Children. blood on the walls, and a room to short to stand in

[Zee]

The group had just made it to a halfling town. Upon arrival they find all the doors and windows smashed in. Signs of struggle were relevant and the blood such things believe behind. Human weapon marks were present, but all of the citizenry were not. Everyone had set out to look about the town, myrina had found two children hiding under a bed, she and paks had been talking to them trying to call them down. Jereth, xxian, and cray had gone into another of the homesteads and started up a fire.

Myrina:

*Continues to smile at the two young boys and had just finished warming the bath to a suitable temperature. Making sure the broken door to the house was closed as best it could be she helps the two children into the bath tub. After some cleaning and scrubbing the boys are deemed suitably clean. No bath involving children, let alone brothers, was complete until some raucous splashing which was oddly enough instigated by the elf bathing the two. The boys were soon dried and had their hair combed. Laying them down in the bed and covering them up she smiles at each and runs her head over their head.*

"Does your mother sing to you at night before you sleep?" *Getting a vigorous nod from each of the boys she smiles and overly exaggerates her act as if she was thinking.* "Well i do not know any gnomish childrens songs... but how about an elven one i know?" *The two boys agree to it and so the elf sings to them, quietly. A very beautiful voice, well trained and highly practiced it seems. Upon completion of her song she grins at the children and tucks them in thightly.* "Sleep now and we will go find your mom and dad in the morning."

*She then lays her own stuff out on the floor in preperation for sleeping. Before going to bed herself though she goes and finds the others.* "Well they are sleeping now, they should be alright. I guess we should stock up on anything we are in dire need of before we head out in the morning." *She says looking to the others curious as to what they think.*

[Paks]

Paks, having gone in search of Jereth, Xxian, Cray and Katherina looks around at Myrina as she speaks.

"I think we may have another problem, it seems that Cray has disappeared" she says simply, "I don't know what happened, probably best to try and get some sense out of Jereth about it"

The ranger moves out of the building. She clears the window and leans through it so that she can still hear whats happening inside Jereth's building.

[Zee]

Myrina:

*Looks over at paks curiously but peaks her head in the broken door towards where jereth is sitting.* "They said cray just disappeared, can you elaborate on that some for us?"

[Jereth Ingsbe]

The firelight creates long shadows through the small room, in one corner the giant hunched as was his only option in the confined quarters, a grimly confused stare focused on a sizable clay jug in the center of the room, perch on a squat stool. Hearing the inquiry, he slowly tears his stony gaze from the jug to Myina, "Foul water, smell like gnome's drink," refering to Xxian the lush, "drink and here no more!" The sheer apprehension in his voice is evidence not only to the man's uncomfortable unfamilarity with magical happenings, but also the knowledge that it could have been him had he not been so choosey in his flavor of drink!

"What trick? Tell now!"

[Zee]

Myrina:

*Looks over at jereth curiously before looking over at the afore mentioned jug. Taking a moment she lifts the drink up and takes a slight sniff of it before setting it back down.* "Hmm, cray, are you around?" *She waits for a moment or two (assuming i dont get an answer).* "Odd, very odd i can't say that i know what happened to him. Sadly unless he shows up we may not know either, as i am not equipped to determine such a thing. Could be magic, it is a dangerous thing, strange though that some one would leave something like that just laying around."

[Xxian]

"Not look at Xxian, noooo, Xxian got nothing to do with stupid battle lord going bye byes, he alway tricking he is, he probably right here" he says stabbing out several times with his morningstar hoping to hit the now invisible Cray.

[Zee]

Myrina:

*Watches the little gnome curiously for a moment or two before realizing he thinks that cray is just invisible and is trying to find him.* "Ahh, well if he did just get turned invisible i suppose he does owe us one, but this might be a tad much." *She says looking around.* "Shouldn't be hard to find him in here, i doubt he could make it through the door with out making a racket, and well there's not much room left that the gnome hasn't already covered."

[Paks]

The ranger watches on through the broken window. "I don't think he's there" she says, her voice sounding a little concerned, after watching Xxian poke around for a while.  "Perhaps it might be worth taking a sample of that liquid and when we find someone equipped, get them to test it for us?"

[Jereth Ingsbe]

Muscles shuddering with sheer anxiety the huge man dashes past Paks as the ranger stands in the doorway, his bulk carving out a similar sized hole in the wall. "Keep that sorcerous bile away from me!"

A nearly three inch thick wall of living wood shattered over his frame but the man's wide eyes never stray from the clay jug, the ease of the others only served to fuel his suspicion that they were crazed and not to be trusted, how could they ignore something that made a whole person disappear so easily!?!?

Shaking bloody splinters from his frame, he hefts his warhammer, ready to hurl the thing through the nefarious container, but the concern of what MAy happen stays his hand for but a moment.......

[Zee]

Myrina:

*Watches jereth as he bounds towards the wall and smashes completely through the wood.* "Jereth..." *She says slowly but trails off letting the man keep his suspicions about him. Nodding and agreeing with paks.* "Indeed if we can not find him, which does seem unlikely at this point. Having some one inspect that jug may be the only way we can find him later. Leave it be for now and i'll pack it up in the morning. We'll have to make absolutely sure the children go no where near it."

[Paks]

The jumps back as Jereth comes crashing past. Raising her eyebrows at the man, she quickly glances over to Myrina, "What was that all about?" she whispers.

Stork follows the big man out of the Halfling home and stands outside not quite sure what to do.

[Zee]

Myrina:

*Looks over at paks with a slight shrug.* "Don't know, he seems like a simple man though. Likely not used to the workings of magic, if i hadn't been exposed to such frequently i might have been quite shocked as well." *She looks over at the man and his death stare on the jug.* "Jereth, are you ok?"

[Xxian]

The gnome takes the rangers suggestion literally.  Taking hold of the flask, he promptly chugs down some of the contents.

[Jereth Ingsbe]

Myrina was almost right, he was indeed unfamilar with the unpredictibility of magic. In his realm of understanding a man could experience many horrible things repellent to the mind, cruel tortures, horrific death in combat, even being devoured alive by monster or hungry beast. But it was simply impossible for a man to just disappear, and thus the very tenuous grasp on reality that Jereth more often than not enjoys begins to dissolve as his mind fails to explain what has happened.

With a strangled yell the hammer hurls though the night air, taking the jug from Xxian's hands even as the gnome drinks deeply. Without waiting to see the results of his throw, he turns and streaks off into the night, a trail of equipment in his wake as he drops his weapons and armor even clothing, their unfamilar bindings deepening his current anxiety.

[Paks]

As Xxian drinks from the jug, Jereth's arrow fires true, but not before the gnome gets a good mouthful. He doesn't disappear from sight like the Battlelord did, instead the liquid burns as it goes down. Almost instantly, Xxian breaks out in large red lumps that cover his body.