I... need to stay with you. For a bit. If that's okay. Just to see... sorry, what I mean to say is, at least until you reach the safety of the village I'd like to stay. With your permission, Lady Soar?

"It's fine with me," Soar says. "If you can give me even a small idea of how you let your friends on the other side know how your mission is going. Are they checking in on you? How does that work?"

She tries stretching out, feeling more limber than normal with no armor on (are we wearing our normal clothes, or different?). She is mystified at how her wounds have healed, and mutters a quick prayer to Kelemvor in thanks. She does notice that she has more scars, on her arms at the gaps in her armor, and her neck. There was the old scar from the fight against the cultists in the egg cavern, which feels like years ago. She wonders if there are new scars on her face. She asks Bazavur how she looks, and gives him a once-over, expecting to see more scars on the battered dragonborn. 

Quote from rkmobius >>

Soar wakes slowly. Blinks. And the memories, foggy, come rushing back. She feels each failure and loss again, like she's getting pummeled. She gets up to sitting like she's carrying weights.

Are we wearing our own clothes? Or like smocks? Also is En still near Soar?

Bazavur, who I assume is awake, gets a sleepy, confused, but empathetic look. "How are you feeling?"

She waits for Jalt to wake and says, "well, shall we see if Oltara's gift, and the grace of Bahamut, want to bring back one more?"

 
Bazavur gives a weak, halfhearted, smile “A bit stiff and sore still. But better than being dead stiff I suppose.” He chuckles a bit at his macabre humor and takes note of En. He reflexively reaches for weapons that are no longer present. But seeing Soar approach the pixie relaxes a bit. But is still very cautious. 

Soar does her best to explain to Bazavur what little she knows about En, and what they brought the group.

She gives some background about the pixie royalty she helped free from her putative "employer" during the earlier fight against the cult. She, Jalt, and others had taken roles in a caravan to try to track where the cult was sending their treasures. Soar's role was as a caravan guard for a creepy old guy, Lasfelro, who was moving a sealed wagon protected by a gargoyle. One pixie (Udays) kept showing up and though Soar didn't speak her language, eventually she figured out her boss had a captive whom the pixie was trying to free. Soar didn't have a good opportunity to do anything about it until they got to Waterdeep, and she narc-ed on her boss to the guards at the gate. The wagon was opened and inside a cage was Oltara, a pixie princess, or perhaps a queen. She thinks Udays was also a princess, but she's not sure. The guards arrested Soar's former, creepy boss, and the pixies went free. They came back to find her later, thanked her, and gave her the ring she wore. Which is now lost. 

She doesn't try to hide this story at all from En.

(I think you're wearing normal travelling clothes; whatever you had on under your armour before. They are your own clothes; they weren't swapped for generic ones by your captors, no.)

They can watch, En replies somewhat cryptically, and doesn't seem inclined to elaborate.

As Soar tells her story, En listens but doesn't seem to react in any obvious way.

After everyone is awake, Jalt will ask if Bazavur could carry Tangle to a spot he sees near a nice big old tree. Jalt takes the diamond and places it on the head of Tangle. He clutches his vestments and casts Raise Dead. Only ones who would seem him perform this spell is Bazavur and Soar. He would not do it in the presence of the elves or pixies.

❤️‍🔥

Jalt, you find a spot away from the elves, who sense your desire for privacy and stay away.

The spell takes an hour to cast - a great effort of concentration and stamina - but you feel the magic flowing through the diamond that Soar has provided, and when the hour is up the diamond shatters into nothingness.

The start of the shattering diamond is nothing compared to the way Tangle surges up from where she lay, screaming, straight at Jalt, her hands clawing for his throat, eyes wild, ephemeral flames licking about her body.

Athletics (for grappling Jalt at -4 for recently dead, in game log): 8

That's a contested check; Jalt, give me an Athletics check to push Tangle's hand away or an Acrobats check to dodge it. And tell me how you react to the result. :)

"Easy!" Soar blurts at Tangle, an unconscious command as she throws herself in between Tangle and Jalt, her forearm across the eladrin's shoulders and the rest of her body in front of Jalt. (The spell is to Halt, or Calm if possible.)

She meets the wild eyes with a look from her own eyes that Tangle's never seen before, if she's processing at all. "We lost. Badly." Her eyes shine, not with sadness, though there are tears, but with the horrified recent realization of utter and complete failure, of lacking, of everything not turning out for the best, and a seething anger alongside a hollow resignation. The eyes narrow, and her jaw clenches, mouth pursed. "But we got free. Some kind of deal. Jalt got us out with his life and mine, and your body, and Bazavur's. We've managed to scrounge up diamonds and favors enough to bring you both back. We have nothing else. Nothing. We're on the way to bring the elf slaves back to Altand. I don't know what's next." A deep breath in. "But boy am I glad to see you moving again."

(For fun, the Wisdom Save to avoid the Command, in game log, and at -4 for recent deadness: 9 ...pretty sure that's a fail.)

Tangle stutters to a stop before reaching Jalt, swaying in place. Her eyes swing wildly to Soar, and for a second, there is so much hate and anger there, that it almost makes Soar recoil. Then something passes and her face slackens, and Soar reaches her and holds her up as her body sags. Tangle's head drops and she is still as Soar gives her update. When she can, Tangle slides out of Soar's grasp and settles to the forest floor in a seated heap. Her breath is shallow, and her face is shiny with tears. She is making small sounds, like hiccups.

As the others react, she turns her face up to look at them. Her eyes are red, her hair a mess, the tears are flowing, and the sounds she is making resolve themselves into... laughter? It almost sounds like relief? "Thank you," she manages to croak, her voice guttural from death and disuse.

Bazavur hesitates for a moment not quite processing what’s going on. Before he’s able to react to what’s transpiring the “threat” is over.

Bazavur simply sits next to Tangle and offers physical closeness as comfort. (Assuming Tangle doesn’t object, he’ll just sit next to her giving her a hug until she’s done/ready to get up)

Tangle flinches away from Bazavur, and sort of scrambles a few feet over, not quite ready to stand on her own. But she turns to look at the group. "When do we go back and kill them?" she asks.

“Kill them with what?” Bazavur looks at Tangle incredulously. “They defeated us seemingly quiet handily when we were well armed and armored.” He looks around at the group waving to incorporate everyone. “From what I can see, we have the clothes on our backs and… a couple of sticks.” He pauses momentarily to let that sink in for Tangle. “What makes you think going back there would lead to a different outcome?”

Bazavur’s tone is even-keeled and very matter of fact. 

Tangle is breathing hard. Coming back from the dead is tiring. "One more arrow! We left an arrow, one of the Slayer arrows, it missed, and all we needed was one more arrow. Just one." Her head drops again, but comes up almost immediately, her face set in a snarl. "I will find a weapon and I will finish this. I have nothing else to live for. This is all I have..." Her voice falters and she collapses in the dirt.

Soar’s eyes flash at the bargaining going on in Tangle’s outburst. The rogue would be able to see a mirrored reflection in the paladin’s eyes. Soar has been going over the same what-if scenarios since she woke up. The arrow prompts something in her - the cultists probably don’t know about its value and they might leave it behind.

“I am relieved to see you breathing. Focus on that. We need to get these people back home. Maybe we can find more resources to go back and try something. The dragon told Jalt he was going to the Well of Dragons, and needed the rider back - the rider’s Neronvain, the king’s son, by the way, and raising him back was the price Jalt paid for our lives. I’d like to go back and see if the other cultists trail behind with any of our gear. We could take it back. That would be a start.”

The joy is out of her voice but she has a bit more energy and drive than before.

Tangle drags herself to her feet, "What I need are weapons. And... rest, I am no use like this." Glancing up to the canopy, she says "It is morning, we should go." She stumbles her way towards where she can hear the elves waiting. She does not make eye contact with Soar.

Bazavur looks at Jalt and Soar, gives a half-hearted shrug and follows after Tangle. 

Jalt just watches as Tangle moves to attack but is stopped by Soar's command. He looks at her and nods. He understands and is not taken aback by her reaction but in the back of his head he wonders how many more times he'll have to do this. Or what if it happens to him. The stakes have gotten quite high in the pursuit of the Cult.