Rana - The sensation of drowning is all consuming. Watching the brown water run out of my mouth was horrifying and a relief at once. Danin was standing over me, his chest heaving with great effort. It took me a while to compose myself after my fall and near drowning. Hubris I think it is called. Vanity and pride in its worst form. Guilt and shame turned my face hot. I had nearly drown Danin when he dove in after me. The torrent of water tossing us both. Somehow even as I pawed at him, pushing myself upward for air knowingly shoving him under. He managed to right himself and carry us both to shore.
Since my birth I have never owed anyone my life. Now this stoic gentile dwarf had risked everything to save me. I cannot fathom the life debit I owe him. Is this how it is with soldiers?
We took some time to rest and eat in an old Dwarven roadside shelter. I think it was built from leftover mining materials. A squad of Bluecoats joined us for a bit under the stone shelter before continuing home to Hlofreden. The rain had been dogging us since late morning. If my instincts were correct, we would not soon be rid of this storm.
I had been covered in mud from the morning's journey. My accidental entry into the river had the inadvertent benefit of washing away some of the caked on mud. Floki insisted on making light of my recent peril. I suppose it is his way of avoiding facing the reality of nearly losing a twin. I know he cares deeply for me, but he seems to want to turn everything into a competition.
Recovered from my incident we returned to the road and the rain. Perhaps it was the soaking rain and the biting chill. Whatever the case, I didn’t see the creature the others were pointing out. It wasn’t until we had passed through the eye of a needle into what Raenir called the Ethereal Plane that I got a look at it. We would later learn he was a homunculus. A creature created by wizards to serve their every whim. This one called himself Tanenfaux. At a little over two feet tall and wrapped in a muddy scarf and tiny shoes he looked pathetic like an orphaned street beggar child. His features or lack-there-of were arresting.
We had followed him to the Kellas House, a roadside inn halfway between Dowery and Hlofreden. In this new reality travel was different and the structures we had assumed were solid were as campfire smoke.
Chasing Tanenfaux into the courtyard of the inn, we were greeted with sights and sounds beyond my experience. I had been in this very place, but a week ago. Now I was seeing it in a whole new light. Tanenfaux introduced himself as servant to his mistress, a lady solder named E’sVa’tou. His introduction helped to disarm a number of Tengu that were guarding the inn. The assembly of parts that formed these creatures was beyond my ability to comprehend, but a greater abomination still awaited us in the upstairs bedroom.
E’sVa’tou told us a wild tale of mercenaries forging deep into a place called the Osterman Flatts. There they encountered a skeletal horsemen with a cursed black blade. The woman’s chest bore the scares of that encounter as wounds that would not heal. Our empathy has been pricked from its slumber. Even Sig who is more calculating than feeling seemed moved.
During our conversation Raenir became lost in his books once more. Minutes later he closed the pages of his book and look upon us with the pallor of the dead. He made a pleasant farewell and excused the lot of us from her presence. Once outside his staccato phrases unpunctuated verse made my head swim. The gist of his discourse was that something did not square with her story.
Armed with this information, Bròmm marched upstairs to confront the woman. By the time I returned to the room we were facing a new situation, again well beyond my minds ability to reason through. The woman was still there, but in place of the bed was her massive snake-like lower body. Gone where her expensive cloths and crafted armor. I reached for my blade feeling my hand tremble. I noted that none else had drawn their weapons and was relieved to not draw my own.
What I learned was that we were going to aid her in exchange for information. Something about a location in the Flats that would earn us great riches. Despite my instincts to the contrary, we were speeding toward Dowery to find this creature a cure for her cursed wounds.
In my life I had never been to Dowery. Now I was going to find myself there twice in as many weeks.