The more I consider having her as a member of the team, the more I like the idea. We may no longer have a bard, but a ranger will have better utility in the wilds. If Bex's confidence matches her skill, then she may just be a godsend after all. I look down at her and feel the void that I created with Alfira's undoing become filled with Bex's determined optimism.
She grabs my arm as we round the bend, seeing everyone huddling around the campfire. The smell of breakfast drifting through the air, and she takes in the savory aroma. "Do you think they'll like me?" Her innocent anticipation is endearing.
"Is that so important to you? Whether they like you or not?" I grip her hand, reassuring her. "Bex, the only thing you need to worry about is doing your job well, you'll earn their respect. You're a ranger, not a bard begging for attention. Unless you've lied to me and you're hiding a flute up your ass."
We can't help but share a wry cackle. She shoves me with playful indignation. "Gross! How dare you assume I'm a bard!"
Our boisterous laughter suddenly fades as I look over at the group. Their faces are stoic; everything is still and quiet as the grave. I expected this. Hopefully I'm ready for what's coming. Bex feels the tension and falls silent next to me. "What's going on? Did something happen?"
Finally, Astarion rolls his eyes dramatically, almost performative, "Oh good, another straggler. Is she going to vanish in the night too?"
"What do you mean?" I watch him for any sign of suspicion.
Astarion gestures to the whole camp, "Alfira seems to have gone missing. Her things are still here though; do you know anything about that?"
Bex hesitates. "Alfira?"
"Alfira came to us last night. I asked her to join our group, and she finally accepted. Did any of you see where she went?" I look around at the others.
Gale stands, dusting off his hands. "We were hoping you'd seen her. According to Lae'zel, you had an early morning."
I lace my words with gentle concern. "Unfortunately, no. I'm sure she'll turn up; she couldn't have gone far."
Gale hands Bex a plate of food, "Maybe she left for that 'obligation' she mentioned previously, hmm?"
Bex laughs lightly, "Thank you. Yes, that obligation's name is Lakrissa. They've been flirting the whole journey, but it's turned into a real 'will they/won't they.' They will, of course."
I give a comforting smile, "Then maybe she made the right decision, heading back. I don't blame her. Love can be a fickle mistress." I turn to the rest of the team. "Let's keep an eye out for her, all the same." I feel the tension diffuse slightly, but not entirely.
Shadowheart offers Bex a welcoming smile, "So, where did you learn to be a Ranger?"
Bex takes a moment to savor the warm food in her hands before filling Shadowheart in on her experience of being raised on the River Road.
Gale swiftly gets to his feet and shuffles over to me, guiding me to the traveler's chest. "I was able to procure some new equipment from the grove and goblin camp while you were out being a hero." He says 'hero' a bit too forcefully and catches it, clearing his throat. "I suggest after breakfast we take a look and delegate what we need to help with whatever chaos you want to sow today."
I stare down at him, noting his audacious quip. It seems a bit out of character for him. "Chaos? Is that what I do?"
Gale recoils with nervous laughter, "Nooo, no. Of course not. I just meant we have better gear for our adventures."
I look him in the eye and Gale looks away. "Is everything alright?"
Gale looks back with a pandering smile. This man is a bad liar. "Of course! Please, if you have time now, let me show you what we have."
He flips open the chest and sure enough there is a plethora of new equipment. He gives me an inventory of everything, and when I get the full scope, I see exactly what we can use for our coming mission. I pull out two sets of leather armor, some traveling boots, archer's bracers, a hunter's bow, and a set of rupturing blades. I also grab better boots for Shadowheart that will heighten her healing abilities.
Gale returns to his meal, sitting next to Lae'zel and staring intently at his food. Lae'zel shakes her head at him. They're keeping something from me. It doesn't seem like malice or suspicion, but rather a pragmatic caution. They're on edge. I glance back at the group for a quiet moment; my gaze lingers like a held breath between them. It doesn't seem like I'm in danger. I choose to ignore it for now and walk over to Bex with a smile. "Here, some proper attire."
She sets down the plate and takes the equipment from me, speechless for a moment. "Real armor." She runs her hand over the leather and then picks up the bow. She sets everything down and grabs an arrow from the quiver. She nocks it and aims at one of the training dummies around camp. The arrow is loosed, and she hits it dead center. She breathes a sigh of relief, like she wasn't sure she'd make the shot.
It elicits a bit of pride in me, and I nudge her shoulder, "You have my respect."
She laughs, "Honestly, it's been a while since I've shot a bow. I was hoping I wouldn't immediately embarrass myself in front of a group of strangers. It's good fortune that I still have my skills."
The teasing is easy with her, "I never doubted you for a moment."
She turns, gawking at my audacity, "UH-HU! Not for a moment!?"
My smile is broad, and I nod toward her new effects, "Get dressed, we'll head out once you're ready."
She picks up the gear and looks around, "Can I use one of your tents?"
Shadowheart is eager to offer up her tent for privacy. She takes Bex back and helps her slip into the gear. I look over at the rest of them, "Astarion, you and Shadowheart will be joining me on this one. We're headed west, following the lead from that note you gave me."
Astarion scoffs, "I'm sorry, the vague note about trees and swamps? How is that going to help us with the tadpoles?"
I shift my glance toward Shadowheart's tent to be sure Bex is tucked away. I lean into Astarion, lowering my voice, "What do you think will happen if Halsin returns to a grove shrouded in thorns? We need him to tell us everything he knows about the damned tadpoles, and if the Grove is nothing but brambles, we'll never hear the end of it. The path of least resistance is to stop the Rite of Thorns and bring Kagha to heel. I think that note you found is key." I press the second set of leather armor into his chest, "Now strip out of that gaudy velvet monstrosity. You're going to get filthy." A devilish grin plays across my face.
He grips the armor and meets my eye, "Oh, will I?" His voice is flirtatious, and he drags his fingers across the leather with an innocent grin before poking me in the shoulder. "I just want to be clear, what you're saying is because of me, we've found the solution to all our problems, and you're all going to be in my debt forever? I accept and you're welcome." He playfully pushes off me and saunters over to his tent to change.
I laugh; his sarcasm is a welcome break from the tension. Bex approaches, fully clad, "Let's take a look." I walk up to her and inspect the fit. I adjust her dagger holster and make sure the chest strap to her quiver is tight enough, "Turn."
She looks up at me, "What?" She says in a flat tone.
I give a short nod, "Go ahead, turn around."
She gives me an uninspired spin, but drags it out way too long, then sticks her tongue out at me.
Her brattiness is enticing, "It doesn't look like the armor needs any adjusting."
Shadowheart walks up behind her, "Of course it doesn't. I know how armor works. Jackass."
I laugh, Shadowheart smiles along, and I address Bex once again. "How does it feel?"
She lifts her arms and twists a little, testing the tension of the fit, "Fantastic. I'm ready when you are." She puts her thumb under her quiver strap looking proud and excited.
Astarion soon emerges, similarly fit. The full leather armor looks much better on him. He pulls out a few creases from the undergarments and holsters two short swords across his back, "I must admit, this does feel... Right."
Looking at the three, I feel content with my crew once again. "It looks like we're ready!" I glance over at Lae'zel and Gale, "Stay safe, we won't be more than a few days."
They seem more than content to spend the time together, and the three of us head out.
As we head down the trail, Shadowheart and Bex walk side by side, "You're from Elturel. If you were out on the River Road, how in the hells did you get caught up in the Decent? I didn't think the land beyond the city's borders was taken."
Bex looks at her feet. "It's my fault, really. I was following Danis."
Shadowheart furrows her brow, "Danis made you go into the city?"
"He actually didn't know I was coming." She's quiet for a moment, "I remember the day I first saw him; he came to my father's caravan to purchase some Calishite Dawnspice Tea. We caught each other's eye, and the next day he returned to buy a bundle of Licoriceroot. He struck up a conversation with me, and we talked for hours. He was nice, and so handsome. After a few months of him coming and going, he finally asked my father for a job as a caravan guard. By then we knew him well and my father was more than happy to hire him. Danis was so proud, and showed up dutifully for a few days, but on the third day my father got into a scuffle with a man trying to sell us some old boots. It got bad. The man was screaming that he was being undercut, and he finally grabbed my father, on the verge of beating him down. I saw that Danis, frozen, so I ran back to the tent and grabbed my short bow and arrows. A warning shot landed at the man's feet. Then I aimed the next one for his head."
She holds up her arms, miming a knocked arrow, "These arrows are from Drow fletchers from the Underdark, you don't want to know what they'll do to you if you're even grazed by one."
She lowers her arms and her eyes soften, "The man let go, and grabbed the coin that was being offered. Danis left that very moment. He didn't say a word; he just packed up his things and left. Of course, after a few weeks of not seeing him again I decided to go find him. Call me stupid but I cared about him. I tracked him down in the city; his family lived in a modest home near an enclave of Tieflings by the docks. It was a safe community, but it was a slum all the same. I pitched him a business proposal, I thought it would be nice to start a tea shop together. He could make the tea, and I could bake. He was skeptical at first but eventually came around to my idea."
She falls silent and then takes a breath, "Of course that was when Elturel was pulled into the hells. I saw it all. The light of the companion turned this horrific red, and chains came from all directions to claim the city. One of the anchors latched onto the earth right next to the enclave and we all ran deeper into the city to save ourselves. Not all of us made it. Danis lost his family when a building fell-" She chokes, reliving the moment, "But still we found comfort with each other, and eventually love. The months we spent in Avernus brought us closer and that's where we decided to get married."
A look of shock crosses Shadowheart, "So you've only been married for a few months?"
Bex smiles and nods, "I guess you could say this little trip to Baldur's Gate is our Honeymoon. It's not exactly what I expected, but then again, nothing that's happened in the last year has been. I'm ready to start a new life with him. Something safe, something peaceful."
As we cross the steadfast cobblestone walls of the blighted village, the desolation of the place sinks in. Crumbling homes, scattered belongings, the vestiges of a raid for years ago. Shadowheart falls silent, on edge once again as she was before. I don't pry into her unease. I know it's personal and I know if she needs to talk to me about it, she will. I see the path leading to the western road and turn to the group. "While we're here, we might as well scrounge for supplies. This place looks picked over but who knows, maybe we'll find some wine." Shadowheart seems to perk up at that idea, and we spread out. There are a few goblins still milling about and Bex is following me like a duckling. I glance back at her; her face twisted with uncertainty. "Are you alright?"
She has her hands together, guarded, "Yyyeees, sorry. I haven't been this close to goblins before. I guess I'm a little on edge. I hope you don't mind if I stick close while I get my bearings. Why aren't they attacking us?"
"We aren't a threat to them. No use in wasting energy on a non-issue." I scan the buildings around us, trying to get a sense of what each place used to be. We're in the town square, so I imagine the buildings around us are the tradesmen's shops. I see a sign hanging above us. An apothecary. "Let's look through here; see if we can find any useful potions."
She eagerly follows and I walk up to the double doors that lead in. They seem to be stuck. I look at the seam of the door and see it isn't locked, but wedged in place as the structure settled, the doors are leaning into each other. I firmly push them with my foot, and they rattle open as they crack free. The scent of dusty old furniture, and dried leaves wafts out. As we enter, Bex waves her hand in front of her face, trying to clear out the dust motes we unintentionally disturbed. The place must have been abandoned for decades. Bex spots the hanging herbs displayed over the merchant's counter. She pulls a cloth out of her pack and lays it out, gathering them carefully and rolling them up before tucking them away. I sort through the bottles on the shelves and find some antidotes and healing potions, though it's mostly a myriad of different empty bottles and useless books. A wine rack with a smattering of empty bottles sits taunting us, next to the apothecary's counter.
Bex is flipping through a ledger. I look over her shoulder to see what's caught her interest. She points to an entry, underlined, 'Deliver specially requested plants to the cellar. Keep away from prying eyes.'
I lift my eyebrows and catch her eye. We immediately begin looking for the entrance to the cellar. It's not too hard to find. There is a hatch door on the ground behind the counter. As I pull it open, dust and dirt cloud the air. I wave my hand until I find the ladder leading down into the cellar. Bex watches with anticipation as I test my weight on the step before carefully making my way down. I ignite a blue flame in my palm, to illuminate the area, holding it up for Bex so she can see her way down. As she reaches me, I see she's got a grin plastered on her face.
I give a slight laugh at her silly face. "What?"
"Asmodeus Tieflings." She conjures the same flame. "What are the odds?"
I know it was rhetorical, but I can't stop myself, "One in nine."
She smirks, shaking her head and pushing past my shoulder, teasingly. "Obviously." I follow her lead, spreading out once again and scanning the walls for anything of value. More dusty books, more empty bottles, until I come to the apothecary's workstation. Flasks and kegs sit abandoned, along with potions corrupted by time that would likely do more harm than good. I see a book laying open and flip through it. It's just a ledger of previous patients. I think back again at my medical knowledge, are the vestiges of such knowledge connected to Bhaal? It doesn't seem farfetched that I would play with bodies, what would be a better way to learn how to kill effectively than by learning the intricacies of organic life? It feels correct. I hope I'm genuinely putting the pieces of my life back together.
Bex's voice rings through the silence, "Hey, I think I found something." Walking over to her, she points at the wall behind some crates. There's a lever, dusted and rusted, but begging to be pulled. "What do you think?"
I look around the cellar and listen to the blessed silence, "An apothecary with secret shipments, in an abandoned village. Risky." I give her a roguish grin. "Brace yourself, let's pull it."
She smiles, takes a breath, and pulls it. Suddenly a bookcase shifts and Bex yelps, startled by the sudden sound. I can't help but laugh and after a beat she laughs at herself as well.
It was a hidden door. We walk over to it and peer inside. Pitch black. I step through, holding my hand up high to illuminate as much as I can. Bex follows behind. The door opens into a tunnel, carved out, with no masonry lining the walls. It was a cheap and quick dugout but still stands after all these years. I look down at Bex, "Don't touch the walls. I don't know how fragile they are, and I'm not interested in getting trapped down here."
She nods and tucks her elbows in a precautionary measure. We pass through and round a bend. As we do, we can see light beginning to faintly reflect off the earthen walls. There's an open cavern with a crack in the ceiling, the natural light that shines through bathes the area in an almost blinding glow. I snap away my flame, as my vision takes a moment to adjust to the assault of natural light.
"A hidden morgue?" I mutter as coffins come into view, my vision steadily reclaimed.
Bex looks around, echoing my curiosity. "Morgue?"
"I was reading the medical records the apothecary left. He treated all sorts, looks like he took care of the dead as well. Only seems natural. I don't mean to be crass, but it looks like this place has been abandoned for a while. I wonder if the dead were boxed up with their valuables?"
Bex looks at a coffin resting to her left, "Crass, yes. But... I guess it wouldn't hurt just to take a peek."
She walks over to it, and I open the first coffin nearest to me. There's no body, just a few odds and ends. A skull, a filthy knife, a smooth stone, and a spell scroll. The scroll piques my interest, grabbing it and unfurling it, only to find it's not anything I recognize. I try to make sense of what I'm looking at. Is that a quasit? Is this a summons?
The silence of the morgue rings in my ears as I clutch the parchment. A mingling of crypt rot and moist cave flora fill my senses, until the dreadful crackling creeps back up my spine as something shifts. I look up, trying to gather what's happening, but I hear wooden boards burst open. I turn to see Bex falling backwards with a haunted gasp. "Eeewww! Good Gods!" She scrambles backward as a skeleton rises from the wreckage.
I dash over and pick her up as the skeleton runs to the next coffin, breaking it open, raising its kin from the grave. Bex and I watch in horror as each subsequent skeleton frees a new one. Four get free before we get a chance to react. I arm myself with my greatsword and charge the skeleton closest to the next unopened coffin. I test myself, pulling my strength from Bhaal, I slam my sword down with a divine smite to just get them to stop. The skeleton splinters into bone fragments and a clatter of useless armor. I defend the closed caskets from being disturbed, as one of the skeletons comes at me, brandishing a mace. An archer takes a vantage point along the cavern wall, and it immediately takes a shot at Bex. She's caught off guard by the attack, and it hits her square in the chest. Her armor is able to catch the ancient arrow, and it splinters against her. She loses her breath from the force of the hit, and I can see her get visibly angry, almost offended. Quick as lightning, she pulls an arrow and shoots back at the arrogant skeleton, hitting it directly in the face. We hear a clattering scream as it stumbles backwards. Battered but not downed yet.
I catch the mace strike from the assaulting skeleton on the edge of my blade, and push off the blow, kicking the skeleton back. It reels and trips over loose coffin planks. I crack off one of its foul arms with another precise strike.
A sapping feeling consumes us as life gets sucked out of the air. My head pivots to see a skeleton standing toward the back of the cavern, reaching and chanting an incantation. It's wearing a red hooded robe and is gathering power, perverse and unnatural. It dawns on me what we are dealing with. I shout toward Bex, "RED WIZARD!!!"
Her eyes go wide as the abomination's power ripples through the weave. It unleashes four Magic Missiles, spells of force that cannot miss. Bex and I are hit directly in the heart, two missiles each. She falls backward, clutching her chest. Coughing, she tries desperately to get back to her feet, but she's beginning to faulter.
I am staggered by the missiles but quickly recover. I turn to grab her, but as I do I feel a burning pain shoot up the back of my leg. The damned archer's rancid arrows buried deep in my calf. "FUCK." Falling forward, I growl at the pain, catching myself before my face hits the ground. We're being overwhelmed. I grit my teeth and pull two daggers from my cloak. Without missing a beat, I sling them with an assassin's precision. "FUCKING DIE!" My voice seethes with a flash of madness. The first dagger pins the archer's chest to the wall and the second breaks its face into a crumbling mess.
Bex clambers to her feet, dashing over to me and sliding across the ground before pulling a healing potion from her pack. We can hear the chanting from the Red Wizard as he casts a bony finger at Bex. She's hit with a necrotic slap on her back. She gasps deeply and I see the color drain from her face as a shock of pain runs through her. The potion drops and shatters on the ground. I quickly pull the arrow from my leg, doused in the potion, my wound knits back together, enough for me to stand.
Bex is also splashed with the potion, but it does nothing to heal her. For the first time I see real fear cross her face. "What in the hells? Why didn't it work?"
My eyes dart across her face, I'm drawn in by the hopelessness in her eyes but try to pull myself out of the spiral of desire. I breathe and give her clear direction, "Stay down until you feel the cold leave your bones, then try again."
She nods and rolls over onto her back, gripping her chest and breathing, riding out the pain effectively.
The skeleton in front of me has finally risen from the shattered coffin. It lunges at me once again, mace flailing wildly with only one arm to wield it. I dodge the clumsy strike before finishing it off with an upward strike, finally breaking the damned thing in two.
With a lurch, I feel the wizard slap me in the chest with another incantation of Bone Chill. The sapping power of the cantrip is ruthless, and I gasp for breath. No. I need to focus. This bastard is going to kill us both if I don't. I clutch my sword and move forward, slowly, methodically, each step stronger than the last. I feel a torrential power growing within me as my mind narrows into a single refrain. I know what comes next, my favorite thing in the world, I smile wide and feel the sharp static of something unprecedented. Red light consumes me. Batter. Beat. BUTCHER! I charge the Wizard with a divine reckoning, swinging down, the edge of my blade almost whistling as it cuts the air. I hear a rasping cry echo throughout the chamber as cold red bolts spark forth from my smite. A thunderous explosion. Searing pain. I hit the ground. Then Silence.