The slightly dreamy elf that Rhune met in the woods comes with her into camp. He seems somewhat put off by the homey environment and keeps inviting Rhune, then Xania and Marika, to come back to his homeland. He insists that you will find the answers to all your questions there. The Lake of Lost Dreams, upon whose shore he lives, grants visions to truth seekers. Seeing that the group has decided to investigate Illyakana for the nonce, he promises to return. He leaves, walking swiftly into the forest, but with an eerily casual gait. The sharper-eyed among you swear that at least one other figure joins him in the woods, but in the dim light you cannot be sure, and they are gone before you can follow, melting into the trees like a vapor.
Early in the morning, you rise, feeling quite refreshed. Mama Kuzma makes the rounds and finds you all feeling tip-top. Those who have spells are fully rested and regain their abilities completely. After some brief speech with Petr and his family, you set off with your newly named steeds.
Before noon, you smell the scent of burned out wood, and with some ease you come upon another settlement like Sukiskayn, but smaller. From the remains, you think that it did not have the stone tower that Petr had, though otherwise the outline is similar. However, all that remains is the outline. It has been burned completely to the ground. It appears that goblins were once again the culprits, as you see many footprints in the ash similar to those outside of Sukiskayn. It appears that the strategy here was similar to that which the goblins attempted there, as there are prints on three separate sides. No goblin corpses can be seen, though there are some burned out bones that Augustus and Marika can identify as humans, several of them children. Interestingly, there are also the tracks of several humans surrounded by goblin prints. Hoping for a breakthrough, you follow the tracks.
There is a small clearing in the forest which the tracks end at. At first you are confused, as nothing other than a fire pit is visible, but glancing about in the full sunlight, you are horrified to see a pile of human bones tossed haphazardly into the forest beyond the clearing. Several have been gnawed, and some of the larger bones have been cracked in half, apparently to suck the marrow out. Where the bones lie, there are wolf prints that appear to have shared in the grisly feast. You scan the area vainly hoping that at least some of the settlers might have been taken prisoner, but it is clear that the goblins left this area with no such burdens. The few tracks you manage to follow lead south, but quickly peter out.
Disheartened, you mount up and head north again, hardly speaking. As the sun begins to droop toward the horizon, you hear the flow of the river to your northwest. You stay inside the forest, but venture briefly to the river to drink some fresh water and scout about. You then go back inside and continue north.
With the last rays of the sun coming over the mountains far to the west, you come upon what surely must be Illyakana. It is in approximately the same shape as Hokol was. This did not appear to be much of a settlement, however, as there is only one building, not well-fortified, which has been burned to the ground totally. There is a remnant of some saw blades and what might have been a tool shed of sorts, and there is a dig near the river that slopes into the river with some hardened wood edges. From the various hacked down trees, you would venture to say this was some sort of lumber camp. This place, however, though frightfully indefensible, did not go down without a fight. There are several goblin and human corpses scattered about. You would venture to say that perhaps twenty adult men lie dead along with a similar number of goblins and two wolves.
What draws your attention, though, is that one man is walking about in the burned out area, prodding the dead with a large-bladed axe. Looking closely, you see that he is balding and looks a bit familiar. Then he turns toward you and you see that it is the riverboat captain who took the majority of you from Arezzo. Seeing you, he screams maniacally and rushes into the woods, occasionally halting long enough to hack into a tree. He appears to be quite mad.
Rhune looks at the fleeing man, "Xania, do you think that a sleep spell might take him out long enough for us to disarm him and tie him up?" she asks her friend. "Why don't we try to surround him and drive him back this way. Xania could hit with the sleep spell of hers and then we could very quickly disarm him and tie him. He may be our only clue as to what happened," she says to the others. "Unless anyone else has a better plan?" she looks at them quizzically.
"A sleep spell would most certainly help if he were not so powerful that he could overcome the dweomer. Alas, the wizard I learned my spells from did not have that spell where I could find it. Do you think perhaps we could try having maybe 1 or 2 of us approach on foot and not use magic to further frighten the man?" Xania replies.
Looking thoughtful for a moment, Rhune replies "Perhaps you are right. If I were in his state I think magic would frighten me more." Then realizing what Xania said about the spell, "Oh, that is right. I believe that Marika has that spell. I never could get the hang of magic," she replies a bit sheepishly.
Augustus looks around at the charnel scene with dismay, crossing himself as he views the torn and ravaged bodies. He observes the man with the axe, and reins in his mount. When the man screams and runs into the trees, Augustus almost calls out to him, but realizes that it will do no good.
"Do you think there could be more survivors?" He says to no one in particular. He looks about at the tree line, peering into the shadows, but seeing nothing.
Looking from Xania to Augustus, "There could be, Augustus. But I have a feeling that if there are they may be in as bad a shape as he is. We can only trust the gods that they are not," Rhune replies a little sadly.
With that said, Xania nudges her mount, trying to speed up and get around the fleeing man.
Rhune makes to follow slightly behind her, but is momentarily distracted by the discussion of the remaining members of the party.
Dismounting gracefully from Zephyr, his newly acquired war horse, Leslie quickly but silently make his way behind the man. True to his friends' intentions of disabling the deranged fellow, rather than hurting him, he attempts to sneak in behind him, and grab him in a bear hug, pinning his arms to his body while he is distracted by Rhune and Xania.
Ullar, watching the scene with disgust, looks at his companions.
"Friends, let's not overreact here please. It would be my guess that this man survived this horrific fight and suffered some kind of nervous breakdown due to the horrors he experienced."
Pausing for a minute, remembering some battles of his own, the ex- Gladiator continues:
"Are you sure you want to approach him? Trying to grab this man could mean suicide, since we're dealing with someone who is out of control and pretty much unreliable in his actions."
Xania and Forte, however, already are on their way, and Ullar's questioning they do not hear.
"Yes Ullar I think that we should attempt to. We may be able to help him and at the moment he is the only one who knows what happened here." Rhune replies over her shoulder.
Asif head drops with sadness at the scene before him. Inexperienced is he to such deep suffering of others. Rolling his still stiff shoulder he dismounts to take in further the scene. With great sadness he looks up with the words of Ullar.
"Much wisdom fall like water from your lips Efendi. This man is indeed a friend, we must cause him no further harm. The wounds of the mind cause greater suffering than those of the body! We must entice him to us by what gentle means we must so that some healing can be given to his pain. I suggest brute force is not an option, but the gentle use of heka to sooth his mind and put him into the healing embrace of sleep."
Nodding in the former gladiator's direction, Augustus says, "Ullar is more right than he knows, in fact...this man may not even see us as human, er, humanoid..." Looking at Rhune, "No disrespect intended, mistress...What I mean to say is that he could very well see us as the same goblins that attacked them previously. The mind is a very powerful tool, but can be so fragile."
Looking over at Augustus, "No disrespect taken, Augustus. I understand what you mean. I have been in a party of humans and elves before," Rhune says to him with a smile to ease his mind.
Augustus continues, "Doubtless he is hungry...perhaps we could appeal to his more basic needs first, resorting to a more physical confrontation if it deems necessary?"
"That might be a very good idea." Rhune nods in agreement.
"Still, we'd better be ready for anything," Forte says, dismounting and preparing his bow with an arrow. He keeps back from the madman (and the group approaching him). When the madman, whom Forte does not recognize, attacks a party member the warrior attempts to shoot the madman in the legs or arms. If the only shot available is more lethal, Forte plans to take the shot without hesitation.
Augustus watches as Xania and Leslie attempt to corral the madman with the axe. Reaching into the saddlebags on his mount, he retrieves a short leather thong attached to several longer leather straps, the longer straps terminate with small weights. You recognize this as a bola. Augustus hefts the bola in his left hand, and crosses himself with his right. "Jebohah guide my arm as you guide my life, make it straight and true." He waits to see if Xania and Leslie are able to capture the madman before intervening. Glancing at Ullar, he shrugs, "It never hurts to have some auxiliary skills."
Jacobus watches as the Captain disappears into the woods "That's not the actions of a rational man?"
He watches as Xania spurs her horse into pursuit. Seeing as he has not much experience riding, and suspecting his newly acquired horse would be a bit over enthusiastic in it's chase, he dismounts and moves over to the burned out area looking for evidence of what happened and searching the bodies for clues.
Jacobus' search, with the others in pursuit of Kalanos, the mad riverboat captain, reveals fairly well the same scenario as has been seen before. Plenty of goblin tracks racing about, lots of dried blood and dead bodies, and plenty of human footprints, but none apparently departing the scene. Jacobus also picks out a few peculiar bodies. Two are parchment colored, with their skin fairly hanging on their bones. The ragged tears in one's neck and the other's thigh appear to be similar to the wounds inflicted at Sukiskayn by the giant bats, and they appear to have been sucked dry of blood. A third body, some distance away from the main camp, has massive injuries, obviously inflicted by some very large blade. With a cursory glance, it does not appear to have been done by a weapon that even a very large goblin could possibly wield.
All the bodies, human and goblin, have been stripped completely of anything worthwhile.
Jacobus looks around, noticing his companions have all gone off in pursuit of the riverboat captain, and begins to feel something akin to worry, he draws his long sword and begins to look for the freshest goblin tracks, if any. Once he has located what he thinks is the correct trail he slowly follows it hoping to gain some more information, without bumping into any stragglers. He also checks the surrounding trees for clues of aerial combatants, if he suspects something he will attempt to climb a tree and try to better determine what happened.
The goblin tracks lead off in several directions, then peter out. One interesting thing is that the humans presumably left over (by Gregor's statement some were captured) did not appear to leave any tracks. The only human sized tracks are in the camp.
Checking the trees about, Jacobus can see that some have certainly been disturbed. Some branches have been torn off and several fresh leaves lie on the ground. It is impossible to tell what might have made such traces.
Jacobus reasons that the remaining humans were probably tied up and carried away from this location. He checks the various goblin tracks for footprints that are heavily indented in the ground, possibly indicating it was made by a goblin carrying something heavy.
Unfortunately, Jacobus' experience with tracking is none at all, and he is unable to tell whether or not some of the prints were heavier than others. It is clear that none is very different than the others, though, in terms of depths, and it is impossible to tell whether any carried or were carried. Jacobus is able to make out the fact that several footprints, the most recent apparently, headed in the direction of the river to the north, then stop there.
Asif follows Jacobus quietly, the same thoughts traveling through his head. As Jacobus studies a print, Asif kneels down beside him and asks, "Think you what efendi? Green skins take any prisoners?"
Jacobus turns to Asif thoughtfully "There are several green skin tracks leading out of here, my friend, and no human prints." He indicates the ground. Jacobus then points up to the disturbed branches in the trees, "That would seem to indicate the presence of fliers, so the captives, if there really were any, left by being carried or flown out of here." He uses his hand to mimic the wings of a bird, for added effect.
Turning back to Asif, "I wonder how long ago this took place?"
The burned out remnants of the camp and the dried blood on the bodies would seem to indicate that this attack took place some days ago.
Asif, with some surprise, looks up to the sky.
"Mmm that our enemy can soar with the wind is indeed an unforeseen obstacle. My arms are strong and my marksmanship true, but rare does one encounter such things attacking from the sky. No wonder the devastation of this place, if this is true. How say you, that enemy we can track now?. Only the most learned worker of Heka, may have the gift of flight. Even the most wealthy of Sultans would find it difficult to purchase a Carpet make by such a scholar. I have seen but one in my life, so rare are they."
Jacobus can't help but laugh "I've never heard of a goblin to be interested in a carpet, magic or otherwise, I think we can rule that out."
"Efendi, sorry meaning not so clear. Tongue getting much better I think. What mean I by talk of Carpet is that it is a tool which we would need to counter such an enemy. I know not other means by which we can chase an enemy who can fly!"
"Well my friend I would suspect our green skinned friends had some help," he indicates the bite marks on some of the bodies he discovered earlier. "I have heard tales of large bats found living in deep caves before now, but we can't be sure that these marks were made by things such as that."
Asif looks with some confusion. "Sorry Efendi, know not what Bat is? Some creature that flies I assume? Some sort of bird of prey?"
Jacobus walks his horse along "A bat is a flying animal but it is not like a bird. Hmm, perhaps one of the others can provide a better description for you. If we do decide to track who did this, I believe that we need only to track the goblins; I suspect the Bats are part of their group."
Jacobus stands and pats his friend on the shoulder, "Come, let's go find the others." At that he grabs the reigns of his mount and waits for Asif to accompany him.
Asif nods and remounts his horse. Asif is obviously now more comfortable with this horse. "Let us see what the others have found this day."
Meanwhile, at the edge of the clearing......
Rhune nudges her horse after Xania. She stays behind her. When they get close to the man she takes some food from her pack. Gaining Xania's attention, "Here try this Xania. It might be easier." she says handing her the food. Xania shakes her head for the moment, riding around in front of Kalanos' rambling path.
Once she gets slightly in front of him, Xania dismounts and tries to talk to him calmly as he approaches, rather like she talks to her horse.
The man, however, appears uninterested in having a chat and lashes out at Xania with the large axe. Taken aback, Xania casts her hands before her while chanting. A fan of light shoots forth into the man's face. He is staggered, but only for a moment. As he raises his axe and clears his field of vision, preparing to hack into the unarmored Xania, an arrow slams into his left shoulder, distracting him once again. Looking across the clearing, Xania sees Forte fitting another arrow to the string as the other party members prepare whatever means they have.
Suddenly the massively muscled frame of Leslie comes bearing down like a wagon train upon the madman. However, his aim is well off, and he rushes completely past the crazed fellow, who takes the opportunity to hack into him with a vicious overhand stroke. Fortunately for the muscled warrior, though, it appears that Forte's shot threw off his balance, as he misses badly.
Seeing the massive warrior in front of him and the other party members approaching, Kalanos dashes toward the trees once again. As the group is thinking what to do, suddenly the bald man seems to trip and crashes to the earth. For just a moment, you would swear that a slight shadow moves within the trees, but the movement it gone as quickly as it appeared. Rushing up to the fellow before he can regain his footing, Leslie hears soft snoring. It appears the fellow has knocked himself unconscious, though he appeared to land more on his body than his head.
Rhune, noticing the shadow, peers deeper into the gloomy forest. She nudges her horse over in that direction and then dismounts. She begins to look around in the area to see if she can spot anything out of the ordinary. Something to account for the shadow and the slight movement.
There are no traces of footprints or even the barest disturbed leaf to indicate what the shadow was. However, under the shade of the tree she sees a brooch in the shape of either a small mirror or perhaps a pool of water. It is not particularly valuable, but is very finely crafted, delicate but strong. The interesting thing is that there are no marks on the ground indicating that the brooch was dropped. Rather, Rhune gets the distinct impression that it was placed there.
Rhune frowns, her silver brows drawn into a deep furrow. This is the second time that she has found something odd. She picks up the brooch marking the spot that it was at very carefully. She then crosses over to where Xania and the others are with the man.
Augustus watches with rapt attention as the efforts of his new companions fail to subdue the axe-wielding lunatic. When the madman falls and does not get up, Augustus quickly dismounts and runs over to where Leslie stands over the man's unconscious form.
"Leslie, help me move him, please?...and perhaps it would be best to bind him," he says, quickly assessing the fallen man's condition.
"Yes, we should," answers Leslie. "But bind first, move later," he adds with a grin.
"If anyone has some rope, I'll be happy to bind him. I do know some good knots." Xania has her dagger out and seems prepared to use it. "Forte, are you ok?"
"Uh, I'm fine," replies the dark-haired warrior while putting away his bow. "It was Leslie and you he attacked. Are you both o.k.?"
Xania blushes slightly. "Ah, sorry, Leslie. I guess I'm not straight with who is who just yet. Are you ok?"
"I'm fine, befuddlement notwithstanding" says Leslie. " Good shot, by the way, Forte. Probably saved me the consequences of my clumsiness..."
"Clumsy? Brave is more like it," Forte says. "Anyway, I'm glad you weren't hurt." He looks over at the bound madman. "What about this nut case?" he asks, looking at the group. "What are we gonna do with him?"
"I'd like to try and ask him a few questions," says Xania. "If we can get him conscious, that is." She eyes her dagger darkly, then sheathes it rather abruptly.
"I have some rope." Rhune replies as she walks up to the scene, pulling out a tight coil of rope. It is white and is braided very tightly. It appears to be smooth to the touch, not rough like regular rope. "It is very strong so it should hold him." she says as she hands it to Xania.
"Thanks," says Xania, tying up the man with expert skill.
Rhune watches her tie the man up. She has seen few people with as much skill as the young mage. "You did that very well. Father could tie knots like that but not that well," she says to her when she is finished.
"Er, thanks," replies Xania, looking at the elf curiously.
"Ahh the fascinating world of knots, perhaps you'd tell me more when matters are less pressing?" Jacobus says as he catches up with the group. Dismounting, he kneels down next to Xania and examines the Captain, "I wonder where his boat is??"
"I could tie you up and see if you could break free," Xania offers, with a muffled laugh.
Jacobus grins and pauses before he goes to find the boat "Xania, if you tied me up I don't think I'd want to break free. We could have some fun." He turns and grins before moving off again