Party 3

Thia looks around at her surroundings nervously, then to Carne, who had just showed up. "H-hello, I'm Thia Liadon...." Thia also had a distrust of new people, but she wasn't going to completely ignore someone at a time like this, where nobody seemed to know what was happening. "I believe I'm the only one here who can see through this darkness relatively well. I can guide us through these dark woods and to those wolves, If t-that's fine with everyone...."
 
Tazdaar nods to Thia.

"As usual, my friend, I'll be right beside you."

They'd left the town with two of their compatriots, and emerged from the mist with two new ones. At least these strangers hadn't tried to kill them yet, and judging by their expressions, they all shared the same confusion. That was enough to make them allies, and for that Tazdaar was relieved. With what they were up against, it would be good to have another sword, or perhaps a few spells.

One of the humans was obviously dangerous -- he moved like a predator, with the purpose and grace of a true hunter. The other one's menace was more subtle, but his eyes gave it away. There was untold power lurking behind them.

Tazdaar greets them with all the warmth he can muster amid the chill brought on by this cursed mist. He glances at the darkness and spits, acid sizzling on the ground, demonstrating his contempt for the circumstances of their meeting.

"Greetings," he says, hoping they can tell when a dragonborn is smiling. "Friends, I am Tazdaar." He holds out a hand, shaking with both of them, but holding onto the barbarian's hand a second longer. He pulls the second silvered shortsword from his belt and offers it to him, hilt first. "A little small for you, perhaps, but you may find some value in it with the foes we face."
 
Thia scans the horizon as she leads her almost blind group along the dark and dreary road. She is thankful that she is able to see in the dark to help her group, it makes her feel useful in some way to the others around her. After walking for a few moments she spots the silhouette of small houses in the distance, enough for it to seem like a settlement. "Guys, I see some houses way up there." She says, pointing to her discovery, without even knowing if they would be able to see it in the first place. "This road seems to lead right to it. Hopefully some people will be there that can help us out."
 
Azgard looks ahead as his vision begins to clear. Gazing upon the ominous landscape, his senses first find the crying children. He further investigates the crying from behind Tazdaar and Thia. They both towered over him in height, but he managed to peer between them. Azgard’s perceives the crying as sincere. He furthers his investigation to the rest of the small town, finding solace in its simplicity.

”A fight here wouldn’t be too bad, eh? Maybe one of us can check on the young ones while the others hide to see if we’re ambushed?” Azgard whispers.

Azgard looks to his left to see Carne for the first time. Although the barbarian was the only to match his short stature, Azgard admired his strength and intimidating nature. He had no time to distrust this group, but the need to prove his strength amongst them suddenly became much more vital. With his prepared orb, Azgard steps forward to make eye contact with the three and gauge the opinion of the group.

“Does that sound good to everyone?”
 
Tazdaar wasn't one for hiding in the shadows, nor did he like leaving an unarmored companion exposed, but it was a solid plan. Better to be prepared. Besides, if he approached the children he would only send them fleeing into the darkness in terror.

He finds a shadowed spot in the doorway to one of the many buildings lining the road that gives him a clear line of sight on Thia and the children. Taking a deep breath, Tazdaar calms his pounding heart and tightly wound nerves, reaching out with his senses to sense anything spawned from darkness ... and finds nothing. At least these was nothing worse in this forsaken town.

He slips the other silvered shortsword from his belt and dons his shield, readying himself for anything.
 
Thia looks back at her friends, worry showing slightly on her face, and smiles at them as she gives them a short nod. She then looks back and the children and approaches them slowly, till she is only about a foot away from them. Thia crouches down so that she is eye level with them, and gives them the same smile she gave her party. "Hello little ones, what's the matter? Why are you standing out here alone amid this closed down little town?" She asks the children in a quiet and calming voice, something she knew she was good at.
 
Thia looks up at the house, wondering how children could live in a house like that, let alone in a village like this. After looking at it for a few moments she looks back down to the children. "You two just focus on staying safe, me and my friends will check your house out for you." She says with a smile as she gestures to her friends behind her. Thia then stands back up to her normal height and joins back with her group. "We should see if we can help them with their house, while it seems rundown it's better then any of the other houses around here, and they seem content with living there. The monster they're talking about might even be a certain werewolf that Tazdaar and I are looking for." Thia says quietly to her group, hoping that Eve was still alright.
 
“Well then, we’ll investigate this matter for you,” Azgard claimed, reassuring the children. As he understood it, the girl was not the child they were looking for. Despite the odd circumstances, their appearance seemed normal, and their living situation was not alien to him either. As such, Azgard approached the house with an eerie confidence.

Continuing to the rusted fence, Azgard paused and carefully scanned the perimeter. After some consideration, he put away his orb and smiled back at the group. Azgard had an inkling that the children might feel better seeing them handle the situation with confidence.

“On we go, then?” He asks as he pushes the gate open, eyeing Carne and Tazdaar to take the lead.
 
Tazdaar saw something of himself and his brother in the two children. They often had to fend for themselves while they're mother worked endless hours to afford basic comforts of food in their bellies and a roof over their heads. He often wished for a hero to protect them from the "monsters" that might prey on them in the back alleys and amid the filthy hovels, but they were mostly left to rely on each other. Now he could be that hero.

His heart went out to them, and in doing so distracted him from the oddity of two children, without parents, out in the street in the middle of the night and asking strangers to take care of a monster in their home.

The shriek of the outer gate sent a shiver down his spine, and he gripped his sword and shield tighter as he approached the towering home. Nothing stirred outside, so Tazdaar entered the foyer and pushed one of the double doors open with his shield, peering into the darkness within.
 
Thia ran up to the front of the house and pulled off her adventuring pack to fish out an unlit torch and a tinderbox. She uses the tinderbox to make a fire explode onto the top of the torch, then she hands it to Azgard. “So that everyone can see in this dark house.” She motions with her hand for Azgard to follow behind Tazdaar as she pulls her pack back on to follow behind.
 
Azgard instinctively accepted the torch, after thanking Thia. He maneuvered it with care in front of Tazdaar and himself. “I could never turn down a gift as pure as this,” he said under his breath, while he gazed deeply into the apex of the flame. He quickly adjusted his vision to the corridor ahead of them, and began to head forward.

Azgard spoke up for the group to hear him more clearly, looking closely at the décor to their right. “Children live closer to the sanctity of fire than even I. I envy their innocence, and pray plagues upon those who harm them.” He reached out to the next set of doors. Peering into the glass, Azgard could see into the main hall, and a spiraling staircase.

“Rose, do you happen to know where this monster might be?” Azgard asks in a comforting tone.
 
After having accepted the silvered shortsword the strange Dragonborn called Tazdaar had offered Carne, he felt slighty safer. Whoever these folks were, they were not a threat - At least, not for the moment.
The High Elf who had introduced herself as Thia seemed friendly enough. A little shy, perhaps, and rather thin. Carne chuckled at the thought of Thia attacking him. No, she would be the last that might pose a problem.
The only other human in this group, a man with long, white hair who was roughly Carne's size, was a welcome sight. Growing up, Carne had only known other humans, so the sight of different races still made him feel somewhat uneasy. Carne made sure not to let on that he found some comfort in Azgard's presence.

As Carne pondered the group he found himself with, he hadn't realized they were moving on without him. He increased his walking pace slightly in order to catch up. Hopefully nobody had noticed him zoning out.
Something about these children seemed off, but he had no time to investigate further.
As Carne reached the group, his gaze was drawn to the portraits on the right. The men and women depicted on them seemed familiar. On second glance, they looked similar to the children. Carne took the time to take down a few of the portraits, expecting to find... something. The only thing hidden away was a naked wall. Carne scratched his head and turned back toward the group.
"The folks on these portraits must be relatives of these children. Just look at that resemblance. Where are their parents, anyway?"
 
“Then we shall go check on your brother first.”

As Azgard opened the foyer doors to reveal the main hall, he immediately spotted the intricate staircase and longsword on the wall. He walked over to the fireplace, lighting the rest of the main hall for the party to see. As he examined the sword on the wall, he pondered its complexities.

Speaking to the team, Azgard confirmed his plan with the group, “With this monster locked in the basement, maybe we should check the rest of the house before meeting it?”

Before allowing a response, he raised his voice to outside of the house where the children remained, “This looks like it might be of use to me to help you out with this monster," he lifted the sword from its spot on the wall, "Would your parents mind if I borrowed this?”
 
Carne gave an agreeing grunt to Azgard. Checking out the remainder of the house might give them an idea of what they're dealing with.
Furrowed brows appeared on his forehead. Why would a family with children lock away a monster, anyway?
Just what was going on?
As Azgard lifted the sword, Carne listened for any noises upstairs. Surely there were signs of a scared, lonely baby in despair. Yet, he could hear nothing of the sorts.
"Babies usually make a lot of noise. Figure this one's soundly asleep. Let's get him out of here while we have the chance."
With that, he slowly made his way up the stairs, putting his feet down much louder than he intended.
 
Thia wandered around the room they were in slowly as she pondered what the children had said. Saving the baby upstairs was important, but part of her personality always focused on the danger more then the objective. If the monster in the basement broke loose while they were upstairs it could trap them there with no way of getting down safely with the baby, or worse, it could go after the children as they were standing at the door. “Is this monster secure in the basement? Is there anyway it can break out right now?” She asked as she looked back at the children.
 
Thia nods to the children, then gives them a reassuring smile as she follows the rest of her friends to the second floor. A big part of her wanted to explore the entirety of this house, but she also knew the baby needed to be rescued. “Guys, since the monster seems to be contained in the basement, why don’t we split up to explore this whole house?” She looks at Tazdaar for a moment as she continues. “Tazdaar and I will go up to the third floor and check on the child, while Azgard and Carne can check the second floor. I’m sure that we would be able to hear each other if one of us needed help. How does that sound? I just don’t want to take more time in this house then is necessary, and splitting up will make everything go quicker.”
 
Azgard nods to Thia, affirming her plan. After scanning the room with the torch, he motions to carne for them to investigate the first door that appeared on the right.
“I guess we can start here, friend?” He says as he begins to open the door.
 
Tazdaar nodded at Thia and then started up the stairs. His lips curled up in a sneer. What kind of parents leave children alone in a home with a monster? He knew exactly what kind, unfortunately. It didn't matter how secure this monster was in the basement. First they would deal with it, and then they would deal with the parents. Unless ...

"Thia, what do you make of this?" Tazdaar said in a low voice, not whispering, but not speaking any louder than necessary. "Have the parents left these children here, or are we going to find them, or perhaps pieces of them, in the basement?" He looked back up to the top of the stairs.

Then there was the question of what to do with the children once the monster was dealt with. They didn't even know where they were, much less where to find someone to care for three abandoned children. As they reached the landing, he listened for a baby's cry, but heard only the draft of wind like some howling ghoul. Curses. Might as well start searching rooms.

He stepped up to the closest door on the left and turned the knob ...
 
"Did you hear that?"
Without looking back at Azgard, Carne rushed up the stairs to the third floor pulling out his favorite of the two hand axes he kept holstered on his back, flanking the large Greataxe covering most of it.
As he arrived, he saw Tazdaar covered in a swarm of.. the most disgusting maggots Carne had ever laid eyes upon, or at least they seemed to be in this very moment. He grimaced, as if biting into a sour lemon, and without thinking, disgusted by the maggots' disgusting presence, which was quite the disgusting sight, slashed away at the swarm covering his fresh companion's body. He managed to cut a few in half, pushing a few off of the poor guy. Miraculously managing to deal no harm to Tazdaar.

However, Tazdaar was still all but covered in maggots.
 
Tazdaar is so confused when the maggots burst from the armor that he's frozen for a moment. He thought perhaps there was someone in the armor or that it was going to come to life, not this. He spins just in time to see Carne rush toward him, axe drawn, and instinctively puts his shield up. So one of these humans was not an ally after all, he thought. But the blow never came.

At his feet were a few sliced up maggots. Carne had expertly sliced them up without giving him so much as a scratch.

Tazdaar looked at his sword, then to the maggots, trying to formulate some kind of plan, but his mind only delivered one solution: Tazdaar threw himself to the ground and began rolling around, trying to crush as many of these disgusting things as possible. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered how he was going to clean crushed maggots out of chainmail, but the sound of maggots bursting under his weight was admittedly satisfying.

He could here and feel them burrowing against his armor, teeth scratching against metal. His skin began to crawl and he climbed to his feet.

"Thia! Get these things off me!" Tazdaar roars.
 
Azgard ran up the stairs, a few steps behind Carne. He heard multiple slashes and banging on the floor. Expecting the worst, Azgard whipped around the corner of the spiraling stairs with his orb drawn. He pointed at the action with his torch to see ... Tazdaar rolling around? Azgard remained confused until he saw what seemed to be an infestation of worms covering his body. Azgard immediately, but not recklessly, drew power from his orb and released a beam of crackling energy. He was careful not to hit any of his companions, especially Tazdaar. Perhaps he was too careful because the beam just missed the swarm, hitting the floor underneath.
 
Thia stood in shock for a while after the maggots came out of the armor and attack Tazdaar. Many thoughts went running through her mind in that moment. One, that apparently they didn’t just have the monster in the basement to worry about, which made her idea of splitting up a foolish one. Two, that these creatures could be hiding anywhere, and could surprise them at any moment. Last there was three, maggots are gross. By the time she regained her senses the others had come up the stairs to help Tazdaar. Thia redied a fire bolt and when the moment was right she shot it directly onto a maggot, causing it to explode and send waves of fire around Tazdaar’s body, exploding all the maggots on him with the cleansing power of fire. Once the fire cleared and she saw no other maggots on him she breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m very sorry everyone, maybe splitting up wasn’t the best idea....”
 
Entering the next room, Carne immediately took note of the stuffed wolves. He walked over to one and bent down to examine it closer. Steppe wolves. These were larger and more dangerous than the forest wolves he'd been dealing with so far.
He let out a quiet whistle. "These are steppe wolves, quite vicious beasts. Their father must be a skilled hunter."

He got back up, and walked toward the west cabinet. Opening it, he found twelve wine glasses and a set of playing cards. It's been a while since he last had the chance to play a game and immerse himself in something less dire than the current circumstances.
Carne took out the cards to take a closer look. It seemed to be complete. With a slight smirk, he put them into his left pant pocket when suddenly he noticed a strange button, carefully worked in between the decorations.
He immediately pressed it.
 
Thia walks into the room after Carne does, seeing that it is just a normal room. She finds no interest in searching the cabinets but does walk over to one of the stuffed wolves and slowly runs her hand across it. As she looks up to see what the rest of her party is doing she notices Carne pocket what looked to be playing cards from the unlocked cabinet. She watches him for a few more moments before looking away, not wanting him to look back and see her looking at him. Thia didn’t want to say anything to him about it, hating conflict, but she was going to make it right in her own way, once the baby has been found.
 
As soon as Carne noticed the statute moving towards Thia, he rushes to the desk and picks up the candelabrum, then immediately turning around, charging the statue.
As he lifted the candelabrum and striked down, he couldn't quite get a good grasp of it. He hit the statue, but it didn't seem to even put a scratch into it.
 
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