Tree Lords II

[Jenara]

"I suppose I can stay here, not much to do..." Her eyes go to one of the bedrolls, as she pulls off the armor and drops it on the floor. "I suppose I should sleep.." pulling off the undergarments with her back turned to the group and pulls on a white robe.

[HorizonsDream]

"I think we should all stick together at this point. We are stronger together than we are alone," Imani says. "Besides, we don't know if Malika is actually in danger or not."

[JadedDM]

"I somehow doubt she stumbled upon a luxury inn," Ulster points out.

Thuskar nods. "If whoever she went with was friendly, it brings up the question why they didn't try to help us out, as well."

[NoTrammeling]

Fikod leans back on his pack, grunting as he resettles to avoid something particularly pointy. "Aye. Well and, I'm at home throwing daggers or with short sword in hand. The guard taught me the sword, and the slums taught the dagger." He fiddles with the end of his mustachios, undoing them. "Glad of the coin." He spits. "The Daergar won't need it in the Abyss."

[Breila]

"If Malika was led away by Kirath, maybe they thought that people as stupid as us don't deserve help" Babushka observes drily. "And perhaps they are watching us all along.

So why don't we settle for the night? I f we don't leave tomorrow, we can discuss everything else then."

[Jerrard]

"You are most likely correct. She encountered someone to aid her, and most likely blames us for abandoning her." Jerrard says as he shakes his head at the kender. I will follow your lead Imani, if you wish to stay together then that is what we will do."

"Let us rest, do you agree with the watches? If so, I will study, and rest."

[Jenara]

Sitting crosslegged Locky starts to pray, all healing where she can.

[HorizonsDream]

Imani glances over to Fikod. "The guard and the slums?" she asks.

[NoTrammeling]

Fikod spends a moment looking down at his mustachios, each braid carefully undone and each ornament placed before him on the ground. He opens his mouth to speak just as Imani begins to doubt her words were understood. "I was a squad leader in Thorbardin, back in the days of me youth. Me station secured the position, nay experience to me name." He finishes the unbraiding, finding a small comb and jar of oil amongst his belongings. He takes the comb in one hand, lifting his eyes to meet Imani's. "Good days. Never lost an earthbrother where we could help it. Aye and after, the slums..." Fikod fades out, restoring the lustre to his impressive mustaches by carefully rubbing them with oil. "But a night such as this, best to let ghosts lie still, old and new."

[Jerrard]

"We have all seen things we would rather forget." Jerrard says quietly, placing some tabacco in his pipe, giving Thuskar a simple glance. "We should move those dwarves into the depression..." He adds soberly, "How is the Kirath?"

[Jenara]

"Oh sorry." Slipping out of the bedroll Locky checks on the Elfs wounds, "So much death." She says in an un Kenderlike way. "I think I remember how Elves deal with a passing."

Religion check:1d20=12 pass.

[HorizonsDream]

"Everyone has a story," Imani says thoughtfully. She can't hide the amusement she gets as she watches the dwarf take such careful care of his beard. "Though, I will save the harder questions for another time."

[JadedDM]

With that decided, the party begins working while they still have a few hours of sunlight remaining.

Thuskar, Ulster and Babushka begin the long, arduous and rather unpleasant task of collecting the bodies. They start with the seven elves, moving them all into Building B (on the map) so Locky can hopefully perform the cleansing ritual the following day. The eight kirath--the living one--is brought to Building A, which the party is currently using for a makeshift camp. He remains comatose, but stable. Without healing magic, he likely won't wake up for a long time.

They then search the remaining buildings for a suitable place to hold the dwarves. Buildings C and D are pretty much identical to Building B. Building E, however, is different. Aside from being larger than the rest, it appears to be much more intact. Rusty spears and tarnished armor line the walls and the floor is littered with crumbling scrolls. The most interesting feature, though, is a hole in the ground. The shaft is eight feet wide and seems to descend hundreds of feet into the underway; this is likely how the Daergar first arrived.

For the time being, they decide on putting the dwarf bodies in Building C. This takes much longer, as there are over 40 bodies to collect. Once it's done, they do their best to seal up the place with rocks and debris. Night has fallen by the time they finish.

Before then, though, the others set about to other tasks. Locky keeps a close eye on the unconscious kirath and struggles to remember Silvanesti burial rites. She never paid much attention to the more boring stuff like that back during her training, but to her surprise, she finds she can recall the ritual fairly clearly. She's not a Silvanesti, and there are no funeral clothes to bury them in; and they'll need to find a nearby source of water to clean up the bodies. So it won't be perfect, but it seems better than leaving them to rot or just burying them in the ground.

Jerrard and Imani mostly just rest, too tired to help the others with their tasks. Jeremy makes use of the extra time by counting out all of the coins they found. His grand total comes to 2,245 steel pieces and 4,561 gold pieces.

Fikod, though exhausted, manages to gather his strength and climb down the depression to collect a flask's worth of whisper spider venom to add to his collection. When he's done, Ulster, Thuskar and Babushka burn the spider's body as part of their clean-up effort.

When night falls, they all meet back in Building A and prepare camp for the night.

=============

Fikod collects a flask of whisper spider venom but loses a flask of oil.

(OOC: We'll move forward tomorrow unless anyone has anything they want to do first.)

[Breila]

Yes, let's move forward. Does Babushka remember any source of water they have passed recently?

[NoTrammeling]

(Am good to go to tomorrow)