After a brief rest the party continues to head towards Gable’s fork. Upon arrival the town is in an uproar. There are lots of folks carrying on about thieves and brandishing pitchforks, a large group of villagers is surrounding the charred remains of the troll in the center of town.  The dragon can be seen high in the sky flying to and from the valley northwards toward the mountains and though the villagers keep a wary eye to the sky they don’t seem terribly concerned. 

An interview with Hollian revealed  the towns opinion .“She was a fair sort of beast. Kept to herself, she charged a fee to keep trolls, wolves and such out of the area… kept her end bargain far as we could tell, until that troll you fought came into town….shame about the smith though…..I guess now we’ll need to bring up a watch, think that Treelord will bother us?  Oh Oak and Ash are the twins. Give Nerisella my best.

((Valley is the Woad's domain.... you notice it flying north west from the valley on two occasions separated by at least two hours. We are moving the time-line forward at least one extended rest.

Holy frackin' . . . what?  I miss one session and you all get killed?

Sean texted me to say so, but I assumed he was just bullshitting me.

I guess it must be really hard to get through a fight without any defenders.  I'm sorry for your losses, guys, but I'm looking forward to see what your new characters will be like.

Well, I guess what Luke would do is start to get worried after the other characters had been gone for ~5 days.  On the sixth day, whether he's feeling well or not -- and with or without Brent -- he would get up and go try to find out what happened to Aerandis, Dayereth, and Aaron.  He'd proceed cautiously, not wishing to simply get slaughtered by whatever may have defeated his comrades, but he'd probably head to the big tree and try to get the dryad to talk to him; and/or climb down and try to communicate with the mushroom people.

If he learns that they're dead, he'd want to see if he could get the bodies, but wouldn't seriously risk his life in order to do so.

Once he knows they're dead, Luke vows that they will not be forgotten.  Sooner or later, he thinks, this adventuring life will bring in a bit of money if he lives long enough.  And when that happens, he'll commission a stained glass window, or a statue, or at the very least an engraved plaque, in a church/chapel/monastery of Heironeous somewhere, to keep alive the memory of these brave men.

In the meantime, lacking the funds for such a memorial, he will at least get a pen, ink, and paper, and spend a couple of days jotting down his memories of the three dead men: their bravery and smarts, and the stories they told, whatever memories are most vivid.  Luke's handwriting is crap and his style is simple and plain, a poor substitute for a bard's work but enough to preserve his impressions of them for future generations.  The church of Heironeous has many historical records of brave and noble warriors; Luke knows that his dead companions will amount to little more than a footnote, but that's still something.  So he will be on the lookout, in his travels, for a church or monastery where there is a historian or custodian of records to whom he can give a copy of his notes.

Then Luke heads back to Feyfields and tells Nerisella of what has befallen.  She should be able to get word to Aerandis's people.  Luke recalls that Aaron used to be a guardsman in Holderness, so he writes a letter addressed to the town guards of that city, telling of what Aaron did before his death and how he died.  Unfortunately Luke has no idea how to contact any of Dayereth's people.

Luke decides not to abandon the hope that Nadarresh can be revived.  It will be sad, he thinks, to bring him back into a world that no longer contains Aerandis or Dayereth or Aaron.  But that's not reason enough to abandon Nadarresh to death too.  So he asks Nerisella what else needs to be done in order to accomplish that.

After Nadarresh is revived (or if that attempt proves unsuccessful), Luke wants to head in the direction of Shattered Bridge and learn more about what is going on with Stitches and the dracolich.  He feels that it is still his duty to atone for the disaster of the Drakespire, and furthermore that he must do it for the sake of his dead companions, so that their now-ended lives aren't permanently stained with having loosed this evil into the world.

My recollection is that (1) the component we came here for was just some ingredient that the village healer had, not a unique and irreplaceable item, and (2) we sent a messenger to Nerisella with the component after last session, i.e., before Dayereth, Aerandis, and Aaron went back underground.

But if what you're saying is that Luke should quit trying to restore Nadarresh, then fine -- there could be many reasons why it can't be done.  That being the case, Luke is now mainly interested in destroying Stitches and the dracolich.

By the way: If Luke has the chance at some point to give his notes on his dead companions to an archivist or historian, he will leave out any mention of the Drakespire business.  It would only make the dead, the church, and Luke himself look bad.

Jesus......not only has it been a long week with some problems but nearly all Brent's comrades are dead!

I'll say that Brent stayed back with Luke since he has some training in the healer arts and can help out a bit and he viewed what the others were doing as more of a scouting mission.

That being said, when Luke comes to, Brent would probably follow Luke's lead in being worried about the others and going look for them.

He thinks the memorial statue is a great thought and agrees to help with such a thing. Brent also vows to right everything that has happened. That being dealing with the dragon, dealing with the draco-lich and coming back and exacting vengeance on whatever beasts killed there comrades.

(I'm really sorry guys. Now I feel bad for not being there.)

You mean they are not real?!

Brent look to Luke with a raised eyebrow, "This is exactly what I set out to do when I left my home. And it seems you, myself, and Heironeous are in agreement that the dracolich must be stopped."

"So of course I will travel with you. I only have one thing to ask of you, I wish you to spar with me as often as possible. I am in the midst of developing a new technique and I could use a live combatant to work with."

He extands an arm to shake with Luke, "But know this, I am Joseph Venyrth, decendant of the great Gregor Venyrth, and so long as I still breath and my heart still beats you shall have my swordarm."