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Happy new year everybody. I will catch up on reading tomorrow and then vote.
Barracker thought that ‘Bad Cop, Worse Cop’ was a more fitting name for what was in store for George. He felt a bit dirty for suggesting this whole thing but felt in dire situations to gain critical information at its quickest pace, he would have to perform some horrible stuff. There was not enough time for long and drawn out questioning tactics and further cross examinations over witnesses, he felt. Now the temple entrance was open, someone could easily come out and see them and sound the alarm.
James’ tactics of psychological pressure were clever and effective, it was almost as if his leader had done this before, such was his knowledge and execution. All Barracker had to do was apply enough pain to push George over the edge. He didn’t want to cause permanent disfigurement or serious injury, so he had to be careful about what he was going to do to their prisoner. When it came round to the vampire's time to act, he first grabbed George's hair and forcibly turned his face to look at Barrackers fangs, snarling at George. Then he retrieved the knife that his leader gave him earlier. Barracker asked in a quiet, scary tone, “Which hand do you want me to mutilate?” There was no answer, only fearful silence, so Barracker took one of George’s fingers in his grip and pushed the tip of the knife slowly under the fingernail, causing immense pain and a trickle of blood. Thankfully it was all that was needed to break the man’s spirit. After that, James and ‘Kass’ got all the information they could before bringing him back to Adam to be tied up and hung with the rest on the tree.
“Good stuff James.” The Cleric had shown why he had been appointed to the role of leadership.
When MacKensie returned to the group with the dwarf and explained the situation with him, Barracker sensed no deception from the dwarf but more than this he trusted his ally’s judgement. He’d spent enough time with MacKensie to get a decent judgement of the woman. When he first met her and shared drinks, when she came after him outside at the end of the night, something he’d always appreciated. Seeing her interact with the old woman in Cherrad and now the dwarf. She came across as one so virtuous and kind hearted. She was always polite and spoke formally like himself. Just like Fenna, in some ways she reminded him of Evelyne.
By Hades, he thought as he palmed his head. This was the woman that Zell had spoken of, back in ‘Golden Tree Park’ when they first met, before the two had even realised the two were in the same party. Hmm. His eyes flicked from her to Zell, and back again. Like Fire and Ice. Or Earth and Air, he smirked to himself amusingly.
In terms of what to do with Hardul, he would leave it up to another party member to suggest what to do with him first. There were a few ways to go with this and sadly they all came with some risk, unless they would tie him up like the others.
Barracker knelt beside the cultists who were bleeding to death painfully, mortal wounds spelling their end. One by one each had their turn to say their last words, one was very touching about their late wife, and the final was a cursed remark towards the vampire. Both, though, came with a form of the same tone to the voice, and expression planted on each of their faces. Anguish and fear, it was, such a sorrow only Hades knew too much. “May Hades judge you in the afterlife, and join your loved ones in the hollow fields” he said as he raised to his feet. Then he stabbed each of them directly in the heart for a quick mercy killing that would end their suffering.
He muttered a silent prayer to Hades, while wiping the blood off his sword.
Barracker went to Adam and put a hand on his comrades shoulder and said, “well done,” His tone was solemn. Killing other people was not to be taken or done lightly, but the Druid caster reacted fast and swung the momentum of the fight in their favor, taking out several ambushers. “Without your spell, that could have gone so differently,” Barracker said, looking into the distance before giving a small nod to the young man.
As he came to stand next to Fenna, he first held out his arm to Sil as an invitation for the Falcon to perch upon him. If Sil trusted the vampire enough to join him, then Barracker would pet her gently and then let her fly away. Either way, he would thank the bird for her assistance in the battle. “Fenna the Aurok Slayer does not disappoint,” he privately joked with Fenna, but then he said more seriously. “You outclassed that spearman. Phenomenal."
Eventually the Paladin walked over to his leader. “James, thank you for the blessing, I feel I’m able to fight forever like this. Should we tie up the survivors? With your permission, I would like to interrogate their leader George. What do you say… Good guard, Bad guard?” Barracker gave a slight smirk, his eyes glancing over the unconscious cult leader. If the cleric agreed, then they would begin the interrogation and get whatever information they could….
Barracker listened to the discussion about how best to proceed inside the temple, Fenna appearing to favour the more direct route towards the wraith in the main chamber. Zell made it clear that only the longer route around would be stealthy.
“Normally I would…” As he started to give his opinion, Barracker’s muscles tensed, as his hearing picked up movement that did not belong to the party. The Paladin looked towards where it came from and stood up, weapon at the ready as a stranger popped into sight.
"Die cultist!" the stranger said.
Luckily no blood was spilled and the fact that the stranger thought he was attacking a cultist suggested the man might be an ally. Having already been in the temple, as he explained, he might be able to give the crucial facts and key information that would lead to success.
“It is nice to meet you both. I'm sorry for what happened to your friends. However, I hope you understand our need to be careful” Adam seemed suspicious of the stranger, rightly so, who then pointed a question to Barracker. “is there any way we can know for sure if they're with the cult?”
Barracker thought a source crystal would go a long way towards proving the stranger's story of belonging to an adventurer party. He was about to say as much until Zell interrupted, gesturing for them to let him take the lead.
"Can't you see these men have been through enough already." Zell’s attitude seemed calm and collected, once again reminding Barracker of his best friend Krillen. He knew that Zell was up to something and waited for it to play out. And when it did, resulting in George’s cover being blown, Barracker didn’t even have time to smile that ‘great minds think alike,’ his keen sense of hearing picked up multiple pairs of shuffling feet in the surrounding area.
“We have company!” Barracker yelled as he jumped into action.
"FUCK!"
"GETT THEMMM!!!"
As James and Adam began casting, Barracker was already zooming ahead, putting himself in between the ambushers and the vulnerable position of Zell, MacKensie and George. His first thought was to protect his friends but he also isolated the mage from George’s party.
As the ambushers came running towards them, Barracker jumped into a shield bash that crushed a swordsman’s face, blood and teeth flying through the air. He then flowed into a spinning sweep of his claymore, taking a second man off his feet. Amidst the carnage he heard James’ battle commands and backed up a few steps, shield up, to George, Zell and MacKensie.
He would make sure George would not be able to cast , by attempting to give the man a whack on the back of the skull with the rim of his shield, just hard enough to knock him unconscious. He would try to keep George alive for later interrogation.
Barracker and MacKensie rejoined with the group on the other side of the village, where party member Lilliana had explained about a soul confined to purgatory, unless a ritual was done to set him free. She spoke with such passion about needing to do this for the restless ghost.
This was bad timing for the party as her skills were valuable to the mission but Barracker did feel sympathy for the ghost and so he found it hard to disagree. Not that he would speak out against her, even if he wanted to. He was new to the party and hardly knew Lillianna, so he kept his thoughts to himself. The party was full of a range of class builds and individuality skills alongside himself that would prove useful, so hopefully they could manage.
“Farewell Lilliana, stay swift,” he gave a salute.
Barracker listened to leader James’ estimation of the cult numbers and deemed it a solid guess. In answer to the clerics question, the paladin nodded. “It is true, I do have night vision. I also am a bit of an insomniac,” a trace of a smile flickered on his face. “So i will make a decent watchman,”
James carried on, giving out formation orders. Barracker thought it to be a wise choice. He gave a nod, James had a good sense of strategy and it was easy to see why the party had chosen him as a leader.
"If anyone has any suggestion feel free to say it, there is no such thing as a stupid idea"
First MacKensie suggested a stealthy approach. “Good idea,” which Barracker added and expanded on. “If a decoy is required, I volunteer myself for the role. I have defensive magic in addition to my shield. I may be able to draw away the living and hold them off without causing casualties. This would leave the rest of you an opening to sneak to the main chamber and deal with the wraith.” he bowed his head to James. “Only a suggestion. I will follow your command.”
The climb up ‘Temple Hill’ was short, Barracker now walked with his sword and shield at the ready, his huge claymore blade resting on his shoulder plate as he gripped the hilt. They made camp quickly. Barracker helped out where he was required. He took a seat on a fallen stone pillar and rested his tower shield next to him.
Once everyone had settled he gave them some advice and knowledge from his bestiary studies. “Wraiths are floating entities, which can be difficult to hit due to visual distortion, but they are slow. They have semi physical talons, which they will try to strike you with, but their most dangerous attacks will be dark magic spells they throw at you, some of which can cause temporary paralysis. Many acolytes of Hades can use magic also so be prepared to face melee fighters and spell casters.”
Barracker proceeded to explain the most common layout of the temple, which commonly consist of one long hallway through the centre of the building that would lead to the main chamber. While shut down, the long hallway would be barred by several sets of puzzle locked doors. There would be ways around this likely guarded corridor. From the entrance there would probably be doorways to kitchen areas, and library areas that may provide an alternate route to the main chamber. One of these rooms might even have a hatch door to the basement floor where the living quarters were.
Barracker was in deep thought. The paladin had dealt with weaker types of spectres before, but never a Greater Wraith. He had though studied hard so he wasn’t completely out of his depth. Wraith’s usually laid down a sphere of influence wherever they manifested into this plane of existence. This could muddle the minds of men, cloud their morales and corrupt them to serve and worship it. This Greater Wraith must’ve been a powerful one to take over the whole temple. As everyone discussed the situation, Zell came forth with a friendly pat on his shoulder. Barracker gave a nod to his friend, Zell spoke about double agents among the villagers of Cherrad, Adam nodded in agreement. “I concur with Adam and Zell,” Barracker said with a grimace.
Leader James spoke and gave everyone a knife,which Barracker thanked him for. The paladin reviewed the blade of the knife and then slid it back into its sheath, attaching it on his chest piece in a way so that he could draw it and throw it with quickness and ease.
Overhearing Fenna’s explanation about Sil, Barracker thought that he was glad to have eyes in the sky, watching down on the group.
The group discussed their thoughts among each other, valid points came from everyone. The first counter measures to cover such space with the numbers they came with, was from leader James, suggesting that the party split into two duos and one trio, one taking the left side, one the middle and the last the right side of the village. So this is what it is like to be part of a party. Barracker felt very much one of them as they didn’t look at him like other people do, like that wagon driver did. They ignored his vampirism and took him for what he was.
MacKensie chimed in and picked Barracker as her partner to pair up with. “Stay swift,” he said with a quick salute, his own way saying ‘be careful.’
As the two made their way away from the group, they skirted around the edge of the village of Cherrad where they met an old lady who was sat on a stool tending to her small beehive. As Barracker and MacKensie came up walking towards her, she gave a warm smile. "Good afternoon, Madame." MacKensie said.
"Afternoon, miss," the old woman returned.
Barracker stood quite, letting MacKensie introduce him. "My name is MacKensie. MacKensie Trydant. And this is my friend, Barracker Kassel. We are adventurers, come about the Temple of Hades." Barracker raised his hand up and gave a smile towards the woman.
"I thought so," the old lady said unhappily. "I've a son who's up on that hill. Part of that dreaded cult." She shook her head. "He's a good lad, our Steven. Always been a righteous soul, ever since he was a boy. He pledged his life to the worship of Hades and the service of that temple. He understands how sacred life is. He'd never hurt a fly, if he was in his right mind."
The wraith’s sphere of influence is strong. Barracker thought to himself, he would wait until it was just the two of them to say.
A single tear rolled down her cheek. "Some kind of magic has brainwashed him, you must understand. I know him. Nobody knows him like his mother, I'll tell you straight. Please... if there's some way to save him without hurting him... I know he's done wrong... but he'll repent for his sins, if you can break the spell over him." The old woman held out her hand and MacKensie held it. "Please... save my boy."
Barracker saw the pain from the old lady, she was yearning to have her son back, back to his usual self. This village of Cherrad had to be cleansed of this Greater Wraith as soon as possible. “If there is a way, we will find it,” Barracker knelt down beside the old lady and went to pat her but held back, This brought back memories of when he first returned to Valhiem after being bitten by the vampire that changed his life. He stood helpless in front of Areleth and mother Anne, telling them that his mind had not been corrupted to evil and savagery, even if most people would say it was too late for him.
They spoke for a little bit longer. "Thank you for speaking with us." MacKensie and Barracker moved on to find someone else. "How awful," she whispered to Barracker sympathetically once they were out of earshot. "Do you think this spell might be broken if we kill the Greater Wraith?"
Barrackers eyes narrowed in when the wraith was mentioned. “By what my studies have shown me over the years of being a paladin… mostly. The main source behind clouding a person's thoughts and mind, will die when the wraith does. It should work that way, but I have only dealt with lower wraiths,” he grimaced once more. “The wraith’s sphere of influence is very strong. If we are not careful it could even try to attach itself to one of us.”
Hi everyone, just needed to check some things with Xenon before posting, i will start writing now
Barracker slept well, for once. Even though he didn’t need as much sleep as he did before being turned, every few days, the restless nights would catch up with him and he would be out like a log. Yesterday had been pleasant, spending the day with Fenna and the kids brought back memories of when Evelyne was in town. He had missed her presence and when he awoke, decided to pen a letter to her this morning. For some privacy, he went and sat under a tree outside ‘The Mended Drum’ and used the back of his ‘Bestiary’ book as a flat surface to write on. As always the time flew but not much appeared on the paper. Eventually he managed to write a few short paragraphs about his recent goings on and some pleasant words about herself.
Once done, he had breakfast and fetched his belongings, along with the spectre oil, from the ‘The Temple Of The Quinity’ and armed himself up in his gear.
It was a relief to put a face to the final member of ‘Second Chance’ and have all introductions out the way. Lillianna seemed very nice and he told her that having a pure wizard in the party would be very valuable on this mission, and he explained to all the group the ghostly nature of the enemies they would be facing.
“These enemies are vulnerable to elemental damage but regular weapons will not touch them,” the paladin told them all. “Unfortunately, there will likely be some innocent people who have had their minds enslaved by the wraith and stand in our way. We will have to spill blood. I know its hard but harden your hearts, because any hesitation will end in your death.”
Even after years of monster hunting it still pained him to talk so blase about taking lives. It was no easy task.
Barracker turned to Fenna and handed her a vial. “This is spectre oil, it will allow you to hit the ethereal enemies in the temple. I‘m afraid this was all I was able to make. There will be enough to coat the tip of your spear a few times.” He spoke to the others. “For those of you, who do not possess elemental magic, take care to avoid direct engagement with the spirits.”
He really wished he could have given some oil to Mackensie and Zell, but spreading the oil too thin could lead to disaster.
Barracker walked and spoke with Adam on the way towards ‘The Temple of Hades’. On their way a traveller stopped and spoke to the group. "Afternoon there, adventurers," he greeted, tipping his hat. "You ain't, per chance, on business in the area, are you?"
“We are,” Barracker confirmed.
He pointed back the way he came. "The village of Cherrad's up yonder way. They're in dire straits, right now, what with Hades' Temple gone rogue 'nd all. They've been waiting for the Adventurer's Guild to send some help about that.”
Barracker was silent while waiting for the traveller to respond to Adam's question. But he did know quite a bit himself about how temples of Hades were usually laid out. He would wait until they were outside the temple before relaying that information.
Barracker noticed a peculiar falcon flying around the shooting range. It seemed out of the ordinary as one wouldn’t usually be flying around the city, so close to people, but then it flew down and sat, perched on the branch of a tree. The sheer size of this specimen was a sight to behold. It was a special sight to see. What was even more peculiar was that after the archery session was over, as they walked back together to drop off the kids, the falcon started tracking their movements while soaring the skies. From this point, Barracker wondered if it was Fenna’s falcon as rangers have been known to have companions of nature on their side from time to time.
Moments have passed about talking of Eren and Tyrion. Barracker explained that he helps out at an orphanage with the kids and that he checks on the people there from time to time. Barracker and Fenna watched as Tyrion and Eren ran off ahead the rest of the way, where they were met by more than a dozen kids playing around an old elven woman. Tyrion and Eren gave a wave to their friends and gave a hug to the worker there. “Hi mother,” the kids said in sync.
“How was it my dears?” she said with a loving warmth in her voice, giving a hug in response. “How did you fare at the archery range? Good, I’m sure."
Eren’s nodded, beaming with a smile. Tyrion gave a nod of approval too.
Barracker and Fenna were not far behind. They could hear and see the kids with mother Anne. Barracker introduced Fenna to Anne. “This is Anne, my mother. A kinder woman there never was. She is Iris incarnate.” the two smiled at each other.
“You're too sweet.” she waved it off. “And who is this lovely lady?"
Before Barracker or Fenna could introduce them, Eren chimed in. “She is Fenna, she killed Aurok the man-eater. How cool is that!?” Anne's eyes beamed open. She was no adventurer but even she knew how impressive that was. Barracker smiled and the kids were raving in excitement towards Fenna. Barracker introduced some of their names, there were so many gathered round, but it was a little girl named Isabella who grabbed her hand and smiled with a grin, teeth showing. “I'm Isabella,” she spoke so proudly, sticking her chest out and pointing to herself.
Even the staff gathered round and listened joyfully, noting that Barracker, Eren and Tyrion had returned.
Eren turned to face Isabella. “Sorry we didn’t take you with us”.
Isabella softly slapped Eren’s arm and screwed up her face at him. “I had to do the cleaning with mother because of you.” It wasn’t Eren’s fault, the kids always had a few chores to do each week as a helping hand was needed to keep the orphanage running smoothly. Barracker knew this all too well. The kids outnumbered the staff ten to one, but this was because of the war creating refugees.
Barracker and Fenna stayed for a bit and spoke, but then, some time later, Barracker needed to go. He waved off the kids, gave Isabella and some of the other kids and Mother Anne a hug and said farewell to them all including the staff.
As they strolled off, Barracker noticed the Falcon still soaring the sky. He thought to himself that it could be a spy, but shrugged it off for now. He’d wait to see if it still followed and was there later. On the way to ‘The Mended drum’, Barracker started telling Fenna about Cerberus. She had been interested to hear directly from Barracker’s mouth about the troublesome beast that plagued his mind.
“This beast is fierce. A three headed hound that escaped hell itself,” Barracker started. “It killed my mentor, Odis Visigni, a Paladin that taught me the ways of being a monster hunter and was well-respected by ‘The Order’. He was the reason why I opted for being a Paladin.” He half smiled at Fenna, a sad distant look in his eyes. “His life was taken by that thing,” Barracker didn’t name it this time. “It was his assignment. An abandoned village now, but once named Corsica, was the monster's hunting grounds. Odis had warned me not to come on this mission. Strong headed and eager to prove my worth, I had insisted on going with him. So he tricked me into reporting our departure to 'Paladin's Respite,' then left without me. When I arrived, there was nothing but corpses. The villagers had been killed and torn to bits, I could only hope some had gotten away.” Barracker shuddered slightly, he shook it off and finished the story of that night. “It is because of that night that plagues my mind and rests on my shoulders, that I must to take Cerberus out of existence. Everyday it lives is a curse upon Mytheria.”
Barracker noticed the spear Fenna was carrying as she mentioned before about fighting Aurok The Man-Eater. “I am impressed that you wield both a spear and a bow. That's not an easy feat. You must be gifted.”
The Falcon was still in flight wherever they walked too. It raised some questions, alone he thought it a good time to ask. “Is that your Falcon, flying above us?” he hoped the answer would be yes, otherwise his suspicions would rise.
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