[Ankalar] The meeting at Rhur Corell

[Adel]

Deja stiffened as she was allowed her turn at the note. "Why then did this person use all of us? Why gather all of us from all over to commit a deed that would have been just as easily committed by one?  That would have not only saved him time but money?"  This shock of sporadic questions led Deja to a more important query, "Where is the door? How long have we got until it opens? By feeding this rock thing have we already started something bad?"

Deja stopped her rambling and was embarassed at her sudden loss of composure. She stared avidly at Aki as if to ask what do we do next?

[Michael Jotne Slayer]

Aki noticed Deja's silent stare. A cool summer breeze lifted his spirits.
The black woods seemed less frightening, they had been used as pawns
in a bigger scheme. But now they knew. Now the puppets would dance their own dance. Or would they? A terrible though crossed his mind and filled him
with fear.

"What if," he paused.

"What if we are meant to open this letter? Maybe our mysterious
robed man meant for us to read it? It could be that if we act on what we have just read we will walk directly in to the den of the bear?"

As aki finished these words of distress he became aware of a distant rumbling. It grew bigger, and louder. It was the ground itself that yawned.
Then it died out. The earth was still again. Far away the cries of birds was to be heard.

[Scrasamax]

"Well, if that wasnt something not good, I'll eat my own shirt." Greyson said as the rumble subsided. "But the first thing I would do would be to get these pieces out of the stone." he said.

"I didnt like that part about feeding stones, bad feeling that." he said eyeing the ring of metal wedges. "We should definately take those out." Greyson was ready to leave, despite the fact that he was bone tired and it was still many hours until sunrise.

[Adel]

"Aki I am not sure I want to even consider that possibility I am not very keen on being puppeted around."  The more Deja began to think about it though the more she realized how sound Aki's suspicionsreally were. So far who ever was using them could map their every move how do we know that this is not just some part of his clever plan.  Deja reached in her cloak and took out her dagger "lets see if could just pry this loose," Luna fought furiously with her dagger, "but what if my stones have already been eaten?"

[CaptainPenguin]

Tree Viper spat.
"Doesn't matter. Just want revenge on 'at ugly son-of-a-dog who tricked us. He'll be sorry 'ee ever messed wiv' Tree Viper!"

[Michael Jotne Slayer]

The wegdes did not move.

"Deja that will not work, I think we should get moving as soon as we have figured out where this Tannarak lives. We should make our way to him and knock on his door. When he opens we could knock a few truths out of him as well."

Aki paced back and forth.

"That key in your parcel Greyson. It is my guess that it is the key to Tannarak's door. Whoever he may be."

[Adel]

Deja glared at Aki, " Oh well, thats a wonderous idea. So why don't you inform us as to were this door way is? , Who is this Tannarak ?, and How you can be so sure that we will be able to knock anything out of him?  Seriously, do any of you know anything about this door way or ever heard anything about this Tannarak guy? Because, if not we gotta few stops to make in hopes of gathering Info!."

[Michael Jotne Slayer]

"Gathering info?"  Aki spat and drew his wicked looking knife.

"I am going to find out who the traitor among us is...
My best guess is you bird lady. If someone does not do something here
I will be forced to slay the most reasonable candidate whitch is you Deja.
Or maybe I should kill myself? How do I know if I myself is not suffering under some terrible spell?"

A terrible gleam in Aki´s eyes brightened as he drew nearer to Deja.

[Scrasamax]

With a tired look on his face, Greyson looked at Aki. His hand rested on the hilt of his falchion, the blade seemed to have weighted several hundred pounds earier could be drawn from its sheath with lightning speed, if need be.

"I cannot stop you from sticking that knife in your own gullet. but I will not stand idly by while you make threats against other members of this group. It is just as likely that not one of us is the 'sleeper' and this is a ruse. Unless you have a better idea than knifing someone, I suggest you put that away." He said.

[Michael Jotne Slayer]

"Aaaargh."

Aki raged forth with the speed of a possesed boar.
He thrusted his spear towards Deja´s throat, spun around and
threw the long knife rather clumsily in Greyson´s direction.

[Scrasamax]

Greyson moved faster than Aki anticipated, he had seen the warning signs, the tightness around the eyes, the subtle change in expression as he made the decision to attack. Killing was his last intent as he advanced, quickly bearing down on Aki, his sword undrawn.

He caught the rear end of the spear in one hand, jerking it back, and ruining his attack, the turn, and thrown knife were deflected at the wrist, likely spraining the joint, but on a lesser man than Aki, the strike might have broken bone. Greyson wrestled him to ground, seeking to put him in a submission hold, head locked in his arm, and pulled back, while his knee was artfully lodged in the small of Aki's back.

[Alec_Shadowkin]

Aaron watched the sudden accusations and sudden violence in silence and horror. The five standing in this clearing had only each other to stand with and here they were starting to fight one another? This was beyond idiotic!

"Stop it! Stop it, d**n you!" Aaron stepped forward and grabbed the two men by the shoulders. He shoved them away from one another and stood between them. "For god's sake, this information about a traitor could have just as easily been said to make us kill one another as for any other reason and I for one and not ready to meet my maker. Good grief, you two are acting like a pair of children. Why don't you both just sit down for a minute and try and think about this with your brains instead of with your groins!" He turned and went back to stand next to Deja where he had been, watching the two men with half-slitted eyes.

[Scrasamax]

"LIKE CHILDREN!" Greyson stood up to his full height. He had generally been a tolerant man, keeping what was considered less than reputable company, mercenaries and prostitutes and the like. There was one thing that he had a hard time with and that was with bloody self absorbed priests.

"Look, I dont know who you think you are but by my god, your god, I saved your life dueling with that wild men of the forest, or have you already forgotten that 'priest'" he said the word with a good deal of venom. "I hadnt done something he would have Deja through. Instead of acting like a child, I'll let the next person who decides to kill your pompus ass do so."

Greyson glowered at the priest, giving him a look that brooked no responce. It was ingrained in him to protect, what he did was often by reflect. If Aki had tried to go for him, would the priest have complained about the immaturity of their actions...he grit his teeth and stalked away from the group gathering. He stooped to pick up his armor, discarded from his previous duel.

[Alec_Shadowkin]

Aaron shook his head, astonished at the arrogance of some people. He called after the mercenary's turned back.

"Yes, I do remember how you saved my life. Believe me, I have no interest in losing my scalp. It would however be nice if you would pay attention to the fact that we are not your enemies! We are all stuck out here in the middle of the bloody woods with very little in the way of supplies or other equipment! None of us stand to profit from killing each other. At least if we work together for the time being maybe we'll all survive this." He shook his head again then looked back at Greyson with a slight frown.
"For God's sake man, am I such a threat to you? I have no weapon save an empty bottle and no combat skill even if I were armed. Feel free to strike me down, I'll not stop you, but it'll be a cold murder on your hands tonight, since my only wish right now is to get the hell out of here. I bear no malice toward you or any of the others. d**nit! All I want is a stiff drink and a place to sleep. Can't you see that?"

[CaptainPenguin]

"Eh, roight, an' I be King of th' Woodsies! No'un trust a priest- yeh've always got a slitter or some'in under yeh' robes, all yeh' so called 'holy men'.  I dinnay trust this'un." Tree Viper waved dismissively in the direction of Aaron.
"An' ah' don't trust none o' yeh' else either, so don' be tryin' to tell me we're partners."

[Scrasamax]

Greyson stopped, the d**ned priest didnt know when to keep his mouth shut, but then why should he, the only things priests were good at was running off at the mouth, and gathering money for it. He finished buckling on his armor, checking the straps and the buckles before heading back into the light of the dying fire.

He stood a respectful distance from the priest, hands away from his knife, and the hilt of his sword. He looked the man from his head to his feet, lingering on the bottle still clasped tightly in his hand. How long had he nursed a similar bottle after laying Elisa in her grave?

"You want to know what I see?" Greyson asked, his voice flat and without inflection. "I see a man who is a disgrace. I dont have any respect for priests, first and foremost. You see most of the priests I have dealt with were fat from their parishes, and werent interested in helping much other than themselves. To busy with their hands in the pockets of princes, dabbling in politics."

"But that isnt enough, judging from your demeanor, and the bottle, you look like a failed priest. Couldnt keep the voows, couldnt shovel enough waste to keep the faith, eh? Either be a drunk, or a priest, being a drunk priest is a disgrace to both."

"Finally, it seems to have partly escaped your notice. I offered to duel to save your life, and hers. I should have lost, and should be dead now while you lived to escape. Then, I sewed his d**ned head back togther after the wild men tried to scalp him." Greyson said, pointing a finger towards Tree Viper. "AND then, I made sure that one of our own didnt kill another one of our own. Deja is still alive because of that, and Aki is uninjured."

"you see alot of people have a problem with me, I am a mercenary. I am not a hired killer, assassin, or murderer. I dont kill people for money, priest. I train militiamen to protect their homes when lords are willing to pony up the gold for soldiers. I teach young men, and husbands and sons to wear armor and use shields and not get killed. But to you, I am a sellsword, a piece of mercenary slime only a step above a criminal myself."

"I've saved your life, Priest. Go to hell." Greyson said. "I have more smoked meat and hard bread if anyone is hungry."

[Michael Jotne Slayer]

He did not understand these emotions in him. He had never acted like this
in his whole life. Aki imagined this roaring wilderbeast in his chest, pounding to get out.
At the same time he had his invaluable logic fighting with this urge to kill.
What was this? As he thought this over he noticed the body of Deja falling to the ground. He tried to warn the others but the words did not cross his lips, or at least they did not make any sound. He was out of breath.
Breathe. His head felt like it was going to explode. Breathe.
No blood. No air. Breathe.
Darkness.