Sitril goes to the labs and uses his ax and hammer to build simple yet effective stretchers. Then he puts Tamerius's body on it.
"Ok, let us go back to Plaguestone. It is a shame that they lost their priest."
"Let's go, then."
Giggett will move stealthily a bit upfront to scout as her two companions are moving Tamerius around.
So, you make a stretcher, and leave the complex, heading off on a slow trek back to Plaguestone, trudging along slowly through the forest, bearing Tamerius' body.
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So, it is a slow procession, and you imagine that if you were trying to chase some envoy of Vilree's, you will not be gaining on it at all...
It is hours of moving along, and quite tiring--
After not long, Giggett stops the party.
"Guys, we won't make it. It's just way too slow to carry him with us at the same time we are trying to reach Plaguestone quite fast. So, either we stop caring about what could happen to Plaguestone or we let the body in our camp, for example, and come back later to deal with it."
”Let’s leave him for now. More we can do for the living than the dead,” says Natsume.
Sitril?
Do you agree with your two surviving companions?
You lay Tamerius to rest - in some protected place, I imagine - to rush off towards Plaguestone, and come recover the body later?
"Vilree said she already sent her minions to attack Plaguestone. I... Well, so much work, so many deaths, let's finish the job properly, or at least see what's happening there."
"Ok, let us go and see." speaks Sitril
After starting out slowed down by your respectful carrying of Tamerius, your fallen comrade, you carefully hide his body in order to speed up your trek back towards Plaguestone.
Off through the forests you go--
Off through the forests you go--
--miles pass, minutes turn to hours, as the unsuspecting town grows ever closer.
You stop now and then to have a drink and catch your breath, not wanting to be fatigued.
Many thoughts go through your minds.
Maybe you should have been more careful, tending to those horses, you'd be at the village already by now if you were mounted!
Also, what awaits in Plaguestone?
You never checked out the Dwarf in the glass cylinder surrounded by green mist. What was that all about?
Green mist as green as the rocks you saw in the cave, and never looked at either.
Could an answer have been in Vilree’s own alchemical lab, down below, the one with the three vats and the glassed-in Dwarf?
Would things be different if you had looked at what work she was doing, checked the papers, books, and ledger that were there?
Who knows?
Too late to think about that now.
Back to walking you go.
What kind of minion did Vilree send to Plaguestone?
Some tiny flying creature?
A gigantic beast?
Some alchemical concoction?
A summoned elemental?
What will you find?
There is a grim possibility that the town of Etran’s Folly is now a town filled with the dead and dying.
On and on you go, pacing yourselves so as not to be fatigued.
Finally you are on paths you recognize.
But no sign of any servant of Vilree's.
Then, Etran’s Folly comes into view at the crest of a hill.
You rush in, past the dead houses, moving towards the Inn.
No sign of Vilree’s messenger, but that only adds to a growing sense of dread.
Natsume breathes a bit of a sigh of relief. Not a full one, though, and somehow only allowing yourself half a sigh is less relieving than not having breathed it at all.
”Do you think she might have been bluffing?”
Into the town you move.
It is noon.
Smoke comes from chimneys.
The smell of food-- turnip based food, but warm home-cooked food nonetheless.
Children are heard laughing and playing before lunch is served.
You move towards the Feedmill, and are passing the Plaguestone, at the hear of the village-- when...
When you see it!
Nothing threatening, actually, just one of those small faceless grey alchemical drudges, that vomited corrosive liquids on you.
You have slain at least a half a dozen of them.
This is no threat to anything.
The drudge is coming from between the old houses, slowly moving on its short stubby legs.
It is 25 feet away from Sitril and seems headed for the Dwarf.
Natsume Ren still has a foxy step in her legs--
Natsume sees this was no bluff-- but no threat either.
Natsume, shield on one arm but flail still holstered, sees the drudge and grabs her flail. She readies to rush toward it if it tries moving away from her.
”This way, dummy!”
Sitril was walking with javelin in his hand, he was using it as a walking stick and looks at the drudge walking towards them.
"Is that it? The might warrior that we are supposed to fight?"
Natsume grabs her flail and gets ready to rush up to the Drudge--
--but the Drudge, either responding to someone calling it by its name, or simply because such was its intention from the beginning--
--keeps on moving towards Sitril, coming right up in front of the recently repaired Dwarf's nose, and then taking a step to the side, and ending up right in front of the old Plague stone.
From the skies you hear ominous music cascading from the clouds, as the next seconds seem to contain the fate of your world!
As if in answer to Sitril's taunting, the not-so-mighty-Drudge produces a ring, and holds it in its hand.
Sitril drops his javelin and reaches out for his axe and takes a swing. He will do what he does best
"Why don't you die already!"
Sitril grabs his axe--
--and slices a little part of the Drudge off.
The Drudge does glance at Sitril, as though answering I do not die already cuz you hit like Vilree's mom!
Natsume strides! Them foxy legs are made for walking, apparently. And pouncing! And wrestling! A lot of things, really. What were we doing again?
Natsume moves around to the other side of the Drudge.
Sitril--
Giggett sees that there is no space between the Drudge and the Plaguestone.
This great stone, covered in moss and ivy, that you know was used to exchange food and remedies for coin, saw the aid being placed on one side, and the coins dropped into a depression on the other side that was filled with vinegar to decontaminate them.
You see that the Drudge is not close to either the depression, nor the part where people recovered their medicine.
Giggett takes a second to look at the Drudge and try to understand what it's doing.
What Giggett and the others saw, was the Drudge moving towards Sitril, but then you realized it barely looked at the Dwarf, nor at any of you, only glancing when hit, or called at-- it was actually focused on the Plaguestone.
It stepped around Sitril stopped once adjacent to the stone.
Then it retrieved a ring it has in its hands.
And it is still looking at the stone right in front of it.
A fair guess would be that it is still intending to do something regarding this Plaguestone that it was moving towards... maybe having also to do with the ring it pulled out only once it was adjacent to the stone?
Giggett climbs on the stone and tries to catch the ring in the drudge's hand.
But, unfortunately, she doesn't manage to do anything but to lose balance.
Onto the stone Giggett goes--
--and an old villager passing by the square looks up at Giggett and frowns: "Hey, what do you think you are doing?!"
Mumbling: "Foreigners, no respect at all..."
Giggett tries to kick the ring out of the Drudge's pudgy hand, but does not manage to do so--
--and even slips on some of the moss, having to spend a second to retain her balance and not fall over, losing time and ending up not that well situated.
The intensity of the music rises, and the focus is now on Sitril.
Will the dice Gods go against his last move, as they just abandoned Giggett?
Sitril takes another swing, ignoring that he might be overreacting. 'Hitting like Vilree's mom', Sitril plan to show this pumpkin how to hit
And he does it.
Sitril takes another swing--
--he feels that he might not be overreacting.
The Dwarf hits the pumpkin-- but is one little thing away from making it explode!
The lone person crossing the square does not cheer, but looks away and hurries to the smell of turnip porridge coming from the inn.
Natsume-- will she see fame, glory, and endless foxy interviews?
nooooo!!! you can’t use all three actions to attack, your multiple attack penalty is too high!!!!
haha flail go fwipfwipfwip BONK
Thanks to Sitril's making the Drudge flat footed, there is one bonk on the creature's head--
--but the second attack-- misses
Natsume feels her Deity speaking to her-- it will take more than a Glimpse of Redemption for what might be coming.
Suspense music at its peak--