Diabolical Interest
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The girls were rescued, and we headed with our pack of chicks toward the nearest town, three days out from where we were, near the pass. And… It started to snow. We found a good shelter, took care of a bear living there in order to acquire food, warmth, etc, and essentially moved in to wait out the storm.
Boyce had done a divination you see to determine if there was going to be a blizzard. And yes, it would be a short one but it would produce a large amount of snow. And… apparently we would be attacked within a couple of days too, fun.
Not that such doom and gloom had much of a cautionary effect, because yet again this night Wil and I didn't do much watching on our watch. However, it was lucky for us that we were finally able to rouse Trent out of his drowsy meditative sleep to actually provide some security on first watch. We had been fortunate so far that everything seemed to happen on second watch, so our doings of “whatever” had gone relatively unnoticed. Anyway, now that it had gotten significantly colder out and Wil and I a lot less discrete, we decided to start sharing a bedroll during second watch to keep the both of us warmer during the night. Boyce made some noise about this but I ignored him with a shrug.
Anyway, the next morning Grey improvised a few device type things to make it easier to travel in deep snow, and we set out on our way. As we were on the move, though, Trent's bird informed us that we had a follower, one who was keeping his distance. On a black horse. We stopped for the night at an alcove in the cliffs and Grey reformed a ceiling from the earthen cliffs.
That night during Grey and Boyce's watch, a visitor “appeared”. He was apparently interested in what he claimed was his property. Although, if you think about it, if he stole the “property” to begin with… and then we stole it from him… it's not really his property to begin with and even if stealing it qualified as a transfer of ownership, then technically it was now our “property”. What the hell am I babbling about? Anyway, he indicated that we could leave “his property” and be on our way and someone would be by to pick them up, but Grey inquired if he had a deed for this property, and he took the hint.
He headed toward the cave mouth and Boyce moved to attack him, and he disappeared just as suddenly as he appeared. We hemmed and hawed about this event for a while, and eventually decided that given how persistent these guys seemed to be about these girls, that Boyce would just have to muster up his magical abilities and send them back to Alestia as soon as possible.
It took a while, but we got them all shuffled through the gate into Liri's bedroom and then made our way back to Wil's camp instead of the nearby town. But not before Grey and the others attempted to make our last camp look like we were attacked and murdered and our bodies dragged off into the night.
The next night we had an interloper appear in the spirit realm and try to harry us, but Trent made quick work of him apparently. It's good to have someone so efficient and useful in the party. Oh yeah, and Grey took care of the rogue fire demon thingy.
They did not bother us again and we made it back to Wil's outpost a few days later. We said our goodbyes, I made sure he had the name of the Occluded Rainbow Inn for next time he was on leave in Alestia (not that I was expecting anything, but it was worth a try… really, I'm not bitter), and the rest of us headed back to Alestia via Boyce's-gate-to-Liri's-bedroom trick.
Return to Alestia involved checkup on the girls we sent back, research research and more research (snore), and Trent did some poking at Jain's chickie sidekicks. It seems everything involved in this seemingly superficial slavery plot is devil-related. Devils devils devils. Grey turned up something regarding devils in his research too. Someone named Azranael, who was a redhead. And how to determine if someone was of devilish blood. I think the conclusion was they (and therefore we also) are looking for redheaded girls who might be descended from this devil named Azranael.
Anyway, Boyce did some divinations to determine if we were going to have to deal with another attack on the girls we just rescued and… it turns out Hilda was going to be the victim. Something about the divination, I don't know why, but Grey began to suspect Hilda's father Philip in the plot, I think. I don't know.
Anyway, we headed out there as soon as Grey was done with his research. A three-day journey it was, into the some swampland, and we were there. But not before a run-in with some ogres, who were laying a rather ridiculously obvious trap. There was no way I was letting them get away with this. Apparently the others were in agreement.
Really, Grey was just particularly awesome during this battle. What can I say, it got my attention. And despite “knowing where we stand”, I found that Boyce was trying a little too hard to be impressive, but this time failing to deliver, so I had to tease him a little after the fight by sending some bugs to harry him.
After the ogres were dispatched, we arrived at the Madrigals' estate a few hours later. After speaking with Philip for a bit about why we had come, I pulled Grey aside to inquire about his interest in a proposition of mine as everyone else retired to their rooms.