At first Arowan kept her hood up, as the party set out for the Windspear Hills. Jaheira was sure to disapprove, if not of the Charisma Ring itself, then certainly of where she had got it. She did not trust Dorn an inch either, far from it. Yet she had put it on and nothing bad had happened. The little band would slip off again with no resistance at all. Every mage and cleric who they showed it to had agreed that it was exactly what it seemed to be.
It turned out to have only one unpleasant side effect, and it was not one for which she could hold Dorn Il-Khan responsible. The ranger discovered it as they made their journey south.
Leaves whipped around their faces in a dry but determined gale. The wind was against the ranger, and finally she gave up fighting to keep her hood up. She let a gust huff it down and tied her soft, glossy hair into as tight-a-ponytail as was possible without yanking it out. It was satisfying to hear Viconia's sharp little intake of breath behind her.
"If there's nothing wrong with the ring itself," she said to Yoshimo, raising her voice a little to be heard above the weather, "Then whatever Dorn's master wants me to use my high charisma for, I'd need to choose to do it. He's going to try to trick me. We should be on our guard."
"Weren't we already?" asked the thief. The howling wind blew moisture from his eyes. It made it look like he was crying until his mouth split into a wicked grin. "Now speaking of the need to be on your guard…"
Anomen was approaching her. Arowan, who normally had the luxury of laughing at his courting attempts while never being the subject of them, was totally unprepared. She watched, baffled, as Yoshimo stepped sleekly from her side so that he could watch the fun from a safe distance.
"My lady!" the knight greeted her jovially. She looked around automatically to check who he was talking to, but Minsc's party were some way ahead of them while Viconia and Jaheira were lagging behind.
The young cleric was beaming at her with a warm, friendly smile. It was a sharp contrast to the patronizing indifference with which he normally approached their conversations. Then she caught sight of Yoshimo stuffing his sleeve into his mouth, and remembered that she was wearing the ring.
Jaheira was glaring at her suspiciously. Something was different, but with the wind whipping her hair over her face, and her figure disguised by thick warm clothing, it was not immediately obvious what. If she took the ring off now, however, the transformation would be instant. She'd have no plausible deniability and the druid would know. She mouthed 'help me,' at the Kara-Turan, who shook his head merrily in reply.
Yoshimo was having far too much fun, and Arowan unwisely decided to punish him for it.
"My lord Anomen!" she smiled, fluttering her newly darker and longer lashes. Yoshimo's smile vanished instantly. "I was meaning to compliment you on your battle prowess back in Trademeet. That Rakshasa had no idea what hit her!"
This was literally true, for Anomen had bludgeoned the creature from behind. Still, he had also lugged the dripping head around a steaming druid swamp and back to the genies who had been plaguing the town. That was certainly worth some points.
"True, true," Anomen agreed, with his usual modesty. "But I did not come over to talk about myself."
"You astonish me," the ranger replied, before she could stop herself. Charisma, it seemed, had not stripped her of her sarcasm, but it did seem to make the cleric less inclined to notice it.
"My lady, I have been watching you intently these past few hours, and I have come to a conclusion about you. Would you like to hear my thoughts?"
"That depends on what they are," Arowan replied warily, "But almost certainly not."
Leaves danced around their ankles before being blown further down the road. The wind was penetrating the gaps in his armour, making a faint but irritating whistling noise. Yoshimo stepped a little closer so that he could hear them over the sound, but the cleric was too preoccupied to notice.
"You are a most free-spirited lady. From what I hear, you have enjoyed with abandon all the things in life that I have always denied myself," Anomen told her. "I have refrained from the pleasures that you indulge in so willingly with Rasaad, Coran and who knows how many others? It is not proper for a knight of the Order to be so unbecoming, but I am under no such restrictions now!"
He said this with the air of a liege lord handing a beggar an extra-large coin purse. It was more forward than anything he had put to the others and she could not imagine what had possessed him. For a moment, Yoshimo thought that the ranger's eyes might pop out of her head and roll away.
"Good for you?" she hazarded.
"I am glad to hear you think so my lady!" Anomen replied, with great enthusiasm. "You are a beautiful woman Arowan (I cannot believe that I had not noticed it before) and full of a life that I have always desired. I wish to experience new things, now that I am free… and I wish to be closer to you."
Yoshimo appeared to be in danger of pissing his breeches with laughter. Luckily his wheezing was masked by the sound of the wind. Arowan shot him a look that could have melted bricks.
"Nope. No merchant discount in the world is worth this," she snapped. Not only was the cleric making an unbelievably bold pass at her, but she was pretty sure that he had just implied he was a virgin. Which, frankly, she could have guessed, but was more than she wanted to know. "The ring has to go."
She pulled it off and resumed her normal appearance. Sadly, it did not have the effect on Anomen that she was hoping for. Far from her normal lack of charisma hitting him like a cold shower, he seemed to think that the beauty being fake helped his case.
"Ah, so it is a magical device that has turned you from plain to alluring," the cleric grinned knowingly. "Fear not sweet lady, there is no harm in that. I'll not fall away so easily. You have captured my heart with your enchanting spirit, Arowan, and there is naught that I can do to resist you. Slip on the ring tonight and I shall slip you from your…"
"Woah!" Arowan cried, backing away sharply. "No, no, no, no, no. Not interested."
"Ah, do not worry, I have heard how little love you have for courtly romance. Do not be concerned that you will break my heart for I seek but a night or two. I know better than to try and tie a girl like you down!" he laughed.
"What in Ilmater's name do you mean 'a girl like me?'"
"Why, one so liberal with her favours! Ha ha! Pray, do not take it as a slight my lady, for I am quite won over by the merits of looser morals. I am well rid of the Order and now my chains have been lifted. Do you understand me? Good food wine and women! I long to laugh and do as I like... and by Helm I shall!" He was approaching her as fast as she was retreating, and before she knew what was happening, his hands were on her waist. "No romance, no flowers, just fun and freedom, am I right?"
Arowan cursed Dorn inwardly for inflicting the ring on her. She had not expected anything good to come from a demon's present, but this…? Anomen's hand snaked around her waist.
Unfortunately for the Helmite, Dorn had given her rather more than a ring. On the road to Dragonspear he had also provided lessons in hand to hand combat. She had never achieved anything close to the Blackguard's skill, but she was as competent as your average city guard. What's more Dorn had never wasted her time with 'we learn martial arts so that we don't have to use them' nonsense. Fighting fair was not a concept that had featured heavily in his tutorage.
"Turn me away or scorn me, I'll not fall so easily!" Anomen declared ardently. "Allow me one kiss on your petal lips, and I shall be to heaven bound! Only… put the ring back on first."
Whatever the inexperienced cleric had learned about romance was clearly wrong. She suspected it mostly came from the ravings of his alcoholic father and boasting in the Order dormitories by other, equally clueless young men. In his mind, women were either noble maidens and wives, or wanton succubae with insatiable appetites for sleeping with anyone and anything. The former, like Jaheira and Aerie, were worthy of high romance. The latter, like Neera and Viconia, required a more direct approach.
It was pretty obvious which category he had filed Arowan under.
She felt sorry for him, but not nearly sorry enough. Her knee swung up sharply, closely followed by her fist connecting with his nose. There was a loud crack, and the cleric stumbled backward cursing. He curled up like a wounded hedgehog, moaning. Both his hands were pressed to his face, but blood was oozing between his fingers.
"Er… don't make me do that again. That is to say… erm…" she said awkwardly. Perhaps taking off the Charisma Ring had been a mistake. With it, she might have thought of the perfect thing to say to put him off, without injuring him. It was too late for that now, but perhaps it might help with damage control. She popped the ring back on, just on the off-chance and a rather Freya-like response found itself on the tip of her tongue.
"Bugger off Anomen, there's a good chap!"
People came running from all directions. Someone from Minsc's party happened a glance back, there was yelling and soon the berserker was pelting up the road toward them. Boo rode on his shoulder like a furry orange parrot. Behind him ran Neera and Aerie. Hexxat walked.
If Arowan was worried about how the others would respond, she needn't have been. Yoshimo reached her first, and placed himself between her and Anomen, in case the cleric took it into his head to retaliate.
"That's my girl!" Jaheira laughed proudly. "How I wish Khalid were here to see this!"
"That was almost worthy of a drow! Who knew you had it in you?" Viconia cried approvingly. Then she remembered that she detested Arowan. She looked ruefully at Rasaad, and added defensively; "I said almost."
"I must agree," Rasaad nodded. "In truth, Arowan, had this event occurred before our last conversation, I would have been far less resolute about the outcome."
Arowan rolled her eyes at him, but not in a mean way and the corner of her lip turned up a little. When they had first met, he would never have dared to make a joke like that, but so much had changed.
"Too soon Rasaad," she replied. "Much too soon."
"I apologise for my misguided attempt to… ah… lighten the mood."
"Are we to take it then that your nauseating little dalliance has finally run its course?" Viconia asked them sharply. She was attempting to appear vicious but her real reason for asking couldn't be clearer.
"Yes Viconia, you have a clear shot," sighed Arowan, rolling her eyes for the second time in as many minutes. "Have at it."
"I have no idea what you are talking about, ridiculous rivvil!" she snapped and strode away up the path. Her silver hair fanned behind her in the wind, and she was swinging her hips far more than was natural, doubtless for Rasaad's benefit.
The ranger watched her walk away and was rewarded by catching the drow look over her shoulder to take another look at her new appearance. Rasaad suddenly seemed intensely interested in his hands. Perhaps baiting them at this stage wasn't very kind, but since Viconia never passed up an opportunity to be cruel to her, Arowan did not care.
"Oh, poor Anomen, what happened?" Aerie cried, squatting down by the stricken cleric. She healed his nose swiftly, eyes wide with concern.
"I hit him."
"Foulsome wench!" spat the failed knight. "Why would a woman magically enhance her appearance if not to lure men?"
Arowan was tempted to curse at him or ignore him, neither of which would really help matters. Instead she held out a hand and pulled him to his feet. He glared at her with misplaced resentment.
The others hovered, unsure whether they ought to do something to placate the feuding pair, but she waved them on. Once they were out of earshot, she answered his question.
"Oddly enough, in my case I upped my charisma to talk Sir Keldorn out of ruining the lives of his entire family," she replied mildly. "Not to lure men. And truth be told, I kept it on afterwards mainly to annoy Viconia. Women are people, Anomen, and it is rarely wise to assume that you know why people behave the way they do. I usually lean on the side of giving others the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise I would assume that you were an irredeemable arsehole."
"Why you…"
"As opposed to a battered child with the potential to recover."
Anomen said nothing, but it was clear that she had struck a nerve. Normally she would shrivel away from such a touchy-feely conversation, but the Charisma Ring was telling her to press on with it. Every so often one of the others would look back at them fearing (or possibly hoping) that their discussion might descend into violence again, but Arowan felt sure that the danger had passed.
"How are you faring Anomen?" she asked. It was as kind a tone as she could muster to someone who had just described her as having loose morals and called her a foulsome wench.
The cleric stared bleakly into the distance, as the wind blew his hair from his face. Blood from his freshly healed nose was drying on his lip, but he seemed past caring enough to wipe it clean.
"As well… as well as can be expected my lady."
"Arowan," she corrected him gently.
"I have some purpose again, as protector of the Servant of all Faiths. Without that I believe I would be faring much worse," he said. "It is just taking some getting used to. You do not understand what it means to lose everything. It is… difficult to accept."
Arowan nodded and listened to him until Jaheira declared that it was time to stop and make camp. His childhood was much as she had assumed, and his life in the Order arduous. He simultaneously had no life experience and rather too much.
She listened as patiently as she could, but ultimately Anomen was right, she didn't understand him. Though she had been miserable often enough she was, by nature, a stoic. Depression was something that she had always been able to lift herself out of by simply getting on with things. While she knew in her head that not all people were willing or able to do the same, the truth was that moping got on her nerves. She couldn't help it. There was someone in the party who might be more sympathetic, however.
That evening, bringing Yoshimo with her, she approached Rasaad as the monk prepared for his evening meditations.
"How may I enlighten you?" he asked.
"Would you consider sharing some of your monkish serenity with Anomen?" she asked.
"With the greatest of respect to our mutual friend, he does not strike me as the serene type," Rasaad replied, peeling off his shirt and settling himself into the lotus pose. It was the first time that Yoshimo had seen the monk shirtless, and it was impossible even for someone as laid back as he was not to be a little intimidated. The ranger, however, had seen it all before and was unimpressed.
"You're meditating bare chested even in this wind? Rather you than me!" Arowan muttered. Even setting up the tents had been near impossible in this weather, and at least one person had to be sitting in them at any time to prevent them from blowing away. "I just mean talk to him. He has lost everything. His family and the Order that he devoted his life to. Kind of like… you. It struck me that you might understand him better than I can."
"I will try, but I fear I have little of comfort to say to him," Rasaad nodded sagely. "Since my brother's death I have found little joy in anything. Now I fall deeper into darkness as my quest draws me further from my friends in the Sun Soul."
"Ever heard the saying misery loves company? Just have a chat with Anomen, you miserable git," Arowan groaned. "And put your shirt back on."
She returned to camp with Yoshimo, leaving Rasaad to contemplate the moonlight reflecting from a random pebble. When they had first met, she had watched him meditate and thought him tremendously disciplined and wise. Now she found him rather dull. Perhaps focussing one's mind on a stone might provoke some profound, enlightening thoughts… first time around. But every day for years? She suspected that he spent most of his meditation time daydreaming.
"So this is your monk? He is very muscular, is he not?" Yoshimo said. He tried to make it sound like a casual observation, but she thought she detected a flicker of worry in his shining eyes.
"Why Yoshimo, you surprise me. I had no idea you were interested in that sort of thing," she teased lightly.
"No!" he said hastily. "I mean not for myself. I mean… mmph."
She kissed him, enjoying the brush of his beard against her face. In response he cupped her cheek tenderly, feeling her warm body pressed against his own, a shield from the wind that still howled about them. By the time they returned to camp, his brief brush with jealousy had already dissolved, for he was sure that her affection was his, and his alone.
The next day of walking passed without event and they made camp at the base of the Windspear Hills. Rasaad and Anomen had spent most of the day in each other's company, and by the end of it both men seemed happier.
Arowan scratched at the Charisma Ring with her thumbnail. So far it was bringing so much good, but why Ur-Gothoz had gifted it to her still bothered her. Yoshimo was slicing roots for their supper and she watched his quick clever hands work with a fond smile.
"Boo hates goodbyes, but here we must part once more!" Minsc cried. "We shall hasten to Neera's Hidden Refuge, to defend the tiny magelings from evil Red Wizards. Join us there when you have freed the poor dryad ladies."
Little Boo squeaked his farewell and Minsc departed with Aerie, Neera and Hexxat following. Anomen waved them off with a soppy romantic smile, but it was impossible to say which of the ladies he was mooning over now.
The ranger waved them off good humouredly, and Minsc delicately lifted Boo's tiny paw to make him wave back. A sharp finger prodded her in the shoulder. She turned around to find Viconia glaring at her.
"Rivvil!" snapped Viconia. "You have not even attempted to hunt anything in as long as I can remember. I do not see you doing anything useful. Go and fetch me some rabbits!"
Rude though the demand was, she was at least not threatening violence. This was the closest thing to a civil interaction that the pair of them had had, since Durlag's Tower. If they were going to be stuck with each other, she might as well make an effort, though doubtless it would be thrown in her face at some point.
"Alright Viconia, let's go," she said, hoisting her pack onto her back and rising stiffly to her feet.
"Me? I do not use a bow and arrow," the Sharran replied haughtily.
"You don't hunt rabbits with a bow, you snare them," Arowan replied. "We can set a few tonight and check them in the morning. Come on. I'll show you."
The drow glared at her mistrustfully. Yet it seemed unlikely that after saving her from the stake, the ranger would throttle her in the woods. If she did, it would be an excellent excuse to defend herself with lethal force. So they set out together. They had not gone far, however, when they heard voices.
Stranger danger was a concept with which both women were very familiar. Instinctively, they moved off the path and crouched in a clump of dense bushes. Presently a strange party marched before them. Several ogres and a gnoll, with a baby wyvern fluttering along behind them.
"Ajantis, we have been combing this wood for hours without a hint of an ogre," whinged the wyvern. "What if your lead was wrong?"
"I tell you, Lord Firkraag described Tazok perfectly. He is here. He must be!" The largest ogre snapped, frustratedly. Ogres generally did not have the most expressive faces, but this one seemed distressed. "I… It's late. I seem to remember a sheltered grove five minutes west of our position. We can make camp for tonight but tomorrow the hunt must go on. I owe it to Kivan and the others."
"It was a long time ago," one of the other ogres said, placing a chunky hand on his arm. Arowan squinted at them. They were not behaving nor speaking like any ogres she had ever encountered. "Nothing you can do will rewrite the past. Don't you think it's time to let it go?"
The ogre named Ajantis pulled a thick journal from his pocket and looked at it thoughtfully.
"Nothing can rewrite the past? We'll see…" he mumbled. Then he seemed to come to his senses and thrust the diary safely away. "But for now we must deal with Tazok. Regardless of Kivan, that monster is a threat wherever he goes. If he is lurking in this region then our duty as paladins is to put a stop to him. Onward men!"
Viconia and Arowan watched them go.
"Well that was weird," muttered the ranger.
"They're headed back to our camp!" Viconia hissed. "We have to warn the others."
"There's no way we can make it back before they do," Arowan whispered. She didn't like to assume that the ogres would attack them based purely on their species, but the fact was that her party had yet to meet an ogre who didn't try to kill them on sight. "We'd better follow them. Have you got any invisibility spells? I don't fancy taking on that lot just the two of us."
"I have Silence memorized," Viconia suggested. "It'll mute our footsteps so that we can follow them more easily without getting caught."
"That'll do," Arowan grinned. "Come to think of it, have you considered casting silence on yourself? I mean permanently? You might find it easier to get along with people as a mute."
"Have you considered using those rabbit snares of yours on the males?" Viconia retorted. "That way you might be able to keep hold of one of them for longer than five minutes at a time."
With these words, Arowan realised something which ought to have been obvious from the moment Anomen started attempting to paw at her. She stiffened, then with a rustle of leaves, she twisted around in the bush, livid.
"It was you!" she seethed. "You told Anomen about Coran and Rasaad and convinced him that I'd be interested in…"
Viconia cast her silencing spell and the ranger's words were cut off. Her lips continued to move furiously but no sound came out. The drow was smiling gleefully at her, looking much too pleased with herself. Arowan made up her mind to retaliate at the next opportunity.
The time for that was not now, however. They crept silently in the shadows of the trees after Ajantis the Ogre and his companions.
"Beasts! Curs! Your rampage of terror ends here!"
The ogres burst into camp, their pet wyvern flapping above their heads and snapping its tiny jaws savagely.
"Ogres!" cried Yoshimo, dropping the vegetable knife and snatching up his katana. Rasaad jumped to his feet, ready to fight and Anomen scrambled around trying to remember where he'd put his shield. Jaheira, however, was hesitant.
"You are awfully eloquent for a beast of your size," she said archly. "We should talk for a moment."
"No more words!" Ajantis cried. "I have had more words from the followers of Tazok than I could stomach in a thousand lifetimes. Tell me where your master lurks and I shall hasten your passing!"
"We know not this Tazok," the druid replied, "Let us lay down our arms and discuss this sensibly."
"Your lies will trouble this land no longer!" the ogre raged. "Your crimes will trouble the people not a second more."
The ogres charged, as ogres are wont to do. Arowan drew back her bow and shot the wyvern. She was aiming for the eye, but it was a difficult shot, and instead it pierced its flank. The little creature gave a squeal of pain and thrashed its tail. The arrow stuck in its thigh, wobbling with the monster's movements.
"That's not right," she muttered. Wyverns' scaly hides were almost as thick as those of a dragon. An ordinary arrow, even from a bow like hers and even against a baby, should not be able to break through its natural armour. Between that and the creatures' peculiar speech she was certain that they were being tricked. "STOP! STOP, IT'S NOT A REAL WYVERN!"
Unfortunately, Viconia's silencing spell still lingered over her, and nobody heard a word.
The drow was already racing past her, on silent feet, and ran the lead ogre through with her flaming sword from behind. Rasaad ran full pelt at the nearest ogre and tackled it. The monster was not nearly as strong nor heavy as he had expected it to be. He cannoned into it, knocking it prone, then kept going, rolling forward over the monster and skidding to a halt in the grass.
"What the…" he muttered. He too realised that something was off and he stared intently, searching for some sign of trap or illusion.
Yoshimo and Anomen had an ogre and a gnoll. Both men were finding the battle unexpectedly straightforward. Especially once Jaheira had wrapped her entangling roots about the assailant's legs. They plunged their blades into the monsters' chests at the same moment. In a really quite spectacular move, the thief vaulted from his ogre's falling head, using it as a springboard to leap onto the wyvern's neck and wrestle it to the floor. Anomen's mace swung down to crush the creature's skull.
"NO, NO!" Arowan hollered silently, gesturing with her hands. There was only one ogre left, the one that Rasaad had knocked down. She sprinted toward it but Jaheira, in bear form, got there first.
Using his focussed meditation, which was not really so useless as the ranger supposed, the monk managed to briefly see the ogre for what it was. A stricken knight in armour, looking up in terror at the approaching bear paw.
"NO DON'T!" he shouted, but it was too late. The bear's huge claws ripped the face, helmet and all, from the man and with his death the illusion lifted.
Knights and squires, all bearing the emblem of the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart, lay dead at their feet. For all his bluster about how little he cared for the Order now, Anomen was beside himself.
"Helm's beard, what have we done?" he moaned. "A most foul ruse has been played upon this company! Innocents are slain, the lifeblood of the Order stains the ground at my feet. What have we done? By all the gods, what have we done?"
"Cease your blubbering male!" said Viconia, removing her silencing spell. "We were attacked and had to defend ourselves."
"Faithless fool!" Anomen retorted. "You do not understand the import of this event. These are paladins of the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart. I know this man, Ajantis. He is a noble man, but now is dead, and by our hand."
The party bent over the bodies to check that this was indeed the case. It seemed repulsive under the circumstances to loot the men's belongings, but they took their insignias to return to the Order, and Yoshimo found a journal on the body of the one called Ajantis. Hoping that it might explain the situation, he picked it up and flicked through at random.
His eyes widened as he read, and while the others were distracted with the dead, he slipped the diary into his pack. Yoshimo's heart started to hammer, for in his brief inspection of the object one name had cropped up over and over. Bubbles.
"We are stained with this dishonour, and the Order will demand justice," Anomen told them. "They will hunt us to the ends of the world for this crime."
"After everything this party has done for the Order?" Jaheira spluttered indignantly.
"They cannot possibly believe that we would do such a thing on purpose!" cried Rasaad.
"You must be joking, right?" Arowan asked him, her fingers tugging at her hair in distress. "Look at our party Rasaad. I'm a Bhaalspawn and a numbing potion addict! Anomen is a cast-off knight. We have a drow and we have you- a man who has been going around publicly beating up Sun Soul Monks. Of course they'll believe we did it!"
"Loathe though I am to admit it, she's right," Viconia nodded. "We are… how do you surfacers put it? Toast."