Aftermath Of The Tragedy

 Realizing the horrific nature of the tragedy that they have happened upon, no one can speak for what seems like an age.

Darius comes to for a few seconds and starts mumbling incoherently, but soon slips back into unconsciousness.

Corrow, who only saw the closing stages of the combat, can hardly believe what he has witnessed:

"What the hell do you think you're doing down here? The goblins had a hostage, so you thought you'd just duke it out with them? Oh, forgive me, maybe it's not your fault. Maybe you put Darius in charge, did you? And you all stand back while Darius gets killed in a personal duel with the bad guys? I can't believe it. You all make me sick."

With that, he punches the wall in frustration, and makes to storms out.

Winnacer grabs his arm as Corrow brushes past:

Winnacer looks him straight in the eyes, laden with disgust, "If you wish, we will talk later." His eyes drift to the gnomish mistress. "Your words are not appreciated right now."

Corrow tugs himself free of Winnacer's grip on his arm and carries on out.

Yaz is the next to show his fury:

"F***ers," ythey hear him whisper under his breath, "F***ers."

He turns down to the goblin and, knuckles white with intensity, still and firm as stone, a magic aura radiating faintly about them from adrenaline and from the flow of Prirodna's energy in strength he had never felt before, he lays his hands on Darius' chest and heals him.

Darius comes round. He is out of danger and conscious, although still very weak.

Felibarr is groaning in pain as he tries to stop the blood seeping from the large gash in his arm. However, as soon as he sees the gnome he simply stares at her, before he slumps down on the ground, holds his head in his hands and starts to weep uncontrollably.

'It's my fault' he says between his sobs. 'It's all my fault. How can I have let this happen? How can I be responsible for such a tragedy?'

He shakes his head and carries on weeping openly.

Yaz looks back at the group, and walks slowly over to the halfling, stopping in front of him. He stares him in the eye for several seconds, intent on smiting him with a firey bolt from his pupils. Without moving his gaze, he reaches to his boot and pulls out a dagger. He pauses, the blade lying flat across his fingers. He then passes it to Felibarr, pommel first.

"Do you want to do it, or shall I?"

He holds him in his stare a few seconds longer, then breaks with a toss of his head and brushes past him in a rush.

Felibarr takes the blade and stares at it. His hand starts to shake and he rips the leather covering his breast away from him. He turns the blade inwards, his hand shaking even more. But then he tosses it to the ground.

'No - to bring a swift death upon myself would be the easy way out. To live the rest of my life atoning for my sins, with the memory of this day never leaving my mind will bring me far more pain.'

Yaz runs frantically out of the hole into the outside air, drawing his club as he does so. "F***ERS!" he screams at the universe, to all and to no one. Seconds later, the others hear the goblin's gong being beaten repeatedly, frantically, spasmodically, relentlessly. "F***ers!" he screams, "Cowards! Fight the real enemy! Kill children, will you? Rape the innocent will you? Come! Fight!! I will fight you! I will take you! Mother pusbucket vermin scum! Babies... Trees... My own, little children..."

Numb with horror at the sight of the poor gnome, Jihan looks at both her and the severely wounded form of Darius.

On his way by, he pats Felibarr on the shoulder, but cannot look at him. Hardly noticing the carnage at all, tears fill his eyes as he slowly approaches the tortured woman, attempting to speak soothingly in broken gnomish, though what consolation he could possibly give, he cannot imagine. The gnome does not give any resistance as Jihan gently takes the slain infant from her and cradles it in his arms.

Now heavy tears stream down his face, and he chokes down a terribly aching lump in his throat. Wrapping the baby up in his cloak, he looks into her eyes, and whispers an almost silent benediction. "Mercy, Lady, on your daughters..." he says, breaking off with an almost sob at the end.

Ideals tumbling at every step, he slowly walks out of the cave, taking the child to the nearest trees.

Her face pale, Maire' quickly walks over to the woman before she loses her nerve, and begins shouting out orders.

"Someone get a fire started and get some water ta boilin. I also be needin me pack from tha wagon and a spare blanket!"

"An someone be findin her some decent clothes!"

Xavier, who has been too shocked to speak, attends to Maire's requests, immediately leaving the grotto entrance in order to search for firewood.

Ignoring the others, she gathers the woman in her arms and sees to the removal of her bonds; brushing back her hair much like she would a child. What she murmurs to the woman as she tends to the small minor wounds is beyond anyone's hearing.

Winnacer suggests to Felibarr that the two of them go to relay the news to Heimlin. Felibarr, still weeping, simply nods and gets up from his position. As Winnacer strides purposely towards Heimlin's position, the halfling has to break into a trot in order to keep up with him. He presses his hand against the wound in order to stem the blood loss.

When Winnacer comes to Heimlin's position, he sees that the elderly gnome is frantic with worry, pacing up and down while talking to himself, trying to tell himself that everything is OK. As soon as he sees Winnacer, he rushes up to him.

'What 'appened? 'Ow's me boy an' 'is wife? Are they OK? And you an' yer colleagues? Are they OK too? You look injured? Nothin' terrible's 'appened as it? Everythin's OK isn't it? Tell me that everythin's OK.'

Then he notices that Felibarr is with him.

'What's 'e doin' wiv yer? What's the little bastard want? 'Asn't 'e done enough damage already?'

Winnacer lets Felibarr explain his story. He tells Heimlin exactly the same sad tale as he told to Winnacer earlier, although gets through the story a lot quicker, as he can see that Heimlin is impatient for more information about his family.

As Felibarr finishes, Heimlin is confused and cannot concentrate on passing judgment on the halfling.

'But...it don't matter does it? You killed all the Nyemetz that were outside the grotto, yes? They couldn't get in? An' yer've found the boy an' 'is wife 'idin' inside?'

Heimlin's eyes are glazed and he has a manic look on his face.

Winnacer puts his hand on Heimlin's shoulder in order to try and console him over the news that he is about to convey. He takes a deep breath and then tells Heimlin that the Nyemetz took his son and a number of other gnomes in the village and that his daughter-in-law is alive, but has endured horrific torture at the hands of the Nyemetz.

'Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo' screams Heimlin as he hears the news that he has been dreading for the past days.

Not waiting for Winnacer to finish telling him any more, he starts to run towards the grotto. Winnacer and Felibarr jog along behind him.

As he runs round the hill he sees the rest of the party in front of him.

'Bekkah!' he cries, as he sees his daughter-in-law.

He carries on running up to her until he stands in front of her where she sits, next to the fire, as Maire' tends to her wounds.

His face is ashen-white as he sees the horrific state that she is in.

'What 'ave they done to you, my darlin'' he says, trying to comprehend what has happened.

There is no sign of emotion or recognition from her as Heimlin stands before her.

'I don't know where the gems are…please don't hurt me'

Heimlin starts to weeps as he sees the sorry state of his beloved daughter-in-law. Everyone looks on silently, trying to control their emotions as they share Heimlin's pain.

Sobbing uncontrollably, Heimlin slowly moves towards his daughter-in-law. He sinks to his knees in front of her, and throws his arms around her.

'Bekkah' he sobs. 'How could anyone do this to you? Who could harm anyone as beautiful as you?'

For a moment, there is total silence, broken only by the sound of Heimlin crying as he carries on hugging her, rocking her back and forth.

Once again there is silence.

'And Yosef. What 'as become of 'im? Where 'ave they taken 'im?'

Heimlin is quiet for a moment, and then his mood changes totally from that of extreme melancholy to extreme anger.

He leaps to his knees and clenches his fists. He looks up and starts screaming with rage.

'DAMN YOU KAMEN! For all these years I've been loyal to you, never asking for anything in return 'til now. All I wanted from you was to protect my family. You took my wife from me, and now you've taken everything else that is precious to me in this life. DAMN YOU KAMEN! I DENOUNCE YOU FOR ETERNITY!

With this, he pulls his knife from its scabbard. He lifts up the hem of his cloak and slashes away at it. You look on to see a king's ransom of gems and precious stones - diamonds, rubies, emeralds, opals - spill out onto the ground.

As they form a heap on the floor, Heimlin kicks them away in disgust.

The anger quickly subsides, and the gnome falls to his knees again, starting to sob harder than ever. There is madness in his eyes.

Taking the dagger, he slashes his arm in frustration wildly, as if he were trying to exorcise the pain that he is feeling in his heart. He brings his hands up to his head again and starts to weep louder, oblivious to the trickle of blood running down his arm onto the lush grass below him.

Meanwhile…

Yaz discovers Jihan sitting on the ground amongst a small copse of trees. He sits rocking back and forth, the form of the babe swaddled in his arms, crooning softly in elvish. He remains thus for some time, hoping beyond hope that the child may have some life left in it, but his hopes feel hollow.

Yaz sits down next to Jihan and remains with him in silence. After a time, Yaz comforts Jihan, then gingerly takes the baby's form from him and buries it deep, marking the grave and remembering where it lies. Then he returns to the elf and mourns with him.

Seeing that there is little that he can do to comfort Heimlin in his current state, Winnacer seeks out Corrow, finding him sitting in the bush from where he viewed the entrance to the grotto.

In the calm manner that everyone has become used to hearing Winnacer use, he starts to speak to Corrow, criticizing him for his earlier outburst, which criticized his tactical methods. He also takes the opportunity to tell the man, who is nearly old enough to be his father, that he does not care for Corrow's sarcastic attitude when it comes to dealing with other members of the group.

Corrow is silent for a while, and then counters Winnacer's words. He is far from apologetic, pointing out more ways in which he believes both Winnacer and Darius have shown a lack of wisdom in the past.

For a moment, the two of them simply stare at each other, working out what each of them should do next.

The sun starts to set behind the hill, casting long shadows across the ground, as if the sun were also weeping.

Winnacer and Corrow carry on with their conversation for a while before they come to an understanding between the two of them. They apologize to each other, and put the argument to one side for the present.

Winnacer then asks for his help in removing the bodies and sorting through their equipment, making sure that they don't miss any magical items. "Just because we may not agree does not mean that we have to stop working together. And there is a lot of work to do, and many slaves needing to be freed."

Corrow agrees to his request. He takes the witchfinder's staff and proceeds to go around all of the slain in turn scanning for magic. Not surprisingly, there is nothing to be found upon any of the goblins, nor is there anything to be found upon the orc sargeant.

However, as Corrow points the rod over the butchered body of the shaman, it starts to give the familiar glow that indicates the presence of magick. The source of the magick is coming from the waist of the shaman. At first, Corrow thinks that it is emanating from the shaman's holy symbol, an ugly item that takes the form of a shrunken human skull fused to a shrunken bone, all plated in silver. However, upon closer investigation it is found to be coming from a small pouch on the shaman's belt.

Corrow opens the pouch and pulls out a very strange object. It appears to be two flat, round transparent gemstones linked to each other by wire.

'They appear to be some form of bi-focals' to me, says Corrow. 'Does one of us care to try them on?'

Darius puts the bi-focals on, finding that the fit is perfect, although they could just as easily be utilized by a human as a goblin. He puts them on and looks through them, but sees only a blur.

Darius quickly pulls them off again, fearing that he could have been blinded, but as soon as he does so and opens his eyes, his sight returns to normal.

He puts them on again, more confidently now. Everything is still a blur, until he brings his hand up to his eyes. As he looks at his hand, he can see that his view is magnified by an enormous extent. Each hair on the back of his hand is the size of a large tree, and his fingernails appear to him as if they are mountains.

He takes them off again, and holds them in his hands.

Darius turns to Corrow. "I need these not. You, you can use?" Darius hands over the glasses to Corrow after describing what they do, not wanting them at all.

Maire', practical as ever, has little sympathy for Heimlin's pointless act of self-mutilation:

She pats Bekkah's hands and then rounds on Heimlin, fire flashing in her green eyes, even though tears streak her face a bit.

Heimlin!! Bekkah needs ye! Put that dagger down and go find her some proper clothes after ye bind yer arm ya fool!!"

"Ye be all she have left to her and ye be tha only one who can heal her spirit!!" Maire' follows this with a slap to his face.

The slap brings the gnome out of his self-pity and he rushes to his feet.

'Sorry' he says confused 'Yer right lass, I gotta be strong. Let me see is I can find some of 'er things, an' a blanket to warm her.'

Heimlin rushes off. He emerges a couple of minutes later with a change of clothes for her and a blanket which Maire' wraps around Bekkah.

Winnacer enlists Felibarr's aid to search the bodies more thoroughly. He has somewhat recovered from his earlier state of grief, although is still extremely remorseful. It takes the pair of them a while, but they emerge with a total of 27pp, 12gp, 229sp and 9cp after going over all of the bodies. In addition to the coinage, there is also a large quantity of goblin-sized leather armor, shortswords and spears to be salvaged as well as the orc and shaman's weapons, their armor being totally destroyed in the combat.

'What should we do with the bodies, sir?' asks Felibarr of Winnacer. 'Their stench is already starting to permeate the air. It will take a few hours to bury their wretched bodies, unless all of us lend our hands to the task.'

'Burn them' is Winnacer's response.

All those not occupied in caring for Bekkah start to search the immediate area fro dead wood, which they pile in a valley between two of the hillocks. It takes over an hour to forage for a sufficient quantity of wood and to pile the bodies onto the pyre. Once all of the bodies are piled onto the pyre, Darius sets light to it. It takes a while for the fire to catch, but it is soon roaring away, filling everyone's nostrils with the pungent stench of burning flesh, a smell that gets them all feeling somewhat nauseous.

During the building of the pyre, Winnacer asks Felibarr more about the caravan of slaves:

'As I said before, ' the halfling starts 'the first company took them away. There were about a dozen gnomes clapped into irons. They were led off by the remaining goblins in the other company. The witchfinder went back with them too. They headed off due west, the way from whence they came, towards Dvur Kralovye. I would suppose that the gnomes' eventual destination is Kutna Hora - that's where they take all of the gnomes - to the silver mines there. The Nyemetz are trying to mine as much silver as they can as quickly as possible in order to fund the war with the Slovenes, so they need as many gnomes as they can get. They tend to leave the dwarves alone, although they're better miners. They don't want to cause too much unrest with the dwarves as they know they would be hard pressed if the dwarves were to start a rebellion. Gnomes are a much safer option. There are not so many of them left here any more, so they have little to fear from their retribution.'

'They would definitely stop off at Dvur Kralovye for a while first, however. The goblins were not prepared for a long march. They had no supplies of any kind with them, so they were obviously only here for the day. I don't think that they would trust goblins with a slave convoy anyhow. That's a job that they would give to orcs.'

Winnacer then asks him the location of the grotto where the other company of goblins came upon some resistance.

'It's over there,' Felibarr replies , pointing to the northwest with his hand. I didn't see quite where the entrance was from my position, but I guess that it must be on the other side of that hill about 400 yards from here.'

Winnacer thanks Felibarr for his assistance. Once the halfling is out of earshot, Winnacer asks Xavier to interrogate the goblin captive, asking him the same questions as Winnacer asked of Felibarr.

Xavier is happy to oblige. The goblin is quick to come up with answers in an attempt to save himself. His answers are identical to those of Felibarr, though less detailed. Once Xavier has all of the information that he requires, he uses 'The Justifier' to end the cowering goblin's life swiftly.

Darius is sad to see the goblin slaughtered, despite his part in the abominations of the day. He tells Xavier that he thinks that all captives should be given a fighting chance of survival.

Work continues through the evening. There is plenty to do. Maire' spends many hours tending to Bekkah's wounds. Maire' can see that she is succeeding in bringing relief to the gnome's body, but her actions are having little effect upon her mind, which is as tortured as before her healing efforts. Darius passes up the offer of assistance from Maire', telling her to spend all of her efforts on bringing some relief to the gnome. Maire' shakes her head at Darius' gallantry, telling him not to come crying back to her if he were to gain an infection as a result.

Jihan and Yaz are gone for much of the evening, discussing the situation in a copse of trees not far from the grotto.

Xavier picks up all of the gems that Heimlin tossed to the ground earlier. He leaves them in a small bag fro Heimlin, realizing that he will have great need of them later in order to go about the expensive business of re-building their shattered lives. He then goes over to the copse where the animals have been patiently standing and brings them to the grotto, tethering them to the bush on top of the hillock.

Once the task of burning the dead has been finished, they set about clearing the grotto. The grotto is in a terrible shape, as it has been well and truly defiled by the goblins, with graffiti all over the walls and hardly a single object in the entire place in one piece. They realize that it will be a mammoth task to completely clear the grotto, and so concentrate on clearing just the living room, so as to have some secure place to spend the night.

Heimlin is in a trance like state as he assists in the clearing of the room. Shortly before the exercise is finished, he breaks his silence:

'We'll 'ave to stay 'ere for the night, I suppose. But, this ain't no 'ome no more. It's got too many bad memories. I don't think that Bekkah will ever be right again with the memories of this tragedy all around 'er. We'll ave to find somewhere new to live as soon as possible, if Bekkah's ever goin' to get back to normal.'

Winnacer suggests the idea of moving to the twin liberated villages.

Heimlin nods at Winnacer's suggestion:

'I was thinkin' the same thoughts myself. They were good folk, the people of that village. I'd feel safe in their company. Good terrain for grottoes as well, low rollin' hills, with woodlands not far away in case we'd need to clear out of the grottoes in an 'urry. I wouldn't mind 'avin' a long chat with Kesryk as well. I'm sure that e'd be able to 'elp Bekkah get over 'er grief as well. I'm all in favor of it.'

Heimlin then seeks out Winnacer for a private talk.

By the time that all of the clearing is finished, it is after 10.00pm. All of them are feeling very tired after their exertions during this long day.

Before retiring for the evening, Winnacer speaks to Xavier:

"I believe we should inspect the grotto where the goblins met some resistance" he says pointing in the direction of the grotto identified earlier by Felibarr.

"Perhaps there are some survivors of this tragedy that need our assistance. Let you and I quickly inspect it."

'I think it's best if I come alongs with yer' says Heimlin. 'Although it's bin a while since I was 'ere last, I know most of the folks in the village. If anyone's still alive, then they'll probably be very wary of any strangers after the events of earlier today.'

Jihan and Darius also agree to come along with them.

Winnacer has some hesitation in bringing Darius along with them on the investigation.

Winnacer looks at Darius and says, "I appreciate your desire to help, but scared gnomes may have trouble seeing the goodness in your heart because of the lay of your skin. Let us not provoke any survivors more than we must, I implore you to stay behind for now."

Heimlin intervenes after seeing the sadness on Darius' face, seeing Winnacer reminding Darius of the fact that most folk consider his kind to be evil through and through.

'Let 'im come with us, Winnacer. If there's any trouble then e'd be a useful asset to 'ave with us. P'raps Darius can stay at the back in case 'is presence would upset any survivors that we may encounter.'