"I'm missing a bit too much of my blood and life force to want to keep going right now," Val agrees. "At the very least, stepping back and using some recovery magic is going to be necessary."
"Right... let's withdraw. Probably next time we come down into a haunted crypt, we should bring more clerics along. Having reliable ways to deal with things like Drocha is a must. But... I'm not sure we could adequately protect them in such a situation."
Hinagiku slowly opens her eyes back once the chatter of the swarm dies down. She looks around to see the state her allies are in, her gaze stopping on each of them in turn.
As the talk on leaving the crypt comes to a consensus, Hinagiku finds herself nodding in agreement.
"It does seem to be the wiser choice... we are in no true hurry, I believe. And so, we should prepare ourselves as well as we could to destroy the oni who caused all this."
When the other prepare to leave, Hinagiku raises one hand, calmly yet in a commanding manner, to stop them.
"Wait. Maybe let Mrs. Valaria and I help you all... we are lighter on our feet."
"Now how do I... Hm. No..." Ehren mutters, frozen in mid-step, his big toe twitching side to side as he tries to determine where he should put his foot down. He really doesn't want to be eaten by angry ghosts.
Xanderghul also begins to creep out of the tomb, trying to move slowly and carefully so as not to crush any of the bones underneath his feet. That wouldn't be so difficult if there was somehow a reasonable number of bones, but come on! Who even came in here and threw all these bones everywhere anyway?
[i]Too slow to speak [i], Hinagiku thinks as she quickly, yet carefully reaches Ehren's, and blocks his foot with her own before he crushes a tiny skull. Feet still intertwined, she carefully guides her boyfriend bare food to a safer spot.
Val stops for a second as she passes Xanderghul. "Easy," she says, reaching out a hand to help him. "You don't want another drocha swarm on your ass."
Helped by Hinagiku and Valaria, Ehren and Xanderghul slowly maneuver their way out of the crypt and outside. It's still raining heavily outside, wind blowing so hard that occasional shingles are blown free and sent flying through the air.
Alrys and the other spectral crusaders are nowhere to be seen, and the heroes' allies are a little further down from the cemetery, holed up in what was once a large shop. Anevia sits on the roof, crouched behind the chimney and keeping a look out for the others. Külə lays morosely in the rain in front of the door in the muddy street, while Lann and Variska are huddled inside of the shop away from the elements.
Variska is the first to greet the heroes as they approach. "There you are!" she says, yelling to be heard over the rain. "All done?" she asks.
"Unfortunately it would seem not," Isilme says, clearly worn down by the weight of the Bodak's vision. "The two Bodaks guarding within posed quite a challenge, and the drocha did not help matters at all."
"Külə, the Drocha tore at us all. Val and Xanderghul first, but all of us were injured," she says. She then focuses on calling forth Desna's blessing to heal the group's wounds.
Külə presses his half-grown horn against Valaria's head. It pulses with light, and warmth suffuses her being, restoring her strength and vitality that the ghosts had sapped just moments before. However, when he turns to Xanderghul to do the same, the light has dulled, and then, it goes out. The unicorn sighs. "Your injuries are too much for me to heal completely on my own."
Xanderghul rubs his forearm. sighing lightly. "Yeah, I think we're gonna have to come back tomorrow." He twists around to get a look at the tomb again and scowls. "We've just slowed down too much. And I'm one enervation away from being destroyed forever, so I think I'd rather sleep it off."
"Before we go, we should take a look around to see if there's anything else on the outside of the town worth seeing. I don't know if we ever found out where those trolls were sleeping, for instance."
Lann scratches his chin with his clawed hand. "Sounds like the crypts are truly infested, then," he replies. "But perhaps we should have expected this, if they were able to shred that troll's body with such little effort. But, I do agree with Xanderghul, scouting out the surrounding area for that bandit's campsite could only help. Worst case scenario, we come up empty handed."
"We can't leave this place too long, but we definitely need more planning than this to successfully go down there. And maybe a cleric or two at our backs. I'm fine with scouting a bit and coming back tomorrow when we're better prepared."
"Thank you," Ehren says to Hinagiku, flustered by her sudden but very welcome assistance. Once they are out of the crypt, he glances over at the cemetery, noticing that Ser Alrys and the other ghosts are gone.
"I'm sorry, Ary. No one should have to witness their ancestors experiencing such torment," he says, wondering how she must be feeling. "We will make things right as soon as we can."
"Finding their camp might lead us right to Lambrecht," Ehren points out when the idea of scouting comes up. They were not prepared for the undead inside the crypt, but he is fairly confident that they could handle the skald if they manage to find him. After what he did to Lann and Xanderghul, he is quite up for the possibility. "It will be difficult to follow their tracks in this weather, but not impossible."
"A night's rest will do us well, but I agree that we should come back immediately," Isilme says. "Taking our time heading back should not pose a problem as long as we are careful. Remember that many of the houses here may be haunted."
With most of the group seeming to agree with Xanderghul's idea, Ehren looks to the muddy road, hoping to find some trace of the path that Lambrecht and the trolls originally used to get to the town. In theory, following them to their origin would lead directly to wherever the trolls had been camping. That is, if the rainfall has not already obliterated their tracks completely.
The heroes decide to head out, and with Ehren at the lead, they circle around the small town looking for signs of foot-prints. With the Archdruid's keen ability to track, even the heavy rain wasn't enough to obscure the signs of the trolls' heavy footprints in the mud. After a short trek, they come to a small camp at the base of the hill. Large holes appear to have been scooped out of the ground here for the trolls to sleep on, and the remnants of a tent, camping debris, and campfire are readily evident. It appears that the area was already hastily ransacked - after a brief survey of the area, there are no items of value to be found, just discarded animal bones from the trolls' last meal.
Ehren inspects the campsite with a frown, surmising that while this might indeed be where Lambrecht retreated to, they were too late to catch him. He briefly entertains the idea of searching for more recent footprints, but tracking the half-orc without his entourage of trolls following him around would be significantly more difficult. Considering the more important task they are laden with, it did not necessarily seem worth the time and effort.
"I suppose that's it, for now." Ary says, looking over to Ehren. "It's... what we do." Ary adds with a small shrug. "We endure, and we strive to make things better. Hopefully we'll be able to fix it tomorrow. But... pushing forward with no preparation of the precise sorts we need is just going to wind up with more losses to grieve. The curse of vengeance can wait long enough for us to weather the worst of this and come back."
Hinagiku smiles in response to Ehren, they had made it safely. Though she lets the feeling trickle to her inner pool, she truly enjoyed closeness to her friend, even if in some kind of muted way.
Enervation? Destroyed forever? These words, and their link, are too complex for Hinagiku to truly comprehend, but clear enough for her to be worried.
"What do you mean Mr. Xanderghul? Are the curses stronger than you thought? If so, we should stop and wait for you to get better... or " Hinagiku stops for a moment, trying to further understand the implications of the wizard's words. "or, is it linked to your fractured soul?" she finally is able to articulate.
Hinagiku passes behind Ehren, making sure she doesn't step too heavily in the mud, and slowly coming to the understand that Lambrecht was there.
"Are there any traces of Mr. Lambrecht, Ehren-kun? We could follow from here, no?" she says, unknowingly suggesting a path that the druid had already deemed too difficult.
Xanderghul gives a weak, slight shrug. "I was struck twice by the bodak gaze while I was inside of the tomb the first time. Too much negative energy and a person simply dies outright."
Variska paces behind Ehren, following his eyes. She points at some more fresh marks in the ground, while Bowie pokes his head out from her backpack curiously to watch. "There was a horse here, by the looks of it. So if we're gonna follow that dick, we gotta get moving fast... he'll be covering ground like crazy."
Lann frowns. "Running out into the Worldwound on a wild chase...might end poorly. There are worse dangers than skalds in the Wound, and a bit of rain and wind won't stop them from hunting us."
"I doubt that he'll be any better at surviving that tomb alone than we were in a group anyway. And there's not much else we saw in town that he might be after. Assuming he even comes back right away and doesn't take some time to recruit more henchmen. If he's already fled, it might be best to worry about him later."
Isilme moves along slowly behind the rest of the group, still haunted by the vision she'd experienced. "Yes, what Val said," she says, clearly sounding worn out by the ordeal. "Let us return to Drezen."
"Yes, that would be for the best," Ehren agrees, knowing all too well how dangerous an excursion into the Wound could be. Losing Lambrecht was frustrating, but they could not afford to needlessly endanger themselves.
"Speaking of horses, we had best make sure that ours are doing okay."
"There's no value in capturing him, I don't think. We could have had a lot of value if we'd captured him before going into the crypt." Ary says, calmly, "But since we'd already missed that opportunity, it's simply too much of a risk to go after him, now. Let's head back."
Hinagiku doesn't pick up on Ary's comment even though she believed the half-man was dangerous. It semed wiser to her to stop him sooner rather than than later. But, Lann was right, pursuing him right now would be dangerous.
And so, "Okay, I am ready." is her sole answer. Although, after taking a few steps toward the town, she turns around.
"Shouldn't we at least search the camp? Maybe Lambrecht left some things that could us more about him."
Adding actions to words, Hinagiku heads for the tent to quickly search for any item of interest or value.
Hinagiku paces around the campsite, looking for anything of interest. At the periphery of the campsite are several crude animal snares, likely to try and capture Worldwound vermin as a food source. The camp is haphazardly strewn about, as Lambrecht had apparently gone through his things in a hurry and left with his most treasured, or useful, possessions. But even so, the Iroran monk decides to take time to poke around in the mud and debris. She comes up empty, finding nothing but a random chest inside the tent. It was once guarded by not one, but two large padlocks, but the locks were left carelessly open, and its contents, already taken.
Afterwards, the heroes head back to collect their horses, and ride through the wind and the rain back to Drezen. Once they reach the borders of Mother Heartwoods' influence, where thin shoots of grass poke through the otherwise barren wasteland, the weather begins to calm, and soon the low-hanging sun is shining overhead. The temperature drops sharply, and so they don their cloaks for warmth for the final thirty minutes or so.
By the time they reach the city gates and stand still to be screened by the watch-men, night has already fallen. The guards at the western gate stand and salute Lord-Commander Bishop as she passes. The heroes head into town, their way illuminated by the stars above. After awhile, they pass by Galfrey's Banner, a tavern and inn set up by a married couple who had moved into Drezen just two months ago. Astrusa Silassea, a retired paladin of Iomedae, had joked with Ary upon meeting her that she hadn't envisioned spending her retirement in a city on the frontlines of the Crusades, 'but, when the Crusader Queen herself wrote us a letter recommending we set up shop there, how could I refuse?'
The tavern now glows from lights inside, and the sound of raucous laughter is heard, even out in the streets. The door opens, and Magister Chaleb Sazomal steps outside, a wash-bin for dirty mugs and plates in his burly arms. Lately his role as a crusader had become more administrative in nature ever since his promotion, but he also spent his nights at Galfrey's Banner working for Astrusa's husband, Celiri, who was a cleric of Cayden Cailean. He turns to dump the dirty, soapy water out into the grass next to the path up to the tavern, and then, as he bends back up, he spots Hinagiku and the others.
"Priestess! Oh, and the Lord-Commander, too!" he says, waving. "Here for a pint?"
Ary can't help but smile as she sees Chaleb. He'd made so much headway since they'd first met him. He'd practically transformed as a person with the aid of a friend and a bit of faith. She was glad that things had worked out as they had.
She begins to shake her head as he suggests they take a moment to drink, "I shouldn-" she begins, but then gives a small self-deprecating smile, "I should, yes. We'll have to be up early in the morning, so just the one pint, I'm afraid." Ary says as she heads for the door, moving to hold the door for him to have an easier time getting back inside.
"One pint can't hurt," Val agrees as she pats Ary on the shoulder. "I think we could all use something to relax after today. It will warm us up after all that rain."
Xanderghul inhales through his nose, then shrugs. "Sure, a bit of recreation in a pub sounds just fine." He beckons Variska inside, and then speeds up so he goes through the door while Ary is still holding it open.
Hinagiku gently smiles at the sight of Chaleb and Ary's reaction. Things truly were slowly beginning to be like home.
"A pint... of water for me." she says, not placing an order, but clarifying that she wouln'd be drinking alcohol. "It is good to see you so happy. I guess the Drunken Hero is after all more in line with your lifestyle." she continues while she moves behind Ary to hold the door for her, Chaleb and the others.
Once they are inside, Hinagiku follows Xanderghul's lead to the table he has picked and silently sits. She eyes the others as they slowly set their things down, her gaze lingering on Xanderghul for whom she was worried; the shabti was under the effect of multiple curses and reminded completely stoic. His pride was great, but even then she was surprised at how good he was at hiding the pain.
"Mr. Xanderghul, apart from drinking, is there anything you particularly like doing in a tavern?" she asks, hoping her question might draw the wizard's thoughts away from the pain.
Xanderghul speeds to the pub's largest and most central table and then takes a seat at its head, beckoning for the others to join him. When Hinagiku sits next to him and asks him about tavern recreation, he sighs (inwardly - it would not do to show disdain so plainly and openly in a casual setting like this one).
Hidden under the table, Xanderghul is steadily wringing his hands by grasping the thumb of one hand with the other and then slowly twisting it. He switches hands and does it again, then repeats.
He thinks on the answer to Hinagiku's question. It would be a strange thing to make something up from absolutely nothing, but his replies also had to advance a certain image he enjoyed cultivating. He gives a wry grin and says, "I enjoy games of chance," he says. "If only for the look on someone's face when I beat them."
It was easy to figure out games of chance, after all. They were almost all actually based on mathematics, which could be manipulated if one knew. Most people were too intellectually lazy to take advantage of this fact or were ignorant of it, meaning that they thought they had an even chance of beating Xanderghul. In fact, they were just taking random moves in a non-random game, meaning that they often had no chance at all of winning, increasing their frustration.
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"Mr. Chaleb and his friends have taught me a few card games over the years. If you want, we could play. But, I think you might be disappointed if all you are looking for is an expression of disappointement." Hinagiku answers honestly.
Xanderghul raises an eyebrow in interest, intrigued by Hinagiku's attempt at verbal sparring. "If we can invite the others to join, I can amuse myself more than sufficiently with the disappointment of others."
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Chaleb's smile widens. "Excellent! Come on in, come on in, there's plenty of room..."
Lann nods, returning the man's smile. "I agree, I'd appreciate the moment to unwind," he says, following the others into the inn.
Anevia shakes her head, waving the others goodbye. "Actually... I want to check in with Sana and my wife. If I run, I won't miss getting to tuck her in goodnight. Have a good night, everyone!"
Variska waves. She certainly wasn't missing an opportunity for booze and revelry, and so she takes a seat with the others. She lets Bowie out of her pack - the little fox seemed happy to have a chance to stretch his legs after being cooped up most of the afternoon in her backpack. The inn itself is a two-story building of timber and brick walls, with several leaded stained glass windows bearing the holy symbol of Drezen and coat of arms of Mendev. Inside are several well-made wooden tables and chairs as well as a large bar area with stools. The top floor was still mostly unfinished, and accommodations were simply a large room with several wooden cots. The tavern was bustling with activity, mostly crusaders relaxing and swapping stories after a long day of work and patrols.
Astrusa Silassea waves at Lord-Commander Bishop from the back. "Oh, Chaleb! You've found more customers, excellent!" She pushes her wheelchair forwards to approach the heroes courteously. She had lost both legs during the Battle of Nerosyan, and subsequently retired, but she never seemed to let her handicap darken her mood. "Let me take your orders. We have perry, mead, ale, cider, bourbon and some of that funky mushroom beer crafted by one of the Underfolk.... not for lightweights, let me tell you. We also have salted pork, cheese, and warm pottage if anyone's hungry."
While the retired paladin takes everyone's orders, Altel of the Condemned overhears Hinagiku and Xanderghul's conversation. "Did I hear that you're wanting to play games? Chaleb commissioned these wicked new glasses... I'll challenge any of ya to chugging a yard of ale!"
Ehren smiles pleasantly at Chaleb, who in the space of a year and a few months, has managed to become something resembling a respectable man. Truthfully, he had not originally given him much thought, taking for granted the unpleasant first impression he left on them during their initial encounters. But having seen much of the hard work the crusader has put in and the genuine change he has undergone, it was impossible for the druid not to acknowledge him.
After waving goodbye to Anevia, Ehren follows Hinagiku into the tavern, which seemingly sprouted from the ground in his absence. As far as things have progressed over the past year, Drezen still has much more growing to do. The druid leaves his oak staff next to the doorway and takes a seat next to Hinagiku, where he sighs with contentment. He has not had a chance to relax like this since the last time he was in Drezen for longer than two days.
”Some cider would be much appreciated,” Ehren says to Astrusa with a smile, knowing that the very last thing he needed was to drink himself under the table. The less said about the one time he tried mushroom beer, the better. Turning his attention to the table, he listens to Xanderghul with thinly veiled interest. ”I would find it hard to be disappointed if there is nothing is at stake.”
Ehren grimaces at Altel’s suggestion. ”How many pints is a yard?”
"Mead, if you'd be so kind," Val says, dropping down at the table with the others. "Something fruity if you have it." Her ears perk up a little bit as Xander and Hinagiku talk across the table. "Sometimes you can catch a good show at a nice tavern too," she adds off-hand "Depends on the mood I suppose."
"'bout two and a half pints," Altel says with a grin. "First person to chug it all down without choking is the winner. So, anyone in?"
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Xanderghul wasn't the biggest fan of extreme drunkenness - in fact, he disliked it. However, he had trouble saying no to a simple, harmless challenge, and he had even more trouble saying no to something strange and edible. "I'll have a mushroom beer, and a pillow for Altel, who will be on the floor when I'm finished with him," he says, raising a hand.
Ary says her goodbyes with Anevia as everyone else that's going to enter the tavern does, moving to the seat opposite Hinagiku, beside Xanderghul at the head. "One water... and some bourbon. I've never tried it before." Ary says, somewhat sheepishly, as she watches the goings-on of her allies. She grins a little at Hinagiku saying she wouldn't show disappointment, then rolls her eyes at the talk of the pillow being needed.
"Is there anything I can do to help out around here, get it further up-and-running than it already is?" Ary asks passively as she looks about the structure. The cots upstairs were reminiscent of a bunker, which, truth be told, felt like a long-lost home, in many ways. She let a small smile slip again, before turning her attention back to her friends.
Hinagiku distractedly lowers her hand to pet Bowie... for some reason, she had felt some kind of affinity with it when she had first seen it.
"Hello Mr. Altel... and no thanks, you know it is not my kind of game. I am afraid you have already won against me Mr. Xanderghul." she turns toward Ehren, hand brushing against his. "Even with important things at stake, it is possible to remain impassive, but only if you learn to let go of things. It takes time though. Anyway, I am afraid Mr. Xanderghul might still not get what he wants if others drink themselves to sleep. No?" she continues, somewhat hoping she might avoid others too participate in drinking games. But, if she failed, at least she knew she could be of help by bringing them back to their homes.
"What about you Ary, have you played games of cards.... or even drinking games in the past?" Hinagiku continues, as the commander starts working again by trying to inquire about the inn.
Astrusa smiles at Ary. "Always looking out for us, you are. We are surely blessed by our Lady of Valor to have a Lord Commander like you watching over the city." She thinks for a moment on her question. "Right now, it boils down to boring logistics. We're trying to save up for some proper, soft, goose-down beddings for the rooms upstairs... once we're finished building the rooms, that is. But that's all taken care of... could you thank Magister Leufkens for sending us those three young ones to help with the construction? They've been fantastic help."
She then finishes taking everyone's orders and then deftly turns her wheelchair towards the bar, then pauses. "Actually, Lord Commander, there is something you could do for us. Could you please speak to that Joran fellow, the dwarf who lives up at the Citadel? He got into a fist fight with another patron and my husband had to throw the two of them out." She shrugs and smiles, then wheels off for the bar to collect their drinks from her husband. In the past year, Joran had become sullen and withdrawn, but he performed his community service towards the Crusades without complaint and had proven to be a great help to Aron and the other engineers in their work to rebuild the city's defenses. When he wasn't working, though, Joran was either found drinking, or sleeping off having had too much to drink.
Meanwhile, Altel grins. "Hah! Mushroom beer it is. You talk big now, but we'll see what you have to say after I drink you under the table!"
Variska smirks. "Ah, what the hell. I'm in."
"You got it," Altel shuffles off to find Chaleb and a short wait later, after Astrusa had already returned with everyone's glasses, the two Condemned return carrying extremely long beer glasses, with a trumpet mouth that tapers down to a long thin shaft, before ending in a round bulb. The bulb, of course, was designed so that the final glugs of ale would rush onto the patron's face, due to the sudden rush of beer. The glasses are filled with mushroom beer, which is an unappetizing brownish-greenish color, with a distinctively musty aroma. But the stuff had its fans, much as anything else.
While Bowie nuzzles Hinagiku's hand and whines for kitchen scraps from under the table, Altel hands out the yards of ale to Xanderghul, Variska, and anyone else who wanted to compete.
Chaleb crosses his arms, overseeing the event. "Alright, on my count of three. One... two...three... down the hatch!"
Altel grips the long glass container with both hands and starts glugging down the disgusting, green beer...
Xanderghul grabs the huge glass of disgusting fungus beer and upends it into his mouth, keeping an eye on Altel and working to beat the Condemned soldiers at their own game. This was a game that wasn't based on math, but he sure as Hells wasn't going to let himself be beaten by common rabble.
Variska grabs the end of the beer-glass and upturns it into her mouth... but she was overeager, and utterly unprepared for the actual taste or aroma of the mushroom beer. She coughs and sputters almost immediately, spilling most of the contents over her clothes.
"Ah, f*$!ing hells, what is this stuff?" she groans.
Lann smiles apologetically. "It's an... ah...an acquired taste, to be sure," he says, carefully cutting into a wedge of swiss cheese with a fork and knife.
Val takes her mead as the innkeeper brings over the drinks and decides that avoiding drinking something vaguely green is likely the wiser decision. "I'll stick with mead," she says as she shifts slightly away from the tall glasses of mushroom beer. The tiefling absently clicks her tongue as the tavern keeper brings up Joran. She feels a hint of regret as she realizes that she hasn't talked to the man properly in weeks, even if he was working with Aron. She's hardly talked to him at all. It was clear that he was far from adjusting to his brother's death. Perhaps he wouldn't improve at all without help.
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Ehren smiles at Hinagiku, but his attention is quickly grabbed by the ludicrously long glasses of beer. He finds himself impressed by their sheer ridiculousness. Oh. So that's what two and a half pints of beer looks like...
"I think I will pass," he remarks bluntly. He does not need the wisdom of the ages to know that participating would be a terrible, terrible idea. Even so, the druid's good sense does not preclude him from spectating the contest. He finds no joy in the disappointment of others like Xanderghul does, but he cannot help but to be a little curious about who will win.
"An acquired taste, for sure,” he replies with just a hint of sarcasm, when Variska sputters on her beer. Perfectly content with his cider, Ehren takes a measured sip of from his mug, more keen on savoring the drink's flavor than on guzzling it down as quickly as possible. Where was the enjoyment in that?
Altel continues to chug the beer, keeping pace with Xanderghul until the very end... the final gush of beer rushes out and into his throat, and he starts to cough and gag.
"Xanderghul wins!" Chaleb says with a grin, slapping the wizard on the back. "Care for another round?"
Altel sputters for a moment before regaining his composure. "Ah, f$+$. Well. Y'win fair and square," he says slapping a silver piece on the table and sliding it over towards him, Galfrey-side up.