Wraith Inn (Part 3)

You stand, with carefully excised graves all around you, the bodies long gone it seems. The words of the youth that you talked to echo in your thoughts, that the young man had seen elves /eating/ the corpses. He hadn't mentioned... this. That there would be so much dug up. So many graves uncovered. Who knew how many dead had been laid to rest here by the farmers however many years ago when they'd taken the land.

It didn't really matter very much now though. Not with a bow leveled in your faces from the form of a gaunt pale elf. The elf himself looks half-starved, and none too happy to see you for certain. His raven hair and eyes are sharp on you, and you know that one wrong move will see that arrow released in your direction. Out of the brush behind him come four more elves. All of them are gaunt and pale, but there the similarities really end. Each of them has a different shade of hair color, eyes ranging even more widely. Their equipment is mostly leather, and well cared for, made for moving in and out of shadows and blending in with their environment.

"You trespass on our sacred grounds. Give me one good reason not to slay you where you stand."

Merek lifts up both hands while he speaks to the elves, then he looks to them a moment, "Well one good reason is that for some reason, incorporeal magic has been assailing farmers, and we came here to investigate the possibility of desecrated graves to put them to rest. So we aren't here to dishonor in the least."

Walery peers at the elves, peers at the graves, says, "Well, we wouldn't have bothered you. We certainly don't want to interrupt your elvish merrymaking," because that's what elves do in the woods, right. "But there were some undead elves sucking peoples' souls, down in the town, and we wanted to see if this had anything to do with that."

Iskandar's cross ever so slightly in order to focus on the arrowhead pointed at him. Then he nods at Merek's and Walery's words. Short and to the point. Well done. Iskandar remains silent but shifts his gaze to study the elves themselves, preparing himself in case they attack.

The Gobbo remain silent as Walery and Merek speak up. Nothing more to be added to the truth.

The bow lowers slightly, but the rest of the elves seem to tense as though they might attack rather than the one who had drawn on you in the first place. Those further back whisper among themselves, and the one that is closest to you falls back to be part of the conversation. Though none of them drop their guard while they speak, the conversation seems to grow quite intense before they break apart and they eye you intently. The one that spoke to you before finally speaks up again. "We do not trust you. But..."

He glances at his companions and after a long moment a woman pushes him aside. "We dug up the graves. We could not help ourselves we..." She looks like she doesn't want to speak but she continues. "We've been eatting the dead. Craving their sustanince. We tried to stop but we starve. Ever since we've been having the most terrible nightmares. Dreams of stalking the farmers here. I tried to stop. All of us did but... it's like we can't live without it."

She presses her lips together and looks back at her allies. "We thought that our ancestors were calling us to take vengeance on the farmers for pulling them from their graves but I believe that there is something else wrong. Something terrible to make us crave eating our dead."

GAME: Merek rolls knowledge/arcana: (17)+7: 24
GAME: Walery rolls knowledge/arcana: (1)+13: 14 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Murder rolls knowledge/arcana: (18)+8: 26

Walery blinks at that confession. "Well. That's an unusual confession," he begins. "Most places, that would get you strung up pretty quickly regardless of the extenuating circumstances. But I have a feeling there's some external compulsion going on." Not that he's got any clue what that might be. "As far as starving, did you go down to the town to ask for help? I'm sure if you did some chores for them, they'd let you work for a bit of food. And then you wouldn't be up here hungering for their souls." So pragmatic.

Iskandar shoots Walery a look out of the corner of his eye. If it's a bluff it's the best poker face Iskandar had ever seen. Or is he serious...? The warrior watches the elves to judge their reaction.

"It sounds like a curse of sorts has been placed upon you, possibly even from eating them," Merek explains, while he looks to the others, "I suggest one of you detect magic resonance on them."

Murder stares at the Elves, and slowly begins to move through them, sniffing noisily. "Something is off.", she says quietly. "Have you experienced some physical change lately? Some magical phenomenon? The plague, perhaps?"

GAME: Merek casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 1 DC: 13

"If we could eat something else and feel full we would have done that!" Snaps the woman, eyeing Walery with irritation. "Normal food only makes us violently ill. The only thing that satisfies us is the flesh and bone of the dead."

They all look uncomfortable and as Murder comes closer the bows rise to keep her at length. They look at one another though, listening to Merek and her words. "Should we tell them?"

"No! We can't!"

The woman silences the group of them with an upraised hand and sighs. "We have to tell them /something/. We come from Silvermoon, and there has been a plague there. A terrible plague which killed... so many."

"Shut up Mayine!"

Mayine glares back at the one that told her to shut up and the man silences himself. "We are a scouting party, and we were out looking for food when we were all suddenly somewhere else. We woke up heavily injured near here and we found ourselves craving our ancestors. That's why we came here. We didn't know that farmers had moved the graves. But over the last week we've realized that we also bear these strange marks on our flesh. Scars in the shape of snowflakes." She lifts her arm and removes a bracer, showing off a nasty scar there on her forearm. It's years old, but still clear.

Walery looks at the others, this one is waaaay over his head. As far as not taking sustenance from food, he says, "That definitely sounds like a magic curse. We have temples in Alexandria that might be able to help with that. If not, we've got evil death cults where you'll probably do all right." He eyes the others. "Not that I recommend that second option. Just saying."

Merek lifts up a palm to weave magic which draws a formula in artifice and scroll form before him, then he watches the wave, "Magic seems to be woven into your patterns, but your mark is the brightest, Mayine," he offers personally and politely"It is woven in powerfully. Might be similar to our plague?"

Iskandar’s eyes fly open wide. "From Silvermoon?! But their borders were closed off." He draws back unconsciously from the elves, showing much more reaction now than he had when they had been pointing arrows at the party earlier. "There are others suffering the same curse, still in Silvermoon?"

The Gobbo's eyes widen and she blinks. "Yes, this is the plague. I guess it has different effects on you?" She taps her chin. "No. It's something new. Different." Murder looks at the snowflake. "Some people have been kidnapped and tattooed similarly. At least, that is what the rumours say. BUT. Do you remember anything of the time when you were kidnapped? A tower? Or a vampire, who perhaps was the one who kidnapped you?" She looks to the others. "If this is a newer plague... then we are in a whole lot of trouble."

Iskandar squints at Mayine's arms, at the place where she showed them her scar. "That looks to be years old...when did you get that mark?"

The elves look amid one another, shocked. "Silvermoon closed? But why?" There's suddenly a bunch of questions from the elves until the woman holds up her hands and calls for silence. "We won't get any answers if we don't ask with a single voice; let me."

The others nod slowly and she continues. "I do not think that anyone remembers a vampire, but I do remember green eyes... But that's it." She looks at the others but nobody else speaks up. "The plague- This mark? I woke up with it a week ago. Why?"

Murder blinks a few times. "I do believe that Zeheir's tower... towers?... is involved, if.. again, the rumours are true. So that may include travelling through not just space but time too. Which could be why they don't know about Silvermoon closing... and why their brands look old." She rubs at her forehead. "So this may be why Silvermoon is closed. The plague as taken hold... or, they are trying to keep it out."

Walery hrms, both about the Silvermoon thing and the vampire. "Well," he says. "You probably ought to have a priest look you all over. The Hearthguards may be able to help. But I would recommend avoiding the city, cause if you get hungry it would probably go badly."

Merek steps back, and he looks a bit bothered, "Green eyes? That is him, I won't forget them, he... He took me with him, he..." He frowns a bit, while he looks to the elves, then he nods a bit, "We'll see what we can do for you, the green eyes, the vampire, he's the same one in Alexandros, that said... I would recommend you... Find our Quarantine, it might suppress the feelings you find, fair maiden, fellow elven friends of her, we will do our best to assist you, in the name of Eluna, I offer you my promise that we will find a way!"

GAME: Merek rolls will: (19)+10: 29

Iskandar says, "And though it seems to be affecting them differently than ours...it could just be that they've suffered from it for longer." He slowly paces a few steps in one direction, then turns and walks back to where he started. Finally he looks at the elves. "We could escort you back to the city," he finally offers. "You haven't slain any of the farmers you, ah, fed from. If you are indeed suffering from a curse, then even that can be forgiven." He glances at the other party members, to seem how they take the suggestion.

Mayine nods, lowering her bow completely. "If you can keep us from hurting others, from eating the dead I for one will come with you." Several of the others nod with her.

One of them does not though. With a yell he pulls his knife from his belt. "The only way to be free from this is death!" With that he stabs himself in the neck with the dagger and falls to his knees; eyes quickly glazing.

The Gobbo gasps in surprise and runs over to the fallen Elf. "Someone heal him!", she cries out. "I don't have the spells to help."

Walery plucks a phial of red liquid from his utility belt and presses it to the elf's arm. There's a sort of pneumatic hiss, and the red fades, as do some of the wounds.

GAME: Walery casts Cure Light Wounds. Caster Level: 6 DC: 15

Iskandar follows the others over. Doing his best not to get in Walery's way he picks up the fallen elf's dagger, and any other visible weapons. He offers them to the next elf. "To keep safe," he clarifies before letting them go. "Until he can be trusted not to hurt himself with them again."

The elf in question lays on the ground sobbing, asking Walery why he'd saved him. Asking questions that there were not any real answers to. The group of you head back to Alexandria with the elves in tow where they're immediately admitted to the Arcanists Dungeons in the hopes that they will not be affected by the magic inside them there. It's all that can be done for now.

Merek watches as the elf does that, but doesn't keep him from doing it since he already has, nodding a bit as Walery checks on him. He then motions a bit while he follows them to the city proper

Walery eyes the fellow skeptically. As to why he saved him, he says, "Well, when you face adversity, you don't just give up. Sometimes finding a solution takes time and effort, but effort makes you strong. Don't give up, build yourselves back up bit by bit." Words of sort of encouragement. Walery will never give pep talks. But he's not going to let someone die out of laziness.

-End