Day 23 (S14)

Rina 18, 9

Aurelius and Kin pick up the Shepherd Woman, now known to be called Gabrielle, and they all begin up the shaft. Alice lead the way since she was smaller, with Aurelius just behind her pulling the woman up with him. Rina took the back end to help Kin with pushing the woman upwards.
The climb took hours, they were all exhausted. The rocks ripped at their clothes, leaving holes here and there in them all. Rina's Clothes of Mending shimmered with magic in the areas that got torn - mending themselves along the way.
"I can see a light!" Alice exclaimed as they reached the top, "There's another grate like the one in the pond. It looks like its covered in rocks and stuff though."
Aurelius pushed past her and wedged his sword in between the grate and the shaft wall. With the right leverage, he was able to push the grate - and the rocks above it - out of the hole, and open the way out. Aurelius poked his head out and looked around - they were on the edge of the mountain, not too far from the top.
"I see smoke at the top of the mountain!" Aurelius announced in a concerned voice.
"I hope Gunther is ok!" Rina said as she pushed the woman out of the shaft with Kin.
"Let's get up there and see what's going on" Kin said, "The smoke doesn't seem to be very thick, at least."
They made their way to the top again to find Gunther sitting by a small fire he had made for himself.
"Put that out!" said Aurelius, "Anyone will be able to find us with that smoke, and we're pretty sure the Church of Luminus is on our tail."
"Oh, gods, sorry" Gunther said, scrambling to put out the fire, "I didn't know they'd be trying to find you."
"It's ok, you didn't know," said Rina, "but we need to get down off this mountain and back to Youngru as soon as possible."
"Who is that woman you guys are carrying?" Gunther asked the guys.
"We don't really know" Kin answered, "when we defeated the Shepherd, she was left in its place."
"You defeated it? Amazing." Gunther said.
"Yeah, with an eldritch blast to the face" Rina said.
"Guess Darrian was right about you" Gunther smiled. Rina smiled, too.
"Gunther, would you carry this girl?" asked Kin, "We're all exhausted and could really use the help."
"Oh, of course" Gunther said as he put her on his back, "No problem."
"Should we go back down the mine shafts?" Asked Alice as she peered down the Bulette-ridden holes.
"No way" Rina said, "I'm not fighting with those things again. Plus, we can't also take Gunther and the woman on them, as well."
So they all started down the mountain. Aurelius riding on his shield like a sled down the steeper parts of the dirt path, Alice wildshaped into an armadillo to roll down with him.
"Oh, sure, just go on without us" Gunther complained.
"I'm not doing that" said Rina.
"Me either" Kin responded.
So Rina, Gunther, and Kin all walked a bit slower, having a decent conversation.
"I... I'm sorry about your friends" Rina said to Gunther, "I hope that the other two are still able to be saved."
"Thanks, me too" he said sadly.
"If not," Kin said, "we have room in our group if you want to join us."
"I'd second that" said Rina with a smile.
Aurelius crashed into Alice during their shenanigans, and Rina rushed up to help them "You two! You're going to kill yourselves!"
"Guess it's just you and me now" Gunther said to Kin.
"Maybe you and I just need form our own adventuring party" Gunther said with a laugh.

They all got down the mountain in decent time, the sun had just barely begun the cast a bit of light over the sky.
"I can see the city!" Rina exclaimed, "We should be able to get there really soon!"
Just before they reached the bottom, three Pegasi descended from the sky in front of them. Riding them were three men clad in armor with the 9 Pointed Star of the Church of Luminus on the breastplate. The one in the center was a large, burly man. Blonde with a beard, wielding a great hammer.
Behind him, his Pegasus was dragging another Bodak. On its head was a Gold circlet. This Bodak looked much more human.
"Marie!" Gunther yelled, "That's Marie, my..."
The large man interrupted him, "Well, well, well. If It isn't the trouble makers who decided to take something that wasn't theirs."
"What do you mean?" Alice said, running toward Rina who was now in the front.
"That girl you got there" he said, "She doesn't belong to you."
"And that girl doesn't belong to you!" Rina yelled, pointing at Marie.
"Oh, this thing?" he said, "This is a ward of the state. It was found disappearing people over in Mapledale. It's going to be observed and dealt with by the church."
"She's not a thing!" Gunther yelled, "She's a person!"
Rina looked back at Gunther briefly with sad, but determined eyes.
"Look, we just want the girl" the burly man said, "You can even keep that medallion I know you have on you."
Alice slightly backed away, remembering that it was in her pocket.
Aurelius kept silent through the entire interaction, until the burly man began to speak to him. "Ahh, If it ain't Aurelius - my only son!"
Aurelius didn't answer him, the rest of the party looked at him in shock.
"This is the man who killed all those Therianthropes?" asked Rina quetly.
Aurelius nodded.
"It's been a long time - shame you decided to leave the church. Why don't you come down here and chat with dear 'ole dad, huh?"
"Get out of our way, dad" Aurelius responded, "The girl, and the End Medallion, are ours."
All three men got off their Pegasi, and Aurelius' dad spoke again, "Well, ya see, kid, I can't do that. I gotta come back with the girl. I've been promoted to one of the Fingers of Luminus. I hate that you missed it." He then began to raise his hammer in the air above Marie.
"No!" yelled Rina.
"Seems you've given me no other choice" he said, "Seems I need to bring this monster to justice right here and now."
He then took the Gold circlet off of Marie's head, and began chanting a prayer to Luminus.
"That's the execution rite" Aurelius said.
Kin whispered to Alice and Gunther "We can get both Marie and this girl out of here if we do it right" he said, "Alice you can fly her out of here faster than they can get back on their Pegasi."
Aurelius could hear Kin's planning, but Rina could not.
"Don't kill her!" Rina yelled, "If you want the girl, come and take her!"
The man stopped his prayer, "I knew you'd come to reason" he said. He then teleported directly to Gunther with a Dimension Door, and Aurelius stood between them.
"No, Alrec!" Aurelius yelled, "I won't let you have her!"
"Aw, son, just call me dad," he said, "and move out of my way, or I'll have to kill you, too."
"I won't!" Aurelius yelled as he raised his sword.
Rina could see that all 4 of them had Alric Ravenwood essentially surrounded, then glanced back at Marie who was roughly 20ft away from either of the other men.
She then opted to dash toward Marie to try and save her.
While Aurelius, and now Kin, stood between Alric and Gunther, Alice wildshaped into a large bird to and grabbed the woman to try and get her to safety.
Alric could see this happening. He shoved Aurelius into Kin, knocking them both to the ground, then grabbed Alice by the tail feathers and smashed her hard with his hammer. A burst of light magic knocked her out of her wildshape form immediately.
Rina got to Marie, and used her own Dimension Door to take herself and Marie directly to the middle of Godfrey's tavern.
"What in the hells?!" Godfrey exclaimed, "What are you doing bringing that thing into my tavern?"
"This is what you get for not helping us in the first place" She said, "This is a woman who has been cursed, keep her tied and she won't harm you - just don't look at her until we get a Greater Restoration on her!" Rina then turned to Godfrey, who was still polishing a glass at the counter, "There's three guards of the Church of Luminus t the base of the mountain trying to kill my friends and kidnap a girl we saved from Mt. Ivatim, and take her away on their Pegasi!"
"Guards of the church, you say?" Godfrey mumbled.
Then a large grin game upon his face. "It's about time we had a little excitement around here!"
At the base of the mountain, Alice, Kin, and Aurelius laid on the ground helpless. Gunther could not stand a chance against this finger of Luminus alone, so the Shepherd Woman was taken.
Alric Ravenwood then Dimension Doored himself and the woman onto his Pegasus, "Thanks, son. Glad I didn't have to kill ya." He then flew away.
Back at the tavern, Godfrey then pushed a large stone in on the wall, it triggered the roof of his tavern to move - opening a large hole in the ceiling.
He then began to change. Large, fleshy wings then protruded from his back. His nails turned to long claws, and his body became beast-like. This form looked much different than Francis did as a bat. A large and monstrous creature, with fur as hard as nails. "This one of the Three Fangs still has it!" he yelled as he flapped his wings with a burst of energy ad he flew off toward the mountain.
Gunther and the rest of the party members limp their way back to the tavern where Rina and some men in the tavern had Marie tied up with a burlap sack over her head to keep her from harming them.
"Marie..." Gunther said softly, touching her hand.
"Be careful" said Rina, "I know you care about her, but right now she's dangerous."
He backed up and pulled Rina aside. "Thank you," he said softly, "thank you for saving her. She's... she's..." he couldn't finish speaking, but gently pulled a small black box out of his pocket and opened it to show her. It was an engagement ring.
"Aw, oh Gunther..." Rina started, "I'm happy I saved her, too." She paused and hugged him, "I'm happy for both of you." They both cried a few small tears, and he put the ring back in his pocket.

Kin then approached Rina, "You should have gone with the plan" he said.
"What plan?" Rina asked.
"You were too busy yelling at Alric to make the trade for the woman to hear us I guess."
Rina looked stunned, "You mean to tell me you didn't want me to save this poor girl?"
"This... Thing... is not what we did all this work for!" Kin yelled.
"She's a person!" Rina yelled back, "And, in case you forgot, she IS the reason we came here! Our mission was to save the Fearsome 5, not rescue a woman whose been unknown to the world for centuries!"
"We could have done both!" Kin retorted.
"Did you not see all those dead bodies down there?" Rina asked, "What do you think they died for, huh? I'd venture a guess that they all died trying to get that woman to Niktalia, and didn't realize they were summoning a Shepherd from purgatory!"
"What's your point?" Kin said angrily.
"My point is that enough people have died for that woman already" she barked back, "All the people in Ivatum, all the people in Riverbend, all the people in Mapledale... and the thousand people who committed suicide in that mountain. They all died for her. I wasn't going to let the person we came to save die for her, too."
Kin stormed out of the tavern.
"Damn..." said Alice, "I've never seen either of you lose it like that."
Rina sighed, "Kin and I are... more similar than either of us want to admit."
"We need to rest" Aurelius said, "I know Rina can be good to go after like 15 minutes, but the rest of us need a long nap."
"I second that" Alice said, "And don't worry about Kin, he prefers to sleep in the trees anyway."

The party all slept in Godfrey's tavern in Youngru the rest of the day, except Kin who found a nearby tree to sleep against.

Gunther stayed awake all day, watching Marie wriggle in her binds.
"You doing ok?" Rina asked him, "I know it must be hard to see someone you love like this."
"Yeah..." he responded, "it's the hardest thing I've ever done."
"Once Kin and Alice get their spells back, one of them can restore her back to normal" She said. "You should go get some sleep, I'll watch over her for the rest of the night."
"Okay," he said with a sigh, "Thank you. For everything."
She hugged him again and let him use the bed she had rested in all day.
Godfrey then came flying back in through the roof, "I chased them all the way to the border" he said, "I got two of 'em, but the big guy got away with the girl." He then began to shrink back down into his Druse form, back to looking like the big, pale Dhampir he was.
"You got them? What do you mean you got them?" asked Rina.
"I mean I knocked their little ponies out of the sky and killed them" he said. "I hit the big guy, but couldn't quite finish him off."
"Thank you for doing that" Rina said, "Thank you for trying."
"Don't you worry little elf," Godfrey said, "I'll tell my brother all about it when we ride to Castle Frey tomorrow."
The entire party was exhausted after leaving the mountain, so Rina rested for a full 8 hours, and the rest of the party slept through the day and into the night. It was early morning the next day when they all got back together at the tavern.

Rina day 9 (18 total)

Next: Day 24 (S15)