"S~+%! S&$*! S!*@!" The man in the red top-hat cries out as he desperately swings his sword at Vodnykel.
But the strike is clumsy and the man's blade is swiftly deflected by the mastodon's strong tusks.
Meanwhile, seeing how swiftly Dovan was delt with the ailing Varisian man holds up his hands dropping his weapons as sweat drips from his brow. "I surrender alright! I give up! J-Just spare me!"
Lina mutters an oath under her breath as she sweeps lightly into the room: like many folk who’ve grown up in the River Kingdoms, the witch is rather leery of things that can only really be used to bind people, but she has to admit that that would come in handy now, since she certainly doesn’t trust the man.
“It’s your lucky day, Sneeg. Someone wants you alive,” she says, bright but cold as she sails by to take up position between Signy and Akiros, bracing her spear against anyone moving from the stairs up. “Anyone got something to cuff him?”
The glance she spares makes it clear that she’s considering whether a spear-butt to his temple would be more practical, under the circumstances, but she tells the man, “Down on the ground and hands on your head.”
The skeptical side of Brental wants to acknowledge that just because things are going well now doesn't mean that they will continue in their favor, but he also feels confident that all of their strategizing is paying off. Still, it would be good to remain vigilant.
As the red top-hatted man swings his sword feebly at the mastodon, the calf responds in kind.
When the grease disappears from beneath Brental's feet, the druid smiles to have confident footing back and acknowledges Meneas' words, likewise withdrawing towards the upper floors.
He gets behind Akiros, whose veins are bulging slightly, and nods his head at his newest comrade-in-arms. "Expedient," he says, waiting his turn at the stairs.
It only takes Vod a moment to thrust his tusks into the man with the red top hat. Blood splatters on the ground as the man is lifted from the floor and tossed several feet away his top hat fumbling through the air until it lands on his now still body.
Moment's later, Auchs comes screaming down the stairs at Lina who reflexively thrusts her spear at the hulking man but, enraged, he batters the elven woman's weapon aside like a mere annoyance as he raises his club to strike.
Akiros glances over at Brental, eyes wide with wanton bloodlust. "It's... not... over... yet! RAAAAHHHHH!!!"
With that, veins nearly popping his his temples, Akiros rushes the giant man menacing Lina before him.
With reckless abandon, Akiros brings his longsword down on the massive man carving through his shoulder and crushing the bones there with the sheer force of the attack. The former paladin stands there screaming while Auchs knocks the man's sword out of his shoulder returning the scream with equal ferocity.
The weaselly fellow identified as Jex looks absolutely panicked, he backs up on the the walkway and fires a shot from his longbow down at Vod.
His arrow strikes but is unable to pierce Vod's tough hide and seems to serve only the enrage the small mastodon. Jex is trembling as he calls out shrilly, "B-Boss where are you? Sneeg surrendered like I always said he would! I-I really could use some support out here!
The owlbear, now lacking a living target simply rushes forward and begins tearing into and absolutely shredding the corpse of the first man Vod had killed, evidently quite hungry and happy to finally have a good meal.
Things are heating up, starting to get crazy. Signy backs away from the pair of monsters tearing at each other on the stairs and looks at the man trying to surrender.
She shoves him roughly in the direction of the gate, telling him "Then get out of here! Out the gate and away! Go!"
She then takes a moment to ask Cayden Cailean for the gift of further luck to get through all this.
Sneeg is sweating profusely and rapidly nods his head in response to Signy's urging and makes ready to flee the field of battle.
Out of seemingly nowhere, Meneas feels the heavy impact of two powerful arrows clang against his armor and be deflected aside. Turning to face his attacker he see's the glowering form of the Stag Lord, eyes obscured by the bone helm he wears but the hatred of his gaze palpable never-the-less.
"YOU COME INTO MY HOME AND SEEK TO SLAY ME?! YOU WISH TO TAKE THE STAG'S HEAD?! THEN COME! COME AND TAKE IT!" He roars, readying another shot.
There is a desperately unhealthy part of Lina that enjoys the utter chaos around her, since everything that’s going on is enough to occupy all the levels of her mind. And it’s exactly like in stories! Which is awesome at the moment, but which will probably change the moment one of the villains gets a good stroke in.
The brute in front of her is faster than he looks, and Lina lets him choke her grip down lower on her spear as he deflects her first thrust with horrid ease. Besides…
Things are heating up, starting to get crazy. Signy backs away from the pair of monsters tearing at each other on the stairs and looks at the man trying to surrender.
She shoves him roughly in the direction of the gate, telling him "Then get out of here! Out the gate and away! Go!"
Trouble in paradise? Guess she’s not that fond of Kesten after all. The knight wouldn’t like that, the witch notes, and part of her wonders if Signy’s still being tossed around by whatever enchantment was cast on her. Not that, with the state Sneeg’s in, it would be that tricky to track him down, but she’d rather not have to.
“Mind the owlbear on the way out,” she says with gratingly artificial sweetness, hoping that reminder might encourage the Varisian to stay put.
... the glowering form of the Stag Lord, eyes obscured by the bone helm he wears but the hatred of his gaze palpable never-the-less.
"YOU COME INTO MY HOME AND SEEK TO SLAY ME?! YOU WISH TO TAKE THE STAG'S HEAD?! THEN COME! COME AND TAKE IT!" He roars, readying another shot.
“... Yes?” she says, waving blindly behind her with one hand, her index finger raised to ask for patience as she dodges back from Auchs. “One moment, please.”
And there it is. She thrusts at the brute before her with a short-hafted grip, before stepping back, and turning her playful gesture into the motions for one of her own spells.
Lina's second attack is entirely swatted away as easily as the first but when the witch elf step back and unleashes a vibrant barrage of colors from her hands over the oaf and poor Sneeg the latter collapses in a heap on the floor unconscious while the former stands mouth agape, dripping drool on the floor, eyes wide and unseeing, completely pacified.
Jex v Vod: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19
The sudden appearance of the Stag is surprising and discouraging, but Brental maintains his head. There is rubble between him and the Stag, making the way between them treacherous. Meanwhile, Lina is opening a weakness to Auchs.
"You'll die soon enough, Stag!" he says, whistling to Vod to join him.
The mastodon rounds the corner and moves up the stairs, stabbing into the blinded and stunned Auchs.
Then the druid moves forward, stepping over Dovan's fallen form, and slashes out at the brutish lieutenant.
"Morof!" he cries, "Get in here!"
Meneas starts when the arrows hit his armor, but recovers and smiles beneath his cowl. Good. He's here. I'd hate to have to go hunting for him...
Pointing his blade silently at the Stag Lord, he moves back over the rubble and rushes to the man's side, unwilling to let the bandit continue fighting at range.
The stunned man known as Auchs... or was it Ox? Didn't put up much of a fight after being subjected to Lina's illusion. His huge body manages to absorb the impact of Vod's charge but Brental's deadly blade follows through with a slash to the child-minded man's neck, spilling his blood in a horrific deluge of crimson and sending the man's ragged corpse crashing to the ground.
Morof raises his hands quickly and spouts some arcane words intent on hampering the Stag Lord's ability to sneak back into the shadows, he casts a fistful of ground mica into the air which bursts out around the Stag covering him in a shower of golden sparkles.
Jex, witnessing this all as well as the death of Auchs and the pathway to him now clear immediately drops his bow and sputters, "A-Alright! Well done chaps! I-I knew we could do it eh Akiros? Take down the Stag together? N-Now don't forget what that it was me what that drew him out."
Akiros affixes the man with a glare of white-hot rage and sprints up the stairs with a deep cry of savagery swinging his sword at the man.
Jex lets out a guttural scream as Akiros' blade carves through his chest spilling a tremendous amount of blood and yet the man still stands trying to slowly back away he looks to Signy, tears in his eyes as he clutches his wounds. "I surrender! H-Help me!"
With the last bandit, the one up in the tower, inevitably doomed, and word from him that the Stag Lord has made his appearance, Signy turns back the way she came. Back in the previous area she can spot Meneas and the Stag Lord for herself.
At the first place where she has line of sight on him, Signy sends him an arrow.
Weaving its way past Meneas, Signy's arrow lodges itself deep inside the Stag Lord's shoulder where it meets the neck causing the muscular man to gasp wretchedly for air and take a step back as he desperately reaches for arrows and the eye-sockets of the stag helmet seem to flash for a moment whilst trained on Meneas.
The Stag's first arrow thuds deep in Meneas' guts and drives the wind from his lungs, but the second fortunately arcs just wide. likely due to the man's temporary blindness.
"MY QUEEN WHERE HAVE YOU GONE?! I CANNOT SEE YOU! GIVE ME YOUR BLESSINGS! AM I NOT WORTHY?!" he cries rubbing feebly at his eyes.
Flinching back from his wounds, Meneas growls, following the Stag Lord. He launches his attack, pain and anger driving his limbs.
Meneas' blade strikes at the bandit lord with anger-fueled precision. The blade connects with the Stag's helmet and face sending the helmet clattering to the ground and revealing the man's, now bleeding, face covered in the aged scars of many chemical burns.
"CURSE YOU COWL! THIS IS MY LAND, MY FORTRESS, MY KINGDOM!!! I'LL NOT HAVE SOME MAN COME TAKE IT FROM ME! The blinded lord screams in a rage.
“Brental, can Vod guard Sneeg for us!?” Lina asks quickly as the battle splits into two fronts.
“We want this one alive!” she calls after Akiros, pointing at the unconscious Varisian as the fallen paladin chases Jex down, before turning to support the attack on the Stag Lord. Signy’s god clearly smiles on her this morning meanwhile, as her arrow flies viciously true.
Lina, in turn, hastily drops her spear against the wall and slides her poisoned sword from its scabbard as she scrambles over the rubble-strewn floor to help Meneas.
Meneas' blade strikes at the bandit lord with anger-fueled precision. The blade connects with the Stag's helmet and face sending the helmet clattering to the ground and revealing the man's, now bleeding, face covered in the aged scars of many chemical burns.
"CURSE YOU COWL! THIS IS MY LAND, MY FORTRESS, MY KINGDOM!!! I'LL NOT HAVE SOME MAN COME TAKE IT FROM ME! The blinded lord screams in a rage.
“That’s our cue, then!” the witch laughs grimly, with a sparkle in her eyes that is no less sinister for its good humour as she salutes Signy on her way.
The slick grease forms around the Stag Lord's leaf-covered bow but the man somehow manages to keep a firm grasp on it despite the slickness of the grease Morof has conjured up.
With Akiros chasing down the only remaining threat other than the Stag Lord, Brental turns his attention to the boss. Before he leaves, he looks at his mastodon. He points at the slumbering form of Sneeg. The mastodon trounces back down the stairs, strides over to the Varisian, and sits down full weight.
Satisfied, Brental makes his way out as swiftly as he can over the rubble.
Desperate to survive and noticing no one intends on coming to his aid, Jex turns to flee from the seething Akiros.
But the man doesn't make it far before Akiros' blade cleaves through the man's spine sending him to a heap on the floor, helpless, while the owlbear approached its next meal greedily.
Akiros then bellows mightily and turns to charge down the steps and towards the Stag.
Signy closes some distance, but her target window is shrinking as the area around the Stag Lord grows crowded.
Despite the cramped quarters Signy still manages to fire her arrow true and strikes the bandit lord in his bulging bicep causing a fresh scream of rage and new rivulets of blood to drip to the floor of this wooden cabin as the Stag Lord backpaddles further into his home. Raising his bow at the darkness before him the Stag Lord aims to return fire from whence he was wounded.
The first arrow punctures Signy's armor and hits like a charging beast. Striking just beneath her ribcage, Signy can feel the blood rushing into her lung and is left barely standing even as the second arrow buries itself in the ceiling above her with a powerful thwack!
The heavily wounded man rubs futilely at his eyes, still managing to hold his bow despite the interference of Morof's thick grease.
The force of the arrow sends Signy back against the wall behind her, and she decides to stay there and rest for just a minute. The shock and pain causes her to pant, but it quickly results in her coughing up blood. She's forced to slow her breathing to slower, shallower breaths. She decides she can rest a little better if she's not standing, so she slides down the wall. I can sit down for just a minute, it's okay.
Signy once again finds herself in awe of the Stag Lord's ability with a bow. Gotta hand it to him, helluva shot...
She reaches behind to feel around, wondering if the arrow went all the way through. Signy really hopes it did, much easier to deal with, after she rests for another minute.
Meneas pushes through the pain of his wounds and continues his implacable pursuit of the Stag Lord, his blade a blur of violence. No mercy to spare. No words to waste. So focused is he that he barely notices Morof's spell or Signy's injury.
The Stag Lord, true to his moniker, is frustratingly light on his feet, and even hampered by Morof’s spell, his luck with his bow is unnatural. If I have to, I’ll play hounds to his deer, Lina thinks, encouraging herself with an interior sneer.
Twisting past the embroiled combatants and the fort’s walls, Lina tries to harry the bandit chief as closely as she can. She doesn’t find an opening to get quite on his other side yet, but she does force him to split his attention between her and Meneas.
Even though the gesture is wasted on the blinded bandit, Lina blows a kiss to the weird Gyronnan markings on the walls before quipping, with ruthless sarcasm, "One witch to another, give my regards to the Hag Queen!"
And then she thrusts for a gap in the Stag Lord's armour.
The dance in cramped quarters isn't doing Lina any favours, but with what's coating her blade, she can hope that even a scratch will prove quite unpleasant.
Brental picks his way across the rubble even as Akiros overtakes him, nods to Morof with admiration, and then surges past the horrifically injured Signy. "Stay alive," he breathes, "And we'll fix you right up."
He continues around, squeezing past Meneas and rejoining the front-line. His blade remains slick with the blood of several bandits, and he is ready to deliver the killing blow unless one of the others beat him to it. They were so close.
"Davik Nettles sends his regards."
When Brental speaks to her, Signy looks up at him. She's very pale, with blood on her lips and chin. She's coherent though and answers.
"Oh, I'm okay. I just need to get this fixed", she gingerly touches the arrow, "so I can move around better."
In quick succession the Stag is blasted with Morof's spell barely managing to shrug off the worst of the effects but still looks visibly drained. Then Meneas attacks with an inhuman fervor carving through the Stag's side and leaving him barely standing. Lina's strike follows swiftly thereafter and only nicks the man's exposed shoulder drawing some fresh blood but little more, however, that seems to be enough to allow her insidious poison to slip in as the man's body begins to slightly tremble.
He's barely managing to keep himself standing now but still, he stands defiant, a proud beast that refuses to die.
"I-I can't die. I've come this far. You won't beat me... Never again will I be beaten. Now I'M THE ONE WHO BEATS!"
Signy decides she can do little about the arrow until she has some help. If she tries to remove it herself, she'd likely botch the job and make things worse.
Instead she uses the last of the magic granted her for the day to heal the sword thrust from earlier. Afterward she's able to regain her feet.
The Stag Lord seems to have the same idea as Signy as he staggers back and reaches for his satchel, pulling out a large red potion and uncorking it with his teeth the man chugs it back and smashes the glass on the ground as he opens his eyes and the dust fades away and his wounds begin to seal.
"Not yet, not yet, a little more." He pants.
Meneas continues his grim pursuit of the bandit leader. By all means, corner yourself. At this point, you are dead. It's only a matter of how battered we are by this. He whirls around the corner, lashing out with his sword at the stubbornly surviving Stag Lord.
The Stag Lord stands for a moment before the blood starts gushing from a near invisible wound in his neck. The man holds his footing for a moment, despite his fatal injury, glaring at Meneas before he slowly falls to his knees. Even now, soaked in his own blood and dying the lord of bandits maintains his hateful gaze at the man who killed him until his body finally slumps over accepting what his spirit could not.
When the man's body does not stir Akiros plants his sword into the ground and exhails deeply, sweat dripping from his brow. "It is done... now there's only what to do about the owlbear currently eating what's left of the others."
Brental watches as Meneas earns another kill, and surely the most significant. In a matter of minutes, there were now almost a dozen dead bandits here, joining the scores of others who had met their grisly fates in the fields and forests to the north. The threat seemed to be at an end...for now. There would be many bodies to bury today, though the unhallowed ground outside may not be the best place.
Brental sighs in relief as the Fort grows silent. His icy armor drips slightly, but shows no clear sign of losing its integrity for hours at least. "Well done, everyone. We made it."
After a beat, he responds to Akiros. "The owlbear won't harm us, for now at least, so I'd like to return it to the wild. How in the rotted earth did you all manage to capture such a creature?"
It's half-rhetorical, but Brental is also curious about the story, if there is one.
He also looks at Signy and Meneas, filled with arrows and bleeding as they are. "I'll need to set up a ward to treat your injuries," he admonishes. "Akiros, could you guide Morof and Lina around the Fort? Just to be sure we don't know anyone who may have squirreled themselves away waiting for some ambush."
The druid begins taking stock. "Kesten Garess wants Falgrim Sneeg alive, so we'll take him from this place once we have rested. Lady Jamandi Aldori wants the Stag Lord's head. And Davik Nettles wants his corpse thrown in the river."
Brental looks at Akiros. "Would you care to do the honor of separating his head from his body?"
"Davik Nettles sends his regards."
Right, him too, Lina thinks as Brental recalls the ferryman. Is there anyone in this forest that this madman hasn’t murderously offended?
... a proud beast that refuses to die.
"I-I can't die. I've come this far. You won't beat me... Never again will I be beaten. Now I'M THE ONE WHO BEATS!"
She flinches, though, at the undercurrent of the doomed man’s roar as he gets cornered. The fingers of her free hand twitch, itching to call forth a hex to join with another sword-thrust, but, mercifully, Meneas finishes things before she can proceed beyond impulse.
In the crushing silence that ensues, the witch abstractedly wipes off the blade of her sword, getting rid of any last traces of poison as she considers what still needs to be done. Sneeg needs to be bound for delivery to Kesten, proof of the Stag’s demise gathered for Nettles’ ghoulish revenant and the powers that be back in Restov, and the fort, frankly, looted.
For now, if the owlbear’s happy, she’s happy to leave that beast alone. Maybe Brental can gently encourage it to drag its dinner somewhere less awkward? First, though, there are some wounds that need attention.
She utters a different incantation than her instinct from only moments ago, and a bluish light springs up around her hand, promising a bit of healing to someone who needs it.
“We need to hire a bard to tell the glorious tale!” she enthuses, thoughts tumbling considerably further ahead while Brental outlines more practical concerns. “I might be able to pull together a tune, but the words are another matter. ‘Something something, the villain’s dastard arrows shattered against the stalwart knight’s impenetrable hauberk, strengthened by the blessing of…’ Oh, is there a lady fair or lord handsome whose favour can be immortalized in song, Meneas?”
That is the way the stories are told, after all.
Signy is rather busy thinking about the arrow in her belly, but when all the moving and noise dies down she walks over to take a look. She lets go a low whistle after viewing the Stag Lord's corpse.
"Tough as a hickory knot wasn't he?"
"Brental, do you think you can convince that owlbear to head out a few days west of here? You know, like somewhere else entirely?"
Akiros shrugs at Brental's question, "The owlbear was wandering outside the fort. The Stag thought it would be fun o try and hunt it down and so we were all rounded together to surround and pepper the thing with arrows until it collapsed then they dragged it back here and caged it up." He sighs. "I wasn't involved as I tend to be more of a sword wielder than a bow user but that's how I remember it at least."
Then he glances over at Morof and Signy and nods, "I'd be happy to escort you both around the fort though I believe all the bandits here have been dealt with aside from Sneeg. Can't say I'm a fan of the loose end but I understand you need him alive so do with him as you will."
Drawing his sword out of the flooring the ex-paladin smirks approaching the Stag Lord's corpse. "With pleasure." He declares and with a flourish of his blade removes the Stag Lord's head from his shoulders.
Meanwhile the owlbear is happily munching away at bandit corpses, seemingly content with its current lot in life.
Meneas sighs, relaxing slightly, before wiping his blade contemptuously on the dead man's armor. As exhaustion and pain wells up to strike him, he sags slightly, his breath coming in heavy gasps. Done. Finally.
"Is Veil well?" The Hooded Knight looks to Akiros, disregarding the man's concerns for the time being. "My horse." He clarifies.
He turns his back on the Stag Lord's corpse, Time enough to deal with that later After a moment, he nods at Brental. "Probably for the best."
Lina's magical healing pushes the arrow he'd left lodged in the wound out, and he offers her a dry chuckle. "No. Ng is not exactly easy to immortalize, if you're asking after my order's... inspiration." Wait, did she mean some sort of amorous figure? Oh well.
Akiros waves to the far side of the fort near the gate, "Your horse is fine, the men were planning on selling her for a pretty copper so she's been kept well... If you can get around the owlbear you can see her now if you like."
"Why does Kesten want that guy? He's really no prize."
Lina's magical healing pushes the arrow he'd left lodged in the wound out, and he offers her a dry chuckle. "No. Ng is not exactly easy to immortalize, if you're asking after my order's... inspiration." Wait, did she mean some sort of amorous figure? Oh well.
The mostly staunchly profane witch is, if she’s honest, a bit thrown by the knight’s remarks from the point of view of the usual beats of certain forms of stories, but hardly surprised personally after having travelled with him for a few days. It’s a bit less traditional, in the stories that she’s fondest of, but… We can work with it. ‘Fortified by the power of his unwavering devotion to the Eldest powers,’ and so forth.
"Why does Kesten want that guy? He's really no prize."
And that thought, and Signy’s remark, reminds her, as she works her way around the threads of conversation, “Bad blood from a previous contract, I think he said. Sneeg robbed the company before vanishing into the wilds, and, well, if there’s one thing that gets mercenaries going. Probably wants to make a very clear example?”
“Which is not what I started out to say, but anyway. I suppose I’ll go poking around to see what’s what but, while Brental’s busy with bandages and the like, any ideas about quite what all those scribbles mean?” Lina indicates what’s left of the strange script and pictograms decorating the walls inside, now that the adventurers have time to get a better look at them with the help of someone with more religious training.
“We were able to figure out that it’s something to do with Gyronna, but that’s about it, and I … I only know about her rites at second-hand.” A reasonably (and then some) close second-hand, but that’s not a story that she needs to get into right now, surely?
With that, Lina starts scanning the fallen bandits and the fort generally for magic, as she begins exploring a bit.
Signy grunts at Lina's explanation. Then she coughs, bringing up more blood.
"Speaking of treatment. I think blood could be seeping into my lung. I might be slowly drowning."
"A hickory knot indeed," Brental says as he assesses Signy's arrow wound. He nods at Lina's declaration of needing a bard. Elves were mercurial, but already composing a tune to memorialize the battle while the blood was still staining the ground? He supposes that is how the bards on the fields of battle might do it, but it was distasteful to him. He wasn't much of an artist, though, to be fair. So what did he know?
"Good news," he says to Signy. "The arrow went all the way through. It will still hurt, but...well, we've all been shot with these bloody things. You know." He looks down at the Stag Lord's beheaded corpse, cut to ribbons and stuck with a few arrows of his own.
He also addresses Signy regarding the owlbear. "Well, we can't really speak per se. 'Go far away' is an abstract concept that's difficult to convey. You saw how...well, strange it was to connect on an emotional level to communicate not to immediately kill us. Although that's working. For now. While he has food. It might be easier to lead him away for a bit, or else track where he goes and encourage a different spot. Much would depend on whether he has a mate or any young nearby."
Brental stops pontificating and listens to Akiros' story. He had participated in plenty of hunts, but never to cage an animal: only to bring down a deadly predator that was threatening the balance of an area, or to provide resources for himself and others. The idea of such captivity made his skin crawl.
He then returns his attention to Signy. "The fey must have done a number on your memory, or else you weren't listening. You were there with us, remember? I don't even think Lina had gotten there yet, though she wasn't far off. Anyway, if Falgrim hasn't spent or sold his ill-gotten gains, we might find whatever he stole in here, too."
Brental switches tasks with Lina quickly, translating the writing on the walls as he seeks out a relatively clean (or at least corpse-less) place from which to fuss over the injured. He retrieves all manner of grisly looking tools to cut and sew as needed, along with some herbs to promote better healing. "Yes, it would be a shame to make it through all this only to drown in your own blood. One moment please..."
* * *
Once he has started the process, he goes back to the munching owlbear and approaches the Fort's main gate to open it. It would be easier to just track it later. He indicates before he opens that he is going to let the creature go, and encourages it to go far away. But it is hard going, and he has no idea once he has finished his series of odd body movements whether he has adequately conveyed anything at all, or just made a fool of himself. But when all is said and done, he opens the gate and releases the Owlbear back from whence it came.
"The First World does do things to one's memory." Meneas comments. "Or maybe I'm making excuses for my own poor memory. Who can say?"
Standing straighter, he takes a deep breath. "We should check over the bodies, see if anything's identifiable as belonging to someone... and we shouldn't forget to throw that," he jabs his thumb over his shoulder at the Stag Lord's corpse, "to Davik, when we can."
He sucks on his teeth. "As for the owlbear, could we lure it away with the bandits it isn't eating? Scatter their parts towards the north and the forest? Failing that, I can try to work with you, Brental, to get it to leave the area, but I'm not terribly experienced with beasts such as, well..." The knight's hood turns significantly at the owlbear.
"I was probably thinking about his abs, or wondering what was for dinner instead of listening. Honestly Kesten's off-putting when he talks" Signy says through gritted teeth while Brental works on her.
|
Morof breathes heavily as he sees the Stag Lord fall. He was beginning to worry that his arrows would do serious harm to his friends. He thanks Akiros for his help and asks "So, what do you want to do now?"
Later, he walks the premises with Lina and Akiros to check everything. He keeps his eyes peeled for anything hidden.
He also detects magic to see if there is anything of note in the room.
The illusionist mostly stays out of the conversations, feeling a little awkward himself, but he does react when he is reminded of Davik. He suggests "We should tend to this as soon as we can. It's so sad when souls linger in our plane out of hatred."
Brental laughs as Signy says she was looking at Kesten's abs. "I'm sure he'd appreciate knowing that."
When Morof brings focus back to Davik, Brental nods. "Yes of course. Ib think I've stanched the bleeding for our friends. We can start taking care of the bodies."
Brental picks up the Stag Lord's corpse, checking to see that Sneeg is still stuck under Vod, and then invites any interested to join him down by the river. He double checks that they have removed anything valuable from the body, and then pauses to say a few words.
"This man was a blight on these lands. He harmed many without remorse, and led others to die needlessly under his banner. But he was also a victim of abuse. I pray that his death ends this cycle."
And then the druid tosses their quarry into the river.
Akiros looks a little lost and distant eyed as Morof asks him what his next move shall be. The man turns to the half-elf and sighs. "Honestly, I don't know. I have such a rage built up inside of me... I don't know if I can control it, I certainly can't return to the church of Erastil after all I've done."
Through their combined efforts, Meneas and Brental manage to lead the stray owlbear back to the forest not far from the fort though, where it went from there is anyone's guess.
After that the party sets about collecting what they can of value from around the fort while Akiros sets about burying what remains of the bandits, aside from the Stag Lord.
Together they find:
Eight sets of leather armor
Seven short swords
Seven longbows
Fourteen days of trail rations
Three silver stag amulets (including Akiros') worth 20 gp each
Two clubs
A set of studded masterwork leather armor (It was Dovan's so hope you like exposed midriff)
Three daggers
A masterwork longsword
98 gp
2 pp
Additionally there are three chests in the Stag Lord's bedroom that have been left unlocked. Within you find that two of them hold bedding, an iron ring, a bolt of burlap cloth, old clothing, and three crudely stitched leather masks. In the third chest, however, you find;
141 gp
[spoiler=A shard of obsidian Appraise DC 20]Worth 14 gp
[spoiler=A red garnet Appraise DC 20]Worth 100 gp
The chest Lina checked earlier contains:
4,500 cp
2,052 sp
894 gp
and 21 pp
In the armory you find:
Ten longbows
Five short swords
Five spears
Four fifty-foot lengths of hemp rope
A set of chisels
Two hammers
Three tins or iron nails
And four suits of leather armor
As soon as the Stag Lord's body is given to the river a strange harpoon-like weapon washes up at the druid's feet.
"At lassssssttttt." A voice can be heard on the wind before all is silent and still once more.
Signy waits until Brental is finished to say anything more so she can finish a sentence without punctuating it with 'Ouch!' somewhere in the middle.
"Well sure, he's fairly tasty. But why can't he act like a person? Everything from him is 'I'm an officer, see my couple of underlings?' 'I'm stationed at a cabin in the woods but Restov sent me so it's so very serious and important!'. 'Oh oh! Don't dent my honor! That makes me grumpy!'."
Signy mimics Keston's voice atrociously as she mocks him.
If anyone is actually listening to her whine, it isn't a stretch to think Signy might still be smarting from Kesten's public embarrassment of her.