Livre 1, Session 3: Justice is a dish best served searing. Report
General Summary
Nature is dying.
Ash though to himself as he was guiding the Dead Company towards Thyreth, he would find out what happened to Urafa and punish those responsible. While walking, he'd been looking at the vegetation for a while and there were no signs of animals nearby, the flora was yellowed and wilted, way beyond the usual Arid drought.
Thyreth, Welcome to Pleasantville.
The village was small, somewhat bigger than Petit Fashyr, but it was still small. You did not come here unless you needed to come, it was far outside of the commercial routes, stuck along a Jendasha River affluent and three hills from the Jenth Ridges. Nearing the village, the villagers were cordial and friendly to the arriving group. To the rest of the Dead Company, it was a pleasant welcome. To Ash, it was a claw raking on Steel, everyone of those peasants could be Urafa's killer. The way they all smiled and went on their happy way aggravated him.
The innkeeper from Hell
It had been a few years since Ash passed through Thyreth, Captain Kafen asked to be pointed to the leader of the village so he could discuss with him while they took the day off to relax. The company escorted their ward to one of the big house in the middle of the village. A pretty Old Man, maybe 80 years old opened the door with a surprisingly fast movement, he was clearly is better shape than most 40 and 50 years old Humans. Raknarun demanded to be fed, the Old Man asked his wife to bring a bowl of stew to the cow at the entrance, a confused old lady came out and saw the minotaur, she went back inside to get him a wooden spoon, Raknarun ate is stew in silence while the group moved to the Inn to discuss what to do. Inside, they ordered some food and beers.
Ash and Darja quickly noticed that the Innkeeper was beyond curious about their discussion. Ash grabbed Raknarun by the arm and moved to the bar to inquire why the man as the counter was being so nosy. Ash and Racknarun's lack of social grace quickly escalated the discussion and the minotaur threathened to kill the Innkeeper and the man banning them from the Inn. As the group exite, Mukli tried to smoothen things over to some good results.
The paper lock
As the group was discussing, a young Fhokki girl popped up amongst them and asked to the group:
Are you Ash?She handed him a folded piece of paper with a single word inscribed on it: Ash. He instantly recognized the work, it was an origami lock that his Urafa used to give him. One wrong move while opening it and the whole thing teared down, destroying the message in the process. More than one of those messages had burned in the Wildfire Druid hands. Ash turned to Mulki and asked for her help, he knew she would have the best skills to open the letter. He explained the goal, how to open it and what would happen if she failed. She tried her hand but with a slight slip of the hand, the paper began to break down, she froze. Stressed beyond belief, she knew she could do it, she took out her thieves tools and began her work fully focused. After 5 minutes of poking and proding with her lockpicks, she found the key and unfolder the letter without further damage. Mukli then gave back the letter without reading it and Ash read it quickly, two or three times to make sure he wasn't missing anything and then burned it.
Ash, I hope you are well, I need your help. This village has been taken over by an evil artifact, please help me get rid of it. It transfers the life from around into the residents, it's killing the land and they can't see it. Your friend, Urafa.
While toying with the folded letter, Anarvis roamed the place bobing his head in salutations and smiling while he was slowly detecting magic throughout the village. He came back to the group with somber new, a thin veil of magic was permeating everything, it was yellow-green and was clearly necromantic in effect. The real bad news was that he had not been able to pinpoint the source of the effect, neither was he able to find the end of the corrupted area.
While the peasants are dinning
Anarvis took to the streets again to try and pinpoint where this magical effect might be emanating from, Ash shapeshited to go into houses and listen in the chatter while the peasants ate. Raknarun exited the village to clear his head, Mukli went to gather more information on the dynamics of the village, people coming in, etc. and, finally, Darja went to get the captain from the elder's home.
After a few hours of sneaking around multiple houses, Ash finally learned that the village had to get rid of the newcomers, they were being too nosy and aggressive. It would happen in the middle of the night. Raknarun was chewing some stingweed while looking at the slowly approaching dusk, he spoted a shadow sneaking outside the village eastward. He slowly got up and began carefuly following the man. A good 15 minute walk later, the man disapeared into a rocky outcrop at the base of an ridge, dissimulated through the rocks was a very narrow tunnel that was mostly invisible to the casual onlooker. Through no small feat of dexterity, the large minotaur in half-plate wiggled silently through, not pushing his luck, he stopped as soon as he heard voices, two young man were discussing, from what he heard, one of them had to stay here and guard the holy gift while the reste of the village would get rid of the adventurers that came in earlier.
The Scales of Life
Sneaking inside the cave, Mukli made it to the lonely peasant standing guard. She readied her crossbow. Click. A muffled body falling on the ground. She moved further inside the cave. The Rogue found a large natural room with rocks laid as benches and a stalagmite chopped at waist-height, on it there was an unbalanced crystal scale, it looked fragile and very, very pricey.
Raknarun, unable to stand so much deliberation, stuck the scales down in one swift blow, a large detonation sent crystal shrapnel flying everywhere, but mainly through the minotaur's large body. The minotaur instantly fell to the ground with large gaping holes in his body. The projectiles that hit the rocks blew up holes that were 3 feet wide holes, Anarvis confirmed that the magical aura was quickly fading with his magical sight . Darja and Ash lept to heal Raknarun, the minotaur laid motionless on the ground, by some miracle his heart was still weakly beating. The healers picked up bits and pieces of meat that had been scattered around and stuck it back in the minotaur to try and fill up the gaping holes before trying to heal him.
Battle in the hills
While Ash and Darja tended to Raknarun, the Rogue and the Warlock moved to the entrance so they could block anyone coming in. As they positionned themselves, they immediatly heard rucus outside, multiple voices were in agony, above all these, a boisterous and gravely voice resonated.