Warriors Of The Coast

[drothgery]

Elder Nevillom hears Khalia's qestion about her research notes and then does a doubletake. "Excuse me? Notes? Lady ir'Indari... despite your claims of doing research for this expedition, I received nothing from you to help us out at all. I don't know what you were doing all day yesterday, but it certainly was not lending assistance to our crusade."

Khalia's face goes a bit red as apparently Elder Nevillom never received all the information she had put together over the entire day before. Which is insane, as right before she left the Silver Flame temple, she gave all the paperwork to Gerrold and asked him to give it to Nevillom. Something's not right.

Doubt the word of an ir'Indari, does he? Khalia stuffed down the anger that bubbled up inside her. No, this was not her father's estate in Thrane. Or Flamekeep. Or even Seawell. They did not know her, or even know her father beyond a name with a title, and a decendent of someone whose name was on the edge of Tira Miron's story. If they knew her, they just might -- possibly -- doubt her judgement or her experience, but never her honesty or her committment to her work.

"I certainly handed a stack of paperwork to Gerrold last night, and asked him to give it to you. If he failed to do so..." Khalia trailed off.

"Still, perhaps it is better to tell you myself." She began, and gave an overview of her work yesterday for the second time this morning.

 

[stonegod]

Cerril settles back against the rail of the boat and leans casually, looking out over the rest of the crew and the scout party. "The irony for me of course being that my parents would shout 'Giant! Giant!' to frighten my sibilings and myself... as though an extremely large human was the most frightening thing we would think of." She turns to face Ari and giggles a bit, as though trying to picture Osten at a height of ten feet shaking a fist at her as a little girl.

Ari puts on a wry smirk. "Folks don't know what monsters really are. All they get are those pulped up posts they get with their Chronicles. Don't know about you, but if the Lord of Blade really was a '100 foot monstrosity able to manipulate the will of his construct minions a country away', I'd be a lot more worried."

Ari glances around the boat, trying to appraise the other members of the scouting party. If he was going to work with them, he'd best know their capabilities.

 

[DEFCON 1]

He walks back to the Inn, toward the front door. He stop a step in front fo it. "It will be the last time for a moment..." He felt anxious and sad to leave, but he knew he couldn't stay anymore. After what has happen, staying here could be dangerous for them, or he might go mad himself, or maybe both. He has thought many time how staying here could be more profitable to him, but he never found a convincing answer.

Jango puts his hand on the door, takes a deep breath and opens it...

**********

To say that things could have gone better is an understatement. The arguing, the crying... it was not what Jango wanted to happen. As his journey out of the Green Lilac took him to the docks, he realized the voice had been right... his lasting impression on them would not be a happy one. His mother could sense the change in him. While he denied any sort of wrongdoing, she could feel it. Things had changed with him. And when he said he was leaving for a bit... that's when things really hit the fan.

Hiring a boat to take him north and up into the Whitecliff River was easy enough, what with the money he got in the caverns below... and as he sits on the deck as it begins it's journey, he thinks about what the voice is suggesting they do. "Go north." "Find this temple." "Another can help you inside." "Make your mark stronger." As as the thoughts of both of them intermingle, Jango begins to see the wisdom in what it says.

***

Unbeknownst to the young elf though... he is not alone on the boat with his thoughts. For off to the back there are a few barrels and crates that are being shipped. And within one of them... a certain young girl hides within... unwilling to accept what has occured between her twin brother and her family. Something is not right. And her brother needs looking after.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Skarg ponders the buildings above him taking the facilities into consideration.

"I hope folks don't just cut a hole in the floor to do their business. Be hell for those caught below." he says with a wink.

"So, what's next?"

**********

What was next was something that Brogarn, the halfork Watchman, was not expecting. It certainly wasn't training. At least, not training in wilderness actions like he expected and signed up for. And Zendarrill Lorren did nothing with or for him when he arrived. What Brogarn discovered was almost a military deployment into the grown-over ruins beneath their camp, as the Daggerspell Guardians seemed to almost be acting against the clock. Every couple of hours the Valenar elf would take a dozen Guardians with him down below, and a couple hours later they would return. With large sheets of parchment. Upon which were rubbings that looked strangely like dragonmarks... the kind of marks that Brogarn remembered was surrounding the locked doors to the fiendish temple beneath the pirate camp.

Instead, he spent the next two days above ground, recruited (if not actually hijacked) into standing guard around the camp. Apparently the information gathering occuring down below was more important to the Guardians than running a training school... and thus Brogarn got stuck doing what he used to do back in Seawell. And he was not happy about it. And he came to discover that a number of the other guards... Kerr Docent, Melga, Rogan ir'something or other... were not happy either. Being a Guardian was supposed to mean helping their fellow man, and Brogan found out that the bunch of them were brought up from Newthrone at Zendarrill's request, and had been standing guard ever since. And they were also tired of it and ready to go back.

But they weren't allowed to leave, because the Guardians still had work to do. More rubbings to gather. And all because of one thing... one thing that none of them really understood... but one thing whose name seemed to be spoken with an importance and gravity, especially by Zendarrill Lorren...

...Aridarastrixsauriv.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Ari puts on a wry smirk. "Folks don't know what monsters really are. All they get are those pulped up posts they get with their Chronicles. Don't know about you, but if the Lord of Blade really was a '100 foot monstrosity able to manipulate the will of his construct minions a country away', I'd be a lot more worried."

Ari glances around the boat, trying to appraise the other members of the scouting party. If he was going to work with them, he'd best know their capabilities.

**********

The scouting party was good. Real good. Ari didn't know how much of an active hand the shifter took in the training of her men... but it was obvious she was more than skilled and so were the others in the group. As their journey continued up the Whitecliff River, the talk was all about what they were doing... what they were looking for... what action should they take if they actually ran into a real, true lycanthrope... how much information did Elder Samuel Nevillom expect? It was all discussed. Many times over. Questions were asked, answers were stated. And by the end of the Ari knew one thing if he knew anything...

...Cerril Maise was the real deal, and Elder Nevillom was an idiot.

Finally, the boat glided into the shore of the Whitecliff, a half-mile north of where the the lycans were supposedly seen. At least, supposedly seen as per the word of the quiet templar who didn't say a whole lot but seemed have a lot of the Flame's information. Ari had noticed him all throughout the trip... remaining silent when jokes were made, eyeing everyone when plans were under discussion, seemingly keeping tabs on everyone within the group, and absorbing much more information than giving out... which is why Ari had been exceedingly careful about what he spoke out loud when within earshot of the guy.

When the scouting party offloaded and prepared for the overland part of the journey... Ari definitely could get the sense that if Nevillom was as fanatical as the others made him out to be... this whole thing was going to end badly. His only hope was that Khalia would be able to put over some influence on the actions to come.

 

[DEFCON 1]

"I certainly handed a stack of paperwork to Gerrold last night, and asked him to give it to you. If he failed to do so..." Khalia trailed off.

"Still, perhaps it is better to tell you myself." She began, and gave an overview of her work yesterday for the second time this morning.

**********

Needless to say... Gerrold got himself a right bad rearing out over that. And Khalia got herself her own enemy as a result. Not that she really cared... even at her young age she could tell just how little influence a cleric like Gerrold really had... especially now... and she knew she had nothing to fear about the runny-nosed little man. He might've been threatened by her, but she in no way was threatened by him.

What was a threat... at least in her own mind... was Elder Nevillom himself. A threat to the church, a threat to their council, a threat to whomever was walking through the jungle up north, and most especially a threat to himself. Khalia had seen fanaticism back home in Thrane... hell, her father employed several men and women who had a similar single-mindedness of purpose. The only difference of course being that those men and women were fanatical about reading, studying, and learning... three things that do not tend to cause untold death and destruction. Nevillom's fanaticism however... that would cause it. And each day that their company marched north through the jungles of Q'Barra, and the Elder's incessant braying about their crusade began to have a more and more delirious effect on the servitors of the Silver Flame that marched with him... she became more and more afraid that she would not be able to control things when they reached their conclusion.

And looking around at who they travelled with, she did not think she was going to find many of the company who would share her more subdued approach.

 

[Velmont]

Jango looks at Seawell. The village seems so small from the sea. In a few days his world have completly changed. His eyes turn to Griot, who fly around the boat, taking advantage of the fresh air.

"I owed them that, but you were right, they didn't understood. No one can understand what it is carrying that mark..." whispers Jango to himself and to teh voice in his head.

Ari the name come back to his mind. He remembered in the cavern.

Ari measures the boy with his eyes a moment, lost in thought. After a moment, he decides something, makes sure the others are not looking, and very carefully removes one of his thick gloves, the one on his left hand---the same one that glowed bluish-black earlier and helped down the Captain with its touch. Beneath it was a hand, but a hand marked with a twisted, scar-like red-blue mark that crosses both sides of the hand. It was almost wound-like, but also seemed to throb with... something... just glazing at it.

"Aberrant marks are a pathway to many abilities some consider to be... unnatural. But they are not. They are a part of this world just as are the Dragonmarks, just as I am, just as you are. There is nothing wrong with them... they are a pathway to power, just as is the sword, the book, or the prayer. Do not fear your mark, Jango. Accept it... embrace it. It is who you are. Do not forget."

"Embrace it?" he whipers to himself. "Maybe you are right, maybe you are both right. I need to go to the bottom of all that... let's find that temple."

Seawell dissapear at the horizon and for some reason Jango do not understand, he feel finally at peace. It seems all his previous trouble have stayed in his home town and he was away of them. He knew what he has to do and knew he could do it. And no one is here, knowing his secret, knowing thevents of the past days. He was free of all that. Jango smiles.

 

[drothgery]

And looking around at who they travelled with, she did not think she was going to find many of the company who would share her more subdued approach.

A week in Newthorne -- just a week -- and I would have been prepared for this, with authorization from the Cardinals to take command of this expedition if need be. To send these brave, devoted soldiers of the Flame back home, and press ahead with Cerril Maise, Ari, and the scouts -- with me to make sense of what they uncovered. Khalia thinks.

I could leave. No matter what the Elder thinks, no orders bind me here. But that would be the coward's way, and it would mean abandoning countless others to one man's folly.

For all the Elder's exhortations, Khalia could no more stop asking questions and observing than she could stop breathing. For she did not have the answer she sought yet.

 

[stonegod]

When the scouting party offloaded and prepared for the overland part of the journey... Ari definitely could get the sense that if Nevillom was as fanatical as the others made him out to be... this whole thing was going to end badly.

Ari limbered himself up as they debarked, calling to his dark pet to accompany him. As he absently mimed affection, he kept a surreptitious eye on the silent one--the one not to be trusted. He'd try to keep him sight... just in case.

He turned to the shifter paladin then. "So, what's the order? I'm to assist on tracking as planned? I told you, its not my strong suite, but I'm game."

 

[DEFCON 1]

"Some people are out there!" Rogan says, rushing back to the the Guardian's campsite. "We've got company!"

The guards in the area immediately get into readied actions... Skargash takes out his bow and gets in behind a short wooden wall ready to defend the camp... Rogan rushes to the ruins with another guard and starts picking their way down through it's tunnels to find Zendarrill and the others... Jakk Corren and a couple of the sneakier scouts dive into the jungle underbrush to circle the incoming people and gather intel.

***

The travel through the jungle had not been easy for Cerril, Ari, and the others in the scouting party. To be honest... none of them were really suited for this kind of work, and their attempts at tracking were pretty miserable. Only the quiet guy... by the name of Aerndel Barrne... seemed to be okay with how things were going. His recollections of what was seen by who and where had given them a direction to march, and if nothing else they were making rather good time into the jungle all things considered.

"From what I read and what Elder Nevillom told me, we're in pretty good shape. Sightings were stronger about a quarter-mile further east." Aerndel says... to which a welcomed murmur can be heard amongst the men. Cerill Maise looks around and leads them up a small slope to a higher hill above the surrounding jungle floor. "Then let's camp for the night. Two man watch. Tomorrow morning we advance further and hope we find something before Nevillom and the others arrive. I don't want to have to tell him this whole thing was for naught." However, by her tone it is easy for both Ari and 'Aerndel' to tell that she'd be quite happy to do just that and prove the Elder wrong.

***

A couple hours later, Zendarrill Loren and the rest of the Daggerspell Guardians are back up from the catacombs beneath the temple ruins, and have received the report of the dozen armored men and women camped about a quarter-mile to the west. One of the Daggerspell Mages goes into a trance and finds the group with his mind's eye and begins reporting on what he "sees". Several of the Daggerspell Shapers immediately wild shape into jungle animals... panthers, birds, raptors, and the like, and go out into the darkness to scout further and get a nature's sense of their location.

***

Ari does not know much about animal behavior... but he does know when he's being watched. And in the middle of the night, on his watch... the Child of Khyber feels with that hunter's sense of his... a tickle in the back of his head... that tells him his prey is near and that it's aware of his presence. Very odd. Perhaps those animals out there in the darkness aren't just animals after all? Maybe there's more to Nevillom's claims than he gave credit for?