Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 4.2.

Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 4.2.

We reach Brynnlaw in the afternoon of the ninth day of the trip and Saemon can’t stop boasting about his crew’s accomplishments. The town itself looks like a small, idyllic fisherman’s village, nice and ordinary white houses amongst the shiny, thin sand, and the setting is made even more romantic by the many palms that add a pleasant, refreshing contrast. Of course, the grim looking fortress that looms over from the hillside spoils the inviting feeling that is emanating from the village below.

We have gathered our belongings and leave the ship without long goodbyes since Saemon is nowhere near in sight and I don’t feel the need to shake hands with everyone of his rowdy bunch of sailors, especially with that damned cook… my stomach is aching for some normal food and at least two other persons share my sentiments. As we descend down the ladder, I notice Saemon - he is standing at the end of the plank-way, hiding in the shades of the palms.

“He looks suspiciously nervous,” Sime, who leaves together with us, says, “let’s find out what is wrong with him, but keep your weapons at the ready.”

Of course, as we are strolling in the pirate territory, we have donned our combat gear and prepared carefully beforehand. Seeing us approach, Saemon steps out of the shadows and speaks before we have come closer to him.

“I am afraid, I can not allow to leave you my presence just yet,” Saemon speaks with something that rings like regret in his voice, “I have developed a certain fondness for you all, thus it pains me to do so, but I have little choice in this.”

“What is the meaning of this, Saemon? You already have most of our gold, there is no personal benefit for you from such an obvious ambush,” I reply angrily.

“This was not my intention at all, but one must do what good business dictates… and if one’s life is at stake then the decision becomes much easier to make,” Sameon’s words don’t make much sense to me, it would seem that he is afraid of something… or someone.

“You will recognize those you face now, I hope the encounter will be short – I can’t stand the sight of the blood…” as I see the assailants, I realize of whom exactly Saemon is afraid…

Three vampires jump on us swiftly and Viconia doesn’t have the chance to finish her protective spell she is casting on me, a heavy blow to the head knocks her down on the wooden planks. I move in to protect her until she recovers and I am forced to deal with a very pesky and annoying vampire, even though I manage to finish it off eventually, I have been hurt and drained badly. Jaheira is facing two opponents at once, but she still wears the protective amulet and that severely limits the dangerousness of the vampires. Sime reappears from nowhere to stab one of the vampires in the back and Jaheira finishes off the second soon.

We look around for Saemon, but he is already gone and not likely to hang around this place. I realize that with him gone we have lost an option to return back to Athkatla…

“I have lost my restoration spells, abbil,” Viconia groans, rising from the wooden planks, “do you have any, druid?”

Jaheira only shakes her head in denial… “Perhaps there is a temple here – I would think that Umberlee would be worshipped here strongly,” she says.

“Right you are, dearie,” Sime smirks, “there’s a temple just besides The Vulgar Monkey.”

“It’s the name of the tavern,” she explains seeing our perplexed faces.

“Hehe… that would probably be Odesseiron’s favorite inn…” I laugh, “we could sure make use of a wizard now…”

“Speaking of inns,” Sime continues, “make your way towards it with all haste. Once there, look for a man called Sanik if there is a way to enter the asylum, he will know it. I will scout ahead and make sure that the way to the asylum is clear… we shall meet at the pass leading to the asylum itself. Do not dawdle around, our enemies know that we are here.”

Sime leaves us, but not before sharing a long, deep kiss with Viconia… we continue to first visit the temple and receive some healing and restoration.

“It is as I feared – Bodhi is here and she is angry at us,” I speak solemnly, “only she could have made Saemon so jittery…”

“I think you are right, but perhaps she is still looking for an entrance to asylum, there is no reason to believe that she has already managed to get to Irenicus as first,” Jaheira is trying to sound convincing.

“Well, what are you worried about?” Viconia asks, “it will be fitting to rescue the girl and crush all of our enemies at once! Or would you rather have this Bodhi roam around and feel threatened knowing that she is there, ready to pounce on you guided by her vengeance?”

There is some truth in Viconia’s words and while I ponder upon them we have reached the local temple of Umberlee. After having received the healing and restoration and having being yelled at by an angry priestess we continue our way to the inn nearby. Viconia is busying herself by strapping a newly purchased belt around her waist, but she is having some problems with buckling of the clip and reluctantly she asks Jaheira for help. While Jaheira bends down to work on the disobedient clip, a dirty looking pirate leaning against the wall of the inn addresses us…

“My, what a lovely rump this lass has… and the other one is just as good, Galvena really should have more girls like these two,” the pirate laughs, quite rudely staring at Jaheira’s behind, “perhaps, these two can be persuaded to join the guildhall… by some means.”

“Pardon me? You will take back what you just said! And who the hell is this Galvena anyway?” I shout angrily.

“I can’t take my words back – she does have a nice rump or do you disagree?” while my mouth is gaping open, pondering exactly what to say or whether I should actually say something instead of impaling this bastard on my sword, pirate continues, “don’t look at me like you have swallowed a frog, boy – I’m a big man in this town, if you know what is good for you, do not mess with Chremy.”

As Jaheira whirls around, her fist connects with Chremy’s nose and sends him crushing into the wall and he slides down to the ground.

“You can be quite slow at times, my heart,” Jaheira sends me a mocking smile before resuming her work on Viconia’s belt.

Chremy is not done for tonight though and he rises from the ground with a sword in his hands. He is still too dazed to stand straight, thus he cannot avoid my fist knocking him against the wall again and as he struggles to regain his composure, I run through his stomach with my sword and he drops down to the ground and after a little while his death-rattle ceases and he lays still. I feel slightly sorry for having to do this as the snowy white wall of the inn is now covered with a large red spot. I don’t feel sorry for this Chremy, that’s for sure… I do a quick search of his belongings and stumble upon a weird amulet, which I decide to keep, as it looks quite valuable.

We enter The Vulgar Monkey and after having spent a minute in this miserable place, I conclude why the name of the tavern has been chosen as such as it describes the local clientele perfectly. In the space of this one-minute Jaheira and Viconia have faced multiple attempts of someone trying to pinch their buttocks and one drunkard even tried that on me…

To prevent any further such attempts we resort to a little amount of controlled violence and in the result two of the pirates lie on the floor with mildly serious facial injuries. That seems to have earned us the necessary amount of respect and no further dirty propositions follow as we take our places at one of the free tables and start to scan the surroundings, looking for someone who may be our contact person, Sanik. Viconia points at a lone man in mage robes, sitting at the bar and I agree with her that this man stands out in the crowd.

We approach and encircle him carefully, but he seems oblivious to everything around him as he is looking into his glass of wine in hopes of some marvelous revelation. I nudge on his shoulder and the reaction it provokes is extraordinary as the man jumps almost a feet in the air, accompanied with a loud yelp…

“Calm down, friend,” I try to soothe the nervous looking fellow, “my name is Theodur, recently of Athkatla… you are Sanik, right? I was told that you have information for me… what in the blazes is wrong with you man, you are shaking like a leaf!”

“Oh… my… my nerves have been on the edge as of late,” Sanik stammers, “I have run into conflict with the local guildmistress, Galvena. Many of the local girls have been forced to work in her brothel and my beloved Claire is no exception… we plan to leave at the first possible opportunity… what the…?”

We all turn around to see a halfling pointing her bow towards Sanik and grinning mischievously. “Fool! Do you really thought to cross Galvena and get away with it?” she says before releasing the arrow which hits Sanik in the shoulder. Quickly we jump on her and she has no chance to stand up against three heavily armed adventurers. Soon there is halfling blood all over the floor, but as we turn around to check upon Sanik, we see the man down on the floor clutching his throat and shuddering in convulsions…

“Damn! Poisoned arrow!” Jaheira yells, but this realization is too late for Sanik…

“C-c-claire…” the last words of the dying man disperse amongst the singing of the drunken sailors…