A cold wind had begun blowing as the strange party stepped out of the Elephant Tavern and onto the cobbled street. The grizzled leader of the group, covered in blood that he half heartedly tried to remove with a sleeve, began arranging the group into a marching order. He and his two guards, a human and a half orc, took the lead. They were followed closely by a young woman in a dark cloak, a young genasi, his silver hair gleaming slightly in the moonlight, riding on the shoulder of the human guard was a small mousefolk girl to complete the rescue party leaving the town of Northmere to try and find the missing town guard, Keith Holt.
"Remember, keep your eyes peeled, it seemed like the very trees themselves attacked us out there," Guard Captain Geoff Rosethorn nodded curtly to the group and then took off, leading the way back to the small forest clearing where he and two of his other guards had been attacked not an hour prior. Despite his human lack of darkvision, captain Geoff, seemingly used to making his way in the darkness, refused the offer of light in favor of remaining unseen. He makes his way, eventually holding up a fist to stop the party upon reaching the clearing. The less experienced members of the group were a little slow to stop at the hand motion but eventually all members are gathered around Geoff, awaiting instruction.
Spreading out the different members of the party began gathering information. The ground was churned up, dark staines in the earth indicated blood, though difficult to determine in the darkness. The trees were thick, many branches broken and scattered in the fight. Strange tracks led off into the pitch black under the forest canopy. Two ominous trails that appeared to be the result of an unconscious or dead person's boots being drug.
Thokk nodded at the trail, sword in his hand, his keen orc vision picking out the tracks of what appeared to be brush marks or possibly the obliteration of tracks by brushing them out with branches. "This way," he said in a quiet voice meant for his group only to hear. He began stealthily entering the dark woods on the other side of the clearing. Following close behind was Raven, making her way eerily silent, her movements fluid and strangely fast. Captain Geoff, Cirrus and Eda made up the center of the party with Tiberius, eyes flicking forward and back in the dim starlight, guarding the rear from potential ambush.
A cave mouth loomed out of the darkness, Thokk stopped the party, "The tracks go inside," he whispered.
"We need to see what we are up againt, and find out if Keith is till alive or not," Captain Geoff said in a low voice. He crouched down near Thokk and Tiberius to plan.
After a quick scan of the cave opening and immediate surroundings, Raven joined the guards to listen in on the plan, "I can go in there and see what is inside." Not waiting for an answer she melted into the darkness and disappeared from view. A few quiet seconds went by before the rest of the group decided to follow, also impatiant for a look.
"Perhaps you should wait out here," Tiberius nodded at Geoff's arm, hastily bandaged now but still oozing blood.
Geoff looked as if he wanted to argue but just nodded instead, "Call if you need me." He met Tiberius' gaze, his visage hard.
Tiberius nodded and followed Thokk, Cirrus and Eda inside.
Raven glided across the stone floor, not making a sound. She saw quickly that the cave was dimly lit, a fire was burning on the other side of an outcropping of stone, just out of sight but enough to make dancing shadows on the walls. Pressing her back to the outcropping, she peered around it to see a macabre sight before her. A hag, her hair viny and green draped a craggy face of grey flesh. Her hooked nose the most prominent feature on her face as she canted and drew arcane circles on the ground around the body of a man in guard's armor bearing Northmere colors. Raven tried to see if the man she knew only as Keith was breathing. To her relief she saw a gentle rise and fall of his chest and knew they still had time to execute a rescue. The rest of the group entered then to see Raven standing near where the cave curved away to the left. She looked up to see her companions approaching and sighed a bit, she alone was quiet as death. Followed by a host of others, two in armor, the advantage was lost. She walked up to Thokk and Tiberius, "There is a witch..."
