"Caress Melani, I do hearby grant you the rank of Cheval, welcome to the Order of the Gauntlet," Daran Edermath declared with a concise set of gestures and the passing over of a small badge depicting the iconography of the Order with empty places that might later hold representations of increased rank.
"I am glad that you changed your mind about my offer, I think you will do well in the order."
Caress smiled politely and nodded, brushing back a lock of hair in a good artifice of coquettish manner. "I wonder whether the rest of the Order will agree with your estimation, sir."
"And why did you accept the offer then?" the man asked giving her a knowing look.
"It occurred to me that if anyone might need a courtesan's grace, it is those who give so much of themselves, and hold so much tightly inside," she smirked in a mirror to his own expression. "Some might uncharitably suggest I see a... business opportunity."
The old half-elf blushed briefly, taken aback by the response, but chuckling in response. "Regardless, your heart is that of a defender, and that is the important thing. You will find a good place in with the order. Where do you plan on heading next?"
"Tonight I shall attend to my own duties," she said. "And on the morrow, we are making the trek to the ruins of Thundertree."
"I see, be careful on that, I've heard rumors that the land there is cursed."
"All the better reason to investigate, then." Caress responded.
That evening, Caress came down in her comfortable, diaphanous robes and set up on an empty seat near the fireplace in the Stonehill Inn. She'd considered the effort of learning a musical instrument in the past, but even though she was a competent singer, her strength as a performer was recitation. There was something in the simple telling of a tale that agreed with her yuan-ti sensibilities. Perhaps it was simply that dancing and singing invited her to push too hard on her attempts to emote in manners accessible to other peoples.
 |
| A night at Stonehill Inn (references a short story by Mythram's player) |
So she sat down and began to recite the ballad of Mage and the Panther. A story regarding the Time of Troubles that focused more on the growing love between the mortals that would ascend to be the current gods of Magic and Death. Unfortunately, told to the end found the two growing apart, but it was still a pleasant story for the most part.
"And for respect of the Lady, she cast aside her name;
Midnight was no more and Mystra was once again."
She paused turned toward her sparse audience with a thoughtful look. "And it is here I suspect the love of Kelemvor and Midnight was doomed. I fear that Midnight did more than give up her name. But that is only a supposition."
Caress took a breath and pushed back into the recitation. She'd been told at one point these little asides were what made her recitations so entertaining, though her voice instructor had always hated it
She watched as a woman walked up to her table and sat down at it. She recognized the widow they had rescued from the manor, Mirna Dendrar, and found a place to break off the recitation and turned her attention to the woman.
"Yes, might I help you?"
"I don't know why I'm here... I'm not really...about women."
Caress smiled and leaned forward. "I can provide many services. Some physical, others more to do with providing a ear to bend."
The yuan-ti leaned back to a straight posture again and looked about the tap room. "Would you prefer to continue this conversation in private?"
Mirna thought for a moment and then shook her head. "I just want to someone to talk to."
Caress nodded and glanced briefly toward the innkeeper. "Tea or wine?"
The trip west and north was quick and there was a night spent in Neverwinter before they came to the village to find a sign speaking of "plant monsters" and zombies.
Whoever had posted the sign had certainly not been kidding. At least so Caress thought as she stabbed radiant-imbued dagger into the chest of a corrupted, ambulatory bush, shriveling it up within the divine light. There were plenty of these twig blights around, raised up out of some lingering corruption along with the ash zombies that they'd also encountered and which Lyra had scoured clean away from the face of Faerun.
However, the sign didn't have much to say about the giant spiders. Caress heard Mythram fighting as she tried her best to get over and across the walls, failing the jump and landing painfully on her back. Behind her, a cascade of moonlight slammed down around the twig-blights she'd just left and she could hear them shrieking as they died in the light... their scream being joined by Mythrams. Getting to her feet, Caress moved over to the rotten wall and pulled herself over it, landing beside the Sharran and reaching out to purge the spider's poison from her veins.
 |
| Blights and Zombies and Spiders Beyond, Oh my |
A moment later and the rogue was landing a telling blow just moments before the ray of moonlight flowed down from above and shriveled the beast up. Which left them to speak to the druid that had the task of monitoring the infestation of blights and zombies at Thundertree.
"It's a wonder Venombite hasn't come down to see what all the fighting is about. Him or that cult over there, worshipping him."
Did you just say that the cult of the dragon is here?" Caress asked.
"The cult of the dragon?" Ravyn asked, taking out quill and journal as the yuan-ti turned to look at him.
"As the name suggests, a cult obsessed with dragons," she explained. "They have a practice of traveling about trying to sell dragons on the idea of becoming a dracolich."
"They're definitely a menace," the druid said.
"Well, maybe we can shove this cult on a bit, and perhaps the dragon?" Lyra said.
"If you could it would certainly make my job easier," the druid noted.
"It would be irresponsible to have a group of the cult of the dragon so close to... any settlement," Caress commented.
"Are we really certain that we can handle a dragon?"
"He's kind of a young dragon," the druid commented.
"First things first," Mythram noted. "We were sent here to retrieve some belongings from a house here. Can you direct us to the Alchemist's shop? We'll discuss the other matters later."
"Sure, and maybe this way you won't go waking up every bundle of blights in the area."
No comments:
Post a Comment