The Good Word

Rolf, greatsword gleaming, charged the daemon and hewed a chunk from the creature's shoulder. The demon roared and reeled backwards, but the elven swordsman kept the pressure up, not letting the demon regain it stance. 
Lishatt fired arrow after arrow into the horde of dretches pouring through the portal at the far end of the room. The vile, bloated things took only one solid hit before vanishing into dust, but more kept coming through, and it was all she could do to hold them off. 
Every few seconds, Herb swooped low to unleash a torrent of freezing breath over the entire battlefield, before circling up again out of reach. On his back Copper the old dwarf pelted the demons with bolts. 
There was a muffled curse as Klaus the dwarf finally completed his spell, and the demons were caught in a maelstrom of hail and stone. Lishatt fired a few arrows into the survivors, but Klaus's spell had sealed the portal and cleared up the area nicely. Herb circled down to land while Rolf noisily vomited blood in a corner. Klaus hurridly searched through his pack, getting more annoyed at each passing moment. He swore loudly in dwarven
"Have anyone seen the break enchantment scroll? It was right here, with the rest of the scrolls"
Herb, staring lazily into the distance suddenly interrupted "Friend Klaus?"
Klaus waved him off. "Not the time, dragon. Whatever that demon did has Rolf making his innards into outards. I need that scroll right now. Has anyone seen it? It was in the iron tube with the blue seal."
"Friend Klaus?"
"Not. The. Time. Scroll, where is it?"
"Friend Klaus! You left it in Rolf's pack, remember?"
"I never...did? Did I? I'm sure I didn't. I would have - ah. Yes, here it is. You're quite right. Sorry for yelling."
"It is in Tiamat's nature to forgive the flames of anger. Tiamat says that stress and conflict unmaketh the man, and only the healing powers of calm and faith will restore him to his rightly station. I am very grateful to have you as a friend, and I would have you know that these are very trying times, and I hold you no ill will."
By the time Herb had finished his sermon, Klaus had dispelled the awful magic from Rolf, and Lishatt had gathered up all the arrows she could find. Rolf thoroughly rinsed his mouth out before asking "We need to rest. Is the area safe?"
Copper nodded "Nothing here now by a broken portal and about a liter of your blood. Wouldn't hang around too much longer, we'll need to leave soon to make it home before it's too late to get a solid rest."
"Works for me. Everyone take five, then we fly for Sandpoint."
There were small cheers and a larger yawns. Klaus opened his enchanted thermos of tea, and took a swig. "Want any Copper?"
The dwarf nodded "Yeah, but I'll be grateful if you can bring it up to me. You're mad if you think I'm getting off this dragon before we get home.
Klaus gently climbed up and sat beside him. He looked down at Herb, but the dragon was immersed in his holy book, reciting his prayers and thanking "Tiamat" for protecting him during the fight. Satisfied that the dragon wasn't listening, he leaned in towards Copper
"I'm getting too old for this"
Copper smiled warmly, but the warmth never reached his eyes. "You're a decade younger than me. If I'm alright to be riding a frost-spitting nightmare into battle, I'm sure you can waggle your fingers."
"It's not my hands that are the problem, old friend. There are spells that fight age, that make your body feel young again. It's not my mind, either. My magic's not what it once was and my memory is shot, but I can still take half of Sandpoint's Mage's Guild with both arms cut off. No, it's my soul. There's more horrors every year, and I feel thin. Like too little butter spread over too much bread. I don't worry about dying. I just worry that when I do die, there won't be anything left to join Pharasma's line"
On the other side of the cave, Lishatt and Rolf were pouring over a map. Lishatt carefully placed three brightly colored markers on the parchment sheet. "There, there and there. I'd put 50 gold on it."
Rolf gave her a long glance "Ok, Pirrat Mine is obvious, I'll agree with that. No one's been down there in what, Two years? Pretty large tunnels, and the entrance is easy to find. Classic demon staging area. I'm not sure I agree with you on the other two. Blackfang Gorge? It's got no cover from the air, we'd have spotted anything lurking in there."
Lishatt began to tick points off on her fingers. "Easy to spy on from the air, but no one ever goes down to check. Throw up some camouflage at the north end, you'd be pretty hard to see. Second, I haven't seen any scouting reports from the place since the floods last year. The rains could have exposed an old cave or something, and we'd never know. Third, it's called Blackfang Gorge - that's just ominous. Fourth, from the top of the ridge you could use a telescope to see the town and the patrols pretty easily. If I were the demons, I'd fill the gorge with a dozen imps and something meaner, and use it as a lookout."
Rolf pursed his lips. "A gorge full of invisible demons? Shit. That is the kind of asshole move they'd pull. Alright, put it on tomorrow's list. We can provide cover near Pirrat's while whomever is dealing with that is scouting it. We can hit the gorge on our way home. I've have Klaus whip up some glitterbombs, if there is such a thing. But what about this one?" He pointed at the third marker. "Sheffield Farm? There's maybe 3 fields of corn, a dozen cows and a barn that's nearly fallen over. I don't think it will be infested with anything worse than rats."
"You say that, but have you seen Mr Sheffield?"
"Yeah. Old man, blue eyes, always wears a straw hat, smells like peppermints."
Lishatt shuddered. "Yeah. He gives me the creeps."
Rolf paused "That's your reasoning? He's creepy so therefore demons, somehow?"
"Rolf, he guzzles peppermint oil. Who does that? What is he trying to hide? Why does he never fix the barn? Have you noticed how much mold is growing on his hat?"
"Mr Sheffield is old and maybe senile but he's...look. Herb? hey Herb! Back me up on this: Mr Sheffield's not a demon, right?"
Herb thought for a minute. Herb was intellectually on par with a particularly dumb child, and you could almost hear the inefficient clockwork of his brain click and whir as he processed those thoughts.
"Mr Sheffield is a strange man, but he lives his life as he wishes, and Tiamat says that, uh, that we mustn't judge people on how the look, only on their actions"
Rolf breathed a sigh. "Look, even Herb agrees. No matter how creepy he-"
But Herb wasn't finished "and his actions are drinking a lot of the peppermint and wearing moldy hats. Plus whenever I look at him it feels like birds are dancing on my spine. I once asked him if he wanted to talk about religion, and he said that all gods are liars, and that I was the "mouthbit of deceit". He is almost certainly a demon."
Rolf buried his head in his hands. "Really? Really? Ok, Copper, do you know old Mr Sheffield?"
Copper looked up from his discussion with Klaus. "Who?"
"Mr Sheffield. Owns a farm west of the gates? South side of the road? Old barn's nearly fallen down?"
Copper brightened "Oh him, sure. Creepy old bastard. Weird as a foxfish and crooked too, I bet. Have you seen how all his crops grow bending to the south? I'm sure he's up to something no good."
Rolf threw up his hands in defeat. "Then it's settled. Pack up, we're flying back. Tomorrow we'll scout the old Pirrat Mine, and escort whichever poor bastards draw the short straw to clear it out. Then we'll check Blackfang Gorge, see if Lishatt's hunch is right. Then we've gotta make a quick stop by the Mosswood, Warbringer Zikzak will want to know what was in this cave and why his boys haven't been reporting back. Then, instead of doing something useful with our time, I guess we're going to pay a visit to Sheffield Farm."
They stowed their packs on the hooks of Herb's saddle, and flew out through the crack of the roof, clear of the cursed place and its now defunct demonic gate. It was a quiet flight back, with everyone lost in their own thoughts. Copper, ever the eagle-eye was scanning the land below when he gave a start.
"Herb, keep it steady until we're out of sight, but in a moment I'm going to need you to lose some height and circle back round"
Herb nodded. Lishatt squinted in the direction Copper was looking. "I can't see anything."
Copper grunted. "There was a ruined building. I saw torches inside, maybe two dozen. Not much out here besides fields, no reason for so many people to be together."
Lishatt checked the map. She turned to the rest of the party, a horrible grin on her face, haunting in the faint moonlight. Rolf looked away, having guessed what she was about to say
"I just looked at the map, and well..."
Rolf sighed "Just say it"
"Looks like those torches were coming from Old Man Sheffield's barn. Gee, wow. Hey what are the odds? Hey Herb what are the odds of that?"
Herb thought for a long moment. "Roughly one-hundred percent?"
Lishatt petted him behind the eye ridges. "As always Herb, you are completely correct."