In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.
-Herodotus
The rest of the way was, unsurprisingly perhaps, relatively short. It took a mere three hours for Sorringen to come into view. They prayed for the wheels to remain attached and someone seemed to have listened for no mishaps happened. They exited the forest about an hour ago and now were walking between simple farming houses with fields surrounded by walls made of broken stone. There were also some goatherds with large shaggy dogs, tending to their flock.
Alyssa was preoccupied with what she had seen, and the strange connection she felt and was mostly silent while walking with Adrian and Tira, Christina had joined Torvak at the front of the group.
Sorringen was ringed by a low wall of uneven stone, crowned with an array of sharpened logs facing outward. The great wooden gates stood open and there was lively traffic of people on foot with some smaller wagons carrying mostly food and hay. Much farther along towards the mountains, another settlement could be seen sporting a much taller and more professionally made wall with guard towers on the corners. This should be the rumored dwarfen encampment.
There was a significant presence of soldiers on the walls and as they were nearing the gate a mounted patrol, consisting of lightly armored outriders, rode into the village.
“Seems like there will be another offensive soon.” Said Torvak loudly enough that those behind the wagon, like Alyssa, heard him. He turned his head slightly and his false teeth flashed. “Be careful when you leave us. They will on the one hand be wary of strangers on the other a trained or even semi-trained spell caster could be aggressively recruited” He said, gesturing at the end. Alyssa nodded wordlessly.
Tira said “Stay with us until we, or you, leave. I think none of us wants to get rid of you.” She smiled. “Do think about coming with us will you?”
“I really cant.” Alyssa said with real regret “I would if I could, but it would mean trouble for us all.”
Adrian, who had been listening in said “Thought so. You really helped us.” He looked at Christina. “But to some of us, it was clear that you are a fugitive.” He held up his hand. “I don’t judge, I wrote you the letter with this in mind. I hope you clear your name or at least get away from here. Someone truly bad would have looted our corpses, not run into a battle to help. Just saying.”
Nearing the gates they began to attract more and more attention because of their strange beast of burden.
And as they reached the gates one of the guards came up to them and spoke “Hello again. Did you not leave here some days ago? And what in Motok's name is that thing.” He inspected the elemental cautiously.
Torvak answered “We ran afoul of a wyvern not more than a days travel to the south. It killed or drove off our horses and killed a lot of good people.” He grew a bit more somber then shook his head. “Now we make do with this lump of dirt. It's an earth elemental.”
“A wyvern? It must be a female with young uns’. They don’t usually hunt near the village, what with all the soldiers around. Keep the elemental on a tight leash will ya. We don’t need any more trouble.”
“What happened?”
“Raiding parties have been seen as far south as Ignaz Steading to the west. The outrider patrol you probably saw is just giving their report. I hope they defended themselves. Ok, you can come in.”
“Thank you.” Torvak gestured.
Adrian, having grown in proficiency a bit, commanded the elemental, which pulled the wagon into the village. The other travelers, be they villagers, military, or refugees, kept a healthy distance while audibly talking about the ‘freakish stonebeast’.
Tira looked amused, Adrian a bit disgruntled. Alyssa was curious, having never been farther than the outer edges of the Fernwood. But all in all, it was a relatively normal village. Asandria was faintly curious but tried to avoid the press of people, silently gliding overhead, only noticed by a few cats.
“Oy, take care where you are going, ya big lunk.” A voice called from the front. There stood a dwarf. Alyssa had seen one before from afar, but it was a rare sight in Firswending. The dwarf stood 1.3 meters tall and was nearly as wide, with arms bulging with muscle a roundish face with a prominent nose and slate-grey hair cut short but for the beard that fell to his ample stomach.
Torvak grinned. “Gromnar, good to see you. What drove you out of your cozy burrow.”
“Motok's blessing. The village invoked the oath of defense.” The dwarf looked serious. “We take no part in the general fighting, but if it spills into the lands that gave us shelter, we will help.”
“Here is to hoping it will only be temporary. Windkeep is still standing?”
“As far as we know, they are fighting back somewhat successfully.”
“Nothing new there. We will get this wagon and our lodging sorted, and then we have to acquire new draft animals. The elemental is a short-term solution only.”
“Ha. Good luck. Everyone who could sold them to the army or used them to get south.”
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Torvak furrowed his brows. “That's unsurprising but still unpleasant. Have a drink to our health, we will be joining you later. The Lucky Nugget at sundown?”
“See you there. Greetings to you lot, too.” The dwarf nodded in the direction of the rest and then went on his way.
“He looks formidable. Never seen a dwarf up close.” Alyssa mentioned. ‘They share a lot of similarities with a block of stone. Sturdy, hard to move, and just as boring.’ Came the whisper of Asandria.
Adrian smiled. “They are not often found outside their communities or clans. The ones who made it in human-held lands are seen as perverts or at least aberrations by their kin. Making it even rarer. And worse, they are not even that wrong. For a dwarf to leave his home, he is either exiled, meaning he did some heinous wrong, or he left freely on his own, which happens very, very rarely. The latter is seen as a sign of madness by other dwarfs.”
They followed the main street, which was clogged with ragged-looking people, most likely refugees. The inn at the marketplace was bursting at the seams. Torvak asked them to wait. “I will see if there is still room. Otherwise, I might impose on the barracks, seeing as we are in the employ of the Bishop militant. Wait here.”
Around them was a small space thankfully avoided by most passersby because of the elemental, which just now was stomping its three legs, looking, if that were possible, somewhat impatient. Adrian tried and succeeded for the moment to calm it down.
Torvak left the inn and motioned. “I rented us the back-room. We can sleep there, at least it's got a roof. You are included.” The last was aimed at Alyssa.
“Thank you very much.”
“Don't mention it. Let's go grab a bite to eat.”
And with that, the group went and stowed the wagon in the stables. Adrian sighed and gestured, and a complicated dark grey symbol shimmered into being. He made a dismissive gesture and the symbol was extinguished, with a groaning sound the dirt formerly comprising the elemental fell loosely on the ground. “Here,” he threw the stablehand a coin. “Please take care of the dirt for me.” the young man so addressed nodded.
Torvak said, “At the moment, we sadly will have to guard the wagon. I don’t trust the honesty of the starving people on the street. Olaf, you go first.”
After that exchange, they settled in the back-room, which was quite spacious even for all of them. The harried-looking innkeeper and some maids brought them bowls of stew and some bread with a few decanters of ale.
After they had fully satisfied their appetite, most went outside to have a look around. Alyssa traded some of the potions she had with her for some sturdy traveler's clothing from a peddler- It seemed there was a market for the healing salves and fever-reducing tonics. She then promptly changed in the mostly deserted back-room. Tira had been accompanying her and, seeing her half-clothed, teased, “You are thin as a stick. You should eat more.”
“That’s somewhat farther down my list of worries. I only hope that I can get my clothes repaired, even with the generous gift from Torvak I don’t have much to my name at the moment.”
“Perhaps ask here in the inn? They should often see such requests.”
And she did just that. The wife of the proprietor was a seamstress and glad for the business, and Alyssa was quite satisfied even if it cost her some coin.
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So passed the afternoon.
Later in the day, there was a big commotion. Alyssa and Tira went outside to have a look. Adrian came over. “The resupply and reinforcement for the northern lines are here.” He had spent the day mostly in Christina's company but left her when she went to the small shrine of Ielenia to pray. “They are overdue. Let's head over to the Lucky Nugget, which is the tavern Torvak always frequents when we get here. Let's get some seats before the soldiers are free.”
As they walked through the crowds, having collected Ikett from some stand selling grilled chestnuts, the sky darkened, and a chill wind gained in strength, bringing a light drizzle of rain. From farther inside the village, she could see, over the roof of the houses farther down the mountainside, the encampment being built and a flag unfurled, snapping in the wind, showing a fist facing the viewer- silver on grey on black with an arcane symbol on the back of the hand.
Soldiers were working hard, looking small in the distance, to erect tents and makeshift walls made of earthen berms.
Lightning flashed in the distance a rumbling of thunder echoed over the mountains. She still felt the frozen fire somewhat muted by distance in the stables of the inn. Her left hand burned with frost. Alongside her strode Asandria, dancing through the raindrops, distorting them with a smile on her vaguely seen features, long hair streaming about her irrespective of the wind.
The tavern was only half-full, it being early evening, and most people were still working, the ones without work most often also not having the coin. Gromnar the dwarf sat at a corner table talking to Torvak, and the latter waved them over. “Good that you are early.” Sweeping his gaze over them, he said. “Christina is not with you?”
“No, she wanted to pray at the shrine,” Adrian replied.
“Nothing new here. Come order something to warm you up. But I can't say that the colder climes are not more to my liking.”
Alyssa simply sat with them and nursed a cup of mulled wine, something she was not sure she liked, but it was hot and warmed her nicely.
Gromnar and Torvak were deep in discussion over the village and the situation farther north, with Adrian mostly listening only sometimes interjecting.
The situation was mostly a stalemate leaning towards favoring the northern realm. It would have been a lot worse if there was actually someone directing the mayhem, but it was mostly smaller regions of Ulsolm controlled by warlords who thought to grab a piece of the richer south. What kind of warlord it was, dictated the goals of the raids and it was near unpredictable when and where they attacked.
But there were rumors that the Archliche was starting to actively interfere in the war, lending magical aid and troops to some more or less obedient underlings. Why now was anyone's guess.
And as she was comfortably sipping from her cup of wine, there was a commotion outside the tavern, and amidst loud shouting, the door was wrenched open.