Age of Ruin IC: When all your friends are dead

[Lycar]

(Of course you didn't, you were too buisy looting their corpses....)

Akim keeps a neutral face as he talks to Livinia.

"In that case you might want to ask Sir Krashnix about this."

Then he starts heading back for the inn.


Lycar

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Hearing what Akim just said, Krashnix answers Livina as they walk back towards the inn.

It may be true that some of the priests at my temple may be able to raise your companions, but as i told Akim, we care clerics of dream and fire, not of life and death, so there is no guarantee that such a task would be successful. The expense is also something to take into account. Raising the dead back to life is no easy feat. Expensive materials are required for the rituals involved so even if it were possible you may not have the money for the materials.

A small smile comes to his lips.

I shall of course tell my superiors about your cause and try to get a reduction in the service they might charge. Your friends were killed in a horrible manner and as such they should be brourght back if possible.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina
Livina shrugs, absently. She's obviously used up all her listening for the moment. Taking care not to lag behind the group, the Mokai acrobat returns back to the ruins of the Cauldron.

[Ozzy_G]

After about ten minutes walk, you arrive back at the wrecked tavern to find Rhebin still guarding the corpses, and talking to the old wizard you saw earlier. He turns to you as you arrive. Ah, hello, did you find that spy? Has Ruthan gone back to the guild?

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina winces at the question and rushes past the wizard silently until she stands before Rhebin.
"Hey, Rhebin? Do you happen to know how much it costs to get people raised from the dead?"

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnix walks up to the wizard, his expression sorrowful

Ruthan is the name of the wizard that came with us yes? I'm afraid that I'm the bearer of bad news. While we were investigating the alley way where Orin was last seen we heard a scream comming from a nearby door. We found this woman he gestures towards Livina hanging upsidedown from the ceiling, having obviously been tortured. Ruthan tried to cast a spell to detect anyone who was inside the room, but before he was able to complete it Orin materialised in front of him and murdered him. It appears that he was a Davethran spy, trying to extract information about who Livina was sent by. He is currently at the guild awating questioning. Im sorry for your loss.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina
Livina winces as Krashnix's part of the conversation drifts across the ruined in.
I wasn't going to bring up the torture part around Rhebin...

[Ozzy_G]

The old man stares at you in horror. No, it can't be true! He was only a year away from being made a full wizard... he slumps on the ground, raising his hands in front of him, and starts to quietly weep.

[GryffonDurime]

Rhebin

Rhebin jumps to his feet literally, jittering and nervous and genuinly concerned.

"Are...did he...are you alright, Livina? I mean, I thought you were gone an awfully long time but I just thought you got lost and...what kind of wizards is this place teaching?" Rhebin asks, turning to the wizard, his tone verging on paranoid accusation.

[Ozzy_G]

The man jumps to his feet, his old face bright red. What's that supposed to mean? My apprentice is ****ing dead! Don't you care? Maybe because he's not a Zhan is it? You ****ing Zhan, you're all the same, you think just because you're so bloody mysterious you're better than everyone else?

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina
Livina's mouth hardens to a line, and she kicks Rhebin lightly in the shin.
"Arguments later!" she shouts. She turns to face the wizard, weariness plain in her brown eyes.
"I'm really sorry he's dead...he was only trying to help, I think. The man was invisible, but when he saw there was a wizard..." She looks down for a moment. "He went right for his throat. It would have been the same for whoever got stabbed first."
The small Mokai woman raises her head again, looking at the evening sky overhead through the blasted remains of the roof.
"Right now," she continues, "I just want to get our friends somewhere safe and cold until we work things out." She deflates a little. "And then I want a hot bath, and somewhere safe to sleep." Her voice cracks as she finishes the sentence, and she stops. Passing both hands wearily across her smudged face, Livina stands still and silent for a second or two.
Finally, she lifts her head and looks at the wizard, her tone a little firmer. "Look, I'm sorry to be trouble and all that, but can you tell me where I can find a mortician? Someone who can care for these bodies," she indicates where the stiff forms of Ismal, Draven and the rest lay, "At least until morning?"

[Ozzy_G]

He stares at her numbly. There's a gnome who lives down that street, he says pointing, who does that kind of stuff. He turns away, and starts walking down the street. I'm going to go and see Ruthan, he mutters.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lighfoot
The slight Mokai woman nods, a determined set to her face.
"Rhebin..." she says, with a surprising firmness, "Stay here just a little while longer, Okay?" She stalks over to Krashnix, and grabs him by the arm. "I'm not going unescorted this time." Goal in mind, she begins stalking towards the ruined doorframe, heading for the direction the wizard pointed, dragging the armored read-beard behind her, if necessary.

[Brickwall]

Kizima

Kizima is silent for most of the time (though she seems a little too amused at Livina's treatment of Orin's unconcious body). As the two other adventurers go off to find the mortician, she stays with the guards near Orin.

"You're sending him to a prison, right? Not to sound cruel, but not restraint is too much, no restriction too unreasonable for him. Handcuffs, a gag, and solitary confinement should be enough, but he always seems to have more tricks."

With that, she stares at Rhebin intently.

"So you're the only other survivor I can talk to right now. Any idea what happened here?"

[GryffonDurime]

Rhebin

"No. We were just sent here looking for that Orin kid, and then the demon-worshiping fellow just had to explode, I suppose, right in the middle of the tavern. This whole thing--the dopplegangers, the black fire...it's too much," Rhebin says dejectedly with a sigh, empathically reaching out for Aidan to return.

"A good friend of mine once told me that the best things life gives you are the things you least expect," he says, voice quivering a little but then strengthening, full of confused serenity, "but I just don't see how this--" he motions toward the corpses of his friends, "--is the best of life. Don't even know what to do or where I'm going. Have you ever felt like that? Just...adrift, I guess?"

[Ozzy_G]

The guards reply to Kizima before leaving.
The wizards won't be tying him up. They'll take control of his mind, and probably send him back to try and kill his master, Ravan Zere.

[Lycar]

Akim remains silent for the most part. All he has to remark is:

"Sir Krashnix ? How do we go about getting my companions to your temple ? If you should find yourself too buisy to accompany me, would you be so kind to, oh, maybe write a letter of recommendation ?"

Lycar

[Regwon]

Krashnix

As Livina drags him out of the remains of the door door, Krashnix has time to look back at Akim and say,

Could you acquire a cart perhaps? I will travel with you to the temple, as soon as we have found a mortician

With that, Livina, and a slightly ruffled Krashnix, leave the ruins of the inn and head off down the street.

[Brickwall]

Kizima

"Fine, but if he comes back to kill any of us, we'll know who to blame. Now maybe if you were to do both, there'd be no problem."

She then turns to Rhebin.

"In some way, yes. I honestly have very little idea of what's going on, and am mostly just getting swept up in things. All my friends seemed to know more about the overarching quest to save the universe, but now it seems that I'm among all the others who are lost."

[Ozzy_G]

Livina and Krashnix head off down the street, and soon reach a single-story building, painted black (though the paint is faded and cracked) with a small skull nailed above the door, a child's skull you initially think, but it's too alien, the skull is overlarge and the nostrils oddly angled. Probably a gnome skull.
To the left of the door, a sign reads "Mortician, autopsies, corpse disposal, etc, etc."
On the right is a sign in Gnomish, which appears to be much longer, though this may be quite deceptive as Gnomish is a language with quite long words anyway.

[Lycar]

And so, Akim remains to stand guard over the remains of Sir Nulliop and Sir Kesh.

"*sigh*"

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina
Still operating on whatever fires of determination have kept her going this far, Livina opens the door and walks inside.

[Ozzy_G]

Krashnix and Livina walk into a badly-lit room, with coffins on one side and strange tools on the other, with stuffed, preserved animals hanging above. A bell rings as they walk in, and a grey-skinned, extremely short bald man walks out of a door at the back and sits up behind a desk; a gnome. Hello, what can I do for you? His voice is dusty as a grave.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina falters at the doorstep for a moment, looking with somewhat wide eyes at the pallid gray creature before her. It was the first time she'd actually seen a gnome before, and his appearance, combined with the macabre nature of his shop, apparently has unnerved her into silence.

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Gnomes are to morbid for my tastes, and this place is far to eerie for my liking. Let us finish our business here quickly.

He waits for a few seconds for Livina to reply to the gnome but when she does not he replies instead.

Greetings sir Gnome. There has been an incident at the Bronze Cauldron, no doubt you have heard of the place. There was an explosion and the inn was destroyed. Tragically many people died, including friends of my companion here, so we would like to hire your services to take care of their bodies.

[Ozzy_G]

The creature nods, trying to look sympathetic, but not really succeeding. It's just regular business for him. What do you want me to do with them exactly? I can prepare them for a funeral, I can stuff them, I can stitch them back together if you can afford to have them resurrected, I can preserve them to be taken across country if you want to bury them in their hometowns, I can get coffins for them, or we can cremate them.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Having recovered her composure, Livina answers,
"We need them preserved until we can get them ressurected, but I don't know how long that will take. Is there a cold room or something? To keep them from going all runny?"

[Ozzy_G]

The gnome nods. Yes, in the back, would you like to see it?

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina
Livina bites her lip. "As long as there isn't anyone too...messy in there already, okay."
She prepares to follow the short, yet somehow menacing gnome.

[Ozzy_G]

No, no, he says, waving his stubby arms reassuringly. You note that his black robe is spattered with old dry blood. He leads you through the back door into a short landing with three other doors leading off, and opens the backmost of these. A wave of cold wafts out at you. You see a stone room full of ice, though you cannot see what causes the cold. There are several black boxes, large enough for bodies. Look, he says, walking across to a smaller box, and opening it. Inside is another gnome. At first, you think she is asleep, so well-preserved is the corpse, but the lack of breathing gives it away. My wife's been here ten years, she's still lovely and fresh. I'm hoping to raise the money to have her reanimated, there's a guy up in Sural that does them.