Tea and Consequences

Log Info

• Title: Tea and Consequences

• Characters: Dirk, Dolan, Patch, Ravenstongue, Telamon

• Place: Atlon Residence - Ylvaliel, the Mythwood

• Summary: In the direct aftermath of Kol and Zalgiman's attack on Patch, Dirk, and Dolan, as well as Cor'lana, Telamon, and Verna's rescue of the trio, the group (sans Verna) have been invited inside the Atlon residence in Ylvaliel for some tea. Some discussion is had about what was lost and what was endured.

Dirk bellows and flails as Dolan pins him down. "GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME! KOL! KOOOOOOOL!" But then, Telamon does something that gets through even his vampiric-induced haze--he grabs his beard. His voice leaps up an octave as he shrieks in indignant fury. "HYARRRRRRRGH! LEAVE OFF ME BEARD, YE MISERABLE MISBEGOTTEN TREE-CLIMBIN'--" Fortunately, that thud to his brow shuts him up--and the magic Telamon brings to bear severs Kol's hold over him. For a moment, the old ranger lies there in stunned silence. Then, he sits bolt upright, as if waking from a nightmare. "Patch?! Dolan?! Gods save us, are you two all right? Where the hell are we? What the hell is goin' on here?!"

"We're safe now, is what's happened," Cor'lana says with a smile to Dirk. She pats his shoulder. "Telamon, Verna, and I came to get all of you out of the cabin. Verna bought us the opportunity to teleport out... And, well. Now we're here."

She smiles cheerfully, but says quietly to the group: "Tel's mother won't take no for an answer. Let's get some tea in our bodies, shall we?"

Once Dirk is safe, Dolan rolls off of his legs and stands up, brushing himself off. "Tel and Lana got us out of that," he tells the dwarf, walking over to pick up his bloodied blade. "Thank you, both of you. I thought I was about to make my trip to the Grey Halls, there." He pulls from his belt pouch a cleaning rag and quickly sets to cleaning off the weapon, his left arm moving gingerly and not wanting to fully extend. "Let me get out of the armor," he says to Lana. Up close, he looks like he hasn't slept a wink all night, and is more than a little haunted, but he is, at least, focusing. "Mama would have my neck if I brought arms and armor in the house."

Telamon snorts at Dirk. "That was for trying to stick my head underwater." He tries to keep his face screwed up in annoyance, before grabbing the old dwarf and giving him a hug. "Sorry about that. Like Lana and Dolan said, we escaped -- hopefully, Verna did too." He helps Dirk up to his feet, as Ariana beckons inside. A trio of servants issue forth to help the adventurers collect themselves.

Arms and armor are neatly racked in a side room, and the group is escorted into a warm little parlor. The furniture here has more of a northerner theme to it, all hard angles and sturdy constructure, and tea is brought out shortly thereafter.

Dirk gets to his feet, brushing himself off. He can't quite keep from shivering as though he were freezing. "He took me again. Dana save me. He made me invite 'im in. Gods... where is safe?" A stricken expression slowly crosses the old dwarf's face. "My home... gods... my home. My livelihood. Thistle!" His whiskers quiver as his eyes get liquid. "All gone... that filthy bloodsuckin' bastard took everything... I've got nothin' now!"

Cor'lana takes a seat on the furniture next to Telamon--their usual spot when they come to visit, in fact. She offers Dirk a sympathetic look. "We need to talk with people who have more experience with him," she says. "Seldan knows him--we've even discussed about him, but we need more information. Verna, too, when any of us are able to find her again."

She smiles a little, even if it's tinged by sad eyebrows. "But for now... Dirk, we're safe. For the moment, we are safe. That is a small amount of solace, but it's preferable to none."

"You don't know that for sure, Dirk," Dolan points out, settling into a chair a small distance away and resting elbow on knee. "Yeah, you'll probably have some repairs to do, but it was raining pretty hard I doubt that fire will go far, it was already dying when we teleported out." He starts to rub at the mobile side of his face, but stops and leans back in the chair instead. "Tel - look, man, I am sorry. I've been getting myself in bad situations lately, and it's not right of me to ask you to help."

Dirk lets himself get drawn into the hug. All the strength just drains out of the old snowbeard, and he's glad of the contact. He snorts a couple deep, sniffling breaths through his nose, letting himself get led into the house. "But we left 'im there, din't we?" he quavers. "Me poor cabin, all alone wi' that monster. Poor Thistle... he must be so frightend wi'out me!" He sits himself down, numbly leaning his thunderbelcher against the wall nearby. He looks back up at Telamon and Cor'lana. He does his very best to put on a brave face, even though he can feel his world falling apart. "Thank you," he manages. "I'm glad Lulu found ye. That means she's all right, at least." He accepts a cup of tea, staring into the steam, as if all the answers to all that troubles him might be found there. "I'm sorry I got everyone involved in all this mess," he says softly. "This is all my fault. We should've gone straight tae Alexandria. I thought we'd be safe in me home." He pauses, then shoots a panicked look over at Dolan. "Dolan, yer knapsack! Did ye make it out with it? The statue's in there!"

Telamon just shakes his head at Dirk. "Dirk, you are still alive. That means you have hope." Seated in a chair as well, he looks up for a moment, before staring into Dirk's eyes. "And you have friends, who will help you get back on your feet as needed."

At Dolan's words, Tel just gives him a look. "Dolan, don't be foolish. This is something that'll affect all of us. You can't take the blame for it."

"Indeed." Ariana returns, having doffed her coat. Taking a seat next to Lana and Tel, she gives Dolan a very stern look. "Life does not always play fair. The trick is to learn how to palm a card at a crucial moment, and work from there. Or as my father once said, 'If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'." She regards the group calmly, before looking to Tel. "I'm afraid your father won't be back from Alexandria till tomorrow -- the negotiations for the alliance will be on pause over the Yule season. And for all the bad things happening now... consider how many things have been fended off, or defeated. And be thankful for that."

Cor'lana purses her lips a little, considering Telamon and Ariana's words--and then she shakes her head. "No, Dolan's not being foolish," she says. "He's reacting to danger. This is a natural reaction to danger. A good person doesn't want their friends and allies to be caught up in what's happening to them."

She looks to Dirk. "Just as Dirk's also having a very understandable reaction to fear," she says. "It's natural to... want to take the burdens on all by yourself, and then to lament that they're happening at all. But Dolan, Dirk... We are your friends. Dolan, I owe my life to you. That necromancer my step-mother hired? He probably would have killed me if it wasn't for you coming in to help. There is not a single thing I can do to ever truly repay that other than to come calling when you need aid. Even if you don't ask for it."

"You were the one who wanted to know how I got myself in these situations, Tel," Dolan snaps back unexpectedly, a thing he does not normally do. "It's a-" He stops himself just in time, and coughs. "It's a good question. The answer is that a vampire all of a sudden now wants me to be his special friend, and I've got no idea why or what he wants, outside of draining me dry. I gave him something to remember me by, that's for sure, but -" His voice cracks, and he sets aside his teacup. "That doesn't mean I want you to risk your lives just because I happened to piss off a bigger fish than I can handle. Not the first time that's happened."

When he looks up at Ariana, he looks positively haunted. "And we had to abandon an innocent man to Kol's fate because we bit off more than we can chew. I swore I wouldn't let that happen."

Patch had been overly long while washing up and taking a reprieve by herself. She now stops at the doorway of the parlor, sighing at the group as her ears had picked up some of the discussion as she approached. It's fairly clear from the flat glance she tosses towards Dolan as she speaks. "You forget it was I who had us go out there. That I was already dealing in all this even before I met you, Dolan." her tone a bit stern, but a smile is flashed. "It is not your fault I am wrapped up in all this, nor is it any more your fault for any of the others. We choose what we do." she assures.

"As for Kol working with the dogs? I have a lot of opinions. None of them good." Patch's sigh coming as she crosses into the room, and shrugs at Telamon and Cor'lana. "Apologies. It's been a long night. Clearly." her inflection of tone suggesting the evidence of it all speaks for itself. "I needed a moment."

Telamon heaves a sigh. "Dolan, it wasn't meant seriously. Frankly... it's going to happen. Because you're a good man, compelled to face off against evil things by your oaths and your sense of right and wrong." His lips quirk up. "I just wish I'd been able to bring some more firepower to this one. Do you think the city would let me rent out Big Ben, or maybe we could get the Spell Cannon to fire? Never mind, I know... answer is probably 'no'. So it falls to us... the hands of the gods."

Ariana calmly sips her tea, before commenting, "Forgive my son his sometimes inappropriate attempts at humor. Granted, when you're in a life-or-death situation, people do say foolish things. But... he does make a good point. None of you are the type to walk away from evil. Not willingly. And no, I don't count what you say happened as 'willingly'." Her eyes rest on Dolan sternly. "Unless that sword you carry happens to be one of the blades of legend, I suspect this 'Kol' to be a bit harder to deal with than a half-blind ghoul at noon."

"People can fight to wear the coat of shame all they want, but it's a decidedly uncomfortable coat to wear in that it is made of barbs that jab into the soul," Cor'lana says. Then she looks a tad bashful. "I stole that from a poetry reading from a few nights ago--but it's true. We are adventurers, but for all of our power, things just don't always go well."

She gratefully takes a cup of tea at last and sips from it. "We are all here by matter of bond," she says. "Patch is the sister I never had. Almost everyone here--we've all saved each others' lives. Once or twice or however many times it's been. It's hard to deal with losses even in the face of continuing to live another day. So... I understand. Truly."

Dolan merely grunts, his gaze going to his lap. He doesn't answer in words, but the grunt is acknowledgment enough. "Be the hunter, not the prey," he whispers to himself. "You are not helpless this time, Bry. Not this time. You can fight back." What is he struggling with, and what is he talking about? Clearly, he struggles with something. He answers nobody distinctly, but nudges with his foot the knapsack that Dirk had asked about, the one that came in with him.

Dirk sighs softly as Dolan indicates the knapsack. "At least he dinnae get that," he says. He tips back a swallow of tea from his mug, looking over to Adriana. "Yer Telamon's mum, are ye? Dirk Stormgrip. An' I thank ye fer yer kind hospitality." He looks down into his teacup. "Goin' tae be doin' that a lot, I'll warrant," he mutters. "I can live in the woods fer awhile, but... not forever."

Telamon exhales. "It's been a rough evening, and you three had it worse. Let me at least offer you the hospitality of my family home for today, so you can recover. We'll return to Alexandria, and regroup." His eyes glint. "I have no intention of letting this overcompensating bloodsucker get the better of me. Time to do a little research, I think."

Ariana looks at her son with a smile, before her eyes turn to the others. "Amazing. You've managed to get him to willingly do his homework. Truly, a miracle." She rises, her grin wry and cheerful -- a very similar expression to one her son often wears. "But yes, I think some sleep, followed by a good hearty meal, is in order. I'll go make the arrangements."

And for now, there is safety, and a chance to rest.