"What happened?" Mord asked directly, moving forward, and his face falling as he recognized the horribly hurt body of Dunmeal.  "Ah... no, no.  Little friend, what befell you while away from my protection."

The barbarian dropped to a crouch, taking a closer look at the body and other witnesses both.  "Did you know him too?  Seemed a good fellow to me - can't see who would want to do something like this to him.  He doesn't even have a weapon to defend himself!"

“I’m a healer,” Holly said as she moved to the body on the ground to see if she could do anything for poor Dunmeal. Checking for signs of life, Holly had a spell of healing prepared in case it was needed.

Mord spoke quietly, reaching out for Rakanishu.  "Rakanishu - can you revive our friend?  Or allow us to speak with him to find out what happened?  We should sit down and have a good talk about what you can do and what you can teach me, to save all this type of the same question to you."

“Back off Mord, this is my domain.” Holly says rather pointedly, not wanting anything to do with Mord’s new friend. She definitely doesn’t want to let it loose on a potentially dead body due to its previous links to the dark powers of the goblins.

Sirrot whispers to Ros "do you want to find out what is going on? YOU can show your face. I dare not."

It's true that Dunmeal has no weapon.  Mord remembers seeing a small but effective looking mace on the dwarf the last time they'd met.  It's nowhere to be seen now.  If there was a fight it either took place somewhere else and the weapon was left behind or his attackers made off with it.  The latter seems less likely to you.



The standing dwarf just shakes his head, scuffing his boot lightly against the dirty stone ground.  Initially, the kneeling dwarf shakes his head too, but at a moment when the standing dwarf glances away, the kneeling dwarf makes short eye contact with Mord and nods subtly twice.



The kneeling dwarf gets up and backs away, giving Holly room.  He brushes at the knees of his soft leather pantaloons.

Rakanishu screeches, babbles, cackles madly in response to Mord's question.


The scene reminds you of finding Tora after the goblin assassins attacked, but the wounds are much different.  It looks like a long beating with different weapons.  The final few blows were likely after Dunmeal was defenseless.  If this was a human he'd be irretrievably dead, but dwarves are famously tough, bordering on immortal.  It's worth giving your most powerful healing a try.

"I can help," Sunna says softly, but firmly, touching Holly's shoulder after she snaps at Mord.

Sunna moves to Dunmeal's other side, ready to cast a curing, not even imagining that Holly might have to resort to reincarnation again.

"I'm supposed to keep an eye on that exquisite face you can't show off," Ros whispers playfully.

"...but you're right.  Someone should see where they ran off to.  Promise you'll stay put?"

Ros makes her way gracefully down the stairs and slips off to find the others.

Sirrot replies "and stay hidden, yes."

Holly nods her thanks and quickly calms her mind. There may be a chance and Holly is willing to use it. Casting aside reincarnation Holly places her gods energy into healing the wounds of Dunmeal.

[Holly casts Cure Serious Wounds by using Reincarnation spell. Rolled total of 24 on 3d8+8.]

Mord held up an apologetic hand towards Holly, chuckled at the egg's sense of humour.  "Oh, of course do what you can, Holly.  I had thought he was beyond, but if you can save him, please do.

"Now, Rak, I cannot do things such as that.  I said talking.  You do much talking for a small tree egg.  There are many tales of those passing across, but reaching back to tell about who killed them, or where their buried treasure was hidden - tales like that.  That sounds very magically a thing to me.  You seem a smart egg, so it made sense that you could do things such as it.  If I have thought to much of you, certainly not meant to offend.  What is life without challenge, little friend."

Sunna puts her flute to her lips and accompanies Holly spell with a healing song of her own.  You can feel the warmth and energy of the song Sunna has rarely had need to play until recently.

The two strong spells have an effect, but there's a moment of stillness and hesitation afterwards.  Holly leans close to Dunmeal's chest, listening for hint of a heartbeat.  Then, suddenly and weakly, Dunmeal lets out a shallow cough.  Blood spills from his lips and he goes still again.  This is a good sign.  The dead do not cough.  He is not awake, but he is breathing.

Sunna, rolled 16 using 2d8+6.  Cure Moderate Wounds

Sunna looks at Dunmeal, then at Holly. "Looks as if he's in need of even more help... Shall we get him away from here or would you like to try another healing on him first?"

Is any of the bystander dwarves still there?

Yes.  There are two bystanders still here.

Ros almost passes the intersection, but barely makes out her cousins gathered around in the shadowy space between buildings.  She goes over to join them and see what's going on.

"I reckon the sawbones got here in the nick of time," says Oscaronius.  "Is this feller the one we're waiting on?"

"That's the one", Ros agrees, "though he looked a lot better last time we met..." With a quick glance around she notices the blood, the stained clothing and the two dwarves still close by.

Sunna stands up and casually walks over to the bystanders.
"Excuse me, did any of you see who did this to him? Or noticed anything unusual going on? Seems as if we got here just in time, with some luck he might recover. But who would do such a thing to him?"

One of the dwarves shrugs.  The other says "No one saw anything."

"You just saw him lying here like that?" Sunna asks. More to herself she adds: "Something like that doesn't happen without any noises..."

The dwarf who shrugged turns and starts walking away.  The previously kneeling dwarf watches him until he gets out of earshot.

"There was a lot of noise.  That's why I came to look.  Whatever happened was over.  Where are you going to take him?"

Sunna glances back to Dunmeal on the ground. "I think his home would be a good choice. Unless... whoever did this to him would visit him there again."

"I'd certainly hope so," Mord suggested meaningfully.  "Mord would love to demonstrate their foolishness in so doing.

"You, that knows him.  It is good to look out for him.  What name do you go by that he would know?  He was trying to find another friend in town, asked us to help, but we couldn't find her.  Bad luck that - out trying to help him, and he gets hurt near his house.  Like tripping over a door lintel, but this a little more malice.   Have I mentioned how much I would like to  greet the folk that did this - speaking of which, let's move him back to his place.  Here, you can help carry him, and we can share tales about how you met him.'

"I'm Mord the Mighty..." the barbarian warrior quickly introduced his cousins, looked for confirmation from Sunna and Holly that it was okay to move him, then "helped" move Dunmeal's form home before other information could be stolen, or the dwarf could be firmly ended by returning assassins.

"This could be footpads, but it seems unncessarily violent, and yet not lethal enough or swift enough - unless that's a local custom.  I know some idiots that tried to let foes linger, to suffer longer, but I generally remove them when I come across such behaviour - bad for the profession of professional warriors.

..." the gregarious warrior tried to sweep things along, including their new acquaintance, to Dunmeal's place....

"I'm Bhandrid," says the bystander.  "I've shared quarts with Dunmeal and heard more than a few of his stories, but I can't say we're brothers or the like."

He leans down to take the legs end and help Mord carry Dunmeal's body, but hesitates.

"Ummmm," he glances around furtively. "We can't be seen with him just now."

Adiel steps in.  He lays out his bedroll next to the fallen dwarf.

"Let's get his cloak off and wrap him in this blanket.  Mord, you carry Dunmeal over both shoulders.  Might not look as much like a person that way," Adiel says.

He helps remove Dunmeal's bloody cloak and tucks it away where his bedroll was.  Bahandrid, Mord, and Adiel move him carefully into the bedroll.

Mord hefts the wrapped body as Adiel suggested and the party heads for the nearby cellar.  You don't think it's Dunmeal's home proper, but it will have to do for now as you have no clue where he lives.

"Ros, please return to Sirrot and meet us at the cellar."

Ros nods.


The trip itself is short, but Bhandrid's air of anxiety spreads in some measure to nearly everyone in the group.  You can feel the little hairs on the back of your neck.

"This sort of butchery and madness is why I never stray to this neck-o-the-woods," mutters Oscaronius.

It's tough lowering Dunmeal down the tight, steep cellar stairs.  Adiel sings a simple light spell so that you can at least see what you're doing.  You eventually lay Dunmeal in the bedroll on the floor next to the large table as Ros and Sirrot join you.  Adiel lights the lantern over the table and regards the mass of papers all around.

"What's all this?" Bhandrid asks.

Sirrot whispers to Ros "I clearly heard him say that they couldn't be seen with Dunmeal. Was that because of his grave injuries,  or is it because Dunmeal is undesirable? If the latter, our new guest must know why, but he won't tell us. Why?"

DM Note: Sirrot wasn't there at the scene where the body was found when this was said.  Otherwise, this is a very reasonable observation.  Thankfully the party is now completely together.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:02, Thu 23 Jan 2020.

Ros whispers back: "I believe he saw something or knows something. But doesn't want to get involved. Too dangerous, maybe? There are some rather cruel dwarves we already heard about."

Sunna regards the mass of papers before she turns to Bahandrid. "Work, I guess? I don't know, I've never looked through his stuff."

"What kind of stories did he tell you, if I might ask?"

To Mord she says, almost casually: "Did he have that many papers lying around last time we met? It seems as if they at least doubled."


OOC: is there more disarray to everything than last time?

"He likes drawing and writing - probably does his stories down on these, thinking ahead.  I saw some pictures he made around, yeah, there's another one.  Mord the Mighty is not a cleaner of houses, but let's move Dunmeal up off the floor.  Easier for Holly and you to work on him if he needs more healing, and less likely to chill on the ground.

"Unless it's a dwarven thing?" Mord asked Bahandrid while gathering up the table pages into one pile, tapping it twice to neatify the edging, and put them down atop a small bench off to one side.  The barbarian then effortlessly lifted Dunmeal onto the table before moving over to close the outside cellar door, sliding shut any locking bolts, then turning around to face the group.

"Okay.  Adiel - take a look at those papers - anything different from when we were here last, or anything missing that you recall?  Papers look like papers to me.

DM note: Adiel wasn't with Mord, Sunna, and Ros on your previous visit.

"You two - we're not from here, so fill us in."  Mord turned to examine the two conscious dwarves. 

"Bahandrid - what did you mean that we can't be seen with him right now?  - By whom?  And why?  Why is he bad to be seen with - he certainly seems a fine fellow, caring type, from what I know of him.  Mord tends to be stubborn when people tell him with whom he can and cannot talk."  No mention was made of the Holly-Rak disagreement, but Mord recognized his habit to over-react.  Not that his demeanour suggested any likelihood to change, but he appeared to recognize his characteristics. 

"Osc - this neck of the woods?  Savagery?  What's up with this region, and whom are the players?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:08, Fri 24 Jan 2020.