Prologue: To Boldly Go Where People Have Not Been in a Good Long While!

"Well... just a few passersby who heard of the trouble, and answered them with hammer and blade." - Carlos offers, but then feels the need to be a bit less lyrical about it - "We killed them."

The white-haired woman waves her hand at the panther. "Hi. I'm Kathryn."

"We're with a local ranger named Ludmilla, actually."

"I'm Zoe, nice to meet you."

"I'm Jojo." The sorcerer waves hello.

"Oh, Ludmilla. Why didn't you say you were with the Rangers?" The panther shifts into a middle aged human man wearing a light blue robe. Intelligent green eyes peer out from under curly red locks and he flashes a dazzling smile at the lot of you. "I'm Liam a druid of this Grove."

A sneeze escapes from under the bed followed by what sounds like two children shushing each other. Liam face palms and says, "The children under the bed are Tom and Lily."

The children crawl out from under the bed. They are both wearing light blue robes. The little human boy, Tom, looks 8 or 9 and his brown mop of hair is wild and unkept. He silently holds the girl's hand. The half-elf girl, Lily, looks to be a little older, 10 or 11, and her black hair is long and braided. She carefully adjusts a pair of glasses before saying, "Hello."

Carlos is stunned at first, when he sees the kids. He drops his guard and slowly approaches, almost overwhelmed. - "We... thought we were too late to save anyone."

The transformation of the panther back into human form amazes Kathryn, but she quickly shifts her attention to the children once she notices them. This discovery immediately soothes her, and she smiles at the kids, only to realize she is still covered in gnoll blood. A little embarrassed, she waves at them, and smiles.

Hunter is still staring up and down at Liam, who was a panther. Just now he was a panther. "That's really cool," he breathes, containing his excitement in the presence of these strangers. "Can all druids change into animals like you can? How do you do it?"

Jojo always liked the flair the druids had, the way they just go and use their 'tree magic' to become animals and how their trees just go on a magical journey. But that was the extension of it, because right now he was hoping there was no survivors left, specially not children and old people.

"Hm... this is pretty bad. It's good, but... it's bad.", Joshua bites his lower lip slightly, looking pensive.

Carlos raises an eyebrow again - "¿Oy Jo, qué pasa?"

Jojo takes Carlos quietly out of ear range of the survivors, but whispers anyways.

"Uh. Yes... We just found survivors. And I don't want to go back on my word with the people outside. But if the fearmongering stories are true, I don't want to go ahead with it either."

"Wait, fearmongering? What's going on, Jo?"

"¿Ok sure, but take a step back, will you? The women outside should have no power in here. ¿Why are survivors a bad thing right now?"

"Because I gave her my word, Carlos. I gave her my word that I would hand any survivors to her care, lacking the support of the little piece of information that would make me work the problem slightly differently. And while a pieces of a body wouldn't probably be mistreated, already living beings could potentially be, if we are to believe the stories Hunter told us."

Jojo sighs, "So yeah, either I break my word as a merchant in order to be 100% sure these survivors won't get the short end of the stick but going against everything my guild stands for, or keep my word and my honor and roll the dice with someone else's life, hoping the Harken's Heart druids are going to treat them well."

Rory wrote:Hunter is still staring up and down at Liam, who was a panther. Just now he was a panther. "That's really cool," he breathes, containing his excitement in the presence of these strangers. "Can all druids change into animals like you can? How do you do it?"

"Oh yes. Being able to bind your form to a beast spirit through communion with the Primal Beast is one of the requirements for being a full druid." He looks around at the party and doesn't see anyone he recognizes. "Were you able to save anyone else?"

Zoe sadly shakes her head no. "They have been avenged. No gnoll or demon lives within the Grove."

"Oh I see." He wipes away a tear. "We stayed behind with the kids while the others went to fight the gnolls. We had no idea they'd end up here in the Grove. I still have no idea how they were able to find the place much less penetrate our wards. Dianne locked us in and went to see if she could save the other children..."

Carlos takes a moment to look Jojo in the eye - "Listen here, Jo. The one tricked here was you. Hunter thought to keep for himself the info we all needed, and Nesme let you go on thinking that she gave a rat's ass about these people when she was in fact their enemy. She took advantage of you, then made some kind of deal to take even more." - he speaks firmly

"What's more, you can't hand over to her what's not yours to give. These are people, not things, and you don't own them - not unless you suddenly become a slaver. And if that's not enough to ease your conscience, you also don't have a choice here. There's no way the rest of us will agree to let these people be handed over to her, much less force or coerce them. The Panther Man alone could probably give us all trouble, and there's no way you could ever take him by yourself. So there's really nothing here for you to fret over. You are unable to hand these people over to her, end of story."

Oblivious to Carlos' and Jojo's private discussion, Kathryn instead focuses on what the druid has to say. She frowns at the mention of the wards.

"Wait," she says. "Gnolls are stupid. They couldn't have come into this place without help. Do you have any enemies? Smart ones, I mean."

"You are wrong, Carlos... I did it on my own volition. I acted like I knew what I was getting into and Nesme feel for it, hook, line and sinker. If anything, she was the one surprised when I attempted to get her and her people as allies."

"I still think we should, SPECIALLY after finding out that they may be ruthless bastards. I'll explain my reasoning at another time but...", Jojo takes a pause to look at the survivors.

"I'll try to find a way to solve this for all parts involved..."

Jojo then joins the rest of the group.

"...Oh." Hunter goes numb. "They must have led them here... Why!? How could they do this? Against their own kind. It's practically treason."

His blood simmers. "They haven't changed. Nesme claws at power her people haven't earned back. We should go back and give her what she really deserves. Through the heart, if she's lucky."

Zeiss wrote:"Wait," she says. "Gnolls are stupid. They couldn't have come into this place without help. Do you have any enemies? Smart ones, I mean."

"Oh, aye, sure enough. Anyone trying to keep the peace will make enemies in time. Let me think a bit."

Rory wrote:"...Oh." Hunter goes numb. "They must have led them here... Why!? How could they do this? Against their own kind. It's practically treason."

His blood simmers. "They haven't changed. Nesme claws at power her people haven't earned back. We should go back and give her what she really deserves. Through the heart, if she's lucky."

"Hold on! Nesme and her rabble are here? Wouldn't surprise me if they had something to do with it, sure enough. How many are there? What have they said and done?"

"Two, right outside the west entrance. They thought we were mercenaries when Ludmilla brought us; they seemed to have been expecting some sort of help. Nesme opened the roots, Allinandra blinded the first wave, we took care of the monsters. They healed us afterwards; Ludmilla is resting with them now, since she was badly wounded. We came back in to finish the job."

He then looks at Jojo.

"Urgh, right," Hunter groans. "They have Ludmilla. Liam, do you have the power to open the way we came in?"

"Better yet would be one they don't expect us from, i say."

"Hold on, all of you.", Joshua moved before them all. "I'm not going to say we don't prepare ourselves for a fight, but we do not know that they did in fact start this at all, not to mention none of you are even thinking ahead. Let's say we go out there, blades singing and bows firing and the two people outside are indeed the instigators of this whole thing. There's a good chance just the two of them will be enough to overpower us, should they be so versed in violence as we think they are. Also, nobody gain from having them dead even if they are responsible, because I'm pretty sure the Harkon's Heart isn't just the two of them."

"As a reminder, I'd also point out the gnoll that was keeping a portal to a hellish plane open. This hints at two things: that there was indeed a gnoll was smart enough to dabble with sorceries and rituals, and that means at least one of them would be versed enough in the mystical arts that it would be feasible to make this happen."

"So my solution would be simple: we outsmart them, go out the front door and nobody has to shed anymore blood, the survivors don't go with Nesme if they don't wish to. Would you all be willing to hear the rest of my plan?"