A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 57: Closer

"I thought I was rescuing you..." Tsabdrin mumbled into her shoulder petulantly.

"Whatever. It's over and done." Ashyr told her cousins. "Lets ride."

And then she pressed the wolf into a long, loping stride across the muddy terrain. It wasn't the best speed for traveling conversation, but Caleldir was right; it would get them to Port Afron much quicker than before. There wasn't much in the way of things to slow the party down. Selene found the ride of her spider smooth enough that she could snack on her rations without even needing to dismount. Besides the occasional break to stretch legs, the party was able to travel nonstop. The weather changed little from how it was in the morning. There were some hours where there was a miserable drizzle, and others where there were patches of blue mixed into the sky. Then the light rain was back again. The farther away from the town they got, the more the forest looked more like its usual self - though it never truly became as clear as it was just a month ago. The rangers visibly relaxed with each hour they put between the battle at the druid town and themselves.

And so, the day wore on. Since Caleldir's mood had improved from yesterday, and he remained as immune to the weather as ever, Caleldir noted the mix of light and drizzle with distant amusement, enjoying the gloom for what it was, and the sun for what it was. Unlike the other three (even with the wards against sunlight) he was not annoyed by the sun no matter how bright it got.

He also kept an eye on Tsabdrin and Ashyr, noting their improved mood as they moved farther from the druidic town. Must be a ranger thing. He knew the place was creepy, but after twelve hundred years spent as one of the most awful abominations in a monastery full of horrors (despite not consciously remembering any of it) he had long since lost any real capacity for being properly horrified of the unnatural. Unless it had to do with sex, with was something that decidedly did not happen in a building full of undead monks.

Ashyr stopped all of them as the sun was past its zenith and midway towards the horizon - or at least that was probably where it was. Grey clouds covered the sky at that point. They were still a little over an hour out from the city. "Alright, I think it's time to put you back and take out Althaia. No need to run into a scout with him in sight." Then the female ranger dismounted and helped her passenger down after her. "Alright, R.I.S.A, we're coming in." Then she activated the portal.

When the portal opened, The nymph immediately emerged before the others could enter. She looked like a goddess of both love and war made into flesh: clad in elegant, practical, flattering armor that hinted at and accentuated her shape without sacrificing utility of protection or movement in any way. She was not wearing a helmet though, letting her long, shimmering golden hair flow out behind her both loosely and in several braids. She rode a white Pegasus, armored to match. "R.I.S.A. will take care of Tsabdrin." She said sweetly. "Much is still under construction, so she prefers if you do not enter quite yet."

All three of the drow couldn't help but stare at the paladin. This wasn't unusual. Most every time she walked back into the party after being gone for a bit, the dark elves were distracted from her beauty for a moment. That was because every single time they forgot just how beautiful she actually was. Selene and Ashyr got over it pretty quickly. Tsabdrin, however, was so distracted that stopped just as he was about to reenter R.I.S.A's dimension of his own volition. He'd never seen her in all her paladin glory. She was usually just naked or in skimpy armor. And to think, he could have coupled with that paragon of holy beauty if he'd been able to keep his damn mouth shut. He didn't know whether the thought terrified or aroused him.

Although Althaia was very much aware of Tsabdrin's gawking, she did not acknowledge it. Instead, she pretended to be getting a bearing on her surroundings.

"Go on, boy. Stop gawking." Ashyr told Tsabdrin as she shoved him through the tunnel. Her words were not unkind. In fact, she sounded rather amused. When he was gone, and the portal was closed, Ashyr grinned up at Althaia. "You certainly made an impression on him." Then she patted her on the leg, gave the winged horse a slightly firmer but equally affectionate pat on the neck, and mounted back up on her own wolf that still stood slightly off to the side.

Althaia let out a sigh of relief when the male drow was gone. Quickly recovering, and giving Ashyr a dazzling smile, she started her winged horse on a leisurely walk towards the camps.

Ashyr didn't miss the fact that the nymph didn't really respond when she commented on Tsabdrin's odd behavior towards the nymph. There was no more mutual staring, either. The drow male was being ignored. Ashyr cursed herself for not drilling Tsabdrin on what had happened - though, realistically, it was unlikely Selene's brother really knew what was going on either. Ashyr didn't dwell on this for too long before she mentally shrugged and figured all would resolve itself eventually. It usually did. The ranger urged her wolf into a much easier pace this time. "Figured we'd go slower as we get closer. There's probably two armies camped out there. No need to alarm them." The two armies part was said more for Althaia's benefit, in case she wasn't aware of what was going on. Ashyr had no idea how much information she was able to glean from inside R.I.S.A.

"Whatever." Selene said with a shrug. She wasn't all that invested in what they were doing. The mage was really just following Ashyr.

"Two armies... I would guess the druids and likely the orcish clans?" She looked around. "Almost certainly. Those are the main groups in this region with a cause to be annoyed with Port Afron. Well, druids are usually friendlier to nymphs than orcs are, so let's head to their camp first."

"Agreed." Caleldir nodded. He banished his wondering about what had gone on between Tsabdrin and Althaia out of his head, even though every time the two of them interacted he became even more curious. "Although, I do want to see if they managed to get that orcish necromancer resurrected. Her ghost wanted to be, as I recall." Caleldir felt a special affinity for people who had been dead once. He fell in behind Althaia as she set the pace towards the camp.

"It really depends on whose scouts find us first." Ashyr said with a shrug. The ranger didn't seem to care which they encountered first, and she was probably the only one in the party who felt that way. Selene still was sort of angry about herself and Ashyr being sold to the orcs as scapegoats for the first Port Afron debacle. It was hardly the orcs' fault, of course, but that didn't seem to make it any better. "But we'll definitely visit both camps before we decide our next move."

"I had not considered the scouts..." Caleldir said slowly. Duh. Of course there would be scouts. If he was setting up camp for an army, he would be sure to have scouts to keep away the riff-raff. Or at least tell him when the riff-raff were probably going to arrive. And warn him if something more dangerous than mere riff-raff was coming at him.

The ranger had been right, of course, that they would encounter scouts before they encountered whole encampments. The party was beginning to see the first signs that a large group was camped outside the city: small billows of smoke from campfires, and, as the wind changed, very brief whiffs of food that was being cooked mingled with the other scents of a rain-soaked forest. Ashyr wordlessly pointed it out to the rest of the party via a brief gesture to the southeast of them where the streams of smoke stood out in the sky. That was when a shout came from inside a thicker portion of the forest.

"Halt! We have you surrounded. Who are you?" A gruff voice demanded. Then a large man as gruff as his voice stepped out of the forest. His skin was like tanned leather, and he had the heavy brow ridge and underbite that suggested an orcish heritage - but no tusks were visible. There was other rustling from within the brush, but no one else saw fit to reveal themselves.

"Ashyr Duskhaven. And party." The ranger said promptly before there could be any misunderstandings.

"Wait here, then. I'll get Zarag." And then the scout disappeared back into the brush. There were still people there just out of easy sight, keeping an eye on the party.

Oh! Zarag... Caleldir remembered him well. At least, he thought he did. There might be more than one Zarag. He did not know how often orcs reused their names. He was probably the same guy, though. "It seems that this is indeed the group that attacked Port Afron way back then." Caleldir observed. He switched to Undercommon. "I hope that none of them remember me. I killed a whole lot of them during the assault. Or Goelon did, at any rate, but since Goelon is pretty obviously me with bleached hair and an aura of terror, anyone who saw him would remember."

Althaia did not understand (probably) what Caleldir was saying, and so decided that it likely was not relevant. "You have had dealings with these ones before, then." The nymph mused. Her eyes glowed solid blue as she looked over all the orcs. "For a race that is usually very heavily slanted towards evil, these fellows seem to be mostly neutral. Ish."

Caleldir looked nonplussed. "I do not think that that is a very diplomatic thing to say. They are almost certainly listening to us right now."

The nymph flashed a brilliant smile. "I can get away with it." She said in a tone so sweet that the ground around her spontaneously began to flower. Literally, not figuratively.

"Yeah, most of the orcs that were around here about twenty winters ago were pretty much your standard evil lovers of chaos." Ashyr told the rest of them with a shrug. She realized that she had more knowledge of the history of the area than even the surface dwellers. Althaia was a native of this area, but she apparently did not know either, having mostly been hanging around fae that did not much care about the affairs of mortals. "Faust and his city drove them back, but not before they did quite a lot of damage. I wonder if these people have anything to do with those."

"Probably." Selene agreed.

Whatever the party did, it did not anger the people in the brush enough for them to reveal themselves - not until the guy the first scout went to get walked out of the forest. When he did, four others revealed themselves to be the ones so obviously hiding. They seemed of mixed race, half quite obviously with some sort of orc heritage. The other two looked human. Or perhaps half-elf. The original guy who confronted them stayed back with the others looking as passively dangerous as the rest of them were.

Zarag nodded at the party. He looked as he did after their parties parted on strangely good terms. He was easily a couple inches taller than Caleldir. Now that he wasn't upset about his sister, he stood at his full height, confident and proud. Zarag had even, somewhat angular features for his race, and smooth (if a little green) skin beyond the dark shadow of stubble that grew across his tusked jaw. If it grew out, it would likely be as dark as his black hair that he wore just long enough to put the upper half in a short tail at the back of his head. His eyes - as black as his hair - held light of intelligence usually saved for races that weren't of the orc persuasion. He was handsome - or at least as handsome as a half-orc could ever get. "Yes, this is Ashyr." He confirmed to the others. "She is an ally."

That information changed nothing about the stance of the people behind him, but they weren't being actively aggressive in the first place.

"Welcome back, Ashyr, Caleldir. Selene." Zarag said. His eyes were drawn to the paladin, however. "I see you picked up a companion. Greetings, my lady." With one closed fist, he pounded the part of his leather and chain armor that protected his heart and bowed very slightly. "I am Zarag, son of Slaugh the Battle-Wise. I am in charge of the mercenary army here."

Caleldir breathed a sigh of relief. "Well met, Zarag, son of Slaugh. How are Orag and Ungrai? Did you ever manage to resurrect her?" Caleldir assumed that they had: after all, her ghost had expressed a desire for resurrection, so why would they not? He was still anxious to get confirmation, though.

Althaia gave the orc a nod of acknowledgement. She smiled pleasantly at him. "Well met indeed. Yes, I am a new companion. I am Althaia the Nymphen Paladin. Only one of my kind in the world. Yet. I am here to see justice done to Port Afron and its fiendish overlord, for I hear his crimes well deserve punishment."

Zarag blinked when Althaia informed him that she was a nymph paladin. There was surprise on his face, though it was a muted expression and quickly passed as he focused on the questions he was asked. "Yes, my half-sister was resurrected. She is with us, in the camp. As is Urag. We will need both of them for the fight."

Caleldir looked around at the many non-orcish, or at least, heavily mixed, warriors. "You have quite a crew here. I do not remember this variety of races being in the group that attacked Port Afron. Are they new?" The other possibility was that all of these hybrids were the relics of the rampaging orcs of two decades ago. A lot of hybrids tended to be born after an orcish invasion. Part of why the race was generally so disliked.

Zarag stiffly nodded. "Our strongest warriors were in the first attack. Duskhaven claimed that that was all we needed. Their army never came." His now downturned lips and furrowed brow left one with no question about the violent half of his heritage.

Ashyr could swear she heard the leather of his gloves creak as he clenched his fist. It wasn't the first time she or Selene had heard him say this, and every time it seemed as if thinly veiled rage boiled inside him. She didn't say anything in her house's defense. It was an old, resolved argument.

"Oh." Caleldir said slightly inanely. He had faced down some twenty of their strongest with a spear. They had killed him, of course, then he killed them all to resurrect himself. He felt like he should apologize for that, but could not think of a way of bringing the topic up without sounding like he was boasting. Or, making them aware of the event in the first place. So far, nobody had recognized him. Hopefully, no one would. Although Ungrai would definitely be able to tell his partly undead nature now that she was a living necromancer and not a dead one. "I am glad to hear that they are in better health. I look forward to meeting Ungrai in animate form." Urag, he was not so sure. The big orc made him slightly uncomfortable for reasons that he could not quite put a finger on. Probably, he was just not used to people being that much taller than him.

The leanly muscled half-orc took in a deep breath through his nose, and let it out slowly. He visibly calmed himself enough to speak on other things. "Don't expect her to be too friendly. But no more on my siblings. It is good that you have come, Ashyr. We have been speaking to the druids, as our goals are the same. It has not been going well. We have another feast and talk at the main hall tonight. I would ask that the four of you join."

As he spoke, ranger and mage dismounted from their beasts and brought them back into miniature form. "Yeah, okay." Ashyr agreed. It wasn't something she felt that she could help with, but there were other, much more charismatic people in her party to aid in negotiations. "Lead the way, Zarag." She assumed that the rest of her party was okay with it - well, Selene had looked rather grumpy. Probably because she felt that he wasn't giving them proper respect or whatever. Ashyr didn't much care what her prickly cousin thought at the moment. The older drow took it as a matter of course that Selene would be offended no matter how the half-orc acted.

"Go on. You are no longer needed." Zarag informed the people behind him. They did not seem to mind his words. They merely nodded, repeated Zarag's gesture that he had given the paladin, and disappeared back into the woods. "It is this way." The orc leader then said as he turned and began to walk back in the direction he came. "Anything you need to know before we get there?"

Focused as he was on his own thoughts, Caleldir did not take much notice of the tension that Zarag was under. Unlike Althaia, who was keenly aware. "Main hall?" She asked. "Have you taken control of one of the outlying villages? Or did you contrast a more permanent camp?" Either way, it was nice to have solid accommodations. For them, at least. Her group had R.I.S.A., of course. The paladin noted Selene's apparent disgruntledness, and decided that it probably was not all that important. Selene was always disgruntled about something. Well, unless she was in the arms of either Caleldir or Ashyr. That was probably not something that Selene every wanted to hear, though, especially from Althaia.

"The main hall is the druid's work." The orc explained. "They grew it. Other than that, it is tents."

Althaia nodded in response to Zarag. "That makes sense. I could wrest a pretty large hall made of stone and wood out of the forest myself if given a few days, and I am not a particularly skilled druid. I go only by instinct and talent, not knowledge or experience, after all."

"I know you use druidic magic." Caleldir noted. "But, seeing as you neither have an animal companion, nor the ability to turn into an animal, can you really call yourself a druid?"

The nymph grinned. "I can turn into all sorts of things. You have seen me turn into a tree before, right? Well, Laritasia here" she indicated the Pegasus "is also my animal companion. And I can turn into lots of animals. I just do not, because it is literally impossible to improve on my looks. Any transformation (beyond certain minor aesthetic adjustments) would be a downgrade."

"I suppose that is why you were not reluctant to give me that ring." Caleldir said dryly. "But no matter. Let us pay attention to Zarag."

First and foremost, Ashyr wanted to know how things were going. She walked alongside Zarag, and thus took the role as apparent leader of the party despite the presence of the Paladin.

Zarag helpfully went into an explanation of who things were going. The whole party (save for the grumpy Selene) was interested in how the attackers fared against the walled city. The orc leader walked as he talked, and led the party to a newly beaten down trail that wasn't so wide as the path beside the river had been. His words were simple, and spoken in an abrupt, accented voice that probably indicated that common wasn't his first language. It was also a little hard to pronounce certain words around his smallish tusks. Though his words remained uncomplicated, he seemed to easily understand any more complex language used by the party. When one spoke to the people Zarag did, one got in the habit of a certain style of speech that was hard to break.

The city itself had been observed by the scouts to be even more heavily fortified than it had been a month prior. The walls might as well have been as thick as the treeline surrounding the city, since going out in the open spelled certain death when the defending mages saw them. Both Ashyr and Caleldir knew this fact all too well. The treeline had even been expanded, much to the druid's frustration. So it was the the encampments weren't all that close to the city, making it impossible for a true siege to take place. Neither had any major attacks occurred while everyone was trying to figure out what to do. Impatience was beginning to set in both groups.

As for communications between orc as druids, negotiations had been ongoing for the last two days that the orcs have been inhabiting the same area. That growing impatience and frustration only hindered the talks they were having. Zarag also alluded to his sister's presence making it difficult for the life and nature mages - not to mention the old grudges held by the townspeople for all the destruction caused by the mercenaries and their parents. This was why an agreement still hadn't been made despite how beneficial it would be for both sides.