Roldare's page

@Jarif, I don't think you need to use quotes in this dialogue, except in extremis. Using them tends to break things up. @Ehlers, use Hungarian/Magyar for Orcish pls.

Roldare looks at Jarif. "Yes, yes, my sister. The death speaker took her. And killed Krayl, which is why Krayl is so angry, you see? Burned him all up. He never liked fire."

One other note - you can check the story so far in the Campaign Info section. My suggestion is the group camps here for the night before moving on, we assume Ka'narg fills you all in on the story and you plan for the following day.

FYI i'm using Klingon for Orcish

One thing - on languages please check with me beforehand. I have a standard set I use.

Roldare stares at the newcomers. "It's been nice to have the company, but Dimira is still the death-speaker's captive. And Krayl's still angry, since the others took his dagger."

Roldare pauses. His eyes are still wide; he's wrapped himself in one of the bedrolls and, as he removes it, he shivers in the half darkness, dimly lit by one of the lanterns. "Oh, I .. oh."

He passes two blankets and two waterskins out through the door. "These are what you left," he says. "You can refill the waterskins at the pool, after you've swum."

The he passes out two bottles marked "healing". "We brought these with us." He blinks sadly. "I hope Dimira won't need them. She's fearful, like me, you see."

Looking back through the thread, Harken and Ka'narg left their packs, which each included a winter blanket and a waterskin. Everyone else kept theirs (and Irgal has Bardan's pack).

The barricade's been re-established. Roldare starts and grabs for his (what used to be Ka'narg's) crossbow, then stops.

"Oh - did you find Dimira? Did you find her? Is she safe? Did you find Shelyn and Krayl?"

Roldare sits slowly up, looks up at the group, starting with Illya, and nods.

"I understand, or I think I do, though the voices and the things I've seen still speak and bleed in my head.", he says, "I will wait here. I can't go home without Dimira, and I can't face those things again. If you have a tent or blankets to leave, it would help me. I've been very cold these last few nights."

He stares at the amulet Ka'narg has placed on the ground. "Here, if you are to go and save my sister, we should swap bows." He hands Ka'narg the crossbow he's so recently been holding close. It bears the maker's mark of a master weaponsmith from Tamaran. "I bought it a while back from an adventurer down on his luck. May it bring you the luck it's withheld so long, in the name of your father."

He picks up the amulet, lifts it and places it around his neck, managing a frail smile. "And you need to know this, Brother Zeth". Now he looks shakily at Irgal. "We didn't have time to bind all the traps. Be careful. You'll need the shields and the keys. And you may need to go swimming."

Finally he looks at Harken. "Tell Krayl I'm sorry, though it probably means little to him now. Tell him we all were. We shouldn't have left him, but he made us in the end. He was to marry Dimira when the sun returned. It would have been a lovely wedding."

Eyes once more downcast, he pulls back to a corner of the room, and sits there, holding himself close.

Ka'narg has acquired a masterwork light crossbow.

Remind me, if I ever need any kind of reassurance, or someone to convey bad news, not to come to you lot.

Roldare stares blankly for a second. He stops reaching for the crossbow, but lets out what is first a quiet wail, growing into what is more of a scream, clawing at his face, backing up against the wall and rolling over into a ball on the floor. It's not clear that he's actually taken in the news as such; simply that any form of hope has suddenly departed from him.

"Cold ... so cold ... not fair to be this cold at the end of my days ...", he whispers, through the sobs.

Roldare's eyes, widening, don't move from the lantern. His hand edges towards the crossbow. He is, suddenly, almost lucid.

"No ... it's just a lantern. It has no powers, that I know of. It's just used in the tests, to carry the flame back at the end. But the last time I saw it, it was in the hands of my friend Gerol ..."

Roldare - perhaps fortunately - hasn't paid attention to the adventurers' conversation. But, suddenly, he does come back into focus. He points to the silver lantern attached to the back of Jaer's pack.

"Whu ... whu ... where did you get that?", he stammers.

Roldare ignores the questions, and looks straight ahead, not at anyone in particular.

"We came to prepare the crypt, as it's always been done. So the children, when they came to run the test, wouldn't be harmed. Plenty of old stuff here that can hurt people - ancient tests and traps, pits and holes, bad choices with consequences. So we make it easier, because nobody has ever been really hurt, and that's a tradition we don't want to break. Pillows in the pits, bindings on the traps, blunt arrows."

He sobs and strains to get out the words.

"But someone has been here and something's been woken. Something that should have stayed asleep. And the bones came from below. First the death walkers, then the grave talker. The bones just wanted to kill and kill and kill again. I don't think they know themselves, but they just want death. This crypt is full of bones, there must be more ... he's been making more, I'll wager ... I don't know how many I've sent back, from here ... They slew Shelyn and Krayl, threw them on the fire to burn. Krayl's still annoyed about it, I think. And the dark one, the grave talker in his clanky armour - he took ... he took ... Dimira."

"So Gerol and Vark told me to stay here, and went for help. They took the lantern, kept it safe. Thank Erastil! Here you are, and the town guard, and the Lastwall garrison, must be downstairs now, sorting them out. Like Gerol said they would. Thank the gods they didn't send the children. Ohhhh Dimira! I can't think for thinking about her. What's to become of us now?"

And he sits on the floor, the crossbow completely discarded now. He simply stares ahead, rocking back and forth and crying.

Indeed, that's also what I've been waiting for.

Roldare drops his crossbow and collapses in a heap to the floor, where he sits and gives out several enormous sobs.

"I ... I didn't think anyone would come.". He looks up. "Gerol and Vark made it, then? They made it back and brought help? They said ... they said they'd be able to fight their way out. Told me to wait here. Told me to wait and they'd bring help, and we'd get Dimira back. And maybe Krayl, if we could only kill him again."

Note - I assume that if you're not named on the spoiler you don't read it, and that means for those who are named, if you don't tell the others they don't know about it.