Act 2, Scene 2: Flight from Vallaki

Having successfully escaped the riots in Vallaki, our heroes had two goals: to get to the Vallaki Vistani and the dusk elves, and to find out why people had been trying to abduct them in the middle of a riot.

Dragging their bound, gagged, unconscious captive through the Svalich Woods for an hour and a half or so, they came to a stop just shy of the camp, to regroup, wait for the man to wake up, and to question him.

While they waited, they heard footsteps approaching, and found themselves faced with a young Vistani girl, Arabelle. Should she have been wandering around in the woods alone, even as a Vistana? Probably not. Is this kind of behaviour the kind of thing that gets you kidnapped by randoms? Absolutely. Still, Arabelle showed no fear to the party, as gruesomely wounded and battle-hardened as they looked in that moment, and as in possession of a captive they happened to be at the time, and she proceeded to sass the hell out of them. After giving Osrin a brief reading, Arabelle packed up her tarokka cards again and said she'd see them back at the camp.

After a healing touch from Osrin, the cultist awoke, quickly realizing just how dire the situation he'd found himself in was. He proved largely uncooperative, though he confessed — or "confessed" — readily enough that he had no idea who had sent the fireballs into the crowd. When asked about his motivations, he claimed he was trying to fulfill the prophecy, putting our heroes immediately in mind of Fiona Wachter and the prophecy she'd regaled them with over dinner only two nights before. However, when pressed further, the man thrust his head forward to slit his own throat on the blade Sylvain was using to threaten him with.

And Osrin used her newfound ability to stabilize a dying creature on the man, and the party went back to waiting.

After a brief discussion in which Ayduin suggested a charm spell and Sylvain thought *of **course** you'd suggest that*, it was agreed that they'd follow Bodaway's suggestion instead, stringing the man up by his feet while they waited for him to regain consciousness.

While waiting for the man to awaken and watching him grow redder and redder in the face, they heard a growling nearby and found themselves face to face with two dire wolves. Ayduin attempted to talk them down but they seemed uninterested in his words, lunging at the party instead. A brief battle ensued, in which Sylvain found himself on the verge of panic at being face to face with wolves again — so obviously unsettled that his companions noticed. With Ri-An suggesting Sylvain try eating the meat to cure his fear and Sylvain suggesting hell no, some of the party set to butchering and skinning the bodies.

Realizing that leaving a man who had been on the verge of death for several hours bound and hanging upside down for a prolonged period of time might result in him dying again, the party lowered the cultist to the ground, though Bodaway made a point of placing a severed dire wolf head on his chest for when he woke up. As soon as he did, Bodaway hoisted him up again, leaving him swinging and spattered in wolf gore as the party resumed their interrogation. However, the man proved utterly unwilling to talk, even when threatened with the creative removal of body parts, and the party accepted him as a lost cause, slitting his throat and hauling his corpse and what remained of the wolf corpses deeper into the woods, so as not to attract too many predators too close to the camp.

And, finally, they made their way to the Vallaki Vistani camp, hopeful for some respite.

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