Arden Vul Session 02 What Came Up Through the Wood
Date: March 16, 2026
Party: Florian (bard), Lorez (wizard), Cedric (Fighter), Johannes (cleric), Runner (Ranger)
They moved above him.
He knew them the way he knew most things now, not by sight, not by sound exactly, but by the pressure of their being. Weight on stone. The quality of attention that living things carry with them like a smell.
One of them had found the door.
He had not meant to speak. But the one above him had paused, not stepped back, paused, and he had felt the shape of that pause the way you feel a hand held near a flame without touching it. The man had heard him. The distinction between hearing and feeling mattered less than it once had.
Where is she? Come back, Nyema.
The rubble had come back. Stone by stone.
They were going up the stair. He could feel it through the old bones of the place. Going into Arden Vul, where she had gone. Where she had not come back from.
The one with the sword had heard him, and had paused, and had, he was almost certain, remembered.
That was more than he had had in a very long time.
Two of the Beastmen, talking in the barracks - Aulos is reporting the contact to Trisko:
AULOS: About a hundred yards out, one of them stepped onto the road. Alone. In armor, good armor, not adventurer-scrap. He gave a formal salute. Correct form, or close enough. I called the halt and he spoke first.
TRISKO: What did he say?
AULOS: He gave his name. Cedric. Said he was retired Legion, 4th, and that he was leading a party of adventurers intending to ascend the Stair.
TRISKO: Fair. What was your read on him?
AULOS: Experienced. Calm. The salute wasn't perfect but it was confident, a man remembering, not performing. He knew to speak first and he knew what to say when he did.
TRISKO: The others?
AULOS: A cleric, young, quieter than I expected a cleric to be. Kept his hands visible. The hunter barely looked at us, but the wolf did. The wolf was fine. (small pause) That surprised the men a little.
TRISKO: And the mage?
AULOS: Watched everything. Said nothing the entire time. Stood where he had a line on Kemnes and probably thought I didn't notice.
TRISKO: You noticed.
AULOS: I noticed.
TRISKO: The fifth.
AULOS: (a slightly different pause) Young. Well-dressed for the road. He came out of the treeline last and stood slightly back from the others. He looked at us the way people look at things they're deciding whether to find interesting.
TRISKO: And did he? Find you interesting?
AULOS: I think he found Kemnes interesting. The young one looked at him for a while and then smiled.
TRISKO: Smiled.
AULOS: Not mockingly. Just, pleased. Like something had confirmed something.
TRISKO: (writing) Any hostile indicators from any of the five at any point during the escort?
AULOS: No, sir. The hunter's hand was near his bow on the climb. I'd have done the same.
TRISKO: Anything else I should know.
AULOS: The fighter, Cedric, looked at the barracks when we passed through. Just a glance, but he was counting bunks.
TRISKO: Of course he was. All right. That's sufficient, Sergeant. Send Demi in on your way out and remind him that what circulates on a patrol circuit stays on a patrol circuit.
AULOS: Yes, sir.
TRISKO: And Aulos. You handled it correctly. The decision to bring them in was sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment