Puttering about in the muck of a ruined city, a scholar confronts the manticore, a blacksmith flees a woman seeking a lost child, a butcher interrupts a meal among friends, and a candle-maker is shot in the back.
Squid are boiled by some to avoid starvation, while what smells like pork is eaten by some others.
Victor had resigned himself to being accompanied by Wit Tandoum, the malnourished street urchin orphan boy, and so tried to find a use for him. He instructed him in some rudimentary fishing techniques, giving him a rapier with which to drive out various scavengers from their hiding places, but it was all for nought.
They waded towards the ruins, the five of them with the earthly remainders of Sorla in tow. Up ahead was a tangled nest of buildings, with brick and timber precariously piled atop itself. From out of a slanted ruin several men tugged at a large beam. It shifted, and with a great splash and rumble collapsed.
"No! Theodor!" shouted several of them, along with curses, as they struggled to heave off hunks of wood and stone. The adventurers ran up, and in particular Victor. He tried lugging and tugging as well, and soon found a lifeless arm. The other men weeped and wailed, for Theodor Brosen was the man who had died, and Theodor Brosen had a family and now that family might surely starve.
Victor took immediately to scolding them for cowardice in the face of struggle. Would they act or would they mourn? They must do something if they would hope to live.
They had been trying to build a raft, so they might escape this place.
Up the flooded streets a man spoke with a small boy, and this boy was the son of Theodor Brosen, said the survivors of the collapse to Victor. Victor stomped towards him with vigor, and suspicion. He questioned him sternly, and more softly questioned the boy as well.
The man was straightforward, if not a bit shifty. "I am Terbil Tem!" he said. "Ah, you too have seen much horror in this catastrophe, what is that your companions drag with you? A body? Who was it?". The boy, also nervous and meek, answered his questions as well. "My brother and sister are in the house over there. Terbil Tem said he knew a place where we could eat."
Victor walked into the house, and peered around the corners. In ankle deep water was a bed, and a stove, and various cups and plates and other bits of domestic debris. The water was dirty and cold, like all the water. On the bad sat no children.
Victor stormed out the house and marched up to Terbil Tem and withdrew his rapier and scowled and snarled in his face "Where are they?"
While this transpired the light-footed scholar Talon was cautiously pursuing a cloaked and stooped figure at a distance, one similar to those he had seen before. He followed this person down a ways, to a place in the town where the buildings were up on ridges above the waters. This figure descended a short flight of stairs, set into the side of the buildings foundation.
After they descended he approached, and crept down the stairs too. There was a door, a cellar door, it stood ajar and he put his ears near it. He heard plates and knives and forks, chewing and mumbling. The lights inside were dim. He did not enter; he began to walk back towards where the others still stood.
"Where are the children?" said Victor. Terbil Tem stared dumbstruck at him, gulped a short breath, and then began to about face and scamper away. Without hesitation Victor lunged forward and punctured his leg with rapier so deeply it might have killed him on the spot. He fell to the ground screaming then sputtering as he hit the water while his blood gushed out.
"Hey! Why are you hurting Terbil Tem!" shouted out Wit. "I know him! He's a good man!" Terbil Tem shouted too: "Marauder! Why do you abuse me! What do you want with those children?" Victor withdrew a flintlock and pointed it squarely between his eyes. "Where are the children?" he asked. "Perhaps, perhaps they are at the house." said Terbil. "Then take us there."
Talon recognized the house that Terbil brought them to. Victor lead Terbil down the stairs, and prodded him to cry out "Hello! Is anywhere there? We have visitors!". Talon, meanwhile, had positioned himself above the doorway. Orick and Catherine were close behind them both.
Since the lights inside were dim, Orick began to gesture and mutter an incantation. What emerged shortly thereafter were known to practitioners of the Art as the Effervescent Lights of Kwalish, and these four glowing orbs did float about the room as willed by Orick and did light the dingy cellar with a most lurid and unusual glow. The room was divided in half by a curtain.
Alas, when Orick did this the strange forces empowering these magics did cause his eyes to weep out a continuous stream of blood, staining his cheeks. Orick also noted a scent of roasting pork wafting through the damp air.
A man with grease on his lips and chin looked out from behind a ratty curtain and spoke "What? Terbil? What has happened? What is this? And these lights, what is going on? And who are these people!"
Catherine grabbed one edge of the curtain and pulled, causing half of it to fall to the ground. There was seen a wooden table before them in the room beyond, with simple place settings and candles and two other men who sat with knives and forks before lightly charred chunks of meat. Behind them was a butchers block of sorts, and casks, and hooks on which hung small limbs and torso and other human portions. All this well illuminated by the Effervescent Lights of Kwalish.
Immediately after taking in this ungodly sight Victor skewered Terbil through the guts and let him fall to the ground and die, while Catherine withdrew a pistol and fired. It did not fire though, the damp powder merely sizzled in the pan.
One of the cannibals ran for the stairs, but Orick caused them to shine like polished glass with the Frictionless Field of Evard. As he reached them he stumbled and slipped, bashing his elbows on steps and gasping in surprise. Talon then fired an arrow at the base of his neck, but he narrowly missed. The arrow stuck into the wood by his left ear.
Victor stepped towards the other man, who stood behind the central pole supporting the floor above them. They whirled around this, the child-eater lunging with a great butchers knife and Victor with his rapier. Victor stuck the monster twice, before Orick withdrew a pistol of his own and tried to fire upon the other killer.
With a great blast and flash and stink of sulfur his pistol fired, but in the chaos and confusion of the cellar his shot was not true: he had shot Victor in the back, and he collapsed unconscious and bleeding. The cannibal cackled, and with a raised knife walked towards him.
Talon fired another arrow as the coward tried again to flee, and this arrow whizzed by his right ear as he fumbled upon the stairs.
The other wielding a knife slashed at Catherine, but she dodged every swing. She pulled out an arrow from the quiver, and she plunged it deep into his shoulder and collarbone. She leaned into it as he screamed, but then screamed herself as he plunged the kitchen blade deep into her stomach. She dropped to the ground blacking out, and the man laid his eyes upon Orick.
The man scrambling on the stairs turned around and looked up after taking notice of the arrows to his sides, and there he saw Talon for but one second before a third arrow pierced his skull.
The two men stepped closer, and they tried to wrestle him to the ground, while Orick brandished his old cleaver. As the first man groped at him Orick swung for the wrist. The heft and sharpness of the cleaver took off the hand of his assailant with remarkable ease, and after the second attacker failed to take hold of him Orick lopped off a hand of his as well. They both fell, and were dispatched with a few cursory chops, and then the cannibals all lay dead. Orick stepped out of the haze of the cellar, and roused his companions to wakefulness.
They insisted that Wit and the son of Theodor not look inside the cellar, despite their curiosity.
The house above the cellar was disheveled but livable, and they moved the stove from the cellar inside there so they might light it and dry the place. They also placed the body of Sorla in the cellar. While Victor and Christina tried to rest and recover from their various wounds, Victor examined the houses of the neighbors.
As Orick cleaned his pistol near a window, he saw two men come walking towards the cellar. "Hello!" he shouted. "Oh! Hello! Why...why are you in our house?", said one of them somewhat cautiously. "Oh? So this is your house then?" shouted back Orick, his pistol held quite visible. The men turned about and ran. They did not see Talon, but he saw them, and so he began to fire upon them with his bow. A few of his arrows struck them as he pursued, but after some time they managed to escape along the alleys and side streets.
Orick and Victor heard sounds of another sort of dispute down another way, and there they saw an older woman being bellowed at by some great mountain of a man, blonde-bearded and carrying a great broadsword.
"I am Alredo Jahn! Who are you, mere fisherman?" he thundered at Orick, gesturing at his fishing gear. He frequently interrupted the two of them when they attempted to converse. "I am Alfredo Jahn, the great warrior, and these are my companions!" a grinning, fully tattooed man leered at them "I am the Durmitor" said he, while gripping a glowing mace. "And that is Veshtoroc!" bellowed Alfredo, towards a woman who was half withered and wizened, with the other half still quite beautiful. There were three others with them, with a mercenary look about them. Others still lurked beyond them, odd looking scouts of some sort or another.
Victor and Orick were not humbled by this display, and after some displays of their own confidence and a few sharp words were able to drive these interlopers away, much to the visible relief of the woman. "We'll be seeing you again, I'm sure!" shouted Alfredo, as they left.
The woman thanked them profusely. Her name was Stary Hrad. She was once the mayor of Carrowmere, before the flood, and was now only trying to keep it from being flooded once again by gold-bugs like Alfredo and his ilk. They had wanted to defend the town from those who would ransack after being drawn in by rumors of treasure, but Stary only wanted someone to prove there was no treasure to be found in the ruins of the dam. She offered much silver, and even a boat, to those who would gather this evidence for her. They brought her back to the house, and decided they would borrow her skiff the next morning.
Only partially recovered from his injuries, Victor looked about the alleyways. Down one he heard a great commotion, a sort of fracas, but he heard only the voices of adults and so left them to resolve it on their own.
Looking down the main street above the cellar, in front of the house he was resting in, he saw the great column of cloud rising far off in the distance from where the dam was said to have once stood. Also in the road up ahead he saw a woman examining this column with a spyglass, while a small boy crept up to the satchel next to her.
He ran up, and drew the woman's attention to her belongings. "Theif! Rotten theif!" she shouted, while grabbing at the boy angrily. "Let me go!" shouted the boy, quite clearly guilty of what the man shouted. They were both brought back to the house. The man was a scholar named Tzani Spillios, a scholar of the sciences of man and other man-like animals. He claimed that all the rumors of treasure beyond the dam erroneously referred to a village of golden-hued reeds that floated upon the water. Her scrolls were tools to aid her in her studies, and she knew not why this impudent boy would want them.
The boy, named Torca Jou, spouted a tale of woe and misfortune: his sister had been taken by two figures with black cloth on their faces, and they would kill her if he did not bring them these scrolls. He was to bring them alone, to a plaza in the old town.
Victor was somewhat dismissive of this tale, but Christina believed him as did Orick and Talon. A plan was formulated: they would make some false scrolls for Torca, scout the area ahead, and observe these scroll-gatherers and extortionists themselves. The gathered some bits of wood that were roughly scroll-case sized, and bundled them up. Talon and Orick then went onward, while Christina waited in recovery.
The old town was starkly empty, and the water there was knee-high. The plaza was quite empty too, and there sat in the middle of it a fountain like the one Torca had described to them. Around the perimeter was bits of debris, an upturned wagon and some smashed marketplace stands. Orick and Talon hid themselves in this detritus, and waited for Torca.
Torca came, and he placed the satchel on the edge of the high fountain. He wandered off and away, back towards the house. There was no movement for some time, and Orick and Talon kept still. Then came a figure, steadily plowing through the water. It picked up the satchel roughly, and wandered off too. They followed, keeping far back. Another figure approached this one, and it took the satchel and walked off another way. The first figure stood there then, very still.
They came up to it, and looked it in the face. It was a man, pale and damp and glassy-eyed. It did not blink nor breathe. It muttered clumsily "bag. bag.". Orick pointed to a nearby house "The bag is there!". The figure walked towards it. They continued after the other one.
These were not normal men, they realized.
The second figure dropped the satchel on the steps of a house, and wandered off. They took cover then, and kept their eyes upon the satchel. They waited, for quite some time.
The plaza was not empty when they reached it; a woman stood upon the edge of the fountain in the center. She saw them both approach, and reacted with surprise.
"Oh! Oh my! Hello! Have you seen...my son? My son. I am looking for my son. His name is...Torca. Have you seen Torca?"
She had a tense and unusual manner about her, and there were odd pauses in her speech. She carried a staff.
Christina said that no, she had not seen her son.
"Are you sure? You haven't seen...Torca?"
She squinted. She was silent. Christina stepped back, and so did Wit. They had not seen him.
The woman spoke again, now more excitedly and insistent.
"Do you know the name Von Der Linth?"
"No..."
"Von Der Linth. Do you know it?"
"No..."
"Von Der Linth! Von Der Linth! Von Der Linth!"
She stamped her staff into the ground beneath the water, and nearly one dozen pale and wet figures rose up from the muddy water, and began plowing towards them.
Wit and Christina ran.
The woman began to wave her arms in odd gestures, and then spiraled up and off the ground like a whirling corkscrew. She flew past Wit and Christina at a great speed, leaving a wake in the water below her. She was now facing them, and pointed a hand towards Wit and began muttering an incantation, while the pale and the silent walkers pursued them behind.
Wit began to choke, and turn blue. Christina scooped him up in her arms, and then withdrew a short blade and rushed towards the levitating woman, he began to drift higher. She jabbed her in the gut, and she gasped. Christina kept running, while Wit still choked.
The scholar Tzanni was not good company, and so when she said she would be going outside to continue her studies Victor was most relieved. He had asked her if she knew anything of the science of healing or medicine, and she laughed at him. He had no use for her.
Shortly after she had stepped outside her heard he wince in pain, then begin gasping. He shuffled out to her. When she saw him she pointed at him and began shouting in terror.
"MANTICORE!" she screamed "FOUL BEAST WITH YOUR POINTY TAIL! YOU SHALL NOT POISON ME MANTICORE!". She began to crawl away. Victor tried grabbing at her, and pulled out an arrow from her side. She gasped again "YOU WILL NOT BE BITING ME WITH NEEDLE TEETH!". He tried to clobber her with his pole-arm, so she might be brought to her senses, but she managed to run off with her scrolls and potions into the wreckage.
Victor looked at the arrow that had pierced her. It was of a strange design: a groove along the center of it held some kind of strange material: a glistening slime mixed with a dull powder, and other small chunks of matter he could not identify.
Orick and Talon stood by the empty house for some time, before deciding to finally enter it. It was locked, and so they cleared a partially broken window before entering. After pawing through what they found there they found themselves in possession of some new blankets and coats, as well as a fine wheel of waxed cheese and a well-cased sausage. When they returned to the streets they saw a small contingent of pale and steadily walking men in the distance, similar to the ones they had seen before. Orick took no interest in it, realizing they had been duped already, but Talon thought to follow them.
Following them took Talon far outside the perimeters of the town, through fields and farmlands. The men all walked in a straight-enough line seemingly aimless. After some hours they came to a hillside too steep to be walked up, and despite this they attempted to scale it again and again. They kept stumbling, eventually bashing themselves upon rocks and causing visible harm to their bodies. Talon watched for some time before wandering back.
The levitating woman did not hound Christina, and Wit was able to draw breath once again after they were far enough from her. She returned to the house as dusk fell, and there found Orick and Victor. Talon would come later, and she would learn of what became of the Scholar. She made acquaintance with the mayor, and learned that they would soon have a boat with which to travel to the dam, and the tombs, and perhaps other places. Torca did not return. They boiled up a simple broth of caught squid, and they held back starvation.
The levitating woman did not hound Christina, and Wit was able to draw breath once again after they were far enough from her. She returned to the house as dusk fell, and there found Orick and Victor. Talon would come later, and she would learn of what became of the Scholar. She made acquaintance with the mayor, and learned that they would soon have a boat with which to travel to the dam, and the tombs, and perhaps other places. Torca did not return. They boiled up a simple broth of caught squid, and they held back starvation.
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