Situation Report Twelve (supplement - shame and relief)

General Summary

Ugnan, his cheeks drained of colour, slumps onto a chair opposite the inert Loari demon with an involuntary groan. The middle-aged Shay eases forward to put his face in his hands. He mutters something and starts to massage his eyebrows with his fingertips, after a few rotations he draws them to his closed eyes and shakes his head a few times. “You cannot question a dead man, lad”, he laments in a hoarse voice. Looking up at the recovering Cherry, his eyes betray tears starting to brew, which are swiftly wiped away with a comment about dust getting into them before an obvious hardening of his features.
“You could have killed her!” He fixes Cran with an accusing stare, “Are you the master of your rage or does it hold sway over you? On one path lies glory, the other, doom, I fear.” Unable to look at the hulking warrior any longer, he closes his eyes again and rests his head back against the chair.
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly before looking down at my large blunt hands, fresh cuts crossing the scars over my knuckles, fresh demonic blood ingrained in the creases. A single tear falls from the tip of my nose as I sniff, silently lever myself up off the demon and slowly walk down the stairs to the first floor. "He had Cherry. He had her. I need some air", I mutter as my face reddens with shame and the knowledge I have disappointed Ugnan.

Sylke continues to stare past the inert and twisted Demon of the Pale’s broken body, wiping her own quick tears away from view. It had been many decades(centuries, actually!) since she last witnessed the cruel carnage wrought that was the Demon-infested and fuelled Fall of Quellbourn in Northwestern Jaiman’s chillier North. She was so much younger and naive then. So eager to do as the Council instructed. So enamoured with the Council’s forward, and very inclusive ways to allow the oft-maligned Sorcery school to be taught with caveats. “Nothing but Demon worshippers!”, was the hue and cry by those opposed to it at the controversial time. So innocent, no matter from whom a command was given…

Too breathily whispered to hear, the Erlini maid utters a sharp oath, “Xenon, you duplicitous bastard!”, shakes her head as if coming out of a dream, and rushes over to help where she can. Seeing her healing-inept hands doing nothing but getting in Ugnan’s way, she catches Cran’s last words and follows him, though at a respectful distance. “Nobody should be alone in this dark place”, she chides him in her own head, wistfully thinking she will need to be constantly aware of her thoughts if what Ugnan says about the new leaf-embossed ring they found is true for mind reading.
The damp air of the clifftop feels good as I emerge from the smashed doors at the back of the Manor and take a deep measured breath. "Why is Sylke bothered about me?", I ponder as she walks up next to me. In silence, we both look out over the mist shrouded marshland, deep in our own thoughts. After five minutes Sylke glanced up at me and with a, "we should be getting back", turns about and walks back to the manor. I follow slowly after her.
Cherry, shakes herself out of the fugue she was in, grins and says, "What's the problem? Why am I on the floor? Sharna sweetie, give me a hand up will you.." Her eyes widen at the dead creature and then narrow. "I remember trying to look into… oh what did happen to me?" She briefly looks around to see Cran and Sylke rush down stairs then looks to Ugnan and Sharna. "Hey, lets get this show on the road. If you stop to think of 'could of's' and 'should of's' it could be a real death to us all in a place like this. And We haven't cleared this top hall yet." she looks out the broken window to see the small quirky woman follow the muscled ox of a man to the cliff-side. "Oi! Don't go peeing off the side there we have to climb down that way! we've still got top floor treasures to find too, come on you two".
Ugnan allows himself a brief smile when he hears the chirpy Cherry. Opening his eyes and sitting up at the young girl's words, he reluctantly pulls himself from the chair with another involuntary groan. As he waits for the others, he examines his new hand-axe, swings it a few times, then looks upwards towards the floor above while massaging his lower back with his shield hand.

Report Date

28 Aug 2018

Primary Location

Teaque Island