Karmoli's A Great Upheaval

Daerthe will go with Helena, seeing as following the time wizard has so far brought her to some of the more interested items she has found.

Keeping her staff in her hands now, Essie carefully picks her way across the walkway. She stops and looks through each of those arrow windows, just wanting to see what kind of view is available from them. Her knuckles are white as her grip tightens upon seeing body after body. Gods, why did she leave the forest? Every so often, she'll crane her neck around to try and see the rest of her party. It's good to see living people to remind her of why she's here.

"Well met!" Helena calls out as she sees the figures. She steps forward, but not overly close, as she looks them over. What do the non-pc ones look like?

Ryndar follows Helena inside, trying to keep at least half and eye on his charge.

At first, Sphyboe has been grief-stricken when the view of Lady Nandar's motionless body unfolded before her eyes. She has ordered the guards earlier to place her corpse slightly higher than the ground level, then deciding on the matter of her final treatment. But, their lack of agreement regarding the ritual has caused heated exchanges of words, to her dismay. The half-elf has nothing to do except watch their futile attempt at trying to make a sense of the catastrophic situation until she feels the presence of a third party. One of them crying out something what seems like a greeting, but she has been expecting something else. To remove any trace of her confused state, she decides to investigate the identity of intruders in an unwelcoming manner while trying to catch a glimpse of their true intention,

"If I were you, I would've stated the reason behind the violence of privacy of an occupied party immediately after introducing myself."

Wisdom: Insight 19

Ryndar steps forward next to Helena, his arms hang slack at his sides as to not immediately threaten then occupants, but his blades remain in his hands. "We are a group of travelers who had come to your town last night to find respite from our journey. We found the town to be abandoned except for a group of goblins, which were slain and driven off. There was one other individual who seemed to have survived the attack that we found who mentioned that cloud giants attacked the village. We were searching around for any other survivors or more information as to what happened here."

"And I called out several times, prior to opening that door." Helena adds in with a glance back at said door. "Sorry if you did not hear me." She glances back to the table and takes in the state of those in the chamber. "I am sorry for your loss." She says with a solem nod at the body. "The person we left in town though, has to be mentioned, prior to any chances to let you resume your vigil here." She glances back to the one who spoke to them so far. "I do not trust the one we left in town, and I fear she is waiting for others to join her here. We last spotted her in the drawbridge tower, where she would have a good view of others coming up the road to Nightstone. I fear she means ill for the village." She then glances back to the body. "I realize this is not a good time for you, but grief may need to be put aside a bit longer."

Maybe Bramble could hear the door to the keep being opened via an echo throughout the bailey, or maybe not. But he definitely felt an instinctual call to hurry his trip around the parapet.  When his path intersects Essie, he will urge,

”I think we should hurry to return to the others.”

He will then make with as much haste as he can muster to rejoin the party.

Opening a few of the shutters, Essie has a fairly good view of the road approaching Nightstone. It lies about 100 feet west of the moat that circles the keep and less than 200 feet from her vantage point. After checking a few of these openings, Bramble meets up with her and suggests that they rejoin the others.

Meanwhile, Helena and Ryndar are in conversation with the occupants of the keep as Daerthe stands by. The half-elf has immediately challenged the newcomers, uncertain of their intentions. The four humans have black hair and fair skin. They wear chain shirts and quickly grab nearby spears and shields when Helena first calls out her greeting. As Ryndar explains their presence, they relax a little but then grow more concerned as he and Helena describe the threats to the village.

“Goblins?” says the shortest of the four. He turns back to the others, “You see, Sydiri! Just as I said, we should have left Lady Nandar to rest in peace and met our duty to secure the village.”

“Torem is right,” says a stocky female guard with gray eyes, her black hair in long braids. “It sounds as though there is work left to do.” She turns to the newcomers. “I am Alara, guard of Nightstone. My comrades are Torem, Sydiri, and Kaelen. You see the remains of Lady Nandar here, killed when the tower collapsed in the giant attack. I fear our shock at her senseless death left us somewhat paralyzed. We have taken some suggestions from Sphyboe here,” gesturing at the half-elf, “but clearly we must do more.”

Kaelen, a taller male with black eyes, speaks up, “You say the goblins are dead or gone now? And the village abandoned? But who is this other survivor and what threat does she pose?” He seems a little overwhelmed by all this new information. The last of the guards, a tall female with short curly hair who you presume to be Sydiri, had looked up at Torem as he spoke to her, but then her eyes moved back to Lady Nandar.

Alara follows up on Kaelen’s question, “Yes, who is this woman? You think she is waiting for others to join her? What are her intentions?”

"She gave some vague story about being here for business and then wandered off on her own when she did not see anymore goblins." Daerthe says before she turns to leave the room, not wanting to deal with answering the questions about her own reasons for being there.

Essie wrinkles her nose at Bramble's sudden haste, but she follows after him shortly. It's still a lovely day with the sun shining. There's no shouts or yelling coming from their party. So Essie's in no real rush to meet back up with the group. She follows at a steady pace, twirling her staff a bit as she goes.

"Accept my apologies, but my bitter words weren't meant to be offensive"- Sphyboe speaks to the newcomer as politely as she can. She has erroneously perceived them as the accomplices of the unfriendly faction of people that could have been lurking outside for their own dirty business. In fact, the mention of an unknown woman successfully proves their existence, Zhentarim is already on the way to take advantage of unguarded Nightstone. 

"The suspect is indeed a person worth suspecting, it's a relief to find you all unharmed. My guard friends here might be able to take care of the woman"- the half-elf sends a quick nod towards the guards, what seems like a silent exchange of words and approvals only known to the party.

"I don't know her agenda, it might be a good idea for you to question her yourself." Helena answers the guard's questions. "I'd likely get some guards down to the drawbridge as quicly as you can though, as, those friends of hers, might be better dealt with outside of the walls rather than inside of them." She leaves it at that and waits to see what the guards decide.

Bramble returns to the front of the keep, sees the door open, and hears voices inside. He rejoins the group, Essie not too far behind, as Sphyboe is apologizing and suggesting that the guards might deal with Kella. They all pause a moment for more introductions. (Feel free to add any details to those introductions, Bramble, Essie, and Sphyboe.) 

Then Alara responds to Sphyboe, “Yes, we can certainly confront this woman to determine if she is in fact an agent of the Zhentarim. But first, some questions.” She turns to the group, “We have been altogether caught up in Lady Nandar’s death. I assumed that other guards were helping the villagers. But you say there is no one left at all? Normally, in times of trouble, the village would gather here at the keep for protection. But as you can see, we are the only ones here.”

“Hello, I’m Bramble and I’m terribly sorry for all of your losses. When we arrived the main gate was open and there were many tracks heading north into the woods. I’m afraid the citizenry had no option to retreat here due to the bridge being split apart by a boulder drop. We found the lower village overrun by goblins last night.  We killed several and a similar number were convinced to leave. Two goblins did not leave, so we closed the gates and bedded down for the night in the chapel.  This morning we went in search of the goblins and found one dead, shot by a crossbow bolt in the inn. Upstairs we found a woman with a crossbow and a flying snake on her arm. We searched a bit more for the surviving goblin and took care of some horses in the stables. We then found the broken bridge and spent some time repairing it. It was during this repair that we lost track of the mysterious woman. And we never did find the lone goblin.  I did see a figure on one of the guard houses at the main gate a short while ago, but without assistance, they shouldn’t be able to lower the drawbridge.”

Bramble draws in a deep breath. “Are any of you in need of medical attention? Essie and I have some skill with the healing arts.”

There is a moment of silence as the guards take in this wealth of information. Even Sydiri looks up from Lady Nandar. Finally Alara speaks, “Well. Thank you for the details. You paint a clear picture in a troubling time…”

Torem interrupts, “The caves!” The others turn to look at him. He continues excitedly, “You know! The bat caves! The villagers must have sought shelter there when they couldn’t get to the keep. And they would have been safer there as well,” he adds, ruefully looking around the ruined keep.

“That makes sense,” says Kaelen. “Especially if you all saw tracks heading north. There is a small cave system about a mile north of the village. Everyone knows about it. That must be where they are.”

“But why haven’t they returned?” asks Alara. “It’s been a couple of days and the caves aren’t far.” She pauses to think and then says, “Well, I suppose we’ll have to deal with that after the Zhentarim agent, if that’s what she is. We should go.”

“But what about Lady Nandar?” asks Sydiri, speaking for the first time in a soft voice.

“There’s nothing we can do for her,” says Torem with a little impatience. “We have to secure the village!”

“Torem’s right, Sydiri,” says Kaelen in a more gentle tone. “Lady Nandar would want us to take care of the living. She wouldn’t want Nightstone to fall to the Black Network.”

Sydiri sighs, then nods her head and joins the other guards as they head toward the exit. Alara stops and turns to you all, “Perhaps you could come with us to point out where you think this woman is?” (With passive Insight, Daerthe and Essie get the sense that Alara is uncomfortable leaving the newcomers in the keep unattended.)

"We found her occupying the inn. Some goblins went in there and we ventured inside to find them. That is where we came upon her. She followEd us for a bit before making her own way." Daerthe explains as she crosses her arms and continues to walk.

Sphyboe stands tall, when her cropped jet-black hair accentuates her feminine features. With a haunted look on her face she listens to the information rendered by the new-comers. She has been discontent at her failure to convey the message of Zhentarim intervention in Nightstone to the one person who had been the best authority to deal with them, Lady Nandar. But she's been late and no further action can be taken without the consent of the Harpers. 

"I wish I could go with you to interrogate the woman, Alara. But, I must let the Harpers be known of the misfortune of Lady Nandar and wait for their order. There must be another way to get out of the town, I believe so."

Sphyboe seems reluctant to engage in a fight with the Zhentarim agents when she's underpowered to face them as an equal match, at the same time remaining oblivious of the extent of the strength of the strangers. Rest of the party could take the hint of her employer if they had detected the emphasis on the word 'Harpers'.

"She was spotted, as we came in here, in the tower near the gate." Helena says. Even if she doesn't 'know' the figure Bramble spotted was the woman, she would still suspect it was. "I have my familiar watching the road to town, but there is a slight chance someone could slip by them. I suggest we hurry." She is heading out, with the guards in tow, even as she speaks.

Oh, look, more people. Essie keeps the polite smile on her face, letting her staff drift to her side. Not wanting to come across as threatening if the rest of the group has already gotten them calm. She looks around at the newcomers, taking all of them in. 

“I thought the only clear exit out of town was the main gate,” Essie says, cocking her head to the side at the taller woman in the back. “We put the drawbridge up last night so we couldn’t be surprised, at least.”

As the group starts to leave, she falls into step alongside Helena this time, after remembering how Daerthe likes to stick to the back. Grumpy as she is, Essie's sure the elf has got their backs. She’s not terribly concerned about having the guards at her back, either. They seem like decent folks to her so far, concerned with what happened. “Oh, and there might still be a goblin hanging around,” she mentions breezily over her shoulder. “I was going to try to convince them to leave if we found them. Instead of outright killing them this time. We had a little success with that yesterday."