Silence Must Be Heard

With Nialia sniffing away, we headed off on the trail of the weird blind monsters. Rowan informed us that they were called Grimlocks, and said they "see" with sounds and smell. Audric seemed to perk up at this, and he led us off in the direction of a baker's shop that he and I had visited the other day. Ohhhhh, sweet sweet goodness...
With a little bribery, Audric procured us a bottle of peppermint oil. I had a feeling I knew what was running through his mind. I just hoped it would work. We then resumed tracking the grimlocks. After a little while, we came to some abandoned warehouses. Nialia picked the one she thought it was, and we set about finding a way in. It seems the grimlocks had been going in and out of a broken window, and had carved handholds into the wall. Finally, a chance to get some climbing in! I felt like it had been ages since I had gotten to climb anything at all. The handholds were meant for grimlocks, so the going was a bit slow, but I made it up and had a look around inside through the window. It was awfully hard to see much of anything, but I thought I saw some creatures moving through the shadows.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention! Before proceeding with our tracking, we decided to eliminate the element of sound, and used the strange skull staff we took from the Orc tribe. It's indescribable how strange it was to be so quiet. Unnatural, but fun!
Rowan was up shortly after me, and the rest of the group followed. Once we got in to the warehouse, the light seemed to go out. I could still see it outside, but it was as if it were only painted on the windows, rather than coming through them. I couldn't see anything, and I was getting nervous. I felt a hand grab for mine in the dark, and it felt like Audric's so I took it. In the darkness I heard sounds like a creature coming up the platform we were on, and then a shattering of glass. Suddenly, my nose was burning with the scent of peppermint. I love peppermint and all, but I don't recall too many times where I have been exposed directly to pure peppermint oil. I may never think of peppermint in the same way again.
With both sound and smell foiled for the grimlocks, we were as invisible as they were in the darkness. I heard the sounds of a fight, but I could hardly get a fix on where, or who was doing it. I only knew the scream of pain wasn't any of us.
As I got pulled along through the dark, I started to wonder what we'd gotten ourselves into. I tried to concentrate on holding Audric's hand, rather than wondering where everyone else was. Were there grimlocks waiting in this darkness, and would they figure out where we were? I think it was around this point in time that Grumble broke our silence spell by blurting something out. I guess I should have planned for that. If anyone is good at ruining a quiet moment, Grumble is.
The silence ruined, I heard Audirc mutter an incantation that seemed to roll back the darkness around us. Looking down from our platform, I saw grimlocks below. Nialia and Grumble rushed in to fight, and I figured I'd join them. I surveyed the platform, and figured I could jump it. Oh, it was going to be so impressive! It was, too, until I panicked a little at the last minute and botched my somersault... Ouch. I knew I was rusty, but I didn't think I was embarrassingly so.
The fight went as well as it could have, I suppose. None of us died, and we got the info we wanted out of the head grimlock. She said the grimlocks were being paid to kidnap folks, and were being contacted in their dreams by an evil woman and some strange evil guy. The only real clue we got was that the woman smelled like paper. At least, what we figure must be paper. It's hard to get a description out of someone who can't see.
With the darkness dispelled, we noticed eaten corpses all over the building. It was a horrid sight. They must have belonged to the people who had gone missing during the fair. It made me sick to see, so I tried to ignore them despite the stench of rotting flesh. I couldn't wait to get out of the building.
Leaving, we headed back to the scene of the earlier fight to tell the guards about what we had seen. I think they're getting tired of us saving the city, but if that's the case then maybe they should try it themselves once in a while?
While we were talking to the guards about what we had found, I overheard some folks muttering about someone named "Alain." Upon asking, I discovered that Alain is a local paladin who is usually spot-on about protecting Brindinsford from whatever trouble befalls it. Apparently, he's been getting a little lax. He also has a female apprentice, and when I heard that, I became immediately suspicious. I decided I would make a trip out to Alain's place later that evening to see what I could find. Audric decided to come with me.
Upon arriving at the paladin's home, Audric and I found some lights on, but no one appeared to be home, or answering our knocks on the door. To me, that's just as good as a welcome. With Audric standing guard outside, I went to work searching the place, but I found nothing. Then I spotted a large chest. I picked through the lock without much trouble, but somehow I missed the magical trap that was on it, and narrowly escaped adding "Roasted" to my legion of names. I heard Audric shout, and he rushed inside asking me what the heck had happened. Patting out my singed flesh, I noticed he was smoking from the same place himself, under his armor. "What? What? Did the fireball hit you, too?" I asked.
"No, just...uh....oh ahhhhhhhhh........" He stammered as the smoking from under his armor ceased.
Now, I'm not always the keenest one in the group and I'm not really ashamed to admit that, but I have noticed Audric getting injuries when I haven't noticed him getting hit, and they seemed to be so similar to mine. I've been trying to figure out why for days without success. Tonight, it hits me: The ring, stupid! He said it was so he could cast healing! You both have one! What do you want to bet he's been taking damage for you this whole time? I was so mad!
"It's the ring, isn't it?" I say, trying hard not to just yell. Thus began our first fight since we've been together. I was angry, and refused to wear it anymore, Audric got angry and told me I had no choice in the matter. I told him I didn't want to cause him anymore pain on my behalf. I'm accident-prone, what if something truly awful happened to me? He said that was his point exactly. He could heal himself, I couldn't. We went back and forth for a while, and it basically came down to "I love you. Please just do this for me." So I grudgingly conceded. Then there was someone behind us.
It was the paladin's apprentice. Great. How is it that every time Audric and I go out to do some recon we end up blowing it? The paladin-in-training looked pretty unhappy. Apparently this was the first time she had ever found intruders in her place standing around arguing over who loved who more. Heh.
I tried hard to explain why we were going through her things. I didn't feel like I was doing a convincing job. I explained about the Grimlocks, and how my party had been the ones saving the city these last few days, and told her that people were wondering why her master was doing nothing. The woman told us her master had been missing for a few days. He had responded to a message from a local who had heard a noise outside his house but was too afraid to investigate himself. Alain had never returned. My heart sank as I heard this. I could take a few guesses at what had probably happened to him, and we told his apprentice that she might want to check the Grimlocks' warehouse for his body. I also offered our help in finding out what had happened to him, if she wanted it. We exchanged names, and she said hers was Torriel. She eyed Audric suspiciously as he said his was simply Audric.
Apparently, something about Audric was making her suspicious of him. She wasn't ready to believe he was a cleric of Pelor, and I prepared myself to attack should she make a move to harm Audric. In response to this disbelief, Audric began to emit a strange aura. After a while, it died away, and he told Torriel that was about all the good he had left in him for the day. She seemed convinced for the time being. I apologized for sneaking around and she bid us goodnight, but not before sending me on my way with a smack from the side of her blade. My face went red.
Audric and I began to head back to the inn. He was saying something excitedly when he let slip something about picking thoughts from peoples' heads, and silenced himself abruptly.
I sighed. You'd think, when you ask for some honesty, that you wouldn't then continue to learn strange secrets about your lover. However, I'm fast learning that with Audric, this is not the case.
"Lunavenn, " I coaxed. "Is there something you want to tell me?"
He didn't seem particularly willing, but he told me of how he could enter creatures' minds and see their thoughts. He said that he had been in Grumble's head and seen something which he had later let slip he knew. He managed to convince Grumble he had heard him talking in his sleep. Audric also mentioned he'd been in my head as well, but not since the first night we had met. He attributed that with the reason he couldn't bring himself to kill me. Apparently, things look pretty... um... pretty up there. I was a little mad, but I knew he was telling the truth. Otherwise, how else could I explain how long it had taken him to confess he was in love with me? My feelings for him were obviously up there.
Audric explained a little more about the skill, and I realized I couldn't stay mad at him. I never can seem to. I was starting to wonder what it must look like to go crawling through someone else's head, and just what it was he had seen in Grumble's, when I heard a scream. I turned to see Torriel's place surrounded by fog. Now, if this were any other place, I would have maybe passed it off as nothing, but this is Brindinsford. The place where everything, even the fog, wants to kill you. I drew my sword and started running for the paladin's place. Audric took one side and I took the other, and as I rounded the corner I saw two men hauling a body away into the night. I shouted for Audric and ran after them. One of the men was a magic user, so we had a little trouble, but eventually I slit one's throat and Audric turned the other one inside out(but not before breaking his own nose on his mace).
We stood for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do, and then Audric woke Torriel. She woke startled, and told us everything she remembered, which wasn't much. Then she noticed the levitating pile of guts. I laughed and said "That's what you get for messing with Audric!" As a look of horror washed over her face, I suddenly realized I shouldn't have said that. I bit my fingers, turning red again. Why do I have such a big mouth?
Torriel stammered "B-but, you... you... you're not allowed to..." as she gaped at Audric. I think sometimes I forget that everyone is supposed to believe he's truly a cleric of Pelor, and not Shadowspawn. However, fate must have been smiling on us, because before things could get out of hand, Torriel recognized the body of the other attacker. In life, he apparently worked for a local book store. At which there had recently been a suspicious "accidental" death that Torriel had been investigating. Audric and I decided it wasn't safe for her to stay at her place anymore. We thought quickly of all the places to take her, and finally decided she'd be safest with us at the Shield and Shingle. Rowan has that great big room, after all, and Nialia is almost never there.
Dragging Torriel back to the inn was really difficult. It's not easy supporting a full sized human who has almost no sense of balance with only two little gnomes. At least Audric is strong. We managed to get her back, and explain to the others what was going on. Rowan took Torriel up to bed, and Grumble decided to turn in as well. Audric took me aside and said he had a surprise for me, but we would need to go to the top of the city's walls for it. Intrigued, I grinned and agreed to follow him, and we slipped off.
Slipping through the night like birds through the air, we made it to the top of the city walls with no fuss. Once at our destination, Audric had me look out to the view of the lands outside the city, and he put his arms around me. Then he told me to close my eyes and hang on to his belt. I did so, wondering what he had in mind. There was a sounds like ripping fabric, and the Audric told me to jump. I had to think about it for a second, but I did. My eyes still closed, I felt the wind rushing past my face, and rushing, and rushing, and we never seemed to land. Curious, I opened my eyes, and saw why. We weren't falling, but flying! I felt the breath leave my body as I realized just how high up we were.
"You're not afraid of hights, are you?" Audric asked. Of course I'm not! At least, not any I've ever been to, and this was certainly higher than any of those.
When I adjusted to the concept of being so far away from the ground, I began to really enjoy myself. The land below looked so peaceful, dark and still, dotted with lights here and there. From such a height it would be easy to forget how troubled things were below.
"I just thought you would like this," Audric smiled. "Since you've been so excited by everything else. Out of all the surprises today, I figured I owed you one you would like."
"Tell you what," I grinned up at him. "Kiss me, and all is forgiven."
I can't believe that there has been a more perfect kiss in the history of the world, nor that there ever will be.