12 - Family Ties
Kythorn 5th, Lakehead Tavern, evening…
Sibul's knuckles were red, his face contorted with rage as he examined the heap of man on the floor in front of him. His father, Lyle Sanderson, lay on the floor with a hand up to prevent further harm. He wanted to do more, but knew he shouldn't and let his rage simmer back down.
Some dock workers helped him to his feet, nursing an injured jaw Lyle began "Son, I haven't seen you in so long, I missed you."
"LIAR!" Hawke roared, barely able to contain his rage as it boiled back up in his chest. "If you cared about me you would have come and found me!"
"I tried! You have to believe me, your mother and I tried" the man pleaded, "Sibul, please if we are going to have this fight could we move it somewhere more private" he added, looking around at the strange folk in the tavern.
A tabaxi, a dwarf, a triton, a man, and a dark skinned half elf stood behind Hawke. Lyle took a moment to take it in and felt a swelling of pride in his chest.
"So you finally left the Dunes and became an adventurer huh" he began before Hawke cut him off.
"I never left the Dunes father, I am simply on a mission right now and will go back home to my family when I am done." Hawke said bitterly.
"Son please-" the man began again but this time it was Shalia who interrupted.
"Hey, Hawke, let's go, we booked a room you can bring your dad or don't but let's not do this in the middle of the tavern, ya?"
Hawke nodded and said coldly "come old man."
Lyle gulped and followed his estranged son and his group of friends to hopefully not his own grave.
Kythorn 5th, in a private room of the Lakehead Tavern, night…
Sitting at opposing ends of the table in the guest room they had rented, Lyle and Hawke restarted their conversation, the party under Shalia's suggestion sitting or standing between the two to keep the peace.
"Right let's start this again this time more civilly please Hawke?" Griffin said, "Good evening sir, I am Reverend Griffin Oakbeard, I travel with your son here and I must say he is a mighty fine young man." the dwarf added pointedly, patting Hawke on the back firmly, trying to send subtle messages with each pat.
"I am glad to hear it, I worried about what became of him when we were separated long ago," Lyle responded.
"You mean when you sold me to the Dunes right? Because that's exactly how I remember that exchange going, father" Hawke spat the words with venom to labour the point home.
"What choice do you think I had? We were poor Hawke, your mother and I were sick and needed medicine."
"So that's justification to sell your child to a skiff gang for some petty cash, I may have only been 10 but I saw how often you and mom were at the card parlours and gambling dens." Hawke growled through gritted teeth, shooting daggers at his father with piercing eyes.
"If you were just going to lambast me, why bother coming at all? You could have ignored my letter." Lyle finally began barking back, the match was no longer one sided.
"Letter?" Hawke said, taken aback, "what letter? You haven't written to me since I was 14."
"That's not true!" Lyle shouted, standing up he walked to the window and rested his head along the postbeam next to it. "I wrote to you a few weeks back, asking you to meet me here. Your mom is missing Sibul."
Sibul suddenly felt a chill rush through his entire body, he froze as a million thoughts rushed through his mind. His mom? Where was she? How long had she been missing? Was she still alive? Why did Lyle reach out to him for help? Is there some ulterior motive to all this?
Finally he collected himself and said "Alright father, if you want my attention you have it, now tell me what happened to my mother."
Kythorn 6th, midnight…
Lyle went on explaining how a few weeks ago Sibul's mother Henrietta had gone on a trip north with some other townsfolk on a voyage to Pinedale for some lumber. On the way back, their carriage was waylaid by monsters and only a few of them returned. Those who had, reported that some of their members were dragged off by the monsters to a nearby cave and could still be alive. The chances however were much slimmer now that two weeks had passed since then.
"Shitfuck" Shalia whispered to herself after Lyle finished his recount. The group perceived Hawke who looked mortified at the tale, they couldn't tell who he was more upset at, Lyle or himself.
Finally Hawke spoke up, quietly at first but rising in volume overtime "and you say you sent me a letter just a few days after you heard about it? Where did you send it to?"
"I addressed it to the Amaranth Seer* and hoped once he got it he would deliver it to you." Lyle explained, continuing with "You might have missed it when you went on this mission you mentioned."
"It didn't matter if I stayed or not as the Seer is dead. The process of appointing the new Seer was still undergoing when I left." Hawke admitted grimly, he had looked up to the previous Seer as a father, and the man who was in line to take the role was like a brother to him. He longed for his adopted family back home, but was comforted when reminded that he was surrounded by a newly found family.
"I am here now however," Hawke started again, "and I am going to set things right. I will seek out this cave of monsters and do my best to bring mom back, I swear on the Dunes, or else I will not be back." He finished looking down deep in thought.
"Thank you Sibul, you have no idea how much this means to me. If you find her and the worst has happened, please try to bring back something for me to remember her by, her locket or her wedding ring." Lyle pleaded with his son.
"I will try dad, I promise" Hawke replied, cordially and warmly to his father for the first time.
Kythorn 6th, morning…
They slept the rest of the night away, in the morning going into the main room again to have breakfast they happened upon Sioda Tao again.
"Eyyy, there's my favourite group of hooligans." She called as they sleepily walked into the hall, "who wants breaky, on me!"
While they ate they got to know Sioda a bit more, she was a bounty hunter from the Riverdowns, estranged from her family and happy with her life on the road. "It's hard, but so am I! It suits me well and I bear no allegiances or holds to anyone but me." She said proudly, batting her fist against her chest.
"Who are you tracking now Ms. Tao" Griffin asked formally, taking a sip of his coffee.
"A vampire who stole away with a noble's daughter, typical in my line of work. Odd though this far from Chillhaven, usually the fuckers like to stay where it's cold so they don't have to feed as often but I guess this one was banished or hungry." Sioda responded, showing her expertise on the matter flawlessly.
"Damn, sounds like you have a tough fight ahead of you! Which way do you think the vampire went?" Shalia asked, curious if they were chasing the same prey.
"I think it might've gone to Pinedale, I was gonna head up that way today. Have you guys ever been to Pinedale? Lovely little lumber town" Sioda shared as Lathander did their best to act intrigued and like they weren't very familiar with their hometown at all.
"It sounds lovely, perhaps we'll visit it in our travels sometime," Hawke said, looking like he'd rather be headed out soon.
They finished their meal and paid, leaving the tavern. They told Sioda they were going to hunt monsters that had assaulted townsfolk north of Laketon and she offered to guide them on part of their journey.
Kythorn 6th, wilderness, mid-morning…
They followed the road back up and to a bend that led north to Pinedale. The party continued along the road for a while until they found a spot where weeks old tracks revealed signs of a struggle. Happy to have lent aid as a guide, Sioda bid them farewell and continued her journey to Pinedale.
Examining the tracks revealed the monster's cave must have been only a mile or so west of the trail. They headed off into the brush and eventually came upon the cave. Knowing this had to be the place they entered, drawing weapons just to be safe.
Kythorn 6th, in the cave, afternoon…
The cavern was dark and damp, the air had a foul odorous quality to it. As the group made their way into the cave, they found the narrow passage they started in gave way eventually to a large chamber. Stalactites and stalagmites littered the ceiling and floors respectively, crystalized droplets could be heard hitting pools of water all around the room.
Hawke scanned around immediately, looking for any signs of life. Nevon cast detect life and saw three forms huddled in the far corner of the room. "Hawke over there! There's something, but I'm not sure what" he whispered as loudly as he could so Hawke could hear him, but not so loud as to possibly alert whatever monsters could be lurking in the shadows.
They found a passage down to the main floor of the chamber and skirted around a large rock column carefully peeking out to observe their surroundings. As they peered into the darkness, they saw the three figures Nevon pointed out, but they looked not like any human or other species they had seen.
The creatures had long slender fingers and sharp ragged nails, their skin (what little was still attached) was a greenish gray, and when they opened their maw the stench of death filled the room. Barring sharp fangs and slithering long pink tongues, the creatures seemed to be eating.
"Shit those are fucking ghouls," Shalia cursed under her breath, "now what the fuck do we do?"
"The only thing we can do for those that didn't make it," Griffin started, "drive these foul beasts back to the abyss!" With that he equipped his hammer and shield and ran at the beasts.
Nevon was quick to follow suit, shooting an eldritch blast at one of the ghouls, knocking it back against the wall. To which Nimreth said "Oh shit let's gooooo!" While brandishing her axe and charging into the frey.
Hawke, Lathander, and Shalia were soon to follow, giving a fierce cry as they joined the fray. As Griffin tangled with one ghoul, another pounced to the ceiling, then to the wall. The one that Nevon had hit had disappeared in the darkness.
Shalia tried to shoot the one off the wall but as soon as she got it in her sight it would dart to another spot. "Someone wanna help here!" She called.
"Got it!" Nevon said, uttering incantations as a purple circlet formed around the ghoul, holding it in place. That gave Shalia the moment she needed as she launched an arrow at it, piercing its chest. The ghoul was not out of the fight yet.
The ghoul that Griffin, Hawke, and Lathander engaged was bloodied, cuts covered its body and two of its limbs were broken. It would not be long before it fell. As it swung wildly around it spat acid, hitting Griffin in the face, he screamed in pain as he fell to the ground.
Nevon saw this and, enraged, threw a firebolt at the ghoul in question singeing it. Nimreth jumped off a nearby boulder and brought her axe down with a maniacal laugh as she cleaved the beast in two.
As the firebolt flew across the room, the purple circle around the other ghoul vanished, and it fell to the ground before leaping off again into the darkness. Shalia looked around cautiously with an arrow drawn "Shit where did the fuckers go" she muttered, "come here little ghoul, kitty doesn't wanna hurt you, just kill you."
A ghoul leapt out of the darkness right at her. The tabaxi turned around but not fast enough, it was on her, clawing and attempting to bite as she held it off by sticking her bow in its mouth. "AAAAGH, HEY GUYS HELP!" She cried desperately as the ghoul bit down, breaking the bow in half. "SHIT!"
Lathander was there in an instant, he bashed the beast off with a mighty blow from his shield and helped Shalia up. Shalia pulled out a short sword to defend herself as the ghoul reared up for another attack. The two feinted left and right, striking at the monster as they passed, it fell to the floor and they pierced it a final time to ensure its demise.
The last ghoul was cornered, Hawke had it dead to rights. He pointed his rapier at it and thrust quickly, piercing the creature through the brain and killing it instantly.
Tending their wounds, the party administered two health potions, one to Griffin to help with the burning on his face from the acid, and one to Shalia to help close the cuts and scratches she received from the feral ghoul.
Searching the pile where the ghouls were feasting they found the remains of several dead humanoids and some animalkin. Among the pile were bits of belongings, searching over an hour led to a discovery. "Aha!" Hawke proclaimed as he held up an amulet, opening it revealed a wood etching of a family, a father, mother, and son. The son bore a striking resemblance to Hawke. Out of the locket fell a thin ring with a small white diamond on it, what happy chance. With that, the party left the cave and began their journey back to Laketon.
Kythorn 6th, Laketon, evening…
The group returned to Laketon and went to Lyle's house that he had told them about. Once there, the party encouraged Hawke to start the conversation by knocking on the door. They waited at the foot of the steps up to the house while he knocked solidly three times.
The door creaked open, Lyle looked to see his son with a grim look on his face. He started balling and embraced his child. The two stood there for what felt like eternity, but they were happy to be with each other in that moment, reconnected as family. Eventually Hawke spoke in a weak tone.
"I was too late father, I wasn't strong enough, mom…she's-"
"Enough of that" Lyle interrupted, "it wasn't your fault, I should have gone with the carriage not your mom, it should have been me. . . Were you able to find anything of hers?" he asked after a moment, looking his son in the eye and caressing his cheek.
"Yes dad, I found her ring and an amulet" Hawke replied, holding back tears as he held out the items.
"Keep the amulet Hawke, as a reminder of us" Lyle said, taking the ring and closing his son's hands around the locket, "a reminder of the family ties that bind us." Hawke didn't have words, he simply hugged his father before bidding him one last farewell.
The party, a little emotionally down, spent one last night in the Lakehead Tavern, they had drinks and raised a glass to Henrietta Sanderson, mother of Hawke.
* The leader of the Scarlet Dunes. The title of Amaranth Seer is never retired, but instead inherited and passed on to the next chosen Seer by the current Seer.