Tales of Ikhorus

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You all make your way down the balcony and around the lake, reaching the passageway carved into the stone wall. The smooth tunnel goes forward for about 10 feet, when it reaches a dome-like chamber carved in the same manner as the corridor, with iron bars built halfway across. Inside the cell, you see three people lying on the floor, two of them in guard uniforms and the third appears to be a younger dragonborn with brown scales, only one person is standing - a woman in her older years wearing brown and silver robes - that speaks up as you enter. "Who's there? I heard the struggle outside. Who are you?"
 
"Friends." Mellis smiles as she steps closer. "We have disposed of most of the Urodeli. We are here to help you and return you back to civilization." She looks around for a way to open the cage.
 
Kaesalor goes straight for the bars as he sees the prisoners behind them, trying to bend them open. However, after a few tries, he realises this won't work and steps back awkwardly.
 
"Hello, Lorelei." Garret steps out from behind Kaesalor, with his most charming smile. "Allow me my friend." brushing past he unlocks the gate, opening it with a gracious bow.
 
Lorelei recognizes a face among those that appeared beyond the bars and smiles. "Garret, I hope you didn't get yourself in more trouble than you can take it once again. Thank you for rescuing us. But, we need to hurry, young Toroth has been severely hurt by those creature's acids," she says, pointing to the dragonborn lying mostly motionless on the floor, "I can't heal him fast enough without my supplies, and the little bit of magic I wield has already been expended."
 
"Allow me," stepping forward Garret plays a melodic almost angelic tune. Golden light fills the air and settles on the Toroth, his wounds seem to heal themselves. He awakens to see the strangest assortment of people around him. A smiling Garret greets him, "welcome back, if you have the strength to walk we should away from this place."
 
Toroth's eyes blink open, then he slowly gets up from the stone floor, his eyes darting around and scanning the faces in the poorly-lit room. "Thanks. Thank you, witch Lorelei, for keeping me safe."

Lorelei helps him get up and looks back to those standing at the entrance of the chamber. "He's good, for now. Let's get out of here before more urodeli notice we have escaped."
 
With a nod and a grunt, Kaesalor relights his torch and takes his place at the front of the group, ready to head back to town.
 
Keeping an eye out as the captives were released and one even healed, Barost ran another hand through his hair, "Uh ... Lorelei right? D'you know what the urodelis were on about? Why they needed you so much?"
 
Lorelei shakes her head, her eyes betraying how tired she must be despite the stoic demeanor. "When we were captured the one wearing a robe spoke to me, he said the 'lord would be happy with my sacrifice'. I'm not sure what he meant by that, but he assured me the rest of them," she nods to the other prisoners, "would be safe."
 
Barost nodded as he listened, pulling out the priests' necklace, curious if there was more to it besides just being a fancy stone. Not finding much of interest he sighed as he shoved it into a pocket, "I 'spose we'll never really know now ... even if we manage to question the one we still got," he nodded to the party's own captive, "he'll prob'ly just mutter like the others did."

He scratched his head, "Well ... I guess not much left than to return to town ... wonder if we can reuse the cart they did -- assumin' no one has too much offa panic attack at seeing it?"
 
Garret chuckles to himself quietly, I guess all that power went to his head. Thinking fondly of the priest death and his brains leaking out his ears.
 
You make your way up the stream towards the cavern entrance, the early afternoon sun blinding you momentarily as you get out to the grasslands. You meet the two antelopes on top of the nearby hill, just as you have seen them before, eating away on the overgrown grass. They look up as you approach with intense disinterest, getting back to their afternoon routine.
 
As they exit the cave, Murk mulls over the story of the urodeli seeking a sacrifice, wondering if it was a simple pagan ritual, or something more. Were they worshipping the actually current of the seas, or was this a being of higher plane?

"Why did they only seek to sacrifice you?" he asks Lorelei. "And if they only wanted you, why take more prisoners? Does The Current have some quarrel with who you serve?"
 
Lorelei shakes her head slowly when the tabaxi asks the questions. "They appeared to be only interested in sacrificing me. I don't know why the others were captured, probably got in the way of their plans. In regards to the Current, whatever that might be, I don't know of any quarrels between them and the Moonmaiden. I've never even heard of it until last night."
 
Meanwhile, the Firbolg walks over to the Hartebeests the group found earlier. "Noble hartebeests, will you help us home? We have weak and injured with us, and we'd be in your debt if you pulled them back to the village on this cart." He reinforces his plea with two day's worth of rations, giving them to the animals. The gift, together with his words seem to have their effect as the animals agree eagerly. He takes his place at the left side of the cart in a position that looks relaxed but he is ready to strike at the first sign of danger.
 
Kaesalor manages to convince the beasts to pull the cart for you, as you start your two hour walk to Dewfall. After about an hour of travel you reach the stone construction of the graveyard once again. As you approach, you hear the noise of growling and fighting coming from inside the stone building, completely different to the calm landscape you passed earlier today.
 
Returning to the previously quiet graveyard, Murk hears the commotion from inside the building as the rest of the group does. He looks at the civilians in the cart, being strangely pulled by what he thought had been wild hartebeests. The firbolg was full of neat tricks. One more thing he wanted to learn about them.

He gauged they still had about an hour back to town, and they probably couldn't afford a fight with such vulnerable companions.

"Hold here. I'll take a look." He creeps across the graveyard concealing himself in the tall grass, careful to avoid anything that might give him away, and peers into the interior. Five creatures growled and snapped as they tore into a fresh kill. Murk groaned, wondering if there were goblins about as well. Crouching back into the grass, he carefully stalks back across the yard.

"Worgs," he whispers. "Five of them. They're eating something ... or someone. These things could hurt more people of left unchecked, but they could also hurt us, and them," he says, motioning to Lorelei and the others.
 
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You continue for another hour or so, finally reaching Dewfall. Some guards on patrol and notice your arrival, their faces filled with hope as they see their healer coming back. You make it to the central square, in front of the Guard Quarters, the captain was standing next to the door and comes forward to greet you as you reach a full stop. "Thank the gods, you're all safe. It's good to see that you have been able to rescue the priestess." Lorelei jumps out of the cart and nods in agreement and speaks up. "Yes, captain Azaso, they were very brave. I assume there were many injured after last night, I think I'll get to it right now, It's best not to keep them waiting. Could you notify my daughter of my return? She must be worried." The captain lets out a smile and responds. "You can tell her yourself, Liza has been up all night doing her best to aid them. She'll be relieved that you're okay." The witch thanks you all once again and heads inside. The captain waits for her to make her way into the quarters, only then he speaks again. "So, found any useful info you'd like to share?"
 
"Im sure the urodeli shouldnt worry you any longer. Or, at least, that group of urodeli won't." Mel smiles. "There are worgs out there, near a graveyard of sorts. So stay clear of that till they maybe have disappeared." She looks to the others. "That seems the most important as of now. Unless the others think of anything else."
 
"The head honcho spoke of a thing called the current, I doubt you know anything about it, but it was their intent to sacrifice Lorelei to it." His tone very business-like, goes through a sudden change. It becomes softer as he continues "you need to keep her safe captain, no matter the cost. That woman is the heart of this town."
 
Captain Azaso nods and scribbles something on a piece of paper he carries. "I'm glad to hear you got rid of that group, or at least the ones you found. The worgs are back at the graveyard, huh? At least they don't try to attack the city directly anymore. I've never heard of this 'current' you speak of, but I can't assure you I'll do my best to make sure no one is sacrificed to it." He keeps walking towards the cart and helps the two guards and the dragonborn get down from it. "If any of you need treatment, an infirmary was set up on the inside of the Quarters. Toroth, I heard no one had seen you since last night, I thought you were just hiding like you usually do. Try to keep yourself away from troubles, ok?" Once that is out of his way, the captain looks back to you. "Once again, thank you all. If there's anything I can do for you, feel free to ask."
 
"Some healing would be grateful, my father would hate it if i came to his doorstep like this." Mel smiles at the captain, as she steps into the building. "I would like to ask, you said you were low on staff correct?"
 
The captain just sighs and nods. "Yes, we're having a shortage of funding, which is weird since the taxes are as high as always. I don't know if this is a kingdom-wide problem, the duke is most likely taking care of it..." The captain goes silent for a second as if he remembered something important. "We do our best to keep the village safe, as you've seen last night, there are many possible threats all around us. Just now, a little past noon, another fisher was reported missing, no one has seen anything. Weird things are suddenly common around here."
 
Sitting the cart Barost had been fairly quiet, mostly intent on just keeping an eye out for any further threats as the group traveled. Getting back into town he helped the rescues climb down before leaning against the cart, a little unsure where he'd go next.

Hearing the captain he seemed to perk up, "Wait, another? How is that just ... " he frowned, "At least someone needs to try and figure this out ... maybe that'll be what I do. May not know them, but someone needs to make an attempt if you lot're so short handed. What was this one's name? They know the original one that was missing at all?"

Barost pushed off the cart as he stood upright, "An' where do the other fishers of this place hang out to swap their stories?"
 
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