"I'm sorry to hear you've had a rough time of it." Teruko is relieved that Walthus' stiffness isn't from heatstroke, which means resting in the relative shade of the shack might still be an option. "If you were attacked by something, that might be related to our own quest. "
She fans herself with the sleeve of her coat, which does little but push the hot air around. "Could we perhaps talk about it inside? If we stand out in the sun much longer, we might all suffer from heatstroke."
Yuto smiles with surprise in his eyes at Seishin's explanations "A Samsaran! Of course... that explains... that explains your blue skin" the young man seems to doubt, full of questions for the follower of the Moon Prince, but shies away while the group moves forward and reaches the lagoon.
---
Yuto remains next to Teruko, formally straight in front of the halfling despite visibly sweating "Y-yes... if we could go in... it is very hot here outside in the sun"
Once inside the house, he follows in "We-we came because one villager from Sandpoint has been missing more than it is normal. Her name is Arika. We think she might be with a group of adventurers... regretfully..."
The grizzled one swallows as he says this "We found their leader butchered by what we think are birds... and just half way of here... we also found a goblin corpse... scorched like by some fire blast..." he observes the state of the halfling himself.
After a second of doubt he adds "Shalelu thinks you might know something about them and what the goblins are up to"
Walthus waves away Teruko’s words. ”Unless your quest involves foolishness and misunderstandings with my pet snakes, I doubt it. That said, I’m happy to help however I can…” He hesitates a moment.
”Alright, do come in. Just… try to keep it down. I’ve a friend who’s resting in the back, and I’d rather not disturb him, you know?” Walthus beckons the group in, opening the door and revealing a humble entry room with stairs leading up to the left, as well as three doors. ”Come into the dining area, please.” He leads the group across the room and into the door furthest to the right. It is… a relatively small - the tallest members of the party have to duck their heads to get in - dining area, with a short table and two chairs, one sized for a halfling and another for a larger person.
”Sorry I can’t be more hospitable, my means are… slim.”
Now he listens to Yuto’s words. ”Oh, someone’s missing from Sandpoint? And you think she’s come here, to the Marsh?” He frowns deeply, distressed. ”I don’t know of any birds that could kill an armed adventurer who live in Brinestump, I’m afraid. Dead goblins are hardly news, of course, especially by fire…”
”As to what the Licktoads are up to… I’m afraid I know only a little. They’ve been acting a bit braver than usual, and I’ve seen one or two waving sticks that spit fire about. Nothing serious, but enough to make them feel strong.” Walthus shrugs slightly. ”I can point you in the right direction, if you’d like. I try to avoid their little village when I can, but I do know where it is.”
Seishin tilts his head at Walthus as he moves his lips without making a noise.
"...are you aware you're doing that, sir?"
"Oooh, you have pet snakes? Can I see them? Did one of them bite you? Yes, if they're poisonous that would explain your clumsiness, what I initially took as a sign of heatstroke. I can try and treat you." The low height of the space doesn't bother Torra, but she does move a little less nimble than usual through the cramped space.
She looks away from Seishin in embarrassment as he comments on the halfling's tic. She did plenty of things that others found odd, and she would never think to point out others' mannerisms. She's not sure if she's embarrassed for herself and her own strange behaviours, for Seishin and his rudeness, or for Walthus.
"Doing what?" Walthus tilts his head confusedly at Seishin's words. "Oh, yes. That. I got into the habit of talking to myself over the past few years, but I try to moderate it for the sake of guests."
"Oh? You're a right generous soul, miss... what did you say your names were, again?" Walthus blinks, then laughs at himself. "Just a few days with a guest and already I'm welcoming in people whose names I don't know. If I didn't know better, I'd say I'm a terrible hermit."
"Torra Voliokerdam, from Sandpoint." The dwarf takes out her healing supplies and gets to work on their host, but it doesn't seem like her ministrations are very helpful.
"I think it's been in your body for too long, not a lot that I can do with my limited knowledge."
Seishin pauses again. "Hmm."
"Mr. Proudstump, considering the heat of the day, would you mind if we stayed for a while? Our search-and-rescue mission will be unsuccessful if we march about the swamp under the sun."
"I'm Teruko Kaijitsu." While she'd mentioned her name outside, that had been before Walthus emerged. It was only polite to confirm who the name belonged to.
Although the chairs are very tempting, she doesn't sit. It would not be polite to get mud all over Walthus' furniture.
"The people we're looking for left Sandpoint four days ago. It was recommended they seek you out." Teruko's shoulders slump a little. "If they didn't even get here...what could have happened to them? We only found the one body on the path."
"I understand you don't want to disturb your guest, but do you think it's possible they might have seen anyone?" She nods in agreement with Seishin's request. "If you're willing to let us stay for a few hours, perhaps we can talk to them before we leave. Regardless, directions to the Licktoad village would be very appreciated."
Yuto enters the hut lowering his head, he does not notice what Torra is saying but he there is something amiss in the halfling "Y-yes, that's true, Teruko Sama is right. These... these pe-people wanted to talk to you, they clearly were doing the trail, we found one of them killed"
"Mmm... wh-who is that guest you keep saying?" the young man becomes increasingly nervous as he looks at the halfling trying to study his reactions and words.
"Follow your instincts" he whispers almost to himself, he can almost hear Koya telling him, then addresses Walthus "A-and that blood... what happened to you? Are you ok?" at that moment Yuto attempts to reach for the halfling and raise his clothing to fully see his wounds "We have a worshiper of Tsukiyo with us, he likely can help you..."
"Hana Tenko here," the ninja chirps in using the same disarmingly kind tone she'd use when meeting a new customer at the Rusty Dragon. She honestly had her doubts about giving out her name when it wasn't necessary, but she also wanted to take advantage off the halfling's hut. Seishin's healing did a lot to ease the oppressiveness of the heat, but that did not mean she was in a rush to go back endure the sun's gaze.
"My friends here are quite right. Some time out of the sun would do us all a lot of good, so we'd really appreciate the hospitality."
”Well, the offer is appreciated Miss Volkier- Voliokier- Torra.” Walthus waves his hand wearily. ”Five days is plenty of time for it to settle in, and I’ve been trying to rest it off, with some self-treatment. I’m used to being bitten, although it’s been awhile since it’s been this bad.”
At Seishin’s question, Walthus pauses, his brows furrowing as his lips move silently again. This time it seems to take longer than before.
He makes a face. ”I’m sorry, sir, but I really don’t want to bother my friend, and he’s a bit… territorial.”
”Ah, you must be Ameiko’s… sister, I should think.” Walthus nods at Teruko. ”As for the people you’re looking for, they didn’t- wait. His brow furrows. ”I was in bed three days ago, trying to rest off my injuries. I did hear knocking, and a few shouts, but I was in no condition to go out and greet guests, so I just lay there.”
Walthus’ face falls. ”Damn, I should’ve realized that they might’ve been in need of my help.” His fist hits the table lightly. At her request about talking to his guest, he pauses. ”I don’t think it likely he saw anyone… or at least, if he did, he didn’t tell me.”
At Yuto's words, he sighs. "He's a recent arrival, but he's become a great friend to me, and I'm trying to give him his privacy - he's rather territorial, is Vakrin." Walthus shrugs. "I'm a rather private person myself, honestly."
"Oh, the wounds? A misunderstanding with my serpentine friends, is all. It was a bit unexpected, but... such is life." The halfling grins tiredly.
He looks pained when Hana pushes him. "Look, Miss Tenko, were it up to me, I'd let you stay over until afternoon in a heartbeat... but I'm not the only one living here at the moment, and, well... I'm trying to keep the peace, y'know?"
Seishin tilts his head again, studying the distressed halfling. His jade moon starts to glow a soft green.
Somehow believing the halfling Yuto's hand halts midway. He vows clicking his feet "So-sorry, Walthus San. I-I do understand you need your privacy"
"Anyway we still need to find Arika and the lost adventurers" the young man trembles a bit at the thought "Do... do you happen to hap a map of the marsh?"
"The blood and the lips... not attending the knocking and being so elusive about this Vakrin... it's all a bit strange, isn't it Seishin?" Yuto whispers to the Samsaran when he notices he is also noticing something strange.
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"...yes." The samsaran's eyes harden and he looks away from Walthus.
"Whoever you are, you will release your hold over this man immediately." He calls out into the house while holding his holy symbol.
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”Foolish longshanksss, ruining everything!” Only now do the adventurers realize that the door opened behind them silently. In the entryway sits a truly bizarre creature - a monstrosity that looks like some mad mage fixed a goblin’s head to a snake’s body. Its face is fixed in a terrible scowl, displaying fangs larger than any goblin’s. ”You could have killed Gutwad, could have sssaved your clanmatesss, but no, you interfered!”
With that, it stares at Seishin with blazing red eyes - and unleashes a ray of fire directly at him. Even were he not shocked, the blazing heat would have struck him nonetheless, scorching him badly.
Teruko looks at Seishin with astonishment when he calls out to Walthus' 'guest', not having noticed anything wrong. At least not anything that would make her think Walthus was lying about his snakes. "Seishin, what are you-" she gets out before the door opens and Vakrin appears.
Surprisingly, the first thing she focuses on isn't the bizarre appearance of snake creature. It's the claim that killing Gutwad would save their friends. Does that mean Arika made it to the Licktoad Village after all?
The blast of fire startles her out of these musings. "Seishin!" She shrinks back from the sudden blaze of heat, watching in horror as Seishin is set aflame. Then her eyes harden.
"No. Not again."
A wave of energy emanates from her, providing extra strength to her allies. Her face is strangely calm as she swings her coat around her shoulders. "What he just did wasn't a spell. He's likely no mage."
Hana doesn’t see the creature itself at first. No. What she first sees is the sight of Seishin inexplicitly burning right beside her. Next comes Teruko scream. Her eyes shift then as old reflexes come back to her in a flash of movement and fevered thinking.
How she could have missed such a creature enter the hut, she wants to scream? She must have been slipping and thought of that fills her with a strange kind of shame. She doesn't linger on the feeling for long though.
As if to make amends, the kunoichi quickly brings her wakizashi to bare and dashes for the open door with blade in hand. In a flash she is beside the serpentine monster, her blade poised and ready to cut into it. She needs only a willing partner to help her make very cut as effective as possible.
”Yuto!” She billows, her eyes still fixated on the creature itself. ”Block its way to Seishin and the others while we keep it here.
Oooh, that was a big snake. A snake that talked and shot fire from its eyes. Definitely a cool pet, except it wasn't very friendly, and it had hurt Seishin. That she cannot allow. Fortunately, there's enough mud and dirt on Torra's companions that it doesn't much matter that they're inside. She raises one hand palm up, curling her fingers inwards into a fist, then pulling her arm back and flinging something at the big snake.
Torra unleashes a blast of earth at the goblin snake, but it sways out of the way easily, cackling malevolently at her feeble attempt. ”Why throw rocksss, when you could throw fire?”
Teruko, despite her brief flinching from the fire, calls forth a blessing from the divine connection she bears. A warm sense of reassurance flows through the adventurers even as she pulls her armor on.
Hana moves like a blur, passing by Seishin and through the door. However, she is not quite quick enough, and Vakrin, the goblin snake, lashes out with his fangs as she passes by him. Though he manages to bite her on her leg, they only scrape away at her flesh - bloody and painful, but not truly lethal.
The goblin snake slithers out of the ninja's range, hissing irritably, before swaying and chanting. He lashes his head forwards, launching a globule of fire from in front of his mouth this time. Despite her best efforts to dodge it, it catches her square in the chest - in the midst of her pain, she can smell her own sizzling flesh.
Vakrin giggles. "Stupid longshanks! I show you all the power of the great Vakrin!"
Seishin grabs his holy symbol and floods the room with another burst of healing moonlight, excluding the snake-thing from it.
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Yuto turns to see the goblin snake when the door opens. The young man trembles "Wh-why you want Gutwad killed?"
His voice muffles when the snake spits fire burning Seishin. Quickly connecting everything, the odd behavior of the halfling, the fire scorches in the fallen goblin... The Tian freezes, scared, looking around for a escape.
Yuto observes Hana throw herself against the goblin serpent. His eyes go wide open and a shout escapes his mouth "Hana!"
It is only when Teruko says her words that he feels a sudden thrust of courage filling his arms. Seeing his friends trying to fight back, Yuto makes his resolve, even if weak.
He observes around while he mumbles basically to himself "A tiny hut. Like Tamura Benjiro in the lake house. His enemy's katana stuck in the door frame... a wide swing can leave my guard low a direct close quarters thrust is needed..." Yuto repeats Hana's words as he starts to move forward "...protect Seishin... ...stab it with the pointy end..."
The young man draws his katana as he steps towards the door frame, and instead of attempting a wide swing like he has seen Sandpoint guards train, he runs with the pointy end forward, easily passing the door without the long edge stumbling with the wood. Like that, he thrusts his father's blade with both hands, trying to stab it on the snake's big head.
Seishin unleashes another wave of silvery healing light, sealing his own wounds somewhat and restoring Hana as well.
With a vicious flick of his blade, Yuto cuts deep into the goblin snake’s head. It yowls, staggering (inasmuch as a snake can stagger) back away from the edged object. Blood explodes from its wound, spraying back at the samurai and splattering his clothes and armor.
Walthus growls. ”You little shit, you enchanted me!” Unfortunately, he’s unarmed and unarmored, and so remains behind the group of adventurers.
Torra pushes down the frustration at her own failure. She was very used to missing, stumbling, failing, and there was a word she had heard more than any other word from Sabyl Sorn: "again".
So. Again.
Torra blasts the goblin snake, her earthen projectile crashing into the monster and knocking it down, bleeding slowly onto the floor with a final wheeze.
Walthus approaches the bleeding serpent. "Damn you! Turning my snakes against me, attacking me and my home, manipulating my mind!"The last phase is practically a shriek, his foot lashing out with each accusation, before he takes a deep breath. "Thank you, friends. I dread to think what would have happened if that thing had kept me enthralled."
Seishin observes the proceedings with a wince.
"...it was no trouble at all, Mr. Proudstump. How did all of this even happen?"
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Walthus sighs. ”As I said earlier, while I was under this thing’s,” he kicks the goblin snake again, ”spell, it happened five days ago. I was in my garden tending my scaly little friends, and this Vakrin burst out of the ground, swayed my snakes to not attack it as it blasted me with fire and bit me.”
He gestures at the southwestern door. ”My partners were tricked into betraying me, biting me several times, and I fled upstairs to my hidden room, where I locked myself in. I stayed there for a few days, tending my injuries and hoping that Vakrin would leave, if only to go hunting - that was when I heard the adventurers knocking and getting my attention. I wasn’t able to answer the door, as I said, because I was both afraid that Vakrin was still there, and because I didn’t think I’d be able to fight him, even if I took him by surprise.”
Hana made a sigh of relief as the battle quickly came to an end. The leg bite had smarted something fierce and the creature's fire even worse but Seishin's healing made the pain largely evaporate altogether. All in all, she was fine if a little winded.
She gives the moon cleric a well-earned "Thank you," and Yuto and Torra both a "Well done" for felling the goblin snake before she goes up to Walthus and asks the halfling a question. "Do you know what he meant by killing Gutwad?" she asks curiously. "Sounds like a goblin name if I ever heard one. Is he or she one of the local Licktoads?"
"Gutwad's the Licktoads' chief. I'm not wholly sure why he'd want him dead, honestly." Walthus shrugs slightly. "I'd guess some sort of conflict within the tribe, though."
Yuto looks surprised and scared as the katana lodges deep into the snake's head and the thing still survives. With sudden realization of what he has done and the danger he came into, the young man starts to tremble, again frozen in fear when Torra's stone shard finally knocks it out.
Slowly, he removes the covered in blood katana, the blade falling to the ground from his slippery and shaky hands.
Still in shock, the young man barely manages to nod at Hana when she thanks him. Carefully, he reaches for the snake's remains, shaking them and trying to see if there is something in them that tells them about its origins or plans.
"Perhaps the other party ran into Vakrin," muses Torra. "Then he wouldn't have had to go hunting. Oh, we need to make sure your snakes are alright!" Apparently the encounter with a giant snake did not deter her from wanting to meet Walthus's pets.
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Teruko's hands drop from where they'd been reaching for her crossbow. It seems those efforts are not needed. "A great warrior after all." It also seems she had not been lying when she'd told Velarie that.
"Very nicely done, Yuto, Torra." She walks up to Walthus and lays a comforting hand on his shoulder, (an echo of what Hana had done for her). "It's alright, Mr. Proudstump. You're safe now." She crouches down a little so she's looking him in the eyes rather than looming over him. "I apologize for bothering you when you're still recovering from such an ordeal, but I must ask. You heard the adventurers pounding on your door. Did you hear any indication that Vakrin answered? Or did they go away of their own accord?"
Walthus nods at Torra, rubbing a somewhat scruffy chin. "It's possible, certainly. He told me he hadn't met them when you came here asking about it, but he was likely a good liar and I was keen to believe anything he said."
Though Teruko has to bend significantly, she manages to pat the warden on the shoulder, and he smiles wearily up at her, patting her hand in turn. "Well, as safe as anyone can be out here in the Marsh, which is, well... less safe than I'd thought, but probably safer than you think." He winks up at the young Kaijitsu.
"Ah, yes, my scaly little friends. At the moment, I'm unsure of whether we should go visit them - I'm not sure how much this thing," he nudges Vakrin with his toe, "did to them. If he used magic on them, it may have little effect, but if he somehow, I don't know, untamed them, they might be shy. Or possibly dangerous." He pauses, thinking. "They probably won't attack just because they see you - it's only if you get too close and appear threatening."
To Teruko, he sighs. "I'm not sure. I didn't hear Vakrin speak to them, but as you saw earlier with me, he didn't need to speak so that others could hear him to talk to a person."
"So, to answer your question... no, but that doesn't mean he didn't talk to them. It was pretty late in the day when they came by, though, so maybe they set up camp near here?" Walthus suggests with a slight shrug. "I haven't exactly had the chance to go search the area recently."
Slowly recomposing Yuto recovers his katana. Cleaning the blood with the corpse of the goblin snake itself, he carefully sheathes it back to its place and comes to the main room.
"We fo-found... one of the adventurers holding a plank with the name Kaijitsu Star. Does the name ring something in your ear?" the young man asks, and once the question is answered, he adds "Would you have a map of the marsh to help us in the exploration?"
”Kaijitsu Star, Kaijitsu Star… No, I’m… afraid not. I would think that Miss Kaijitsu would know more than me?” He looks at Teruko, a brow arching. "But wait, you said a plank? If they didn't come in here with it, there're only a few places that have planks in the Marsh. There's my home, of course, but I don't have anything like that here... There's ol' Megus, I guess. She lives pretty far to the south, I'm pretty sure, but I couldn't tell you exactly where."
"There's the Licktoad village, of course... but other than that, I can't really think of anywhere that - wait. There's a ship a few peninsulas over. A shipwreck of some description, I think. Not sure exactly where it is - I don't go down that way very often, but it's definitely there... it's on the same island as the village, for that matter..." His voice trails off as he ponders for a time.
Abruptly, Walthus comes back to the moment. ”As for a map, I don’t think there’s been one - a good one, at least - since I started living here. I know my way around, and other folks mostly stick to the trail.” The warden sighs. ”I can direct you to the Licktoad Village, though. This thing,” he kicks the (now definitely deceased) Vakrin, ”seemed to think that the adventurers were there. Maybe he’s right? If you really want, I could guide you there myself…” He doesn't seem overly enthused at the idea - understandable, given his current state.
At hearing Old Megus' name Hana pipes up, remembering tales of the old woman from some tavern gossip at the Rusty Dragon. "They say she used to visit town back in the day. Lot of the older townsfolk swear she was some kind of swamp witch or the like," she tells the others, trying her best to recall half-remembered tales spun by old drunks.
Yuto listens attentively to Walthus explanations, giving him acknowledge nods with the head at each piece of information "I-If the Licktoad are living in the same island as the wreckage, it makes sense they might have been them who have uncovered something there"
"It-it is strange Vakrin thought the adventurers are in the Licktoad tribe. If he stuck around your hut when they came knocking, he would not know about what is going in the tribe... unless... he has been the one who took them there..." Yuto picks up the goblin snake body "We should take his rests to the tribe. They might help to parley if he was a common enemy, or they might help scare them otherwise..."
With a smile of hope the young man nods to Walthus once more "Sure, having a guide would be great! And being so close to the wreckage you refer, we might visit both locations..." his voice though suddenly tremble "...are... are we sure we are ready to face the goblin village? Maybe we should wait for Shalelu and Ameiko to recover..."
While the party decides, Yuto will get out of the hut and give a recognizance around it, and to the lagoon outskirts trying to find more hints of the adventurer's fate.
Not having anything better to do, Torra follows Yuto outside to look for signs of the other adventurers.
Walthus ponders for a moment. "It does seem odd that he would know about them at all... but as you've so amply demonstrated, sir, Vakrin wouldn't have had a chance against adventurers on his own, and I'm fairly certain that he hasn't been hosting anyone else here..." He scratches his scruffy chin.
"Especially if they were unconscious, I don't think he'd be able to drag them, well, anywhere. No hands, after all. If they were conscious, I don't think he'd be able to get any of them... 'cept maybe if he enchanted one."
After Yuto and Torra leave, he looks to the others. "If I am going to guide you, I'd like to get some rest first - going out in the middle of a day like this is simple insanity." Once more, he rubs his face before settling on one of the lower stairs. "But you did save me, and I do know how to get there..."
The sunlight nearly blinds Torra and Yuto as they leave Walthus' humble abode and go back out into the sodden heat of the day. The scents and choking air that had been somewhat less potent in his home come rushing back at them.
Nevertheless, they persevere, wandering over the shore and trying to discover any signs of the Battered Shield's presence. It takes only a few minutes for Yuto to spot a small, burnt out campfire sitting in the southern reaches of the island. When he points it out to Torra, she is able to find four sets of footprints and other signs that the group had spent the night there - including a few fragments of cloth. Most interestingly, though, the tracks lead southwards, down the gentle slope towards the algae-covered slow-moving Soggy River.
Returning to the welcome relative coolness of the shack, Torra shows the others the bits of cloth. "We found these outside, near a campfire. They were here, spent the night, then headed south towards the river. All four of them."
"So they definitively headed south, eh. Seems like all roads are pointing us there." Hana muses openly, causally putting away her wakizashi as she does. "I say we head to Licktoad Village with Vakrin in hand. It might be a long shot but perhaps Yuto is right and Gutwad will be happy to see a possible rival removed and be in a charitable mood as a consequence. Maybe enough to let Arika and the Battered Shield go if the he has them, or at the very share information on where they could be."
If Hana was being entirely honest, she wasn't all that confident that such an diplomatic exchange would be all that likely. Goblins seemed to be a universally dangerous and shifty people. The attack on Sandpoint a few years ago proved that much. Then again, a lot of people say the same thing about her kind too.
Not wanting to linger on that distressing conundrum for a second longer, she quickly went back to the topic at hand. "Shalelu might need a day or more if she plans on fixing her injury personally and Ameiko..." Hana thought back to her crush's sad expression when she made it clear that she wouldn't be joining them and how much it hurt to see her so despondent. "No. Ameiko probably won't be coming either," she says sadly.
"Our best bet is probably to rest up here for a while and then go out once the sun has chilled in a few hours."
Yuto nods in agreement after coming back to the shack and listening Hana "Le-let's do that. Let's rest a bit, refresh ourselves and let the worst hours of the day pass" looking at Walthus shyly, he asks "I... I do not want to be a further nuisance but... but... would you have some food and drink to share Whalthus San?"
"Meanwhile we can try to sew those remaining wounds" Yuto looks at Seishin.
"Do you think cutting the scorched skin will help?"
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"A message spell." Teruko's voice is confident. "I doubt he would have used it to talk to them. For one, you need to be able to see the person you want to talk to in order to cast the spell. Two, even if he had somehow cast it without them noticing, they would have been suspicious of a random voice whispering in their ears. If you didn't hear him talking to them, he likely didn't."
She stands up from her half-crouch, idly brushing at her clothes. "It's possible he figured out that they were heading to the Licktoad Village from whatever they said when they knocked on the door."
"Is there a well around here? I'd like to refill my canteen." Then promptly drain it before refilling it again. She does just that while Torra and Yuta go exploring.
Upon their return and Torra's explanation of what they found, she frowns, clearly displeased with herself. "Of course. Koras didn't die on the way here, he died on the way back. Likely trying to get help for the others."
"If Arika and the others are in the Licktoad Village, it's possible they're still alive. Goblins like toying with their prey." Her eyes darken. "But I don't think we can afford to wait for however long it will take Shalelu to heal up. I agree with Hana, we should wait a few hours and then go." She pauses. "I don't think you should go with us, Walthus. You need time to heal. If you could draw us a rough map, I believe that would be sufficient."
Torra shakes her head at Yuto's suggestion. "It's really hard with no healing supplies. I can try to look around for medicinal herbs and such, but I don't know what can be found here, if anything."
"I would welcome a chance to request new spells from my liege. If we intend to delve further into this swamp, I'd like to at least ask for another spell to protect against this dreadful heat--and one to provide clean drinking water."
"South, hm?" Walthus looks contemplative. ”That could be where they found the plank, too. But I wonder why they chose to ford the river rather than go around? I suppose they didn’t know that the Old Fish Trail leads directly to the Licktoad camp…”
”I wouldn’t trust goblins to bargain.” Walthus says, his face hardening. ”They might play at it, but I think they’re just as likely to swarm you when you’ve turned your backs on them as not. Besides, Gutwad hates humans - if any of your friends are human, I don’t think he’s likely to accept any bargains.”
”You’re all more than welcome to stay, even until tomorrow - though I’ll have to replenish my provisions tomorrow, so I won’t be able to host you then, I’m afraid. In the meantime, I do have some vittles for everyone - I would offer to cook some things, but in this weather? No.” He chuckles.
”Oh, yes, Miss Kaijitsu. The well’s out in the garden.” He points her in the right direction.
”Well, I’m not much of an artist, but… I’ll do what I can… Walthus says with a slight frown.
He looks back and forth at Seishin and Torra, before shrugging slightly and going to fetch something to write with and to write on.
"I-I see... Torra San. This method seems to be of no help" Yuto says while trying to help with the wounds.
The young man seems scared when Teruko tells Walthus not to accompany the group, but dare not contradict the noble woman "So... you recommend tracing back our steps and going south to access the goblin village through the old trail?"
"Ye-yeah, that makes sense. The half-elf probably was trying to let us know..." Yuto gulps then looks for something to eat while waiting the Sun to go a bit lower.
Looking at Seishin with great interest he asks "How... how does that work Seishin San? Do you have to ask the blessings in a particular way? Will it happen before we resume our walk south?"
"Usually, my prayers are answered after I have rested." Seishin explains. "I pray before I rest, and I walk through my many shards while I sleep."
"I still have many blessings conferred upon me by Tsukiyo for today--if we are set on continuing by night, I will assist as I am able."