[IC] The Narrow Path

[Skinner35]

Taking no chances, he runs into the cage to get beside her. "Yea yea I'm here. What do I do now?" He said, replacing his pistol with his machete. He absolutley refused to do any avoidable harm to Aith, or this new girl. "Wait. How do you know my name?"

[Gardevoiran]

"I'll explain later. Hold onto something!"

You feel an unseen force prodding at the back of your skull, almost like it's a godly hand prying the rear end of your frontal lobe out of your head. It doesn't really hurt, but at the same time, it's definitely an unpleasant feeling. It kind of feels how rotten eggs smell, if that is any indication.

A large purple cloud, not too dissimilar to Gobbo's own magic, launches from the girl's face and lands directly into the head of an unsuspecting Aithwale, knocking him clean out and onto the ground with a mighty thud.

You hear Nigel stammering. "Y-you little harlot! You were supposed to let Tobias D-" Nigel's words are cut off as he falls down to the ground, landing directly on Aithwale's back before bouncing into the dirt.

[Skinner35]

As all of this is happening, his vision goes fuzzy. He cautiously backs away from the girl, recognizing the smoke. "Gobbo?" He asks weakly, all of his focus going towards retrieving Aith, and getting this new person to some kind of remote safety. But Aith came first. He stumbles over to Aith, dragging Nigel off of his and deliveing a healthy jab into his chest. "Stay dead." He says almost comediclly while ensuring that Aith is relatively unharmed.

[Gardevoiran]

You see mist pour out of Nigel's figure before the world begins to collapse around you, bringing you back to the actual world.

You're now in a dusty carnival tent, the same girl from before weakly floating into the air, and with Aithwale, Jen, and Eve all in a nice pile of unconscious allies. Nigel's corpse is nowhere to be seen, however, but you can at least assume he is, for the time being, dead.

Standing in front of you is the more defined and corpselike body not of a girl, but what was left of one. You can clearly see ribs through the transparent clothes and skin of her midriff, and you cannot see her calves or feet at all. Her upper body and arms are definitely whole, however.

After a deep sigh, the woman speaks. "Tobias Skinner. The man who picked up my husband's best selling book."

[Skinner35]

"Oh fuckin great. Not only do I have to deal with an undead drunken skeleton, but now I also get to deal with his fuckin wife. Sorry if I sound rude, today hasn't been great. You mind fucking me didn't help either." He says abruptly, walking towards Jen and Eve to see if their okay. He then sits on the ground, beginning to cover a bruise/burn surrounding where his skin meets his metal.

[Gardevoiran]

"Trust me Tobias, I want no part in your quest," Brock's wife bluntly says before a green blast fires from her head into Eve's, sending Eve spiraling awake. "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TOBY I DO- Oh... I'm alive...?"

"... Brock, honey, you can come out now.~"

Brock steps out of some kind of shadow before he makes a snarky comment. "Jeez Abigail, you could've made that last thing a bit less scary for Tobias over here. He almost died, and I quite like him."

"Honey, I had to. It was the only way Yashar couldn't track us."

Eve instinctively hugs you as Brock walks over, putting his hand on your shoulder. It's now that you realize your arm isn't dead weight anymore, and everything feels normal.

"You did good, kid."

[Skinner35]

"Brock, don't pander. We have work to do." He says getting up, then helping Eve up. "Now that we have everyone, we need to collect materials and prepare." He says, beginning to pitch the tent to retrieve Gobbo and Maggie. "Once we have the needed materials, we prepare, then we go for the bottom of Yashars chain of command and we work our way up." He says, opening the pitched tent. "Gobbo, how's it going in there?"

[Gardevoiran]

"Erm... it'sh been better..." Gobbo timidly says as he steps out, Maggy limping with him. She's rather awkwardly wearing a makeshift cast, but she's not dead, so that's a massive plus. The awkwardness is accentuated by Jen's clothes fitting very loosely onto her figure "Is my dad okay?" "Yes, miss Magdalene." "Good."

Jen and Aithwale remain K.O'ed, which is... arguably for the best, to be quite honest.

Now that everyone has gathered around, including Brock's wife, you can go over the plan with the group. Eve's still holding onto you like a glove on a hand, unwilling to let go.

[Skinner35]

"Maggie, glad you're okay." He says with a welcoming nod, then he reverts back to his serious state. "With the two powerhouses still down, we rest here. ANy supplies that anyone needs will be listed, and retrieved." He said, thinking. "As for Yashar, we need information on his chain of command. Then we work from there." His head began to throb in pain. "And... Uh... Shit..." He said, falling back and passing out.

[Gardevoiran]

Arise, Tobias.

The proverbial God of something booms in your head as you wake up, in a bed of considerable size and softness, with a warm feathered friend attached to you. On top of you is a blanket, clearly made with the intent of a mother's love.

Eve is beside you, clearly asleep, and clearly humming a song to herself. What the song is, you have no idea, but it sounds rather comforting.

[Skinner35]

As he is shocked awake, he fliches, hopefully not waking Eve... WHY IS HE IN BED WITH EVE!? He looks around, his heartrate increasing steadily. He needed answers. "Eve... Where are we?"

[Gardevoiran]

Eve stirs awake before she sits up. "... who was that skeleton guy...? He said it was his wife's house..." Eve falls back asleep as you realize nothing had happened between you and her aside from cuddles. Glancing outside the nearby window, you can tell it's in the middle of the night.

You can hear Brock and Abigail's voice downstairs, however. Makes sense, considering they're undead.

[Skinner35]

"Eve, I need to get up." He says, pulling his arm from hers. Once he is eventully free... Clothes... He needs clothes. Once he puts clothes on, he walks downstairs. "Guys. Gotta question."

[Gardevoiran]

Downstairs, you see Brock sitting at a table with a bottle of liquor in hand, and you see Abigail sitting across from him. Gobbo is beside her, clearly messing around with his own magic.

"Lay it on us, Toby," Brock say as he takes a drink.

"Brock, dear, why do you drink?"

"Force of habit."

[Skinner35]

"Brock. Where did you go?" He asked, leaning against the wall. "We were all almost killed, on multiple occasions. I know that you know about it. I personally thought that you had abandoned us." He said, walking to the table, then taking a seat. "Also, I've heard that you own a boat?"

[Gardevoiran]

"I have answers for you. My head is at the top of Yashar's hit list. I had to go incognito for a bit with the assistance of the lovely dreamweaver you see here. I didn't abandon you, I just had to lay low for a while was all. As for that boat, ask me about it later sometime. I co-own it with a certain pirate named K. Runch. Pretty decent guy."

Abigail pulls Gobbo out of the room with her while you can talk to Brock mono-e-mono.

"So... what happened to your pally friend?"

[Skinner35]

"Oh boy. That's a loaded question. I guess I'll start from the raid. When we all got separated. After a bit of traveling, something happened. Then I woke in the Paladins HQ. Of course Jen had dragged me there. I argued with her bosses for a bit, thn we set off to find the team. We found Gobbo in a goblin bar. Then we met the lovely Eve, she just happened to come across us. After that, Nigel shows up with Maggie, trying to sell her. We almost battle, but they let him leave. After we get that situation together, we headed to the circus tent. You know what happens from there." He says, taking Brocks drink.

[Gardevoiran]

"Sounded like a good time. Nice catch of a bird you got there too," Brock says as he pulls out an excommunication letter from his pocket. "Guessin' the order found out about her ruse too?" He asks inquisitively. "Damn shame. Been through the same shit myself, a century or two ago."

[Skinner35]

"Yea. You can't say that she didn't have it coming. You can only keep a secret for so long." He said, taking a drink. The alcohol was strong, just what he needed. "Anyways. You remember how you said that you're at the head of Yashars list?"

[Gardevoiran]

"We were business partners, once, him and I. We went out separate ways when he caused me to become an excommunicate of the Order as well. After that happened, I took what I had learned of Necromancy and I used it, stashing away my knowledge for none to ever obtain. Yashar's smart, but he was never smart enough to take me down."

Brock looks over at Jen's tent, pitched outside the house, before he speaks again. "That girl... Jennifer? She's got a good head on her. Sure, she's a bit of a radical, but the Order respected people like her above all else, and to top it off, she did it all while waving a giant goblin dick in their uptight faces," Brock chuckled before he continued. "Normally females in the Paladin Order never ascend past ranks of squires unless they're related to the higher-ups, but she's an outsider of this world like you. Keep her close, because even though she's angry at you right now for being the supposed 'goat' to her downfall, she's not gonna let you die in the end. Especially considering you're the end of her lineage right now, since you're like, what, her 40th generation grandson or somethin'?"