Corrin chuckles, giving a wink to Winter before offering a dramatic bow to the bard. “Good day, traveler. May the paths of our journeys cross in happier times and, if not, may we find ourselves on the same side when things go bad.” With that, he turns to follow the others. 

That sounds like a challenge, Cor.

Anborn takes Leo out of the chest, lies him down, cleans him up a bit, and casts Resurrection on him using the scroll. "Come on, Leo. You've got work to do." 

THE RETURN OF LEO

Curiously and a bit disgustingly, Leo's body rapidly heals and reforms. His body begins to twitch. He awakes with a horrible lengthy scream, looking around frantically as he does.

"WAAA!!" he screams, shuffling back on the floor, "I'm alive?! How?? Who are you?! Wait. Where am I? Where are my things..?"

"I'm Anborn. This weird bard gave me a scroll that I used to bring you back. Your wife told me where your body was. We need you to help defeat Strahd. But first, put some clothes on. You won't even get out of this village if you walk out of here with everything just hanging out. I'll be waiting downstairs."

As Anborn leaves, Leo looks at the camera as the door closes like in "The Office".

If he doesn't come down in five minutes, Anborn will sigh and come back up the stairs. "All right, get back in the chest and I'll take you to get some clothes. Your wife probably wants to see you anyway."

**** you Crispy Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the events of the last few days messing with him, but somehow the idea crossed Anborn's mind that if he could give a good massage, he might get Winter naked. So he tears off a piece of a sheet, tells Leo to wrap it around his junk, casts Enhance Ability on himself, forces Corrin to cast Guidance on him and gets to work.

Dex:18

Guidance:3

"What are you..? Oh! Ok! Uh. No, i'm f- Oh! Wow, that's..alright, wow, we're really..doing this? Ah. I'm sorry..i'm n- Whoa, too low! Could you..? Ok! I'm good! Than- thanks!"

((I think you mean Thank you Crispy lmfao))

Winter was there when the resurrection happened, she was also there when Anborn for some odd reason decided to give a recently revived corpse a massage. Maybe it was the alcohol he had consumed that made him perform better, but nonetheless Winter couldn't help raising her eyebrows watching such strong skilled hands work and knead into the others flesh like a baker would some bread dough. It was almost hypnotic, in a way, and she always had a thing for strong hands like his. Why hadn't she noticed that before? Why is it suddenly so hot? Ugh. The rogue struggled keeping her mind from wandering despite her the cool look about her, thought about the consequences, and ultimately said **** it. It's just going to be a massage, Gods new she needed it.

When Anborn was done with Leo and everyone else had left the room, the shifter shut the door behind them, leaving her and the cleric in the room alone. "... Do you mind if I get a massage myself as well?"

"Not at all." The cleric gives the shifter space to disrobe before telling her to lie down and try to relax. Holy hell, she's perfect. As awkward as it was, the massage with Leo at least made it so that his hands wouldn't be cold when he gave Winter a massage. As Anborn went to work on the rogue, he recalled the Death House and how she glared at him when he simply put a hand on her shoulder to cast a simple cantrip on her. I think that of all of the things that have surprised me since I've come here, giving a massage to Ice Queen might top of all of them. Anborn respected her boundaries, focusing on the neck and spine area at first, only moving down to her legs and feet if she asked him to. He had her cover her intimate regions up with a towel and didn't expect her to remove it, even if a part of him wanted her to. Even if he was an ass, Anborn at least had enough decency to not be a pervert. "You might be as tense as I am. Try to loosen up and breathe." His lessons as a Cleric taught him a lot about human anatomy, where to strike in order to bring someone down, how to heal someone, learning to recognize when someone was too far gone for healing to make a difference. But none of that taught him how to give a massage like he was now. Torm, if this is why you gave me strong hands, then I'm not going to argue with you.

Massage check: 18

Well, she's not stopping me, so it definitely seems like I'm not ******* up. Thank Torm.

Somewhere back down the stairs...

Until Leo and Anborn decided to come down again, Orilo sticks to awkwardly trying to smooth things over with Rictavio by poking his brain for pointers on Viol playing, if he has any experience with it. Then after taking a stand, he says to Ireena, "Earlier you asked if there were no men with manners in this town. Such a thing is alien to me and my kin. What's most important is that one pull there weight, and never shirk a challenge." He stills himself with a breathe as he moves the bow into place. "It took learning from the small what it meant to be more. As did to take joy in the simple again. In idle play, such as music... Dark days are ahead of us. For you and your brother most of all, I suspect. Even here." The song begins as his eyes grow half-lidded. "Find your moment for levity when you can. While you still can."

He quiets and just keeps playing until failing utterly, quieted, or being allowed to complete the set. No matter how things go, he says to Ireena. "It was discovered that someone commissioned a doll that looks similar to you here. We know not who yet. But I thought it fair to warn you." His attention shifts to Rictavio. "And you... One last puzzle, that you may shine upon... A Madame Eva presented our group with fortunes. Do you know anything of a Tome of the Devil that plagues these lands?" He goes on to give the line about a womb of darkness and so on. 

Performance: 7. 

(Kicking myself for wasting my inspiration back at the town square)

Wow, Oreo sure knows how to play that Viol. Ireena's face contorts in interest and confusion with your words. "A doll?" she asks, "Who would do this? Have you seen it?" and then, "What did this Madame Eva say about the Tome?"

It's about this time Leo comes stumbling down from the rooms upstairs, a blank look on his face mixed with mild trauma. He looks around and begins to head for outside.

Corrin watches as the man exits Anborn's room, a sheet wrapped around his midsection and the somewhat traumatized look on his face. "Easy now, my friend. Many of us share that same look after our first encounter with our good friend Anborn. It's best to take him in small doses until you build up a tolerance," the halfling says with a reassuring smile. "While I applaud the ingenuity, it may behoove us to find you better attire than this haphazard toga. Sadly, my coat would only accentuate the, um, issues at hand." Looking about, he calls over to Orilo. "Gentle giant, perhaps you have a spare shirt or cloak in that bag of yours to help our new friend here," he asks. "A bit of covering and a good strong ale are likely in order. It's not every day one rises from the dead."

"I've seen it. Gave it back to Winter to hold. That which you seek lies in the womb of darkness, the devil's lair: the one place to which he must return. We assume it means his grave or beneath the castle. That it contains some secret of strahd... Could also be some other devils layer." The goliath replied, if somewhat absently near the end seeing the traumatized man. At Corrin's request he snorts and digs out an extra pair of trousers and shirt. Both would probably need to be cinched to fit the man's frame. But aside from sparing a length of cut rope to work as a makeshift belt, there wasn't much more he could for the man.

"What 'appened to you man? Shock of life caught up back to you?"

Leo startles at seeing Corrin and then numbly sits down next to you all as he weakly nods in thanks to Oreo and dresses, getting his mind to work again.

In the meantime, Ireena looks at Oreo thoughtfully, "The devil's lair..the one place to which he must return." She thinks for a moment, looking at Ismark for confirmation. "Of course! The one place Strahd MUST return to everyday is his own tomb in Castle Ravenloft. All vampires have one in which they rest and heal."

"She is correct." Leo speaks softly, "For I have seen it."

Corrin spews a bit of the ale he was sipping. "Now that's a story worth hearing, my friend! Please tell us, how is that you came to see it and survive....," the halfling then pauses. "Um, well, yes. Uh, either way, it's a story I think we should hear as I'm sure our fates have put us on a path to see it as well."

The rogue tried her best to heed to his word to relax the first time, Winter finding it difficult to even do so. She wasn't suppose to be doing this; having fun, enjoying herself, doing this mission, getting along with others, being touched this intimately by anyone. This wasn't the lifestyle she was made for, but she would be lying if she said it wasn't a life she yearned for. The second time she heard him say to relax, she managed to loosen up a bit and focus on him, distracting her mind by mentally following where his hands were going, how much pressure he was putting in specific areas, finding and kneading into the knots he'd find in the damnest of places. This was... Nice.

There would be a point where she would feel his hands at the small of her back causing her to start purring similar to that of a domestic house cat, but she was too far gone to stop herself from doing so. It was when she felt herself nodding off that she had reluctantly told him to stop the massage. "As wonderful as your hands are," She would say propping herself up after waving him to look away. "I think we've taken up enough time." The shifter was quick to redress herself, signalling to turn around once she's done by clearing her throat. "That was very nice, thank you, Anborn," She heads to the door and just before opening it says, "I hope you don't mind if I ask for another massage from you soon," She turns her head and gives him a genuine smile, her cheeks now flushed a light pink. "I'll let you know when I'm stopping by, okay?"

--

Winter came down the stairs quietly and rejoined the others, giving a glance over to a now dressed Leo, mentally apologizing to him for what he had gone through. Despite that, she seemed to be a lot more relaxed than usual with a more content look on her face now. "Sorry, did we miss anything important?"

Anborn didn't notice Winter purring, as he himself was caught up in his own thoughts, still trying to get past his disbelief that his insane idea of giving a recently-revived Leo a massage so that he might get to massage Winter actually worked. He snaps out of it when Winter reluctantly informs him that they needed to finish up. "Right. If the others aren't wondering what's taking so long, they're going to start soon." As he faced the wall and waited for Winter to let him know that he could turn around, he thought about how he managed to have contact with another human being and not manage to **** it up. Don't mess it up now with a dumb quip. He turns around when she gives him the all clear and is a bit surprised when he sees the expression on her face. "You're welcome. I'm glad to have been a help. If you feel tense and need some help loosening up, you know where to turn to now." He follows behind her, thinking about how much he liked seeing her happy for a change. Shit, did she just smile? Not some smirk when I'm making an ass of myself, but an actual smile? Nice.

Anborn is in a better mood when he comes down the stairs. He feels semi-apologetic about what he did to Leo when he lays eyes on him. "Sorry about that business before." He whispers. "How about we make up for it with a quick stop to see your wife where we will not mention anything that happened in the past five minutes before we go attend to whatever's next. Sound like a plan?"

THE STORY OF LEON

"I was.." Leon begins, straining the limits of his memory. "Part of a team..years ago. To kill Strahd. We came here from..far away, another place. We stormed his Castle and saw many horrible things, like out of a nightmare. That place he dwells in..is truly horrible. We came across many traps and creations. Lives were lost. At one time we saw a Tome, was told it had great secrets about Strahd - and we even knew the location of a mighty sword told to be forged from the sun itself - that he keep locked away. Is this why you have brought me back?"