Chapter 5: mansplain manipulate manslaughter
"I don't know, baking has just been speaking to me lately."
"Stop listening."
— 9 —
Trees are strange.
Like, ones allowed to grow outside of the city parks of Elturel.
Trees are big. Really big. The branches grow every which way, reaching for the sun. Molly can respect the ones so big, so strong, so powerful, that they strangle the weaker trees below them—taking all the sunlight for themselves. She can see herself in them in a way that makes her absently consider maybe it makes a certain amount of sense for the druids of the grove to worship them.
Someone once told her when you cut down a tree, they have rings of bark inside. You can count those to see how old they are. Some trees can have hundreds of rings. They are ancient, older than the oldest elves, dating back before history itself. And you only realize how old the tree truly is when you cut it down to turn it into a couch and a nifty pair of shoes.
She wonders if people are the same way. She's never seen a person inside-out. Some public hangings of thieves who were nowhere near as talented as her, which were just opportunities to gloat. When Elturel fell into Avernus, she stayed in the city, sticking to the alleys she knew as home to avoid getting caught up in the Blood War politics of Hell. There weren't many trees back there.
Before Elturel exiled the tieflings, she never would have seen trees like this.
Zevlor probably saw lots of trees in his life. He was a Hellrider, one of the city's elite. He rarely talked about it. When the city exiled the tiefling, Molly thought it best not to ask. He's still alive out there somewhere. That man is basically invincible. He'll survive this. She knows it. Then she can ask him about the places he's seen that she's never been to. Maybe she can tell him about places he's never been, too.
She supposes seeing new things is an adventure for you, right? Oh, the places you'll go and all that. Finding ancient loot you can sell so you never have to work another day in your life. Heroically looting tombs and bad guys. The good stuff.
She considers the two with her, Jack and Eddie. She wonders how much loot they want to take. Because, like, obviously there's going to be a lot. There's always a lot of loot. Every ex-adventurer type she knows is usually pretty well off. She wonders why she didn't think of this earlier.
Walk around, find a monster, take its hoard—easy. Should have done this earlier.
She pumps her fists. Best idea ever. Better than pickpocketing with a gang of kids.
Jack catches her eyes and pumps his fist back at her. So she pumps hers even harder. He falls down to one knee, flexing his arms. Molly scoffs, then perfectly balances on one leg and strikes a pose with her sword.
The paladin pounds his fists on his chests, hands lighting up with some protective spell. He raises his fists as if to box her, still up on one knee. She points from her eyes to him, very fast so he knows she is indeed staring at him, and slices her finger over her throat.
He grunts as if dying, gesturing to Eddie for help.
Eddie blinks. Very slowly. Judgmentally. "No."
Jack pouts. Molly does too, but better. She's the best at pouting.
Eddie puts her palms into her face and sighs loudly.
Through the thickets someone shouts. A person, for sure. But is it a con or someone in danger? Back in Elturel just because you can hear someone getting murdered in an alley over doesn't mean you got no obligations to help. Molly checks over her shoulder; the paladin jumps to his feet, hand already on his sword.
"Jack," Eddie says slowly. Like a warning.
"I hear danger," he says. "Someone might need help."
"I mean there's a lot of dangerous things out here," Molly says. "I saw an owlbear once. Very fluffy but the feathers hide teeth and claws."
Jack holds up his hand. "Look, I'm finna go have me a gander. Vamos, y'all."
"Was that even Common?" Eddie asks.
Jack heads into the bushes.
Eddie doesn't move. "Oh, yes, sure. Playing hero. To idiots out in the woods. While we're on a strict timetable. I'll get right on that."
Molly looks between them.
"Any minute now," Eddie says. "Eeeeeeager to help. That's me."
Molly decides to throw in her lot with the paladin. He doesn't threaten to torture her, so he feels like the safe bet in any argument between the party. Eddie sighs, muttering under her breath, and trails behind them both.
"No, Edowin!" a woman is shouting. "You're a True Soul. You can't die. Not like that."
A man barely holding in panic says, "He's not moving. I don't think he's conscious anymore, Brynna."
"Wait, who are you? You stay back!" the woman shouts in a panic, reaching for a mace on her back.
Molly pokes her head around Jack and grimaces. Three people. A balding human guy, younger woman, and an old dwarf on the ground. The dwarf is writhing, eyes closed. Convulsing more like it, without any obvious wounds.
"Calm your tits," Jack says, kneeling down beside the dwarf. "This looks bad. What happened to him? I may be able to help."
The woman grabs a sword. "I said, stay away from him!"
Jack freezes, but he's staring at the dwarf. His hand is halfway towards some healing gesture, paladin magic or whatever. Then the dwarf's eyes flutter open, a dull, dry color.
"True Soul," the dwarf moans, reaching his hand out to Jack.
"Wait, True Soul? You?" the woman asks.
The dwarf gasps. "Protect them. Andrick and Brynna. Please."
"True Soul Edowin?" the woman, Brynna, says, stepping forwards.
Molly tries to play peacemaker. "Hey, just relax. We're—"
And then she feels it. The tadpole in her brain lurches with excitement, like a cat seeing a favored mouse. Something wounded it knows it can play with. Toy with. And drop off dead at master's front door. It touches an imperceptible brand on Brynna's face, like some kind of hand or skull or something Molly can't see so much as feel.
There's a sense of power.
Authority.
Molly steps back, holding her eye. Wishing Jack hadn't stolen her eyepatch. Her back is suddenly wet and slippery, vision blurring at the edges. A pit in her stomach wanting to escape her throat.
Then it's gone.
Brynna gasps, her fingers twitching. "You really are True Souls, all of you. Thank the Absolute!"
Jack is kneeling by the dwarf, who's gone limp. Dying before them. In a way too sudden for Molly to really feel anything but confusion and her own sweat. He stands back up slowly.
Eddie tilts her head, looking the scene over. "What happened here?"
"They killed Edowin!" Andrick spits.
Eddie scowls, like only she is allowed to be the Ed in any given situation. The dwarf's name offends her. "Who?"
"Godforsaken tieflings," he says. Before frowning at Molly. "No offense, True Soul."
"Some taken, luv," Molly says pleasantly, swishing her tail. Playing it cool. So very cool. Because the only other tieflings she knows out here are Zevlor and some of the scouts.
"We had them cornered in a cave over there," Brynna says. "Some of the others have the rest of them cornered up in that blighted village, but Edowin was in charge of us. We had some goblins, but the tiefling had a trap. I think they poisoned him. We didn't have any antidotes and we tried to get away and leave the goblins back there. Edowin didn't… he didn't…" She holds her face. "Oh, Absolute…!"
"Who's the Absolute?" Eddie asks.
Brynna looks like she's trying to cry. Until the question takes her entirely off-guard. "She's… our god? What are… are… are you testing us? Making sure we're worthy of your leadership?"
"Yeah, no duh," Molly says, rolling with it. Hands on her hips. And trying to ignore the corpse. "He said protect you. Our time is valuable. We don't wanna lead idiots."
Brynna nods slowly. She keeps glancing at Edowin, wincing, and trying to look away. Again and again as she rubs her arms. "Right. Right. She's our god. The only god that matters. The old ones have all failed. She'll lead us to a new age and we will be her children. And you, True Souls, are Her favored children. The Absolute loves you."
"What makes us favored?" Eddie asks.
Andrick looks around, growing more nervous by the second. "You have Her blessing. You can hear Her voice. You are chosen to lead us."
Jack compresses a sigh, still staring at the dwarf. "A primitive understanding of our faith, but it'll do."
Brynna rubs her hands together. "Edowin is dead. What should we do now, True Souls? We thought about rejoining the others at the temple, take his body there. Now I don't know."
Jack and Eddie exchange glances. But that's too much thinking.
"Where were the tieflings?" Molly asks, all commanding and stuff.
"Cave past this creek down a ways," Brynna says. "They were trying to escape from that blighted village. We cornered most of them there. Some were trying to sneak out and we went after them. But after Edowin… yeah, we were trying to return to the temple."
"Who's at the temple?"
Brynna squints. "Goblins? Strange flock, but the Absolute loves Her children all. How don't you…?"
Molly waves her hand. "We're from a different part of the church. Here to help because too many of you are dying and having a bad time. Take us to the tieflings."
"What about Edowin?"
Jack is still staring at the body. "You go on ahead. Eddie, stay back with me for a moment. We'll handle the body. Molly, go with them. We'll catch up in a jiff."
Eddie scowls. "I liked the part where you thought you had any right to tell me what to do."
He gives her a sharp look, before pinching the bridge of his nose. "Eddie, please. Something I gotta ask in private."
"It's amazing how little I trust that sentiment."
"Just—it's important, please."
Eddie folds her arms, giving him a mistrustful look. Before she reluctantly waves a hand at Molly and tells her, "Be a dear and handle those two for us, won't you?"
Molly isn't exactly sure what's going on. Nor is she very happy that someone is trying to tell her what to do. But getting upset at being told what to do is Eddie's shtick. They need to put on a good face to trick these weirdo cultist types.
She's been in enough scams and hustles to recognize improvisation when she needs to. Lie now, ask questions later, determine truth somewhere down the line.
It's all very simple, really. The only problem is the brief disagreement seems to have eroded the confidence the two humans had in them and whatever True Soul bullshit was going on.
Molly puts her hand on Brynna's shoulder. She can still feel that brand, her tadpole swimming in her head. That power. That authority. Enough that she can't help herself from thinking about it, reaching out to it.
"Relax. Take us to the tieflings," she says, but she's almost not sure her mouth is making the noises. Aggressively thinking it, really.
Brynna stands up more straight. As if Molly's words are compelling her. "Yes, of course. We won't let Edowin die in vain. He'd want more than this."
But the stirring tadpole feels wrong. Molly's skin isn't itching. Yet it feels like something inside her is gone. It's eaten something. A part of her she'll never get back. In exchange, Brynna doesn't even seem able to argue with Molly. She just walks off, with Andrick and Molly with her.
Molly wonders what this is. The tadpole's power? Her latent mindflayer abilities? She wonders what will happen if it continues to grow and digest her. A part of her wonders who else she can use this power on. What she can get away with.
It's… a thought. She wonders if she can get Arabella to steal the idol again, and use it to convince the druids the idol of Silvanus is still there. Then she could safely pawn the relic off in Baldur's Gate and make a fortune.
Possibilities, possibilities!
Molly walks with the two, her arms clasped behind her back all authoritative-like, looking around at a bend in a little creek. So many trees here.
"Brynna, is it? How'd you get wrapped up in all this?"
The human blinks. "Beg your pardon, True Soul?"
"Look, if we're going to take care of you, it'd be cool to know a little about you. It's what that guy probably wanted."
Brynna winces again, sighing. "Edowin, actually. He was a family friend. Andrick is my cousin. I guess I wanted to be a farmer like my father, but that never panned out well. Couldn't get married to get someone to help around the farm. Andrick was kind enough to lend a hand, but, well…"
The woman shrugs. "Along comes Edowin. He saw the state we were in and told us about a higher calling in life. Not adventurers or anything. But the Absolute. He showed us the powers She gave him. Asked if we wanted to live in the dirt or ascend to take a new place in a better world. We did. I sold the farm and everything and we've been with him ever since."
"What did you do with the money?" Molly asks with a glint.
"From the farm? Suppose we put it into the church. The Absolute needed it more than us."
Molly sees gold in her eyes. "Wait, so, he was just like 'let me show you my new religion' and you gave them all your money?"
"I—I guess?" Brynna shrugs uncomfortably. "I didn't have a use for it. The Absolute loves us all. I wanted to give back to Her."
"Well," Molly says, hand to her breast, "if you get anything else of value, you can trust me to pass it alone to her. The Absolute's message is for everyone. Shame so many people think it's some weird cult that nobody's ever heard of."
"More for us in the end, I suppose," Andrick says under his breath. "Lots of goblins, though. Everyone seems to listen to that mean drow woman. I don't know how I feel about that."
Brynna scowls. "It's not your place to judge whom the Absolute deems worthy. One day we'll be True Souls too, like Edowin or Priestess Gut."
"Who's Gut?" Molly asks.
The human lady pauses. "The priestess? How do you not know her?"
Molly hops onto a log and walks beside them. "Hey, hey, who's the True Soul here?"
"You are?"
She snaps her fingers. "Meaning no question-y the True Soul."
"R-right."
Molly nods to herself. "See? This is why we're gonna get along great. We're basically a gang now. A posse, even. Did you say there were goblins?"
"Yes? I guess?"
"They're also going to join us."
"And go where?"
Molly waves her hand. "I'll figure that out after ensuring they've probably tithed their every worldly good to me, Moleeshka, True Soul of the Absolute."
There's a little creek in the woods with an old bridge. Molly and her gang pause in front of it. Not far ahead there's a rough cave in the rocks. Looks like up above, in a defensible position that her maps were leading her to, is some old town. Where Zevlor is.
Once again, she's not sure how she can reconcile needing to help Zevlor with her need to get cured, but she has a thought.
"Hold on, you two," she says. "Is Gut a healer?"
"If anyone here is, it would be her, I suppose." Brynna squints nervously. "Goblin or not, she's a priestess. Healing and ministering is what they do."
Excellent. She has options. Sure, saving Zevlor would let her rub it in his face, but also there's so much she can tithe from stupid goblins and cultists. She can work something out.
"Hmm?" she hums, turning to see Jack and Eddie on their heels. The mage's eyes are wide, staring ahead. Paler than she usually is.
Jack's shoulder is twitching. A moment later he grabs her, pulling her ear to his mouth. "The dwarf had a tadpole inside of him," he whispers.
She blinks. "What?"
He pushes her back and makes a vague "we'll talk about this later" gesture.
Eddie, for her part, has her hands over her mouth as she breathes into them.
"True Souls?" Brynna asks nervously.
Jack shakes his head. "We buried Edowin quick-like and offered appropriate prayers. Is this the cave them tieflings was cornered?"
Andrick nods. "Yes, True Soul. We left guards and—"
Jack stalks past him, over the bridge. Towards the cave and all the greenery partially obscuring it. He only pauses to look at the boot prints in the mud. A lot of people walked through here, most of them small.
Molly hangs in the back with Eddie to whisper, "What do you mean the dwarf had a tadpole? He was infected?"
Eddie makes a slicing motion, eying the humans suspiciously. "I think that's what a True Soul is."
"That don't make a lick of sense," Molly says. "They were telling me Edowin was a True Soul for, like, a long time. He didn't have tentacles on his face. Actually, they said there's a goblin True Soul in their base in some old temple. You're sure?"
"I witnessed it myself. He needed my help. Tadpoles are alive. If the host isn't, they'll crawl out. Jack coaxed it."
"And, what, he killed it?"
Eddie grimaces. "Put it in a little jar. It's in his pack now."
Molly pauses. "You think anyone would buy them?"
She looks at Molly, disappointed and a little grossed out. "I hate all of you."
The inside of the cave is roomier than Molly expected. There's holes in the earth that let in a lot of natural light, showing the tiny stream and the ramshackle wooden fortifications over the shallow water. The humans are all at the walls of old crates talking with around seven goblins. The exact same ones she knows have been keeping the tieflings stuck in the Emerald Grove. Horrible little thigh-height creatures that smell of old boot-cheese with shoddy weapons.
Her gut says this is going to get really bad, like a drug deal where your contact is certainly with the guards. Just the way the goblins look. Except the goblin in charge is sucking on his lips, listening to the humans. The stink-eye they're all giving her and Eddie vanishes when Jack gestures to them, indicating they're all together.
"Set up traps in the water and the far side," the goblin is saying. "Lost three trying to cross after the other True Soul left."
"Seven-to-one odds aren't good enough for you?" Jack asks.
The goblin shakes his head. "You get your math out of here, mate. Er, True Soul-ness, I mean. But I was waiting for more boys to storm 'em out."
Jack looks over the barricade. "How many are there?"
With a shrug, the goblin says, "Saw a few different ones. We hit one or two of them with arrows when they popped out. Been stuck like this since. But so is they. We got time; they don't."
Jack gestures. "Molly, you know how to take traps apart?"
She walks over, scowling at the water. "Uh, sure. Yes. That is something I've certainly done a lot of and is well within my skill set."
"Y'all stay put. Eddie, Molly, we'll handle this."
Eddie sighs, muttering, "I just got these shoes."
Jack steps into the water. "Not that deep. Only barely goes up to my penis."
Molly frowns. "But, it's like barely halfway up your shoe—oooooh, I get it. I get it!"
Jack grins.
Molly throws a rock at him. "That was awful—suck my dick!"
"You do look like the sorta person to have a very small and feminine penis, Molly."
"I don't know how to respond to that except with violence!" She hucks a stone at him. "And a rock!"
She bends to grab another rock when she sees it. The little current of water and darkness barely hides it, but there it is. A little tripwire. Actually, now that she's looking from this angle, there's a couple of bear traps and other stuff in the water. She tosses her rock at one of the traps, springing an arrow-catch that shoots off harmlessly.
"Huh," Molly says. "Told you this was definitely within my skill set. Stand back; I can do this."
The little stream would normally take a few seconds to cross. Taking apart the traps takes several minutes. Most of it is because Molly is mildly marveling at the traps. It's really not much different than picking a lock, in a roundabout way. Similar motion with her hands. Honestly, it's kind of fun. She actually feels like a super useful adventuring thief-y rogue type person.
There's a few more outside the water. Leading up to a few more crates and junks on the other side of the stream. To her mind, it mostly looks like garbage. This is where that old town or whatever would dump trash. Which explains some of the light from up above—trash pits. Neat concept.
And then that's it. She looks up to her companions, beaming. Jack moves to pat her head, until she gnashes her teeth at him. He flinches back and gives her appropriate space.
"I take payment in gold, spoils, and loot, thank you very much!" she says, swishing her tail. "Or, info, I guess. That's what all the really powerful people deal in. Which is my way of saying: hey, uh, what's the plan here exactly?"
Jack and Eddie exchange glances. They kind of gesture vaguely at the other, like they thought the other one was doing the planning here and they were just following along to see where it went. The two realize it at the same time and look uncomfortable. Standing there, arms folded, unhappy.
"I, uh," Jack says, inching his way through the garbage. Vaguely leading ahead. "Guess if the tieflings are under attack, we were sneaking in or something. See if he's with Halsin or that cleric that was mentioned to me. There's some sort of passage from here to the town above. Figured it'd give us an edge or a way to extract them safely."
"That sounds like a plan we could conceivably execute," Eddie says.
"There's another option beside the druids," Molly adds quickly. "There's a goblin True Soul, a priestess. A healer."
Eddie considers. "So, what, we help them kill Zevlor and his friends and go for some mangy goblins?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Molly says, holding her hands up. "That's a little extreme."
"Agreed," Eddie says. "That's exchanging their scum for goblin scum. Better the devils we know than those gremlins."
Molly's nose wrinkles as she hops over a rotten crate. There's cooling blood on the ground here. "Okay. Wow. You're really making the case for why I should stab you in the middle of the night and—shit!"
She drops down right as an arrow soars through where she was a moment ago. "Not a trap—person, person!"
Eddie ducks for cover as Jack brings out his shield. Someone in the cave swears. Falls down. Crashes into objects.
"We're friends!" Jack says, pushing ahead forwards.
A crossbow bolt breaks against Jack's shield.
"We're on your side, man! Hold your fire!" he calls out.
Molly moves with cover. Staying low and mostly crawling and rolling from garbage pile to garbage pile. She sees more drops of blood here and a trap halfway set-up. One of the Hellrider scouts with Zevlor might know how to set these up, but who? She really wishes she'd bothered to learn anyone's name when she tagged along with the Zevlor out of Elturel.
Someone is grunting. Groaning. She hears the sound of someone trying to load a crossbow, and it doesn't sound like it's working. Jack powers on towards the sound, around a stalactite where the shot came from.
Molly pokes her head around and it's no one she knows. It's not even a tiefling. It's another bloody human, kind of well dressed, but covered in dirt and blood and so much sweat. Slender in a way that makes it hard to determine gender. There's a wound on their stomach. They've collapsed into a broken box, eyes closed as they try to rack back a crossbow to fire again.
They look sick. Maybe poisoned like the dwarf.
"Hey, I'm Jack. Let me help," he says, reaching down.
They drop the crossbow and mutter somehow as they throw their hand out. There's a moment where their eyes are open, completely white, rolled back into their skull. The fingers ignite into a bolt of magical radiance and hit Jack in the chest.
He hisses, stumbling back onto his ass. His armor took most of the spell. "Shit, fuck, I'm trying to help you, bitch!"
The guy tries to reach for a rock to hoist themselves up. Their eyes scrunched shut again as they try and fail to make words.
Jack drops his sword and steps forward. The person tries to cast another cantrip; their fingers are too shaky to make the gestures correct again. Too slow to stop Jack from tackling them to the ground. He puts his hands together on their stomach, and they glow with a greenish-blue magic. Something paladin-y.
Their eyes open again, a bright white. Molly doesn't see them move before the normal pupils return.
Then something else. This high-pitched whine from inside her own head, her tadpole squirming. Excitement. Opportunity. Friend!
Visions invade her mind, like when Eddie got too close to her. Tadpoles speaking to each other.
Molly sees a flash of disjointed, incoherent memories. Fragments of images and experiences that don't feel like they were ever real. Like the vague imprint of script to a play whose language she's not familiar with.
Emotions run through her. Confusion. Fear. Cold disgust. There's trees a color she's never seen under a twilight sky without the moon she recognizes.
Then a flash. She's somewhere dark. A human with a bloody knife in hand stands above her. She thinks it has to be Jack, but his eyes are scratched out and undulating things. Like someone had scribbled out his face from the memory itself. Molly can't focus to figure out if it even is Jack, or just humans looking alike, before the image snaps away.
Things become clearer somehow. More present. The inside of a mind flayer ship. A beach. Zevlor. A ruined town. A fight. Goblins. This cave.
Molly blinks and she's in her own head. She knows it's hers because of how much it aches.
Jack is hunched over, breathing heavily. Sweat dripping down onto the person whose stomach his hands are still pressed to.
"Oh," he says. "Oh fuck. You were also on the nautiloid."
"Salutations," the guy says cheerily. "Say, have you ever murdered me before?"
Footnote: Level up!
Eddie Odesseiron — Wizard (3)
Jack — Paladin (3), Oath of [...]
Molly — Rogue (3), Subclass Chosen: Thief