An angry grimace plasters itself on Dramm's face. His missed shot had cost them the element of surprise. Or maybe it hadn't.
Imedren was moving at a frightening pace and Dramm could see a malicious zeal. He quickly gathered the magic around him and forced it into action. A green glow coated the edge of his ritual knife, and with five sharp, painful jabs into Imedren's chest the magic took hold. Imedren's skin crawled over his muscles uncomfortably and his flesh felt like it wriggled along his bones with energy. Despite this, the wounds quickly knit themselves closed and Imedren was flushed with rejuvenating vigor!
"I missed. Burn them all before they get out of their beds." The malice in Dramm's voice could cut bone.
Joy's witch fire dances around the last sentry, missing him again. As Imedren powers up, Dramm uses his magic to help the sorcerer regenerate his wounds. The sentry hastily reloads his crossbow, preparing for another shot.
Selgaer rushes out from the woods, firing an arrow into the sentry's chest. Uruuna follows in his wake, taking the wounded sentry down and then firing into the cave itself, striking a man in the shadows there. As Tabog clambers on top of the cave entrance, Imedren charges across the clearing and teleports right in the midst of the brigands camped there.
Imedren fires a blast of flames onto half of the brigands. Most of them manage to dodge the worst of it, but then all of the sorcerous energies that have been building up inside of Imedren suddenly explodes outward in a riotous blast that fills the cave! Ten men are annihilated in an instant, the energy hurling their broken bodies into the walls. The others are terribly burned, some barely standing.
One of the survivors screams in terror and tries to run, only to be shot in the back of the knee by Tabog. He collapses to the ground. The five remaining brigands wisely fall to their knees in surrender, begging for mercy!
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Imedren turns to the surviving men, who surrender, looking down at them all with utter disdain for their paltry existence. Several colors of magic surrounded him, sparks of red, an outline of purple surrounding his body, and a strange haze with his quickened movements.
"Smart." he growls. "Too bad you didn't think through your actions before now. Murdering innocents, destroying the homes of those who were already struggling to survive, homes that provided for others! You're the lowest of the low! Now, if you even want to have a chance at living past the next few minutes, you'll tell me who you are and what you're doing here!"
The survivors look to one grizzled man, their apparent leader. "Name's Colson," he says. "We used to be part of a phalanx in the emperor's army, but we defected when the bloody orcs revolted. We came north to live off the land, as it were.
We started off just attacking travelers and stealing livestock, but when we found this place and heard about the beastmen lurking about, we decided to take advantage of the situation. We tried to place the blame on them for our recent hauls."
Dramm arrives as the man finishes his confession. He holds no more sympathy than Imedren. "You've done this before." Dramm's eyes burrow into Colson. "Dark Speech you were scrawling. Who knows it? Who taught it to them?"
Colson shrugs. "Seen the words before, don't know what they mean. We just wrote a bunch of gibberish to make it look like beastmen had come."
Dramm looks between the men standing in front of him. His face twists in anger. "Thieves preying on people already on the brink of death. You've seen what my friend can do." he growls at Colson. His tattoos flare and his hand is wreathed in destructive magic. "My way is different. More... intimate." Dramm begins to reach out to Colson's face.
"Ah! G-get away!" the brigand tries to pull away from Dramm's touch.
Dramm grabs tightly to the man's chest, forcing him back into Imedren Colson can see whisps of skin evaporating where the tendrils touch Dramm's hand.
"People. Small people. Trying to live and starving to death anyway."
"Ah! Argh!" he starts to scream in pain
Just opportunistic Brigands. Imedren stands almost unnaturally still as he stares at the remaining men. Then he warps behind the leader. Holding out a hand to stop Dramm. "Wait! Dramm! Stop!" Imedren shouts as he sees his words aren't reaching his friend. He tries to shove Dramm back.
Dramm is not more than an inch from Colson's eyes when Imedren's palm hits him in the chest. It seems the Sorcerer put a little more force into the blow than Dramm expected. He stumbles back with a cough. His eyes blaze.
"Out of the way, Imedren. I don't need magic to magic to kill this shit!" His hand pulls the axe from his back.
"Dramm, hold on! Something feels off about this. The explanation is plausible but it's almost too straight forward." Imedren says through clenched teeth, then his eyes snap over to Colson, his eyes flash with a grey coloration. Come on, give me something to work with.
b]"You ever live in a place like this, Imedren? Out here, away from the houses and homes? Where there aren't lights at night?"[/b] Dramm straightens his posture and the axe lowers to his side. His eyes have not softened. "You lived in the city. You lived in wealth. You lived with Uruuna. It's not the same out here. There aren't scholars or professors."
Imedren's shoulders fell as he saw there was nothing other than their own magic in that cave. His hopes dashed. As Dramm spoke Imedren's eyes flicked over to him and he "quickly" shook his head. "I... no. I've lived in poor districts, but I've only ever lived in a city."
A sickly amber glow pours from Dramm's veins. "There's just scared hungry people taking what they can get. And there's rats like him, gnawing at everyone else." Dramm gestures angrily to the rest of the brigands.
"And these ones? They're just scared hungry people too, clawing each other apart because this one promised them they'll be fed. That if they make others suffer for him, he'll fill their bellies with rot so they can sleep at night. They don't regret it. They just try not to think of the corpses." He takes a step forward.
"Well look who suddenly developed a moral compass. I guess your magic death hands mean you're a god and get to decide who lives and dies. I'll go ahead and mark this down in my notes for Ezzy. She'll be glad to know you fought against Imedren to make sure someone died."
"You're as coddled as Imedren." Dramm snarls at Tabog, shoving forward. He steps forward and delivers three hard chops into Colson's head. The blood splatters the walls with each hack. "You don't understand anything, Tabog. Twice you've assumed you know what drives me, and you've been wrong both times." He glares at the Ferran angrily. "If you ever try to manipulate me using Ezekia again, I will treat you as I do every other threat to her."
Tabog's pupils dialate fully at the sight of the blood. A small smile cracks in the corner of his mouth as the man falls to the floor, he stands from the wall he was leaning on. "I never objected, only observed. Good riddance, burn the rest of them to ash why don't you? Save us the trouble." He walks out of the cave, whistling the dead man's tune.
"Smug fool thinks he knows what happened here." Dramm mutters as he begins to clean the blade of his axe.
"No, TaBog. Dramm's... he's... " Imedren began to say but he was cut off by the suddenly heated argument between the two of them. For some reason, Imedren simply stood and watched the rest of the exchange. As Dramm declared it out loud, he realized that he had been coddled for most of his life. Imedren didn't understand what motivated him either. So when the other Sorcerer moved to finish what he started, Imedren didn't move to interfere with Dramm anymore.
After Dramm finished his grizzly work with Colson, he finally spoke again. "If they hadn't survived my initial attack, we wouldn't have had this argument. But you were right Dramm. There's a lot I don't really understand. I keep chasing after this story in my head and sometimes the truth is just staring us in the face. Evil comes from the smallest of choices sometimes with or without reason."
He gestures to the remaining men. "You didn't start out bad. It wasn't your fault the Orcs revolted. You abandoned your duty and while that is cause for death in the South, you escaped a hopeless situation. But you trusted blindly in a leader who promised to keep you alive by doing bad things. There were choices you made along the way, times you could have done something different. But you didn't. Just like me."
With that, he called up a fiery meteor and blasted the remaining men. The men's dying screams echo throughout the cave as they are burned alive.
Although he meant to hide in the shadows, Tabog stopped at the cave's exit and leaned against the wall just outside. Still in view, he tried to play it off as nonchalantly so he could. He listened to Imedren's speech, and slowly shook his head. "We all start out bad, we all end up worse. Just a matter of time before the Demon Lord catches up with us all...."
Dramm shakes his head. He finishes wiping down his axe and sheaths it again. He stops to say something to Imedren before turning to search the cave and bodies.
"Tabog thinks I did this because it was good and evil. He's wrong. Morals are worthless when you just want to survive." He takes one final, disgusted look at Colson's ruined skull. "That kind of sickness spreads. I stopped it from spreading. It only gets much much worse."
Tabog's presence at the entrance causes Dramm to pause. He looks tiredly at Imedren. "Maybe I'll show you all someday. Colson was the seed. Do what you want with the rest."
Each of the twenty men has brigandine armor, a sword, large shield, and crossbow. There's little of value in the cave, just foodstuffs and minor baubles taken from the farms.
Killed him, eh? Couldn't say I wouldn't have done the same. Seeing as there's no sign of Craven or Salla anywhere, I say we collect all this stuff and donate it to the local guard. They could sure use it.
Sel sighs. This was all just a red herring. We're chasing the wrong thing.
Ok, so. Mary is dating Craven, but he hasn't shown up. Salla is missing in unusual circumstances. That's at least two people missing. We thought the farms had something to do with it, but that was wrong. There are no surge of beastmen attacks.
The people in the well were also a false lead. And while it's good we removed both threats, it doesn't get us closer to finding Craven.
I think our next best bet is to follow Silas. I don't like his story about how Salla disappeared, and I think following him may lead to something. Anyone have any other ideas?
Joy is frustrated by her witch fire continually missing, and then ends up silent at the brutal exchange.
Afterwards, she pipes up:
"Terrible people...they had to have deserved it."
She does not sound cheerful about the thought.
In response to Selgaer:
"Silas sounds the way forward. And I like the idea of donating all of this gear to the town. They really need help!"
Joy seems happier with a way to help people more directly.
Imedren nodded grimly. "We are exhausting our leads at a rapid enough clip. We can inform the Sheriff that she and he deputies won't have to worry about a band of brigands plaguing them anymore by burning their farms. Hopefully that will ease some concern. But pushing forward from here would be foolish even for us. Let's head back to town and call this good for tonight.
We'll hunt after Silas and potential other leads tomorrow."
You make it back to Verge safely and crawl into your beds at the Green Man for some well-deserved rest. In the morning, you inform a grateful Delores about the brigands' defeat. She sends some constables to claim their gear and bury their bodies, and she promises to see about arranging a reward from Elder Zeke for your efforts.
The morning seems quiet so far...
Dramm was up early the next morning, having slept very soundly after the exertions of the night before. He greeted others as they arrived to eat as well and perused his book as usual. Pages continued to be added and there were notes to be made about Imedren's reaction to the regenerative magic. Dramm eyes Tabog when he passes into the common area, but doesn't say anything. Eventually he goes back to his studies.
"Not all of us can follow Silas. What should the rest of us do in the meantime?" Dramm asks as the group gets ready to leave. "The farm is an option, but splitting up is dangerous. Maybe while Selgaer and Tabog tail them, the rest of us can search his home."
"Things got little... Heated back there, huh?"
He pauses briefly and scratches the back of his neck.
"We're still good, right? Like, you and I and Uruuna."
He peers around Imedren to catch sight of the halfling, checking to see what kind of mood she might be in, then back to the man in front of him.
Imedren seemed drained after the magic's seemed to wear off. His pace slower than normal. "Yes, TaBog... we're fine. Uruuna's fine with what we did. They were brigands, murdering people and stealing for their survival, her job has her dealing with desperate people like that a lot. Dramm wasn't wrong to pass his sort of judgement and he was right that I don't understand people like that. Not sure I ever will."
Imedren was silent for a time but then spoke again.
"It's him and you that have the real issue right now. You shouldn't have brought up Ezekia the way you did. I know you didn't mean it in an offensive manner, but he's very protective of her and he perceives what you did as an emotional threat. You'll have to clear that up with him at some point... and soon. He's more willful than I am but when it comes to Ezekia, he's unpredictable." He sighed. "The only reason you got involved though, was because I hesitated in finishing the job... I was chasing after information and rumors of the Dark Brotherhood that just don't exist here."
Tabog wakes in the morning feeling rested, but still wanting to sleep for at least several more hours. He slinks down for breakfast and quietly munches leftover drake meat with jam.
"I agree, Dramm." He says, when the bookish man spoke. "There could be clues in his house or the surrounding area. We could even search the mayor's house too!"
Tabog holds his arm above himself, half extended with he his hand balled into a first.
"Take no prisoners!"
He cursed under his own breath when no one thought his joke was funny.
Joy tries to keep a frown off her face at Tabog's joke.
"I can transform into a small creature and be sneaky that way, but I'm not as skilled at it. I'll be in the farm party or the Mayor's house."
Imedren closes his eyes in a slow, pained expression while taking a deep breath to match.
"Searching the Mayor's house? It's not the worst idea I've heard today... he has had Blister looking into things. Maybe the Goblin does know something more. We should try to find him. It's a good thing you didn't spurn him entirely by giving him some coins, Selgaer. He'll probably be open to talking with us still."
Searching Silas' house would be good, too. Why don't Joy and I track Silas while you guys search his home when he's gone? Then, later we can meet with the mayor and someone can search his house during the meeting.
"Not a bad plan."
"I can transform into an animal, from the size of a mouse to a boar.", Joy says straightforwardly.
"What would I need to keep up with you, Selgaer?"
Can you fly?
"How about a hawk or a bat? Bat would be easier to keep quiet."
I'm not sure a bat would be out in the morning. A hawk will be fine, but a little brown job will likely blend in better.
"A little brown job sounds perfect."
Joy spends some time as a little brown job.
Silas heads into the woods shortly after sunrise, and Selgaer and Joy move to follow him. While he is out, the rest of you break into his home and search around. Unfortunately, you don't find any evidence of what might have happened to the missing Salla Reed, nor anything implicating the woodcutter in her disappearance.
Selgaer and Joy trail Silas for a while as he wanders the forest. He seems to be in a bit of a daze, wandering aimlessly. After an hour or so, he kneels by a stream and scrubs at his hands, washing vigorously even though they don't seem to be particularly dirty. Then he sits on a log and holds his head in his hands.
In bird form, Joy is able to get close enough to hear the man muttering to himself. "No, no. I will make it right. The god in the tree will fix everything. Just one more day. One more day, beloved."
Joy flutters back to Selgaer and behind a tree, changes back into the form of a young girl.
"He's talking about the god in the tree who will fix everything. He thinks he needs one more day for his beloved. He seemed pretty confused. We should go and talk to him."
Let's keep watching. I want to know who this god in the tree is.
Joy nods and carefully listens.
Imedren sighed at the lack of evidence found.
"Nothing, I suspected this would probably be the outcome." he pulled out his tarot deck and began shuffling it slowly while thinking.
"We need to stop this. We keep dividing our attention between two separate problems. Salla and Craven. We were sent here by Reinhold to try and find Craven, Salla is a newer problem we just found out about.
There's still a number of questions we need answered but we'll have to resort to other means and focus our attentions on one problem at a time. The Goblin seems to be keen on collecting information about people, we can track him down and bribe him for what he knows. First, however, we need to figure out if we're even on the right trail."
He began shuffling his deck and called forth his magic, blue light shown from his eyes and he began laying out the cards in front of him.
"Is someone from the town of Verge involved in Craven's disappearance?"
The cards spell the answer: "Yes."
"It's not the beastmen." Imedren said, after a minute. "They might be a problem for the town in general but whoever made Craven disappear is in this town. We're on the right trail."
"The issue now is who did it? The most likely suspects are the Mayor, Merry's mother, or possibly Sister Matilda."
"Let's just get this one over with. Is the mayor involved with Craven's disappearance?" he said asking his second question of the day.
The answer is in the cards: "No."
"Right, so we can rule out the mayor as having to do something with Craven's disappearance at least. That just leaves us most of the rest of the town. Let's go find Blister."
Asking around leads you to Blister skulking about near the town's inner wall. He holds a handful of dead rats by the tails while happily munching on another one. "Yeah, whaddya want?" he mumbles with his mouth full.
***
Joy and Selgaer follow Silas some more. He continues to wander the woods, stopping every so often o compulsively wash his hands and mutter to himself. The morning is wearing on...
Joy also continues to follow the mumbling man, hoping that he will drop a hint or lead the pair to the tree.
Tabog follows along with Imedren, he was also disappointed that they didn't find what they were looking for, but only slightly. He was more put off from the woodcutter's house lacking anything worth taking. He made himself feel better by carefully turning any item, smaller then a fist, upside-down.
He began to sleep soundly during Imedren's reading but was stricken with irritation when the seer was finished just as he got to sleep. So, when they approached Blister he was in no mood to deal with the goblin; who had, not so long ago, nearly sabotaged their little mission with Marry. In a flash Tabog draws his bow, an arrow, notches it, and pulls it into a three-quarter draw aimed at the creature.
"I don't know who you think you're talking to but, you'd be wise to remember that we were kind enough not to kill you last night. That might not be the case this time if we don't get the right answers from you. Now, when the nice man asks you his questions you can answer them with a bit of respect."
Blister slurps the rat's tail down like spaghetti, then lets out a mighty belch. He glares at Tabog before looking at Imedren expectantly.
Imedren eyed TaBog's sudden impatience with annoyance but puts out a hand.
"You've shown us a set of skills and interest in using them that we actually have use for, Blister. I bet you keep an eye on interesting events and people in town, so you would probably know all sorts of interesting details that us outsiders don't. We don't really have time to learn all the ins and outs, so we want your help. You'll of course be compensated depending on how useful your information is and you'll have several opportunities to earn some. Certainly, something better than arrows." Imedren said, letting his hand drop to a coin pouch with a heavy jingle.
"First, there was a local wanderer, a Druid named Craven who supposedly helped protect this town from time to time, I'm sure you've heard of him. He disappeared a short time ago. So far we've learned that someone in town is responsible for his disappearance but we don't know who or why? We've removed a few suspects, but that still leaves a lot of people. Can you help us... catch the Rat in hiding?"
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Blister eyes the coin pouch greedily. "Yeah, pay me well and I'll do yer dirty work. Can't say I know much about this Craven guy 'cept what I overheard last night. He must keep a low profile when he's in town. I can ask around, see if anybody knows anything."
Dramm had been hanging back behind the other two and watching Blister with curiosity. Mentally he noted that either the goblin must be filled with parasites, or that investigation into Goblin digestion might turn up some interesting ideas about purging them. He taps Tabog on the shoulder and encourages him to lower the bow.
"Good. Another matter of interest concerning the disappearance of Salla Reed..." he produces the small sheet of paper that was found in the well, "Silas seems off, but someone wanted his affection. Do you know who, apart from Salla Reed? Better yet, do you recognize the handwriting?"
Blister shakes his head. "Don't know what Salla saw in Silas. Don't know who else would actually want an ugly f@*% like him, neither. Don't recognize the writing. Can't read anyway."
Dramm drops a couple of copper into Blister's free hand.
"A start. Find out more. Learn who has a grudge against Silas or Salla. Learn what you can about this Craven as well. You've seen the gold yourself. There's plenty to earn."
This fool is taking us nowhere, Joy. Let's go back.
Before they go, Sel digs into the dirt to find a grub, and then finds a bluebird to befriend; Follow that man. When he returns home, come to me and tell me everywhere he's been. Thank you. Here, have a grub.
Blister takes the coins and then slinks off into town to start his work. In the woods, the bluebird swallows the grub and then flaps off after Silas to start his work.
Joy and Selgaer return to Verge, meeting the rest of the group at the Green Man to compare notes over lunch. While you are eating, one of the servants who work there, Thom, approaches.
"Begging your pardons. I don't mean to interrupt your meal, but I know you're helping out around town with all the troubles we've been having. The rumors of beastmen in the woods, they're true. Just this morning, I was out gathering herbs when I saw a warg skulkng about! He didn't see me, thank the Horned King, and I ran away before he could. But them wargs don't travel alone. If there's one out there, there's likely to be a whole pack!"
Dramm's eyes snap up. He had been ignoring the man until now, but mention of the Warg draws his attention with a small grumble.
"Something substantial to follow." His temper had been short since the night before, and the distraction was much needed. He stands to address Thom.
"Can you show us where? If you saw them just this morning, the camp may still be nearby. I don't hold much hope for captives, but we can see them put down."
"...so someone still needs to speak with Silas and soon. I'm happy to do it but I'll need someone else along. This forest is really dangerous."
Joy pauses, then turns to face and listen to Thom as he approaches and begins to speak.
"Perhaps we should all go together? Though we do have much to cover."
Thom provides you directions to where he spotted the warg. Sure enough, when you investigate, Dramm and Selgaer are able to find the clawed footprints of a beastman leading into the woods to the north.
Sel is unable to gleam any additional information from the tracks, beyond what is obvious.
You ready for this, Dramm? he says, ready to follow the tracks.
If anyone else is with us, he asks, Can you speak with Silas and look into any other leads while we're gone?
Dramm and Selgaer follow the tracks into the woods. After about an hour, the trail emerges in a clearing where a cluster of large, moss-covered boulders are arranged in a horseshoe pattern. These must be the Troll's Teeth you heard about in town. And indeed, a large pack of beastmen seem to have set up camp here. You count no less than fifteen wargs milling about, along with ten large wolves.
We will have to deal with these guys later. They're too strong for just two of us, Sel whispers.
But before he backs away, he looks out at the "teeth" to see if there's any signs of a captive or perhaps a recently cooked townsfolk on a spit.
There don't appear to be signs of either of those.