[WFRP] The Lord of Lost Heart (II)

[Exeson]

Ithelus reached forwards and put a hand on the woman's arm.

'Hello? Wake up?' he said softly

[LCP]

Ithelus & Illiiya

Hanna stayed asleep. A couple of firmer shakes, and she woke with a startled snort.

"Whu? hey?" she said, looking about. The first place her eyes went was Wulli; only when she saw him lying in the bed did she look back to Ithelus. "Oh, 's you."

She blinked heavily. She still looked tired.

"Mornin'."

[BloodyAngel]

Illiiya Jaelrae

Illiiya gave the girl no real mind... and the same seemed to hold true for the food she brought. While she certainly felt lacking inside, it was not from hunger. Forcing herself to keep going, she followed in Ithelus' wake quietly, her gaze flitting over Hanna, appraising her for reasons only she knew.

We've food... if you trust it. Illiiya said in a muted voice, How is he faring?

Dead already... He's only lingering because the lord of famine chooses to prolong his suffering. Then, it will turn on the rest of us.

[goblinpaladin]

Lothar managed a sound. It lay somewhere between a 'ha' and a cracking noise, as of a jaw locked in place for too long released its tension. He licked cracked lips and gave a wan smile as Pieter tried to conceal his relief behind irony.

Reaching up, the battered soldier clasped Pieter's hand a long moment. He nodded. Something tense and hard left him. His shoulders slumped, sending his mail a-clanking and the grizzled soldier looked somehow less worn and bloody.

"Oh. Oh, thank the Comet." He released the initiate's hand, and dragged his hand through his thatched hair. "Thank the gods, each one of 'em."

"Where's she? Take me to her."

[-Sentinel-]

"Right away. She's been a wreck since... um... your 'death'."

Pieter headed towards the inn with Lothar, watching him; the one-eyed soldier looked as if he might collapse any moment. Surely Talberg would understand if the initiate did not go back up the windmill right away.

He had tons of questions to ask and things to tell, but decided it was better to wait to be with the Elves to spare the weary soldier the exertion of repeating himself. He did ask the most urgent question that burned his lips: "So. Any news, good or bad, from Mr Waite and Hans?"

[goblinpaladin]

"Waite's dead," Lothar said, the exhaustion layered thick over his tone. "Nearly everyone's dead..." He trailed off, looking ahead. ''Cept us, I guess."

[LCP]

Illiiya & Ithelus

We've food... if you trust it. Illiiya said in a muted voice, How is he faring?

Looking round at Wulli again, Hanna rose to her feet. "Not much better," she said. "He'll pull through, though. I'll make 'im."

Looking at the sallow, barely-breathing thing in the bed, Hanna's determination sounded more like wishful thinking. Looking back to Ithelus and Illiiya, she took the soup.

"Thank you," she said. The words were cut off by a cough - she hesitated, suddenly self-conscious. "You make this yourselves?"

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter sighed. He was not overly fond of Mr Waite, but the wizard had been the only one with the knowledge to deal with this situation. Without him, how could they hope to stem the tide of daemons?

"The mood's dark in the village, as you might expect, and we're quickly wearing out our welcome," explained the initiate glumly. "Some blame us for the massacre at the barrow. At least Talberg and Esther are on our side, and people look to them for guidance."

He pushed the door of the inn. "Guess who's back!" he yelled.

[Exeson]

Ithelus shakes his head, 'No we didn't, it was a gift dropped off this morning from one of the little girls. For you and Wuli.'

The elf pauses awkwardly for a moment, 'is there... well you know, is there anything we can do to help?' but before he can get an answer Ithelus heard Pieter's call. His eyebrow raised in slight confusion, the shout sounded too jovial for the situation.

Looking over his shoulder he calls back, 'Come in, we've got some food.'

[BloodyAngel]

Illiiya Jaelrae

What has he to be so cheerful abou-

Illiiya's entire train of thought froze, the moment she spotted Peiter and Lothar. Her mouth hung open a moment, as the bowl of food she was carrying clattered to the ground.

I... y-you're.... She muttered in shock, before she dashed to him as quickly as her feet could carry her, throwing her arms around her red-headed lover and holding him tight.

She heard me... She listened... She muttered into his chest, as the sobs she'd been forcing herself to hold back flowed out in a torrent.

She waited for it to be some cruel joke or trick; for the gnarled old man to come and taunt her then leave her to wake in her bed, alone... but he was real. The human goddess had watched over him, and brought him back to her. With tear-streaked eyes, she looked up to him.

... how?

[Exeson]

Ithelus froze. He's alive! Lothar is alive! Ithelus begins to move towards the pair when a blur that is Illiiya shoots past him and embraces the soldier.

He's alive...

Ithelus's face falls as the implication of that hits him; that she was once again not his. Truly the gods were cruel to give him such a fleeting moment of hope. Ithelus moves roughly past them, grabbing Pieter's shirt without breaking a stride he drags the self styled priest out of the inn.

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter had little time to enjoy Illiiya's and Lothar's reunion before Ithelus seized the front of his shirt and tried to drag him out of the inn. "What the--" he began. Sighing, he reluctantly allowed the thief to take him outside.

"What is it?" he asked with barely suppressed irritation.

[goblinpaladin]

Illiiya slammed into Lothar hard, the soldier grunting under the impact. He gasped, and it was like a dam broke: tears came forth, and creaking sobs like a ship crashing onto shore. He held his little witch tight, damaged chain links pressing a pattern into her alien-hued skin; he lifted her from the ground.

"Gods listened," he muttered, muffled by her hair and choked with salt water.

Half his tears were dark. They left streaks of red in their wake.

[Exeson]

Ithelus looked Pieter directly in the eye, 'Where the hell did you find him? He's supposed to be dead! We saw him die... What if he is.... not what he used to be.'

Ithelus throws a frutive glance over his shoulder to the door of the inn. 'And you just marched him in here with a clap on the back.'

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter blinked. The paranoia and cynicism he had acquired in the streets of Nuln began to creep back; when things seemed too good to be true, they often were. He thought about the knight, who was supposed to be dead just like Lothar, yet still rode around, killing people. Was it conceivable that Lothar........

He shook himself. No, he had looked at Lothar in the eye, had seen in his stance a level of exhaustion that only a man with a beating heart could ever feel, had caught his expression when Illiiya threw herself into his arms... If Ithelus was that worried, why was he leaving Lothar alone with Illiiya inside the inn?

An unpleasant thought began to worm its way into the initiate's mind. Ranald's teeth, Ithelus. Are you grasping at straws? Are you hoping things aren't what they seem?

"We didn't see him die," he reminded the Elf, his voice tightly controlled. "We saw him fall. And then we ran away like everyone else. I'll take a look at his wounds... I certainly hope I can tell a living man from a corpse." His tone took on an edge as sharp as the Elf's throwing knives. "If you care for Illiiya, you should at least pretend to be happy for her."

[BloodyAngel]

Illiiya Jaelrae

I will never doubt her again... Illiiya muttered, as much to herself as anyone else.

She seemed loathe to release Lothar, but after a few moments, she turned her gaze up to his face and raised a hand, her fingers not quite touching his scarred cheek and eye. Her face was one of shock and sympathy, but not disgust. That he was alive was all that mattered.

Are you the only one who made it? She asked him softly, ....Mr. Waite?

[goblinpaladin]

Lothar coughed roughly, clearing his throat. He grasped her hand gently - his hand so raw, so rough now! - and moved it away from his ruined face. He shook his head, expression grave.

"No. I - no. Nor Lord Verloren." He hesitated, his eye tracking away from Illiiya's face and into the middle distance. "I could not bring them back."

He focused again on the elf, bit his lip, spoke: "The knight said to never go back there." He pulled her close to him again, knitted steel suit pressing into her slender form.

"You're alive. I'm keepin' you that way."

[Exeson]

Ithelus's eyes narrowed. 'Pretend?, if she's happy I don't need to pretend.' he muttered before walking back into the inn.

'Lothar, you're alive!' he exclaims as he strides over to the soldier, enveloping him in a large hug.

[-Sentinel-]

"Hate to interrupt the outpouring of emotions," Pieter intervened, following Ithelus back inside the inn, "but you look like you could use some tending to, Lothar. How about you tell us your story while I work?"

He hurried upstairs to his room and came back with all his medicine supplies. He took a closer look at the torn flesh in Lothar's face and winced in sympathy. "...Gods. I'm not sure we can save that eye." I'm not sure you still even have that eye.

Spoiler

Show

Did Lothar heal himself today?

If not, here's a Heal 57 test, using a poultice: (d100)[97]
Fortune Point: (d100)[57] - Edit: Yes!! That was close.

Wounds healed: (d10)[8]

[BloodyAngel]

Illiiya Jaelrae

What do we do from here? Illiiya asked, seeming hesitant to release Lothar, even to let him be tended to.

When finally she relented, she sat someplace nearby where she could keep the two in sight... as if she feared Lothar would vanish if he left her view.

Mr. Waite was right about that tree, but now he's gone... and I have no idea where to proceed now. I don't even know if we could leave with that thing guarding the roads.

Or IS it guarding the roads?

Lothar? She asked, tilting her head quizzically, You said it... spoke to you? It spared you... and it spoke?

[goblinpaladin]

"Hate to interrupt the outpouring of emotions," Pieter intervened, following Ithelus back inside the inn, "but you look like you could use some tending to, Lothar. How about you tell us your story while I work?"

Lothar reluctantly pulled away from Illiiya. "Uh. I dunno how well I'll be talk to talk while you've a needle and thread in my side, but fine."

He scratched his beard and returned Ithelus's hug. "Aye, I'm glad to be here." He looked over at Illiiya and back to Ith. "I'm glad to see all of y' got outta that mess."

[Pieter returned and] took a closer look at the torn flesh in Lothar's face and winced in sympathy. "...Gods. I'm not sure we can save that eye." I'm not sure you still even have that eye.

The soldier made a hissing noise, wincing and moving away from Pieter's hands. "Ah - it - it still... Wait. What? I just - I can't see out of it - oh gods." He blinked rapidly, new tears forming.

"I'm - are you sure?"

He looked over to Illiiya, still shaken. "Uh. Aye, he did - quite a gentleman, I suppose, in his way. He, um, we spoke of swordsmanship and honour, a bit - and he made it clear that if we go back there, this time we all die."

[-Sentinel-]

"I'm - are you sure?"

Pieter breathed in through his teeth when he saw the full extent of the Nurglings' damage. "Quite sure. The eye's lost. I'm afraid I'll have to remove what's left of it to prevent infection. Do keep talking, you won't be in a more comfortable state after I'm done."

While Lothar spoke, the initiate cleaned and bandaged the soldier's less grievous injuries. He drew upon his informal training under old Doc Keitel, in Nuln, during his teenage years; but unlike Keitel, he was sober.

"Uh. Aye, he did - quite a gentleman, I suppose, in his way. He, um, we spoke of swordsmanship and honour, a bit - and he made it clear that if we go back there, this time we all die."

"So it can think, then... I wonder how honorable it feels about cutting down people from behind as they flee." Pieter let out a short, bitter laugh: "So if we go back there, the rotting knight will give us none of the generous mercy it showed the first time around? Duly noted. I'm just glad to know it won't attack the village."

He was beginning to wonder if his theory that the doctor commanded the knight held any water. The letter, he reminded himself. How did the knight know about the letter? Thoughtful, he knelt by the fireplace and turned the blade of his knife in the remaining embers; Shallyans held that fire was the best weapon against the Fly Lord's daemons of disease and infection. He took all his time, not relishing what he was about to do.

"Remember the banner inside the barrow?" he said. "According to Talberg, that's the banner of the Knights Panther company that Anhame, Esther's late suitor, was part of. I don't know if it means anything... Could be some coincidence. We know Anhame never came back alive."

[goblinpaladin]

Lothar struggled out of his soaked, torn, bloody shirt. He shrugged off a tattered riding cloak and managed to get his battered chain shirt over his body. He winced as he did, grasping his side and grimacing.

The soldier looked in well-enough shape for a man left for dead, beaten and bloodied, the veteran of a war against Chaos. Hairy, certainly, and probably not as toned as one'd expect (not having to do drills anymore will do that to a man). His naked left arm looked nobblier than it ought, evidence of a once-broken bone that was still healing.

The tear in the deserter's side looked nasty, long and shallow and coated in mud, but it was nothing Pieter hadn't seen before. A needle and thread would suffice, and the soldier would eventually have another pale scar.

"Quite sure. The eye's lost. I'm afraid I'll have to remove what's left of it to prevent infection. Do keep talking, you won't be in a more comfortable state after I'm done."

"Uh. I'm." Lothar blinked, licked his lips. "Alright. I'm not gonna promise I won't scream like a baby, though. That sounds plenty painful, an' you're no surgeon, an' I'm no Kislevite, all walkin' on burning coals and bare-chested in winter an' the like."

"I'm just glad to know it won't attack the village."

Lothar shook his head, then flinched. "I didn' say that. He said he had 'unfinished business' here. He just let me go 'cause he - uh, I suppose he respected my sword? He said he hadn't promised anyone he'd kill a soldier."

There was an intake of breath as Pieter's cleaning hands reopened a scab.

"He did say somethin' about the Panthers that came here. Good men who died in pain, stuff like that. He could've been one, I suppose - he had the right accent, and he fights like a nob."

Lothar shrugged, watching Pieter's knife glowing brighter and brighter. He chewed his lip and his hands were busy with the copper Sigmarite ring he wore.

"Didn't say anythin' about Lady Verloren, but."

[-Sentinel-]

"Uh. I'm." Lothar blinked, licked his lips. "Alright. I'm not gonna promise I won't scream like a baby, though. That sounds plenty painful, an' you're no surgeon, an' I'm no Kislevite, all walkin' on burning coals and bare-chested in winter an' the like."

"Of course it'll be painful." Even an inveterate liar like Pieter would never stoop to the level of any doctor who promised it would not hurt. "You should take off your belt and bite on it. Don't worry about that stoic dignity of yours; you'll lose it no matter how hard you fight."

"I didn' say that. He said he had 'unfinished business' here. He just let me go 'cause he - uh, I suppose he respected my sword? He said he hadn't promised anyone he'd kill a soldier."

Pieter let out a grunt. "Wasn't clearer than that? I've been trying to figure out what it wants. As long as we don't know, there's no way to predict what it'll do next." He removed his blade from the embers and turned to Lothar. "Lie down on a table and tell me when you're ready. Well, as ready as you'll ever be."

[Exeson]

Ithelus stands to the side of the room with an expression of worry on his face. 'Pieter are you sure you know what you are doing? I mean removing an eye, that's more likely to kill him.'

The elf pauses to look at Illiiya, 'Although as you say he might most likely die anyway...'

[BloodyAngel]

Illiiya Jaelrae

No, he won't. Was Illiiya's firm reply. The goddess would not spare him and return him only to snatch him away again.

But the Lord of Flies would.

Illiiya shook her head, a severe expression crossing her face.

He won't. She stated again, though it was less clear whom she was speaking to this time, I have faith.

And with an odd look of defiance, Illiiya sat beside Lothar, threading her fingers through his. She would be there with him, as he was for her once, not so long ago in Delberz.

[goblinpaladin]

Lothar unhooked his belt, clamping his teeth into the leather. "Right then. 'S gonna frngsbnb 'rt."

He lay on his back, his swordsman hands gripping Illiiya's in a death grip. Between his clenched teeth, he seemed to be uttering a ritual prayer of some sort.

Or swearing.

Probably swearing.

[LCP]

The knife took longer to heat than Pieter would have assumed. When its edges were glowing red, flecks of dirt dancing on the old iron, he looked over to Ithelus, and nodded.

The elf took hold of Lothar's head, holding it tightly – uncomfortably tightly, it looked to Pieter. Then again, if Lothar was feeling half as nervous as Pieter was, one could hardly expect him to look comfortable...

~

Outside the inn, a pair of villagers were on their way to the mill. A small child was talking to her mother, and an old man had just emerged from the door of a silent, dark-windowed cottage carrying a battered old tin of paint. On the chimney of the Heartless Man, a pair of ragged crows had found a perch, preening their feathers with an idle sort of air.

The screams came up the chimney first. Squawking in panicked surprise, the two birds whirred away into the forest. The two men on their way to the mill made the sign of the hammer over their hearts, and little girl stood and stared with an open mouth. Her mother covered her ears and ushered her inside.

~

A door at the back of the inn flew open. Stumbling through, Hanna Hofstadter blinked disbelievingly at the grisly scene laid out on her table. Pieter was wiping a steaming knife over a bowl, while on the table the tense figure of the soldier had collapsed in the arms of the two elves.

“What on earth...” she began, but she had no more words. She blinked again, looking at Lothar in dumbfounded confusion.

“Weren't he dead?”

OOC:

Spoiler

Show

First GM post in 20 posts! Yaaaaaaaay



Don't feel you have to stop dead for Mrs Hofstadter here; she will soon come around to the fact that Lothar is not dead. Obviously it would be nice if you replied to her, but after that you can feel free to skip ahead to conversations among yourselves.

Lothar is also not insensible for any significant length of time, so Brenton, you can join the party whenever you feel like it. After his experiences in the woods Lothar might have some strong feelings about appropriate responses to the current situation.

You guys are pretty much at a loose end at the moment, so if you want to discuss what to do next now is the perfect time. We all know the limitations of PBP back-and-forth, so I recommend using the OOC as well as the IC and making big, all-inclusive posts as opposed to short back-and-forth replies.

If/when you're done, shout at me to make time move on and it will.

[-Sentinel-]

Pieter cleaned the edges of Lothar's empty eye socket with a rag, eliciting more muffled screams from the soldier, and let out a breath. That had gone... better than he'd hoped, he supposed, wiping his still-hot dagger against the rag and sheathing it. Only time would tell if he had done it right. Absent-mindedly, he put Lothar's bloody, deflated eyeball on the table for later disposal.

"If there's no infection, he'll be alright," he assured Illiiya, carefully watching Ithelus's reaction from the corner of his eye. He turned to Mrs Hofstadter and inclined his head. "Good morning. Lothar just came back from the woods. Sorry about the mess on the table, we'll clean it up."

The initiate caught a sudden movement at the edge of his vision. He turned just in time to see Mr Cat pounce on the eyeball lying on the table and gulp it down ravenously. "...Ewww," he muttered. Well, at least they were rid of it. Hopefully the furry little monster would not develop a taste for human flesh.

He walked over to Lothar's discarded clothes and picked up the tattered, muddy dark-green cloak. His eyes were narrowed and thoughtful.

"Lothar. How'd you get this?" he asked, far from sure the soldier was in any state to hear him, let alone answer.

[BloodyAngel]

Illiiya Jaelrae

Illiiya couldn't watch the procedure. Though she refused to release his hand or leave his side, she could not bear to turn her head and see. It wasn't the sight that struck her so... it was who was under the knife. She spent most of the time desperately trying to will her ears shut so she needed not to hear. She scarcely noticed someone else had entered the room.

What? She mumbled, her face seeming paler than usual, as she comfortingly stroked her man's back, No. Not dead. I bled for the goddess... and she spared him...