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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nthal" data-source="post: 8017810" data-attributes="member: 6971069">Homecoming Deeds - 6/20/2020 There is a nasty saying that ‘Fiends love to undo the deeds of charity.”  It might be true.  But there was a sect in Sigil that believe, the more you gave, the more you got in return. So, its nice when the latter happens.  But then you keep looking over your shoulder for that fiend. And powers willing; poke him in the eye.It was, once again, a long walk. The forest on our flanks was grander, the air cooler, and there was the sound of the River Raurin next to us.  We stayed near the banks as we marched, hoping to find a barge to take us to the city.   But no barges plied the waterway today.  And after a while the march feels like any other.  But it had been almost three months since we had had shared the road together.  And it was different.Iesa and Daneath were in the lead; Daneath’s new armor allowed him to stay near the front with Iesa and do so quietly.  The pair were animated, eager to get out and travel the world again.  The rest had done them good, and they were in good humor, despite the circumstances.  In fact, I noticed, they were as happy as Mo was, who ranged freely ahead, climbing trees and looking about.  He too wanted to see new thing again.Beepu, however was on edge; short with us all, and constantly muttering to himself.  Foggle reflected his mood, circling around constantly.  When he landed, his head would spin in circles, never stopping, watching all around.  Then Beepu would glare at his familiar, and it would be off again.  There was no mystery to this, but his mother was clearly on his mind and his concern clear.As for myself, I was somewhere between melancholy and dread.  Until I was here on the other side of the portal, I didn’t realize how attached I had become to the Misty Forest and its people.  And Arnara.  But sadness grew distant, as the spires of Silverymoon came slowly into view.  The debt I that had, felt almost physical; a weight on my shoulders measured in yards of chain.  How this wasn’t my journey, but theirs.  Following the trail of Umbra and Pachook, and their efforts against the Kershak.  I helped them because it made sense at the time, a potential path home.  But now?Umbra was certainly dead at this point, and as for Pachook it was unclear.  Certainly, Beepu’s mother was of a more immediate concern.  But nothing was leading me home.  Paying off this debt, didn’t change the second debt that I was guessing that involved my father.  The Kershak was a threat to me only because I was helping the others.  I knew that if I could run far enough away, that problem would probably disappear.But I could no more do that, than I could force the sun to rise in the west.  The chains of the debt laid upon me was too strong…and I cared.   I cared to see them through their journey, because they saved me to continue my own.“You alright Myr?” Iesa asked, as I realized he now walked beside me.“I’m not looking forward to this,” I said looking at Beepu who was muttering to himself, and not paying attention to any of us.  “It feels like something bad has already happened, and we are still in the blinds.”“You didn’t want to leave, did you?”I looked at Iesa, “No…in the end I didn’t.  I have my own mysteries to solve, but no reason to chase it right now.  And I guess after years of being in the Hive, a little peace and bliss seemed overdue.”Iesa nodded, “After my mother died, and I was on my own in Waterdeep it was hard. Even Mo couldn’t chase away the darker days of rain and hunger,” he said scratching the monkey sitting on his shoulder.  “So yeah, the forest was something I didn’t want to leave either, especially after meeting Hylias.”I looked at as Iesa in puzzlement, “Hylias?  She was one of the rangers as I recall.  You two were…?”He shook his head, “No…she was a hunting partner only.  But, she was masterful one at that; she knew everything about the forest.  She knew how to prepare and hunt her quarry.  She taught me a lot.  And I have to thank you Myr.”“For what?”“All I had to do was let her talk about hunting and we connected.  I would have loved for it to have gone further, but…she wasn’t interested.  But she did enjoy hunting with me, or so she said.  I suppose that memory is enough,” Iesa said with a sad smile.“It was the same with Arnara and I,” I said.“Really?  I heard a rumor though—” Iesa started.“I found out about that rumor during the celebration.  We were close, but not as close as the rumor implied,”“Are you sure about that?”I said nothing, as I really wasn’t sure of the answer.  However, I didn’t need to.“Well, I suppose we have other worries right now, with…wow,” Iesa stopped talking suddenly, as we came around a hillock and saw our destination.The Hall of Stars at the tree in the Misty Forest was a sublime piece of nature combined with skilled stone craft.  But that was a city of the wood elves, tied to nature and an outright rejection of the ancient elves magic and rule before the Crown Wars.  That was not this city; this one embraced both magic and civilization.  The buildings were low, and constructed of fine stonework, and shale rooves.  The city was bisected by the River Rauvin, which we could see piers with barges moored on the northern bank.  That bank had the majority of the city, with the southern, being much smaller and newer.  But spanning and connecting the two was a shimmering silver white bridge, the Moon Bridge.   A work of great magic of the elves.  The late afternoon suns’ light caused the river to glitter and reflected off the white stone walls daring time to tarnish them.Before long we had reached the ‘New Gate’ and without hassle, found ourselves inside the city.  We crossed the Moonbridge and I admit to being a little slow to do so.  I could feel the magical power coursing through what felt to be solid stone.  But it looked more like a ribbon of shimmering silver, and not stonework at all.   I was walking slowly just looking at it when Iesa prodded me to move on.  I smiled and chuckled to myself, here I was the jaded Sigilite, and here I was cagestruck in a Prime city.After crossing the Moonbridge, Beepu’s pace picked up considerably.  Normally our paces were a bit slower so he could keep up with our longer legs.  But now, his pace was relentless, and it seemed to quicken as we passed through the narrow streets west of the open of the market.  We turned a corner, and Beepu dashed towards a building with us, struggling to keep up.The street was lined with townhouses, all with a shop on the first floor, and what appeared to be residences above them.  It was on a street that clearly was one of successful craftsmen or merchants; well to do, but not a noble or merchant prince.  Beepu had run straight into one, which a green door of a height comfortable for a human, but the handles were set low, for a gnome or halfling.  He threw it open and called out for someone in his native tongue.  The windows in front were of a frosted glass, not letting us see inside, but over the door was a simple sign with a gear and a doll painted on it.  I was the last to step inside, but before I did so;Goss, fly around outside here, see what you can.--Sure thing; am I looking for something in particular?Yes. Anyone interested in us.I stepped inside what I guessed was the darkened shop; there were no lamps or torches lit inside.  On the counters all around were clockworks and dolls.  Even more toys and automatons crowded the shelves and even some hung from the rafters.  A passage led beyond and a stairwell let to the upper floors.  As I looked around, I realized there was a bit of dust on the tables and other flat surfaces.  As I looked around, Daneath came from the passage shaking his head.“Kitchen and pantry back there, and a door to a common garden area,” he said quietly.  “But the door is locked, and the bread and cheese in the pantry are moldy.”  From above, I could hear Beepu calling out for someone.“That’s bad,” Iesa said, running a finger on the counter.  “Dusty as well…no one has been doing business here.”Foggle had set itself down on a perch and twisted its head back and forth and uttered a solitary ‘Beeeepuuuu’ before going silent.  I then started towards the stairs to head upwards.“I’m going to poke around some more down here,” Daneath said.  Iesa and I nodded and made our way to the second floor.  As we reached the landing, Beepu dashed from a room, and headed up another flight of stairs.“Not good, but at least he hasn’t found anything bad yet,” Iesa said.  I nodded quietly in response.   The floor was a hall which led to four bedrooms.  Nearby there was a window that overlooked the front door, which had a table and a lantern on it.  I moved over to look closer and noticed that it had little dust on it.   I pulled open the panel door and saw the remains of spent of a lot of candlewax at the bottom.  As I looked, Iesa poked his head in the rooms.“Interesting, one of the rooms has a human sized bed,” he said.I looked at Iesa and thought and then remembered.  “Could Kingsley have been staying here?”“Very likely, but not recently.” Iesa said looking around concerned.  “No one has been here in at least a month.  Maybe more.  But nothing seems horribly out of place either.”I nodded and decided to follow Beepu upstairs.  As I reached the topmost floor, it was clear that our concerns were justified.The top floor was a workshop; there were racks of gears, and chests of small drawers and benches to on projects.  Tools would have hung from hooks and harnesses jutting from the sides of the wall.  But the room was torn asunder.  Tools and papers scattered everywhere on the floor along with gears, sheets of metal, some flat, some bent, and shards of glass everywhere.  The drawers were pulled from their chest and scattered across the floor along with their contents. Benches were overturned along with a pair of tables.  Nothing was where it should have been.In the middle of this cacophany was Beepu, kneeling on his knees, his mouth agape, arms slack at his sides.   His breathing was short as he looked at the disarray.   Iesa and I looked at each other unsure on what to say to Beepu.  Then from behind us we heard the armored steps of Daneath climb the stairs.“What happened here?”  he whispered as he surveyed the damage.“Someone was looking for something,” Iesa responded giving Daneath a dirty look.“I get that,”  Daneath punched Iesa in the shoulder.  “But why here?  The other floors are untouched.”I thought a moment. “They weren’t looking for a wedding ring,” I said.“Why do you say that?” Daneath asked me.“Because they have his mother; they have one of the rings now.  They were looking for something else.”  I said.  “And they haven’t found it yet.”“How do you know that?”  Iesa asked confused.“Beepu told me there were parts needed.  A wedding ring was only one of them.”“Well they didn’t find one thing,”  Daneath said.[HR][/HR]Moments later Daneath, Iesa and I were standing over a mound of earth in the shared courtyard of the buildings on the block.   The grass had already covered it up completely, but the arrangement of the stone ring around it gave the firm impression it was a grave.“Who’s is it?” Iesa whispered.“It’s small, barely the size of a gnome,” I said.  “How did you find it?”“The stone ring.   When my mast…Umbra was training us, one of the students died in an accident.  He had them buried on the site, just like this.”“Could it be…” Iesa asked Daneath not finishing the next word.“It’s small, but that may not mean much,” Daneath choked on his words.  “Myr can you…do you have…”I looked at Daneath in shock, “I could exhume whoever it is and put them back…if that’s what you want.  I don’t really have anything else,”“I need to know.   Please.” Daneath whispered.I gulped and nodded.  I then knelt by the grave and whispered aloud, while clasping the symbol around my neck.“I pray for forgiveness on disturbing the rest of the dead.  I shall return them swiftly back to your care after we find the answers we seek.”   I then reached out and slowly pulled on strands, scraping them across and beneath the earth.  Quickly, the earth churned, and I slowly moved more and more dirt and silt away from the rocks.  Suddenly, an oblong shaped box came into view; far too small to hold a body.  It was no more than a foot deep, and the box itself wasn’t very large either; a hand and half in length, and a hand high and deep.Hesitantly I reached for the box and pulled it out of the earthen hole.  I scraped away the dirt and doing so, exposing the wood underneath.  I shook it gently and could feel the shifting of something loose inside.  I then cleaned off more of the outside of the box with my fingers and I found, burned into the side of the box the image of a double looped snake, eating its tail.   The sign of the Kershak.Grimacing, I turned to the two brothers and sadly said.“I think this is the final resting spot of Umbra, and these are his ashes,” and I gave the box to Iesa for him to look at.The brothers looked down at the small box in Iesa’s hands in silence.  But both of their eyes were watering with emotion.“I’ll leave you together for as long as you need, and I’ll reinter him when you are ready,” and I walked back into kitchen and then reentered the shop, leaving them to their grief.  I sighed and looked around the shop seeing if there was anything amiss here.--Hey Myr, there is someone looking at the shop across the wayAre they being sneaky?--No…not really.  I think they are a shopkeeper…yes!  It seems to be their shop and he is closing up.  But he keeps looking at this one.I considered a moment getting the others and decided that everyone else had enough on their minds.  So, I opened the front door from the shop, put on a smile and walked across the thoroughfare.Across the way an old man was lifting and putting baskets into a cart, each holding bolts of cloth.  His hands were meticulously clean, with callouses on the edges of fingers.     His slight frame was a knot of corded muscles as he lifted each basket.“Need a hand?” I asked.“You don’t look like a merchant…or a Tilteepockey,” he observed.  “A little tall, a little young, and a little nosey.”“I am certainly some of those, but I do count Beepu as a friend.” I counter hands open and smiling.The man nodded, “I thought it was him.  He still has that monstrosity with him?”“Foggle?  He’s not so bad once you get use to the oil drippings.”The man nodded, “That’s good enough.  I won’t say no to your help then.”I moved over and lifted one of the baskets and placed it on the cart.“Don’t suppose you’ve seen his mother, or Pachook?” I asked as I moved to grab another one.“Pachook? I haven’t seen him in a long time, over a year, I think.  And Helsa?  The shop has been closed for what, five or six weeks.  Haven’t seen her or her manservant.”“Manservant?  Kingsley?” I asked as I lifted another basket.“You know him?”“Beepu recommend he come here after he ran into…trouble,” I said evasively.“Not my business I suppose.”“It wasn’t Kingsley’s either, but he did us a good turn, and we returned the favor.”“So, you sent him to Helsa?”“He saved our lives, and we helped him start a new one,” I said thinking back to the dock in Yartar.The old man nodded, “He’s a good man.  But I haven’t seen him either, but someone keeps coming home.”  And placed a basked on the cart and leaned on it looking at me.I lifted the last basket onto the cart, “How do you know that?” I asked looking at him quizzically.“I’m not a learned man, but I finally got around to learning my letters and I try to read in the evenings.  My bedroom looks across the way and there has been a light on the second floor from near dusk to dawn.”I leaned against the baskets looking at him, “So Kingsley has been home?”“I doubt it; normally he’d help me in the morning and the evening like you are now.  I’d like to think he would stop by if it were him.  But I never seen who it is that lights it,” he moved toward the end of the cart, and starts to push it inside.  “Thank you, I hope you can find them…For Beepu’s sake.”I nodded and started back.  But then something occurred to me.“Hey, one last question.”“How you doing?” I asked Daneath and Iesa as I entered the workshop.“We…said our goodbyes,” Iesa said quietly.“Do you need me to—”“We buried him again ourselves.  If you think you need—”I shook my head, “There is no one right way.  People have buried kin without priests, without ceremony for as long as people have been.  You’ve done everything you need.”  I said with a tear in my eye and a smile.  “There is nothing more I…need to do.  This was his final stop though.  The weaver across the way saw Umbra with Pachook here over a year ago.  And now, he’ll never leave.”I looked down at the floor and turned my head to look at Beepu.He had not moved from his spot.  His eyes looked glazed at his father’s work area.  Tools, gears, cogs, rods, shattered constructs.Shattered dreams.Shattered hopes.Shattered souls.I closed my eyes and breathed a moment, clearing my head.“We have to get ready,” I said.Deneath’s head snapped up.  “What?  Why?”“The lantern on the second floor has been getting lit every night for weeks.”The brothers look at each other and then back at me frowning.“I want to meet the lightboy.”Session notes:For reference, this is literally the first thing that happened after a bunch of dice rolls “what did you do in the Forest.”  What happened wasn’t really described.But the dread was real enough.</blockquote>

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