Falgout, Lasiar, and Rumer burned the corpse with little trouble. Other than smelling very bad, it caused no apparent problems.
Night was falling by the time Oleanne and the second wolf returned. An exquisite green haired elfin woman followed closely behind them.
Oleanne looked the group over carefully and asked, "What you find?"
Falgout had remained quiet through after the pyre building. About the time Oleanne returned with strange elf woman, something seemed to dawn on him, "Where did Aloysius go? He's been gone a long time, hasn't he?"
"I dunno," replied Rumer. She looked to the others, "does he always wander off like this. He seems, well, rather excitable."
Lasiar smiled brightly upon appearance of the green-haired elf. "Hello again, Jyothki." He waved to her, and then turned to Oleanne and answered, "A ravaged, bloodied temple to Tyr, an empty, but plush sleeping quarters, and a big bug that created deafening noise and shot acid at us. We cleaned the temple, trashed the sleeping quarters, and killed the bug. Oh, and we found a note apparently from Ranchefus to us, telling us to meet him with these chests at the Gleaming Glade in just a few days. It smells like a trap, but if we want Echo, then we don't seem to have any other choice obvious at this moment."
Jana smiled a greeting at Jyothki. She tried to reproduce a greeting in Elvish she'd heard other use, but her pronunciation was horrid.
Jyothki smiled at the woman warrior, then the smile faded as she saw the cuts and bruises on Jana.
Jyothki turned toward Laisar and returned his wave. "It would appear your party needs either much rest, or a little help," she said concernedly. "None of you look like you could continue much longer, and some of you reek of beetle acid." She pinched her nose with a mischevious look on her face. "Don't you know any better than to upset stink beetles?" She suddenly laughed and dug into a pouch at her belt, producing a thin bark which she handed to Jana. She chattered for a moment in Jana's direction before finally turning toward Laisar again. With a frustrated look on her face she said "Laisar, please ask Jana to chew this bark, but not to swallow the bark itself, only the juice."
Jana looked blankly at Jyothki. "A dog what?" she mumbled to herself in Common. "I sorry am, I not you understand," Jana said to Jyothki, in halting, very poorly accented Elvish. She looked around, frustrated as well, hoping someone would translate for her.
Jyothki smiled several times during Arachne's retelling of the battles in the keep, obviously trying not to laugh, and now and then helping the gnome with a word or two of her elvish. When the Arachne finished, Jyothki clapped her hands together several times and then took the gnome's hands in her own. "Very good, Arachne," she said. "Now you tell Jana and the others how to speak correctly." She laughed softly. "And maybe I'll learn the human tongue." With a gasp she put her hands to her face. "Or the language of the gnomes, you could teach me that, of course. I have always found gnomish to be intriguing." She was obviously very excited.
Etienne looked at the two women, "She said to chew on the bark. Don't swallow the bark, just the juice from it."
"Oh, okay, thanks," Jana mumbled to Etienne. "I'm going to have to learn Elvish one day..." Jana took the bark from Jyothki and managed to say "Thank you" in passable Elvish. She popped the bark in her mouth and began to chew. "Ugh," she said, making a face.
Jana shrugged and said, "Oleanne, I need your help. Can you tell me how to get to the Gleaming Glade? Echo, our friend, she's been taken there by some orcs." Jana waited for Oleanne's answer, desperation in her eyes.
Oleanne looked at Jana somewhat helplessly, "I not know 'Gleaming Glade'".
Jana nodded numbly. "My horse... Where is he?" she asked finally.
Oleanne pointed to the horse, which was standing not too far away.
Blacky seemed to be in pain any time he moved, so he contented himself by moving as little as possible. He waved to Jyothki when he saw her enter the camp. "I guess that settles it. We should head in the direction of this Gleaming Glade on the morrow. We need to find an easier way to transport these chests, though." Blacky said and closed his eyes again.
Mostly silent to this point since they had left the keep, Kaileer leaned against one of the oaks and sighed. "We not know where be Gleaming Glade." he reminded Blacky pointedly, "It maybe take more 5 day to find if we not get help. I think it be good ask Kuiper, maybe he know more, maybe not..." he said with a shrug. "It be safe place rest, safe place make plan. Maybe Kuiper want help fight Ranchefus..."
"Who is Kuiper? Do you guys all know him? Would he let us all stay with him?" And, in a smaller voice, "Um, are we ever gonna look for Ranchefus? If not, I think I better leave and try on my own, ok?"
As Jyothki returned he smiled to her. "Welcome, friend of the forest. Your arrival could not come at a better time, for we might well need the forest to consider us friends if we are to find Ranchefus for what we hope will be our last confrontation."
He prepared to explain the situation when Falgout's talk of Aloysius's actions caught his attention. "Excuse me..." he said, following the one-handed warrior to the river.
Jana nodded again and walked over to her horse. She hugged his neck, burying her face against him. The horse nuzzled up against her, making soft horsie noises. She let him go and dug around in the saddle bags, producing a brush. The horse noddd his head happily, making more happy horsie noises as Jana removed the packs and began to brush him. She kept her back to the others, turning the horse around rather than changing her facing.
Jana kept chewing as she walked to her horse. She set the short bow and almost-full quiver of arrows she'd brought from the storeroom and starting brushing her horse. Eventually, she spat out the bark and drank a few swallows from her 'skin, then returned to grooming her horse. Not long after, Etienne walked over and spoke with Jana. She nodded her head, tied up her horse and walked off with Etienne.
After lugging the chests back to camp, Blacky sat down more tired than usual. "If we have time I would like to finish exploring the lower level of the keep before setting off to the glade. Having Arachne scout ahead in bird form seems the best way to gather information on the trap that is being laid. I guess we'll have to figure out how much time we have. What ever we do I need some rest first." He said with his eyes closed, obviously dealing with some bodily pain.
Etienne opened his eyes as Oleanne and the green haired woman entered the camp. He studied the green hair woman closely before nodding to himself.
Etienne watched Jana from his seat under the tree. He finally stood and stretched himself and walked over to Jana as she brushed her horse.
Kaileer and Falgout eventually returned with Aloysius in tow. The mage was clutching a bunch of yellow flowered weeds and looking somewhat more wild-eyed than usual.
Various members of the group were sitting under trees trying to rest. Etienne and Jana had wandered off somewhere into the dark away from the campfire after Jana had brushed down her horse.
"Gross," was Rumer's comment to that.
Aloysius approached Renn. The elf could see that Aloysius seemed a bit shaky in the literal sense and his eyes were blinking rather rapidly. He ran his hand over his face. "Rennirolas . . . ." he began with a stammer, "dost thou have a pot or a drinking container of some sort that I might borrow?" He looked intently at the flowers and even took a moment to breath their fragrance.
"Um, instead of eating the flowers, Ferdinand, perhaps we should figure out where we want to go next. I want to try and go down that tunnel, I think. Maybe we can find Ranchefus there and I can figure out what he did to me before I turn into a giant squid or something," Rumer wrinkled her nose in disgust.
With a wistful smile, Rennirolas looked up from his reverie. "Ah, Aloysius, a pot or somesuch similar. Let me look," the moon elf replied, that same smile crossing his face.
Rennirolas dug through his backpack, though he frowned slightly as he reached the bottom of the pack. "Wait, I've yet another place to search," he grinned, and turned to search his healer's bag. "This is the best I can do Aloysius," Rennirolas said, as he wiped the residue from a small mixing bowl. "I've this bowl and a waterskin which may be of some use," he smiled.
"So many issues that seem to work at cross purposes," Rennirolas grimaced. "As has been pointed out to me, I am a latecomer. So let me identify what I see as any goals that need to be achieved, and then someone may point out that which I have overlooked? There's Rumer's curse, the disappearance of your friend Echo, and then there is Ranchefus' desire to have the chests delivered to the Gleaming Glade, wherever that may be. In addition, there is that tunnel in the keep, which leads who knows where."
"When we do decide upon a short term action," Renn continued softly, "such as opening the chests or exploring the keep, I shall try to attempt a divination which we may use as a guide. Another thing I might try..oh..Rumer, when you said you search for traps on this or that object, are you searching for mechanical workings, or just something that looks out of place? For Corellon has recently blessed me with greater powers, and I have a spell which can find traps of mechanical and magical means."
"Cool. Do that. Then I can try and disarm 'em," grinned Rumer.
Aloysius grinned oddly and clung to the bowl with both hands as if it were a block of gold. He sat down fairly close to the fire and poured a tiny amount of water into the bowl to be sure that any remaining residue had been washed away.
Setting the bowl to one side, the mage then took the flowers and placed them on top of a flat stone. Using another stone, he began to grind the flowers gently until juices began to flow. He then dropped the flowers into the mixing bowl and added some water from his waterskin.
He clutched the bowl toghtly and looked around slightly panic-stricken. His attention alternated from the bowl to the fire and back to the bowl. "Curses," he muttered. "Hath anyone a stand or something Stargazer could employ to put this bowl into yon fire?" he asked in an innaprorpiately loud voice.
He began to rock back and forth, all the while muttering strangely, "Fire . . . mire . . . . .tire . . . .do not aspire . . . . ."
"Does he actually do anything useful?" Rumer whispered to Blacky.
"In his own way. I don't pretend to understand the ways of mages, but he has powers that can do things we can't. Me, I'm only good at breaking things or people, as the case may be. Still, I'd wait for him to be in a more stable frame of mind before you show him that scroll case we found." Blacky murmered back
Rumer said, "Maybe you should give it to him." She looked at the mage and shook her head.
Arachne had taken a stab at translating Lasiar's report of the recent exploration into Elven for Jyothki. She did it as much for her own practice as any benefit Jyothki might have gotten from the report. She wasn't sure, for example, that a phrase that she believed also implied something like "fuzzy bunkhouse" really described Renchefus's bedroom. Anyway, she tried.
Then, Arachne had a look at the reposing Blacky. Doubtful that she'd be going anywhere more before dawn, she examined the wounds he bore and did what she could for them.
Arachne meditated over Blacky for a few minutes, doing what she could to heal him. When she was done, he looked better, although still quite a way from being fully healed.
"Thank you, Arachne. At least now I can breath without it hurting. Remind me not to fall off of high places, again." Blacky finished with a slight smile.
Jyothki waited for Arachne to finish, dividing her attention between the gnome's "magic" and Aloysious' concoction. She strained to see which herbs he might be using, but didn't go close to him. When Arachne had finished with Blacky, Jyothki asked her, "What is Aloysious doing? I don't recognize the recipe if he's trying to make a paltrice."
Lasiar eyed Aloysius with a worried expression as the mage rambled on with fervor. Slowly he stood up and walked near to where Aloysius was performing his arts, and kneeled down. He silently watched the mage from his vantage point.
Aloysius stopped rambling after a moment and slowly turned his head towards Lasiar. He cocked one eyebrow at the Silverstar, and then looked back at the fire. "Do you have a pot?"
Lasiar shook his head. "If I did, it would be yours. Sadly, no."
Al sat by the fire for a bit, still cradling Renn's mixing bowl that contained the yellow flowers and water. In a voice that was cracking with sorrow, he threw his head back and clamored, "Someone! Please!" His body shook with silent sobs. "Need of I of a pot . . . . " He set the mixing bowl down next to him and covered his face in his hands before curling up in a ball on the ground.
"Set's balls," murmured Rumer, moving surreptitiously further away from the mad mage.
