Chapter 9: Hangovers and More Day 7
Jeral awoke to the first rays of light. They served to awaken the pain that was in his head. Swearing off drink, not for the first time, Jeral struggled with the pain. With a start he realized that the hangover was the least of his concerns. Curled up next to him was Imoen. She had clearly climbed into bed with him after he passed out. Thank heavens nothing happened. I love Imoen but she is my sister, Jeral mused. He lay wishing for death as the hangover and the confusion from the night's prior events served to cause his head to throb and ache. After a few minutes Imoen began to stir. She rolled over to face him. Smiling she said good morning. After a few seconds her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to speak. Before she could say anything she rolled away from Jeral and proceeded to vomit off the side of the bed. Jeral held her hair out of the way as she continued to vomit. A small part of his mind managed to stay detached and was amazed at how much food the small girl had apparently eaten yesterday The variety of colors and consistencies was impressive as well "She must have visited every food vendor in town yesterday," Jeral mused.
Once Imoen was finished being sick she rolled onto her back and moaned in pain. "My head hurts," she moaned. Jeral hopped out of bed to clean up the mess and get Imoen some water from the pitcher on the table. As Jeral walked to the bed to bring Imoen the water she propped herself up on some pillows to drink from the glass. Jeral left Imoen to her suffering and unsteadily walked downstairs to the common room in search of a hangover cure.
Khalid and Jaheira were already at a table eating. Jeral sheepishly joined them. A glass of murky liquid was placed in front of him by the serving wench. With a knowing look she suggested that should be his breakfast. Nodding slightly, to reduce the pain, Jeral lifted the glass and drank the foul smelling, slimy concoction down in one long gulp. It took all his will to keep it down but it did reduce the pain in his head somewhat.
"Uh guys, I think we are going to need to stay in Beregost for another day."
"What? Why chi, er Jeral." Appreciating Jaheira's efforts at tact Jeral explained to her and Khalid that he Imoen and Garrick had all consumed more alcoholic beverages than they should have the night before. Muttering something about balance and children Jaheira and Khalid left the Inn to spend another day exploring Beregost. Jeral ordered two more hangover specials and headed upstairs, on the way he bumped into Ajantis and explained the situation. Shaking his head in disappointment the paladin departed to spend the day visiting the local temple. Jeral opened the door to Garrick's room and stuck his head in. Garrick's snores verified that he still lived, as did the spreading pool of drool by his mouth. Jeral placed a mug of the beverage on the table in the room and quietly backed out.
Returning to his room he knocked. He did not receive a reply so he knocked again. After a third knock a weak voice said come in. He entered the room to see Imoen on the floor in a ball, she had not yet gotten dressed. She kept moaning that her head was going to explode. He placed the drink on the table and picked her up off the floor with surprising ease. He sat down in a plush chair with her on his lap. He said nothing; he just stroked her hair and held her. Jeral eventually got her to drink the hangover cure and she forced it down in a few reluctant gulps. Once she finished the drink he put her back into bed and left to explore the town."
Day 8
The next morning the party met for a hearty breakfast. Jeral, Imoen and Garrick apologized for wasting a day and promised to be smarter in the future about what – and how much – they drank. That seemed to satisfy everyone, even Jaheira.
After breakfast they gathered their gear, to include bedrolls and field gear purchased by Khalid and Jaheira, and headed south. The party made good time on a clear spring day. Imoen skipped ahead chatting animatedly with Garrick. Evidently the stay in Beregost had given her exactly what she wanted and needed. Jeral was not sure how he felt about that but he was glad that she was happy. Garrick mentioned that he had heard from the town crier that there was a large reward for the head of a cleric named Bassilus. Everyone agreed that they would pursue the reward but only after they had visited Nashkel.
After walking for less than an hour they heard a large amount of movement in the trees off to the side of the road. Everyone slowed their pace and readied their ranged weapons. Imoen started to scout ahead but her presence was clearly detected because the movement in the woods stopped.
"Imoen, Garrick, fall back NOW!" Jeral yelled.
Imoen looked back in confusion.
At that moment two large creatures burst from the trees to the side of the road. Jeral immediately recognized them as ogres. They were similar in size to the ones that had attacked him and Gorion only half a fortnight ago. Imoen and Garrick took off at a sprint back towards the group. Khalid and Jeral fired arrows while Jaheira's sling bullets joined in. Ajantis drew his sword and charged the ogres. The first ogre fell under a hail of missiles. The second one continued to close on Imoen and the group. Khalid dropped his bow and drew his sword; however he did not have time to remove his shield from his back. Jaheira grabbed her staff and the two half elves charged forward to support Ajantis against the ogre. They split a few feet apart and Imoen and Garrick went dashing between the gap between the two half elves.
The ogre collided violently with Ajantis and the Paladin was knocked to the ground. Jeral's arrows failed to find their target while Garrick stung the creature with a crossbow bolt to the shoulder. It bellowed in pain. Jaheira waded in and stung the monster with a blow to its ribs while Khalid stabbed with his long sword. With a roar it flailed its club at Jaheira. She managed to evade the force of the blow although one of the nails on the ogre's club sliced into her shoulder. Before the ogre could take another swing an arrow from Imoen buried itself into the ogre's eye, killing it instantly. As it toppled to the ground Ajantis had to roll out of the way to avoid being smothered underneath the beast. Jaheira healed herself after checking the others to ensure that no one else needed her aid.
Imoen found two enchanted belts and some small gemstones of marginal quality and value. Jeral and Garrick closely examined the two belts and quietly chatted to one another. After a few minutes Garrick declared that one of the belts offered some minor protection against slashing and piercing weapons while the other was cursed to reversed the wearer's sex. It was agreed that Jaheira should wear the protective belt and Jeral offered to hold the other belt for safe keeping. Smiling, Jeral knew he would have an opportunity to put the belt to good use at some point. Gorion had always scolded him for the practical jokes he and Imoen pulled on the residents of Candlekeep but there had always been a gleam in his eye as he did so.
They walked in silence for a few hours. Jaheira clearly was enjoying the outdoors and the beautiful day. Khalid was just enjoying his wife's happiness. Jaheira stopped abruptly, raised her arm in the air and took a deep breath. "Someone is cooking," she said. "They are cooking human flesh. Prepare yourselves." The party cautiously moved in the direction Jaheira indicated. Peering through some trees they could see approximately 8 hobgoblins arguing over some meat on a spit over a fire pit. Jeral did not speak hobgoblin but they were obviously arguing over portion size. The group readied their ranged weapons, all save Ajantis, and attacked the creatures. With complete surprise on their side the eight hobgoblins were quickly dispatched without anyone in the party receiving any damage at all. The camp gave the party some small amount of gold and a supply of arrows before they moved on.
They had gone less than a mile when they were challenged by a lone armed member of the Flaming Fist. Shouting "I am the law, stop in the name of…well in the name of me!" he approached the party. Jaheira put a restraining hand on Jeral's forearm. "I will handle this Jeral. The Fist is normally a source of law and order in this land. One must be respectful and tactful in dealing with them." Nodding his assent Jeral watched Jaheira approach the mercenary. The mercenary came to a stop in front of Jaheira and declared that she and her companions were all clearly bandits and must be punished. Jaheira took offense at being called a bandit. Things quickly escalated from there and before too long Khalid was reluctantly strapping on a new set of plate mail armor and he placed his chain mail armor in his pack for a future sale. They offered the plate mail armor to Ajantis but he refused to wear such ill gotten gain.
"I realize he was overzealous in his application of the law and that we fought in self defense but I cannot wear such tainted armor," the paladin solemnly intoned.
As the party walked away from the corpse Jeral innocently asked how calling someone "the pox on a diseased Gibberling's ass" could be considered respectful and tactful. Jaheira glowered at him as Khalid and the others laughed in amusement. The laughs did not die down until everyone realized they had best quicken their pace to catch up to the back of a rapidly disappearing druid.
It was twilight when they reached the outskirts of Nashkel on the Amnian border. They crossed the bridge into the village and were immediately confronted by a guard who asked their names and business. Their brief response served to placate the guard and they were granted entry into the town. It was little more than a row of buildings along the main street with a stream on the other side of the road. Khalid suggested the meet with Mayor in the morning and they headed to the Nashkel Inn.
The Inn was small, sparsely crowded and dimply lit. From across the common room a voice announced the presence of yet another assassin.
"This may be a touch unlady like but I'm going to slit your throat I am." Advancing out of the gloom was an armored woman wielding a war hammer.
"How can she slit my throat with a hammer? How dumb is that? And what is with the pre attack speech. Just shut up and try to kill me already." Jeral mused to himself as he drew his sword and started to charge the advancing woman.
She halted halfway across the room and started casting a spell. As she completed the spell, Jeral, Imoen and Jaheira froze in place.
Ajantis and Khalid advanced on the woman and placed themselves between her and their immobilized companions. Garrick started shooting crossbow bolts at the woman. The bolts could not pierce through her chain mail armor, helm and shield. She and the two fighters were busily trading blows and the sound of weapons striking shields rang through the inn as other patrons scrambled out of the way. The assassin seemed unable to penetrate their defenses while they seemed equally unable to do damage to the assassin. Khalid made a sweeping overhead attack that was neatly blocked against the woman's shield. To Khalid's horror his sword shattered on her shield leaving him weaponless. Khalid slowly backed up under a furious barrage of hammer strikes. His shield was slowly being deformed from all the blows.
Ajantis seized on her distraction and finally penetrated her defenses with a high backhanded slash to her unprotected throat. She dropped her hammer and shield and tried to staunch the flow of blood from her neck with her hands. Coughing up blood she fell to the floor and the party impassively watched her bleed out. As she died the immobilized party members were freed from her hold person spell. Quickly searching the body Imoen found a magical helm, a few hundred in gold and yet another bounty notice with a bounty set at six hundred and eighty pieces of gold. "By the way, they now mention that you have a group of well armed friends. Nice to know we finally get some attention as well. This one was apparently called Neira," Imoen stated.
Acting as nonchalant as possible the party requested three rooms at the Inn. Wordlessly they trudged upstairs to get some sleep at the end of a long day. Khalid and Jaheira took the first room, and Garrick and Ajantis entered the second. Imoen headed for the third door. Jeral slowly followed Imoen into the room.
Imoen was already undressing by the bed. Once the door closed she finished undressing, slipped into her nightshirt and slid into bed. Jeral quickly changed and slid in next to her. Wordlessly they cuddled together and went no farther than that. Secure together they went to sleep.
Jeral awoke in the morning feeling refreshed and happier than he had in days. Imoen was already awake and putting her gear back on, ready to face whatever lay ahead.