"Yo-you are right, Teruko Sama. Th-the... the goblin raids was an unpleasant moment for all of us. Fortunately the Heroes of Sanpoint were there to defend us." Yuto looks at his own guise, dressed on an armor and with his father's training sword hanging on the side, and sighs "I-if... if only they were still around, they would solve this pr-problem in the marsh in an instant"
As the group keeps walking forward, Yuto starts to clean the sweat from his forefront more often, venting the chainmail with effort until the group reaches a fork in the road "I hope you are right Hana, the prospects of a shadow is most welcomed, for short it might be"
When Torra hands the parasol to the young man, he takes it with a nervous smile "O-oh... th-thanks Torra San. May-maybe we can share it together" Yuto raises the parasol and approaches to the dwarf trying to cover her with the shadow as much as himself. He does observe the colorful design of the parasol "I-I... like how it looks. It fills me with joy and life"
Then coming back to the current walk, Yuto points his sweaty hands towards the southern fork in the map "Loo... Look, th-this must be the fork Shalelu referred we have to take after Ashen's Moor, in order to enter the New Fish Trail"
The Tian looks insecure at the others, but particularly at Torra and Sieshin, who seem to better understand the roads than anyone else.
Torra shades her eyes with one hand as she looks up to gauge the position of the sun, mentally calculating the distance they had already traversed and how that would line up with Shalelu's directions.
"Yes, this is it." She chews on her lower lip for a little, thinking. "I can show you all how to take cover in the marsh once we get there, but it will be slower. I don't think there will be enough shade, it's not a forest, so we move from pocket to pocket and between them," she points at the scarf on her head, now mostly dry. "Tie something around your head, scarf, handkerchief, a shirt, then keep splashing it with water from the marsh. Careful when you scoop the water, there might be leeches, frogs, bugs, tadpoles, or small fish. Also try not step with your full weight before you have tested the ground with a stick or other implement - the terrain might be soggy and sink under you." Although this is a topic that usually interests her greatly, she is a little too tired at the moment and delivers this comprehensive lecture on marsh survival in a rather monotone voice.
Should have left the stupid armour at home, it will kill me before any goblin has the chance. Should have known better, Torra! You knew how hot it was!
The new adventurers begin down the New Fish Trail, and soon Brinestump Marsh opens ahead of them. The air, already heavy with moisture, seems to almost actively choke the group, and each of them is struck with the foul smells of the swamp.
Once they have prepared themselves mentally, the group enters. Soon, it becomes evident why people hate swamps so much - Seishin’s longspear frequently gets tangled in the plant life that hangs far too close above their heads, while Yuto almost catches a branch in the face. Meanwhile, Teruko almost trips over a particularly large root, and Hana gets more mud on her boots in sixteen minutes than she has in months prior. Only Torra seems to escape Brinestump’s little miseries, though this is as much due to her shorter height and lower center of gravity as it is anything else.
On the other hand, at least they’re out of direct sunlight, so it is… somewhat cooler. Not significantly, and it’s hard to tell given the sheer humidity (which is almost worse than the heat). That said, it does provide at least mild relief from the sun’s fiery gaze.
When they turn to look at it, however, there’s nothing there. Had there ever been?
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Torra stops suddenly, crouching by the side of the path to peer into a puddle. "Whoa. Did you see that?"
She picks up a long twig and pokes at some pond scum. "Pretty sure that was a golden striped frog! They're pretty rare. They store air in folds of their skin, so they never need to surface in order to breathe."
Teruko lowers her voice. "I am not familiar with the fauna in this area, but...didn't you see something moving? Something other than the frog, I mean." She squints, (sun still bothering her eyes even in the relative shade of the swamp). "It looks like there's a gap in the bushes over there, to the left. Was something hiding over there?"
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Yuto advances precariously balancing over the trail to avoid the worst of the mud. Separating the reed with the hands, the young man fights the numerous insects trying to spat them with the hands "Where is the glory of fighting insects and reeds? Real warriors never have to deal with this in books"
The young man halts to look where Torra and Teruko are pointing, he seems to dismiss it when, suddenly, his face goes pale "Pe-people... the-there is a corpse there..."
He does rub his eyes and looks again approaching the parasol to cover the effect of the light "W-wait! No. I-it is not there anymore... I guess... I guess the Sun is playing me a bad moment..."
Yuto then picks up his shield from the back of his backpack and clumsily straps it to his forearm "The-the dead haunt us..." and moves forward walking hastened through the trail "We... we better move on"
Despite her hope that marsh would provide some shade to cool her and the others, the sun itself seemed to have an altogether different plan in my mind. Never mind the marsh itself being such a mire that even her trusty boots end up It gets so bad that Hana's senses just barely manage to spot something in the swamp foilage.
"I think I saw something too? Maybe?" She tells the others, her uncertainly clear in her voice. The ninja tries to blink away the sweat that managed to get into her eyes on account of the humidity, but it ultimately does little good as whatever she saw seems to disappear into the aether. "I was probably just our imagination... but yes, it would be better that we move on."
"...I think I saw it too." Seishin confirms.
One thing at a time. Save the living first before tending to the dead.
Resolving to move swiftly on, the adventurers continue down the New Fish Trail for a few minutes before they come to a bridge over one of the branches of the Soggy River that passes through the Marsh.
The constant stench of Brinestump is mitigated somewhat near to the river’s edge, but insects buzz constantly over the murky water, and the sun’s light reflects off of its surface, nearly blinding.
The bridge itself is hardly in great repair, with more than a few chipped planks and rotten sides. Fortunately, it is still very much functional, and the group manages to pass over it without any trouble.
Indeed, the first signs of trouble come on the other side of the bridge. There, the trail is beaten down with dozens of footprints, and a few splotches of darker mud than anywhere else. Something happened here…
Although most of the footprints look like boots the size one would expect humans to wear, among them there are several quite alien footprints as well. These footprints are small and three-toed - two toes facing forwards, and a third backwards. There are also faint imprints of two claws in front of each of the prints…
After minutes of walking in silence staring at the samsaran, Yuto finally approaches him shyly "Se-Seishin... Seishin San, you... you are a traveler isn't it? Why have you come to Sandpoint?"
Yuto carefully crosses the bridge, not sure if the wood will hold his weight. But once he is at the other side, he kneels to examine the footprints.
Cleaning the sweat on his forefront Yuto observes "So-somone... has been fighting he-here... Tho-those are bird talon prints, isn't it? Three toed bird's footprints, but hmmm.... I guess I do not know much about birds..."
Then raising his head towards the Soggy River, the young man let's a muffled shout escape his mouth "Oh no! The-there is a blood trail..."
The man reacts stepping back to the bridge, but then halts a second "Do-do you think it might be one of the adventurers?"
Unable to leave the likely victim there, Yuto takes resolve and starts following the trail. You can see the grizzled one visibly trembling while he moves inside the reeds, holding his wooden shield high.
Torra can do little more than confirm Yuto's findings. "It is not likely that anyone else would be so deep in the marsh." She checks the freshness of the blood trail.
Yuto and Torra smell their target before they see it - the dreadful stench of rotting flesh, which raises instinctive hackles in the back of Yuto's mind. They descend down the gentle slope to the river, and discover that there is, indeed, someone lying next to the bridge, leaning up against one of the posts. Though he wears a chain coat, it availed him not, because his stomach is viciously rent open. Beside him lies a masterfully crafted battle axe, covered in mud and bluish fluid.
His ears are slightly pointed, and his dead eyes lie half-open, revealing copper irises that would have been pretty, had they not been blank with death's touch. This is probably the half-elf that Ameiko had mentioned - Koras Jarvin.
Teruko moves forward with the others, hoping to find some evidence of where the adventurers had gone. What she sees is enough to nearly make her vomit.
She quickly retreats back towards the trail, although she keeps Yuto and Torra in sight. "The Battered Shield. It seems they didn't make it very far." Her voice is shaking. Control yourself!
She swallows hard. "Is there any sign of Ari...of other bodies? I can't imagine they wouldn't have returned to Sandpoint after...after something like this. Unless they couldn't." Optimistically, maybe they'd been able to flee from whatever it was they'd been fighting and were hiding somewhere else in the marsh.
Teruko wasn't feeling very optimistic.
Teruko also doesn't see any evidence of any other bodies. Of course, this is the edge of the Soggy River, so they may have been dumped there.
Hana follows Yuto and Torra down the slope of the river hopeful that they'd run into more tracks. Instead sees something that immediately reminds her of her cruel past.
She looks at the corpse with a cold detachment, as if the grizzly sight was merely unfortunate and sad rather than gut-wrenchingly gruesome. "It seems likely that he was attacked by whatever made those bird prints," she says clinically, taking stock of the wound that felled the half-elf. "It could not have been any natural animal if it was able to cut through his mail like that. Chances are the Battered Shield were walking the bridge when they got ambushed."
The ninja prepares to look around for any sign of the rest of the adventuring group, seeing if perhaps one or more of them managed to flee the area after seeing that what they were fighting was beyond their abilities.
Before she does though she takes a moment to fulfil a promise she swore to Ameiko and tries to console an obviously shaken Teruko. "Teruko... It's ok if you want to take another second to process this, you know?" She tells her as she puts a hopefully comforting hand on the other women's shoulder.
Compared to the humans in the group, Torra had lived a relatively long life, even though by dwarf standards she was barely out of her teens. She had seen dead people, been to funerals. She had even seen some of them die, a few years back when the goblins and then the giants had attacked Sandpoint. And, logically speaking, if someone said they would be back by evening and four days later they were still missing, only a handful of conclusions could be drawn - they were lost, trapped, incapacitated... or dead.
Still, the sight of the dead half-elf does not leave her cold - while she had no emotional attachment to him, it was a poignant reminder of the dangers of the marsh, and a discouraging sign of the other adventurers' fate. She squats next to the body, trying to ignore the stench as she examines the wounds that Hana points out.
More interestingly, she sees part of a familiar character etched on wood sticking out of his backpack. Upon pulling the plank free from his sodden bag, she can read it quite clearly. In Minkaian, it reads Kaijitsu Star.
A bird's chirp is cut short by a screech in the distance, and the ambient sounds of the fauna of Brinestump Marsh goes quiet for a moment before resuming. The muggy air continues to press on the adventurers' lungs, leaving them shorter of breath than they might otherwise be, moreso than the simple heat and exertion can account for.
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Teruko breathes shakily, trying to get herself under control. "You're not wrong," she whispers. She hadn't seen a body mutilated like this since the goblin raids, and she'd been just as useless then. Did she really think a leather coat and a few hours training with a crossbow would be enough to change that?
Hana's hand on her shoulder is enough to shake her out of her daze. "I'm fine," she says automatically. She takes a deep breath and straightens, neutral expression returning to her face. "Thank you for your concern." She makes no attempt to shrug off Hana's hand, which is the only remaining sign of how shaken she is.
"If there aren't any other bodies here, then they were either dumped in the river or the rest of the Battered Shield survived this attack and fled. Arika presumably still with them." She pauses, and for a fraction of a second there's a flash of some strange emotion across her face. "We should continue looking. If they're alive and in hiding, we might be able to rescue them. If they're dead...the least we can do is try to recover their bodies."
Yuto turns his head away to avoid seeing the gore "A half-elf. Th-that... that must be Koras Jarvin. The leader"
"Wh-whatever made that... it... it was not a simple bird. Wh-what is it Torra San? Ca-can you tell how long has he been laying dead?" the Tian gets out of the water, unable to cope. He bends, placing his hands over his knees and breathing deeply.
When the group resumes walking pushed by Teruko, Yuto turns to look at the place where the body is still laying "A-are we going to leave him there... th-that does not make for a propel funerary place..."
"We-we can be in his place soon if we keep going deeper in the marsh"
"Hard to tell, with the heat and the humidity. Could have been claws, but I'm not sure. I have not studied the different shapes of wounds." This is delivered in an even, factual tone. "And we don't know if predators have not disturbed the body since he was killed, so I really cannot say how he died."
She rises to her feet, pushing her toe into the soggy ground. "Digging here will not be possible, the hole will just fill with water."
At hearing Teruko’s calmer words, Hana nods and removes her hand from the girl's shoulder. She seemed to be mostly settled, which Hana figured was the best they could hope for now. With that done, she looks over the corpse of the fallen adventurer again.
Truly taking time to examine it, Hana notices that the half-elf’s armor was singed by something that left black marks on it. "Does anyone else see this," she asks, pointing to the marks. "I think it might have been the work of the goblins. Sandru did say that the Licktoads used fireworks when they attacked his caravan, so maybe-" Her musings were abruptly cut short by something in the corner of eye suddenly glinting in the sun. It takes her a moment to realize said something was coming from the dead half-elf’s hand. Having long lost her squeamishness when it comes to picking things off dead bodies a long time ago, Hana pries the shining thing from the dead man’s hand with little fuss.
The silver locket looks quite valuable and for a moment Hana thinks the half-elf might have gotten it while adventuring only realize that its of far more sentimental value once she opens it. Seeing the lock of hair and the picture of the Ulfen women beside it, Hana sighs and quietly says a prayer to the Lady of Chrysanthemums, asking the love goddess to be kind to the woman who had apparently just lost a lover. "His girlfriend or maybe his wife,” she quietly says the others as she shows them the locket’s contents. "We’ll have to try and get this back to her once we're back in Sandpoint."
Though saddened, and her tolerance for the body's stench reaching a breaking point, Hana keeps up her search for clues. Eventually, she found something else of interest, a wooden plank that was within the half-elf’s pack that had some familiar writing on it. Looking at the characters a bit closer now, she immediately recognized them as Minkaian. "Kaijitsu Star," she says in astonishment in her native tongue before repeating the words in Common for the sake of Torra and Seishin.
She looks towards Teruko with a curious expression of her face, handling the plank over to the Kaijitsu. "Do you understand what this means?"
The plank is old, far lighter than it really should be - there are more than a few chips missing from it, and there're hints of old paint both on the plank itself and within the characters inscribed upon it.
Agreeing with Hana, Yuto sighs at the view of the Ulfen woman portrait "She deserves at least to know about it and receive back the locket"
Yuto takes a look at the plank on Hana's hands "Th-the Kaijitsu Star? Th-that's a good name for a observatory o-or a caravan" then looking at Teruko "Ha-have your family lost a caravan full of fireworks, Teruko Sama? That would explain why the goblins have them" the man knocks softly the plank with the fist "The piece seems pretty old. Maybe some years even"
The oddly silent Seishin just shrugs his shoulders when the party finds the wrecked ship fragment.
Teruko glances the locket for a second before shaking her head. "I think the woman in the picture is probably Brunhild, the Ulfen woman with a familiar. If we find her anywhere it will be in this swamp. As for Koras Jarvin's body...I don't think there's anything we can do for it now." She pauses, then sighs and begins doing her best to arrange some brush to lightly cover the body. For someone who nearly vomited upon seeing the corpse the first time, she seems remarkably calm about this task. "Once we're done searching the swamp we can hire a cart to help retrieve his body." And any others we find.
She stops her work only when Hana shows her the plank. (She'd been very deliberately looking at the body as little as possible, and hadn't noticed it before.) "The Kaijitsu Star? I don't remember ever hearing of it. If it was a caravan full of fireworks, it must have been lost years ago. Perhaps even decades." She closes her eyes for a moment, seemingly searching her memories."I think...on second thought I do remember my father saying something about the Kaijitsu Star. He didn't say exactly what it was, but...I remember him saying it was lost. That there were no survivors, or at least he believed there were none." She opens her eyes. "That's all I know, sorry. The Battered Shield must have uncovered the wreckage."
Seishin shrugs. "I'll take your word for it. For now, we should get back to looking for the rest."
"Wre-wreckage Teruko Sama? Is that not what happens to ships when they are sunk by pirates or storms?" Yuto blinks surprised by the word selection "Did... did Lonjiku Sama tell where this happened or where they were heading?"
Helping to cover the body he further hypothesizes "Brunhild is probably the one in the locket indeed. Do you think she is a wizard, or... witch of sorts...? *gulp*"
Vowing further he answers to Teruko "As you wish Sama, we will order a cart for later" then picking the fine battleaxe Yuto comes back to the trail "He would not like this fantastic weapon to be left here to corrode"
Then, he starts walking forward the trail, moving aside reeds and spatting mosquitos as they come hunting him.
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Hana listens closely as Teruko gives out her explanation. The plank just being part of a ship caravan seems sensible enough, but a part her still wonders why the Battered Shield thought it necessary to keep the plank itself. Maybe there was something more to it than that? "Maybe Ameiko knows more about it?" She speculates aloud, already storing the plank into her backpack for safekeeping.
With the plank tucked away, Hana moves forward into the swamp with the others, still scanning the area for any sign of the lost adventurers.
With that out of the way, the adventurers return to the trail, moving slowly down the path. More than once they have to stop to take brief breathers - the sweltering heat doing the fatigued members no favors. They cross over the Soggy River via a bridge that looks to be in somewhat better repair than the last, thankfully.
Nearly an hour after the group entered Brinestump, they cross over a third bridge - this time one of the floorboards is missing, but it all of the adventurers can easily hop over the gap.
However, at the end of the bridge, there is something of a surprise - a rotting goblin corpse, clad only in scraps (though that’s not enough to cover her completely - ew). Several large bites were taken out of the goblin’s flesh, and there is an obvious hole in her chest, though it doesn’t appear very bloody.
Pulling the end of her scarf over her nose and mouth to somewhat diminish the stench, Torra squats next to the new corpse, using a stick to peel back the rags for a closer look.
"Fire magic, or a really big firework."
She looks around for any additional signs of what had happened here. If it was a firework, did another goblin accidentally kill this one? If it was magic, could it have been the magic-user of the Shields?
Seishin nods in agreement. "Yes, that would be the case. Perhaps our frostmaiden still lives--and hopefully, so does Arika."
"Before we proceed, do you need me to call upon Tsukiyo's blessings again?"
"I can endure the heat a bit more, but better be ready to cleanse that fatigue" with some effort Yuto keeps going through the trail.
Crossing the bridge, Yuto examines the goblin body with trembling hands "Fi... fire magic... or perhaps a fireworks blast... are the goblins fighting each other or there is someone else with fire in the marsh?"
The Tian registers the dead corpse for valuables, and if he does not find anything else, he does a gesture and invites everyone to continue with caution.
After minutes of walking in silence staring at the samsaran, Yuto finally approaches him shyly "Se-Seishin... Seishin San, you... you are a traveler isn't it? Why have you come to Sandpoint?"
Teruko stays back as the others study the goblin. It's not just because of the smell, although that plays a part.
She hasn't seen an actual goblin, dead or alive, since the raids.
She turns her back to the sight, ostensibly studying the area behind them. It was always possible that there might be some goblins there, waiting to ambush them. (Not that goblins seemed particularly inclined to ambush. In her experience, they tended to attack directly.)
Unsurprisingly, she sees nothing. "Thank you for the offer, Seishin. How often can you call upon Tsukiyo's blessings? If it is a limited resource, than I agree with Yuto that perhaps it should wait." She turns back around with a strained smile. "No sense in using it now when in a few minutes we would be just as hot."
"Fire magic or fireworks, it seems unlikely we'll learn anything more here. Unless you see tracks, Torra?"
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"Se-Seishin... Seishin San, you... you are a traveler isn't it? Why have you come to Sandpoint?"
Seishin looks deep in thought. "I could say that it's because even the cosmopolitan and colourful city of Magnimar holds only so many wonders for a child of the Wheel." He shrugs. "But, the truth is... I feel that Tsukiyo decreed I would be reborn in this land for a reason. On this journey of mine, I hope I find that reason."
"Thank you for the offer, Seishin. How often can you call upon Tsukiyo's blessings? If it is a limited resource, than I agree with Yuto that perhaps it should wait."
"The Prince has decreed that I may use the blessings he grants me five times per day--one for each phase of the moon." The priest smirks and looks down at his holy symbol. "I believe I have already used the Full Moon--that leaves the Crescent, the Gibbous, the Half, and the New."
"Th-the Wheel? I... I think that is not related to Tsukiyo's faith, is it?" Yuto observes the holy symbol of the samsaran intrigued.
"Let's see then we are done before the New Moon makes appearance" Yuto offers a shy smile to Seishin.
"Is the hut of that fisherman close?" asks the young man while drops of sweat fall on the mud.
Holding tight the battleaxe and the shield, Yuto advances through the trail, letting Torra give directions when needed.
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"Th-the Wheel? I... I think that is not related to Tsukiyo's faith, is it?"
"Well, it is, and it isn't--if that makes any sense." Seishin touches the jade moon around his neck.
"You and others would refer to my people as 'samsarans'--and that is an appropriate name, considering our beliefs and our nature. When I refer to myself as a child of the Wheel, I am referring to much the same--I simply find it to be a more poetic term."
"The Prince of the Moon is held in highest regard among us."
Torra was looking for tracks, but then Yuto and Seishin started talking and it was too interesting not to listen. Teruko's question startles her, and the dwarf shakes her head.
She steps away from the dead goblin for a moment to take a few pulls from her waterskin, the one that had drinking water, noting with concern that it was starting to get light. "We don't want to run out of water here. We're surrounded by it, but it's not good to drink."
Despite finding the religious conversation between Yuto and Seishin truly fascinating given that she didn't usually run into worshippers of her homeland's more exclusive gods, Hana tries to nonetheless focus on finding their targets or at the very least Walthus and his fishing hut.
"I'd like to say were close, she optimistically says to Yuto, putting back her old mask of cheerfulness, "But I'm honestly not sure. We should still be on the New Fish Trail, so have to run into him soonish."
As the goblin’s corpse holds little left of interest, Yuto leads the way down the trail.
As they go, Hana does notice the occasional signs of various animals that live in the marsh - snakes, birds, insects (she sees a wasp’s nest hanging on a tree alarmingly close to the trail), and various small mammals. Mostly, though, she sees a whole lot of flora.
Slowly, the trees thin out and a swampy lagoon comes into view. While it is not especially pretty, Sog’s Bay is open enough that it relieves any sense of claustrophobia that the adventurers may have been feeling.
Beyond the lagoon, they can see the open ocean, its waters shining in the late morning sunlight - nearly blinding the adventurers, who had spent the last hour in the relative dimness of the Marsh. Most importantly, the trail ends in a sad-looking shack - a two story building with moss-covered walls and a pathetically sagging roof sits on the eastern edge of the lagoon, closest to the party. Perhaps predictably, the door is shut, and there are no lights that shine through the windows - but then, this early in the morning, who would need them? This, presumably, is the dwelling of Walthus, the (self-proclaimed) warden of Brinestump Marsh.
Unfortunately, even as they approach the end of the New Fish Path, the pressure of the heat and the humidity has gotten to Torra, Hana, and Teruko, despite Torra’s best efforts in keeping them hidden from the sun. The three drip sweat and struggle to even put one foot in front of the other.
Seeing the condition everyone else is in, Seishin makes an executive decision to use up two of his remaining channels. Soon, the gibbous and half moons on his holy symbol glow and bathe the sweat-drenched party in refreshing moonlight.
"Everyone feel better?"
Torra had been stubbornly putting one foot in front of the other for the past... she doesn't know how long it's been, actually, when the soothing wave of mystical healing washes over her again and she realizes just how incredibly tired she had been.
"Much better, thank you." Should he call him Seishin, or Seishin San like Yuto was doing...? What if she got it wrong and he'd be upset? Teruko had called him Seishin though and that seemed fine, so... "Seishin", she adds after an awkwardly long pause.
To distract herself, she shades her eyes against the sun glare off the water to look at the shack that was likely their destination.
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Teruko, (who has spent the last mile or so dragging her leather coat rather than carrying it), visibly sags in relief as the cool moonlight washes over her. Under different circumstances she would have been appalled at how much mud was coated on her garments. Right now she's too hot to care.
"Agreed, much better. Thank you." She shades her eyes as she looks at the shack. "Perhaps Mr. Proudstump will allow us to rest in his house for a bit, after we've asked about the Battered Shield."
Unwilling to stand out in the sun any longer than she has to, Teruko squares her shoulders and heads for the house. Once there, she makes a futile attempt to brush some of the mud off her clothes before knocking on the door. "Mr. Proudstump? It's Teruko Kaijitsu, from Sandpoint. We're looking for some missing people and think they might have headed this way."
A few moments after Teruko knocks, the door opens and a halfling face peeks out of the opening. His face brightens and he slips through the doorway, shutting it behind him and leaning back against it. ”Hello there! Good to see some friendly faces out here in the Marsh.”
As he steps stiffly into the blazing heat, he blinks slightly, and it becomes clear that he’s had a bit of a time recently - there’s some dried blood on his shirt and dark circles highlight the bottom of his eyes.
”Erm, I’m Walthus Proudstump, the warden of Brinestump. How can I help you fine folks? And, ah, who exactly are you?”
Torra shuffles behind Teruko, the momentary relief gone, but looking forward to some shade in the house. Until she sees the state of the poor halfling, and readjusts her expectations. "Oh, you must be really hot as well, Mr. Proudstump, you look as bad as we feel. Is it really hot inside your house? We were hoping to rest a little. But I imagine a wooden structure like this, fully in the sun, can overheat considerably. That's too bad." At least they'd be able to refill their waterskins.
"For heat stroke, like you seem to be suffering, try to drink small amounts of water often, lie down and have a moist towel or such on your body."
”Oh, thank you miss,” Walthus says with a smile, ”but, er, my injuries aren’t quite from heatstroke. No, indeed not.” He rubs one of his arms with a wince. "But your advice is good... which brings us back to the question of why you're not following it." He grins at the group, somewhat wearily.
"I apologize if my manners are a bit... off. It's... been a hard few days, and guests are rare around here."