Session 9 : All journeys end, one way or another
The cats started their daily routine of asking questions, this time to Father Lucian. One day they will be as wise as mother or even the Chaman with so much information. At least he got to see the altar where Andralos might have been. Father Lucian was keeping the alcove as clean as it could be, and it was rather easy to spot, as it was the only one with fine ornaments and carvings. Finally the cats found a trail to follow: Millivoj, a kid who slept at the orphanage and worked by day at the church. Time to pay a visit to that house of noise and child madness. The half-orc took a moment to think about the dog they found at the Death House and donated to the orphanage for the kids amusement. He quickly moved on as the dog wasn't that friendly to him anyway.
The orphanage headmistress took the party and Ireena to a separate room as soon as they knocked the door. Trouble had been chasing the building since their last visit: a kid jumped out the window, Millivoj was ill on bed, and the party later found out the beds were full of demonic carvings and a kid had bite marks. The cats kept chatting with the kids, and everybody around, meanwhile Hoskgak started to investigate the building. Rooms seemed rather ok, although he couldn’t tell how many kids were living there, he lost count of beds and chests after a couple of rooms. He stopped at a window between rooms, a plank was covering what used to be glass, and a cold breeze was slipping through the frame and the newly placed plank. The marks were quite fresh, mould was not forming yet and the colour of the wood was clear. A few splints here and there. Hoskgak remembered a few tricks of low level arenas, definitely those were not markings left by someone who intentionally decided to end his journey. That journey was ended for him.
Is this all? Serenity asked. The building seems taller than two stories from the outside. Someone pointed her to a hatch in the ceiling. Hoskgak reached the attic and the cats were already asking questions. A kid was carving something with a knife close to a window. Nothing happened, the kid just dealt with it shrugging. After several minutes of watching the kid shrugging and ignoring them, Hoskgak moved towards the kid to Serenity and Destiny's surprise. He lifted the boy up in the air and visibly annoyed said: “Answer!” The kid, without any warning or expression change, stabbed Hoskgak through a gap in his armour, opening a superficial wound at his arm.
A dark shadow started to emerge from the kid as he was falling flat unconscious to the ground. Hoskgak's first reaction was to move the kid away from that thing, so he put himself between the presence and the boy. But then, after clawing at Serenity, the shadow scuttled up the wall. Unable to reach or harm the presence, Hoskgak was a mere spectator of the fight between Serenity, Destiny and that thing. The presence was moving really fast and hurting Hoskgak badly when it reached him. Ireena, equally spectating the fight, fell unconscious at one of his blows.
Suddenly, Ireena, waking on the floor, said something about a locket. Serenity put her hand on the locket and then promptly hit Hoskgak with her staff, quite hard, almost knocking him out! Then the locket kept changing hands from Serenity, to Ireena to the Imp, and at the last minute the presence recovered the locket putting it back at the kids neck. Waking up the kid said: "I want a deal! Leave the locket where someone can find it, and I will leave this place and this kid."
That deal seemed to please Hoskgak and Destiny, but for some reason Serenity was having lots of trouble with it. That meant the combat was over, not all combats can be won.
Serenity’s indecision led the kid to slice his neck. it was a clean and precise cut. The kind of cut that is done to end somebody elses journey. And as the presence began to form again, Serenity stepped forward and landed the last blow on it, finishing it off.
The cats appointed Hoskgak to explain the encounter to the headmistress. “All will be well now, orphanage was damned, Millivoj will recover.” With a little hesitation, he continued “...and kids, or at least remaining of them, will be able to sleep now”. With that devastating logic, the headmistress had no other option than to nod and the party to leave the building.
***
“Here!” Hoskgak opened the door. “Kid is here!” And with a soulless face, the kid cut his throat falling to the ground. The door closed and Hoskgak opened the door again. “Kid is here!”, again the kid cut his throat without loosing sight with Hoskgaks eyes. The scene repeated countless times. At some point a voice resonated in his head: “All journeys end, one way or another”. With that, Hoskgak's body relaxed and continued sleeping till the next morning.
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