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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 820595" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #215] The Better Part of Valor[/PLAIN]The ranger was hunched over Draelond in the clearing outside the cave. Finian's hands worked feverishly to apply herbs and bind the fallen man's various wounds.  Ixin stood beside him holding the Archer's longsword so that its pale blue glow played across the warrior's body. She glanced over fearfully at the sound of Ruze huffing out of the cave shouldering Ledare's steel-plated frame. After the stench of the lower caves, the night air smelled particularly sweet to the Battleguard."Lay her down here," Ixin suggested. "Finian can-""No," Ruze panted as he continued moving as quickly as he could toward the trail at the western edge of the clearing. "They're right behind-"His last words were drowned out as a cloud of bats exploded from the cave mouth in a flurry of leathery flapping and high-pitched shrieks. They surged outward, enveloping the group and momentarily blotting out the meager light from Finian's sword. Then they took to the cloud-covered sky, circling overhead but making no overtly threatening actions. Their squeals and whistles were maddening.Finian scrambled to shove his healing supplies back into their satchel. "Come on!" he said to Ixin. "Help me get him out of here!"The bats showed no signs of following them and once they'd followed the dried riverbed a ways southward from the caves, they stopped long enough for Finian and Ruze to dress both Draelond's and Ledare's injuries. While they worked, Ixin had Martivir survey the area nearby from the air to make sure they weren't being followed."Don't worry yourself, Finian," Ruze said as they worked. "I think that was a good plan to throw the blinding things. Who would have known it would not have affected the bat creatures?""Thank you for your support," Finian said without looking up. Whether he felt responsible for their situation or not showed not at all in his voice. "It was a good idea, but it was too 'spontaneous' and in too close quarters."Ixin's familiar drifted silently down from the cloudy sky and settled on the mage's broad shoulder. The owl hooted softly to the woman and she thanked him before turning to the others. "Marty says that we're alone apart from some 'food' - squirrels and the like.""Good," Finian said, taking his waterskin and splashing its contents in Draelond's face. The warrior sputtered and stared around groggily. "Let's get moving. We should return to Rherram's with great haste and in the quickest manner possible."Of course, with two comrades as injured as Draelond and Ledare, there was little hasty or quick about their journey. They picked their way along the trail with the warrior and the Janissary barely able to maintain a pace half as fast as the others. Martivir ranged ahead while everyone else stayed close to one another. The owl reported back that the three undead that Ruze had turned away with Shaharizod's power had returned to the clearing where they had first encountered them. The group wisely elected to bypass the clearing and return to Rherram's by a route further to the north.Before they had exited the sparse woodland, it began to rain. The cold drizzle did nothing to improve the group's spirits and by the time they mounted the long slope at the edge of Rherram's property, they were soaked to the skin.The courtyard in front of the healer's house was filled with miserable-looking people. Many of them were ordinary folk, who were enduring the rain and the hour dressed in shabby wet clothes, but their was a cluster of men in their midst dressed in splint mail armor and wielding longspears. Finian recognized them from his last visit to Strenchburg Junction as members of the Watch. The Watchmen stood around the door to Rherram's infirmary where two men were arguing."And I say again!" the larger of the two men shouted over the rain, "if you had gotten off your lazy arse and done something about those guild thieves when they first started-""There is no thieves guild in Strenchburg Junction!" the other man interrupted. His voice was strong and commanding and it carried clearly to the back of the crowd where the Companions stood uncertainly. Finian easily recognized the voice of Constable Boralle."No thieves guild that you are willing to break up, you mean!" the first man countered and there was a murmur of approval from the mob of men and women who stood watching the exchange. His voice was just as powerful as the Constable's and he was working the crowd. Ixin recognized him as the man she had met earlier that day at the tavern; it was he who had convinced her to venture out to find the kidnapped girl, Nilia."Are you accusing me of something, Tobrannon?" the Contable barked, his tone as sharp and deadly as a bear trap. "Because if you don't like the way the law works in the Junction, you're welcome to use another caravanserai!""I don't think that Mikal was accusing you of anything, Constable," a third man said from the doorway behind Tobrannon. The bearded man moved his bulk aside to reveal the speaker. Ledare's first thought was that the man was Mendel and her hand went unconsciously to the handle of her sword. But this man was taller and younger with a full head of lank hair."You don't speak for me, Gurnie," Tobrannon growled but before the argument could progress any further, someone in the crowd spotted the haggard Companions and gave a shout. In an instant, all eyes were on them.Mikal Tobrannon's keen gaze spied Ixin and he began moving toward her. The crowd parted before his massive form like water at the prow of a sailing ship. "Ah! My champion!" he said loudly, gesturing at the tall woman. "What news do you bring of Nilia? Has she been found?" He looked about the group as if expecting the girl to be hiding behind one of them."Not yet," the mage replied. "But I-" Her voice faltered as murmurs and curses drifted through the crowd at Tobrannon's back."And what of this lot?" the big man wagged his beard at the Grey Companions. "Are they the ones responsible for these foul deeds?""Don't make yourself more the fool Tobrannon!" Constable Boralle spat as he forced his way to the larger man's side. The Constable studied the group with a shrewd eye. "Do you not recognize one of the king's own Janissaries when you see one." He indicated Ledare's worn tabbard which bore the symbol of The Realms beneath its many blood stains. Another murmur arose from the crowd at this new revelation.Tobrannon seemed flummoxed; he clearly hadn't been expecting to find Ixin in the company of one of the King's elite fighters. He blustered for a moment and then managed, "What about the girl?"Finian eyed the crowd and the two men in front of them. "Perhaps that's a tale best saved for inside," he suggested. "We are in need of Rherram's services.""Carrion crawler brain juice," Rherram explained as he tended the group's wounds. "There are no lasting ill effects. It's pretty cheap as poisons go and easy enough to make if you've got the raw materials on hand.""Over the years some of the local hunters have reported carrion crawlers in the woods southwest of town," the Constable added. From the description of the creatures, the group realized that the tentacled worms they had faced outside the cave were carrion crawlers."Even if it weren't magic what did me. It still weren't natural the way they just appeared like they did; like they just dropped down naked outta the sky," the lean man muttered from Tobrannon's side. His name was Den Lent - he and several others had been paralyzed during the raid that had seen Nilia kidnapped. She was the man's daughter and from the way that he clutched his steel-shod quarterstaff he planned to enact some measure of vengeance on whoever had taken her."Perhaps she was taken by these bat creatures we encountered," Ledare suggested. "They could certainly have flown over the walls of the caravanserai." Lent shook his head."What I seen before I went down weren't bats, missy," the man said. "It were men an' women naked as the day they was born 'ceptin' for the swords they carried on a belt 'round their waists."And it doesn't account for the undead," Gurnie reminded with a shudder."Yes," Constable Boralle admitted as he scratched his stubbly chin. "There does seem to be more to these goings on than a simple kidnapping. I'll notify the Baron  and in the morning we'll look into it more closely." Tobrannon shook his balding head at the Constable's words and Den Lent's eyes flared with anger. "Tomorrow?!" the man roared. "My daughter is still out there! What of her?!"The Constable shook his head. "It is too dangerous for me to send my men out tonight - what with undead and who knows what all else ranging afield under cover of darkness. No, we'll look into it at first light and not before.""Coward," Lent said as he turned and headed for the door. "I'll find her myself if I have to.""I won't stop you," Boralle answered matter-of-factly. "But my duty is to the people of Strenchburg Junction. It won't serve them if their Watchmen are slaughtered on some ill-conceived attempt to rescue an outsider." Tobrannon sneered openly at Boralle and turned to follow Lent out."Every caravan that is extorted by thieves in town knows how much value you place on the well-being of outsiders, Constable," the man said and Boralle merely huffed in reply.Fat Gurnie, looking uncomfortable and more than a little embarrassed by the whole situation, wrung his hands and turned to follow the two men. He looked nervously at Ixin before stepping out into the rain. "Wha- Where are you staying tonight, m'lady?" he stammered, blinking his eyes several times. "There's plenty of room at my cottage if you..." His voice trailed off as his face suffused with color."Thank you, Gurnie," Ixin said with a smile that seemed to brighten the room. "But I think I'll be staying with the healer tonight.""Oh," the man's face seemed to fall but he recovered quickly and waved it away. "Of course you will. You're hurt. How stupid of me to suggest- I mean where else would you stay? That makes perfect sense to me!" He hurried out the door after adding, "You know where I live, m'lady. My door is always open to you.""You seem to have an admirer," the Constable said as the door closed behind Fat Gurnie. He regarded Ixin's vestigial horns and brilliant yellow eyes critically. The mage developed a bemused smile and shrugged her broad shoulders."It happens a lot," she admitted."Of course it does," Constable Boralle said. The tone of his voice seemed to suggest that Ixin's hold over members of the opposite sex might have more to do with witchery than it did with her inhuman beauty, but he quickly changed the subject rather than dwell on the implication. "I'm glad to see that you've made your way back to the Junction, Archer of the Green. The Baron will be pleased," he told Finian as he too crossed the room toward the door. There, he paused. "And one more thing," he began, "I'll be presenting the facts to Baron Wicaop. In the meantime, don't leave Strenchburg Junction until you get my say so."</blockquote>

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