Hana took in a steadying breath as she backs away from Gutwad's corpse, allowing the others to go through the dead chief's former belongings. Something within her had almost been unleashed. Something that the others could not be allowed to see. Not yet anyway...
As if you get her mind off of that, she nods along with Teruko's search plan. "Right. Better that we do that all together in case this place isn't entirely abandoned," she says quietly before darkly adding, "We can also nick the ears of any goblin corpses we see. Grisly work, I know, but Daviren is paying for them and we'll need proof that the Licktoads are finished if we want the caravans to feel safe when they travel near the marsh."
The kunoichi promptly starts to remove both of the felled chief's ears with her blade, doing dispassionately despite the gruesome nature of the task. When she's done, she wraps the pair in a cloth coated in a lavender musk that will hopefully hide the fool smell.
"And his head. Don't forget that."
Yuto nods slowly to Hana, but he is relieved she does the job herself. He looks astonished at her ways.
"We-well Teruko Sama is right. Let's explore this southwestern area while we go to find Arika" Yuto takes the spear, the potion and the magical arrows from the goblin chief, then starts walking through the goblin houses, lighting the place with the katana's light.
Once the southwestern huts are checked, he moves north to make sure Arika is safe.
The group finds no signs of any other goblins in the village, though between the rain and the wind and goblins' great skill at stealth, they're only mostly certain that there aren't any left. When they arrive in the northwestern building, Arika stands up from where she had been sitting on the floor.
Her eyes widen as she takes in the various injuries that Yuto and Cyrus have. "A-are you alright?! What happened?"
Cyrus waves a weary hand, stumbling over to a wall and leaning against it. "We met Gutwad. He was a bit more of a challenge than I, at least, anticipated."
Torra watches the rain, trying to figure out how much longer it would last. Now that the adrenaline of the fight has worn off, being soaked to the bone had left her feeling miserable. How was it possible that only yesterday they were being baked by the heat, and now she was shivering!
"This storm won't last much longer, an hour or so. Rest here until it passes?" She would be glad to be back in Sandpoint. It occurs to her that they accomplished pretty much everything they had set out to do, but Torra doesn't feel very victorious and her mind keeps bringing up the image of that sad mound on the beach and of the woman in the locket.
"Th-the... the goblins had fireworks, they throw to us... it was hard" Yuto comments to Arika while he checks to make sure she is ok.
Scared of what might have attacked the goblin village after they found the skeleton, the young man asks "What now? We found Arika and Cyrus and... and we have dealt with the goblins... it is time to go back to Sandpoint... isn't it?" the thought brings a hopeful smile to his face.
Teruko looks away as Hana harvests the ears (and head). It's necessary work of course, but far more gory than she's comfortable with. "Maybe we can find a sack to carry those in somewhere?" Her gorge rises at the thought of someone, anyone, shoving those foul things into a bag with all of their other supplies. "Or make one?" Her voice is a little fainter by that point.
Think of something else, think of something else...
She joins the others in looking around for goblins as they make their way back to Arika. Fortunately they don't find any and this particular part of their journey is uneventful. "We're...well I won't say we're fine, but we're alive. All of us." She can't help but smile as she says it. There were several times during that fight she didn't think all of them would make it, but here they all are.
"I think waiting out the storm is a good idea, but we should probably take this time go back to where we found Gutwad. That tall goblin might have been their shaman, so maybe she had some more potions on her. And we can harvest their ears too I guess." The last part is mumbled as her face turns a light shade of green.
Hana stoically nods at Seishin's words as she returns to the goblin's corpse. It takes her a while to decapitate the corpse using only her wakizashi as a saw but inevitability the goblin's sinews and cartilage come apart under her tender mercies.
As Hana careful stores the bulbous head into a pocket of her backpack that's been liberally sprayed with perfume from her courtier's kit, she wonders if making some kind of jest about the head would help alleviate some of the horror of the scene to the others. In the end, she decides against it. After all, no moment of good humor was going to hide the stench.
However, when they make it back to Arika, she does put on a smile and attempts to reassure the youth somewhat. "Took a few bad hits, but we managed to keep each other alive. Gutwad's dead by the way. Doubt the Licktoads will be much trouble for a while if even ever again."
The group go to investigate the "palace" that Gutwad and his cronies had holed up in. The entryway/throne room is badly singed by the rocket that nearly killed them earlier, as well as covered in mounted (and more than a little rotten) horse and dog heads, as well as a few broken weapons, what might be a brine-preserved squirrel, and other such delightful trophies.
Three of the four goblin corpses are less than interesting - the group finds the broken dogslicer from before, a pair of intact and rusty blades, a spent fireworks tube, and a burnt out torch - as well as three wooden shields and patchwork leather armor, all sized for goblins.
The oversized goblin has her own sweat-stained leather and shield, but of more note is the rusty wakizashi on her hip - sized for humans, and remarkably similar to the one that the skeleton had been wielding the next room over.
Arika sighs in relief. "Gutwad's dead? Well, that means they won't be any real problem in the future... especially to Sandpoint."
Cyrus chuckles dryly, before frowning. "What about the skeleton?"
"Skeleton?" Arika blinks, looking alarmed.
Yuto picks the wakizashi thoughtful "This is no goblin weapon... this is Minkai manufacturing... we-well wha-what appears at my father's books after all"
The young man grimaces in pain "We-well the skeleton is dead now. The goblins are dead. And Arika and Cyrus are good. It-it is perhaps the right moment to come back to Sandpoint..."
"You-your mother and sister will be so happy to see you in good health Arika"
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"I think we should head back to town, yeah," Hana concurs with Yuto. After all this fighting she was exhausted and returning home to her mother and seeing Ameiko again felt like paradise. Even so, some part of her was still troubled by what their encounter with the undead meant.
"Where do you think the skeleton got the wakizashi? My best is on the Kaijitsu Star. That place... it has dark ki. The undead tend to animate in places of tragedy and misery, right? I wouldn't surprised that it and the weapon came from there."
"Yes, returning to Sandpoint would be the prudent decision. We've a bounty to turn in... and a wayward daughter to bring home."
Teruko stares at the wakizashi for a long moment. "The one time I remember my father mentioning the Kaijitsu Star he said...he said it was gone. Something had happened to it, and he did not believe anyone had survived." She swallows hard. "He was not entirely himself at the time, and he couldn't, or wouldn't, say more. But I believe you are right, Hana. The skeleton we fought may well have come from that ship."
"Still, why here? Why now? That ship must have wrecked years ago. It makes no sense." She rubs her temples to ward off a growing headache, not trying to hide the gesture from the rest of the party. "Maybe Ameiko will know something more. Hopefully we can avoid any more fights on our way back."
"Ye-yes... maybe Ameiko Sama will know... or mother Koya, she has been here around long... or maybe... maybe Brodert Quink, he knows a lot about history" Yuto swallows where the group talks about skeletons "Le-let's come back to Sandpoint. We need to rest and they will know better what to do about our findings"
The party investigates the next room over - it is Gutwad's nest, filled with heaps of blankets (made of moss, cloth, and other, less savory things) and has a similar decor to the throne room. Like the oversized goblin, the broken skeleton has a rusted and jagged-tipped wakizashi, as well as the rusted remnants of a chain shirt.
That is nothing compared to what is located in the final room, however. A single red chest sits in the corner, encrusted with goblin filth, but still beautiful nonetheless. It is etched with images of cranes and frogs playing along a beach.
Opening it reveals that the velvet interior is covered in various sorts of filth, but there are valuables lying inside. Six finely crafted shuriken sit in a pile in the corner, while a gorgeous hairpin with a red pearl lies next to them. There is a pile of assorted gold and silver coinage , and a fan depicting a gecko amidst sakura blossoms.
Oddly, there is something scrawled on the back of the fan - a map of some sort.
Arika stops, staring palefaced at the skeleton. "The goblins four years ago used skeletons, though... you think this isn't the Licktoads' doing?"
"Oh... y-yeah, they used a cloak or some other magic thing like that... ma-maybe these did the same with some similar cloak they found?" Yuto contemplates the goblins treasure "Th-this is definitely Minkaian. We-we should bring it with us. Safe it from decay. Use it to repay for all the problems they have caused"
"Mmmm... lo-look, this is some kind of map, here in the back of the fan... I-I... I do not recognize where this might be pointing to" the young man spins the fan to one orientation and the other without success.
Teruko freezes at the sight of the skeleton, face going bone-white. For a long moment she just stands there, blinking at nothing. "I will, I will, just-" She cuts herself off.
Moving into the smaller room as if nothing had happened, her eyes refocus as she looks at the chest. "Seishin was saying he didn't think the skeletons were raised by the Licktoads; it's apparently a more powerful spell than any of the ones we saw could have cast. I'm not sure how they got here." She kneels down, carefully brushing some of the muck off the chest with her hand. "This must have come from the ship."
She studies the treasures within with a practiced eye. "We should definitely bring the chest with us if we can. Both it and its contents are extremely valuable. Although...Yuto you say there's a map?" She takes the fan from him and flips it over, mentally comparing the drawing with the map Walthus had made for them the day before. "It's the marsh. See here? That's the Kaijitsu Star." Her brow furrows. "But it looks like there's another shipwreck and a cave marked as well. Who drew this? The goblins?"
"I'd...if the second shipwreck and cave are also related to my family I'd like to explore them. We should probably figure out what created these skeletons too, before it becomes a threat." She takes a deep breath, almost looking like she's steeling herself against a blow. "But not today. Arika, we need to get you back to Sandpoint. Aneka's worried sick. Ameiko - our families are probably worried as well." She bites her lip. "We could maybe...come back to the marsh tomorrow? If you all are willing." Her voice is uncharacteristically hesitant as she asks.
"I remember those skeletons, I had nightmares for weeks after that! I hadn't seen them, of course, but I heard the stories. I'm not so scared of them now, they fold pretty easily if you hit them."
Torra glances at the contents of the chest from behind Yuto. "I don't think they're that valuable, I'm almost certain that the 'gem' in that hairpin is coloured glass. They're pretty, though."
The reveal of the map definitely piques her curiosity. "Whoa, a secret wreck? We should go explore it! And we still don't know where the goblins got the fireworks from, so we can't go back yet." She looks around in the room, knocking on the flimsy walls. "Is this all the goblins had? If they got the fireworks from a caravan there have to be other things as well. But if they didn't, where did the fireworks come from? And, indeed, why was the skeleton here?"
"Is it necessary? If the place has been there for years, it will remain there for years... the skull in my dreams was in a dark place, it could be the cave, so-so maybe Madame Mvashti spirit is trying to warn me against these skeletons..." seeing the resolve in woman's eyes, Yuto swallows stepping towards her "Yo-you cannot go alone Teruko Sama. I-it is too dangerous. I promised Koya, Sandu and Ameiko I will protect you. And I will" adding in a lower voice "Although with the many times I went down and you had to heal me it feels more you are caring of me rather than me protecting you"
"What if..." Cyrus shakes his head. "No, I don't know. Maybe the goblins somehow upset the local undead?"
"But... we don't have local undead." Arika points out, before looking at the skeleton. "Well, we didn't."
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Hana holds her tongue as the others talk through what they should do next, but eventually perks up when Yuto mentions his promise to Ameiko. She turns to Teruko. "I made the same promise too," she says thoughtfully, noting the strange hesitancy in Teruko's voice. Assuming the other women's afraid that their all going to abandon her now that initial mission is finished, she tries her best to sound supportive.
"I'm game to come back and excavate this other ship if it means helping Ameiko and your family, especially if its leads to us figuring out if Sandpoint has an undead problem brewing in the marsh, but I think heading back now sooner than later would be best."
She looks towards Yuto and a still shaky looking Cyrus. "Some of us are still hurting from the fight with Gutwad and were all out of healing, right? Going back to Sandpoint means getting more information from Ameiko but also maybe some healing from Father Zantus. Plus, with all the gold we found here we can buy some potions so you and Seishin don't have to waste all your magic are making sure us brawlers don't keel over," she says earnestly before wryly adding,"Also, Gutwad's head isn't exactly going to stay preserved in all the humility. Same with the ears. Can't wait to hand them them off to Hosk."
"Ssss... so, we are heading back to Sandpoint?" Yuto's hopeful eyes become more doubtful as Teruko starts to look at the map with determination "W-well, if you go, I will go with you to that ship and cave. But let's at the least have a sleep"
"If we sleep here, we might be able to discover if the skeletons were the ones attacking the goblins, or if it is other kind of beast who causes the trouble"
With things having finally reached a state of calm, Hana remembers one or other duty currently still left unfinished. She dugs through her pack for Korras's locket, hoping that the gods would be kind enough to see to it that the smell of dead goblin wouldn't linger on the tragic keepsake. When he finally finds it she looks towards Cyrus with serious eyes.
"Here Cyrus. I should have given this to you earlier, but with, well, everything going on I suppose I forgot to do so," she admits solemnly, as she hands the locket over for the Taldan to take. "It's the locket we found on Koras. I figured you should have it now. If you want it that is."
Cyrus' lips quirk sadly and he takes the locket from Hana with a sigh. "I'll hold onto it for now. I don't think her parents would care to take it back, and, well, it wouldn't matter much to his. So... I'll keep it. Thanks, Hana."
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Teruko opens her mouth and...
And...
"Going back to Sandpoint now would be an unnecessary waste of time. We can rest here if we must, it's surely safe enough if they were able to survive out here on their own." She waves a dismissive hand towards Cyrus and Arika. The former hesitancy is gone, and now she's acting like a noble that expects unquestioning obedience. "First thing tomorrow we set out for the Blossom."
Teruko blinks for a moment, then her face shifts into an expressionless mask as she waits for reactions to this change in opinion.
Right after Teruko finished speaking, she seemed almost afraid for some reason. It was a complete shift from the imperious tone she had just seconds before.
"Su-sure Teruko Sama" Yuto obediently works to secure the area and make it the most habitable possible for the group to have a rest.
The man will take watch until his eyes start to close without solution.
If nothing happens during the night, Yuto wakes up early in the morning and makes a small fire to prepare roasted bacon for the group breakfast.
"Ms. Kaijitsu..." Seishin finally speaks up after quietly listening to the proceedings.
"...if you're so set on this course of action, why are you so afraid?"
Torra shrugs at Teruko's direction. "Alright, fine by me. I'll go clean up one of the rooms for us to rest in."
Seeing that Yuto had the same idea, she works alongside him to prepare at least a more sanitary resting place, if not a comfortable one. During the night, she takes the middle watch, when it's darkest.
The cleanest of the buildings is the one where Cyrus and Arika had spent the last couple days. Despite the fact that the roof is leaky and the walls unpleasantly thin, it is nonetheless cleaner than the rest (most of the goblin nests have been shoved into a distant corner), and there're no grisly trophies or goblin corpses there.
Cyrus and Arika look at one another before looking at Teruko. "Er, if it's alright with you all, I think I'd like to stay here with Arika... or maybe someplace a bit less exposed, if you know anywhere like that. I don't think trekking through the marsh is exactly suited to either of us."
Hana was on the verge of saying a few more hopefully comforting words to Cyrus when Teruko's arrogant new tone grabs her attention. For a moment, Hana is honestly surprised by the shift given just how anxious Teruko was only a moment ago, but that shock and confusion quickly turns to something approaching ire as she remembers how the other Minkaian could be.
She had heard and seen Teruko take this elitist attitude before with Ameiko sometimes, with conversations suddenly going from friendly to to awkward to outright hostile and demeaning for seemingly no reason. Her memory of the strange abrasive episodes all serve to remind the kunoichi of why up until recently she never much cared for the younger Kaijitsu.
"You're not in charge, Teruko. You can't just order us around." She says the words without rising her voice but the steely edge in them is obvious. She had already spent much of her life blindly following orders and was disinclined to take up that role again.
Hana looks towards the rest of the group then. Yuto seemed willing to readily accept Teruko's directions and dismissive attitude, but maybe the others were less sheepish. Seishin seemed to have already picked up on mood shift. Hana sees that as a good sign and continues on. "I know we've never really decided how'd we would go about making major decisions for the party, but I think we've had a good run of it so far coming to a consensus when it comes to things like this. Why change it now?" She finish calmly, her edge having given way to a more conciliatory tone.
"Ms. Kaijitsu..." Seishin finally speaks up after quietly listening to the proceedings.
"...if you're so set on this course of action, why are you so afraid?"
"That's..." Teruko pauses, taking a deep breath. "I do wish to explore the shipwreck and cave, but I suppose I am a bit nervous about the idea as well. Particularly given how badly our last battle went. I don't want anyone to get hurt." She's clearly not telling the whole truth, but she doesn't seem inclined to say anything more.
She looks at Hana for a moment, although her face is blank and her eyes seem oddly unfocused. "You're correct, of course. I don't have the right to unilaterally make that decision." There's a strange emphasis on the words, as if she's trying to convince someone. "My apologies. Having family history be discovered unexpectedly like this has left me a bit off balance."
Just take it back. Tell them you didn't mean it, it wasn't you, you want to go back to Sandpoint.
Then they'd know. No one can know, even Ameiko only knows because I had to explain, had to tell her I was sorry and I loved her-
She can hear Lonjiku's mocking laughter in the back of her mind. Even if she wanted to take it back, she's not certain she could. Which is a thought far more terrifying than any goblins or skeletons could ever be.
...hmm. And it appears more secrets abound. Seishin thinks.
He doesn't press Teruko any further, but he makes a note to check in with her in private later.
"Well, wherever we choose to go," Arika says as Cyrus shoots her an unimpressed look, "we should wait until the storm's passed us by... assuming it doesn't last for more than a few days."
"W-we should not fight among us. This is going to be a hard time, all of us sharing a living space together. We better focus on what each of us does to know the best if we want to survive" explains Yuto.
He will be happy to take watch throughout the night.
Hana sighs. Yuto was right, of course, but the whole affair still irked her. Even so, the kitsune thought it best to let the matter drop, especially if Teruko was being contrite herself.
"Ok," she calmly tells Teruko. "Sorry if I was a bit rough for a second there. It was just... She pauses trying her best to sort out how she feels and how best to put those thoughts into words that don't start their whole argument up again. "I don't know. It just feels like you become a whole other person sometimes." She shrugs, feeling hypocritical at that moment. Who was she to judge someone for being two-faced? "Forget it. Just know I'm sorry ok."
Her awkward apology made, Hana walks away and joins Torra and Yuto in keeping watch until they move out from the village.
Within a few hours, the storm has passed over the Marsh and heads eastwards into Varisia. Cyrus and Arika spend most of their time talking quietly with one another, while Torra, Hana, and Yuto discover nothing of interest in the goblin camp.
After the group spends most of the day in the Licktoad village, there is no sign of anything untoward, though there is a brief incident when Cyrus tries to practice his Rondelero forms and nearly collapses from pushing himself too hard.
Yuto coils on his post over the remaining tower at he sounds of the marsh. The man tries to maintain himself awake as long as he can.
Unless someone relieves him, during the 6th hour, the young man collapses unable to hold his eyes open like dishes for more time.
Teruko doesn't respond to Hana's apology, either to accept or refuse it. (Although a close observer might notice her flinch slightly at Hana's observation that she's sometimes 'a whole other person.')
She spends most of the day not talking to or looking at anyone else. Instead she hunts for something she can use as a table, then pulls out a notebook and begins practicing her calligraphy. Many mistakes are made due to the unevenness of her makeshift table, but she doesn't stop until her hand cramps up to the point that she can no longer hold the pen.
Making use of her keen eyes, Hana takes up the watch after Torra retires, and tries her best to stay awake until dawn comes.
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The night is peaceful, and nothing is amiss save the soft noises of insects and nocturnal beasts.
"Only five of us are left."
Another loss. How can he face his ancestors? He turns to say something, only to see that the speaker is a skeleton in bare chainmail, wearing a loose belt around its bony hips with a wakizashi. Looking down, he realizes he, too, is a skeleton, and is gripping an oddly familiar wakizashi himself. When he tries to cry out, he has no air to do so, and in a desperate struggle... he wakes up.
As the sun struggles up into the sky, a pleasantly cool day greets the party. Cyrus wakes up a bit later than everyone else, though he looks somewhat better than he did the previous day. "Good morning, all." He says with a smile, before sighing and shaking his head.
"So, have you made a decision where we'll be going?" Arika asks the group once they've gathered and had their meal of dry trail rations.
"I don't think we should be going anywhere, Arika. I'd prefer to keep you relatively safe - where I can keep guard over you."
The young woman looks like she's about to retort, but bites down on her words.
Again today Yuto wakes up very altered by the dreams during his sleep "Oh, mother! Mother!" he cleans the sweat and looks around until he recognizes the familiar faces of Sandpoint friends and the adventurers he is starting to met and bond together with "Th-this is strange... I had a dream like I was a skeleton myself, as scary and deprived of skin as the one we found among the goblins... and I had a wakizashi"
"Do you think Madame Mvashti is trying to tell me something from afar the grave?" the young man seems very troubled and decides to invest his time in some good activity, breaking the goblin's "furniture" to pieces and lighting it to prepare some bacon for the group to have a nice breakfast.
"A-Arika San, you did not see the goblins... this is very dangerous... I-I think you have to wait a bit, be bigger, perhaps train a bit with the crossbow as Teruko Sama did, then you might be well prepared to follow the steps of adventuring..." Yuto takes a piece of beacon and a slice of bread and enjoys it after the cold night in the goblin's village "Just do as Cyrus tells you, he knows better for your safety"
"So what do you think going forward? Maybe we try to find the Blossom shipwreck first? The fan map shall help us, but perhaps if we find Old Megus before, she can give us advise about the Marsh area and provide for some help" Yuto looks at the wounds that still torment his body.
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Teruko is woken from her own dreams by Yuto's shout. She sits bolt upright, looking around wildly for a moment before she recognizes her surroundings. Just as abruptly she turns to face the wall, brushing furiously at the tears staining her cheeks.
"I think-" (her voice cracks a little), "I think it's more likely you were just processing the fight with the skeleton from yesterday. Dreams are just that. Dreams. They don't mean anything." It occurs to her a moment too late that perhaps Yuto is actually drawing comfort from the idea of his adoptive mother speaking to him in his dreams. "I mean...I suppose it's possible she's talking to you, I just..." She trails off awkwardly and gives up.
Breakfast. Breakfast will help settle her nerves.
Teruko's halfway through a piece of bacon before she remember her manners. "Thank you for making breakfast." She smiles warmly at Yuto. "It's greatly appreciated."
"As for the question of where to go next..." She pauses, trying to choose her words carefully. "My recommendation would be to look for Old Megus first. Where Walthus marked her hut appears to be on the way to both the Blossom and the cave. Arika, Cyrus, it seems safe enough here if you'd prefer to wait for us to get back. You could also try to go back to Sandpoint yourselves; with that strange white creature and the goblins both dead it should be much safer going now." Her eyes flicker over to Arika. "If however you want to come with us I could try to give you some pointers with the crossbow. I'm not particularly good with it myself; I came along to heal more than to fight. But it is an option."
Cyrus frowns slightly. "If I'm honest, I'd rather go with you to this Megus woman's place... it'd be nice to have an actual building to rest in."
"No. No no no no. I'm not going to visit Megus. Not if I can help it." Arika shakes her head vigorously. "We can follow the trail out of the Marsh, and go north to Sandpoint from there."
Cyrus scratches his head. "Er, I guess we're going to head back towards Sandpoint first, then."
Torra awakens invigorated, even after bisecting her rest by standing watch. Her skin feels strange, with a pebbly texture, as she runs the fingers on one hand over the back of the other, over and over. "I hope it's not some strange swamp disease," she mutters.
As Arika states her intention to return to Sandpoint, the dwarf looks doubtful. "We assume there was only one of those creatures, but that might not be true. You would be safer with us, unless... what do you know of Megus? Why are you so afraid of her?"
Arika shudders. "Honestly, I don't know. She's always been disturbing - gavex me the shivers up my spine ever since I was little. She hated children, I think, and... ugh." She shakes her head again, vigorously. "Well, I'd rather stay here than go visit with her."