It's summer in Castelmare.
The breeze from the Minolian sea leaves the city's air with a slightly salty taste.
The Blue Wyvern has just returned from a quest in the countryside. Farmers began to report the disappearance of part of their herds. Shortly thereafter, attacks began against villagers.
To the adventurers' surprise, the culprits behind the attacks were gavaudans - a type of beast that looks like a mix between a dire wolf and a hyena.
Gavaudans are nearly extinct and occur only in the north of Koradel. Luckily, Howell and Brigia are from the Marches of Beldeda, a location with the highest concentration of these creatures.
The most likely theory is that someone brought a litter of puppies to Sanfegia, aiming to raise and try to tame these beasts. However, at some point, they killed the breeder and escaped.
Despite being as strong as a common lion or a dire wolf, gavaudans are much more vicious. They do not shun human settlements. On the contrary, they prowl villages to attack unwary villagers.
One of them would already cause quite an uproar. A pack would then wreak havoc. The Blue Wyvern took almost two weeks to locate and kill all the beasts.
Only a female with her offspring was spared at the request of Valenzi and Judith. The paladin is devoted to Hashthir, goddess of fertility and protector of infants. Judith, on the other hand, is a cleric of Jahaya under the domain of life and prefers to avoid unnecessary killing.
Fayir must take care of the mother and cubs.
The third priest in the group, Brigia, doesn't seem to have been all that bothered by the slaughter. On the contrary. She actively participated in it. The priesthood of the Burning God preaches, before anything else, martyrdom. His clerics must be willing to sacrifice their bodies and souls for the greater good. Her hands may be covered in the blood of creatures that were just trying to survive, but she doesn't care, as people of this countrysize will be able to sleep peacefully.
"Aahh… Those weeks in the woods ruined my outfit." Brigia complains as she tries to clean a mud stain. Not only mud, but also blood stained her outfit in an irreversible way. Apart from the tears made by the beasts' bites.
"I'll need to buy new clothes. I can't attend the Cortege wearing these rags. Bilos! Let's go to the city market. From there we'll go down to the tavern to have a booze." She invites her fellow dwarf.
"No how. Today I'm going to spend my day with my Marva. She must be missing me so much. She's only going to release me at night."
"Boo, Bilos! You always leave me for your woman." Brigia complains again.
"You're too skinny." The barbarian is strict.
"Miss Darneth can accompany you, Brigia." Fayir suggests, much to both their dismay. "Darneth intends to buy new clothes for the Cortege as well."
Brigia has been getting along very well with the dwarf Bilos, but not so much with the elf Darneth.
After some reluctance, the duo leaves for the city market. An awkward mood hangs over them most of the time while they shop.
"Where are we going now?" The cleric asks after they buy changes of new clothes.
"To the apothecary. I need to buy more purple dye for my hair." The elf says as she runs her hand through some faded locks.
"You guys have so much trouble with those dyes. The party leader and Howell do the same thing."
"Howell dyes his hair?" Darneth shoots an inquisitive look.
"Hehe... He prefers the brown shade instead of the original color." Brigia explains, embarrassed. She just let slip another secret of her friend.
"And what would the original color be?"
"Eerr umm... R-red?" Brigia answers as she sees a stall selling apples.
Darneth, of course, doesn't believe it.
"That must be why the party leader dyes his hair red too." Brigia tries to build on her lie. "To match Howell's."
"Wouldn't it make more sense for Fayir to dye his hair brown as well?"
The cleric shrugs while looking cynically around.
"There's something, there's something between you two. Some kind of secret or something like that, isn't it?"
"You're being too paran-" While Brigia was trying to avoid eye contact with the elf, she spots something. "Wait here." She speaks as she hands her shopping to Darneth to hold.
The cleric dashes through the crowd apparently chasing someone.
After a few blocks, she loses the trail in a dead end alley.
"What was that?" Darneth asks as he catches up to her.
"I thought I saw someone I knew. But it can't be him."
"How do you know? A lot of people come to Castelmare during the Cortege."
"Because he's dead."
"Oh... That boy..." The elf falls silent for a moment. "A lookalike perhaps?"
"No. A forger." The cleric speaks with an irritated tone. "Someone wanted using a dead person's face to evade the law."
"Want to keep looking?"
"Not now. Let's go back to headquarters..." Brigia tries to calm down. "And please... Don't tell Howell about this. Nothing good comes when he gets... emotional."
"That's something new. He almost always has that poker face. You can't beat him at card nights."
"He's quite soft inside... But speaking of Howell... I saw you bought a bandana... Are you going to give it to him?" The cleric looks at the elf's purchases with a teasing smile.
"Yes. He's always wearing that old thing tied around his head. I've tried to get rid of it several times, but he refuses."
"Oh... oh... do you like him?" Brigia's silly mocking face is unbearable.
"By the Goddess, no. He's too young for me."
"He's a lot older than he looks... But any-ways, I would even help you with that, but I'm rooting for the party leader. Sorry, auntie."
"Auntie? Have you lost your mind, girl?"
"Sorry, sorry, ma'am..." Brigia continues teasing as she runs towards the group's headquarters.
"Ma'am is your mother. I am a miss." Darneth runs after her.
Despite the silly banter and the unexpected encounter, the shopping trip the pair took made the mood between them more friendly.
At night, the adventurers gathered to celebrate the success of the quest to slay the gavaudans. Bilos, now free, comes to the party headquarters much to Brigia's delight. She quickly leaves Darneth for him.
The celebration continues into the night, as the sea breeze blows its salty wind and mysterious figures sneak through the city's dark alleys.
