Of Sorcery and Ale: Chapter 6

Arn't I on a roll...*yawn* alright, this is probably the last one tonight. Not that you would care.

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--Chapter Six
--"Damn."


"Damn." Kyron said.

The party was upstairs, at a library, and they had just fought off a small army of yuan-ti, including one mage. After the slaughter of the Roenallians, the party had been waiting outside waiting for the other Roenallians to report back. When they did, Captain Arat arranged them to die. Bloody, yet effective, as Korgan noted. They waited for over two hours when the latest report was that they "entered a room with a forge in it, and there was no less then ten bloody trolls in there!". They entered the keep themselves, with Captain Arat and his men keeping watch (the tunnel the umber hulks dug had already collapsed), and discovered about six men remaining, and all the trolls dead. When making sure they were the only guards left, Korgan slaughtered them mercilessly. And now, they were upstairs, in a library, and had just fought off a small army of yuan-ti, including one mage.

The latest fight has wounded Nalia seriously, as one of the yuan-ti swords cut her on the legs, and she's now limping. The wound cut deep, and Kyron, having knowledge of those things, realized in horror that the blade was poisoned...but Kyron remembered something.
"Didn't ya study some of those Oghma-thing back at Candlekeep?" Kita asked.
"Yes," Kyron said. "I think I can heal that, but since it's poisoned and I can't postpone the poison, I'd have to be with her and keep on casting the spell."
"But there's no time!" Nalia argued.
"But you'll die if you keep on going like this!" Kyron replied, and Nalia considered for a while, and then began wincing as the poison took its toll.
"Alright, then." Nalia said, finally giving in. "But the rest of you, continue and search for my father!"
"We're not your servants." Kita said, but began moving nonetheless. She took a key from a nearby desk and pocketed it.
"There's a room we just cleared before, you could take Nalia there." Yoshimo suggested. "I recall a bed in it as I stole a golden chain from under the pillow."
"Hey, that would be MY room!" Nalia said. Yoshimo looked guilty.
"Err, sorry, Nalia." he said as he handed her chain back. Jan, however, took out a ring, an amulet, a few spare coppers and a book from his pocket and gave it to her.
"And here's the stuff I took." he declared.
Kita threw yet another amulet at Nalia, whose eyes were bulging. Kyron caught it and handed it to her.
"Okay, people. Let's go!" Kita said, then took her friends onwards to glorious battle.

With Kyron's aid, Nalia was able to stand up and limp, but Kyron decided to carry her to her room and laid her on her bed. There, he began to chant, and placed his hand on the wound. A white glow flashed, and the wound shrunk.
"Tell me if you feel pain." Kyron told Nalia, and sat on a nearby chair. "This might take a while. I knew I should have brought some antidote, but we didn't have a lot of money and I didn't expect this. I do have a couple of potions, though." he said, and took out from a pocket a small bottle of blue potion. "But this is valuable...my spells can be replenished, but potions cannot."
"Can you, perhaps, continue with the story you were telling me about earlier? About why Sarevok wanted to hunt down Kita?"
Kyron considered this for a while...Nalia was most certainly trustworthy, and definitely not evil. Two big pluses.
"Alright." he said. "But try not to tell anyone this."
Nalia nodded.
"Kita," Kyron began. "Is a Child of Bhaal."

The other four of the group is currently fighting a troll. Kita's bow had ran out of arrows, and she charged into battle with a fierce battle-cry. It was astounding how much she changed in combat, she almost became...scary. Her expression was that of bloodlust and rage, matching that of Korgan's, as she struck hard and deep with her sword.

"Gorion knew this. Isabella, her mother, knew this. That's why they decided to settle down, I suppose, as they probably hoped Kita would grow up without dark taints. Sarevok wanted to kill all the other Bhaalspawn, so he himself could be the only Bhaalspawn and thus have all of Bhaal's powers.
He started the Iron Crisis, and we stopped it."
"That was you?" Nalia gasped, temporarily forgetting about the pain.
"Well, us. Anyway, we defeated Sarevok...he gave me this scar..." he gestured at the scar on his cheek. "And then, we partied for a couple of days, then got swiped by some man called Irenicus who knew about Kita's heritage, then we escaped his dungeon, then Kita's friend Imoen was taken away by Cowled Wizards, then we found you and ended up here." Kyron summed up.

"Mayhaps we should just smash this door an' I'll throw me axe in it." Korgan suggested. After entering numerous doors with trolls in them, they were all pretty tired of slaughtering trolls. Plus, Jan was running low on fire or acid spells.
"Not a bad idea." Kita agreed, and kicked the door open. Korgan's axe followed, but to their surprise a human was in there, and the axe almost cracked his skull. Instead, it flew over his head, leaving a broken vase and a very scared-looking guard in its wake.
"Sorry." Kita said, after a very awkward silence.

"Ow, it's hurting again." Nalia groaned, and Kyron casted the spell again and touched her wounds, which stopped the blood from flowing. They sat in silence (or in Nalia's case, lay in silence) for a while.
"Why don't you, then, tell me a little about your family?" Kyron asked, breaking the silence.
"Well, alright, I suppose it's only fair, seeing as how you told me your life story." Nalia chuckled. "My father, as you know, is Lord de'Arnise. He was...is...an adventurer. My mother, however, was a scholar, who worked in the keep. Aunty-my father's sister-didn't like my mother very much...but I do. My mother was exactly like me, helping the lesser folk..."
"Like myself." Kyron said and snorted.
"Yes, indeed." Nalia said, without so much as blushing.

"Oh, 'tis like a nightmare! Yet more hooligans tracking their filth through the halls. We shall have to vacation for a tenday while the whole building is deloused!"
The party stood in stunned silence as a noblewomen in red addressed them. She appeared to be in her fifties, and looks rather stern.

"Nalia sent you, didn't she? Only she would know where to get such ruffians. Consorting with servants will leave her dead like her softhearted mother, earning a virulent fever for her charitable excesses. I should not like to see her die of some virulent contagion after coddling peasantry like yourselves. Not that she listens to me, as your presence here illustrates."
The party stood in stunned silence.

"Oh well, those that beg cannot afford to be choosy. At least, that is the phrase as I have heard it. Shall we get to the business of a rescue? I assume that is what you are here for. "
The party stood in stunned silence.

"Please do be quick about it, I am catching an alarming sniffle and could do with a warm fire. If I catch my death I'll have the hide of the peasant in charge of the heat...speaking of which, where are those servants? Hmph, dead, I take it? Such lazy cowards, trying to die instead of defending the keep with their lives."
After a long while, Kita finally spoke up.
"You're the...lady of the house, I take it?"
The lady sniffed in a nobleish manner.
"Indeed, my name is Delcia Caan, if you must know, peasant. Now, I've heard it's polite to give out names to the lesser people like yourselves, although you probably wouldn't know anything about that."
"I'm...just going to stand here in stunned silence for a while." Kita said, and then did so.
The lady gave a little "Hmph".
"Try to contain the drooling when your jaw goes slack like that. This is the way out?"
Kita nodded.
"Good, then. Although I know that it is not my place to do so, I will kindly say "Goodbye". This sort of things seems to please you lower folk." she said, and moved out of the room with the unfortunate guard following behind her.
"Well!" Kita said, a long time after she was gone