At the edge of the forest, Persi asks Aran for the Bag of Holding. He opens it, reaches in, and concentrates on a scroll of Locate Object. He feels it appear in his hand and removes it from the bag. Opening the scroll, he confirms it is correct and asks Aran to stop. He spends some time looking over the arcane symbols on it. Some are unfamiliar to him, so it takes a little while to figure out the proper verbal components of the spell. He asks Ava, “Describe Misery to me again, as detailed as you can.” Ava closes her eyes and concentrates, remembering everything she can: how it looked, how it felt to hold, “It almost seemed to be alive, not with some ancient, foreign intelligence, but with Kara’s soul that she had imbued into it over many years.” She doesn’t know how long she talks about Misery’s End when Persi interrupts, “Okay, that’s enough.” He uses the scroll to cast the spell. The letters burn as he finishes the incantation, and then the scroll turns to ask. The smoke lingers, then fades. “I don’t think it’s anywhere close to here. Let’s move another mile in that direction, and then we’ll try again. Both of you keep an eye out. We may not have been the only things that survived the fall.”
The wagon starts moving, and Aran guides it off the road, deeper into the forest. Persi wishes he could remember more. Yesterday was a blur. After about a mile, Aran stops again. Persi pulls another scroll from the bag. He reaches back into the bag to pull out the rest to see how many more attempts they can make and finds three more scrolls. He casts the spell, but again, nothing.
Three more tries. He drops all but one back in. They travel another mile looking for familiar landmarks. He opens the scroll and casts again. This time, it’s easier. Still nothing. “You two don’t see anything that looks familiar, do you?” Ava shakes her head. Aran squints, looking through the trees, “Over there, that hill looks familiar. I think we landed somewhere close.” He snaps the reins, and the horse starts moving again. Aran guides the wagon in the general direction. The terrain gets rougher the further they get from the road. It’s after midday when they stop for the third time. Persi pulls another scroll out. “Two more tries. Keep your fingers crossed.” He casts the spell, and the smoke moves to the northwest this time, leaving a visible trail.
He points, “That way.” Aran snaps the reins again and guides the wagon in that direction. Persi says, “Slow down a little. A broken wagon is as good as no wagon.” Aran slows down. He didn’t realize he was driving so hard. Persi points again, “There, just on the other side of that boulder?” The boulder looks like a chunk of Nexus. Then, they hear a scream from the same direction. Ava is the first to hit the ground at a full sprint, with the maul back and ready to strike, with Aran on her heels. Persi jumps down with a little more care but runs as fast as he can. He sees Ava come to a sliding halt at the corner of the debris, a look of horror on her face. Another scream from beyond her.
Ava rounds the debris, and it takes everything she has not to freeze in terror. It’s one of those eldritch horrors, a big one. She sees one of the Crownsguard that stopped them yesterday struggling to grasp at anything, screaming as the thing swallows him. One of the creature’s many eyes turns toward Ava as Aran rounds the corner. The horror surges forward, not on legs, but as a mass. It has multiple mouths, all chattering and mumbling, making concentrating hard. Looking at it hurts their eyes. Something beyond it catches Ava’s attention and breaks her focus on the creature in time for her to hurl herself out of the way as a massive claw impacts the ground where she was standing a moment ago. Aran brings his mace down on the claw. It snatches its claw back, turning its attention to Aran now.
Persi still can’t see exactly what the two are facing but decides to cast Haste on Aran while he can still see him. He pulls out a bottle that looks as if it contains liquid lightning, uncorks it, and whispers across the bottle top. A bolt arcs from the potion bottle to Aran.
Aran feels his heart race, and time seems to slow as the spell takes effect. Ava runs to the other side of the creature. There lies Camiella’s broken body, and Misery, point down in the ground next to her, like it’s standing guard. The horror swings another claw at Aran, knocking him back against the debris. He coughs up blood from the impact but keeps his senses and returns the favor with two solid hits. The thing withdraws the claw, and Ava jumps with the maul over her head. As far back as she can reach, she hits it with a sickening smack as black blood sprays out. She then takes a protective stance over Camiella’s body. Persi pulls a vial from his belt and whispers a Healing Word across the neck of the bottle. He pops the cork, and the vapors rush to Aran, his wounds close.
The creature snaps at Ava with one of its mouths, the teeth bite into her shoulder, and the blast of pain nearly forces a scream from her. She feels a burning sensation as poison begins to course through her. Her vision begins to cloud. Aran yells at the creature and brings the mace down on one of its eyes. The eye explodes, then another swing. This time, the horror recoils and avoids the blow. Ava grabs her shoulder, where the creature has sunk its teeth. She feels power surge through her hand, the poison pulls from her wound, and her vision clears. Persi rounds the debris and can see the creature clearly now. He sees Ava severely wounded at the creature’s side. He grabs another vial, whispering Healing Word again, pops the cork, and the vapor speeds to Ava. Her wound heals instantly.
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This time, the creature snaps at Aran with one of the giant mouths. Aran jumps to avoid it, but the teeth clamp into his leg, and the creature whips him up like a ragdoll. Aran beats at the maw furiously, two solid hits, one hard enough to shatter teeth. The creature hurls him into the ground, and everything goes momentarily black, but he snaps himself out of it. “If I get knocked out now, I may never wake up.”
With the poison gone and her wounds healed, Ava swings at the creature again and makes contact with another satisfying smack of steel hitting meat. Persi sees that the horror is severely wounded and decides to take a chance with one of his few damaging spells. He grabs another vial, aims the end of it at the creature, and breaks the seal, casting Stream of Acid, acid jets straight into one of its mouths. The horror lets out a scream that makes all of them cover their ears and go to their knees. Their vision begins to cloud, and then it stops. Everything is quiet.
They look up and see that it’s no longer moving. Persi makes his way to Aran, pulls another vial, and pours it on the wounds. They begin to heal rapidly. Persi and Aran hear laughter from the creature's other side. Ava is laughing. She exclaims, “That, that was SO MUCH FUN!” Persi and Aran look at each other, then start laughing too. Ava runs over to them, “I feel so alive.” Persi shakes his head. “I don’t need to feel that alive. Oh, Aran, brace yourself. The spell is about to…” The world around Aran suddenly speeds up; his heart still races, and he’s out of breath and sweating. Persi says, “Sorry, a side effect of that spell. It makes you speed up, and everything seems slower to you, but when it wears off, you feel like shit. You need some rest.” Aran, Ava, and Persi walk over to Camiella’s body. Her bones are broken, but she has a look of peace on her face. Ava says, “She died on her terms. She felt no pain. Death was instant.” Ava reaches down and closes Camiella’s eyes. She sits next to her, remembering all the times she saw her, thinking about everything she didn’t say to her. She says a prayer to Galathor. She knows the tenants. She’s heard Camiella say them before while sparing with Kara. They hear thunder rumble in the distance. Persi says we’ll need to carry her to the wagon. I don’t think we can get the wagon over here, and I doubt the horse will get near that thing as he looks at the abomination.
With her armor, Camiella is too heavy to lift alone, so Aran and Ava share the load as they carefully carry her to the wagon. Persi prepares a comfortable place for her with some blankets. He knows she can’t feel it, but it makes him feel better. He’s known her for most of his life. Persi stays with her in the wagon while Aran and Ava search the area. There are bits and pieces of armor and some weapons lying around; it looks like the four Crownsguards stumbled across the creature and didn’t fare as well. Ava says, “I’ll get Misery.” Ava wraps her hand around the hilt and yanks, expecting it to be hard to pull from the ground. She feels the familiar warmth spread through her. It’s heavy, but it slides out with ease. Aran asks, “What about that?” looking at the creature. Ava replies, “Let’s see if Persi has anything. We should burn it. That’s what they always said to do to them at Nexus.” Persi gives a flask to Aran. He throws it at the horror, and when the flask shatters, it erupts in flames. Ava says a prayer to The Dawn Bringer for the Crownsguards who died fighting it.
They all feel tired with the fight over and the adrenaline surge gone. Persi says, “Let’s go find someplace a little way away, get something to eat, and rest for a few minutes.” No one disagrees. They return to the edge of the fields, stop, and break out some of the food and weak mead Aran purchased. As they rest, they talk about their memories of Camiella. She was wholly dedicated to protecting Nexus and the Cinderblade family. Ava talks about all the times she watched her and Kara spar. Then, the two would usually go to the tavern, tell jokes about how bad each other fights, and laugh and try to goad each other into another fight.
Persi laughs and tells a tale about how he was afraid when his parents brought him to Sasha in Oakvale. At only sixteen years old, he thought he knew everything. Then, this scary blonde knight just stood there, glaring at him while Sasha and his parents bargained. She was/is beautiful but so intimidating. But when the deal was settled, her glare turned into a smile, and she said, “Welcome to the family.”
None of them once heard her complain about anything concerning herself but wouldn’t hesitate to chew someone out if they screwed up, but in a way that left them wanting to improve themselves.
After they feel somewhat rested, they head back to Everwind.
A few farmers wave at them as they pass, and they wave back. At the gates, the guard recognizes them from when they left this morning and allows them to pass. Persi tells the guards that they encountered a monster that looked like it had killed four Crownsguard. Aran hands over the bits and pieces of armor they could recover, “Sorry if they were your friends. We heard the scream, but the thing,,, well. From the looks of it, your friends put up a fight. We might not be here now if they hadn’t hurt it as badly as they did.” The guard captain takes the remains, “Thank you for returning what you could.” Ava says, “We burned the creature’s remains. I said a prayer to The Dawn Bringer for your friends.” The guard captain looks at her, “Thank you, young paladin.”
Ava beams at the thought of being a paladin. She wonders, remembering the glow of her hands.