Into the Odd - In the Mountains of Touforte, part 2

 After a quiet and uneventful night sleeping on the leather couches, the companions awake and begin to make ready, Tinneraine and Vanise find a pair of swords displayed on the walls and clasp the scabbards to their belts, while Awela and Sadiba peruse the bookshelves for anything of value. Sadiba, noticing a tome on sword-fighting, brushes aside a dusty web when a sharp pain on his hand elicits a scream as he falls to the ground shaking. Tinneraine dashes over and swats away the enormous pallid ghost-recluse with his new sword before he sucks the poison out from Sadiba's wound.

"My dear, you must be more careful," Tinneraine says to Sadiba upon his return to consciousness, "who knows what foul crawling things can do!"

"It's best we depart now," says Awela as she shoulders her pack.

As the companions exit the manor they notice the corpses they had encountered the previous evening had vanished by some means in the night.

Tinneraine mutters some esoteric prayer to calm his beating heart as they pass by and set foot across the dewy meadow toward the mountain pass to the north.

Unseen by Awela and colleagues, a swarthy man wearing a drab fatigues collapses a spyglass and picks up his musket, before turning to his stout companion.

"I see them heading towards Stonefinger Pass, I know another way"

"These rock formations are so fascinating! Stonefinger Pass, it's called, how appropriate," says Vanise as she gawks at the enormous red stone spires which stretch across the narrow canyon before the party. "Nothing such as this in Bastion!"

"Oh, Vanise, you have been spending too much time with the local yokels. Though I must admit this view is stunning."

As they make their way through the pass, Awela hears the telltale sound of a detonation. "We are not alone, something is not right."

"You are so paranoid, dear commander, likely it is some miners in the hills, no more," says Vanise.

"But there it is again! Let us tread carefully," says Awela sharply.

Vanise scans the area when she notices stones falling from above and tremors at her feet. "I think the time for care may have passed already, may I suggest alacrity?"

"Say no more," says Tinneraine as he begins to dash toward a larger spire, "elevation is key!"

Larger stones from the canyon walls begin to crash around Awela and Sadiba as they dash toward the spire that Tinneraine and Vanise have begun to climb and secure a rope and pitons.

"I suppose in this moment, I may have preferred the leeches," says Tinneraine.

"Would you just climb, we need a secure path up, come now," Vanise retorts before shouting at her companions to run faster.

Stones pelt Awela and Sadiba as they run through the chaos. While Awela manages to shrug off the worst of it Sadiba is momentarily dazed as a geode strikes his temple, drawing blood. He recovers quickly and begins his ascent behind Awela.

The earth continues to shake as the party climbs the spire. Just as Vanise reaches its flat top she hears the crack of musket fire. "I suppose these may not, indeed, be miners," she says as she helps Tinneraine and Awela up. "Sadiba, please climb faster dear, we are under siege from above now!"

"Southwest, that ridge, Tinner, ready your rocket!" Awela barks, pointing at two figures loading their muskets, "Vanise get Sadiba up here!"

A musketball screams past Tinneraine's ear as he readies his rocket and another musketball strikes Sadiba square in the shoulder. Vanise watches him helplessly as Sadiba's grip on the rope falters and he falls into the churning torrent of stone below.

Awela and Tinneraine's rockets soar across the canyon and bust into a shower of green and blue fire which briefly knocks back the taller figure on the ridge. Vanise unholsters her pistol and looks at Tinneraine tearfully as another musketball grazes Vanise's cheek. The three remaining companions unload their revolvers into the figures beyond. Seeing no movement they collapse atop the spire as they wait for the landslide to subside.

After about an hour, the three descend to the base of the spire. Vanise and Tinneraine frantically search the rubble attempting to locate Sadiba, who they shortly find crushed beneath an enormous boulder. Tinneraine holds a coin to Sadiba's nose and discovers faint breath.

"Oh my dear Sadiba, how can you forgive me!" Tinneraine laments.

Sadiba coughs weakly. "Oh but you took me beyond the clouds. Please, take care of yourself, Tinneraine, and take care of them," he says as he puts a small coffin-shaped box into Tinneraine's hand. "I will see you again, stars and saints willing."

After Tinneraine performs a short funerary rite, the three companions move on in silence as the skies darken and thunder rumbles in the distance.