"Just because I fly into a blind, homicidal rage at the drop of a helm doesn't mean I'm incapable of appreciating the finer things in life."
—Berserker, 8-Bit Theater, Episode 440
MINSC
Somewhere in the wilderness, tied up, starved, and surrounded by creatures that spoke an unfamiliar tongue as they negotiated over the price of her flesh, fair Dynaheir was being imprisoned by brigands. The thought of it was such that Minsc found no rest in the night - the heroic crew he had joined himself with wished wisely not to travel by darkness, as not all of them were blessed with Boo's excellent eyesight. Minsc stood no chance against the gnolls by himself, but with capable adventurers at his side, anything would be possible.
Boo slept soundly on Minsc's chest as always and settled his tiny heartbeat closest to Minsc's. In this world, Minsc was Boo's assigned protector. That was how it had been since they had met that terrible and lucky day when Minsc had nearly-almost-fallen in battle. Long before he had met Dynaheir, in the year he had turned eighteen, he had suffered a grievous head wound in a wrestling match, and then had proceeded to receive more over the next few months in battle against the Thayans. The final such blow, with a blunted weapon against his head, rendered him lost in the wilds of Rashemen. Minsc had found his calling - and Boo - on a dead merchant's caravan he stumbled upon on the road outside Mulsantir. Boo whispered his secrets to Minsc, and his observations, and in exchange Minsc kept him fed and operated as his guide through the bright and colorful Prime material plane.
It was a strange world indeed, for a miniature giant space hamster.
Though Minsc still considered himself a berserker - and called the Ice Dragon lodge his home back in Mulsantir - he felt his calling in the path of the ranger. After his head-wound, he had found Boo and had listened to the small little hamster's wisdom which had led him to the path of a woodsman that lived far from the battlefield. The man had never introduced himself by name, so Minsc had called him Charley, much to the man's consternation. He had taken Minsc in and shown him which plants and mushrooms were edible and which were not, and over the next few months how and when to harvest them. Some of the information fled rapidly from Minsc's brain, but Charley was patient with him on account of his injury, and what Minsc forgot, Boo certainly remembered. Charley did not seem to mind Boo at all and taught Minsc what to forage for the hamster, which Boo was very grateful for. When he had eventually been well enough to return to Mulsantir after the winter, he was praised for surviving the battle on his own and surprised to learn that it had been a victory against the Thayans. The victory party was short-lived, as soon after, he was called by the Wychlaran to embark on a dejemma as the escort of Dynaheir, whom he had never met until that day.
Dynaheir was kind, patient, wise, and lovely. She would sometimes read him and Boo bedtime stories. Without her, Minsc would be lost. She had to be protected, at all costs. This became Minsc's second duty in life, next to guiding and protecting Boo. Luckily, the missions coincided as Boo was determined to stay by Minsc's side throughout his dejemma. He did not know the nature of Dynaheir's mission and did not need to know - such was his faith in the elder othlor. Their wisdom was never to be challenged, certainly not by the likes of Minsc (nor even Boo).
A stirring in their shared room near one of the cots caught his attention. Minsc turned his head to look and in the dim flickering candlelight from a lamp, he saw the girl with long dark hair bent over her hooded, pink-haired sister, or so they had introduced themselves as to him after agreeing to his quest. It took him a moment to remember her name, because the information had yet to be repeated to him many times, as it had to in order for anything to sink in. Boo eventually whispered it to him, when the little miniature giant space hamster woke up at his movement. Aphra, said Boo. She's important. So is her sister, Imoen. Remember them. I think they need our help too, not just the other way around. Minsc knew it would take some time for this information to stick in his mind, so he was grateful for Boo who was ready to remind him.
Aphra stood with the candle in hand and a book in the other and sat down in her cot across from her sister. Minsc, a few cots away, decided to sit up and this gathered her attention. She turned to him, her face illuminated by the flickering candlelight eerily and making her face seem momentarily skeletal. "Can't sleep either?" Aphra whispered across the room.
"No rest for heroes tonight," Minsc replied and stood, taking silent steps over the ground toward her when she motioned him forward.
"You're quiet for a big guy," Aphra commented as Minsc sat down next to her cot on the ground, and cradled Boo delicately in his hands.
Boo motioned up to him and he gave the little hamster his ear so that the little one could whisper more secrets to him. I want to know her story, Boo declared. Minsc translated this as, "Boo wishes to hear a bedtime story."
"Boo said that? I'm rubbish at telling stories though, Garrick is much better," she said dubiously, holding the book in her hands delicately. She looked down at the cover and frowned. "This one is pretty morbid too from what I remember. I wonder why Firebead gave it to us . . ."
"Who is Firebead?" Minsc prompted.
Aphra put the book down in her lap and launched into a semi-sensical tale about just exactly who Firebead Elvenhair was to her. This required her to explain her early childhood as she had to answer Minsc's increasing questions about various characters she would mention, which ultimately resulted in her unfolding tragic story regarding a recently deceased foster-father and a forced march from a home that now would deny her. Her sister had joined her in her exile from Candlekeep and together they were trying to discover the origin of both themselves, and why bounty hunters kept hounding them. There was the matter of the man who had killed their foster-father possibly seeking them out, and they had a note to deliver to the druid Jaheira, but Aphra hadn't expected Jaheira to be so reticent to talking to them and wasn't sure how to deal with the problem.
Additionally, Aphra apparently had another problem. She had traveled through time to the future and seen what would happen to them all, unless they were to change things: Imoen abducted, other friends slain, and a terrible dungeon where they would all be imprisoned by a madly brilliant wizard, where she had met Minsc and Boo for the first time - something Boo apparently believed, so Minsc would believe it too. He did not think Dynaheir would believe such a tale despite her brilliance with magic, for though the Hidden One favored her greatly, she did not believe in what she could not interact with and see. Perhaps with time he could convince Dynaheir and protect her from that terrible future. He did not want to know what had happened to her in that awful future - the look on Aphra's face said too much as it was.
"Minsc and Boo will aid Aphra and stop this terrible future!" Minsc declared and had to deal with Aphra shushing him right after.
"Well, it hasn't happened yet, so that's possible," Aphra admitted. "But don't go around spreading it that I've been to the future. I don't need the wrong sort of attention from Red Wizards or something. We already have enough of that from Neera."
It might not be possible to prevent the future, Boo cautioned him. "Boo says the future is not set in stone," Minsc translated to Boo's consternation. Boo rubbed his nose disdainfully and curled up against Minsc's shoulder to go back to sleep, no longer interested in their conversation if Minsc wasn't going to properly translate. Minsc felt bad instantly - he didn't want the hamster to be misconstrued of course, but he didn't wish to diminish spirits with unnecessary pessimism.
"You're a Rashemaar, right? As is Dynaheir?" Aphra asked suddenly and held the book against her chest. It was too dark for Minsc to read the title, and he was rather slow at reading Common aside, so he gave up trying to.
"We are from Rashemen, yes. Mulsantir," Minsc answered.
"What's Rashemen like? Compared to here. It's a long way to travel," Aphra queried, looking interested. "I've always wanted to go there and meet spirits."
"I know many spirits!" Minsc chimed, though he was sure this time to keep his voice quiet. And then he told her of the domovoi, the spirits of house and nature that permeated the land and were wherever one looked, if one was particularly looking. He told her of his favorite telthor, a particularly vicious and over-protective badger that chased out anyone who didn't belong in the Ice Berserker Dragon Lodge, including him until he returned from the dejemma and would be accepted inside their ranks. She asked many questions, and he ended up telling her much - about the othlor in charge of the Wychlaran who had sent him to Dynaheir's side on her mission, and even jhuild, his favorite wine that set fire to bellies, only to be found in Rashemen.
They spoke late into the night and well into the early dawn and took their conversation outside their room into the main communal area of the inn when the others began to stir and rise. Neera was the first amongst them, who introduced herself again to Minsc with aplomb and shook his hand. She tried to pet Boo but Boo skittered away from the mage's fingers onto Minsc's shoulder, much to Neera's consternation.
"I just wanted to see how soft his fur is," Neera said sadly. She took her staff and padded her way across the inn floor over to Aphra's side and sat down with a huff.
"Boo's a feisty little guy," Aphra said with a smile of admiration for the hamster. Boo preened at this and seemed flattered at the attention. "As fierce a warrior in battle as any berserker," she further complimented, which made Minsc smile as well.
"Boo is quite strong! And handsome!" Minsc praised, lifting Boo up to the ceiling to be admired. Boo squeaked in objection, so Minsc put him back on his perch on his shoulder.
"Don't get me wrong," Neera began dubiously with a half-stifled yawn, "Boo is really, really cute, handsome might be a stretch, but about being 'strong' . . ." She trailed off, eying the hamster worriedly askance. "I mean, is it really safe to take him on a wilderness trek?"
Minsc didn't understand. "Minsc has taken Boo on many a travel and wilderness trek! Why, Boo has been Minsc's constant companion since the fateful day that we found each other! In the wilderness!"
"Best not to question it," Aphra advised carefully.
"It's just that—" Neera was about to object but saw the look in Aphra's eyes and cut herself off.
Minsc wouldn't have it. "Out with it! Boo can handle it!" He declared.
"It's just that, can he? Boo is so very . . . Boo, you know?" Neera concluded awkwardly. "We've had to face bandits and goblins and gibberlings and red wizards and who knows what else is out there."
"Boo is quite mighty, yes," Minsc agreed. "He looks into the eyes of demons and the demons fear to meet his gaze!"
"No, I'm actually afraid he'll choke to death during a cloud-kill," Neera stated quite factually.
"You imagine him finding a hole in a dragon's armor-plated scales and showing Minsc where to point his sword!" Minsc realized and laughed a little.
Neera tried to say, "No, I'm imagining him going down a dragon's throat and gullet," but Minsc cut her off.
"You think Boo will find the sacred cup, pull sword from rock, destroy cursed rings and win golden branches, killing the big evil! Oh ho ho, Boo, you are so clever!" Minsc praised and patted his best friend, who leaned into his touch and shivered in the cool morning air. Boo crawled from Minsc's shoulder into his hands to eye Neera askance, as if he disagreed with what she said and could convey as much with his eyes.
"It's really I'm thinking that he might be squished by enemies on our big adventure, but, alright," Neera said. "If you think it's safe to bring him, that's your prerogative, I suppose."
"Where Minsc goes, Boo follows, and where Boo goes, so does Minsc! Death has no sting for us," Minsc declared righteously.
"See?" Aphra gestured toward them, as if her point had been made for her and was so obvious.
Neera sighed. "I see."
Imoen stepped into the room with a big yawn and blinked at the three of them. "Such early risers," she commented. "It's barely dawn!"
"Couldn't sleep," Aphra admitted sheepishly. "Neither could Minsc."
"Aphra!" Imoen chided, though she spared none of her ire for Minsc. "We have a big journey ahead of us. You know better."
"Pshaw," Aphra dismissed quite easily with a noise, and handed her big book back to Imoen. "Here's your freaky book back. I was going to read it, but Minsc couldn't sleep either and it didn't seem the sort of appropriate story for Boo's ears."
Imoen blinked and eyed the sleepy hamster in Minsc's hands with a smile. "I suppose it isn't fit for small ears, aye. I'll put it back in your pack."
"Oh sure, make me lug it around," Aphra muttered while Imoen shrugged and went back into their shared room to put their packs back together. When she emerged with Aphra's backpack in both hands and her own on her back, she practically threw the heavier one at Aphra's feet and sat down on the other side of Aphra to pull out her journal and start writing. Aphra considered this for a moment before pulling out her own and flipping to the page where she'd drawn Minsc - and Boo - before they had met, or so she explained when she handed it to him.
Boo perked up and examined the fie rendering in charcoal with his own eyes, interested, while Minsc blinked and wasn't sure what to make of it. Was that really how he looked? Why, he was quite handsome indeed! A very heroic visage. Aphra, a talented artist, had gotten his head tattoo and love for Boo, exactly right. In the image he held Boo in his hands and gazed down on the little fellow, and Boo looked back at the artist with piercingly clever eyes and a gently shaded mane of fur.
Pleased, he said to Aphra, "What a complimentary sketch!" Boo whispered, She got my good side, in a pleased tone, so Minsc added, "Boo is quite pleased as well!"
"This is what you looked like when I met you in Athkatla," she explained quietly. "After we got cleaned up from the dungeon, mind you."
"Dungeon?" Neera sounded concerned.
"Oh yeah, it had everything, cages, torture, mad wizards, people in jars, people trying to kill us, vampires, the whole package," Aphra tried to joke.
Xzar entered the room at just that moment looking positively bushy despite the early hour. "People in jars? That sounds like my graduate program!"
"What?" Imoen was bewildered and blinked. "What sort of—no, never mind, I don't want to know."
"You would say something like that, Xzar," Aphra agreed mysteriously. "Is Montaron abouts yet? We should head out soon if we want to make good time."
"A damsel awaits our rescue," Minsc reminded everyone.
"A damsel can wait five more bloody minutes while I get some breakfast," Montaron grumbled as he stepped out of the room, then leaned on Xzar so he could scratch the top of one of his bare feet.
"Don't touch me!" Xzar whimpered.
Boo squeaked anxiously while Minsc frowned, but he could not disagree with the nasty halfling.
"Somebody better wake up Garrick from his beauty sleep too," Neera added as she rolled her metallic staff in between her palms. "You think he's ever been on a wilderness trek before?" She looked to Aphra at her side as she asked this.
"Probably not," Aphra and Imoen simultaneously agreed.
"To be fair, this is my first intentional one," Aphra added.
"Winthrop used to take me hunting and trapping," Imoen said with a little brag in her voice. "Though, this is the first time we've both been out on our own," she amended.
"Minsc will lead the way," the ranger offered generously, "For he and Boo have memorized the trek through the woods to the bandits' stronghold! Too great was their number for Minsc to sneak Dynaheir away by himself, undetected. That is why we need the aid of heroes!"
"And heroes you'll have," Aphra agreed warmly.
But Imoen objected, "Stronghold? Just how many bandits are we talking about?"
"Gnolls! And a great many," Minsc informed her. There had not been opportunity to discuss the mission in detail, and Boo's chittering suggestion translated in Minsc's mind as, Wait until the stinky halfling has had breakfast.
True to Boo's prediction, Montaron snapped, "You all be waiting until I've had myself a morning meal before discussin' loud work matters, aye?!"
"What a grumpypantaloons," Imoen complained, albeit more quietly. "He'll be useful when are backs are up against the wall facing a small army of gnolls, though," she added with a shrug. "But we should buy some potions before we leave, if that's the case. I didn't think to stock up before leaving Beregost."
"Ooh! I can make some basic ones with a campfire and the right ingredients! Maybe you can help me?" Neera offered and turned to Minsc with her question. "You know herbs in the wilderness, or am I getting the vibe wrong? You seem like a nature-y sort."
Minsc conferred with Boo for a moment before agreeing. "The journey will take more than a day! So when we camp for the night, Minsc will help Neera find herbs, and help Imoen find dinner."
"Excellent," Imoen agreed. "Still think we should hit up a shop though at least for arrows, and someone better feed Montaron before he kills us all with his glare."
Minsc was about to twist anxiously at the time they were wasting when Aphra spoke up, "We'll have to make do with what we have. I don't want to fight a bunch of gnolls when we can sneak around them. Let's head out after we eat."
Neera nodded as Garrick emerged from the shared room with a yawn and his gear strapped to his back. "There's a lady's life on the line, after all. A real damsel in distress!" The mage pointed out.
Imoen rolled her eyes but nodded. "Far be it from me to prevent us from walking into a small army unprepared. Let's harass the innkeeper into cooking us some food and hit the trail, then."
"Right," Aphra agreed. "And not to mention Jaheira will probably march into that mine all by herself and face who knows what on her own if we dawdle any longer."
"Knowing our luck, it's just more bandits," Imoen said with a grin.
Garrick sleepily joined them and made a noise of agreement. "There do seem to be a lot of bandits in our path," he said with a half-stifled yawn.
"It's like there's an infestation of them!" Imoen joked. Aphra seemed disconcerted by Imoen's comment and looked away with a downcast expression, much to her sister's visible bafflement.
"Best get food while you can, we've only got rations for the road," Aphra announced, shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts and directing this at Garrick and Neera. She ignored Imoen's questioning glance and turned to Minsc, smiling as Boo looked up at her with glittering golden eyes. "Well aren't you a fetching chap?" She murmured to the hamster and extended her hand under Minsc's watchful gaze. He let her approach with a smile and Boo sniffed her hand experimentally, then stepped onto it with tiny little feet that tickled her skin.
"What are you sniffing?" She asked Boo and extended her thumb for the hamster to grip. He stood up slightly on his hind legs and grasped her upright thumb, puffing his cheeks up at her rapidly and chittered.
She doesn't smell as human as she looks, Boo commented in a voice only Minsc could understand, But I can tell she's a gentle soul. Despite the sword at Aphra's belt and her bloodstained clothes and armor, Minsc did not doubt Boo's wisdom. It had never led him astray.
"It is how he remembers his friends!" Minsc informed her. "Boo has declared you to be friends with him."
Imoen, behind Aphra's shoulder, commented, "Birds, squirrels, insects, bats, and now miniature-giant space-hamsters. You could have been quite the druid in another life," she told Aphra.
"You think so?" Aphra mused on it for a moment. "Studying them is one thing though, understanding them is another. I could never grasp the beast tongues."
"Beast tongues are simple!" Minsc declared. "You just—" and he growled then in a sound somewhere between a purr and a bark, in such a tone that it startled Boo, who crawled back over to Minsc on their extended hands. Aphra and Imoen watched as the hamster nestled into Minsc's neck.
"I think it was the growling that I couldn't get," Aphra admitted. "If that is indeed a beast tongue characteristic, I could never make that sort of sound with my throat."
Minsc shrugged, and extended a small finger to rub Boo's head behind his ears and waited for the others to get ready to leave.
Minsc had little in the way of worldly possessions - a two handed sword made of brittle iron that had seen better days, roughshod and rugged leather armor and boots, and a few coins to his name that had been tossed at him in Nashkel by passersby who mistook him for someone in need of charity (he did not need coin for sleep as most Inn beds were too small for his massive frame anyway and he could hunt and fish for food if he was hungry). He only needed help to find Dynaheir, and Boo kept telling him that someone would come along.
With a considerably less grumpy but still-yawning and still-grumbling-at-Xzar's-antics Montaron in tow, they ventured out of Nashkel by the south road toward the Cloud Peaks. The gnoll stronghold was nestled in a valley between two of the Cloud Peak mountains, situated on the north-most slope and sheltered by trees. A path had been beaten toward it, but Minsc knew they would run into too many patrols of gnoll brigands on it as he had discovered during his initial investigation. They would instead go by a path that Boo had marked with his urine in the trees, and Minsc would re-trace his footsteps a few days prior while Boo scouted a little further ahead along their wooded path and re-discovered his scent-trail.
"Really? No one's going to question the wisdom of the little, squishy, fragile one leading the way?" Neera questioned the air.
Montaron, satisfied from his breakfast and now ready for the road, snarked, "Is it any more baffling than the lady leading the way when she's barely out of braids and can hardly read a map?"
"Oh, come on, Monty, lighten up. Must you be so moody all the time?" Xzar objected, pausing mid-way for a sleepy yawn.
"Yeah? And just why exactly are we marching away from the mines instead of toward them?" Montaron grumbled.
"You're more than welcome to chat up Jaheira about that," said Imoen, which shut Montaron right up. "I'm sure she'd be happy to have you along without us," she added.
". . . Hey!" Aphra objected, only after a long few seconds when she apparently registered his initial comment as insulting.
"It's okay Aphra," Imoen cajoled her, "that's why I'm in charge of the map!"
"Minsc and Boo will lead the way!" Minsc announced for Neera's benefit. "Worry not, friends, for Minsc has ranged this path in his sleep."
"Hearing you're a sleepwalking ranger only makes me worry more," Neera muttered.
"We are great heroes, Montaron! A fair lady needs our rescue, after all," Garrick happily announced as he started strumming his lute.
"No singin'! Or music!" Montaron griped. "You'll attract the wrong sort of attention!"
They sure talk a lot for people supposedly on a mission of stealth, said Boo to Minsc privately.
"Yeah!" Imoen surprisingly agreed, but then added, "the last thing he needs is more people thinking he's with the circus! Although, that might confuse the bandits."
Montaron sighed. "With Xzar, there's little hope of that."
As if to demonstrate his point, the lines drawn onto Xzar's face that accentuated his grin widened with a sudden smile, making it even more unsettling than it normally was, and he quietly cackled. "Why Monty, but being with the circus is the perfect disguise! No one ever suspects them of wrongdoing," Xzar said. "And it's always good to have a back-up career option, yes?"
Neera noted, "That's a surprisingly good point."
They're all like walking targets for wrongdoing, Boo said plaintively. Strange that Aphra should associate with these goons, she seems like too nice a girl for them.
"Boo says that we are walking targets," Minsc mostly interpreted correctly, "and should talk less! Dynaheir's life is at stake!" He knew Boo had said more, but he was preoccupied with thoughts of fair Dynaheir in distress. Perhaps she was being tortured at this very minute, and shouldn't they hurry more? He picked up the pace.
"We're with you," Aphra assured him and the group thankfully fell silent. Garrick even sighed and put away his lute, commenting to himself quietly that no one seemed to appreciate his art, and how was he supposed to compose a ballad about them if he wasn't given the time? Imoen and Neera both silently patted him on the shoulder after this in reassurance.
Over moss and tree roots, Boo led the way forward and there was only minimal grumbling from Montaron's end by the time lunch rolled around and Imoen suggested they take a break. There was a distribution of rations that were quickly eaten before they continued on; they made much better time than Minsc had thought thanks to Boo's clever directions and careful scouting around patrols and larger animals. By the time evening rolled around, Minsc could hear some of his fellow adventurers yawning, and soon only Aphra seemed to share his boundless energy for the adventure and wanted to continue on.
"Planning to charge a whole gnoll fortress by yourself, eh?" Montaron scoffed at Aphra. "Aye, you probably could—"
"But what if they have spell casters, Aphra? You never think these things through!" Imoen objected.
Aphra glared at her but conceded this with an annoyed nod. Montaron eyed Imoen as if she'd given him a particularly useful piece of information that he would be saving for a rainy day - it was a specific look that Boo described for Minsc's benefit, perched on his shoulder again to get a look at the party. We should stop for the night, Boo added, and Minsc agreed. I smell water nearby, a small lake or creek. Perhaps fish? The little hamster added as he sniffed the air.
"Minsc and Imoen will find food," Minsc volunteered, and Imoen looked grateful for the distraction. When the gnolls had ambushed him and Dynaheir and left him unconscious on the road, they had taken his goods, including his trap-wire for snares. He would have to work with nearly no tools at all to find them, except Imoen's bow which was too small to comfortably use for his hands.
Minsc and Boo did manage to find a few game trails nearby however, two of which Imoen spotted and this impressed Minsc, so he let her take the shot at the rabbit when they found it from a distance. They managed to catch one more, and unexpectedly also a heavy grouse that had landed near some bushes, so Minsc considered this a successful hunt and he was pleased with Imoen's accuracy. She seemed excited about the kills and started plucking the feathers of the grouse as they walked while Boo led the way to the water source. It was a small lake, one of dozens of such that dotted the area at the base of the Cloud Peaks and was fed by a tributary from the Chionthar. They refilled the party's waterskins and Minsc dressed Imoen's kills before they returned to the camp. He even had time to pick herbs for Neera to make potions when they returned to the campfire.
When he and Imoen returned, Neera had started a fire with some magical assistance while Montaron and Xzar had collected wood, and Aphra and Garrick had set up a few of their bedrolls and two tents. Minsc worked on stoking the fire while Neera used some of their collected water to make herbal potions as Imoen finished dressing the game she had caught.
As they finished, Neera bottled a few potions with some empty flasks and one spare waterskin for the rest. "We'll have to draw to see who gets the tents," Neera then suggested, and pulled out various sticks of wood of different length in her hands. She adjusted them so they all poked out at the same length from her hands.
Aphra volunteered, "I don't want it, and I'll take first watch."
"I definitely want one and I'll split it with you if you give me the shortest one," Imoen offered with a grin.
"Bribery? I like it," Neera smiled.
"Us pink-hair types gotta stick together, it's a rough world you know," Imoen grinned wider.
"I'll not play a rigged game. I sleep better under the sky," Montaron said with a huff.
Neera and Imoen did indeed end up splitting the largest tent, while Xzar and Garrick ended up having to share the latter one. Montaron actually cautioned Garrick against this; Garrick, a little perturbed, eventually set up his bunk outside of the tent and told everyone that Xzar could have it himself if he promised not to kill Garrick in his sleep. Xzar laughed, a little too loudly and for a little too long. Everyone but Aphra and Montaron seemed concerned, neither of whom seemed to take Xzar's comments too seriously.
"You'll be fine, I'll be on watch," Aphra told the bard, which reassured him somewhat.
Minsc volunteered for the second watch, but Aphra did not wake him for it. He woke up at the first light of dawn to Boo tickling his cheek, and Aphra shaking his shoulder. "Up, up, big guy. We've gotta rescue Dynaheir today," she told him in a quiet voice that brought reality crashing down all around him. His dream, whatever it had been, faded quickly from his mind as he sat up and rubbed his head.
Did she stay up all night? Boo wanted to know. Minsc relayed the question, and Aphra answered, "No—well, yes, but don't be upset by it. Everyone else needed rest much more than I did. I can go without for a time."
Boo said in his infinite wisdom, Plenty of mysteries about that girl.
Minsc followed Boo and the others followed Minsc down the small creek a ways that they had discovered last night. It led down a small valley between the two mountains, and Minsc realized that Boo - in his great intelligence - had led them by a secret route to the entrance. As the sun crept higher in the sky, reaching its zenith, Minsc started to smell gnolls nearby, and stopped their train.
Boo scrambled back into Minsc's hands and perched on his shoulder so he could better communicate with Minsc. It's up on the ridge, just east, Boo whispered.
Minsc pointed off to the east with the others and repeated, "Boo says the fortress is this way! We are close!"
"It's the damndest thing, but I smell gnolls, and a lot of them," Montaron seemed like he didn't like that he agreed with Minsc.
"Oh, is that what reeks of urine and musk?" Aphra sniffed the air distastefully. "I'm glad it's not me or a skunk."
"We should be really careful not to alert them to our presence," Neera cautioned. "I have a few spells that could cause some chaos, but chaos can be . . . Well, it's inherently unpredictable."
"That's a last resort," Aphra promised, and drew her sword. "Let's get as close to that fortress as we can, and see if we can find a way in."
"I don't suppose you have invisibility spells?" Imoen asked Neera.
Neera grinned. "Just the one. You have a plan?"
"Working on it," Imoen murmured. She eyed Montaron, who seemed affronted by her examination.
"I'm not risking my life scouting a gnoll fortress with only one invisibility spell," Montaron said firmly.
"Then I'll do it myself!" Imoen proclaimed, albeit quietly. "I'll be quick as a quill. Aphra, don't give me that look," Imoen scolded her sister.
Aphra looked hurt. "I just want you to be safe. But, scream if you need me and I'll come running, alright?" She cautioned.
Let's go, Dynaheir is waiting, Boo insisted. Minsc said for Boo's benefit, "Boo, you are so wise. Dynaheir awaits! We must be swift!"
"You do that, girl," Montaron said and waved his hand in the general direction of the forest. "Don't come crying to me when you get killed."
"She's stealthier than she looks," Aphra defended. "Can't count the number of times she scared the ever-living shit out of me unintentionally."
"Hiding from you was an extra challenge, on account of you hearing everything all the time," Imoen conceded. "On the other hand, I think it made for good practice. Alright Minsc, let's be off. Everyone, try to be as quiet as possible."
Boo and Minsc led them to rocky outcropping within distance of the gnoll fortress, which was concealed partially by the forest. Still, in the bright light of day, much movement could be seen through the trees, and the distant hyena-like shouts from the gnolls made them sound as if they had a panoply of force. "Less than ideal," Imoen murmured. "Ugh! I wish I had an invisibility ring or something," she complained.
Neera offered, "I can put the spell in my staff, if you can learn how to trigger it really quick. Then you can just take the staff with you and activate it when you need it! Hey, maybe you can give it to this Dynaheir chick and she can use it to escape while you sneak out all thiefy!"
Imoen looked like she wanted to hug Neera. "You're the best mage friend a thief could ever ask for. Hit me with it, I'm a quick study, I promise!"
After some quick whispered instructions while Minsc hung back, Imoen took off with Neera's staff with a jaunty wave and disappeared into the thicket. The rustling of the plants eventually was replaced by silence as she got closer to the forest.
Aphra came up next to Minsc and Neera and stared at the fortress in the distance, and asked aloud quietly, "Wish we could've waited til evening to give us better chances, but I suppose it doesn't matter now."
"Gnolls see just as well in the dark, I think," Neera answered her.
"They raid at night because they are, what is the word Boo?" Minsc wondered and held Boo up to his ear as Boo whispered, Corpuscular. "Corpuscular!" He repeated, feeling proud of himself. "Yes! Excellent, Boo. They are more active at night, for that is when they hunt. Their eyesight by dark is quite good."
"You know a lot about gnolls," Neera whispered, impressed.
"Minsc and Boo are enemies of gnolls everywhere, for what they have done to us and Dynaheir," Minsc said firmly. "They stole our goods and left us for dead and took Dynaheir for nefarious purposes."
"I wonder if they're trying to eat her, or what, maybe ransom her," Neera wondered.
"Probably for eating. If they stole everything Minsc had they must know he has nothing to pay a ransom with," Aphra reasoned, quite horribly for this put all sorts of mental images in Minsc's head.
We'll rescue her, and everything will be fine, Boo reassured Minsc. This had the effect of calming him only slightly, so he petted Boo in distress to try and focus on Boo's soft fur rather than his own thoughts. Aphra seemed to realize what she had done and looked apologetic.
Waiting for Imoen was quite tense. The others talked very little - Montaron took to sharpening his knives, Xzar muttering under his breath, and Neera and Aphra stared into the distance with Minsc while asking each other the occasional question or making a small comment. Garrick adjusted his crossbow for a moment before getting quickly bored and sitting down to write something in his journal.
Without a cloud in the sky, Aphra had taken to putting a stick in the ground and measuring the time as it passed and had determined that at least an hour had gone by without hearing from Imoen. It was not yet cause for alarm, she stated, as she had not heard Imoen's screams - and her hearing was quite good - and surely Aphra would hear something if Imoen were to be caught and captured.
As Aphra was measuring the second hour that had passed however, a worried expression crossed her face followed by one of alarm, and she stilled. "I have to go," she announced suddenly and without warning was simply gone. She moved so fast that Minsc did not catch sight of anything but a blur of motion as she disappeared into the trees. He heard a few distant thuds before hearing nothing, and the silence alarmed him more.
"Imoen must have been caught," Neera reasoned without too much alarm in her voice. "Oh, don't worry, she speeds off like that but they'll be fine I'm sure," she directed this at Minsc, who was holding Boo in his hands.
"We must now rescue Imoen?" Was what Minsc derived from this, in distress.
"No, no!" Neera assured him. "Just sisters looking out for each other. I'm sure if Aphra needed our help she would have asked. Besides, if I went in there and turned everyone into rainbow frogs, how would that help?"
"Keep your wild magics to yourself," Montaron agreed.
Neera took to measuring the time with the stick after that, and perhaps a quarter or half an hour had passed before the trees parted and Aphra and Imoen returned with Neera's staff in tow, and someone carried on Aphra's back that Minsc was inordinately relieved to see alive and uneaten. "DYNAHEIR!" Minsc shouted with joy and stood up in deference as Aphra gently let the harried-seeming Dynaheir down from her back.
Hair askew, and with a few new wounds and scars he didn't remember her getting, Dynaheir was nonetheless alive and teared up in relief when she gazed upon Minsc and Boo. "Minsc! And thy companion, I am pleased to see thee both alive," she greeted warmly, and stretched out her arms toward them. Though her bangles no longer adorned her arms, and her purple silken robe had been torn in places, she was intact. Minsc enclosed her in a hug and Boo left his perch in Minsc's hands to rest on Dynaheir's shoulder for a moment, allowing his witch to pet the little hamster for a moment before he retreated back into Minsc's embrace.
"Toldja we'd get her back," Imoen chirped and handed Neera's staff back to her. "Thanks, Nee-nee! That was useful in a pinch. And good as a club. Kept Dynaheir from being spotted while we sneaked around. The guards at the front caught us though, but Aph got 'em."
"Good," Neera commented with a smile and tucked her staff in close to her body and approached Aphra. "No wild magics today, huh?" She said.
Aphra shrugged and Minsc noted that her sword that was belted at her side without a sheath was stained with dark gnolls' blood. He was pleased that some revenge against Dynaheir's captors had been exacted. Dynaheir herself adjusted what was left of her robe and looked flustered at all the attention she was getting from the group.
"Guess we didn't need to all come along after all," Montaron grumbled. "Now can we investigate the mines?"
"Hang on, there's still the patrols along the road, and we didn't recover Dynaheir's text. She said one of the patrols had it, so maybe we'll run into them. If not, we'll have to hunt it down after the mines. Does that work for you?" Aphra asserted, and then looked to Dynaheir and seemed surprised by what she saw. "Oh, I'm sorry, we haven't been properly introduced. I'm Aphra." She pointed at everyone and gave out names to the witch, who nodded and memorized them.
Dynaheir's deep brown eyes teared up slightly in relief, but she wiped away the evidence with a dismissive hand. "My text must be recovered, but perhaps at a later date," she conceded. "I am weary and have no spells left in my repertoire," Dynaheir added.
Minsc was so relieved to see her and hear her voice that he couldn't help but shout. "Minsc and Boo will tear through the gnolls until we find your book, fair Dynaheir! Yes, Boo will go for their eyes and Minsc will slaughter them all!"
"What happened to stealthiness?" Imoen scoffed. "Why'd I sneak in there if we're just going to kill them all? And there's too many to kill anyway, with all their spell-slingers and spears, we might have some serious trouble if we stormed their base. I say we run back to Nashkel as fast as possible."
"Agreed, girly," Montaron said, eying the trees around him in suspicion.
"Where's your spirit of adventure, Monty!" Xzar criticized. "A wizard's spell book is sacrosanct, and these gnolls have violated the sacred order of things!"
"Still rather not fight an army of gnolls," the halfling grumbled.
"Let's get back to the road and hope we don't run into too many of them," Aphra decided for all of their benefit.
"I wish I could have seen your heroic rescue!" Garrick gushed as they started to march off , with Minsc and Aphra leading the way under Boo's direction. Dynaheir followed close behind. Her tattered leather shoes found it difficult to purchase on the ground to such a degree that it became such an impediment for her to walk, and Aphra insisted Dynaheir climb onto her back so she could carry Minsc's witch a ways.
"I thank thee," Dynaheir conceded with some difficulty due to her proud nature. She wrapped her arms around Aphra's shoulders while Aphra carried her on her back by the legs comfortably enough without complaint.
"It's no worries, I carried Imoen like this around Candlekeep all the time," Aphra told her. "I'm excited to meet you, by the way. We haven't met yet but I've . . . I've heard a lot about you."
"Candlekeep?" Dynaheir seemed interested. "Art thou from the great library fortress? Our journey was to take us there before our capture."
"That's where we were both raised," Imoen interjected, sidling up to Aphra and Dynaheir at the front of their group and fingering her bow at her side that she had unslung from her shoulder. "We're sorta exiled now, I guess with Ulraunt being in charge and being such an ass, I doubt even a book of immense value could convince him to let us inside. Our foster father is dead and he was the only reason we were allowed in there."
"Maybe Winthrop could put in a good word, or Tethtoril," Aphra added. All the names of which they had mentioned were lost on Minsc, but Dynaheir seemed to be committing every word that Minsc's companions uttered to memory.
"Or maybe Ulraunt is dead too! Yeah, you're right Aphra, we should look at the positives," Imoen chirped.
They did indeed run into a patrol - rather, two patrols - of gnolls returning to their base of operations in the mountains. Minsc knew he would organize a larger party one day and wipe them out if he got the chance, so they couldn't hurt anyone again. As it was, they took the first patrol by surprise, and Dynaheir had barely the time to dismount from Aphra's back before they were engaged in the conflict and Imoen's arrows and Garrick's bolts were soaring toward their targets, and a spell of skull-trap in the form of an ethereal flying skull emerged from Xzar's hands and exploded in their midst, scattering them. Montaron dove forward and underfoot, along with Minsc who charged head-first into the battle with his double-handed sword over his head and cleaved right into the neck of a gnoll who had just stood upright from Xzar's spell.
Two were dead in the gnoll patrol of six, and the other four were finished off quickly when Aphra joined the battle. She cut down the final two with great strength and swordplay worthy of heroes, while Montaron back-stabbed one to death that had been peppered with arrows and bolts. Imoen killed the last with an excellently aimed arrow to the skull. They suffered no injuries and Minsc felt good about their chances of making it back to Nashkel with Dynaheir intact.
"Loot the bodies," Aphra called out, "see if Dynaheir's book is amongst them."
It was not, but it was in the possession of a shaman who was accompanied by the second patrol they encountered on the road. This battle was a bit more harrowing since the shaman had accurately pegged Aphra immediately as the most imposing threat and incapacitated her with a spell of paralysis, which froze her just as she let Dynaheir down from her back. Dynaheir, tapped of spells, hid behind Aphra's form at Imoen's suggestion while the girl sent arrows flying into the gnolls.
There were nine of them this time, and the shaman had a contingency that set up a shield around him that repelled Imoen's arrows and Garrick's bolts automatically. Everyone else focused on the rest of the spear and machete-armed patrol who charged them and thought they were easy pickings. Minsc placed himself in front of Dynaheir and Aphra and steeled his nerves.
"GO FOR THE EYES, BOO!" He shouted just as a gnoll ran up to him and tried to gut him with his spear. Minsc deflected it and sent a blow toward the gnoll's head that the beast dodged. Boo sailed off of Minsc's shoulder fearlessly leaping into the air and onto the confused gnoll, who didn't know what to do about the tiny creature that was now prying out his eyes from his skull and started screaming and thrashing.
Montaron eyed this exchange with no small amount of mixed fear, amusement, and confusion and back-stabbed the gnoll that had been tearing at his own face to get Boo off of him. Minsc finished him off with a sword swing toward the head which decapitated him just after Boo got off the gnoll and went back to his perch on Minsc, a little more bloodstained for his efforts.
Imoen's arrows soared into a few others without fail and even took one down with an arrow and two bolts sticking out of his neck, thanks to Garrick's aim, bringing the patrol down to seven including the shaman. Xzar yelped in a very high pitch and ran in circles around the area to escape a gnoll chasing him, while Neera - seeming exasperated - sent a few magic missiles after this one and whapped the chasing gnoll so hard in the head with her staff that he fell to the ground yelping. She drove the butt end of her staff into this one's neck with enough force that it shattered his neck-bone and caused him to gargle on his own blood to death, bringing the number of their enemy down to six.
The remaining gnolls seemed to re-think their strategy after seeing a few of their number killed. Aphra was still frozen and looked furious about it while Imoen at her side and Garrick at her other began firing into the crowd, occasionally hitting their targets with arrows and bolts. The six gnolls charged together, three pivoting toward Minsc and Montaron while two charged Xzar and Neera and the last one - the shaman - directed his spells now at Imoen and Garrick.
With a strum of his lute, Garrick cast a grease spell that narrowly avoided Neera and Xzar. Their gnoll enemies slipped and fell onto their faces and backside as a thick grease slicked the grass and made it impossible to walk or stand up on for long. The gnolls, not deterred, slipped and slid on their fours toward the spellcasters.
Xzar screamed again and hid behind Neera, casting a greenish spell from behind her raised arms that exploded into its target and caused one gnoll to start attacking the other. Neera sent a few magic missiles at the one that now had to deal with the assault from his enemies as well as his ally, and he was swiftly cut down by the confused gnoll who then began to sniff the ground and urinate.
Garrick then dodged a spell that was aimed his way from the enemy spell-caster, whose shield fell quite suddenly as Imoen kept firing arrows at him and a few began to finally hit their mark. The gnoll shaman yelped and started to back away, seeing that the battle was lost and he now had two arrows sticking out of his raised arm and opposite shoulder.
Minsc and Montaron had their hands full trying to defend Aphra and Dynaheir from the three gnolls that had charged them and had to stay on the defensive until Neera ran over and joined them and began to distract one gnoll with her bloodstained staff and hit glancing blows onto his back with it. One managed to get him in the head eventually and sent the gnoll reeling toward Minsc's sword, which cut him down nearly in twain with its sharpness. Unfortunately, Minsc's blade became lodged in the gnoll's insides and couldn't be easily removed, and he had to let go of it as another gnoll took this opportunity to try and stab him.
Garrick managed to hit this one in the shoulder with a crossbow shot while Montaron got him in the hamstrings with his daggers, downing him to Montaron's level and leaving his throat exposed to the halfling's knives. The other gnoll charged Minsc who had to simply dodge his weapon, while the spell on Aphra finally wore off and she made quick work of him, easily deflecting a blow that would have killed Minsc and sending her sword through this one's neck and jaw, ripping it out cleanly.
When the battle was over, she retrieved Minsc's blade, but it had broken in half due to the brittle iron. "Let's hope that was the last patrol on the way back to town," she said, and dropped the broken hilt onto the ground with a clatter.
"That was bracing!" Neera commented. "I'm glad we didn't get gutted by gnolls, that was close there for a moment. Probably good that we didn't charge the base."
"I hate that spell," Aphra muttered darkly, flicking the blood off her blade. "Here, Minsc. How are you with longswords?"
"Minsc does better with longbows, maces, and big swords, for big heroes," Minsc reported, and patted Boo on his shoulder. "Aphra will need her sword far more than Minsc!" He refused the weapon she offered, pushing it back to her.
Aphra put away her sword and eyed the bloodstained hamster with something like admiration, while Neera sidled up to her and stared at Boo in concern. "You really let him fight, huh?" Neera commented and reached out a finger toward Boo for sniffing. Aphra looked to Neera, and became fixated by something she saw.
Boo sniffed the little pink half-elf's finger with disdain and began to clean his fur on Minsc's shoulder. "He will need a bath soon," said Minsc. "Boo is quite fearsome, no?"
"Quite," Dynaheir muttered, shaking her head in amusement.
"Terrifying, actually," Montaron commented as he looted the bodies. "Glad I'm not fighting ya."
"Hey! I found a Rashemi text! Dynaheeeeeeiiiiir! Is this yours?" Imoen shouted from where she was ransacking the gnoll shaman's corpse for valuables. Everyone gathered around her to look.
Dynaheir walked over to her and examined the book that Imoen delivered into her hands with joy. "You hath recovered my spell book! I owe thee much, young one. How can I repay thee?"
"Maybe show me some spells sometime?" Imoen requested with a wry grin. "I miss getting lessons from the old man. Other than that, my help is free of charge! We can't abide damsels in distress. Right, Garry?"
Garrick nodded at her side as he put away his crossbow on his back. "Abandoning a hero's quest would be, well, that would be unheroic. We can't have that! We have a reputation to build. And then maintain."
"You heard the bard," said Imoen, gesturing to Garrick as if she were showing him off.
"I am neither a damsel nor in distress, but I see thy point," Dynaheir admitted. "I am glad Minsc recruited thee. Thou art fearsome to thine enemies, and quite accurate with thy bow."
"Thanks!" Imoen gushed. "You're nice, I'm glad we found and rescued you. We can help you guys get back on your feet in Nashkel, but we have to investigate the mines soon after we get back. We promised Montaron and Xzar, and this other lady named Jaheira and her husband Khalid. Plus I get the feeling that the mayor of the town would be mighty happy if we figured out his iron problem."
Dynaheir stared down at the broken hilt of Minsc's claymore and toed it with her cloth shoe. "I see thy point," she repeated grimly. "I hath wondered the source of it myself, in my travels. Many strange things are happening upon the Sword Coast."
"You get it," Imoen nodded. "I feel sorta compelled to look into it. Seems to me that it can't all be a coincidence, the bandits, the wildlife, the brittle iron. Maybe even Gorion's death."
"I keep telling you it's a horned man named Sarevok. Horned- helmeted, I mean," Aphra interjected, and then self-corrected. "I bet we can ask around. Someone's bound to have heard of him."
Imoen stared at Aphra somewhere between pain and exasperation. "Something tells me going around saying this guy's name a lot isn't going to make him very happy, or forthcoming with his guilt," she said delicately while her sister looked properly abashed. "Besides, he killed Gorion, which means we probably don't stand a chance against him no matter your weirdness. We need to figure out who he is, find some kind of advantage, some leverage over him or something. That's how you take people down."
"Listen to your sister, you daft bint. Your innate spell resistance is shit and you can't be running head-first into every problem you meet," Montaron chided, seeming happy to leap onto Imoen's caravan of guilt.
"Worked out alright for me so far," Aphra grumbled, folding her arms but not arguing further.
Imoen scoffed, "That's because we've gotten lucky! Just trust me, Aph. This whole business stinks of something fishy! I know fishy when I smell it."
"I'd agree again if not for the fishiness comment," Montaron critiqued. "That might have more to do with not bathing in several days."
"You're one to talk," Imoen shot back petulantly.
They walked throughout the day, Dynaheir walking by herself for a good portion of it but otherwise carried by Aphra without complaint. They talked of Rashemen here and there, as Aphra had many questions for her about the city, their culture, and particularly their food, which she was apparently quite fond of. An innkeeper in Candlekeep was excellent at making different cuisines from around the world, as Candlekeep had visitors from all over and he was always looking for new delicacies. Dynaheir was thrilled to talk to someone of her home, and Minsc wore a pleased smile throughout their hike as they chatted amicably and got to know one another. His witch and his new friend getting along made him happy.
They camped for the night, and no one objected when Aphra offered Dynaheir and Neera the tent. She went without a bedroll and volunteered for the first watch again, and even Imoen was too tired to criticize her. No one knew whether or not Aphra had gotten sleep, except for Boo, who said to Minsc in the morning, She can't keep this energy up forever - or can she?
"What's that Boo?" Minsc whispered.
I can't tell what she is beneath that advanced polymorph, because her smell is so strange. It's not anything I'm familiar with, or that I've met yet on this world. But even someone as mighty as I must nap occasionally, reported Boo, his whiskers twitching fiercely.
"Minsc trusts Aphra to know her limits," Minsc decided for them both. "And she has treated us and Dynaheir well thus far."
True enough, Boo agreed, and spun in a circle a few times before laying on Minsc's shoulder. He traveled between shoulders as Minsc put away the bedroll he'd been using, and seeing as he was the first awake - apart from Aphra - he saw it prudent to warm up the rest of the roasted grouse they'd made last night and start the fire up again. Aphra joined him shortly, warming her hands by the fire and braiding her hair back around her shoulder as the morning crept over the horizon.
The others were lured to the fire from sleep by the smell of the meat and helped Minsc finish off the rest of it. Dynaheir took small portions despite Minsc's worry - and then Boo explained that her stomach is sensitive after not eating for so long. She can have a little, and gradually work up to larger meals, and this made sense to him so he did not object. Boo was so wise.
On the end of the third day, they made it back into Nashkel and drew quite a series of stares from the townsfolk as they arrived from the south. Aphra walked ahead with a hand on her sword like an afterthought with the others trailing behind her. Imoen caught up with her after they entered the town proper and redirected them to the Inn on the north side of town. There was some manner of commotion outside, a crowd gathered around what appeared to be a man in monk's robes performing katas as he kicked the air, which they ignored making a beeline for the Inn with the exception of Garrick who stayed to watch the show for a bit, looking confused but intrigued by the spinning man.
There was a half-orc with a sinister sword and plate mail armor standing outside of the Inn as they made to the entrance, but Imoen gave him a jaunty little wave, as did Aphra, and he seemed to recognize them with a familiar nod as their party got out. He gave Montaron some side-eye and the halfling did so in return, but Boo didn't comment on it so Minsc figured it was fine, just two warriors sizing each other up.
By the fire in the Inn interior sat a half-elven warrior with an empty bowl in his lap. "Khalid!" Imoen cried out, and the red-headed half-elf turned to look at them with surprise written across his freckled features. Another half elf, this one a woman, poked her head out of her room at the commotion they made as they gathered around him and tried to explain what happened while Minsc focused on getting Dynaheir some food and space for comfort.
"I thank thee," Dynaheir murmured to him gently as she was ushered away from the commotion Jaheira's appearance caused and sat down near a table.
I'm craving some walnuts or peanuts, Boo reported directly to Minsc's ear, so Minsc walked over to the innkeeper and relayed the message, as well as ordered whatever soup was on hand for Dynaheir since her stomach was fragile.
The innkeeper glanced at him suspiciously. "Last time you was here, you had no gold. Something changed, friend?"
Minsc's heart almost sank into his shoes as he thought of how different it was in his homeland, where everything had been provided to him as a part of his runescarring - they were not visible through his clothes, but the etched markings allowed him to cast small healing spells and were a gift from the Wychlaran. In exchange, he was Dynaheir's protector for so long as she required him. He had no words to explain this - how he was not used to the weight of gold in his hands, how it seemed meaningless and heavy in a world that was so weightless and flighty and too quick at times for him to catch. These things escaped Minsc, and he felt it was not entirely his fault.
Were it not for the appearance of Imoen at his side with a bag of gold, and her fingers extending a handful to the grateful and no longer suspicious innkeeper, he was not sure what he would have said. Most likely what Boo told him to. Gold is the way to some men's hearts, Boo explained as Imoen gave the innkeeper the same cheery grin she gave everyone else. "What the man said, plus a few orders, mister! We're all pretty hungry and tired," said Imoen.
"A yawn is a quiet shout," Garrick agreed from the door, having just left the show outside.
"Ooh, I am so ready for a nice fluffy pillow and warm bed!" Neera fantasized.
It was decided, after a tense conversation between the sisters, Jaheira, and Montaron (during which Khalid and Xzar sat at the sidelines looking nervous and manically whistling respectively), that upon the morning they would go and visit the mines. Xzar was abruptly happy that 'mummy was taking them on a trip,' or so he seemed to address the very offended Jaheira. Neera offered a spare set of clothes to Dynaheir while this happened, and Dynaheir looked relieved to both get out of the ear range of the ensuing argument and change out of her tattered robes and into something clean. She looked very different, with much of her customary jewelry missing and wearing a blue dress and simple boots, but a far sight better and healthier than she had when she had emerged from the gnoll stronghold. Jaheira even thought to cast a druidic healing spell upon her that seemed to re-energize Dynaheir visibly, speeding along her recovery.
It was asked of Dynaheir by Jaheira if they would be joining the group for the mines. Dynaheir, without thinking very long upon it, said, "We shall help thee," for them both. Minsc thought it fair, since he had no money to pay the group, that they offer their services in lieu of pay.
"Great, let's bring the whole family to the fucking mines, now can we please be tottering off to bed?" Montaron groaned. "It's been a long, pointless couple of days."
"It's no use arguing with Monty," Imoen loudly whispered to the still affronted-looking Jaheira. "We've learned this the hard way."
"Jaheira," Aphra was pointing out, "as much as I'd like to go with you now- and believe me, I'm ready- the others aren't. Dynaheir was just recently imprisoned by gnolls and is still recovering and the rest of us have had a long, three day trek. I'd rather go in force in case there's spell-casters down there, and I'm starting to think the more the merrier. Who knows what's really down there?"
"There is a limit to that logic," Jaheira criticized, but then conceded, "I see your point. Very well. Tomorrow, we will investigate the mines . . . Together."
"Thank you, dear," Khalid said with a smile and without a stutter. Jaheira smiled at him - a rare-seeming thing, like a night-blooming jasmine flower - and touched his cheek fondly.
Aphra looked strangely hurt by this display and looked away, quickly finding Imoen. "I'm going for a walk outside," she announced. "Just around the town. I'll be back later."
"Come find us if there's more bounty hunters," said her sister Imoen. She brushed a bright vermilion lock out of her green eyes and grinned again, an expression that was never too far from Imoen's bright face. "Or get 'em first, and then come tell me all about it."
Aphra smiled a bit nervously and stepped outside. You should keep her out of trouble, I get the sense it follows her like a magpie after something shiny, Boo informed Minsc. He had sat down by Dynaheir for the exchange and watched while his witch sipped her soup.
Dynaheir patted her mouth dry and gave a knowing expression to Minsc that he didn't quite understand. "You have stumbled upon a great gift Minsc - our dejemma is upon us," she informed him in Rashemi.
"I . . . have?" he was surprised. They had searched up and down the Sword Coast for something that only Dynaheir knew the nature of and had the proper eyes for. His job, in its entirety, was to protect her. It had hurt him how he had failed and needed help, but he was glad that Aphra and her friends were there to help him. "How?" Minsc wondered. He instinctively returned to their mother tongue without question, which drew some eyes from their group.
"Go to her," Dynaheir instructed without explanation. "See to it she does not tarry long. And when you return, tell me of these rescuers."
Minsc stood and obeyed instinctively. When Neera by the door gave him a questioning expression and asked, "Where you off to, Minsc?"
"To keep Aphra safe!" He said, since that was essentially what he had gathered from Dynaheir's instructions. Boo stared at the little pale peach-haired half-elven mage intently from Minsc's shoulder, and so he added, "Boo likes you," and scratched under the hamster's chin.
Maybe, Boo did not immediately agree. She smells off too. Almost like home. Minsc was not sure what that meant, but he kept it in mind about Neera and made his way out the door.
He needn't have worried, for Aphra was outside standing under the eaves with the half-orc from earlier, who had taken a seat and was smoking a pipe as they spoke in hushed tones. It seemed a perfectly civil conversation for both warriors, and Aphra looked up at Minsc with an at once happy and at the same time troubled expression. "Hello, Minsc," she greeted warmly. Minsc wondered if that troubled air about her was simply her aura.
"Minsc is here to help!" He offered. "Boo says, ah, what's that Boo?" Boo gave him a strange look, for he had said nothing. Minsc felt a little bad about the lie but it was hardly the first time he'd done such a thing. "Boo says you are like a magpie for trouble!"
She unexpectedly laughed at this. "Fair enough, I am indeed," she agreed. "Minsc, this is Dorn Il-Khan. Dorn, my friend Minsc. We were just having a chat. I don't know if the others told you but our foster-father died recently, mine and Imoen's, and we haven't been able to return home as a result. Plus, a lot of other weird shit is happening in my life."
"Yes, Boo knows this. He is quite wise," Minsc shared.
"So, I see you collect madmen," Dorn commented after blowing a smoke ring.
"We're all mad here," Aphra corrected. "Except maybe Dynaheir, but to be fair, I don't know her that well yet."
"That is the Rashemaar witch?" Dorn grunted. His voice was like the crunch of gravel beneath a plated boot - sharp, rasped, and pointed. "They are enchantresses. Watch that one. She carries secrets."
"Who doesn't?" Aphra scoffed. "So what's your goal, you don't seem like the sort who enjoys carnivals."
"I enjoy drink," Dorn scoffed. He tapped out his pipe on his hand and let the ashes fall to the floor as he explained, "I'm here for a woman. Not for that reason, grow up," he growled as he saw the amused expression on Aphra's face.
"I wasn't going to say anything," she disagreed, but her expression said otherwise.
"I'm here to question her. She's the only one who knows where her husband might be," the orcish warrior explained, without really explaining much.
Aphra seemed to accept the explanation with aplomb. "Alright, so she's somewhere in Nashkel, and you searched the carnival so she's probably not there, yeah?"
Dorn shrugged. "I was inebriated playing cards when we met. I didn't search very hard."
"Thanks, that narrows things down a bit," Aphra griped. "Let's ask around though, I'm sure she'll turn up. Trust my luck. What's her name? What's she look like?"
Dorn looked grumpy at this, but perhaps that was his permanent expression. "Taris. I am not sure what she looks like."
They spent the better part of the next two hours wandering around Nashkel, only to wind up at the other tavern in town, the Belching Dragon. "It's useless," Dorn was complaining.
"Really? Five gold says that woman approaching you right now is Taris," Aphra disagreed and pointed at a woman that was indeed walking toward them, in a swaying red dress and elaborate headdress in the Amnian fashion.
"I hear you've been asking for me," the woman greeted and Aphra crowed in victory.
"Pay me!" She demanded of Dorn, who growled and nonetheless handed her a few pieces of gold out of his pocket.
"Taris?" Dorn presumed begrudgingly.
The conversation largely went over Minsc's tattooed head, but he got the summary from Boo later - a tearfully upset lady named Taris had a husband who was missing and had run away with a woman named Kryll that Dorn didn't like very much at all. Taris wanted him back, or rather seemed intent on either taking him back or killing him herself, it wasn't clear. Minsc wasn't sure Dorn wanted the same thing at all. He received this information from Boo much later back at the Inn when they returned, because he was rather distracted with the sudden appearance of a very rude Red Wizard on the bridge en-route back to the Nashkel Inn.
I think I recognize this one, Boo said suddenly from Minsc's pocket as he had poked his head out, getting Minsc's attention. A Red Wizard with a long mustache and elaborately embroidered red robes with golden runes sewn into them had stopped them in the road by calling out to them, and seemed suddenly uncomfortable with the amount of attention he was receiving despite approaching them first. He addressed Aphra, who slung her long braid over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "Greetings," he finally offered in a cultured, somewhat condescending tone. "I am Edwin Odesseiron, you simians may refer to me merely as 'sir' if you prefer a less syllable-intensive workout."
He's after Dynaheir, we have to protect her! Boo worried. Minsc pet the little distressed hamster.
Minsc looked to Aphra, who seemed worried for different reasons. "Listen, I've not had the best of luck with you robed-types, especially of the capital Red persuasion," Aphra said, and then added a mild threat, "So best tell me now what you're after lest I toss you in the river."
"Let's toss him in the river anyway," Dorn agreed with amusement.
"Excuse me, but that would be inadvisable," Edwin disagreed with some vehemence. "My spell components would be - I mean, the last thing you want to be doing with your reputation and the bounty on your head is garner more enemies, yes?"
"You know about the bounty?" Aphra was surprised and immediately on the defensive.
"Who does not?" Edwin Odesseiron scoffed.
"Does everyone know?!" Aphra was outraged.
Minsc and Boo stared at her like she was very silly and Dorn started to chuckle. It was an unpleasant sound. "I didn't consider five hundred gold worth a fight with your group. You're also more entertaining alive," the blackguard told her. Minsc was relieved the man thought so, for he would hate to fight Dorn Il-Khan. His sword was particularly vicious looking, and definitely sharper than Minsc's.
"I thought it was three hundred the other day," Aphra fretted.
"A pittance," Edwin agreed with a pinched expression. "I have higher hopes in mind for you."
Aphra held up an unarmored hand. "Hang on, how do you feel about wild mages?" She queried with a fierce, determined look in her gray eyes.
"You are referring to Ekandor's work, yes? I met him on this western coast. We travel in similar circles, us Thayans, of course," Edwin conceded. "Rest assured that I do not wish to hinder his work - nor help it. He is on his own path, and I on mine. I merely require access to the Wychalran's text which you have recently recovered—"
"Let me stop you right there, Dynaheir is under my protection, I want to be clear about that," Aphra cut over him, visibly irritating the Red Wizard. "You'll have to talk to her and Minsc here if you want something from them. As for Ekandor, last I saw, I was pulling my sword out of him. I tend to refer to people in such a state strictly in the past tense."
Edwin criticized with a curled upper lip, "A foolish notion in this world of resurrection and death gods. He will hunt you rude simians down in greater force, now. I can, perhaps negotiate with him on your behalf, but it may require you remanding the wild mage in your company."
Something flinty entered Aphra's stone-gray eyes. "Toss 'im in the river for me, Dorn?" She abruptly asked the half-orc blackguard who moved swiftly into motion. Edwin barely had time to object to his person being man-handled before he was over Dorn's wickedly grinning head and falling off the bridge into the water below with an indignant scream and subsequent splash.
Aphra handed the coins back to Dorn and said, "Kind of you to oblige, pleasure doing business with you. Hope you find what you're looking for."
They shook hands and Dorn replied, "Same to you," and left them there to return to the tavern.
Aphra watched for a few seconds over the railing at Edwin's bobbing form in the water - he was managing to stay upright but was nonetheless floating downstream and issuing curses at them, and then she smiled at Minsc. "I could tell that Red Wizard made you nervous," she said.
Minsc smiled gratefully. "Minsc and Boo are grateful. He would cause trouble for Dynaheir. Red Wizards are always trouble!" He neglected to mention his experience in the war against the Thayans, largely fought by the foot-soldiers of the Zulkir demagogues. Aphra was young yet and did not seem to understand the world around her despite a heavy burden being placed on her shoulders. Maybe one day, when she was older, more experienced perhaps, and they were better friends, Minsc would speak of the battles. But not that day.
"Let's hope we don't have to see him again," Aphra offered, "and let's get back so I can tell Neera about this. She'll love it." She led the way back to the Inn where dinner, and Dynaheir, were waiting.
Minsc reported what had happened back to Dynaheir - she remembered an Edwin, even though he did not, and a previous tense encounter they had in Beregost. With so many witnesses, neither the Red Wizard nor Dynaheir had a desire to unleash any magics on each other, but judging by Dynaheir's expression when she described the event, it was clear she'd wished she'd done so. She was glad that Aphra and Dorn had disposed of him in such a manner, evidently, and even seemed a little amused by Edwin Odesseiron's predicament. "Doubtless we will see him again," Dynaheir assured Minsc, all the same.
Minsc was still wide awake for some time, so he stayed up with Aphra while she read to him a little from the book about the Dead Three. It was grim reading material and gave him strange dreams, of bone-thrones, shining swords, and smiling death gods.
When he awoke, it was explained to him and Dynaheir by Imoen over breakfast that there was brittle ore coming out of the mine resulting in everyone's tools breaking and no one being able to afford to constantly buy new ones. When weapons were in short supply, and arrows shattered on impact, blacksmiths would suffer, hunters would suffer, farmers would suffer, and thus everyone in the economy would suffer. Just how the bandits and gnolls fit into the whole picture was beyond Minsc, but Dynaheir seemed quite excited to put her head together with Imoen's about figuring out what was happening, and it made Minsc happy to see Dynaheir happy.
Dynaheir nodded and took this information in and looked at Minsc askance. "We will help you, to repay the debt I owe for the saving of my life."
"We wouldn't call it that," Imoen demurred, "more . . ."
"Our duty?" Aphra chimed in, joining them and tearing into some bread that had been placed on the table. She dipped it into a bowl of last night's soup and downed it without another word.
"Something like that," Imoen agreed. "Really, you don't have to help us. We'd rather you recover and see you on your feet again."
"I am fine," Dynaheir said dismissively. "My spell book hath been returned to me, and I am replenished. I will aid you in this investigation."
Montaron joined them at that point and felt the need to put in, "I'm not splitting my portion any further!"
"They can just have my portion," Aphra grumbled. "I don't even want the reward."
"What kind of adventurer are you?" Montaron looked scandalized. "How do you expect to make any kind of epic fortune with that attitude!"
Aphra looked baffled. "What would I do with a fortune?" she asked.
"Buy a castle? Roost in a wizard's tower? I don't know," Montaron scoffed, still seeming scandalized by Aphra's lack of imagination.
"Would that stop people trying to kill me, I wonder? Or make it worse?" Aphra pointed out.
"And this is why we are barely scraping by," Imoen chimed in. "It's also why I'm the one in charge of the finances."
Once the sun was over the horizon, they left with their gear strapped to their backs (the majority of their camping equipment carried by Aphra and Minsc) on the road south to the Nashkel mine after a short stop at the blacksmith to pick up a sword for Minsc. He preferred two weapons of smaller design but had the strength and skill to wield a two-hander and accepted a large claymore from Aphra that she had purchased for him. Dynaheir purchased a reinforced staff as well, and they were on their way.
Jaheira was very short of words and led the way without question, Aphra following close behind. Khalid tried to make conversation with her but Aphra seemed preoccupied. Imoen chatted him up instead from the other side as they walked, asking where they'd come from and how they knew Gorion, but Khalid was strangely tight-lipped on this matter and kept looking to Jaheira as if for permission. He told scant details under Jaheira's stern glances, mentioning only that they and Gorion had been adventuring together for a time and worked for the 'same people.' Imoen guessed Blackstaffand Minsc was surprised to hear a name even he had heard of come from them. But the archmagi of Waterdeep was quite famous, or infamous depending on who you spoke to, and reputedly a member of the secretive Harpers. Xzar had opinions about him, Harpers, and Elminster that made Aphra laugh but which made Jaheira get upset with him and demand silence as they traveled.
The entrance to the mines was situated in a barren valley, guarded by only a handful of soldiers of Amnian origin, as they had crossed the border into Amn the moment they set foot on the southern road from Nashkel, it being a border town that thrived on the metal trade. Jaheira barked a command at the soldiers who guarded the entrance, then spoke the Mayor's name and offered a missive given by the Mayor to her previously as proof of their identity and intentions. The soldiers gave way, cautioned them against whatever lurked down there, and wished them luck.
The tunnels were long and dark and too short in places for Minsc to stand upright, so he felt a particular spot in his spine begin to cramp up the further down they went. They made no attempt at stealth with the size of their group, and he was situated along with Aphra and Jaheira and Khalid in the front, being the biggest and best with his sword, obviously.
Space hamsters hate enclosed spaces, too, you know, Boo reminded him.
"This is a den of stinking evil," Minsc agreed as the smell of unwashed and rotting flesh wafted toward him from the lower tunnels. "Cover your nose, Boo! We must leave no crevice untouched!"
"Anyone else hear a yipping noise?" Aphra wondered aloud, looking puzzled.
"What's yipping?" Imoen asked and clenched her bow.
"Doubt much booty to be had here," Montaron disagreed with Minsc, as if this was his only priority.
"Where is your adventuring spirit, Montaron? We are here to save the miners' behinds from whatever evil has kicked them!" Minsc shouted, and everyone hushed him.
Just as he shouted so, a shirtless and dirty miner came running up to them, through and past them hollering, "DEMONS!"
"Ahey!" Minsc shouted and unsheathed his sword as the sound of yipping in the distance came upon them.
"It looks like . . . Kobolds," Montaron announced after squinting and backing up a bit into Khalid's legs, which seemed to annoy him.
"Smells like rotted eggs and lizard," Aphra agreed and drew her sword as well. She placed herself in front of Imoen as pinpoints of light became visible in the dark. As they sailed toward the party, they revealed themselves to be arrows dipped in flaming pitch. One of them glanced off of Aphra's armor while the others swung wide. Khalid put his shield up in front of his face and waited for Jaheira's command to advance; Aphra did not wait for any such thing and charged straight ahead toward the kobold archers with Minsc.
Though Minsc had never seen kobolds in the wild, as they tended to stick to caverns, this invasion force was vicious - but not fearless. Several of them began to run away after Aphra cut through two in quick succession and Minsc another while Khalid, Jaheira, and Montaron came up behind them with raised weapons. They were a force of a mere five facing up against adventurers, heroes. Minsc did not waver and remained on alert for more fiery arrows.
"Kobolds? I find it hard to believe they are behind the machinations here," Jaheira said first after the encounter ended and their enemies fled.
"Could be lackeys. They felt very much like lackeys," Imoen supplied with a shrug.
Neera nodded and agreed, "They definitely had that underpaid, my-life-isn't-worth-it vibe as they were fleeing into the darkness faster than I could get a spell off."
"I didn't get to kill anything," Xzar whined as if disappointed and folded his arms.
They went down and down further into the tunnels, occasionally passing a trapped miner, at least one being threatened by the kobolds. More successive bands of the kobolds were encountered, in usually small numbers that posed little threat to their large group. They were able to conserve most of their spells while those with blades and bows did the work, and a lot of their enemies simply fled at the sight of them.
"Are they afraid, or gathering for a larger attack?" Jaheira wondered.
"I've got a cloud-kill," Neera offered with a raised hand.
"Maybe we can negotiate," Aphra offered instead. "Figure out who they're working for, then have them introduce us."
Imoen said with a pointed look at Montaron, "If it's bandits, bets will be lost."
"We can't loot them if they help us or run away," the grim halfling grumbled.
"Oh dear, however will we profit from the misery of others if we can't kill them and take all their things?" Imoen mocked.
"Minsc does not think this is a very heroic attitude," Minsc chimed in.
Montaron groused, "Great, I'm surrounded by do-gooders and barely have enough time or money for a damn ale at the end of the day."
"Don't be so glum, Montypants," Xzar tried to cheer his companion up, but the effect of his jester-like grin was only unsettling to Minsc.
"And the worst part is, I'm stuck with you," Montaron concluded as he glared up at the necromancer.
Despite Montaron's complaining, he had a ring of darkvision on his person that provided him with excellent scouting capabilities as they ventured further and further down, and eventually came to a lift that brought them to the lowest level of the mines. The air here was stifling and warm, and breath seemed harder to come by in the thick darkness lit only by their individual torches. Here, kobolds gathered in greater numbers and provided more of a threat to them, but Aphra seemed dauntless in battle and her armor surpassingly thick as she remained unwounded, and yet the recipient of the most blows. The kobolds parted in front of her in fear after a while, and the others that did not flee were easily picked off by Imoen and Garrick's projectiles. Still, no spells had been cast.
It was all too simple, Minsc could not help but think. Any moment now there'll be a trap, just around the corner, Boo agreed, validating Minsc's instincts. Still, no such trap revealed itself, and it made Minsc's nerves ever more on edge.
Imoen eventually spied a sample of the brittle ore in the carts, and put some in her pack for taking back to a blacksmith in Beregost, whom she explained as having the ability to perhaps identify the problem and find a work-around. "If it's coming out of the walls damaged, that's a whole other problem," Imoen tried to explain to him. Aphra had some forging opinions that Minsc did not understand - for he knew how to wield blades and enough to maintain them, but not to make them. In conclusion it was clear no one understood the nature of the brittle ore yet, nor how it had passed inspection at every forge.
Montaron and Imoen spotted a trap on a bridge over a small underground river flow. As they crept forward to work on it, the group paused in a natural cavern, giving Minsc's neck a much needed break from constantly ducking under the ceiling. While Imoen and Montaron disarmed the traps and gave each other critiques, he noticed Aphra had been experiencing a similar problem as she rolled her neck about in discomfort. He wondered how long it had been since she last slept and noticed bags under her eyes in the torchlight that had only recently appeared. They had been descending the mines for a few hours now, but he knew she had not slept last night, and perhaps not at all the night previous. How long would her stamina allow before she collapsed?
The tunnels followed the underground river to an exit on the outside, as well as another passage that led further into the cavern. Most of the kobolds that had fled before them had flown toward the exit, according to Aphra's ears, and Jaheira was irritated with them all that they had not slain the kobolds and instead had chased them into the wilderness to be someone else's problem, in her exact words. Dynaheir spoke up then, stating that she preferred the least amount of fighting and suggested that they could hunt the kobolds down at a later date, and wanted to investigate further in the cavern, hoping to find evidence of wrongdoing.
Aphra, whether she wanted it or not, was the deciding vote on such matters and the majority of the group, Minsc included, followed her decision instinctively when she led them further into the cavern with a torch up ahead.
"Aphra wait there's a glyph—" Imoen cried out, but clamped a hand over her own mouth as if remembering they were trying not to alert present enemies. Aphra looked back only after she had already stepped forward and made a noise of confusion as a spell was triggered from a nearby contingency that had been set in stone by an enemy spell-caster. Whatever the spell was, the effect was that Aphra had been standing tall one moment and whimpering in confusion and despair down by the wall the next.
Imoen approached her but was held back by Jaheira who gave her a stern expression. She instructed, "One of the cardinal rules of adventuring, child: do not approach an afflicted ally when you know not what spell they have been struck with. Particularly when it is accompanied by sharp behavioral changes."
"Always p-perform a d-d-dia-diagnostic spell f-first," said Khalid.
Minsc approached instead, less afraid of Aphra's strength and confusion, and Dynaheir was by his side with her hand extended. She hummed an arcane phrase and a light extended from her hand to Aphra's head. For a moment, she was still. Then Dynaheir reported, "She is trapped in a nightmare. This is necromancy. We must wait for the effects to wear off, I cannot remove it."
"I cannot either," Jaheira stated with a frown. She looked to Xzar with a distasteful expression. "Perhaps you may prove yourself useful in this regard."
"Oh, ho ho ho," Xzar chuckled, "I know how to inflict nightmares, not remove them. It is as the fair enchantress said."
Dynaheir seemed pleased by the accord, but less than pleased by the compliment.
"I'll stay with her while you guys go ahead then," Neera offered. "I don't know if I can help, but I can at least watch her. Honestly, it's a blessing she was the only one hit."
Imoen seemed uncertain for a moment, before looking to Jaheira's stern expression and back to Neera again. "Sounds good," she decided. "Monty, you and I should take point from now on, to avoid traps like this."
"Fair enough, but I'm hiding behind miss druid's legs if we run afoul of an enemy necromancer," Montaron supplied.
"I'd love to test my mettle against one of my fellows! Compare notes, spells, and entrail arrangements!" Xzar declared joyously.
"You will likely have your wish," Jaheira predicted with a profound scowl.
They did indeed run afoul of a necromancer, who had holed himself up in a furnished and lit cave surrounded by valuables and presumably evidence of his wrongdoing. It was enough to make everyone happy, until he started summoning a small army of undead. Without Aphra there to gather most of the attention from the enemies, it was upon Minsc, Khalid, and Jaheira as the most heavily armored of them to take the focus of the battle. Imoen and Garrick fired arrow after bolt while Dynaheir, still refraining from spell-casting, battled off any animated skeletons who got too close to them with her staff.
Jaheira divided her focus from assisting Dynaheir to assisting her husband, and herself was too occupied to be of any druidic assistance, while Minsc was occupied facing off anything that got close to Dynaheir or Xzar. Xzar mostly ran around and away from the few skeletons he didn't press into his own employ with a spell, setting a few up against each other for sport. Montaron was a blur of motion, too fast for Minsc's eyes to follow as he dodged every enemy and focused himself on fighting the necromancer. Their enemy was both spell-slinger and cleric and made a formidable foe in Minsc's eyes, for his armor and blunt weapon and skill with it protected him well enough from Montaron's back-stabbing ways.
"Get me to the enemy!" Dynaheir called out in Rashemi, getting Minsc's attention. She pressed close at his back and fended off a skeleton that had come too close. Minsc swung around and knocked the skull off of the skeleton, and then smashed it to pieces with another blow from his blade. He swerved back around and cut through another freshly animated one and started pressing forward.
He was panicking internally until Boo reassured him, Dynaheir has a spell that can put an end to all of this. She just needs a clear line of sight to our man. Minsc wondered at how clever Boo and Dynaheir were, that they were now saving the day. How he had survived without them at any point in his life was beyond him.
When Minsc had finally cut his way through four more skeletons that were quickly replenished, Dynaheir pushed her way under his arm and in front of him and extended her arms, crossed them, and performed a series of hand gestures with an incantation. The spell from her fingers was bright red and slammed into the enemy necromancer's forehead, stunning him momentarily. "Halt thy attack!" She commanded, and all at once, the skeletons stopped fighting.
Montaron had been about to slice the necromantic cleric's hamstrings and down him, but he stopped when he saw what Dynaheir had done as a sudden silence engulfed the room. Then, he whooped in excitement. "Hoo! Who knew you had a charm under your tunic this whole time?"
Dynaheir stepped forward to the spell-caster, and addressed him, "Reveal thy name, and thy purpose here."
Mulahey was quite cooperative under Dynaheir's sway, and though her gift was normally invocation, she had experience enough (with her book returned to her) of the school of enchantment that she could keep Mulahey's focus trained on her for some time. It was more than enough time to convince Mulahey that Dynaheir was his superior so that they could get what information they needed from him, and for him to consent to being bound up with rope and escorted out of the mines and back into the wilderness toward Nashkel. Montaron and Minsc both shared the complaint that the battle hadn't been more bracing, but neither could argue with their effective results.
Minsc stepped to Dynaheir's side to guard her, as the enemy necromancer took off his plumed helmet and revealed a scarred half-orc face. "I am your humble servant Mulahey," he spoke, and his voice was a sandpaper rumble. "I exist only to please you," he went on in a droning voice under Dynaheir's sway. As he went on, his voice modulated toward excitement. "My operations have been going very well here. I have been causing all sorts of trouble among the miners. My kobolds have poisoned all of the iron and have killed several of the miners. What else could you ask for?"
The half-orc necromantic cleric Mulahey reported to a bandit named Tazok, a great 'horned man' whose description seemed to excite Imoen. Aphra's own spell wore off after a time and she came to her senses in Neera's bosom, who had taken to rocking her and holding Aphra gently to try and ease the effects of the nightmare. Aphra flushed something fierce once she came to her senses and insisted on leading the way back to Nashkel ahead of everyone else, despite the bags under her eyes. Montaron and Imoen supervised the looting of Mulahey's cave-room, which was full of valuables and interesting slips of paper that Imoen promised to sort out en-route to Nashkel. Jaheira and Khalid were only interested in the papers, while what caught Imoen's attention was a small vial of corrosive fluid - the very alchemical compound used to treat the ore and render it brittle. "You think with this, Taerom can fix things? Find a work around?" Imoen looked to Aphra and Jaheira for answers.
Jaheira had none. Aphra answered, "Possibly. Depends on what the compound is made of. We might need a mage's eyes. Beregost has a resident arch-wizard, right?"
"It does!" Garrick chimed in happily. "Thalantyr, he lives just west of the town, in High Hedge."
On the way out of the mines, they encountered the suspiciously intact body of a recently deceased elf, still clothed with his sword gripped in one hand. It wasn't clear what had killed him, since there was no gore present, but they decided to bring his body back to the temple of Helm in town. The sword burned anyone who touched it, such was its enchantment, so Aphra kept it in her scabbard and strapped it to her back where it couldn't burn anyone. Minsc carried the limp body of the dead elf, so light he may as well have been a feather to Minsc.
The march back to Nashkel was easy enough, and they luckily encountered no enemies along the way - just a patrol of guards who saluted them as they walked past. Jaheira tore into town toward the Mayor's house, intent on reporting their deeds and claiming the reward, and Imoen insisted on following. Dynaheir, Minsc, and Aphra decided to detour to the temple first to see about resurrecting the fallen elf, if it was indeed possible. Imoen passed Aphra her coin purse as they parted ways, and promised to meet back at the Inn when they were finished with their task.
They traipsed the steps of the temple of Helm past the local graveyard, the watchful hand and centralized blue eye inscribed overhead welcoming them into the safe space of the Watcher God. It was quite a grand building, as most temples to the gods were, and inside was a friendly priest named Nalin who greeted them. Minsc paid little attention to what Aphra said, more concerned with the elf in his arms, and when he was instructed to he placed the body on a stone bier and let the priest do his work. Minsc had seen resurrections before and had even been resurrected once himself after the worst of his head injuries. He knew it to be a painful and disconcerting process, and he reached forth to grab the hand of the fallen elf just as the little man breathed in his first breath of life. The light from the priest's spell coalesced into the elf and he gripped Minsc's hand instinctively as pain jolted through his little body, and he opened his eyes to take in the sights around him.
"Oh, I'm never doing that again," said the dour-faced elf.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," Aphra greeted him with a small wave. "I'm Aphra. That's Minsc."
The elf let go of Minsc's hand once he realized he was holding it and wiped it on his robes. He wrinkled his nose in distaste as he commented, "Are these the robes I died in? Yes, I think they are. Lovely. The stench will never wash clean."
"We can get you something to wear, maybe fix you up. Oh, we found your sword with you too," Aphra indicated and jabbed a thumb toward the blade at her back.
"I would appreciate its timely return," the elf said. "I am called Xan. A change of clothes would be much appreciated as well."
Aphra returned Xan's sword to him once they were out of the temple - a peculiar and fancy blade that he called a Moonblade, a weapon of elven make that passed hands over generations to the next. He was its latest recipient, and as he explained it en route to the Inn, he had attempted to investigate the mines himself with a small adventuring party. Mulahey had presumably killed his entire party, but he did not know their fate for certain. Minsc could guess that the animated skeletons had something to do with it.
Xan had been robbed of all his earthly possessions save his sword, which was bound to him through magic. Aphra managed to cajole Imoen when they got back to the Inn into giving Xan a portion of their reward for investigating the mines, since he had been on the same venture despite his abject failure. He seemed to take his failure in stride as if his mission was already doomed, bemoaned his cursed fate for a moment, and left their party at the Inn with the promise that he would find a way to repay his life-debt to them. Aphra's words on the matter were, "No debt, just change your pants and have a nice day."
Imoen and Jaheira divided up the reward amongst them, and Aphra true to her word gave Minsc and Dynaheir her share since they had little to begin with. Dynaheir was grateful and initially refused but accepted after Aphra simply thrust the gold into her hands and demanded she take it.
Montaron and Xzar were annoyed and relieved respectively, to have the task done and to know what was behind it. "Weren't Zhents, that much I can tell," Montaron announced as he looked over a letter that had been on Mulahey's person. "They don't leave such a paper trail."
"You would know," Jaheira murmured.
Montaron glared at her but directed his comment toward Aphra, "Someone's trying to frame Zhentil Keep for this while everyone's distracted with the iron crisis."
"A single note is hardly evidence of that," Aphra disagreed. "We'll have to do more digging if we want to learn what's behind this. Especially if I'm to find the horned-helm man. Seems like this Tazok mentioned here is the best bet for that."
"Then we're in agreement," Montaron said with a somewhat sour expression, as if the act of agreeing with the girl did not sit well with them. "Seems like we're stuck with each other until this mess is sorted out."
"Seems that way," Imoen shrugged.
Dynaheir seemed discomfited for a time, and it was not until they had all finished their meals that she shared her thoughts with Minsc. In Rashemi so the others would not hear, she spoke, "We must continue our journey to Candlekeep."
"Would we leave them?" Minsc wondered, looking over at Aphra worriedly.
"For a time. Our dejemma lies with her, however. We will cross paths again, of this I am certain. However, many answers lie in Candlekeep's walls for me. I must go there," Dynaheir pressed.
Jaheira and Khalid were displeased with Aphra and Imoen's choice in company and made it apparent - or rather, Jaheira did. Khalid stuttered an agreement with his wife's remarks, and it became clear that they would depart before long. Aphra managed to convince them to stay while they traveled north to the Friendly Arm's Inn, and part ways there, and they agreed to this much. They rented the shared room at the Inn with the most cots and dragged a few more in there for their massive party's benefit, and collectively decided to head out in the morning.
For the first time since he had met her, Aphra laid down for sleep that night, and seemed plagued by nightmares. Ill dreams, with ill omens, Boo commented as he observed the girl twitch in her sleep. Minsc did not know what to make of it but did not wish to wake her for fear that she would not return to sleep at all. He watched over his group for his time, and his witch, but sleep eventually claimed him. When he dreamed, it was of the great planes where giant space hamsters roamed freely - where imagination was limitless.
Muchas gracias to Trisa_Slyne for all her hard work refining this!
