Turn 46 -- Another Mission

Beleg also notices the dour looks on the faces on the company. Seeing the royal messenger, he walks closer to the table to get a better look at the scroll. After reading its contents, he looks to his companions and says, "What are we waiting for? These pilgrims of Tyr need our aid. Besides, it's quite possible that who ever perpetrated this act is also behind the abduction of Lady Jelenneth. Let us see to our provisioning and be off before the trail becomes too cold."

"Onward to the Moor!" says Dain enthusiastically. "I haven't looked at the map but if the Thornwood is in the area, perhaps we could pay the keep a visit on the way back. I really must start a list of things to do." Dain chuckles softly causing tiny clouds of smoke to float up from the rim of his pipe.

After letting Brother Randor calm down a bit, Kersath looks at him and sighs, "Yes, my friend, you are right. This is not something to blow away. Let's go find out what transpired there, but then we need to pay a little visit to the Thornwood." Kersath then pulls out his swords, checks to see if they're still clean and sharp before standing, "I'm ready. Whatever your decision is. Be it Howler's Moor or the Thornwood, we'll go. But let's decide quickly." With obvious impatience he then steps outside.

With a wistful sigh, Kre talks mainly to himself, "Might as well, heck, if we follow enough kidnappers it'll eventually get me closer to finding my father. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I found him near the center of it all," With a quick grin and a chuckle he adds, "...at least that'll give me an excuse for paying back those years he was gone." He then speaks up to the entire party, "I'll go wherever the party goes. For some reason, I feel like I'm really a member of something here. We might as well save the pilgrims, who knows, they might reward us..."

Garth answers the growing rage from the group with a few questions of his own, "If the count has known of these missing pilgrims for several days, why is he only now concerned? Why didn't he mention this last night when we were at his keep? I'll be honest, his men seem very competent. Why would they need our help for this specific task?"

"After all the count may have some family skeletons in his closet and may not want us up in the Thornwood. An' here he is asking us to go in the opposite direction. Is it just me or does anyone else here see something that doesn't add up?"

With a sigh, he continues, "Well, I guess it doesn't make much difference. If there is a threat of waylaid pilgrims, I guess we don't have any choice but to investigate. I just feel like we are being used here."

"Who can question the ways of royalty?" ponders Talimar. "If he is trying to get us away from the Thornwood, at least we will be getting paid for it and he can't keep us from there for long. We will go and do our own scouting for this lost group and then after that go our own way." He then hands the scroll back to the Count's messenger and tells him that the party will accept his offer.

At this point Druckner goes back to the common room to wake up the snoring Gnore and fills him in on the situation. "Just point me to the goblinoid, dog-lovers and then stand back!" says Gnore with obvious enthusiasm.

Within the hour the party is once again outfitted for the overland journey and heading down the road out of Thurmaster north toward Howler's Moor. They follow the river as far north as possible before it turns back to the west. The party continues on north toward the Moor. Not really knowing what to expect from the area, all members of the party are on edge and on their guard. Kersath ranges in and out from the rest of the party frequently scouting ahead and behind of the group. About midafternoon the group reaches the area that could only be Howler's Moor. They move into a barren and desolate moorland that appears to offer little vegetation for any type of animal. Knowing the region, the party can guess that the shepherds must stay away from this area as well as most of the other citizens. For a few more hours that afternoon the party searches the area for any signs of the group of pilgrims but none are found. As dusk is only an hour or so away, the party finally decides to call off the search for the day and make camp.

The normal routine of the party is then begun, everyone knowing their roll in the establishing of the encampment and each member performing their tasks without question. Within a half hour, the camp is set up and the members are settling in to enjoy another wonderful meal prepared by Dain. After the meal and the cooking utensils have been taken care of and put away, Beleg moves over to speak with Kersath.

"What say we try out that shiny new sword of yours with a little friendly sparring?"

Kersath eyes the big warrior for a moment before nodding his head, "I accept your challenge, noble friend, and look forward to the lesson."

"Oh this is gonna be good," says Gnore excitedly as he moves to take a seat on a fallen tree near the combatants.

As the two men begin to prepare for the duel, Beleg removing his plate armour and Kersath removing his chain mail, Kre and Ras quickly set about placing bets on the men. Brush is removed to form a circle for the men and they quickly take up positions opposite one another in the circle. Beleg has removed his tunic as well and stands before Kersath wearing only his riding breeches and boots. As he stands before the elf, the entire party is once again awed by the incredible physical presence of the huge warrior.

Without his armour to hide his physique, his massive shoulders are in clear view and the power beneath them as well. Simply looking at the two combatants, one would not giving Kersath any chance of surviving a combat with the warrior, much less winning but Kersath possesses a much different strength than the paladin, a strength gained from the many years of life in the underdark of Menzoberranzan and the constant struggle to survive there.

Plus, everyone seated around the two men know that there is a quickness to the man that none have ever seen matched.

"The classic struggle of power versus quickness," whispers Talimar to no one in particular.

Beleg turns away from Kersath and pulling his great bastard sword from its sheath kneels down before the cross of the hilt to pray to Forseti. He then rises and turns to face Kersath, bowing deeply to the dark elf. Kersath lowers his twin blades before him as he returns the bow and respect from his friend. After this formality is complete, the two men begin to circle one another, gauging the other and trying to anticipate the other's first move.

Beleg eases around with his sword and main-gauche ready before him, Kersath has his twin longswords at the ready in front of him. After making one slow circle of the area, Kersath moves in without warning to attack. With both blades twirling in front of him at incredible speed, the elf moves across the circle to attack. At first taken aback by the abrupt manoeuvre, Beleg steps back slightly as it is all he can do to defend the blows from the lightning-quick ranger. It is only moments though before he has regained his balance and is countering all the blows from Kersath as well as returning his own now.

Kersath easily dances around the blows from Beleg, sidestepping a lunge from the warrior to bring his sword around quickly only to be blocked by the main-gauche from Beleg. Within moments both combatants are thoroughly drenched in sweat from the pace of the exercise despite the cold in the air.

Cheers erupt from the party watching the duel as one combatant will execute a textbook attack only to be quickly countered by the other. The enthusiastic on-lookers marvel at the quickness within Beleg to be able to defend himself against the agile elf as well as marvelling at the strength of Kersath to be able to sustain the ringing blows from the bastard sword of Beleg.

Finally, Kersath musters the strength to launch another quick attack on Beleg. The paladin meets this attack head-on and blow for blow, this time with a twist of his wrist, Kersath carries Beleg's main-gauche and his left arm down toward the ground. Seeing what he believes to be an opening, Beleg brings his bastard sword down in a blow toward the ranger, but Kersath quickly brings the sword in his left hand up to deflect the blow down to the ground and immediately steps into the huge warrior while bringing his right sword up under Beleg's defenses, opening a thin gash along the outside of Beleg's belly.

"First blood!" shouts Kre enthusiastically as he sees the thin trace of blood already forming on Beleg's side.

A look of outrage crosses the face of Beleg as he realises that for this time he has been bested. But knowing that Kersath fought honourably and that by simply moving in a fraction closer the ranger could have opened up his belly, he bows deeply again to his friend.

"You fought well," he says.

"As did you," says Kersath as he returns the bow. "I could not have lasted much longer. You are almost as quick as you are strong. That is a dangerous combination."

"Not quick enough," smiles Beleg as he lays his hand on his wound, calling on the power of Forseti to heal the small wound.

There are a few quiet curses from Ras and Druckner as they hand over the money to Kre that they had wagered on Beleg. With a deep smile, Kre pockets his ten gold pieces, "Now this is more like it."

The remainder of the evening passes quietly as there is very little life in the moor. At the insistence of the other party members, Gnore sleeps through the entire night and does not take a turn at watch during the evening. With the rise of the dawn, he awakes refreshed and ready to continue the search for another day. He still doesn't speak much but everyone knows that the dwarf very much enjoyed his night of rest. After a quick breakfast, the company sets about their search once again. Again, the party is unable to find any clue to the party until about mid-morning when they hear a faint howling from the north. Everyone quickly readies themself in case of attack.

"You think that may be why they call it 'Howler's Moor'?" asks Kre.

"I don't know, but I think we should find out what that noise was," answers Talimar.

With weapons drawn, the party sets off to the north, moving toward the direction of the howling. After a few minutes of moving, the party sees a few hundred yards ahead of them what appears to be a few bodies lying around an outcropping of rock. On guard, everyone moves forward to investigate the bodies on the ground; Ras, Kre, Garth, Randor and Talimar moving over to the bodies while the others fan around the area looking for any sign of trouble. The bodies appear to be soldiers of some type. The men wear holy symbols of Tyr on their breastplates.

"These men must have been the pilgrim's bodyguards," says Randor quietly.

One of the men is dead, but the other is barely alive. Garth shakes his head to Talimar as they realise that the mans body is too horribly mangled to recover from his wounds, even with magical healing. As Randor moves to cradle the mans head, the man whispers to him, ".... pilgrims... taken... the red-headed man!....his eyes....they were alive, I swear!....". He then clutches the tabard of Randor before his eyes glaze over and his last breath eases from him.

"No sign of the pilgrims," says Kersath to Talimar as he comes back from scouting the area.

"What do we do with the bodies?" asks Garth.

"We'll worry about that later," says Beleg as he points to the north.

"We've got other things to worry about!" As the other members look in the direction the paladin is pointing, the previous howling increases and draws closer. Soon the party members see eight dogs heading towards them, howling all the while. These are no ordinary dogs, but huge, two-headed brutes that are moving with surprising speed toward the clearing.