Crossed Paths, Part III

Tullius smiles at the young woman as he offers her his cloak. He tries speaking to her in greek to reassure her. "Don't worry, we're here to help. What's your name? I'm Tullius." He offers her his arm to lean on if she needs it.

"Brioc, what's the plan? Do we help these people back to their town? Then what?"

Despaxas said:

"Brioc, what's the plan? Do we help these people back to their town? Then what?"

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"We help them." Brioc replies. "And if we can, we end the worship of this god Coeus. While our exploration of these ruins is important, I cannot stand by and let innocents be killed."

He pulls a tunic off one of the captured men as he speaks and tosses it to Ehldannis.

"You seem able to speak with these people better than the rest of us, and certainly better than I. Offer that garment to one of them, and tell them they can have anything from any of our captives if they want."

The captives thank the party for the kindness, dress, and begin leading them back to their village. They retrace the party's steps a short way, to where the exited the round room with the trap door. Then turn south and cross a narrow rope bridge. It looks rickity, but everyone makes it across fine. The path then leads down a long tunnel, at least a mile, before coming up in a basement, full of wine barrels and stored foodstuffs.

By this time, Ehldannis' spell has worn off, and communication has become more difficult. Evidently, though, this is the basement of the cheif priest's house, whom Octar shoved off the cliff. The women lead the party upstairs, somewhat blindly, but find a door. Outside, the afternoon sun shines dimly through a misty sky, and the leaves of many trees.

The village appears very poor. The houses constructed of mud and wood, and spread out among the trees and swamp. A few people can be seen as the party walks, hunting, cooking, and cleaning, or working in gardens. The tools and dress look primative. Chickens, and goats are plentiful, but no other livestock is seen.

The women lead the party to an open wooden platform over the damp ground. A wooden statue of a tall woman, sowing seeds, stands in the middle. Dhormium recognizes the statue as Demeter, the Greek goddess of fertility and agriculture. Here the women acost a man setting a trap nearby, and begin a long conversation. The greek speakers understand that the women are describing the near-sacrifice, and their rescue. Later they seem to be asking for help of some kind.

The man approaches the party, bows slightly and smiles respectfully. The party understands his introduction as 'Patriclus.' He invites them back to his home. He wears leather armor, and carries a longsword, longbow and a dagger.

~Having to follow the two rescued women for a while the dwarf cannot shake the thought that they have finished their task for the Sphinx. And already we are undertaking a new one. ‘Very gallant of you Brioc, but your are leaving loose ends behind over which you might trip later’.

Arriving the village the villager remind Dhormium of simpler days of work and food and the company of family. ‘The Hold, my home is farther and farther away with every step I take’. When the villager Patriclus greets them Dhormium acknowledges him and returns him a dwarven greeting and follows him to his home.~

Marcus of the Roma.

Wonder how long the sphinx will wait before getting catty.

Marcus keeps himself occupied keeping a watch out for trouble. He wonders how they are going to handle things without Ehldannis's spell. Then he remembers Tullius has a basic grasp of the language.

The poverty of the village drepresses him somewhat. The live of a Roma is not much better in some ways, but at least they did not have to spend the entirety of it in the same place. A Roma may be poor, but rarely in experience of the world.

Marcus follows Patriculus and the others to where ever it is that he lives.

Reliant on Ehldannis and Tullius' translations, Brioc does his best to follow any conversation. As they emerge from the chief's hut, he blinks in the sunlight and breathes deeply, glad to be out of the still air of the underground.

"Thllius, ask the good Patriclus where we are." He says as he follows after the others. "What the nearest town is, and so on. I am a little disorientated by our time below."

The villagers seem quite ignorant of geography. Patriclus is aware of another city to the south, and of the a dwarven citidel somewhere in the vicinity, as well as a tribe of wood elves to the north. But he's never visited any of these places.

The party is shown to a another crude mud and thatch hut, and told they may sleep here. The women leave and by nightfall return with a generous, though simple meal of smoked fish, peanuts, persimmons, and honeycomb.

Communication is difficult and it's not clear the locals have any idea what to do with the party.

Octar begins to grow uncomfortable, losing the afterglow of pride an achievment that had come from the short, victorious encounter with the cultists. What will they do here?

"Brioc," he says, slowly and thoughtfully, "We should make sure the followers of Coeus can no longer harm innocents, but to do that, we need to figure out who they are and what to do with them. We may not even be able to wipe them all out- if that could be done, the viillagers might have tried it." The difficulty of the situation is beginning to strike him.

"Brioc, I do not think I need to tell you my opinions on us sidetracking from our quest, especially now that we are so close. Let us ask these peole what we can do and be quick about it, doing what we can in a day and no more."

The Elf laughs quietly to himself, "I feel sometimes that you are more the Elf and I the Man, when it comes to seeing out our quest, but I will go by whatever decision you make. You are the leader of this company."

Tullius shrugs his shoulders at Brioc. "Seems to me we can only do harm here. We don't know the politics of the place, we don't know who to trust and who not to. Anyone could lie to us and force us to make a wrong move. I suggest we leave them to sort out their own internal differences. We can't help them in this."

After this uncharacteristically long speech, Tullius sinks down on the floor and falls asleep.