(Kishore was the only guest in the tavern for that night, and it's obvious that he's safer than most of you all. Therefore, I'll assume that you'll try to get out of the village area.)

With a few twists and turns to avoid the never-ending swarm of devils, the group makes it to the outlying farmland. While they're no longer here, it's clear that the fiends passed through. Even in the dark, you can see that the earth has blackened and the plants have withered. From the cursory glance, it doesn't seem like any of the crops around here are still alive.

Turning back to the village, you see that most of the homes have been destroyed from collapsing walls; loft roofs sitting over the rubble, trying still to provide shelter for what lies beneath them. There seems to be one common goal among the blobs, which lies in the center of the city: The elder house. They inch constantly closer and closer, blighting the land as they tread.

Suddenly, an explosion of energy bursts forth from the elder house. It continues just past the edge of town, where it sits and radiates a deep violet light. The sound of destruction ceases, and a heavy silence falls for what feels to be an eternity. After the constant mental screams, the silence is just as haunting. Finally, the field of energy retreats and disappears altogether, but it looks like the blobs have also disappeared.

(Oooh, spooky.)

Kishore

As you reach the outskirts, the hardened bard seems to examine the ground, shuffling pebbles and sampling the soil between his fingers. He even went as far as tasting a little, before quickly spitting it out. Finally, settling on a large, roadside, rock, he stabs his sword into the ground. He watches the falling remnants of the village for a moment, muttering a grunted, "Eh?" at the massive burst of energy from the central house.

When the horizon darkens once more, he delves into the innards of his clothing, returning with a small, simple, handcrafted but undecorated wooden flute. He polishes the mouthpiece with his sleeve, before blowing gently at the various holes, emitting soft whistles of varying pitches. He ponders for a moment, before finally settling on a tune.

Courtesy of FluteFlights

Chiyome walks up and attempts to snatch the flute out of Kishore's hands, her body aching due to her wounds. Whether successful or not she asks, "And what was that all about?" , noticably annoyed.

Julie
Though she's limping a bit Julie can keep up, Youngful energy mixed with adrenalin can keep anybody going for quite the while. As the group heads for... some direction, Julie didn't get to pick, She notes that there are some other blobs but we're turning away from them. Admitedly she's a bit relieved she's not fighting but those things might be attacking someone else.
Like mom and dad...

Upon reaching the outskirts of the town, Juie was only slightly relieved. She'd survived against those... goopy things. But she was hoping to find other people here too, safe and sound. Like her boss or her friends. Even the silly old guy who could never remember where he put his hat.
Like mom and dad...

The weird explosion left her speechless, with good reason. Even the few mages who pass through the town don't do stuff like that. The best she saw was this one guy who made a tiny illusion of her dancing about, which was cool till he had the illusion start to strip, That was uncalled for. No, this struck a chord within Julie. A deep sadness awakened as even in her greatest hopes all she could think was possible was the people she knew were mercifly taken quickly by pelors hand as opposed to slowly at the hands, er tentacles, of the goopy jelatin things.
Like mom and dad...

Julie fell to her knees, which got unpleasent dirt in her wound, and then backwards since her injuries put her off balance till she landed on her bum. Curling up, face pressed into her knees, arms tucked away. Julie couldn't help but cry. It was a silent cry, but only for a moment, before she stopped being to scared to make a noise and began expressing her displeasure with everyone around, loudly. Though she seems to be speaking to herself, about what just transpired, considering weird things like Pelor and the afterlife. Why bad things had to happen. Those sorts of things. None of it is coherent, minus when her blatherings come to the two words, "mom and dad"

Zukka half-stood silently, slumped against a tree as he surveyed the destruction.

I always hated that town..., he thought.

And yet there was no pleasure. He wanted to leave. To get himself away from it, not to have it taken from him. And those bastards destroyed his inn and tavern. His fists clenched, shaking slightly. Kor - dad too, probably - the rest...

He had nowhere else to stay. He had to go. This is what he wanted, right? To escape, and escape had just been given to him.

"I was supposed to be happy..." he murmured to himself, sling slipping from weak fingers. Happy. He could have left, the time he tried to leave, the time he got half a day away and almost died for it - he thought the whole way, and most of the way back, he'd never think of home again, that it vanished from his mind - but it was always there, always would be, if he wanted it.

Kishore's flute slowly stirred and wormed its way through his thoughts, his misty eyes coming back into focus as he stood. When Chiyome broke the music up, he grunted with annoyance, stooping to pick up his sling. "That was nice," he chimed in quietly, with praise to Kishore and annoyance at Chiyome somehow mixed together. "But it's not the time, Kishore." He walked towards them, stopping to put his hand on Julie's shoulder, to tug upwards with a gentle insistance.

"C'mon," he spoke, to them all, Julie in particular, "we... there may be survivors. They'll need us."

He looked to Kishore. He probably had a plan. He knew how to fight them. He knew surely knew about the aftermath. But he wasn't saying anything, so someone had to get them back.

"On your feet feet, Julie," he gently prodded her. Maybe they could rebuild. There had always been some changes he wanted to make to the tavern, anyway. "We need to go find our families. All of us," he added to Chiyome, before looking at Kishore, and then back to ruins of their town. Ruined. They were probably all dead. But others had to have gotten away, and some may have survived the blast. They had to be alive. Somewhere. What sort of a home had no one there?

"What we need is revenge, and some wandering minstrel who wont run away and leave others to die."
Chiyome stares down Kishore.
"My mother is fine! With everything that she has gone through, those blobs were probably nothing. Anyways, with the help of Sir Cuthbert I slew the foul beast in front of my house!"

ooc: yes, she is usually nice to a fault, but not when someone she rushed over to help retreats from battle without warning.

Julie

Julie made little apperent effort to stop crying as Zukka prodded her into helping, in fact she seemed to curl tighter at his touch. She was trying to help, she knew she had to... We all had to. It's the right thing to do.

But she couldn't.

Still sitting on the ground, crying albiet quieter now but with no less sadness for the lack of volume was from exhaustion, Julie began to fidgit. As if she felt she should do something, but could put no complete thought as in what to do. The only thing she was doing was repeatedly clenching her fists and releasing them.

Kishore

Kishore appears momentarily distraught as the flute is snatched out of his hands. He blinks, once, twice, before turning his gaze to Chiyome.

"That? I don't think I can tell you what that is, it is as curious to me as it is to you. I can tell you this, however..

"We are at an impasse, friends. The heavens have lay a new path for you to walk. It is as certain as the signs all around me. Your dwellings have fallen and your cherished have withered with them. Search if you must, but you will find nothing but the work of Death. The very soil rebukes life. Your bounds here have been broken, so purposefully, so surely.

"We stand on a stage where everything happens on cue. Where unseen hands litter the world with fates and destinies for the self-willed puppets to stumble about. So ask yourself this? Are you ready to accept your destiny? To rise to the calling?

"Let me tell you this. This quaint, little, village, was always meant to be. Be it called Sigil or something else, this village has been razed and rebuilt a hundred times, as surely as true heroes settle to rest for the end of their days and are reborn, anew, to rise to new challenges. One day, perhaps in a day or in a year and a day from now. You will yearn once more for Sigil and these fields will be home once more, and the cycle will begin anew."

The minstrel says all this like a practiced story-teller, his arms flail in gestures as his voice toys with every feasible tone. He finally rests his hand on the hilt of the nearby sword and stares back to the center of the village. He finally points with his free arm in that direction.

"There, right there, I think, is where your tale starts. I will accompany you, I think." He turns his eyes to Chiyome and extends out his hand. "I am not one to run from a fight, quite the opposite really; every strife is a story, and not every story was meant to have a merry end. Now, if you will kindly give me back my flute. I procured it with great expense, but to me, perhaps, it was quite well worth it."

OOC: Sorry for not posting earlier, my internet died. Blame the Unseen Hands(ISPs..).

ooc: welcome back kaymeera. I was starting to wonder if you were alright, you are usually at least on msn.
IC:
Chiyome continues to stare Kishore down.
"You.. They did this to me because you abandoned me in a fight! And to think I tried to help you!"
She motions to her extensive bruising (and at 1/5 of her total hp, i would imagine its quite extensive).

"For now, this flute I will hold on to.

For now though, i want to know why these blobs just happen to attack us the night you stroll into town. We ahve gotten along peacefully for generations. Then, the one night you come to town we get attacked."

Kishore

Kishore eyes the flute for a few moments, before finally retracting his arm. He gets off the rock.

"As I told you. I'm not quite sure. Fate, I would think. I assure you, though, my path has not been crossed by these beings before."

He glances at the sword in the ground and grabs the hilt with both hands and heaves for several moments. After a few attempts the sword, finally, loosens.

"You should, perhaps, arm yourselves before heading on. You wouldn't happen to know how to handle a blade?"

"Unfortunately I would not. I have never held anything other than this mace, and today was the first time that I have ever had any real use for it. It could be adventageous to give it a go though. And who knows, if you can do something to ease my pain you just might get your flute back."

Kishore

Kishore eyes Chiyome for a moment, noting her various cuts and bruises.

"A wise eastern man once told me: Any wound will heal in time, but sometimes, you should help them along."

Kishore holsters the blade then rubs his hands furiously together, holding them up to his mouth and seemingly whispering into them. He rubs them together so vigorously that you wonder whether or not the motion actually hurts. For an instant, the hands appear to whiten with an ominous glow, but for all you know, your eyes could be playing tricks on you.

He suddenly grabs Chiyome's arm, before she could even react. He grabs her with such force, that her arm aches furiously once more as he presses against the various cuts. In a second instant, he relinquishes his grip.

Chiyome's bruises lighten and her cuts appear to slowly close themselves up, as though they were never even there.

Cure Light Wounds, 7HP.

"Well, I suppose a deal is a deal."
Chiyome hands back the flute.
"Just dont make a habit of abandoning someone who is trying to help you in battle."

(Aaaaand... I can't let this keep going without a little DM intervention.)

(Kudos to Taylor and Fuggle for degrees of realism. Mike, the problem with Chiyome's action is that she was charging into inevitable suicide. Even if she were to assume the absurd luck she had was actually skill, the sheer number of lemures approaching-- Enough that not even entire buildings last more than a few seconds against them-- would spell certain doom for anyone willing to stay in their path. Moving in any other direction is a sane move. Moving towards them? A sign that you want to die. Chiding Kishore for trying to not die, plus her general attitude thus far? They all suggest that Chiyome is anything but "kind to a fault," and is actually nothing more than a violent adolescent that's unhappy with the world about her situation.)

(Also, if you were to try to make the argument that Chiyome was attempting to be kind to Kishore by helping him fight, there are a few holes in that logic. Again, there's the whole suicide bit. Kindness should never result in suicide. She could yell at him to run away, sure. But there was really no excuse to approach the phalanx. Plus, given the multiple weapons and the armor, plus the general air of morale surrounding him, it's visually obvious that he was much better suited for the situation than she was. There were also multiple townspeople who also needed help and were not nearly as well-equipped as the bard was. Some were in a direction other than the phalanx (Of course, if enough exploring were done, you'd have found two other phalanxes...). The argument's also weakened by the fact that she's so virulently furious at him now, which suggests that she's not very kind-hearted at all. She even stole the man's flute as he was trying to play in memorial, and then effectively blackmailed a heal out of him!)

(I'm not trying to embarrass you or anything by calling you out here (Seriously, these paragraphs have been revised about five times trying to find the balance of "neccessary information" and "trying not to be insulting"), but this is something that needs to be addressed before Chiyome even meets a paladin. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to deny her a chance to walk down the crusader's path. However, nothing in her conduct so far has been becoming of the paladin code. She's been angry, violent, prideful, narcissistic, petty, coercive, and arguably even sociopathic in her complete lack of noted compassion for all of her friends and family that are likely dead. These traits seem more fitting of a barbarian than a paladin. Now, this could just be a difficult time for her, and of course, the paladin's training should help further curb these vices, but should she continue acting like this as a paladin, you can expect frequent use of the Atonement spell.)

(Moving on.)

The eerie silence (Which is admittedly less than silent, with all that yelling) is suddenly pierced by a shout.

"HAAAAAAALP! Anyooooone! Help meeeee!" It's coming from the near edge of the village, in one of the collapsed buildings. From the location and voice, it might be Garrit. Garrit was a farmhand who never found a wife. He was still at a marrying age, only about 30, but age and sickness took his immediate family, so he lived alone. He helped out a few of the other farming families, and in a sense, sort of belonged in everyone's family. To most of the town younger than the group, he was "Uncle Garrit." In any case, it sounds like he needs help.

Zukka snorted to himself as Kishore spoke his little speech, turning away.

I coulda done better... he muttered under his mental breath. He didn't, though - he tried to think of something to get Julie moving, to get her on her feet - but then Kishore and Chiyome began to argue, and he quietly listened without showing much more than a frown. He tried to pass it off as nothing, just listening to the two bicker.

As they quit he went back to Julie, and was just opening his mouth to speak when the cry for help came. Zukka had been almost slack, slumping with his hands in his pockets and looking this way and that. At the cry, however, he went bolt upright.

"Garrit..." he murmured, and looked down at Julie. "C'mon! Uncle Garrit needs our help. People need us."

And in a flash, the words crossed his mind and sprung to mouth and he was halfway done speaking before he realized it might not be a good idea - "Your parents need you, Julie. What would they say if we didn't go help the village?"

He looked away, quickly, to Kishore, eyes narrowed. Maybe it was gone, but there was Garrit. There had to be others. Home wasn't dead. Not yet. Zukka continued to turn, and then crept forward, expecting the others to follow, because really - what where they gonna do? Leave the old man to his fate? And though he seemed to be taking the van, he tried to do it with as much sneak as he could manage - and to fall behind either Kishore or Chiyome, letting either of them lead the way - after a few steps, however, he slowed and looked over his shoulder and ensure that he wasn't going alone.