Episode 5: To Be Released
E4 - FORRESTED HIGH PLATEAU
Rrounni and Roosh are deeply injured. The woffen's leg has been skewered, and the wound, still open, is a deep gash. The bronth's shoulder has been pierced , muscles sliced, and she cannot mover her arm at all.
Once they are settled in drenn Krone's outhouse, Dhar'en takes out the one dose of arrigish limilate he carried with him for emergencies and decides to give it to Rrounni to drink. Knowing that Roosh owns a dose or arrigish himself, he asks if the woffen wants to drink it, and Roosh acquiesces. Dhar'en helps him drink the bitter potion.
Dhar'en and Baramas are also injured, but much more lightly. The mercenary took a glancing sword blow to the left arm, and the boccord was shot with an arrow in the torso. Feul is not injured but he seems to be in shock over what happened and not very talkative.
During that first night, Dhar'en checks on his two wounded companions at regular intervals. The arrigish seems to be working as intended, and their breathing is a little more steady after a couple of hours. Dhar'en finally goes to sleep in one of the beds provided by the drenn.
In the morning, when he wakes up, he finds that the drenn's wife Arilla, which they had only briefly seen a few days ago is changing the bandages on the two injured tauthers. She seems to know what she's doing, so Dhar'en is happy to leave her with them while he heads outside. Baramas is already up, and pacing up and down in front of the outhouse. Rrounni asks the drenn's wife to describe what she is doing and why when she changes the bandages and cleans her wound; it might as well be a learning experience.
Baramas comes to Dhar'en and tells him that he thinks he needs to train in combat. Not that he expects to become really good at it, but he needs to be able to assist in the defense of the group if and when they are attacked, and currently that is not something he feels able to do. Dhar'en asks him if he wants to learn swordfighting, the boccord seems more inclined towards the quarterstaff that one of the brigands was using.
Dhar'en, thinking that's a welcome initiative and considering there is no time like right now, starts him on training immediately, borrowing Roosh's own staff to demonstrate to the boccord. By lunchtime, Baramas' muscles strain with exertion and he is bruised all over. The two tauthers notice a silhouette looking at them from the edge of the farm grounds, and Dhar'en goes over to check who it is. When he notices tracker Makaelia, he pays he no attention and goes back to barking at Baramas on posture and movements.
That evening, Arilla Krone once again comes to tend to Roosh's and Rrouni's wounds, washing them and changing their dressing. The arrigish has had time to work its magic, and the wounds are looking much cleaner. She thinks that within a couple of days the two tauthers will be able to move from their beds, slowly and cautiously, of course. She tells the other three tauthers that her husband and her would love to have them over for dinner.
At dinner with the Krones, Hamford tells them that he has interrogated the four brigands they made prisoner, and there's something he can't work out. Their leader, the tall black creature, seems to have fled even though they had immobilised it with Feul's isho powers. Baramas explains that the emergency of tending to their wounded friends forced them to not pursue the scarmis.
Dhar'en starts mentioning the fact that Baramas spoke to the scarmis in its own language, apparently intending to talk about their mission to deliver a message to the creature. Baramas is speechless, but Feul saves the day by mentioning a phrase that's in the Tauther Guide that one is supposed to utter when confronted with scarmis. The muadra shoots a dark glance at the human mercenary. The conversation moves on to other topics.
Drenn Krone explains that he's been puzzled by a recent development in his farm: many of his durligs have been nibbled at the base by something that he can't identify. He knows everything about the local wildlife, but this looks like nothing he's seen before. If the tauthers can figure out what's going on, he'd be deeply grateful. He and his farmhands have not spotted anything happening during the day, so it must be happening at night.
The next morning, the wind is slightly warmer than usual, and the sky is clear. Arilla Krone helps Rrounni and Roosh outside, so they can get some fresh air (with lots of blankets to make sure they don't catch a cold). The two injured tauthers watch Baramas train with Dhar'en for a few hours. Just before noon, they head back inside for a nap. Dhar'en decides to go explore the fields in the hope of finding more about the pest that's eating the drenn's durlig.
Around lunchtime, Baramas spots a silhouette on the wall of the outhouse garden. He recognizes Makaelia and waves at her. She comes closer and they start chatting. The boccord finds her quite charming, but keeps his distance, knowing that he is a traveling man. After she's gone, he asks Feul if they can work together so he can practice interfering the muadra's dyshas.
Meanwhile, Dhar'en wanders the hills behind the property. He notices indeed that the bottom of most durligs have been nibbled at, up to about two feet in height. There's only a couple of inches of nibbling, so plenty of durlig flesh left, but this has compromised some of the leaf system, and the larger, outer leaves are withering or falling. He can't find any animal tracks, and doesn't spot any vermin that could be responsible for this minor devastation. On his way back, he climbs on top of a high hill and sees the entire village before him, shy of a hundred homes. He also spots a house up a tree in the wooded area on the other side of the village, and makes a note to ask what that is.
After coming back to the outhouse, he shares his findings with the rest of the group and they decide to go out again that evening to find out what may be eating the durlig. Feul has a Night Eyes dysha prepared, but he knows it's short lived, so more traditional lighting is needed. Dahr'en and Baramas both purchased lanterns in their "tauther pack" back in Lelligire, so they light those. The smell of the creshi oil isn't very pleasant, but they have light. They find an area in the sloped fields where the durlig seems less nibbled than elsewhere, blind their lanterns and wait.
For about an hour, nothing happens. Dhar'en notices that both Baramas and Feul are slowly falling asleep, so he shakes them quietly to keep them awake. Suddenly, he hears scuffling and scratching nearby. He signals to Feul, who weaves his Night Eyes dysha. His eyes sheen with green isho, and suddenly he can see as well as in broad daylight.
About 15 yards off, two durligs away, a band of small two-legged creatures is carefully circling one of the least eaten durligs. One of them nibbles at it, and then munches, and suddenly they all join, gorging themselves on the bitter cabbage. Feul thinks they look similar to the food processing recos drenn Hearn showed them a few days back, but they are not the same color and look somewhat sturdier and fatter.
The tauthers confer as to what they should do. They decide to see if the creatures are menacing by throwing a rock away from where they hide and seeing how the creatures react. The sound of the rock falling has them all stop eating, checking their surroundings, but when they see nothing move, they resume their feeding.
Feul targets one of the creatures with a Power Hold dysha, then they light the lanterns again and charge. The creatures flee as a pack, except the one they have captured. When Dhar'en grabs it to tie it up, it excretes gloop in terror, just like Hearn's recos did. The condrij swears, looking at his soiled trousers, but suddenly notices the gloop doesn't stink of fresh durlig. He ties the reco up and brings it back to the outhouse. He feeds it intermittently with the cankle purchased from Hearn.
The next morning, they share their findings with their injured colleagues, and then go to see drenn Krone. They tell him that the vermin eating his crop are bio-tec creatures. They know a bio-tec expert further up north, and would like to show it to them to get some advice on how to best deal with the problem. They will travel up north, leaving the next day and should be gone four days. Drenn Krone asks if they need a scout, and Baramas, to the others' surprise, says yes.
The next day is spent packing, preparing, and training in both quarterstaff and first-aid as Dahr'en has started to show Rrounni and Feul the basics. That evening, they hear a weird high pitched animal cry coming from drenn Krone's house. As they approach it, they see a horse attached to the front pillar. There are military insignias of the burdothian army on the saddle trappings.
Drenn Krone introduces them to lieutenant Menx, a human scout with the burdothian army. By an ironic coincidence, a detachment of the army was sent from Lelligire to deal with the brigands a week or so ago, and they are now in Loomys, due to arrive tomorrow evening in Ostek. Lieutenant Menx was sent ahead to inform drenn Krone of their arrival, and will be returning to his unit tomorrow morning.
The tauthers inform drenn Krone that they will be leaving in the morning also, and Lt. Menx tells them that they will undoubtedly meet on the road.
Early the next morning, Dhar'en, Baramas and Feul eat a quick breakfast at drenn Krone's farm. Lieutenant Menx has already left on his fast steed, but the tauthers face a good day of walking. Makaelia has volunteered to be their scout, and that's when Dhar'en and Feul look at each other in understanding of why Baramas agreed to a scout on this easy journey...
During the day's walk, in the cold wind, the lovebirds stay close to each other, Baramas constantly explaining stuff about Joruni cultures and the tauthers' adventures so far to a star-struck young Makaelia. Dhar'en frequently rolls his eyes in irritation.
Around mid-day, they notice a group of soldiers on the path ahead. It's the detachment of the Burdoth military, under the command of captain Stroll. The military convoy makes a short break so that the tauthers can meet with the officer. He commends them on their intervention against the brigands and superficially asks for pointers on when to find their scarmis leader or the two brigands that fled. As they leave, Feul notices that the detachment's medic is a muadra learsis called Sherman Flok. He introduces himself, and both present their naulls to each other. They agree to spend some time together in Ostek in a few days when Feul returns.
They spend the night in Loomys, where the grateful inhabitants offer them better accomodation than the previous time. The next morning they head out further north towards drenn Hearn's lands. On occasion, Makaelia will point out some danger on the road, like the traces of burrowing they had spotted before they were attacked by the dharmee a few days back. Several times a day, Dhar'en feeds cankle to the tied-up reco.
E3 - FORRESTED HILLS
That night, they arrive at the Lusail Bio-Tec farm, and present the strange reco to drenn Hearn. While she examines the creature, Baramas explains all he remembers about bio-tec to Makaelia. Drenn Hearn confirms that it looks like a mutation of the food processing reco she showed them. Dhar'en insists that its output is different to that of her recos however, and when she realises that the paste the reco excretes tastes very bland, without the bitter durlig aftertaste, she gets really enthusiastic.
She agrees to travel with them down to Ostek to figure out a way to both alleviate the impact of the rogue recos on drenn Krone's crops and figure out a way to replicate this very interesting mutation. To thank the tauthers for bringing the mutated reco to her, she offers them a cork of their choice, and they decide to take a water lung cork.
E4 - FORRESTED HIGH PLATEAU
Meanwhile, back in Ostek, Rrounni and Roosh are feeling well enough to slowly walk around town, and are bored enough to be desperate to do anything other than lie in bed. Rrounni heads out for the blacksmith's workshop in the hope that he can also craft armor. Tur, the blacksmith is very grateful to the tauthers about them eliminating the threat of banditry, and willing to help, but unfortunately he knows very little about the kind of leatherwork needed for military gear.
He has leather for thombo saddles and harnesses though and will gladly give Rrounni the leather if she can find someone else who might craft the armor. The bronth asks if he has anyone in mind, and the man sheepishly answers that there is someone who might fit the bill, but that she should be discreet about it: a thivin craftswoman has settled outside the village in the woods, but some locals distrust her, so it's best if his name was not associated to hers.
The two tauthers head out towards the woods and there they find a low building made from wood at the bottom of a tree in which there is a second, cruder building perched. Rrounni knocks on the door and asks if they can enter. A thivin lady opens the door, and with a big smile, she greets them inside. She's called Sterne'ss and seems to be both an artisan, a merchant and a cook. Indeed, there are enticing food smells in her house.
Rrounni explains her needs for a tailored armor, insisting that she has the leather but needs someone to craft the protective clothing. They negotiate and Sterne'ss agrees to put it together in a few days. She takes the bronth's measurements and the deal is agreed. Rrounni says she'll bring the leather the next morning. Meanwhile, Roosh has been eyeing some jugs and bottles that look like alcohol. Indeed, they are. He can easily afford a bottle of the cheap gutrot, but even considers the better stuff before settling on a jog of affordable spirit. Rrounni asks if they might partake in the food Sterne'ss prepares, and the thivin invites them to eat tomorrow's lunch at her place.
That evening, Roosh drinks about half his newfound bottle of spirits in bed, and the next morning he feels rough, though not quite as bad as the day they went to fight the brigands. Rrounni can smell the alcohol on his breath the next morning, and tuts, wondering if something might need to be done about this...
They eat a delicious lunch at Sterne'ss' after bringing her the leather for Rrounni's armor. They marvel at the inventiveness and incredible tastes the thivin seems to be able to infuse to durlig.
The next evening, Feul, Baramas and Dhar'en are back with Makaelia and drenn Hearn. Drenn Krone hosts a dinner in which the matter of the recos is discussed. While Krone is reticent at first, drenn Hearn and the tauthers insist that if conservation of the gloop can be solved, then it would be a simple matter to find a good cook to flavor the gloop, and the village might have a new food product to offer to market. Krone knows of no such cook, but Rrounni informs him that there is an excellent one in Ostek, and talks about Sterne'ss.
That's all a bit much for the fairly conservative Krone, but his wife seems more enthusiastic than him, and good company, possible prospects and a bottle or two of rusper end up changing his mind. At the end of the evening, drenn Krone tells them that when they are ready to leave Ostek, he will go with them to see Tur, the blacksmith, who has the only laser torch in town. He wants to carve his copra on their challisk. Drenn Hearn enthusiastically says that she will gladly do the same.
That night, as they make their goodnights, Makaelia accompanies Baramas to his room and they spend their first night together.
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