Current shivers when the Sharpe mentions that there won't be anyone else if they fail. The more she hears about this darkness, the more nervous she gets about being partially responsible for stopping it. She wasn't a hero. She just needed to make sure that the ocean wasn't hurt. Bolstering herself, the warlock gives herself a quiet reaffirmation before riding on with the others. When Atal brings up Viggo, Current turns to the elf and asks, "Viggo? Who's that? Is he another member of the cult?"

At the mention of Viggo, Anearis grimaces. "He is a vile criminal that has offered his services to the Berossus. A coward that runs away when the battle turns to his disadvantage. We have encountered him a couple of times in the past, but he keeps slipping away."

"He's a bastard with a mighty nice longbow.  And it's gonna be mine one day, along with his head," Atal growls, eyes narrowed.  Seeing Current's expression, he softens his own.  "Uh, yeah, sorry.  Viggo backstabbed us.  Nick and Nak particularly, since they were working together when we first met.  But the rest of us too.  I've got a thing against betraying your allies, so I guess you could say I'm more than a little biased."

"Ah, git with a bow. I remember. Tried to kill our meal ticket." Nik jumped into the conversation about Viggo. "Couldn't right remember his name, though honest, didn't much care to anyway...come to think of it. The lodge is where the scholar hired him from in the first place too."

Nack however had been scratching his head with a worried look on his face, until Nik noticed. "You're fine, Nack. You were asleep most of it."

"Scholar? You mean Viilgahan?", asks Anearis, curious.

Uthal keeps a careful watch on the road, riding with his hammer unslung in this unfamiliar place. "If the lodge is where he was hired to begin with then perhaps someone has heard from him since. Mercenaries might not be as tight lipped as cult members. That could give us an idea of what's happening out ahead of us."

Current follows Anearis's explanation, and when the brothers bring up the significance of the lodge they are staying at, and Uthal suggests asking around Current responds with, "I don't mind asking around. People usually assume I'm innocent and harmless because of my appearance. Besides, I haven't been with you long, so it is less likely that the cult will be able to connect me to you if our presence does get leaked."

"So this lodge is where he was first brought into all of this?" Austin asks, her attention caught as the discussion of Viggo comes up. "I would definitely like to see what else can be learned of him at the lodge once we arrive."

"No, no. Not him." Nik replied to Anearis. "The elf that hired Viggo, Viilgahan and us." Nik turned to Nack, who was digging through his pack, and elbowed his ribs to get his attention. "What's his name, the elf with all them books? Bowman took him an we had to find him in the catacombs."

Nack pulled his head out of the bag, a biscuit or some sort of breadstuffs, in his mouth. "Hmphfeees" Nack replied, in a mumble through the mouthful of food. Nik snapped his fingers and turned back to Anearis "That's right. Herrpees. The uppity bald virgin. But he paid though. Hired all us from the lodge. It's a good place ta find guides and guards if you're lookin to go through Shinra."

The horses were slow going but surprisingly steady, unlike the one pulling Nik and Nack's cart. It's occasionally stepped unevenly as it went down the road, a lantern on a rod held out into of it. The party's horses, provided by the Right Hand were almost consciously cautious of the road, feeling it before committing to each step as though trained for the type of travel.

As the time drew on and the moonlight night reached about an hour to midnight (11pm), a faint glow could be seen in the distance, that Nik identified as the Lodge. "That's where it be, don't know what the large fire is for. Must be big if we can see it."

Uthal looks up and offers barely more than a grunt. "With our luck someone's burning it."

"Don't jinx it!" Atal grumbles.  "I'd go ahead and take a look if I could, but I can barely manage directing my own horse, and it seems to have a better idea of how to travel down this path than I do."  He sighs in impatient frustration.  "And here I was hoping we'd have one more night of bedrest before going back to wilderness living.  Ah, maybe it's just a celebratory bonfire and we're being paranoid."

Closing his eyes, he leans forward and listens for strains of any sound on the wind carried from the lodge. (Percep: 10)

"I hope it's not the lodge that's burning." Nack and Nik looked onward towards the light in the distance with the look of utmost worry. "We didn't bring any ale on the trip."

As Atalura listened, he was able to identify more than just the sounds made by the party. Howls and croaks of creatures of the forest, the rustle of leaves as the wind blew, even the flap of wings off in the distance somewhere. However, of that, he could not hear anything that he could isolate specifically as coming from the Lodge. 

After traveling for another half hour or so, the twists and turns along the treeline and the rolling hills eventually brought the party to a party of the road, where the source of light was obscured entirely, and all that could be seen was the glow above the treetops. The view remained as such almost until they arrived at where the Lodge stood. 

And the lodge itself was indeed still standing. The building was in the centerbof a clearing that extended a few hundred feet from the road. It was an open circlular building about fifty feet or so across. It was a single story, but a roof of what appeared to be cloth or hide ran about thirty feet high, almost like a round posted tent. And although lots of noise and light came from the Lodge, the flame that the party spied earlier was a bonfire that sat about halfway between the lodge and the road.

It did not appear to be a celebratory event though. At the time of the party arriving, there was no one around it and it appeared to simply be burning on its own. The flames stretched approximately twenty to thirty feet into the sky, and was about the same width at its base. The kindling of this bonfire were blackened humanoid boddies. Dozens upon dozens of them, thrown in a pile and burning.

Uthal immediately looks around to try and see if there is anyone tending to the fire or watching to see if anyone comes for a look. 

Perception: 11

The front of the lodge was fully open and had no walls, only beams every 10 feet or so that stood between the wooden platform floor and the bottom of the sheet roof. Through the openings Uthal could see a stereotypical tavern-like scene. Mostly in that he could see and hear individuals talking, yelling, singing, drinking. However, none seemed the least bit interested in the bonfire.

Additionally on either side of the lodge and potentially behind it, the clearing appeared to be used like a campground. Various mount animals, a wagon or two, and a number of tents and campfires lined the clearing. Among the campsites were more persons, though again, none took notice of the party or made any move towards the burning pile of bodies.

Current looks appalled at the bodies and turns quietly to the rest of the group and whispers, "Do you land folk normally burn your dead like that?" Meanwhile, she stares in horror at the bonfire and retreats her horse a few steps.

Uthal starts to dismount his horse. "My folk do burn bodies, the ground of the mountains is too hard to bury them, but this seems different. People are acting like it's not happening. There is no ceremony, no reverence, just a disregard. Things are strange."

"When I see bodies burning like that, the first thing I think of is disease, except everyone here is acting like that's nothing."  Atal takes a scrap of cloth ripped from one of the articles of clothing he pilfered from the Hand's camp supplies, and moistens it with water.  He ties the makeshift bandana around his nose and mouth as they approach -- the smell and the smoke of burning human remains is nothing to scoff at, even if the people at the Lodge seem to be doing just that.  "Anybody else need one?  I'm definitely going to have a look at those bodies in a bit," he tells the others.  "But we need to secure ourselves a place to camp for the night, it looks like."

"Me n Nack never seen anything like it," Nik said looking at the fire with the same level of strange confusion as the rest of the party. "What you saying, Nik? It's fire. We see that all the time."

In an annoyed complaint, Nik raised his voice at his brother. "The bodies, Nack! The bodies."

The smell of the burning flesh possessed the same as if cooking meat over an open flame, however it was easily over powered by the charred smell of having been on the fire for some time. It did not distinctly smell any particular way to differentiate it from any other type of burnt once living thing. It was, to say the least, rather unpleasant, and a smell that would likely stay in the clothes of anyone who remained around it for too long.

Nik turned to Atal, and pointed beyond the bonfire toward the Lodge. "For 'proper' lodging, if you want, or work or jobs, you gotta talk to the Woodsman. He runs the place. But if you just wanna grab some grass for the night, we just do it. It's free, just gotta follow common sense rules bout others."

Current politely accepts Atal's request and places the mask over her face to mask the stench of burning bodies. When Nik and Nack suggest staying outside on the ground, Current chimes in, "I, unfortunately, do not have a lot of coins as I haven't been on the surface for very long so I don't know that I will be able to afford to lodge properly. I have no problems sleeping on the grass though. If everyone else is okay with that."

"I can give you the coin if you need it.", says Anearis pulling out a few coins from his pouch tucked underneath his shirt.