Zeren stands still, waiting to see what happens. If combat begins he'd rather the newcomer not know he's there until it's too late.

Sparkles is shocked to see the tension quickly start to melt away, but actually isn't too bothered; means she actually does get to rest after all! She lets the rest of the party chat with this stranger, feeling a little bit awkward that she was entirely ready to kill this man earlier.

The light subsides a bit and you can see them more clearly. They take off their hood and squint in the light rain. They turn to face the sky. 

"Ugh, I should have invested more in plywood."

You notice small antlers sprout out from their brunette head. It turns out they are a satyr woman.

She goes back to face to you, Syed. A smile crosses their face for a second at the sight of you before being replaced by that same blank monotone expression. "Was out hunting then all of a sudden the rain started. Took shelter in a nearby cabin, which... now which I'm guessing is what y'all have done?" On her face begins a frown. She pets the elk next to her. Sparkles, you recognize this as Starry! He looks all healed up, way better than he had been an hour ago. His antlers more velvety and hooves now free of maggots (even after all this time on the road, you couldn't seem to disinfect his hooves).

"You're heading to Drakkenheim, aren't you?" she sighs. "Most don't stay on this road, but I guess with the storm... Welcome." She puts down her crossbow.

"Yes, we though the place vacant and needed shelter from the storm. We thank you for letting use your place." Kolette nods towards Starry, "We are also thankful that you took care of our friend. Honestly we don't have a lot to give for allowing us to spend the night. Mmmm...Is there something you are in need of?"

"Actually" William interjects as he appears behind the two strangers. "We did help take care of your centipede infestation in your basement." He says in a very matter of fact tone. "Perhaps that would make up for us spending the night In your home."

The undertaker then takes a step towards the pair and continues. "We also found the remains for some children down there... hardly a fitting resting place. I have taken the remains so that they could be properly dealt with if you don't mind." He continues as his eyes look between their faces... trying to determine if they could have killed the children.

Sparkles finally spots Starry amidst the blinding lights, quick movements and sudden changes of tone, and gives a squeal of delight to see him, going over and seeing if he'll come close to her now that he's been healed up and sorted. She tells the satyr lady 'Thank you so much for helping him! I don't know how you found him or if you already knew him, but I found this elk injured in a ditch a while back, and named him Starry. He's been tagging along ever since, until we lost him in the storm, and we could never sort out his septic hoof, even with our healing magic, so thank you for whatever you've done! Oh! How impolite, I forgot to ask your name! I'm Sparkles, who are you?' It's clear that her furious attitude has completely and utterly dissolved at the sight of her elk friend.

She looks over to Kolette with a bit of a smile, her goat ears (she seems to be a mismatch of hooved animals) flick. "It does need a bit of remodeling." She reaches over to stroke Starry and nods. "Friend?" She reels her hand back in again. "Oh, him? Mriga, I didn't know you had friends." She pats him again another time. The elk chuffs. 

"I'm a druid. I found him in the space by the Gutter. He nearly got snagged in one of the traps of mine. Elk don't come 'round here much any more not since the spread. I had figured someone must've transported him. Didn't know who until-" She gestures towards you. "Starry? Oh that's cute." She pets the elk again, jerking her head to let him wander over to Sparkles, which he does.

The hooded woman ruminates over Kolette's suggestion before William pops in. "Centipedes..." She spits out those words. "Those critters sure loved flooding my basement... when there's a flood." Her fingers tap the crossbow she reattached to her belt. "Guess that covers it. Thanks. I don't got much food, so I can't really feed ya." Her back tenses when you mention remains.

"You WHAT?!" She darts around, horrified to see the cellar completely smashed in. "Ardin!" She starts rushing towards the broken cellar doors before flinging herself back to face you, William. "Did you touch it? What did you do with it?!" 

"The hailstorm smashed your cellar door open." Wiliam says before pulling out the burlap sack from the basement. he unties the twine string that was keeping it closed before offering the bag of remains to the druid. 

"I'm an undertaker by trade." The bandaged man says flatly. "I found the badly decomposed bones of two children... I thought that they deserved a better resting place than a dirty centipede den."

Sparkles listens to this curious woman and nods along, saying 'Well, thank you for finding him!' She then strokes and rubs him behind his ears and whispers 'Who's a good boy? Who's the bestest boy?' She'd seen a hunter do it with their hound after killing a doe, so just assumes it's the basic way of treating pets. She was then going to ask what 'the spread' might be, before she darts off in fear over the cellar. Suddenly Sparkles' nerves spark back up as her mind starts to wander on what might be such an issue. She prays that the druid is simply flustered because the skeletons had been disturbed, nothing more. Undead kids were not what she wanted to fight right now.

[I expected that there might be something up with the bodies after all those creepy drawings...also I'm a sucker for using foreign languages for names and stuff, so I couldn't help but check if 'Mriga' actually meant anything. Turns out it's 'deer' in Sanskrit! Nice touch!]

Zeren is a bit glad they didn't slaughter the elk, apparently he's the druid's friend. Weird.

Deciding that any danger is minimal he walks up, towering over those present but trying to not look too scary.

"The cellar should be clear for now. There's plenty of food in there as long as you don't mind pickles. I'm going to go cook something now."

He turns around to start gathering food from the cellar to make a meal, then pauses and turns around.

"You should watch out. We dealt with a group of bandits earlier but the wereravens leading the group are still around."

That should be enough of a warning. And it might drive the wereravens out of the wilderness if enough people knew about them.

Syed relaxes his grip on the crossbow and lets out a small sigh. "Well, seems like things have calmed down now," he mutters, re-entering the cabin to escape the lingering dampness outside. He wipes some soot off his clothes before settling near the fire for warmth. "I could really use a rest after all that," he says, glancing around the room at his companions. "If anyone’s still hurt, though, let me know. I’ve got a few tricks left that might help patch you up." He absently pats Mellow on the head, still feeling the dull ache from the earlier battle, but his mind is more focused on recuperating.

((ahaha thank you. glad you liked the name reference it's also because 'deer'/Mriga was the Indian name of the constellation Orion.))  

The woman had smiled when Sparkles took Starry back. She looks to William, confused. "Two?" She inches her way closer towards the entrance then just back at William bewildered. "It could be contaminated! Why would you dig him up?! I put it there..." She puts her hand to her mouth. "The pickles-- ! You didn't touch the ones with tentacles, did you? Please tell me you at least didn't use your hands?!" She stares wide-eyed at Zeren and his nonchalance. "Dear Flame... I-"

She put her hand to her head and takes a moment to process everything that's been said. "The Wereravens. Not again. I guess if there's one good thing about having a house that looks abandoned..." She sighs then the fire in her eyes lightd up again.

"If you touched those bones," she inhales sharply. "we're going to need some holy water." She looks around the 'room'. "And I'm guessing none of you are Flamekeepers, right?"

Kolette's ears twitch "Well we did encounter the wereravens earlier. We let them go. But they know that we will show them death mercy if they bother us again."

OOC: if there were only remains of one kid down there then that was my mistake. I was thinking there were two children.

"I used my gloves... as you can see most of my body is covered to uhh... prevent contamination." William adds after gesturing to his bandaged face. "So if you don't mind me asking.. how does this contamination work? can something that is contaminated be purified? We found a pretty strange looking crab the other night that looked very mutated."

Sparkles sighs. The last thing the party needs is Will becoming a freaky mutant after getting his hands on something that he shouldn't have. She speaks up and says 'I don't think we have holy water on us, but do you? If not, friend Kolette may be able to make some, since she is the Cleric of our group. And no, I am likely not a Flamebearer, whatever that may be, as the name rings no bells, but neither do a lot of things, so if you could explain what they are, then maybe I could identify the characteristics of one and confirm if I am not one?.' Guessing from what she knows about her companions, she's pretty confident they aren't either, as it would have been mentioned; still, she's unsure what one might be, what comes with being one, and if you can be one without knowing. Perhaps somebody in the party recognises the title?

[Clerics can do a ritual to make Holy Water though it takes an hour, expends one first level spell slot and needs 25 GP of silver, so not sure if Kolette can perform it or not]

OOC: I did not prepare Ceremony as a choice. Would need a long rest and have the party grind up some of their cash.

Zeren sighs and holds up his hands. They're encased in steel gauntlets.

"I didn't touch any jars with tentacles in them, but would any contamination have gotten through these?"

It didn't look like combat was going to happen so he let himself relax.

Kolette looks sideways at her companions, "There's a jar with tentacles?"

Syed, sitting by the fire and rubbing his aching shoulder, furrows his brow as the conversation unfolds. Hearing the mention of contamination and tentacled jars, he shifts uncomfortably. "Wait... contamination from those bones and... tentacles?" he asks, a note of concern creeping into his voice. "Does that apply to the centipedes too? We've got bit pretty badly down there. Could that cause any problems?" He glances at his wound and then looks around at his companions, visibly worried. "I’ve been feeling a bit off since, but I thought it was just the usual poison." He absentmindedly scratches Mellow’s head while waiting for more answers, his eyes filled with apprehension.

Sparkles eyes widen as Syed mentions the centipedes. They did seem a bit unusual compared to what she's used to, and she even put some nasty goop from them into her mouth...suddenly a realisation dawns on her and she runs her fingers up her arms, snagging them on the translucent scales that appeared just after that battle. Perhaps she was mutating herself, how could she have been so foolish? Taking a breath, she decides not to tell the party of this concern. In the best of cases it would lead to the party worrying over things they didn't need to, wasting resources and precious time. In the worst case scenario, they might shun her back into the wilderness, fearing her as a monster, or do what they've done so far with any creatures they fear dangerous; kill. With a knot in her stomach, she grips tighter to Starry's fur and says 'I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. I don't expect the contamination can spread through glass, so the tentacle doesn't seem like it could harm us, and those centipedes appeared pretty normal, right? There were no extra parts from other creatures grafted on after all! And besides, if we were going to get infected, it would have happened ages ago after Will found that freaky crab!' She tries to convince herself that this is the truth, but is entirely unsure how long it takes for symptoms to show. Maybe she's the first of the party to show corruption, and soon they'll all be mutant freaks.