“Fair’s fair,” Aithaloessa chimes in, resuming her cheerfully aggressive attitude for the benefit of the merchants and barkeep. “Kardswann offered 500 gold for each of our heads, so…”
She considers the corpses still scattered around the central stage. “If anything, I think he’s managing to shortchange us.”
“Will you be joining us, then?” she asks the fighter, as the gold is counted out. “I mean, you’re certainly free to stay here, if you like, while we check in with our patrons, but I’m reasonably sure that harpy can keep order overnight.”
And if these creatures decide to take their chances elsewhere, that’s probably no great loss, either, she doesn’t say.
"You're always welcome in our company," Yasmeena adds shyly. "Please, Haleen? I don't know what I'd do if you went away. You saved our lives, again."
"I won't go away, I'm for sure staying here in the battle market. My rent is payed for the whole month. And I want to see what comes my way, now that the Kelmarane comes under human (or elven?) rulership again."
"But you don't need me to report back to your superiors. I'll stay here and make sure the interior doesn't grow legs and flees town."
"You said you've got a month paid?" Tariq asks. "That means there are chambers here we could stay for the night, right?"
"As you evicted almost all formaer inhabitants of the place not only from their rooms, but their lives, theere is plenty of room. I just rented one of the 'guest rooms', the place where we met."
"It is small and has little comfort, but on the plus side it has a very sturdy door."
"I won't go away, I'm for sure staying here in the battle market. My rent is payed for the whole month. And I want to see what comes my way, now that the Kelmarane comes under human (or elven?) rulership again."
"But you don't need me to report back to your superiors. I'll stay here and make sure the interior doesn't grow legs and flees town."
“We’re just the muscle behind the outfit,” Aithaloessa says modestly. The statement, improbable enough on the face of it, is outright risible with the greataxe set against her frame. Magically and mentally speaking, of course. Or the brains. “Almah and her retinue will turn up sooner rather than later.”
"As you evicted almost all formaer inhabitants of the place not only from their rooms, but their lives, theere is plenty of room."
“I have no objection,” she shrugs as the others’ discussion suggests the prospect of the wounded party trudging across the desert again is unwelcome. “I’ll just go run over and inform our feathered friend of developments, in any case.”
Which will also provide a bit of continuity. Hmm. If Almah is the new Mayor Princess of Kelmarane, I suppose that makes Undrella the head of the town council? As she wanders off, her thoughts fall into the weird speculations characteristic of scatty wizard boffins.
There is almost enchanting singing heard from the former tannery as Aithaloessa comes closer. The hot midday sun burning, erasing almost all shadows. The door to the building stands open offering a view on the bustling activity inside. Undrella is working her many cauldrons, stirring here and there, adding ingredients and adding dried dung to the fires beneath.
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Antarah accompanies Aithaloessa, if not for safety, but to get away from the boredom. Something about the battle market is making him uncomfortable and he can't put his finger on what. Maybe it is the memory of Kardswann's axe on his flank, or maybe the disturbing findings they found upstairs. Whatever it is, he feels better outside, where they have spent the last few days slowly hitting wearing Kelmanare's defenses. Now it is theirs. Until the next group of people comes to claim them.
Aithaloessa pauses for a second to appreciate the song – after all, she also sees its value to provide another bit of focus while working – before knocking on the door frame and getting to the point unusually directly. It’s probably not the expected point, right away, but still.
“Hello! So what’s that in your infusium upstairs? Don’t worry, we checked, and your lab seems to have been left in peace. I’m just curious, one alchemist to another.”
She's also curious about what's in the cauldrons, but that's not imminently ready to be injected into anyone, at least. Anyway, it’s only then that she brings the axe pointedly off her shoulder, in case the implications of her poking about all of the battle market aren’t clear enough.
“Kardswann won’t be bothering you anymore,” she says quietly. “It was a collective effort, and Antarah here was a vital part of that, but Haleen – if you remember her – was the one that finished it.”
She only means to give credit where it’s due , but Aithaloessa remembers her fellow mage’s discomfort with the harpy just in time to avoid saying but her hair’s probably longer than you would like out loud.
"Oh, you're back and in one piece! Congratulations."
"Did the others make it too, or are you the rest of your party?" Undrella inquires, more out of curiosity.
"In the infusium are a few of my potions stored."
“Fascinating! Anything particularly exciting already? Is it designed to be able to administer them all at once? Or is there a particular effect that emerges from the specific sequence? Or…” She recalls that many alchemists rely exclusively on the natural magic of the media of potions and powders rather than raw energies like true mages do, and so extracts and elixirs are to be expected.
She also realizes that she’s off on a hobbyhorse and missed the first question entirely, and backtracks. “Oh, and yes, we’re all lovely, thanks. It was a glorious battle! You should ask Yasmeena about it! She would do a much better job of dramatizing it than I could.”
Focus. “But, um, in the main, you should feel free to reclaim your old shop or relocate your stock there to here, as you wish. Our patrons should be arriving tomorrow, and we can start the process of rebuilding Kelmarane in earnest from there.”
"Apply all at once, that would be a great thing. But it doesn't allow for that. You need someone to operate every infusion. And it's not for the faint of heart."
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Antarah doesn't really like the conversation of the women, but he keeps to himself. He relaxes a bit, less paranoid about the harpy's intentions.
Later, back at the battle market, Antarah rents himself a room to sleep the pain from Kardswann's swing away. Despite being very tired, he takes a while to sleep. It has been a long time since he's dreamt of Kelmanare, but now he is in it and he couldn't even think of his mother once. He forces himself to remember her and can only remember a smell. Focusing on that smell, he falls asleep.
“Mm. Side effects, I’m sure,” Aithaloessa nods sagely. “Like troll essence. Works wonders for healing, but kicks like a mule and burns all the way down.”
There’s a bit of an awkward beat, and then she takes her leave. “Don’t be a stranger.”
She eyes the position of the sun in the sky. “Close enough to over the yardarm.” Whatever that means. “Antarah, you and I still have the better part of that bottle to kill, to the extent consistent with a) our duties, and b) doing sensible magic.”
“You’re welcome to join us, of course, Undrella, though it’s likely to be shop-talk,” she offers politely.
Left to her own devices, she’ll spend the rest of her split between making sure bandages are changed regularly, borrowing Antarah’s notes to see if she could make any of his signature spells work for her, and tidying up the northernmost shop on the second floor for a combination of temporary office, lab, and living quarters. If she can, she will make sure there are no obnoxious peas under the mattress of the fancy bed upstairs just tonight, but after a few weird looks, it does sink in that Almah will likely claim the nicest rooms once she arrives.
Antarah approaches Kurellak and puts a coin of the counter with the request to rent a room. Kurrelak stares blankly at Antarah. Haleen steps in and points out, that the 'apartment' next to hers has become free - nodding towards the dead ogre - and that Antarah could have that. Nodding in agreement Kurrelak pockets the coin.
Haleen takes over part of the guard duty. She walks a round and locks all doors, so no one comes in during the night.
The night is silent. Only the snore of Kurrelak, who is sleeping behind the bar echoes through the dome. After a - for most - restful night, the light of the rising sun shines into the battel market through the opeing at the top of the dome.
Tariq decides Antarah did it right, and he gives another coin to the innkeeper. "With all the clients turned to mugwampi food, I'm sure there'll be another room free, right?"
Once in his chamber, he prays and meditates, but not much -sleep catches him soon enough.
Haleen greets everyone in the morning making sure they are awake before sunrise. "You said the rest of the group who wants to take over Kelmarane is probably coming today? How about cleaning up a bit? At least the bodies of yesterdays battle should be gone by then." she suggests.
With a dozen helping hands the corpses are quickly brought outside. The question, what to do with them is quickly answered by two vultures circling overhead. Until the last dead gnoll is added to the pile there are dozens of the birds sitting on neighboring buildings or circling above. And it shows, that hyenas, the gnolls favorite pets, are not loyal beyond death.
The battle market is too large to make it shine with six people in a couple of hours. But the worst of the bloodshed can be removed and the important chambers upstairs can be made broom clean. Silken sheets have to be added by whomever moves in.
As everyone meets at the bar for a break and some liquid breakfast Garavel and two guards enter through the northern entrance that was left open to air the place.
"Hello?" he calls into the mostly empty dome. He and the guards have their weapons ready, just in case.
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Feeling still a little after an uncomfortable night sleep, Antarah's mood improved as Garavel arrives. He receives his boss with his arms open in a welcoming motion. "Welcome Garavel, to Kelmanare. As promised, we present it to you uncontested." Conveying the news makes Antarah more confident in his abilities to fight. The spells he has been working on make sense to him now, and he feels ready to prepare them.
Antarah waits a bit for Garavel to look at the market but, before he can say anything, he says "It is not worthy of a princess. Yet. But you will find that there are people who will work for coin here." He waits to see Garavel's reaction.
Yasmeena joins Antarah in welcoming Garavel. Something about her posture and stride makes her seem much more refined and well-bred than the last time they spoke, and perhaps she seems more knowledgeable as well. She bows. "It was a terrible battle: we fought and killed an ogre and all manner of rough bestial humanoids, and finally defeated their leader, a vicious man with the fabled blood of the jinn and a great axe he wielded with incredible strength and skill. I must tell you, Dashki's aid was timely, and a woman named Haleen (who was previously known to some of us) joined our company to fight and distinguished herself with high honor."
After a night’s rest, some new ideas for spells humming in her head, and – most visibly – her boots and armour newly polished, Aithaloessa is back to her usual self, and manages to turn breakfast into a spectacle of military efficiency, with a hint of chaotic cheerfulness underneath.
She rises briskly to attention when Garavel appears, and waits her turn to report. “Indeed, Haleen’s intervention was decisive, and probably saved us from at least a couple of losses.”
Her tone is coolly official for someone talking about the lives of herself and her colleagues. “All things considered, the brigands seem not to have established themselves entirely firmly: much of the space in the battle market remained unused, and there was significant tension within their leadership. The genie in charge claimed to be the ‘Mouth’ of someone calling himself the Carrion King.”
“For now, some of us still have wounds that need a bit more tending, but we have some spells for that, depending on our tasks for the day. There is still a sealed level in the town’s temple, but otherwise, we can start thinking about how we might wish to start rebuilding.”
"That sealed crypt of the temple is indeed something that needs to be resolved, even before we start wtih rebuilding. But Princess Almah will address this topic. As for the healing, Father Zastoran can take care of that."
"In time you should introduce me to this Haleen." Garavel tells.
But something else catches his attention. "You mentioned tension with the leadership. Does that refer to that gnoll behind the bar? Or is that one of the people working for coin here?" It's hard to tell what Garavel's sentiment towards that creature is - as always when it comes to reading his expressions.
"The bar guy?" Tariq asks, smiling. "I don't think his loyalties go beyond the shiniest metal.
He gladly introduces Haleen to Garavel. [b]"She's been like an elder sister to me."
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After the welcome, Antarah stays clear of Garavel's way. He makes no attempt to make him more comfortable and lets Tariq answer his questioning. He is wondering how princess Almah will react to the place. He does remember someone mentioning that she has the key to the basement in Sarenrae's temple. Is that her goal in Kelmanare?, he wonders. Or was it Kardswann? He is afraid that her true intentions are yet to show themselves and Antarah is afraid to have been a lowly pawn to her. His father told him that pawns are more pathetic than the poorest beggar, being manipulated and not being his own man. His discomfort was partially showing.
"Pleased to meet you. What a lucky coincidence your friends met you here." Garavel greets Haleen.
"The pleasure is all mine." Haleen replies. "I don't think it was a coincidence. More like them looking for me. But lucky they got. It was on the edge of becoming a disaster."
"And don't mind Kurrelak. He is just a shy puppy. If you stare at him too long you might scare him."
"History is written by the victors. Lets use that privilege wisely and not encourage others to try their luck against us." Garavel suggests.
Looking around he inquires "Who else is left in the Battle Market, that does not originally belong to our enterprise, and what are their alliances?" Garavel inquires, being all business.
"Mostly, the ones you can see here" Tariq explains, extending his arm to show all around the place. "And Undrella, yeah..."
"You mentioned tension with the leadership. Does that refer to that gnoll behind the bar? Or is that one of the people working for coin here?" It's hard to tell what Garavel's sentiment towards that creature is - as always when it comes to reading his expressions.
“I mostly meant Undrella,” Aithaloessa nods in agreement with Tariq, “though I suppose that was really more a complete breakdown of relations, since she got us in. But…”
“Unless I missed them somewhere, we didn’t find any plans for what they were doing with this place. Whoever this Carrion King is, he doesn’t seem talkative enough to have used his Mouth much. And the remaining locals seem … unenterprising? Granted, they are merchants – alchemist, druggist, tinker – but it was a close fight, and there were a few moments that they could likely have decided matters one way or another, with a fair bit of gold on offer for our heads. Oh, and the barkeep, of course. But they seem mostly harmless.”
As she gets to Kurrelak, she joins a sidelong glance with a discreet shake of her head, indicating that she wouldn’t recommend turning her back on him in particular, as she remembers how he lobbed the bottle she asked for.
Garavel has his usual pokerface as he listens to Tariq and Aithaloessa. "But this Harpy has no business in the Battle Market. What building was it she is living in?"
“She’s recently relocated to the old tannery, that’s true,” Aithaloessa gestures rather vaguely in the right direction beyond the walls of the battle market, “but her old laboratory is still set up on the second floor, so she might move back, I imagine. Especially since in happier times she used to be one of the three movers and shakers here, I gather.”
"No. If that harpy has things that belong to her in the battle market, you better hurry to move that out. It's one thing to tolerate her on the fringe of town. But she for sure won't be seen here." Garavel clarifies that pooint.
“Right away, sir,” Aithaloessa says, remembering herself. I’ll just put it all in a box then, shall I? Make that several boxes.
“Otherwise, we’re ready to meet Almah at her convenience for the details of our next task, unless I’m forgetting something.” She looks to the other adventurers just in case.
"Please give me a quick tour of the place, before we move in."
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Antarah feels he would handle the harpy situation very similarly to Garavel. He moves on with the others and their employer around the whole battle market, showing the ground floor first, then moving up. When they get to the top floor, he watches the battle market from above, feeling powerful and silly at the same time.
"It still stinks of gnoll, but once set up properly this will be a nice place for Princess Almah to stay." Garavel concludes as the tour reaches the upper floor. "Also a perfect place for her guards to shield from intruders."
"I must say, you did a good job. You're all in one piece and the battle market is too. I suggest you use the time to celebrate your victory, while we're all settling in here. I'll instruct Hadrah to provide with a few bottles of the good wine."
Garavel moves back out to get everything going and tells Hadrah as told.
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Antarah spends his time walking around the outside of Kelmanare, thinking what happened to his mother. His father told him that his mother died in this town in a silly way. Once the story was that she died from a disease. Another time, it was a robbery. Antarah knew there was something to it.
He started poking around the ruins and eventually decided to talk to Undrella about it, hoping she would have information about it. He approaches her and asks "Say, harpy. Do you know what happened to Kelmanare to leave it in ruins?"
"Sorry cutie, I don't know. It was in ruins when I moved in a few years ago. Why do you care?" Undrella replies.
Once Garavel lets them some time for themselves, Tariq does the usual chores he did at the temple. Training, praying, and of course, tending the wounded and preparing the lunch. The last two are specific to his abilities, and everyone at the House of the Dawnflower had a pair of tasks she specialised on.
During this time, he has the monastery in mind, and thinks on how to restore it. Big plans gain shape in his mind, though they'll have to wait till he's a bit more able money and power wise.
Yasmeena devotes her free time in the coming days to reconnecting with Haleen, trying to rekindle their near-sisterly affection they once had when they were living as escaped slaves as children. Perhaps a point of common ground between them is the worship of Sarenrae, as Yasmeena is convinced that the goddess had a hand in reuniting them. Yasmeena is proud to show Haleen some of the fighting skills she has learned since they grew apart, and to spar together playfully in the battle market to recreate the steps of the now-famous fight for control of the city, immortalized into a popular song and dance called "Finding Haleen" that Yasmeena created to commemorate the event.
"I gueass it has to do with that sealed off crypt. You've seen what happened to the temple?" Undrella inquires.
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Antarah scratches his chin as Undrella asks him about the temple. "Yes, we've been there. There was a restless soul in the back too, but we've set it free. At least I like to think we did." He makes an effort to remember the temple and says "There was a culling in the temple. You wouldn't know if Kardswann had anything to do with it, would you?"
"The temple looked like that long before and gnolls and Kardswann came here." Undrella explains. "With all the dead in the temple, the magical seal in the basement, and Kardswann's change in personality after visiting this basement I'd guess whatever is locked down there was the reason for Kelmarane's demise."
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Antarah says "That is... scary. I will meditate on this, thank you." Before the harpy can continue the conversation, Antarah returns to the temple and looks at the basement door from afar. He inspects the magical aura, afraid to do anything else and that he might get attacked as well.
What sort of entity could be trapped in there? It was powerful enough to corrupt Kardswann yet not powerful enough to avoid being trapped. This happened a long time ago, probably when the genies dominated the region. Could it be this entity that fatally crippled the genie that was left behind, according to the paintings in the monastery? Antarah thinks there must be somewhere that might tell him what happened to Kelmanare... and his mother. He thinks If my father survived and left, someone else might have. There could be a record of this somewhere.
He sets out to search the buildings nearby, patiently looking for a picture or text that might explain what happened.
Aithaloessa spends the rest of her morning as directed by Garavel, carefully packing up Undrella’s things in what boxes and bags she can salvage from the mess of the upper levels that need to be cleaned up anyway. That it gives the nosy guardswoman an opportunity to catalogue what materials the harpy’s accumulated just sweetens the pot, though, then again, she’s not sure she wants to know how some of the extracts were gathered or what some of them even are, and that’s saying something for an alchemist.
Eventually, Aith conscripts voluntells politely enlists the aid of any so willing among the other adventurers to help her return Undrella’s materials and equipment, no doubt alarming Tariq as to his efforts at healing as she zips back and forth with verve but also strenuous exertion. She shrugs such concerns off as gently as she can, returning the favour by checking the cleric’s own bandages where he’ll have a harder time reaching himself.
“Sorry about this,” she offers as she delivers the last of the boxes to Undrella. “Orders from the powers that be, which seems rather unfair, considering – but we can work on getting them to come around in due time.”
Privately, she wishes, on that note, that she knew a tactful way to bring up the question of what exactly the attraction in eating people is for harpies, anyway. It would all be easier without that sticking point, and aside from her own prejudices in the matter, there’s compromise, and then there’s the basics of civilized society. Then again, Katapesh, she reminds herself, uncharitably.
For now, she contents herself with friendly professional interest. “It occurs to me, Undrella, that you must know what sorts of things there are to catch an alchemist’s eye around here. Don’t worry! I wouldn’t dream of trying to trick your best sources from you! I’m more of a botanical sort of girl, anyway, so if there’s an off chance that you’ve spotted something interesting growing that’s less useful for your work… And of course I’ll keep an eye out on your behalf.”