Azrun awoke Elden from his magical slumber and the first farmer quickly helped the groggy man to his feet, "We got to go before they change their minds. C'mon, hurry up." Both of them grabbed their fallen farm tools. Elden was perplexed by whatever had happened but he followed the other man, and they walked slowly away from the party in the direction the farmers had originally been heading. As soon as they were past the last person in the party, they broke into a sprint and soon ran out of sight.
Azrun watched as the two farmers ran off. He laughed as they broke into a run. He then turned to see what the rest of the group was up to.
Gala removed Maisar's crossbow quarrel from the wounded bandit's leg and went to check the other bodies. She found an additional bandit still alive and the party briefly discussed what they should do about this whole mess. That is, the party minus Arachne discussed this, as the small gnomish priestess still seemed to be asleep under a tree. It was finally decided to move the bodies off the road since no one had the means to bury them or take them to Milborne. Kaileer thought that he could rig up a rough travois to move the wounded, and with a little help from the others, managed to put together a passable means to move to injured men. It would by no means stand any rough or fast travel, but it was the best they could do.
By the time Kaileer had gathered the materials from the woods and everyone had assembled this, a couple of hours had passed. Puddlejumper was fitted with this makeshift apparatus, and it was decided that since everyone had to go slowly anyway, the gnomes could walk to lighten the horse's load. The two unconscious bandits were put on, and so everyone continued on the road to Milborne. By the time this part of the journey got underway, ominous clouds were slowly rolling in from the south and the west. Before the companions were halfway to Milborne, a light drizzle that grew steadily harder to a healthy rain had begun.
As soon as the rain began, Torro slowly, painfully, removed the bow string from his bow and stowed it in his pack to protect it from the fowl weather. He checked his other gear to make sure it was in place, and covered his arrows with a piece of oiled canvas cloth to protect the fletchings.
As the rain began, Kaileer smiled and raised his face towards the sky, smiling as the drops splashed on his cheeks and ran down his face and neck. "I believe the spirits favor us," he said in his native language, then remembered than few if any of the group would understand him. "Sky water wash blood off heart," he finished, rather dissatisfied with the translation. Unlike Torro, he didn't remove the bowstring or cover the arrows, obviously the elves knew a few tricks for protecting their weapons from the elements.
After the rain had begun, first Torro, then Zond, and finally Pug, reported noises like the group was being trailed but subsequent investigations revealed nothing of the sort. It seemed that after being attacked on the road earlier in the day, paranoias were running high.
The wood elf heard SOMETHING, but didn't feel he needed to worry his companions needlessly. When other people started noticing he looked more concerned and, waving the group on, he stepped into the forest. Lying flat against the ground behind a tree with his cloak wrapped around him, it would've been easy to mistake him for another clump of moss (that is, if everyone in the party had not seen him do this). After about 5 minutes of waiting, Kaileer decided that if anything WAS following them, it wasn't anymore (or had gotten past him) and rejoined the group.
"Looks like I got that hat done just in time." Pug says to Arachne as the rain begins to fall. He gently pins the hat into place on her head.
"It's OK for wearing in the rain?" Arachne asked. She checked it again after obtaining and donning her foul-weather cloak from her backpack (which she very much hoped that Puddlejumper could continue to carry even though there was no longer room for her; it was probably not at all a heavy pack for anyone but her).
Pug nervously fingers his daggers and is constantly looking behind him for most of the trip. "I know something is back there, but obviously it knows how to elude detection," Pug says during a dicussion with Torro and Zond, "maybe it's flying."
Arachne, who continued trudging beside Pug on the slog to Milbourne, listened to the discussion, but had no ideas to suggest. Evidently, she'd heard nothing.
Their slow, steady trudge in the warm summer rain was not pleasant, but it was rewarded by their arrival in the village of Milborne long after darkness had fallen. They passed lighted farmhouses before coming to a shallow river, which they had to ford to get into the village proper. It was difficult to navigate with two unconscious men behind a horse, to get into the village proper, but they managed well enough since everyone was already completely soaked. Once in the town, they could see that it was a fair sized village with wooden buildings. A few of the buildings were limestone. Once they were on the other side of the river, they noticed a tavern up ahead on their left.
Moving slower than normal, wincing in pain with each step in the rain, Torro struggled to keep up with the others, even at this slower pace. His wound was still not fully healed and was still painful to walk. But he didn't complain one step of the way. When the others spoke to him on this trip to town, Torro was one to quickly put a smile on his face, but it didn't hide the pain he was in.
Aloysius trudged along the road, keeping to himself the rest of the way to Milborne. He pulled his robe around him as best he could, trying to keep as dry as possible. "Piddle, puddle, sane, rain, dropping, falling, weather vain." He repeated this phrase over and over in a slow, steady monotone voice.
Torro, seeing the tavern up ahead, looked at the sodden crew of adventurers he was with. He walked a little faster to check the condition of the bandits they were bringing to this town. Looking around briefly for some kind of guard tower or building, Torro spoke "We need to find a guard or constible around here and turn these two bandits in. Do you think we will find a guard at that tavern ahead? Or maybe someone who can point us in the right direction?"
Gala replied, "I hope so. It would be nice to get out of the rain, and I have some preparations to make for the evening."
As the group reached the city, Aloysius seemed to snap out of this state, and looked around at the others as if he had just awakened from a nap. "At last!" he exclaimed. "A suitable port to shelter ourselves from this rain. Mayhap yonder tavern would be a good place to find out who wants these men and where we can lodge ourselves 'til the morn? I have need of supplies and a good night's sleep. Surely, it would be best if we all stayed in the same place this night?"
Azrun looked up at the tavern ahead, "In this rain, most people would rather be dry and I can think of no other place I would like to dry off in. We'll more than likely find someone ther to turn these men over to there."
Kaileer sighs and decides it's just as well to stay with the party tonight since he does have a bit of money to get rid of (he only took a few coins, and then only those that had interesting pictures on them).
Upon seeing a river to cross, Pug is hoping for a short ride across on Puddlejumper.
Well soaked by this time and not seeing any noteworthy current to the stream (right? right?) Arachne declared that she could swim if need be and strode into the stream. She resembled a drowned rat when she reached the other side. She'd only resembled a half-drowned rat before. She straggled with the rest into town, hoping to find a warm fire soon. She also hoped her backpack was yet a little drier than she and that she could soon change into some of the clothing in it.
"The tavern sounds like a good place to get warm and dry as well as find out how to dispose of these bandits." Pug says as he wrings his hat out. "I hope they have a fire going, I'm soaked to the bone. The bandit's money should buy us all a good meal and rooms for the night."
Gala smiled at Pug, "This is true. Let's hope there's a good inn here as well. To the tavern then," And Gala walked in with her friends to look for a constable of some sort and and inn.
Aloysius looked around at the party to see what the consensus for action was. As he did, he raised his hands, placing them back to back with his fingers pointing downward and his wrists underneath his chin. He seemed to be using his wrists to "steer" his head back and forth as he looked from companion to companion. Although his eye brow twitched, he didn't say anything else, and the party was spared of his PAINFUL SMILE FACE.
Kaileer stopped in his tracks and stared at the purple man. "Alu... Ali... purple man tooth hurt? Kaileer help," he said and fished his spare bowstring out of his pouch.
Maisar looks up from the ground, when Milborne is sited, to view the city. He also voices his agreement with staying in the inn for the night using the bandits money.
