“Hopefully it is just a warning to be careful and to not let our guard down.” Marda tells her. Soon Lathrul joins them and the trio have a simple but filling breakfast. Once they have finished their food the elf puts down his bowl. “Tasty. Good job, lass.” He nods at Avella. “Now let's break camp and get going – no reason to give the thief more of a head start than necessary.” Lusserina's face does not reveal her thoughts about the stories. “I have met women who are into exhibitionism, or public sex, or both. I have heard enough such stories, so I don't need you to tell me more. Of the other two... let's start with the last one you mentioned.” She suggests.
"Oho? An interest in faith, hmm?" Anton hummed, "Well, that noblewoman was quite... pious in her belief. You can almost call her a saint." He said in a dramatic tone, "But once she was alone, she also happened to be the capital's biggest slut." The old man grins, "See, with her donations to the church, the priest there allowed her to accept the parishioners confessions. But, he didn't know that how she "relieves" them of their sins. All the priest knew that her methods were effective, and the number of people attending mass, and going through confessions nearly doubled... although he notes that all the new lambs were male, he didn't mind one bit. Until one night, he hears of the rumor, about the wailing lady of the cathedral." He paused for a bit, gauging Lusserina's reaction. And once again attempting to fondle her breasts, before he continued. "You see, this noblewoman's methods were for the men to "release" their sin in, or on her body. With graver sins requiring more relief. She secretly turned the church into her own personal brothel, where she picks and chooses sinners to "redeem."
“That's one way to get people to confess their sins, I suppose...” Lusserina comments. Anton manages to cup a feel before she pushes his hands away. “And? What happened next?”
Avella helps pack their camp and get dressed back in her armor. "Let's hope Everlight will support us in our quest to bring what was stolen back to owner. We have to hurry, thief have day advantage." She said as she make quite pray for support from Sarenrae and they followed footprints.
"Hoho, do you want to hear what happened... or do you want to feel it for yourself?" Anton asked in return, "But I will say... the priest also saw the light." He chuckles, waiting for Lusserina's reply.
The trio follows the footprints for a while, until they reach the southern bridge. There the footprints split again, one set continuing south, the other heading west across the bridge. Lathrul gets down tot examine the footprints for a bit... Spoiler: Lathrul's examination 1d100 = 50 ...then he gets up and faces the girls. “Same as last time, both sets of tracks seem real... but I am not falling for it. The guy is surely headed for the forest on the other side of the bridge – more places to hide. Let's go!” He turns and starts walking across the bridge. “I'm fine with just listening for now.” Lusserina replies quickly. “So, what were you saying about the priest?”
"Indeed you should... Imagine an entire town of women who act as I do..." She grins, using his lust in an attempt to gain a follower. "I'm a little thirsty, actually..." She grins, and opens her mouth.
“Yeah, that would be incredible...” The thug agrees, his imagination obviously running wild. No longer able to hold back he thrusts his erect dick in her mouth and starts shooting his load – quite a big one, as it turns out, his hot thick cum quickly filling her mouth... Once he is done the man pulls out and sits in a nearby chair, panting. “Damn, girl... you really are... something else... Now, what did... you want to know?” He manages to ask, still panting. Mylea gets the impression that he is asking the question as a way to catch his breath.
Odd. Felt tired for a minute there. Lydia thinks before cautiously entering the projected wooden door. No torches or nothin'. Mages. She scoffs internally. She looks around the room, finding nothing else of interest besides the bright golden ball. "Let's go with a sword like mine, eh?" A shortsword solidifies itself, still radiant and gold. Imagine havin' a sword made of gold! She laughs to herself, taking the weapon and walking through the second door. Glowing weapon in hand, she takes in the sight of the statues and their shifting forms. "So it's that sort of challenge then?" Lydia smirks. "Since I'm learnin' the sword, I might as well have a test of swordsmanship, eh?" She approaches the cock-bearing figure and takes the key from it's hand. Always wondered what it'd be like bein' with a girl with a dick. Best of both, right? It'd be right fun to try havin' one myself sometime too if I can get my hands on a potion for it. She walks to the door and unlocks it, stepping through the portal.
Avella smiled to Lathrul. "Good job. We getting now into forest of dryad outside of the Empire, so if we be lucky, she might seen our thief. But as long as he doesn't treat forest, she wouldn't stop him." She said and followed mercenary
As she steps through the portal Lydia finds herself on grass-covered ground. Behind her is an almost-vertical cliff, hundreds of meters tall and almost impossible to climb without specialized equipment or magic. The door she arrived through is nowhere to be seen. To the left and right is more grass covered plane, while ahead of her is a forest. Just as the thief takes a long look at the trees a woman walks out from behind the large trunk of one. She is naked, her big tits and big cock on display for all to see. In her right hand she holds a short sword identical to Lydia's. Looking at her own blade the thief notices that it is no longer golden, or glowing – it now looks like a regular short sword, same as the one she owns. The naked woman approaches slowly, after every step making a slow slash with her blade, almost as a demonstration. Or perhaps it is a demonstration, as it is easy to follow and easy to memorize. When she finally reaches the archer she attempts an actual attack, but dodging the slash takes no effort, and it takes a single hit – that leaves no wound behind, Lydia notices – to knock her out. As soon as the first opponent falls a second naked woman walks out from behind the tree. This one moves and attacks faster, and she mixes slashes with thrusts in a pattern of 3-slashes-2-thrusts. Spoiler: -Lydia's Attack 1d100 = 88 She too falls after a single blow, her attack easily predicted and dodged. Right away a third woman appears from behind the same tree, this one wearing a simple cloth shirt, cloth skirt, and hide shoes. Her practiced swings and thrusts appear to be random, with no pattern. She stops a few steps away from Lydia, points her short word at the thief, and waits, not moving to attack or to help the two knocked-out women on the ground. It seems this time Lydia will have to make the first move...
“Considering how large the forest is, we might not see the dryad at all.” The elf notes as he leads the group inside the forest, the crystal still illuminating and revealing the escaped thief's footprints. Spoiler: Search 1d100 = 73 The group spends a few hours following the tracks. During that time they see nothing of interest. Suddenly Lathrul stops and raises his hand in a sign for them to stop as well. The crystal stops glowing and he puts it away. “I noticed something through the trees up ahead.” The mercenary begins whispering as he turns to face them. “I'm pretty sure it is our thief's camp, unless someone else has also decided to camp here. The question is, how do we approach him? We could sneak up on him now, wait until night and then attack him under the cover of darkness... or attempt a peaceful approach. I'm open to ideas.”
"Aw, havin' somethin' to look at was fun!" She fake pouts as the newest woman approaches. "So each one's harder to beat than the last, eh?" Lydia holds her blade in front of her. Having little practice with a sword, she clumsily slashes at her opponent's blade, attempting to batter it aside, before chopping down at the other woman's shoulder.
Avella already thought about that question while they marched after footprints. Thief deserves to be bring back to justice for crime of steeling, but on other hand he already been punishment by forcing him to run away to borders of civilization. "I will approach him alone. We, paladins, have reputation for keeping their oath, so maybe I will be able to convince him to hand over stolen heir. Also, if come to fight, I'm best suited to be in the front line. You two, stay cover". Avella said and go to thief camp, being wary to not step by acident in his traps.
Lydia's attack is not nearly as clumsy as she expected, much to her surprise. It seems by watching her previous opponents she has memorized at least the basic attacks... Spoiler: Lydia's Attack 1d100 = 3 …but knowing how something should be done is not the same as having done it in practice. The woman easily batters her blade aside, then strikes at her with a quick slash. Thankfully the blade passes through her body without wounding her for real, even if it hurts like hell. In the moment Lydia needs to recover the woman gets behind her and slaps her ass with her empty hand, then pulls away and waits for another attack. As the archer turns around she feels the pain from the attack slowly vanish. She is left feeling weakened, but still able to fight.
“Be careful and good luck.” Marda tells her. As she looks ahead between the trees Avella sees a small tent, with a single hooded man sitting outside, apparently cooking something. So far he seems unaware that he is no longer alone. Carefully the elf begins approaching him, and as she walks she feels Lathrul's eyes on her. Taking a quick look over her shoulder she notices that the mercenary seems to be focused on her butt. Spoiler: Stealth 1d100 = 38 Despite her best attempts Avella is unable to reach the camp undetected, but at least she avoids triggering any traps. Spoiler: Thief “Who's there!” The man shouts as he suddenly jumps up and pulls out a short sword, then turns in the direction of the elf. Upon seeing her he points his weapon at her. “Stop right there! Who are you and what are you doing here?” He demands to know, sounding on edge.
Avella rise her hands, showing him that she does not want to harm him. "Welcome. I would say 'good men' but I think we both know it is far from the true. I'm Avella, paladin of Sarenrae Order. " She said in calming tone, introducing herself. "Look, I know why are here and why you are hidding yourself far from home. You made mistake by stealing something important and that leads to expirence by yourself treason on you. You made mistake, but it is still a challenge to fix it."
"The outpost was destroyed. The corpses of guards were used as a trap and the place was set to help in that trap - work of a necromancer." Ida explained "Once I finished defeating the undead - I did not have time to search the place. The trees started advancing on the outpost. Some kind of druid or dryad's work... or maybe ancient trees. I don't know. I did not stay for another fight." She sighed. "Basically, the outpost was destroyed, taken over and made into a trap."
"Agh!" Lydia doubles over in pain, clutching her side where the wound would be. The slap to her rear, almost exposed by her bent-over posture, elicits another gasp and reminds her to focus on the swordswoman while the pain fades. I'll have to put more strength into it. She attacks again, feinting another attempt at deflecting the woman's blade before stepping to the other direction and stabbing at her opponent's torso.
Spoiler: Diplomacy 1d100 = 23 Diplomacy: +20 Total: 43 The man narrows his eyes at Avella. “Are you trying to insult me, woman? I am a professional; I did exactly what was asked of me and made no mistakes! The one who made a mistake was my client, who decided it was a good idea to double cross me – and he paid dearly for it!” He does not lower the sword – apparently still unwilling to trust her. The lord and his wife remain silent for a few moments as they look at each other, then they turn back to her. “This is worse than I feared,” Edward sighs, “I kept hoping that the walking trees are unrelated to the elven necromancers you encountered earlier, but this suggests that they very much are. Unless the necromancers that turned our dead men into undead are unrelated to the elven necromancers, which would be even worse – it would mean a second group of necromancers in the area.” “So far we do not know who is behind the walking trees,” Victoria takes over, “the only hint we have gotten is the naked elven lady a few people have seen at night. At first I did not take the rumors about her seriously, but in light of everything else I can't help but winder...” “Elven necromancers and an apparent elven exhibitionist that could be a druid, a summoner, or something else. They have made an openly hostile move by destroying the outpost, and I doubt it will be the last. Hopefully the Queen responds to our letter soon – we could use the help....” Edward sighs again. “Thank you for bringing us the news, unpleasant as they may be. Please remember to keep them to yourself – the last thing we need is to cause panic in the village.” Victoria requests. “You have my thanks as well.” The lord smiles at Ida, then takes out a pouch and hands it to her. Inside she finds 100 Gil. “A small show of my appreciation for your help. Use the money to buy whatever supplies you need, then get some rest – you've earned it and there's nothing urgent that requires your assistance right now.” Spoiler: Attack 1d100 = 49 Feint: +10 Total: 59 Her feint works and Lydia's blade finds its target – and just like the woman's blade before it her sword causes no physical wound. Despite that the woman grimaces in pain and jumps back a couple of times, putting some distance between her and the thief. It seems this opponent can take a hit, unlike the first two. Still, Lydia gets the feeling that one more good hit should be enough.
