Mists over the Musarde, Chapter Five

Brock Marsh Runoff · Post by **Brock Marsh Runoff** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:18 pm

When Dorgio sees her, he lets out a breath he didn't knew he'd been holding. So the killer had not returned. If he had, surely he would have killed the most beautiful woman here. And was this not the most beautiful woman at the moot?

She shook his head quickly, like a horse with a fly in its ear. There was work to do. He turned and headed towards the Vistani camp. He arrives in time to see Norzak and Benn hand over their weapons. He gathers his weapons, and approaches slowly, holding the weapons pointed down to show that he means no harm.

"Here are my arms," he says in Luktar, nodding to the spears in his right hand. "And here," he said as he nodded to the knives in his left, "are the blades of the man we hunt."

ewancummins · Post by **ewancummins** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:22 pm

Moot-ground, outside the hall and away from the tinkers

JMaytr wrote:"I will go with you Wat as long as we stay away from the tinkers."

Wat-

''Yes, Jon.
Cirdan, Alain, will you come with us? ''

steveflam · Post by **steveflam** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:29 pm

The dwarf follows the guards and Benn to the Vardo. At the door he says "Awright, ye go first, ye gots a better way with words, Benn."

ewancummins · Post by **ewancummins** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:45 am

Benn, Norzak, and Dorgio in the raunie's vardo

Benn enters first, followed by Norzak and Dorgio.

By candlelight, you can see the aged raunie, her hair tucked beneath a black scarf that matches the black shawl draped over her bony frame. She is seated behind her little folding table, puffing away at an oversized pipe. The pungent tobacco smoke hangs in the air about her head like a misty halo. Her brilliant green eyes sparkle in the soft light. Her wrinkled visage contorts into a scowl as you enter.

The vardo interior is much as you remember it, somehow a little larger than it looks from the outside and containing many objects; a mixture of the necessities of the travelling life [preserved food, tools for mending clothes, tin or copper cooking utensils, etc] and stranger curiosities [crystal pendants, wooden hex carvings, parchments displaying star charts or open palms transected by matrices of thin lines, and other things of an apparently occult nature].

The raunie speaks in a grim voice,

''You have failed my people, giorgios. I can read it from your faces as easily as I can read it from the cards. You come to us late and without your quarry. I shall not remain long in this country. Speak.. ''

Lord Skybolt · Post by **Lord Skybolt** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:10 am

As Alain is Groping for the door he over hears the raunie say those words "Failed my but, I'm blind because you wanted Van Diecks alive instead dead like he came to be in the first fight with the Witch Woultha ."Alain says bitterly to himself .

Brock Marsh Runoff · Post by **Brock Marsh Runoff** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:09 am

Dorgio's left eye begins to twitch once the smoke hits his nostrils, but he does not look away from the raunie. "We have not succeeded yet. The hunt is not over. Van Diecks, he was in the service of a shade called Wolutha. We found him in her keep. We struggled to take him alive, but his injuries, they were not survivable."

"I took his knives, your men have them know. We took the body as well. But somehow, he fled in the night. He was as cold and stiff as this," he says, tapping his armor, "but life was restored to him, or some mockery of it. We will find him again."

ewancummins · Post by **ewancummins** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:33 am

the raunie's vardo-

The old woman replies-

''Still you pursue him...but will he always be one step ahead of you, watching, waiting...planning his revenge? Perhaps it is the blood of your friends, your family, those whom you love, that he spills next? I see that you mean to follow him down to hell, if you must, Dorgio Varga. I will read for you and your friends- just one last time. After this, my people leave this country, never to return. ''

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:24 pm

Bennedict grimaces at this last.

"What of us, then? This is not our land, either. I for one have no interest in spending the rest of my days here. Yes, we would like to hunt the man Van Deicks down, but not at the expense of being trapped in this place."

He drums his fingers on the table.

"We had him, Raunie. He had been taken from the keep, dead. It was not any living or natural thing that took his body away, and there was no way we could have prevented it. We have essentially done what you asked, and now seek only to finish the job and avenge your lost girl. Why would you punish us for this?"

ewancummins · Post by **ewancummins** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:34 pm

The raunie's voice shifts from merely grim to actually angry-

''Punish you? No, you have not been truly punished. That may yet come, but it will not be by our hands or will- unless you should trifle with us overmuch. As for escape, all you need do is enter the border mists and begin walking....if it is your fate to live, you will emerge in another country. If it is your fate to die lost the mists, think you to escape it by traveling with my people? No. Where we are going, those outside our kindred may not follow. ''

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:03 am

Bennedict's face pales. "Walk into the mists?" He pulls a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping the cold sweat that has just appeared on his brow. "I've heard stories, but...is it possible?"

He sits down to rest. "We thank you for another reading of the cards. I hope they bring better tidings, at least now that the witch Wolutha is no more."

ewancummins · Post by **ewancummins** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:13 am

the raunie's vardo

''Yes, yes...of course it is possible to travel the mists. Now, then, you get one reading for one question. Do you wish a reading of your hunt for Van Diecks? Do you wish to learn how you might return to Richemulot? What is your question? ''

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:19 pm

Bennedict turns towards the others.

"I for one wish to know how best to return home. Let Van Deicks rot here, if he wills it. I, however, would not venture to speak for my companions."

steveflam · Post by **steveflam** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:59 pm

Norzak doesn't even bother waiting to think about it. "I wants ta be gettin' back ta Ponts 'o Musardee too. Mebbe go see Lil Anya an bring er some toy or somethin'."

Lord Skybolt · Post by **Lord Skybolt** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 4:06 pm

"I also wish to Return to Richemulot ."Alain says for himself .

Brock Marsh Runoff · Post by **Brock Marsh Runoff** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 4:35 pm

The Raunie wrote:"I see that you mean to follow him down to hell, if you must, Dorgio Varga."

He shifts uncomfortably at this. "A man can be following his enemy to damnation, yes. But a man can be fleeing into hell too, yes?" He thinks of his comrades in Gundarak, how the black forms had descended on them, how he had fled while they choked and died while he alone crossed the border.

The Raunie wrote: Do you wish a reading of your hunt for Van Diecks? Do you wish to learn how you might return to Richemulot? What is your question?

"Speaking only for myself, I am wishing to know more of the killer."

Benn wrote:"I for one wish to know how best to return home. Let Van Deicks rot here, if he wills it. I, however, would not venture to speak for my companions."

"Benn, out of all of us I would have been thinking that you--"

Norzak wrote:"I wants ta be gettin' back ta Ponts 'o Musardee too. Mebbe go see Lil Anya an bring er some toy or somethin'."

Alain wrote: "I also wish to Return to Richemulot ."

The priest furrows his brow. He knows what Jon would choose. And even Cirdan, for all his nobility, would want to return to Evie more than anything. "So be it. I am thinking we will find the killer son enough, with or without the cards. Estheemed raunie, could you be telling us how to return?"

Café de Nuit

Welcome, friends, to our establishment.

Mists over the Musarde, Chapter Five