Aeilbeth: Day 2 cont'd: Escape, reward and surprise.

I awake, and immediately everything feels wrong. I dart out of my bedroll. Around the corner, Tanyth is starnding in front of the wall, a pick stuck in the wall. Further, towards the blue hue, Gnarhan is practically wrestling Albertus out of the doorway, trying to clam down the frantic screams of “I just want to look." His hat gets knocked off.

From the doorway, an almighty roar echoed through the entire cavern. In reflex, I immediately fletch an arrow and aim. I can see that Gnarhan is finally calming Albertus down when another roar, a truly abyssal roar, shakes me to my very core. I hadn’t been so frightened in years. I hear Ulalume quickly begin to pack her stuff up and hear the quiet splash of her swimming away. I follow suit, hastily throwing my roll into my bag. Despite being truly shaken, I eaily swim into the next cavern.

I take a deep breath emerging from the water, and gain a lungful of thick smoke. My eyes stream and I mutter a curse under my breath. I barely make it to the shaft, the others bounding in at similar times.

Hanging into the entrance, a shining beacon of a rope. I abandon my cautious nature and pull myself out. I spot the two brothers calmly sitting on their wagon, a sea of kobolds surrounding them. The look of shock must have been obvious, as they simply salute to me. They shout over that the rope is attached to the cart. I bellow down to the others to tie themselves to the rope and it would be pulled up. My knees buckle underneath, and I finally succumb to my exhaustion. I collapse by the entrance. I see the everyone but Ulalume has tied themselves in the rope, so I wait for them to finish and then throw the rope back down without even getting back up. Suddenly everything blacks out.

A beautifully refreshing splash of water hits my face and I come to. I eventually sit up, and the cart owning brother offers me a ladle of water. I eagerly grab it and practically inhale the water in it. The others do the same.

We morosely head back to town, quietly discussing what happened in the other room. It seems that the other room was some kind of vault that was holding a shard of the Goddess Tiamat’s Avatar’s heart. Her and her brother, Bahamut, had engaged in the mother of all battles in our realm, “It shook the very earth with its ferocity.” Gnarhan dramatically explained. In defeating her, Bahamut ripped the heart of Tiamat’s avatar and split it into shards. It seems we had stumbled on one of the holding temples. Unfortunately, the miners had discovered the temple whilst mining, and had weakened the seal as it was made of precious metals, it also seems that Tanyth’s incredible strike at one of the holding seams seemed to have released something, something big. We decided to tell the town never to go into the mine again. Let whatever is now there keep it.

It had been a long time since I felt so tested, I could barely keep awake, so I dozed for most of the journey. My thoughts, fortunately, were a lot more still than in the mine.
We pull back into the town without incident, at the town entrance, the gypsy in the middle of repairing his caravan. We pull in and head to the elder’s house. We are shown through to the garden.

No more a delightful sight was beheld. Children were playing, laughing, cavorting. It seems that we had beaten the curse in defeating the kobolds. The elder looked thrilled playing with his child. He genially invited us to a dinner in the evening, as well as offering us all fine clothing from the tailor for free.. We accept and make our excuses.

Gnarhan decides he merely wants his armor buffed, and goes to find where he can have it done. Albertus mutters something about researching and heads in the direction of the inn. Tanyth duly starts to march to Marvin’s shop. Ulalume follows while I stay out of sight of Tanyth to make sure nothing goes too awry.

I reach the shop, just in time to see Tanyth storming out of the shop, a cry of “Alarm!” following her. She huffed and walked back in. I decide to wait near the door, by Ulalume. We hear a commotion and head inside. Behind the counter, we see Tanyth standing in front Marvin and something else. We hear someone else talking to them, so I pop myself onto the counter. I make out a shadowy figure in some kind of ball. A coppery smelling liquid seemed to be oozing from it, and Marvin looked very shaken, and I’m sure it’s not from my tiefling friend. I decide it may be high time we leave and start to open the door. Marvin waltzes in, and notices the commotion behind me. He walks over to the ball and he and the figure have sharp words in some language I didn’t understand, and had never heard anything like. The figure disappeared.
Marvin said glibly “you don’t want to be dealing with likes of those.” then he looks at Marvin. “Devils, really…” He turns around and strolls out of the shop. We follow.

We try to discuss what just happened, but are interrupted by Gnarhan coming over, telling us he has jut spotted Marvin leaving the back door. I start sprinting after him, weaving through the back streets. He turns another corner and I hear him yelp. Tanyth was waiting for him around the corner. I come around and witness Tanyth practically tormenting Marvin, holding him to the side. He eventually struggles free, and with all the dignity he could muster, bade us good day.
Tanyth falls on me, and begins pouring her heart out to me. She’s speaking so fast I barely make anything out. I calm her down and promise that he will get his comeuppance. She spews something about wanting to get her dress but I’ve been trying to avoid having to actually get mine, so I suggest going shopping.

The first shop we pass is the survival shop, something we could have done with before our little mining escapade. Hindsight’s always 20/20. We walk in, and it’s a stuffed menagerie, various animals in various poses. The scruffy layout of all the goods complements the owner, a topless, rather strapping man slumped in his chair, feet resting on the counter. It seems we had arrived after Gnarhan, who seemed to be restocking as well. When he’s finished I get my stuff. I buy some more rope, after losing mine in the well. It’s al little shorter, but he offers me a discount. I ask if he has more “special” wares for an archer. He pops into the back and carefully brings out a tube. He opens it and pulls out an arrow with a ball on the end. Explains it’s an explosive arrow, the last he had at the moment. I eagerly buy it, thinking of the shock some enemy will have when the explosion engulfs him and his allies.

Next is Tanyth, and she plays hardball. He moans that he is “cutting his own throat” but is in a good mood as his child was better. We explain it was our exploits that led to that and he almost instantly changes. He offers us a permanent 50% discount, to pay whenever we can. He practically throws an ever burning torch at Gnarhan, who had been trying to haggle him down over it earlier.

Next was the smithy’s. Gnarhan picked up his armor, polished almost to mirror sheen, and I bought a crossbow and some bolts. We tried for a discount, but the smith was not having any of it. We were, however, given the same line of credit on our buys as at the store.
Tanyth and I went to find our dresses, and we run into Ulalume. She was the figure of perfection, her dress and makeup almost enchanting. She explains about Madame Pamperé, the beautician, and Tanyth decided we both needed some “girlie time”. I pick out a dress and head to Pamperé’s

Her house is magnificent, a decadent palace of wonder. If I was on the job, I’d have been able to make quite a lot out of this place, but I’m trying to lay low, not attract that kind of attention, so I resist trying to assess the value of everything. Tanyth is first up and I wait for her. Ulalume had already went to put finishing touches to herself, so I was alone. I begin to notice that all the light was torchlight. I reckoned it was the design of the house and continued to wait, Tanyth came back, looking very pretty and strangely hope I was not going to be the plain one of the girls. The butler ushered me into the boudoir where Pamperé was waiting.

She was truly a woman of beauty, a regal splendor I had not seen since my own mom. She practically glides to me and walks me to the chair, immediately trussing my hair. She frets over me for a while and I begin to relax and look around. I freeze, almost in dumbfound terror. In front of me was a picture of my father’s killer. I barely held my composure, but Pamperé is too busy at work. I continue to try and make small talk, before turning the conversation to the picture.

She declares it’s her father, and it was then I realized that it was at least by bite, if not also by birth. I resist my body’s urge to jump up and trying to kill her outright, realizing my dagger that I had concealed in my dress. would not be enough to take on even a newly spawned. She told me she hadn’t seen the man in 15 years, so at best she was that long sired. I decide to watch, wait and bide my time.

I get to the party, my head a blur of emotions. We are lavished upon. I make small talk where I can, but I’m barely in the room. Tanyth had begun her tormenting of Marvin again, who was also there. I actually started to feel sorry for him, and resolved to try to stop this bullying in the future. It wa then that Pamperé walked in, fashionably after full dark. She was the life and soul, ironically, of the party. Ulalume had held most of the spotlight but soon was overtaken by her. She had made much effort to make conversation with Gnarhan, and even reacted to Tanyth’s tormenting with merry laughing.

Almost as abruptly as she came, she made her excuses and left. Again, I had to resist the confrontation, now was not the time.

When I thought my blood calmed down enough, I made my excuses and left, no longer in any mood for festivities. Many years I had spent trying to find something, too many missed chances or old whereabouts, and now, I had one of his very spawn trying to make a “normal life” in the town I was.

Now was not the time… but soon it would be.