Chapter 15: Small Misunderstanding

General Summary

As we sat at the tavern that night as Alfred and Ash told us all about their bandit hunting, the barmaid came up to us and said, "Gentleman wants to meet you. It's my young man, his name is Conrad, and he wants to have a chat with you."
We followed her outside to a rather dark area just inside the gates. She walked up to him and squeezed his hand. He smiled down at her and put his hand on her shoulder before turning to us.
"Good evening," Conrad said smiling with lots of teeth, "I am in service to Immortra the Debased and she wishes me to put forth an offer to you." We all watched as he started to slowly stroke her shoulder, "She wishes you to stop messing with her home and leave. If you will agree to that she is willing to offer each of you 250 gold coins." as he talked his hand slowly moved off of her shoulder and started to caress her neck, slowly, and it started to wrap around her neck. She smiled and looked up at him but she couldn't see the glint in his eye.
"And if we decline the offer?" I asked.
"Otherwise, her guardians will be forced to pursue you," his fingers stilled on her neck.
"That's it," Hemlock said and he cast a spell. His eyes widened as the effect did not happen. Cursing under his breath.
"Well this has gone sideways," I pulled a bomb from my satchel, added a small pinch of powder, and tossed it at him. It exploded and gas came up around him and the girl. He sniffed slightly and ignored it.
DaVinci pulled his dagger and stabbed the man, but he just looked mildly inconvenienced. Hemlock transformed into a bear and swiped at him as Alfred hit him with a spell.
The man disappeared taking the girl with him, and reappeared a few minutes later much larger, his voice came out slightly different, "I fear this has come to a kerfuffle, you better go away," and he shooed her off.
I threw a holy bomb at him and my team piled in with a fast exchange of blows. He did something and our next rounds of blows went wild. Hemlock threw a spell and plants grew up around the creature and Alfred threw a spell at him and the ground rose up to hit him. We did our best to do anything to him, but he is too strong for us.
"My dear, we will see each other again another time as for you, enjoy the trolls," and he disappeared.

Things turn worse

The next morning she brought us breakfast and looks sick.
"What happened to you?" Ash asked.
"I'm just not feeling well," she said, "I just feel a bit odd since Conrad left."
We all exchanged glances.
"Did you exchange anything with him?" Alfred asked.
"Oh yes," she said, "He's so wonderful. All I had was a wreath of flowers to give him, and he gave me this ruby to show how we should never be parted."
"Let's go see the cleric," I said.
"But, I don't worship Aradne," she replied.
"We need to find out some information," I said pulling her out. She led us to the Temple of Aradne, and we go into the gear-covered temple.
"Yes, yes, yes, come in, come in," a cheerful voice called to us. "It's so good to have new visitors here. What can I do to help you?"
"This young woman seems to have made a deal with a questionable young man," I said. "She seems to be growing weaker as she's separated from him."
"Oh my. That is a problem," he gestured and we brought her over to a chair. "Let's see what we have here." He looked her over and seemed to grab various different gears that he moved over his eyes. "Well, there is no much I can do as she does not worship Aradne and is not part of my flock, but it appears she's made a deal with someone and if she's with him, she'll slowly waste away and die."
"Ma'am," Alfred asked the girl, "Can you give us the ruby he gave you?"
"Oh, I could never do that. It's the proof of his love."
"But, he is not what he seems to be. He's been tricking-" I gestured to the side, and Alfred stopped talking and pulled us away from her for a brief talk.
"I don't think we can convince her he's bad." I said.
"If you can retrieve whatever it is she gave him and I have it and what he gave her, I might be able to help, but as I said, she does not worship Aradne, so my hands are somewhat tied," the priest said.
"What if we brought you a construct with gears like this as an offering to Aradne?" DaVinci asked. "Would that help you be able to help her?"  The priest's eyes widened and his head nodded.
And that is how we agreed to retrieve a construct for the priest.

Traps are back

We headed back into the dungeon in our nicely cleared out backstairs, only to discover more traps in the hallway that had never been there before.
In case you're wondering, those hurt.
About half a flight of stairs down and we hear something. That is when the dogs hit us from above. The dogs dropped down on us and trolls shot at us from further away.
The dogs are nasty, each time one gets a bite in on us, the next one swoops in with another attack. We staggered back, but barely stood up. The trolls shot arrow after arrow and each time we moved forward we triggered another trap.
"I'm out of here," DaVinci said. "We need come back when Ash is able to help us." He started to climb on the walls and the dogs chased him.
I took off after him, and Alfred and Hemlock also chased him. I backed up the stairs throwing bombs at the trolls to keep them from following us.
We retreated all the way to town and licked our wounds. It was quite humiliating.

Report Date

19 Nov 2023