth in a 30 foot radius from it.
Between the rest and Gorum's healing power, Res touches his neck and finds it fully healed.
"I too worry about Tiff and Belanos, but as you say, Nathaniel, we don't know if our exploits have been discovered or not. We cannot risk reentering the town right now. We must press on, and hope for the best for our missing companions. Urdrin, you are welcome to stay with us, although the path we tread is very dangerous."
"Tiff will have a plan, I'm sure."
Angalia feels more positive in the morning with a little distance between herself and the bad choices made the day before.
"I think she'll have gone back to the Vistani with Belanos. We can trust them to cover our tracks somehow. She didn't tell us because what we don't know, we can't reveal."
"You lot do seem to like to walk into trouble, but with me brothers in arms dead, it be more likely that I will find me way home on the same path as ye. Now tell me who this villain ye be talking about is. I heard you mention his name to that twisted woman back in the prison? I thought it more prudent to wait to ask ye."
Erfan remains skittish throughout his watch, periodically sniffing the air and examining individual blades of grass with a look of confusion and disgust on his face. The following morning, after a good night's sleep, he is back to his usual mischievous self again.
"The Surgeon spoke of a plague in the south, where the regiment is headed and where we, I am certain, will follow. I suggest we seek ointments and unguents to ward against infection on our way there, lest we find ourselves confronted by a foe which yields not to blade or bow."
"His name is Gilbraith," Nathaniel answers Urdrin, "and a more evil son of a b!!@* I've yet to meet, even in this place. He took my sister ... Hurt her, maybe ... Well we don't know if she's alive. Anyway, it's been suggested to us that he might be the reason we're stuck in this land. If we find him, we might find our way out."
"That's a fine idea Erfan, but did you think to head back into town to buy such supplies, or try to get them from somewhere else we might pass on the way?"
Nathaniel is able to find plenty of food and fuel foraging in the woods. While sinister at night, these woods are relatively hospitable.
"I wanted to help the local community protect itself this dangerous Lord Galbraith. If he came here, as we did, I think hunting him down to find both Nathaniel's sister and prevent him from causing more harm here are both worthy goals." Eliva's eyes wander back in the direction of town. "But I think there might be more work I am called to do here..."
"That's a fine idea Erfan, but did you think to head back into town to buy such supplies, or try to get them from somewhere else we might pass on the way?"
"On the way, if possible. Unless one of us is gifted in the arts of shapeshifting," the gnome smirks.
"I wanted to help the local community protect itself this dangerous Lord Galbraith. If he came here, as we did, I think hunting him down to find both Nathaniel's sister and prevent him from causing more harm here are both worthy goals." Eliva's eyes wander back in the direction of town. "But I think there might be more work I am called to do here..."
“Such as?” enquires Nathaniel, not antagonistically, but obviously eager to get out of this area.
Eliva looked back at Nathaniel. "The hopelessness here. Everything here is either twisted and broken, or beaten down and too frightened to stand on their own." Her hands twisted on her bowstave as she reviewed the events of the last couple days. "I don't know if I can help people fix it...but I dislike leaving without trying."
"You are a credit to your faith, Eliva. Erastil has chosen his inquisitor wisely. Our only chance of helping these people is to eliminate the source of their oppression. Let's push on south toward Boca and find Gilbreath and this Lord Vlad."
If all are in agreement, Res begins packing up camp and is ready to start south.
“I feel as you do,” Nathaniel says to Eliva, “but I think that Res is right on this account; helping these people means nothing without removing the source of the problem. This whole land is sick, and the cause of that sickness – at least in this country – is this Lord Vlad. But Res,” he turns to the priest, “I think you’re being overly ambitious if you think we can destroy him. You’re handy with that big sword you carry – a true credit to your god – but there will be an army of guards, and probably a fortress or two between us and he. I’d like to think otherwise, but I don’t think the six of us can take that on and win.” He sighs and shakes his head, the things they have seen sapping his confidence.
“At any rate, I don’t know think we’ll find this Lord Vlad at the southern border, just his general, an army ... and Gilbraith. That’s enough to deal with for now.”
He too shoulders his pack and prepares to set off.
"Wise words Nathaniel. I do get ahead of myself at times. I will focus on Gilbreath and the return of your sister for now. What happens after that we shall see when the time comes."
"I think it's time we re-introduced ourselves to Gilbraith. Getting rid of him may help cleanse this place."
"Alrighty then. Just one more thing, Nathaniel and Angalia *Urdrin struggles to pronounce them* When we be on the front lines fightin and ye be injured there be no shame in shiftin' behind ol Urdrin. I be willin' to take a few hits for ye when you be cut up badly. It be my trainin' to take and deflect hits, so I won' feel bad if y'do, but I will feel bad if y' get killed beside me. Y'hearin' what I tells ye?"
"I hear you." Angalia smiles properly for the first time in hours.
She's taken a strong liking to the straightforward dwarf.
"Just remember to let me look ahead first. Same deal. I don't like seeing my friends stepping into traps."
Eliva nods at Res and Nathaniel's words. "Yes, you are right, removing such bad stewards is a necessary step. But I think many of these people, even with such evil removed, are missing the desire to stand up and do for themselves what needs to be done." Eliva squared her shoulders and helped pack up for their journey to the border. "When you give into another's hands things you could do for yourself, you place yourself in their power - and these people place too much into a single man's hands. No one can stand alone forever, we all need help at times; but I feat the habit of letting others handle difficult things can make one truly helpless - as a child that never grows into an adult and takes care of the hard things themselves." She shrugged. "Sheparding such people without allowing them to place that power into your hands - while teaching them to hold it and care for it themselves - would be a difficult task, I think. But worth doing."
"Well then, let us be off then. Shall we return to our ruse as merchants and return to the road heading south? If so we will need to re-stow our weapons. The only problem I see is that we seem to have lost our cart."
"It's true that without the cart our ruse as merchants is weak," admits Nathaniel. "Is it worth some or all of us travelling back to town to collect it? Or try to acquire another? Either way we should return our weapons and armour to the magic bags, or else travel south under cover of wilderness or darkness."
I've fractured a finger. Posting will be slow until I can get the thing properly splinted. Apologies.
"It's too dangerous to return to the city. Once our work in the prison is discovered, the guards should be able to connect it to us entering the prison to "help" the Surgeon. A search party may be out looking for us now. For now, I suggest we lay low moving through the woods and staying off the main roads."
Nathaniel nods in agreement.
“I’m happy to stay off the roads, though it will take us longer to get where we’re going. Keep in mind, if we’re going to hang on to our arms and armour, we need to be prepared to kill any patrols of soldiers who might happen upon us – we can’t risk the local forces being alerted to us when we’re heading towards an army.”
He’ll lead the way, using his survival skills to head south, keep to cover as much as possible and minimise their tracks. At the first opportunity he’ll lead the group up a stream or across a rocky stretch and lays a couple of false trails to try to lose anyone who might try to track them.
I've fractured a finger. Posting will be slow until I can get the thing properly splinted. Apologies.
Rev asked me to alert that her finger is healing but that it will likely be mid-week before she can type easily enough to participate.
Nathaniel leads the party through the woods, heading south. Shortly after embarking, you are able to see a road in the distance, heading northwest to southeast across your path.
Res sees the road up ahead and pauses to look for other travelers, or worse soldiers.
Angalia notices (and presumably points out), a man hiding in the undergrowth. He is trying not to be seen, and failing at that task. What you can see of his clothes are heavily worn, and he wears a large, floppy hat. He has noticed you, but is taking no action.
Once the man is pointed out to him, Nathaniel tries to catch his eye and raises his hand in wary greeting, holding it so that the man can see it is empty.
When you acknowledge him, the man becomes frightened. You can see he is quite young - barely an adult - and uncomfortably thin. He looks around as if to run, but sees that his alternative is the road. He says nothing.
Erfan ambles out ahead of the group and eagerly waves to the frightened youth.
"'Allo there! You've nothing to fear from the likes of us, we are but travelers through this land. Not bandits or brigands!"
“Not bandits or brigands,” adds Nathaniel, “but neither are we eager to meet any soldiers or constables.” The ranger continues to move towards the boy, holding his hands in plain sight.
The young man continues to look alarmed. He clears his throat and mutters unconvincingly, "I was just hunting rabbit... Good game around these parts..." He stands up straight and shuffles uncomfortably. "Who are you?"
As Erfan and Nathaniel try to talk to the stranger, Res murmurs a few words and suddenly feels a surge in his charisma. He then steps forward and addresses the young man.
"As the gnome has said, we are merely travelers trying to make our way south. We have seemed to lost our path. You say the hunting is good around here. That is fortunate, we are getting hungry and have some fine hunters here." Res nods toward Nathaniel and Eliva. "My name is Res. What is your name, do you live around here?"
"Rabbit is good eating. Have you had any luck?"
"I see what you mean about the hunting," Eliva said as Res indicated her and Nathaniel as hunters, "but there's bound to be more deeper in the wood. I've seen a few game trails, and wonder what the local game laws are here." Eliva leaned back against a tree, careful to appear relaxed. "Do you have a family stew-pot you plan to drop a nice fat coney into? If we were to hunt together, I'm sure we'd be able to share what we find."
*After seeing the lad, and hearing his flawed explanation of why he has followed us he steps forward*
"Hail lad, ye look like ye be a bit afraid. Ye got nothin' to ear from us, an ye seem a bit out of sorts. Be there somethin' wrong?"
The young man seems pained, but finally looks you full in the eye. You can see that his big hat is concealing the brand of Lord Vlad. His ill-fitting garments cover a shirt that was clearly once a uniform, now in a sorry state. "Please," he says, "I just want to get out of here. If I can make it to the southern border, I can cross and make my way to meet my cousin in Richemulot. There's land for anybody who wants it, and they don't make you... do things..." He tears up at this last bit. "Please don't turn me over to the army."
“We won’t do that, don’t worry,” says Nathaniel. He looks the lad in the eye and tries to get a sense of him – is he genuine?
“We’re heading south ourselves.”
Res face turns grim. Seeing a soldier deserting is the absolute worst sin anyone can commit in Gorum's eyes. Res says another prayer to Gorum and his eyes turn cold. Res ignores Nathaniel's attempt to remain kind.
He spits in the young man's face. "Coward!" he bellows. "Look at you, hiding in peasant's clothes. Disgusting! What kind of soldier are you? You have 10 seconds to give me a reason not to run you through with my greatsword right where you stand!"
“Res! What in the Hells man?” Nathaniel is taken aback by the priest’s outburst, this is a side of the wise warrior-priest that has not been seen before now. “So what if he deserted? Do we even know under what circumstances he might have been recruited? What evils he may have been forced to perform in this Vlad’s army? From all we’ve seen and heard here, he sounds like one of the most cruel and evil men imaginable, worse even perhaps than Gilbraith. Could you imagine serving under him? Under officers like the Surgeon? You needn’t be a coward to desert from such an army, you only need to be a decent man, a person who cares for his own humanity!”
Res snarls back at Nathaniel, "Back friend. What you say may be true and that is the ONLY reason I'm letting this pitiful cur answer instead slaying him immediately." Res turns back toward the young man. "You now have five seconds to answer" he says coldly.