Gather up

The woods are restless through the day, John continues to hunt down and kill any passerby with a spider marked hood. tired and aggravated by the constant flow of enemies that invaded his home. he feels the presence of an outside and rushes towards the town entrance to find a man placing a tall bottle of a frosty blue drink in front of a tree. he could smell the sugar from the bottle and his eyes grow wide with satisfaction.

BANDIT:

"I hope 'is is enough 'anks for saving me life back in 'e last checkpoint, Red. I hope it's to ya likin'."

The man stayed in place for a moment looking into the woods hoping to find something before finally giving up and leaving for the day. As soon as the man turns around John reaches a hand out of the tree and snatches the bottle up.

Later, John takes a break from his scouting and leaves it to the bandits for a while and takes a sip of the bottle. his nose crinkles up as he howls from the sting of the fizz escaping his nose.

JOHN:

"HWOO!! Wow, that's sharp."

he takes another sip of the bottler without hesitation.

JOHN:

"Damn that's good, though! mmn!"

As he enjoys his new drink, he gets a signal from one of the bandit groups and goes after it. The bandit was getting attacked by the cult and some of them were getting dragged away towards a cave. He quickly makes the forest join the fight and starts protecting the bandits and killing the cultist before the rest escape back into the cave. frustrated, John drops in front of the bandits and stares into the cave in frustration when he hears a child crying behind him.

Among the bandits was a small leonin girl lost and terrified, tired and confused.

BANDIT:

"W-we saw those cult fuckers trying to take the kid so..."

JOHN:

"Don't swear over the kid, dingus! Hey, little kitty."

the child looks at him and instantly gets mesmerized by his electric blue eyes and gets sleepy immediately.

JOHN:

"hey~. you getting tired? don't worry. I'll get you home. and this will all be a bad dream."

The child falls asleep and one of the bandits catches her as she falls back and carries her.

JOHN:

"Take her back to the town. I'm sure her daddy will love to see her safe and sound in her bed again."

BANDIT:

"r-right away, sir!"

The bandit holding the child rushes off towards the town. John huffs with a smirk peaking across his face, when a thought crosses his mind.

JOHN:

"How many did we lose today?"

BANDIT:

"... T-twelve... sir."

JOHN:

"What about those from the town?"

BANDIT:

"Only the girl. The others were lost travelers we were trying to catch and send to town."

JOHN:

"and them?"

BANDIT:

"We were nearly able to destroy the core of the barrier in the cave but got chased out by one of their dusk walkers."

JOHN:

"Dusk walkers?"

BANDITS:

"strong undead with some consciousness but still under the control of a necromancer."

"we stood no chance."

"I think the armor it wore was that of a knight."

"ain't no way we can take that on without good gear ourselves."

JOHN:

"Alright. I get it. Go home and rest... we'll mourn the fallen and take this cave tonight."

Back at the inn, the time was high noon and the party was ready to head out. Vajor flexes his shoulders and pops his neck.

VAJOR:

"I still don't know why we don't just head to tha caves and take them now. We'd have tha element of surprise during tha day at least."

Sarale glances over at him.

SARALE:

"The forest is too thick even during the day, very little sunlight breaks through to pose any kind of advantage against drow. Revenants are another story."

VAJOR:

"What do we know about revenants? Other than they've sworn vengeance on someone living and will stop at nothing to find them and kill them?"

SARALE:

"Well, I can tell you what they taught me at the temple."

VAJOR:

"Better than goin' in blind."

SARALE:

"That's true. So normally they're resistant to necrotic and psychic damage as well as immune to poison and being poisoned. They can't be charmed, exhausted, frightened, paralyzed, or stunned. They have extraordinary regenerative abilities on top of that which can be easily negated by fire or radiant damage. That only leaves two of us that can stop them from regenerating to actually kill them, unless Aktlass' greatsword can do something we don't yet know about."

Vajor cracks his knuckles.

VAJOR:

"We know their weaknesses then, but you said normally, what do ya mean?"

SARALE:(shakes head)

"these are different from normal revs. Most revs are brought back by their hatred and will scour the planes to take their vengeance on whomever they feel wrongfully took their life. These are turned by a curse not killed and taking revenge. With that being said they could use their vengeful glare on us."

VAJOR:

"I'm guessin' that's bad."

SARALE:

"Very bad. It could be the difference between life or death. They hit hard and have a strong grip, so don't get caught."

VAJOR:

"Sounds like you have experience, dove."

Sarale shudders at the memory.

SARALE:

"Once, when I was a child."

KARMA:

"So with that in mind, I wonder if Naleth has any more to tell about the other cultists."

TUNDA:

"He's already told me he cleaned out one of the caves himself. leaving three to be dealt with. All with a good colony of abominations."

SARALE:

"From what I can tell Naleth isn't quite a normal Revenant, either. He still has a conscience. Most don't and will tear through anybody to seek their retribution. Naleth's desire is to wipe my father's bloodline off the face of the planet. That includes me and my mother, but he's able to stop it, unless there's something I'm not seeing. It's actually quite extraordinary, though. He's unorthodox and inappropriate at times, but he really does mean us well."

VAJOR:

"He wouldn't have gotten close enough. Let's face it, we were all far too guarded when he showed up. If she hadn't gone to him he never would have made it to her."

SARALE:

"Which was extremely stupid and very risky. I'm surprised nobody stopped me. All I saw was the man I once knew. He very likely could have killed me then and nobody would have been able to stop him. Not even John."

TUNDA:

"Not with revenants being as they are. He'd have ended up hunting all of us down in another body just for knowing you."

VAJOR:

"That's a scary thought."

SARALE:

"He's not wrong though, because you're associated to me that would have made you guilty by association, especially you Vajor."

KARMA:

"Is it cuz you two are soulmates?"

Vajor grins at Karma's comment and Sarale shakes her head at him and giggles.

SARALE:

"That's one way of putting it."

AKTLASS:

"You should find a temple to marry in like us."

KARMA:

"After her mind is back to normalcy."

VAJOR:

"I'm of the same mind as Karma on this one. While the thought absolutely thrills me, taking a bride with the mind of a teenager feels..."

SARALE:

"Perverted?"

VAJOR:

"HEY?!"

SARALE:

"You said it, not me."

Vajor's ears flatten.

VAJOR:

"You heard tha', did ya?"

Sarale nods and giggles.

SARALE:

"Yup. I was dozing, but I caught some of it."

Aktlass and Karma start to laugh with Tunda sighs with his brow raised when he sees the leonin with a child sleeping in his arms as he sat at the doors holding her and crying as he swayed, lulling the child to sleep with his growling.

TUNDA:

"Bandu?"

Tunda rushes over to the leonin to see the child in his arms. Sarale's eyes soften as she stays back a bit and keeps her voice low so as not to disturb them.

SARALE:

"That poor man. He'd thought he'd lost her, he'd all, but given up hope. I'm glad it has a happy ending for them."

Vajor wraps his arms around her shoulders and smiles sadly.

VAJOR:

"We have to stop this evil. We can't let them hurt anyone else."

JOHN:

"Glad to hear you say that, jolly pink."

John appears from the building wall. Vajor jerks in surprise as he pulls Sarale closer to his side and spies John, letting himself relax.

VAJOR:(sigh)

"How's it goin?"

Sarale bites her lip and starts giggling drawing Vajor's attention to her and he tilts his head curiously.

SARALE:(giggle)

"Jolly pink. It fits so well. I love it."

Vajor groans and rolls his eyes while hiding his smile.

VAJOR:

"Please, dove, don't start with tha' too."

JOHN:(snicker)

"hey. I got a job for you guys if you're interested. care to join me outside of town?"

Vajor scratches his head and grins.

VAJOR:

"If it means I get ta hit thin's, I'm in."

SARALE:(giggle)

"Helping these people is my top priority, but yeah. I'm in too."

KARMA:

"I'll tell Tunda you're waiting for us."

JOHN:

"please do."

John looks around and sees the child waking up then vanishes into the wall again.

JOHN:

"I'll be waiting, friends."

Sarale bounces on her toes and crosses her arms behind her to stretch with a groan.

SARALE:

"looks like we're gonna be hitting things like you wanted. (to Vajor) Wanna make it a competition?"

His ear twitches and he looks down at her.

VAJOR:

"aye, wha' did ya have in mind?"

She grins and stands on her toes to whisper in his ear. A moment passes and his face turns bright red as his eyes grow wide, his words coming out pitched.

VAJOR:

"I.. uhm… *clears throat* we should go get ready. I.."

Vajor nods as his head drops and he chuckles while shaking his head.

VAJOR:

"I'm gonna go grab my thin's before I say somethin' embarrassin'."

SARALE:

"You didn't put them in the bag I let you borrow."

Vajor glances at Sarale and studies her face, her eyes full of genuine curiosity.

VAJOR:

"I left somethin' in tha room. I'll be right back."

Sarale nods as she watches Vajor walk inside and chuckles to herself.

SARALE:

"Jolly pink."

AKTLASS:

"We should gather potions and scrolls for the coming battle."

KARMA:

"yeah. I'll go get those with Aktlass. Think you can keep Tunda company while we go back to the market?"

Sarale nods, giving Karma and Aktlass a side hug before heading for Tunda and Bandu.

SARALE:

"sounds like a plan."

She pauses and looks back at them. Her brows creased in concern.

SARALE:

"Be safe, we'll see you in a bit."

Karma and Aktlass go inside to leave through the back. Tunda helps Bandu up and makes him go inside. Bandu was in tears as he carried the child inside hugging her affectionately as he went in.

TUNDA:

"... So John has been sending back as many people as he could. Doing the town a blessing when he's feared here. Though I think a lot of that fear is from the travelers that he chases here."

SARALE:

"Sounds like it. He's their secret guardian. We have to stop this before anyone else gets hurt."

TUNDA:

"I heard him. Let's look around, see who we can find to help clear out the forest. Have the guards barricade the main path, while we get some hired hands to help clear the caves with us... If they're willing."

SARALE:

"It'll be a hard fight without help, but if we all work together I'm confident we'll win. Hopefully we don't have to, but.. we will. We'll win, either way."

TUNDA:

"You bet your hide, we will, sis. Let's head to the guild and see what we can find out."

Tunda heads off down the road. 

SARALE:

"Hey hold up, let's wait for Vajor. He went to grab something." She scampers after Tunda waving a hand to get his attention and laughing.

A breath later and Vajor exits the building ushers Sarale to chase after Tunda.

VAJOR:

"I'm right behind ya, dove."

TUNDA:

"let's head out."

Sarale runs up to Tunda and falls in step with him as Vajor comes to walk on her other side.