Let's Piss Off All These Mercenaries
- "Where is Anomen?" Keldorn asked.
- "Gone." Peri's grim look dared the group. They didn't talk, just looked at her exceptantly.
- "This couldn't go on anymore. He was bitter and unstable, and the friction was only getting worse," she continued.
- "Perhaps I could have..." Keldorn started, but his voice trailed off, his eyes averting from Peri's.
- "No, you could not," Peri said without venom. "After the Order rejected him he wouldn't hear one bit of fatherly advice from you."
- "You sent him away instead of me..." Sarevok said in ponderous tone, his eyes intent on Peri's.
- "Not only was that what I wanted to do, Gorion also said that we all would need each other to survive," she answered.
- "Ach, now me won't be weepin' after yon Helm-boy, but we be needin' a bloody healer, aye?" Korgan pointed out.
Peri nodded slowly.
- "I am on good terms with Viconia... but..."
- "The drow is a servant of Shar, Peri!" Keldorn exclaimed. "Have you perchance ever seen a scene like a human sacrifice ritual for Shar?"
- "Keldorn, I'm very unlikely to get shocked if you bring up death or murder, even human sacrifice," Peri snarled. "However, it does bother me that she worships Shar. I don't want to mess with nasty gods any more than I have to. Also, being raised in Underdark she has a very... unique way of dealing with things. A way I have difficulties accepting sometimes."
- "What do you mean?" Sarevok asked.
- "Means that manipulation comes to her as easily as breathing to many others. Granted, she mostly uses her talents on males, but still."
- "Why don't we call Aerie? She is a..." But Keldorn couldn't finish his sentence.
- "Out of the question!" Peri spat.
- "Nay!" Korgan growled. "If I 'ave one more time to listen to yon 'ollow-skulled bird-elf whinin' about her bloody wings, I'll kill her meself!"
- "She is stupid, she whines all the time, she is always tired or wounded or scared or whatever, she is manipulative. And I have to strain myself as to not to kill her merely because she irritates me more than a Calimshite rash. So no, we are not summoning Aerie under any circumstances," Peri said.
- "Peri, you are being a bit hard on her," Imoen said.
- "I don't care. We can't afford to coddle and pamper her and use a significant amount of our energy to refrain from killing our cleric right now. Now if you had a permanent gag spell it might work, but then she couldn't cast the spells and be of any use in the first place. Plus, it would be she herself who would need the resurrection spell most of the time."
- "Jaheira then?" Imoen suggested.
- "The harper?" Sarevok's face twitched with distaste.
Peri shook her head.
- "No... we would get on each others' nerves too much. And besides, she is a druid. We are more in need of a cleric, who can deal with all these extraplanar and undead horrors we encounter on daily basis nowadays."
- "Let's piss off all these mercenaries prancin' about, kill 'em, take their stuff, sell it and buy scrolls and rods with the loot!" Korgan suggested.
- "There's an idea," Peri acknowledged, earning a disapproving frown from Keldorn. "Anyway, we have a lot of gold. I will have to think on this."
- "I want to seriously warn you from trusting the drow," Keldorn stubbornly said.
- "Her name is Viconia," Peri said icily. "I hear you: I don't like Shar either. But it is not a question of principle to me - it is whether there is any danger to us in consorting with her cleric."
- "Och! We will do fine whatever happens... and if not, there be a lot o' space in yon planes. Let's just drink some more!" Korgan laughed and ordered a new round.
- "Drink hail!" Peri and he shouted and slammed their tankards together so that some of the ale foamed onto the table.
After that the evening took a lighter turn. Sarevok didn't say much, just observed his new group. He was tempted to think of them as his friends, though such a word, uttered without sarcasm, hadn't belonged to his vocabulary in a long time. Peri and Korgan were getting more and more drunk, steadily determined to do so. Imoen was giggly and getting more and more tired, Minsc drinking only milk. Sarevok and Keldorn were drinking slowly, sipping their wines.
Finally Imoen fell asleep her pink head pressed against Sarevok's shoulder and her feet in Minsc's lap. Sarevok felt astonishing gentleness. Little Imoen, a tiny part of whose soul he carried inside. So brave in her own way, so much hidden strength in her.
- "Minsc will take Imoen to her room and retreat to sleep also himself. Boo needs his beauty sleep," Minsc said, and effortlessly took Imoen in his arms.
- "You do that, Minsc. I would shudder to think what would happen if your rodent would turn less attractive by lack of sleep," Sarevok said. "Good night."
Korgan had disappeared with a 'professional entertainer' who claimed to like dwarves. This caused Keldorn to sigh, but he didn't say anything.
- "I will leave you two then. Good night," he said. The old paladin felt pride in the two children of dark inheritage. What Sarevok had said to him after the battle with the army still warmed his heart. Actually nowadays he was much easier to reach than his sister.
Sarevok was left with the visibly drunk Peri. Her eyes were shining and her speech was slightly slurred. Her hair was swimming in a puddle of ale she had spilled on the table, but she didn't notice that. Sarevok himself wasn't that drunk. He still associated excessive alcohol use to Winski's misery and soggy, sweaty days of madness and guilt in Cythandria's bed, and therefore wasn't very fond of the habit.
- "Sister. Will you tell me about Irenicus and Yoshimo?"
