Mists Over the Musarde, Chapter Three

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

Dorgio smiles at the man. Though he cannot tell what the man is saying, the gesture towards the fire is obvious. He takes the seat and feels a little warmth drift back into his bones.

"My thanks," he tells Alain as he takes the offered wine. He sips it slowly, trying to listen to the exchange between Benn and the man, but failing to understand. His thoughts turn back to Buckman's corpse. Had it truly been Van Deicks in a bestial form? And why had Jon not been attacked? Were they supposed to simply ignore the changes that had overtaken the boy?

But then he looks down at his own blisters, thinking once again that he suspects the boy falsely.

"But if I were Van Deicks," he mutters to himself, "...where would I go?"

[steveflam]

"I dunno where 'e is. But I gots ta say, if'n I ever see 'im again I'll cut im up an feed im to tha rats in tha sewers. An that ain good enough fer 'im, tha varmint!" Norzak spits on the ground and removes a flask from his belt. Unstoppering it he takes a swig and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. Belching he takes another swig and puts away his flask.

"Awright, so whut's our next move? Mebbe we kin go with Wat when 'e sells 'is pig." The dwarf removes a ration from his pack and eats it slowly.
"Any ideas how we's gonna get back home?"

[Lord Skybolt]

"As to getting home I have no idea at the moment, but we need to finish off Van Diecks what ever he is and that ghostly witch as soon as we are able . In the mean time going to town with Wat when he goes to sell his pig sounds like a good idea to me ." With that small speech Alain takes out his Rations bag for some thing to eat .

[Adam]

"Indeed, our work here isn't finished," Bennedict nods grimly. "We owe Buckman that much at least."

"As to getting home, that much I do not know. The portal only worked one way, to my understanding. However I doubt very much that the cultists were planning to take a one-way trip here. It's possible that if we can find Van Deicks, he may know of an exit."

[ewancummins]

The cabin is much more comfortable than the outdoors, just now, despite being a bit cramped and draughty in places. Wat speards out some hides and pelts for you all to use as blankets, and throws a few more logs on the fire so that it burns long into the night. The woodsman brings Dorgio some extra food, not much but something, before going to sleep himself.

The next day finds you all rested, though some of you are no doubt still sore and bruised from the events of the pervious night. Dorgio looks a little better, but still appears sickly.

A rythmic thwacking sound may be heard from somewhere behind the cabin. Anyone looking out the back door will see Wat swinging a hatchet, busily chopping wood. His dogs are with him, intently watching the treeline.

After his wood chopping is done [time enough for all of you to get prepared for the day] Wat comes back into the cabin and begins cooking soup in a big iron pot which he hangs over the fire in the hearth. He throws in vegetables, chunks of quartered rabbit, and fresh herbs. A rich aroma soon fills the room.

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

Dorgio had gratefully accepted the food the night before, but as he at it, a feeling of discomfort had accompanied each swallow. The attention, though sincere and even sacrificial, somehow made him ill at ease. It had reminded him a a conversation with an old priest who'd told him that helping a man usually made the man being helped feel worse than the man doing the helping. Perhaps, Dorgio had thoguht before he'd fallen asleep, the man had known more than Dorgio had first believed.

The priest rises with the sun, as always. He'd smiles see the blisters recede, at least a little. He begins his prayer meditations, concentrating on the mantra his father had used when he'd been alive.

<i>One morn I awakened
A new sun was shining
The sky was a Kingdom
All covered in blood
The moon and the stars
Where the troops that lay conquered
Like fruit left to wither
Poor spiritual food.</i>

When the others awake, Dorgio says. "We must soon be seeing to Silas. Will anybody be assisting me with the burial?"

[Adam]

Bennedict looks up from the dusty leather journal, ceasing to recite the words to memorizing spiritual weapon spells.

"I can assist. I hate to leave him just lying there." He closes the book, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "I would say we should inspect the tower during the day time, but we entered the place by day last time and Wolutha simply changed us to night."

[ewancummins]

The weather is much improved today. It is pleasantly warm out of doors. The sky overhead is sunny, but of course the forest privides plenty of shade.

When the burial party leaves Wat's humble abode, you find that the ground is a bit soggy and soft in many places, on account of last night's storm. It's still possible to find blurry, indistinct footprints here and there along the trail. Between that and the marking left behind by thoughtful party members, finding your way in daylight isn't too difficult.


Sure enough, you find Buckman waiting in the lonely place where you'd abandoned him last night. Laying on the muddy ground all crumpled and soaked with rainwater, his body gives the appearance of having shrunk a bit. Approaching closer, you hear the buzzing of insects. A swarm of blue-black flies have settled onto the cadaver, clustering on and about the torn flesh of the throat. The dead man's face still bears the same wide-eyed expression of mortal dread as it did last night when you had first discovered him dead beneath the bushes. A stench rises from the body, sickly sweet but hardly overpowering unless one is especially sensitive to odors.

[Lord Skybolt]

Alain stands guard duty while more physically oriented members of the party bury the body .

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

Dorgio waves the bugs away as best he can, then sets to work preparing the body. He produces a small vial filled with oil flecked with gold, and makes draws a quick sigil of the Morninglord on his forehead. He then takes a vial of holy water, and sprinkles it over Buckman's death wound.

"Is anybody knowing what gods he prayed to, if any? Or of any effects he would wish to be buried with?"

[Adam]

"I don't think he ever said," Bennedict mutters, looking around into the woods. "I'm sure he won't mind the prayers, whoever is sending or receiving them."

He goes back to shoveling, stopping occasionally to look nervously into the surroundings. Whatever had done this to Buckman was still out there.

[ewancummins]

The deep woods are alive with birdsong, the sounds of wind through the trees, and the occasional skittering of small animals. Today's fine sunny weather has created a very different forest than last night's storm-drenched maze of slippery trails twisting off into the gloom, blinkered on all sides by looming trees and black masses of dank vegetation.

Benn keeps at his digging, with help from some of the others. Within the hour, the work is done and the prayers are spoken. The poor man's body is now enclosed in the alien soil of this place. An oak tree shades the humble mound of fresh turned earth under which Buckman's mortal remains are laid to rest.

[Lord Skybolt]

"Hopefully it was not Van Diecks that did that to him now that I think about, because if it was Van Diecks, then he has reloads of Powder and shot for his pistol now . " After they bury Buckman and on the walk back to the cabin Alain comments on what he just thought about as they were burying thier former comrades body .

[Le Noir Faineant]

Cirdan has watched the scene silently, his bulking figure waiting under the long branches of a tree, a few steps apaprt from the others.

The knight has opened his vizor, though, and his elven face looks grim and determined.

[Adam]

"And, of course, the tracker in our party is now dead so we have no way to hunt down who did this." Bennedict shakes his head ruefully. "So what is the next move? Walking to town might be safer, and maybe someone there will have heard of a creature in the woods. But that doesn't exactly bring us to defeating our enemies and finding a way back to Pont-a-Museau."