ooc[spoiler]
Yeh, sorry about the slip. Somehow I'd forgotten I hadn't put a private notifier on this topic, too.
Now I never said this campaign would be easy, so please bear with me. I'm also a bit tired, so I might not get as much done as I want.
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Devanar Brightbloom had never been the most avid and strict follower of Lathander. He pitied people. He felt with people to the point that it became painful. But he was also an optimist, never one to bow down to suffering, nor accept it. But at some point it broke him. He felt the world somehow looked a lot nicer if he had a beer before breakfast. And then maybe a second afterwards. And it hadn't ended there. This had caused him to fail so deeply in his tasks that he now felt his future hung by a single thread. But Lathander was growth, and regrowth. Lathander was prosperity, and renewal. And he was willing to give a chance to those who saw the error of their ways. And Devanar saw the errors, he saw them so clearly and painfully that he would have liked nothing better than to immediately get roaringly drunk to forget all about them. But those days had to have an end. He was sixty-four. Not a great age in this world, but an age that for him meant that the time left for him was a lot less than the time he had already spent. And he had bloody well better get up and shape up for the rest of his time.
When he had buried the young couple - barely adult, they had been - he had drowned the grief that had naturally occured, that always occured, as usually. He had not thought about it. But then there had been the child. And its uncle, who had tried to take it away. Too late he had tried to catch up. Too slow he had been. And now the uncle would lie dead, and hopefully stay so, while the parents of the poor baby were condemned to prowl in the night and prey on the living.
And here was this demon child that had killed its parents, wrapped in its bundle, lying in front of the priest who already knew that he could never hurt it if he didn't make absolutely certain about the fiend that lived inside of it. He had already communed with Lathander and made certain that it really was this child that was guilty - and that there were more like it. So now he wanted to see for himself. He had to do everything necessary.
The living he made in Lundeth surely wasn't all it could be. Generally, Lundeth was no more moral than Ladydove. Orderly, yes, but by no means a good place. There were few who cherished the church of Lathander. And money didn't come easy to him.
Still, the single thread that he was hanging by meant that he could no longer commit too little, too late. The eye drops for the true-seeing spell had been very expensive. But he couldn't afford not to be sure. He needed to find the fiend. Most of the spells he had prepared this day were for that purpose.
Standing before the baby with his weapon drawn as if for bloody murder, Devanar was caught with apprehension. The bundle was still wrapped up, he could only hear the baby crying inside. But what if the fiend had already left? The uncle had been tied up to his horse, a baby couldn't do that. What if the fiend was in fact already preying on HIM? Devanar hesitated, and looked around.
And RIGHTLY so. From the corner of his eyes he caught it. Whatever it was, he could not see clearly, but it WAS there, hiding in the few bushes around the road. It was also watching him, Devanar was sure, preying, more than likely. But what surprise had it left for him in the bundle? If the fiend had left the baby, then maybe it could be saved? Devanar squinted at the area where the fiend had hidden itself. Whatever it was it held not just one form, and through the bushes he could identify neither. Backing up right next to the baby he knelt down, his eyes never left the spot where he had spotted the creature for more than a second. Very carefully he reached out - without looking, mostly - to part the cloth covers of the bundle.
The guards were confused. The cleric was looking someplace, but there was quite obviously nothing there. They didn't know what spells he had cast. Of course invisibility wasn't so rare that it never entered their minds. But then, they didn't feel like fighting against any fiends. Perhaps if they didn't find it they wouldn't have to fight it. Instinctively they shifted their guard towards the direction the cleric was looking, but took no other actions.
Devanar had uncovered enough of the bundle to throw a look inside. And it was just a baby. Nothing more, its true form absoutely certain. There was also no evil in it. And certainly no fiend. There was now only one thing left for him to check. But first he would have to drive away that which was lurking in the bushes....
