Rosymourn Monastery
The mountain breeze is refreshing on their faces, the cheerful twittering of birds providing a comforting backdrop to their road trip.
Lae’zel stops short, crouching down and picking up a round stone slate inscribed with yet more symbols Kisame cannot read.
“More tir’su script,” Lae’zel points out. “We are getting close.”
That sounds promising enough, but Kisame still worries just a little.
“Yeah? They gonna treat us like those guys at the bridge when you introduce us?”
Lae’zel huffs as if the question is stupid.
“Just stay quiet and do not cause trouble, and they will do you no harm.”
“If they’re all as scary as you are, I think I’m fine letting you do the talking, don’t worry.”
Lae’zel allows herself to look smugly self-satisfied about that.
They can see the shadow of a huge, ornate building looming in the distance- that must the the monastery they’re planning to stop at.
But it’s on the other end of a great, yawning canyon, without any sort of visible bridge to get across it.
If they want to get there, they’ll either have to find some kind of way around, or learn how to fly. And Kisame has a feeling that he won’t be sprouting wings any time soon.
Hidan lingers back with Wyll and Karlach while Shadowheart scouts out directly ahead, each hoping to find a way around. Kisame follows Lae’zel down a rocky outcropping to try to get a better view.
They move on for what feels like forever, until he hears a woman’s voice yelling.
“Hello there?” she calls out. “Who’s there?”
As he rounds a corner made of sharp slate, he sees an older woman with a beleaguered expression.
“Just a traveler,” he reassures her, though he knows he does not have the most reassuring face. “You don’t have to worry.”
“Oh goodness. I can’t tell you how glad I am to see a friendly face!” the old woman sighs, laying a hand over her heart. “My name is Esther- you would not believe what I’ve endured since I came here!”
“Hm? Did something happen?”
“Oh, did it ever- do you see that wretched hive over there?”
Kisame looks over his shoulder.
“Looks like some kinda temple to me. I’m not exactly from around here, so maybe I’m missing something here?”
“Well, it was dedicated to Lathander once upon a time. At the moment however, it’s been overrun with a fleet of brutish, rude, murderous, stupid Githyanki.”
Lae’zel bristles up like an angry cat.
“Brutish and rude to you, maybe. But stupid? Never.”
The woman rolls her eyes, refusing to speak to Lae’zel directly.
“All I did was offer to take one of their eggs off their hands, and they tried to kill me! You would not believe the insult I have endured!”
Lae’zel is too livid at the very thought to even articulate whatever is going through her head, so Kisame figures he ought to intervene.
“You tried to buy one of their children?” Kisame asks, sure he must have heard her wrong.
“It was only an egg!” the woman insists. “And it wasn’t like I just wanted it for no reason!”
“...Enlighten us as to the reason taking someone’s baby would be acceptable?”
“I was tasked by the Society of Brilliance to retrieve an egg for a uh- project of theirs,” Esther explains. “See, I know this is ridiculous, but the Society wants to see if it is possible for a Githyanki child, raised in a better environment, to overcome its violent nature.”
“Well that’s a stupid idea.” Kisame scoffs.
“Ah! I thought you were the intelligent sort-”
Kisame raises his hand to shut her up.
He really wants to kill this woman, but holds himself back.
He remembers something that Itachi had said to him, all the way back when they first met. And he borrows some of those words now.
“-How the hell are you gonna tell someone’s nature just because of what they look like? Sounds like both of you are making judgements based on shit you don’t actually understand. Besides, you’re still talking about snatching someone’s baby.”
He can’t believe what he’s hearing right now- this woman surely cannot be serious, talking so casually about offering to buy a child- even one that hasn’t been born yet.
(He’d thought the world he came from was cruel- apparently this one isn’t so different.)
This woman is seriously pissing him off, and has the audacity to be self-righteous about it. He wonders if it would be worth killing her, but decides it wouldn’t be worth the energy he’d waste.
“Thanks for pointing us in the right direction, anyway,” he says, waving her off. “We were looking for these guys and now we know where they’re holed up.”
“But-”
“You’re gonna have to get back to that society of yours empty-handed. I’m not in the business of kidnapping.”
He jerks his head in a let’s get out of here gesture to Lae’zel just as the others finally catch up with them. The others look perplexed, but don’t question his deathly serious expression. They immediately turn back around, and they continue through the steep, rocky terrain.
“Any luck?” Kisame asks.
“Found a bridge, but it’s busted.”
“Well shit.”
The crisp mountain air is cheerful and refreshing, the smoke of Waukeen’s rest long gone from their nostrils. It almost feels like they’re back at home- if Itachi were here, it would seem like they were just heading out on the latest mission their leader sent them on.
Well. If not for the strange writings Lae’zel had shown them, and the distinct squirming of the parasite riding in his skull.
“Man, lemme tell ya what!” Hidan says, strolling along casually, as if this were a roadtrip with friends rather than a life-saving mission. “If you told me when I woke up that day that I’d be walkin’ to a fuckin’ monastery to meet a buncha frog people to get a worm out of my eye socket, I woulda told you you’re fuckin’ nuts.”
“Yeah that wasn’t exactly in my agenda either.”
Hidan puts his arms behind his head, staring up at the endless expanse of cloudless blue sky.
“You reckon the others are wondering where we went?”
“Probably. Dunno if time works differently here, though- maybe it hasn’t even been a second back home.”
“There- I think this should do the trick and get us to the monastery,” Karlach shouts, pointing out an utterly decrepit wooden platform. She runs up to it and, with a lot of effort, turns a wheel that summons a battered, weather-worn cable car suspended from a decaying, frayed rope.
Wyll turns noticeably green in the face as his one working eye observes the deplorable conditions of their transportation.
“...You don’t expect us to actually use that thing, do you?” he asks, his voice hilariously small.
“Aw, c’mon mate! Where’s your sense of adventure?” Karlach whines. “I’m sure it’ll be fine- it hasn’t failed yet, has it?”
“Yeah, ‘cause it probably hasn’t been fuckin’ used in ages!” Hidan protests. “How are you so sure it’s not gonna send us fallin’ into a pit of alligators or some shit?!”
“I mean, I’m really not- but how bad can it be, ya know?”
“...you’re a fuckin’ loony, ya know that?”
“I’ve been told that a lot. But my dad said all the best people are a little loony, so-”
After some more silent deliberation, everyone cautiously gets onto the cable car, which groans dangerously under their weight.
“...You really sure about this?” Hidan asks, the color draining from his face as he peers downward.
“Hey, even if we fall you’ll just heal,” Kisame points out. “What’re you complaining about?”
“I’d still rather not fuckin’ fall!” Hidan retorts, growing steadily paler. “It’s a long fuckin’ way down!”
“Aw, don’t be such a baby!” Karlach laughs, straining to turn the steering wheel to get the contraption moving.
Finally it gives under the force, with a great shriek and a cracking sound, and the cable car lurches, then starts to move.
“Fuck-” Hidan groans, going from white to gray. “I think I’m gonna hurl-”
“Just do it off the side, you’ll be fine.”
“Oh go fuck yourself-”
“Great view, eh?” Karlach asks, looking out over the lush, verdant mountains surrounding them on all sides. “Gods, and the air is so crisp up here. Nothin’ like it!”
Lae’zel looks rather less impressed.
“It does not compare to the beauty of the Astral Sea,” she remarks. “But I suppose there are worse sights.”
“Yeah?” Kisame asks, his curiosity piqued. “Never heard of that- what’s it like?”
“It is a realm outside of time and space,” Lae’zel explains. “Eternal. Weightless. Boundless. One day, it will be my home, as is the right of all of my people who earn it.”
“Yes? And I suppose taking a mind flayer’s head as a nice little hunting trophy would do the job?”
“That is correct. Once we are purified, I will remove the heads of every ghaik we come across and bring them to my queen.”
“I hope you don’t forget about us once you make it there.”
Lae’zel shrugs at that, but she smiles at the thought.
They land, mercifully, on the other side, faced with the looming, decayed building that had been waiting for them.
“This was definitely dedicated to Lathander once,” Shadowheart remarks, looking around. “It’s seen better days, though. I would wager it was long abandoned before the Gith even arrived.”
The moss and thick, unruly vines climbing up the walls and through the cracks in the masonry certainly attest to that. It feels more like a mausoleum than a monastery.
Despite being so decrepit, they see fresh footprints in the muddy ground, telling them that someone has definitely been here.
Their suspicions are confirmed when they hear shouting, angry voices a short way away.
“What’s going on…?”
“Enough!” a strange voice calls out. “On your feet! All of you!”
They follow the voices, keeping low and creeping forward until they find a handful of people who look an awful lot like Lae'zel, towering over a few cowering halflings.
Maybe they should intervene, but they stay silent anyway, waiting for the scene before them to play out.
Itachi dares to crack an eye open, surprised that he isn’t dead.
The spectator is once more pinned to the ground by a litany of writhing, thorny vines courtesy of Halsin, thrashing and howling in pain and fury.
Gale smiles and holds his hands out.
“Quite an ill-behaved thing- perure !”
Electricity courses through the spectator’s body, causing it to scream and howl as it thrashes and breaks through the thorns binding it once again.
Itachi allows himself to breathe a small sigh of relief, the paralyzing fear releasing its grip on him. He gets back to his feet and tries to regather his wits so that they can deal with the threat.
The reanimated drow proves to be pretty useful in dispatching the creature, and with a well-aimed arrow, pierces the creature’s large central eye. The spectator howls and gnashes its teeth, lunging blindly in his direction.
It catches the drow’s upper body in its jaws, its many rows of teeth shredding away the tissues and ligaments connecting his upper body to the lower.
The poor bastard doesn’t even have the chance to scream.
His lower body twitches and spasms briefly, before falling limp and useless.
“Fuck…”
While the creature is distracted, Orochimaru takes advantage of the short drop from the rock he’s on to drop down and embed his sword square in the center of the spectator’s bulbous body. His weight brings the sword around in a great arc, creating an enormous gash in the monster’s body that seals its untimely demise, soaking him in its blood as it gushes forth from the wound with an undignified sound like air being released from a balloon.
“...Charming,” Astarion mutters, wrinkling his nose.
“Poor fellow- he got freed from his petrification, only to wind up in a spectator’s belly,” Gale remarks, shaking his head. “What a terrible fate.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Orochimaru mutters, picking up the iridescent shard and holding it up.
Quite a pretty thing, but he feels like it’s more than that. The shard hums with a strange energy, seeming to call out to him in a small voice.
He tries to concentrate on it, trying to figure out this strange crystal in his hand.
Whatever its secrets are, it does not seem willing to yield them. He stashes it away, figuring he’ll bother with it more later.
“...So the rest of all these statues are people, too?” Itachi asks, looking around at the rest of the petrified drow.
“Unfortunately. There’s not much that can be done with them, though. Not by us, anyway.”
“Hm.”
Unfortunately is right. It feels wrong to leave these people here, knowing that they are people, but whatever magic turned them to stone is not within their power to reverse.
At least, not with the time they have.
They begrudgingly leave the living statues behind and find yet another group of sturdy vines that will allow them to climb further downward.
There’s no other way for them to get out of here, so they decide to see where the vines go and start climbing downward.
“Agh, this sort of thing is terrible for your back, you know,” Gale complains.
“You’ll get used to it, don’t worry so much.” Orochimaru informs him.
Astarion laughs, though nothing is really funny.
"From the way you handled that thing, you'd think you handled monsters like that regularly."
"'I handled monsters of sorts," Orochimaru replies.
"Is that so? What sort?"
"I'll tell you some other time."
"You're no fun."
"Oh what's life without a little mystery? You won't die waiting."
Astarion pouts, which is actually pretty cute. Like a child that's been denied a bedtime story.
"Fine."