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Backed into a corner, there is no place left for Esrisi to flee to. She waits for the one that urinated on her to get a little closer and when she does she screams as she spins and throws a left hook into his nose, breaking it. As he stumbles backwards to the ground onto his rear end screaming in agony, the other four pounce on top of Esrisi when she opens herself up. She manages to stick a foot into another ones groin which sends him stumbling backwards, but the bloody drunk rejoins the fight with an angry vengeance. She yells and screams in protest until he punches three times in the face which quickly quiets her down and she ceases her yells of protest.
She kicks, claws, bites and punches to the best of her ability, but four men is simply too much for her to handle. She can't see out of her left eye and she tastes blood in her mouth as the men each pin down her arms and legs. As her clothes begin to be torn from her body she realizes that she isn't going to be able to fight her away out of this. She closes her eyes and retreats into a safe place in her mind, tuning out the realities of what's happening the best that she can.
The woman looks down to Es, clothes ripped off and nearly naked. She picks up a coat from one of the unconscious men and tosses it over to her as she gruffly says "What's your name girl?"
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Her body aches as she pulls herself to a seated position, bringing her knees in to her chest and holding them tightly. "My name is Esrisi." she responds, looking at the floor only through her right eye since her left is swollen badly. "Esrisi Derexhi."
She lays back down on her seat and stares up at the ceiling obviously done with her part of the conversation.
You spend the rest of the night at the lodge waiting and it isn't until morning that a wizard from town finally arrives to assist with things. He looks Vel over and notes that it will be 350 gold to cast the spell to potentially break the enchantment that has a hold of her, but specifies he can not guarantee that it will work depending on how powerful the magic is. If it doesn't work he could prepare more castings but they would also require an additional fee.
Caroliss drags Drask along with her to check on Es. They find that she is being held for the night and no one is permitted to see her. Es spends the rest of the night in prison. The men are out cold the rest of the night and only begin to stir in the morning. Luckily for Es the captain who placed her in the cell comes to retrieve her before they come to. Eventually Es is brought out to both Caroliss and Drask who are likely sleeping in the reception area as they wait for her release. She has a blanket covering her, but you can easily see that her clothes are all ripped up and torn off her body in places. Her one eye is swollen shut and she has mutliple other bruises and cuts.
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Waking the next morning to sound of freedom, she groans and pulls herself to her feet. Her whole body hurts and she can't see out of one eye. When the woman reminds her that she owes her, she nods "I will not forget. Thank you." she says as she is led away by the captain.
When she is led to the waiting where Drask and Caroliss are waiting, Esrisi walks up to the silently and observes them sleeping. She reaches out and nudges each one awake. Pulling her blanket tighter around her she says softly while staring at the floor with her one working eye "I want to go home now.". She smells of urine, is bloodied and bruised and most of her clothes from last night have been ripped to shreds and are missing.
Drask listens to the guards telling him that nobody can see her, and he is very unhappy. He simply stands there silently and stares at the guard and the door through which Es is waiting for an uncomfortably long time. Then he goes to wait.
In the morning Drask is up early and is the first one Es sees when she comes out of the door. Upon seeing the state she's in his face immediately furrows. He moves to her side, borderline shoving the captain away, and moves her to Caroliss's side. "You're with us now. Go back with Caroliss." He nods to Caroliss. "Take care of her." He stares, waiting for them to leave.
The mage casts the spell and it doesn't seem to have any effect. He notes he will have to prepare more for tomorrow. On his second casting of the spell the next day he is able to break the enchantment.
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When the casting doesn’t work the first time, Mokhasi looks amazed, ”this must be a powerful enchantment, sir. Do you think there is anything we could do to retrieve for you something of equivalent value, in lieu of paying you money? This spell may be stretching our financial limits - and it appears that we have some additional time to spare. Our magics are minor compared to yours, but we do have some free time, which I expect is a more rare commodity for you. We are at your service if you would have us.” He stands and bows respectfully to the mage.
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Esrisi silently nods to Drask and leaves Arvensoar with Caroliss, heading back to the lodge. She doesn't think much of the half-orc staying behind, her only thought is that she wants to get as far from this place as possible. "Okay."
She takes the bread and water and eats and drinks them both before departing. She tells Caroliss that a bunch of drunk men in the jail tried to have a little fun with her because of her station and it didn't go very well. She's brief in her explanation and doesn't want to discuss very much right now.
She arrives with Caroliss at the lodge at the same time some strange wizard is leaving. She asks Caroliss what that is about and just sadly nods her head when she explains they are trying to break the enchantment. When she reenters the lodge and sees the group gathered around a bound Veltariel.
Esrisi is a little worse for wear compared to last night. She has bruises on her body and her right eye is swollen shut. She no longer stinks or is stained with blood thanks to Caroliss's magic thankfully, but it's evident she doesn't look the same from when you saw her last outside of the "club" last night. She sees the mood is sour and knows this is probably not the best time, but she moves to address the group at large anyway.
"I messed up." she starts. She holds her hand up to stop protests of anger "Hear me out, please. Two minutes and then I won't bother you further."
"Vetariel and I have had a tumultuous relationship since we first met. It seems the fates have tied us by blood for one reason or another. Regardless, we were on a path of destruction that likely would have seen one of us killed at the others hands."
She swallows, leaning against Caroliss for support "I spoke to our Venture Captain who suggested I find an alternate method that did not involve violence to resolve our differences. At first, I spoke to her in her room and she handed me a dagger and told me to kill her. I obviously did not intend to kill this woman, so I thought I could find some magical assistance to improve her attitude towards me that would allow us to work better as a team. Less distraction by infighting between Veltariel and I means faster resolution of our mission, no? This was my ultimate goal, to ensure the success of our mission. Unfortunately," she sighs, shaking her head, "it would appear as usual, things went sideways."
"I went to my home to seek a vial that would improve Veltariel's attitude towards be for a short while. I figured if I could give that to her and we could build a friendly rapport, when it wore off things could improve from there. My sister offered assistance, but it would appear she tricked me and had some stronger concoction brewed for me that instead gave Veltariel feelings of-" she stops, looking away form everyone and looking at the floor."Caroliss said that it was a lust potion. That is not what I had intended. Veltariel told me we were in love and it was so nice to feel wanted and I just got all wrapped up in all of these emotions. My head has been going crazy."
She looks to the group at large and concludes "So, yeah. I messed this all up. I've let you all down. I am sorry."
Looking to the bound Veltariel, she shakes her head slowly and hobbles a step towards her on Caroliss's shoulder. She looks at the woman in disbelief, how had it come to this? She starts to cry as she looks at the elf and says softly "Most of all I let you down. I should not have done what I did and despite how it turned out, I was only trying to help. I am so sorry."
She turns away and says "I'm going to bathe and change. When I come back down if you would like me to leave, I will leave." When Caroliss moves to assist her, she shakes her head. "Stay and talk with the others, I'll be fine now."
She moves off to the stairs and leaves the room.
The mage considers the offer for a moment and shrugs "Perhaps, let me review some of my notes and if I have something that might fit the bill I will send word to you later today."
Caroliss goes to follow Esrisi, and frowns when her friend says no. "I'll find you when we're done here," she says, as Esrisi leaves the room.
She then looks to Sapher and Mokhasi. "I think that's the full truth that you've been looking for. Sapher especially. Her intentions were not evil, even if her strategy worked a little too well."
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Mokhasi tries to determine if Caroliss is deceiving him.
”Fine,” is all he says, and he returns to watching Veltariel, his face otherwise expressionless and placid. Kiir on the other hand, has its gems spinning and revolving furiously for some time, spinning around its ruby facet, which is glowing brightest of all.
The woman shrugs "I was under orders, it really wasn't up to me. She may be a little banged up but I was assured nothing actually happened to her."
Veltariel eventually wakes up, and notes she is shackled and some human mage is there with the others, working magics on her, and they are allowing it! She spits some elven curses and strains against her bonds throughout!
” તમે મારી સાથે આવું કેમ કરી રહ્યા છો? તમે કેવી રીતે કરી શકો!?!?” she pleads as she struggles.
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Mokhasi stares straight ahead when Veltariel speaks to him, and then looks her in the eyes. ” માફ કરશો, વેલ્ટારીએલ. હું આશા રાખું છું કે તમે મને પછીથી માફ કરશો.” He lets go of her hand if she moves it away from him.
To Sapher he adds, ”she asked how I could do this to her, I hoped for her forgiveness in the future.”
Veltariel doesn’t push his hand away. Instead she entwines her fingers with his, a tear trailing down the side of her face as her scared emerald eyes lock with his own. ” મહેરબાની કરીને! તેને મારા પર જોડણી ન મૂકવા દો! તમે જાણો છો કે તેઓ વિશ્વાસ કરી શકતા નથી !!!”
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Mokhasi responds, ” હું જાણું છું કે તે શું કાસ્ટ કરી રહ્યું છે, તે એક ‘બ્રેક એન્ચેન્ટમેન્ટ’ અસર છે. જો તમારી પાસે કોઈ જાદુગરી નથી, તો તે તમારા પર અસર કરશે નહીં. હું તે ચકાસી રહ્યો છું કે તે દરેક વખતે કાસ્ટ કરવાનો પ્રયાસ કરે છે. જાદુ ખૂબ શક્તિશાળી હતો, તેણે કાલે પરત ફરવુ જ જોઇએ. હું બની શકું ત્યાં સુધી તમારી સાથે રહીશ. મહેરબાની કરીને આરામ કરો, તમને ગઈરાત્રે જપ્તી થઈ હતી, તમે તમારી જાતને લગભગ ખરાબ રીતે નુકસાન પહોંચાડ્યું હતું.”
” I know what he is casting, it is a ‘break enchantment’ effect. If you have no enchantments, it will have no effect on you. I’m verifying what he attempts to cast each time. The magic was too powerful, he must return tomorrow. I’ll stay with you as much as I can. Please rest, you were having a seizure last night, you nearly hurt yourself badly.”
”She said ‘Please! Don't let him put a spell on me! You know they cant be trusted!’ I told her I knew what the wizard was doing and that it wouldn’t harm her, and that I would stay with her as much as I could. I asked her to rest.” Mokhasi looks tired.
At Ez's state, the dwarf frowns heavily in anger, ready to charge the jail and yell until the walls crack, but Ez asks for a moment to talk, so Sapher sits back down. And listens.
When she is done, Sapher gives the other woman a nod of thanks. The truth making her own shoulders lighter than it has been in days.
Caroliss stays and argues her friend's case, unnecessarily. "The truth is enough for me, yes. Now that we have it we can work at fixing all we can... together."
She looks at Mokhasi with sadness, fear, and anxiety heavy in her eyes. ” મોઘાસી ... મહેરબાની કરીને ... જો તેની યુક્તિ હોય તો? કેટલીક માનવ યુક્તિ કે જેનો તમે ખોટો અર્થઘટન કરી છે?” she asks and pleads as she continues writhing against her restraints.
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Mokhasi pats her hand, ” માનવ એક શીલા હિડમાર્ચે આપણા માટે શોધી કા .્યો છે. આપણે તેના પર ઓછામાં ઓછો વિશ્વાસ કરવો જોઈએ, અથવા હું એક સરળ માણસ કરતાં જાદુઈ હોંશિયાર છું, ભલે તેને વધુ કાસ્ટિંગનો અનુભવ હોય.”
He translates again for Sapher, ”she said that she is concerned that the wizard is using human trickery.” He winces a bit, ”I told her that he came recommended by the Venture Captain, and that... ‘I was smarter at magic than a simple human.”
He whispers to Sapher, in Goblin, ” Nem hiszem, hogy az emberek egyszerűek vagy ostobak, és nem kellene erõsítenem a véleményét, de nem gondolkodom más módon, hogy megnyugtassam õt.”
So she does all she can by simply staying.
To Caroliss after the talk, "Make sure she is okay, please. We'll hold down the fort here. Why haven't you healed her?" she adds out of curiosity.
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Heading into the prison, before you get stopped you see the cell that Es was being held in. There are four men all badly bruised and beaten and one woman. You don't recognize any of them, but you commit their faces to memory as best you can before being asked to leave unless you want to spend a night in a cell.
Eventually you receive a letter from the mage. He notes that should you desire to work off your debt he has a task that you could do for him. He has been doing some research on a magical concoction that requires a few reagents that are a little unseemly to retrieve. He notes that while he could get them himself, he would prefer to leave the dirty work up to someone else. He needs a few things, which will likely take several hours to retrieve. First, he needs a hand full of live slugs, the particular species he needs can only be found in the sewers, specifically around some of the processing troughs the city uses to attempt to clean the bodily waste that passes through the sewer system. Second, he needs some mucus from a otyugh, he knows of a den of them that also reside in the sewer and has provided a map to their location. He recommends bringing along some waste in an effort to trade the otyughs rather than getting eaten by them. Finally, he needs the some bat guano. He has marked another location of a vaulted chamber in the sewers where this can be located.
Drask turns to the guard, staring at her hard for a moment, then exhaling sharply and shaking his head. "What a disgrace." He sneers and turns away as if she was something filthy he doesn't want to be near, leaving.
Veltariel continues to strain and writhe against the shackles, especially when the human mage returns. She spews some elven curses his way, and becomes quite concerned when he begins his spell.
But then, the spell takes hold. Her body visibly relaxes, and she looks around the room with a somewhat confused look. The sorcerer studies her briefly and confirms that she has been released from the enchantments effects! However, Veltariel remains quiet until he leaves. She then looks over to Mokhasi and asks quietly ”Can you let me go, now?”
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Mokhasi stares at the request silently, and then changes his clothes. He shows the letter to anyone who is interested in helping, and is at the lodge. ”I intend to go to the sewer to procure some items for our mage. If anyone would like to come, you may.” He will leave briefly and come back a relatively short time later, wearing rubbery boots. He will take a fair amount of food waste and compost in a bag, and memorize a floating disk spell to carry said waste. If anyone offers to join him, he will nod wordlessly.
Everyone notices he is wearing some type of wading boots made of flexible rubbery material, which he appears to have procured at the market. Should anyone inquire about where to find similar boots, he will nod wordlessly and take them to the small store that municipal workers frequent to buy their correct personal protective equipment, on the way to the sewer. However, he will not wait long for the purchases to be made, and will leave if there is significant ‘negotiation’, dithering, or concern about style, color, etc., his floating disk of garbage following behind him. The people of the city give him a wide berth, and he will descend into the upper levels of the sewer system that Otyughs are known or frequent, first.
He will pull out a sewer map he procured from a records office, and looks for the location of the most downstream part of the sewer system, the area which would collect the most total garbage and sewage in one place, heading there first (though there may be a number of sewage outfalls, he chooses the area with the smallest tributary to it, reasoning that a smaller otuygh would have this as their territory, and would be less threatening and more hungry for a donation).
The next day, Mokhasi has somewhat successfully, using magic and soap, managed to expunge the scent of sewers from himself, though the clothes he wore for the trip he considered a lost cause, and burned.
Mokhasi hesitates a moment, and looks at Sapher. He nods. Unless otherwise stopped, he removes all restraints from Veltariel. ”I hope you feel better, please forgive me for restraining you.”
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Esrisi bathes, gets dressed, eats a little bit but remands herself to her bedroom for the remainder of the day. She refuses any magical healing and subjects herself to the pain of the wounds she endured in prison, requesting she be left alone for remainder of the day, telling Caroliss she will let the group confront her with their decision the following day. She does not accompany team sewer and stays in the lodge locked her room all night. She writes several notes and packs all of her belongings up and sets her bag on the side of her bed. She pulls the covers over her head and disappears from the world.
Early the next morning she rises early and slips one note on top of Caroliss and shoves the others in her pocket. She slides a letter under the door of all of the other members of her group before heading downstairs Shelia's office. She slides the last note under her door before turning and heading out of the lodge.
"Going somewhere?" As Esrisi goes outside, Drask is sitting at the corner of the building, chair pushed against the wall. A mug and an empty plate are out here, and his whetting stone and weapons are spread out. Based on his clothes and the bags under his eyes, he didn't get much sleep last night. He looks completely unsurprised to see Esrisi trying to sneak out.
"Sounds like a goodbye. Didn't figure you were the kind to give up when the going gets tough." He runs one of the blades of his axe along the whetstone slowly, rasping the entire edge.
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Ouch.
"WHAT!? I'm not giving up! That's not fair. Low blow. I'm not leaving because it's tough Drask, I'm not afraid of difficult tasks. I'm leaving because I think I am sowing discord into the group more than helping. I've managed to piss off, assault and magically subjugate half of our group in just under a week. It's only a matter of time before I offend you and Caroliss."
Drask runs a thumb along the edge, seeming dissatisfied as he brings the stone back for another pass. "Yeah. That's called things getting tough. Hardest fights aren't against big monsters, they're against yourself." He switches to working the other edge of the blade, wanting to keep them even. "So, the question is are you going to run and hide from who you are, or are you going to work on it?"
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Esrisi crosses her arms on her chest, growing frustrated with Drask's casualness while she boils with frustration. She rips off her gloves and holds out her blackened, scaled hands and says "I'm not hiding! I'm protecting all of you from me! I can't control what's happening to me! It's only a matter of time before I kill one of you with it!"
Sapher looks at the requests in grim horror. Sighing she doesn't change, just gets ready and goes into the sewer. Slugs, waste, nearly getting eaten.
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"Yes" she says enthusiastically at letting Vels out. "How do you feel?"
Veltariel sits up, gingerly rubbing at her sore and red wrists. She stares at the floor, and mutters ”Embarrassed.”
She looks the two of you in the eyes and says sincerely ”I’m sorry, for the things I did and said. It was unbecoming of an elf, and you both deserved better treatment from me.”
She stands slowly, stretching from being chained to her bed for so long. She then sees the letter on the floor and, without opening it asks ”Where is she?” as she picks it up.
Sapher smiles in relief "No need, Veltariel. I've heard plenty worse... I don't know but I'll go find her. You both should talk."
Then she leaves quickly so Mok and Vels can talk.
Sapher the smelly goes to find Ez.
After a few moments alone with Mokhasi, some time after Esrisi had departed, Veltariel dashes from the Lodge and into the city, alone...