Prologue: The Barony of Harkenwold

Yorenan shrugs and says, "Ara is a creature of order. She'll be happy with whatever outcome doesn't rock the boat too much. I'm more worried about the regular Moondancers. They haven't charged the cabin yet but I don't trust the situation to hold forever. We've already had Zoras threaten us more than once if we don't hand over Hush."

"Wait, her name is Hush?" asks a confused Zoe.

"No, that's just the stupid nickname that Yorenan gave her. She's refused to tell us who she is or where she came from," says Bjark.

"Hey, I've gotten her to give me a few details about the attack, we just ran out of paper, remember? I'm telling you, we are building a rapport."

Hunter raises an eyebrow at Kathryn. "I think Zoras is backing down for now. He won't trample over a Fey knight's investigation."

He hands over a couple blank sheets of parchment. "Show us what you've got, please."

"Don't underestimate Zoras. He has a stubborn streak a mile wide and a reputation for getting things he deems necessary done. But sure, I can show you what she's written." He pulls a scroll case off of his belt and carefully opens it, and then pulls out all of the rolled up paper inside, before handing them over to Hunter.

Assuming Hunter passes the sheets around so everyone can have a look, you guys see there are ten sheets total. The largest writing on each sheet is neat, uniform, and beautiful, the work of someone who has spent long hours practicing their calligraphy. It's clearly Elven, but for those of you who speak and read it, it feels archaic and there are words and expressions that make no sense to you, given the missing cultural context. It seems to be a general description of the battle from Hush's point-of-view and questions about Yorenan. As you move through the sheets, her handwriting becomes faster, less controlled, and the general tone is frustration and confusion.

The smallest handwriting is functional, but neat, the work of a fighting man not use to writing letters or having to express himself through the written word but who, nonetheless, applies himself with the maximum effort in all things that he does. His attempts to translate Hush's writing are in the spaces and margins around her own writing, and his tone is friendly and his questions direct.

As for the summary of what it says, Yorenan himself breaks it down for everyone. "I started out by introducing myself. She expressed shock at my being the leader but ultimately had no problem with that. She asked me a few personal questions which I chose to answer so I could build some rapport with her. Nothing serious. Just why we attacked and what we do. She seemed to understand the gist of it. My instincts tell me she's had training similar to ours Hunter, though I can't point to any one specific thing that tells me so."  

"Uh huh," says a skeptical Bjark.

"I've been a Ranger a lot longer than you have Bjark. I'm telling you, she's a trained scout. Anyway, I asked her what her name was and she refused to say. I then asked her what city she was from and she refused to say. I then asked why she was at the battle and she wrote 'because a demon's asshole you killed made me come.' When I followed up on that for more specifics she said it didn't matter anymore, she's not going back and never wants to think about her again.

I then asked her why they took the kids in the first place. She said she didn't ask and wouldn't have been told even if she did. I don't think she was being honest with me on that one. It was the first time she lost her composure with me and it ended my first attempt at an interview.

My second attempt didn't go much better I'm afraid. While I got her to open up a little bit about archery, she refused to answer any questions about her role in the drow battle group or why they took the children. You can see her handwriting isn't as neat there near the end. She was pretty upset with me by then."

"She threw ink bottle at you," says Eira, talking for the first time. Her accent isn't as thick as her brother's, but her mastery of the language isn't perfect.

"That she did. She even tried to yell at me. It was more sad than anything. That's when it really hit her that her voice was gone and she had spilled ink on the rest of the paper besides. We've only been able to communicate with gestures since. She apologized though. I admit, I wasn't expecting that."

"Not knockin', but why d'ya need to write? Not like she went deaf as well."

"I don't. And I wasn't going to. But what you can't read there is the first part of our interview, where we confirmed that she couldn't talk and I sat with her while she processed that. She was upset and alone and refused to look at me, like I'd judge her or worse if I saw how she really felt about it. The part where I introduce myself is where the first page actually begins. I should have started at the top, but I wasn't really thinking when I did that. I just pulled out the paper, pen, and ink and started writing. Unexpectedly she ended up responding to it so I just went with it.

I guess...I guess I just wanted to show her she wasn't alone."

Everyone can take a sheet when Hunter is done, but they're free to read over his shoulder, he doesn't mind.

He starts taking notes now, and shakes his head. "Like we'd consider it a weakness? Well, we have fresh paper now. That should help her and us communicate better. I just hope she sees that this will go a lot better for all of us if she would just tell the truth. Do you think they might have taken the kids for a reason besides ritual sacrifice?"

"I didn't before you just asked that. What's going on here that I don't know about?"

Hunter's eyebrows jump. Really? Has there been no communication at all? Wouldn't Folan have grown up on scary stories about the dark elves who come from underground and steal naughty children? Damn, and he tipped his hand, too.

The former guard sighs. "I really wanted to get your side of this first before we compared notes," he says, in what may sound like a weak or defeated attempt to convince his master by garnering sympathy.

Charisma 3

Kathryn facepalms at Hunter's mistake. She shakes her head and then says to Yorenan, "Please forget he said anything, or we might get in trouble. Real trouble."

Carlos sighs as well - "What she said."

The wheels are turning on Yorenan's face and he finally says, "Ara, right? You've been here for what, an hour, an hour and a half tops? And you are already caught up in Harken's Heart bullshit? Did you listen to anything I taught you about them Hunter?"

At this, Hunter's tail leaps. "It's not like I could just plug my ears if we were going to investigate properly! And this isn't even the beginning of me getting caught up in it! You can blame Ludmilla for that, who--"

He stops himself, and brings it back down to a hoarse whisper: "Who, by the way, will be walking with a third leg for the rest of her life, and would have died without our help!"

Kathryn stares incredulously at Hunter's outburst. She stands still for a moment—probably to recover from the shock—before she decides to walk up to her friend's side and lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. When he looks back at her, she will gently shake her head, letting him know he shouldn't speak like that to Yorenan.

Carlos re-sighs - "Bullshit or no, the problem here seems pretty clear-cut, oi. What we do about Ms Hush and how we defuse this situation."

Seeing Kathryn shake her head, Hunter again bitterly looks away from her. He can't even.

The twins Eric and Elric both have their mouths open in surprise, Bjark has moved his hands to the hilt of the greatsword at his back, and Eira has put her hand to the sword at her waist. Yorenan grits his teeth and the anger is obvious on his face, but otherwise he's made no movement himself. The anger there is scary, and Hunter knows it's the last thing many an enemy has ever seen before Yorenan slew them. His mentor seems to realize what he's doing quickly, and turns his face away to compose himself. After several moments of heavy breathing, he finally says, "What do you mean Ludmilla walks with three legs and that you saved her? Tell me what's happened."

Bjark and Eira settle down again and the tension greatly lessens in the room.

Hunter almost instantly regrets snapping back like he did. He leans back on one foot, surprised to be on the receiving end of this level of intensity from his mentor.

He takes a slow, steady breath when Yorenan comes down from it. "I met with her before we passed through the woods. I wanted us to have a Harkenwold ranger to pass through safely, and she needed some bodies to help her route the gnolls at Eyton's Grove. So we agreed to help each other..."

Hunter tells them everything: meeting Allinandra and Nesme, routing the gnolls, Liam and the children, leaving Ludmilla outside with Nesme, the deal they made with the Lady of the White Well, routing the clansmen sent to kill them off, Nesme ambushing Ludmilla and leaving her for dead, and finally Nesme's true nature (dead, her skin being worn by a lamia who took her place). And that Nesme was able to do all this because they carried around a pendant she gave them that she enchanted to carry their conversations to her, and they weren't wary of her because Hunter didn't warn them about the Harken's Heart circle.

He adds in the part about Kathryn swearing an oath to the archfey Eninahes.

"And that wasn't even a week ago? Damn." Yorenan strokes his chin, which subsequently runs his right index finger through his beard. "How do you plan to deal with Nesme then? And why would she want Dianne's finger?"

"I don't know about the finger," the Nord woman says, "but we're planning to reveal Nesme's true nature to the other elves if possible. We'll need to find the kind of magic that can do something like that first. If that's impossible... I guess we'll fight Nesme to the death?"

"Either way, we gotta get things settled here before we can start thinking of fixin' them over there."

"Right, right, that can wait. But we still have a pickle here. I still believe your promise to keep Ara's secret was rash but if you swear to me Hunter, that this promise will be no danger to any of us or anyone in my care, I'll let the matter drop and we can get on with it."

"Then that's good enough for me. Do you guys have any questions for us or will you speak to Hush now?"