#kiimkaline

[elkenbulwark]

The Crew ; // Birvor (half human/half orc), Kiimkaline (deep gnome), Vez (half human/half drow), and Ren (high elf).

[elkenbulwark]

@kiimkaline , @illithidtouched cont.

The beach is littered with corpses - duergar and deep gnomes alike lie unmoving, some long dead and some fresh. She can't bring herself to move. The battle itself had been grueling enough, but finding those bodies - the bodies of her kin... She looks up at Birvor from the deep gnome she is cradling in her lap. "They didn't deserve this, Biv. We can't just leave 'em..." She blinks away tears and closes the eyes of the poor soul. They can't fix this but they can avenge them. They have avenged them, or at least begun to. But there are undoubtedly more. "We've got time to give 'em a peaceful sendoff, right? Give 'em dignity?"

There was a moment where he'd lost interest in hounding after Ren when the other joined Vez by the water's edge that he took the brief respite to glance over and see how Kim was keeping up.

Oh...

That was the only thought he could muster when he noticed her crouched by the body of one who looked...too similar to her own kind. The slavers from earlier certainly didn't make it any secret that they'd disposed of many a deep gnome for crimes as egregious as sneezing in the wrong direction. Such was cruelty he'd come to know growing up walking on eggshells with big, stompy feet- but never to this degree of barbarism.

Frowning until the tips of his tusks dug pensively into his lip, he wandered over with some hesitance in each step that seemed far less stompy than when he made a beeline for Ren or Vez during the height of their antics. "..." Didn't deserve it, huh? Did anybody deserve anything, he wondered? Good or bad... they were all just waiting their turn in line for the ax to fall, that was - if the tadpoles didn't eat them from the inside-out first.

Hands on his hips, he shakes his head and pleads with her- eyes softened to a much more sensible degree. "...'pends on the send off. I can dig a hole. Or there's a bonfire back 'hind us. I-...dunno what it would take for things to be set proper here, but I'll do what I can. So long as it bucks you back up. What needsa be done?"

[elkenbulwark]

your reckless impulses will get you killed! / @kiimkaline

@illithidtouched

He was still drenched from the water she'd dropped on him and Ren earlier after a dispute over a basket's positioning caused fists to fly, and now he was wringing his socks out next to boots discarded by the fireside. His sourpuss of a face usually looked that way on default, but now it was particularly potent with the added benefit of a pouty lip pinned under one tusk tip as he kept at the task before him.

"My impulses? He's the one what started it!" His shirt soon joined the pile of wrung clothes by the flames along with his own dripping carcass as he huddled in and tried not to look like he was shivering in the chill of the Underdark. "If there ain't no hopin' me with these reckless impulses, might as well make a drinkin' game outta it. Take a break next time I turn ghostie and knock back a shot to get the revify nice and hot. I'll wait." Not like ghostie balls had legs to wander far.

[elkenbulwark]

you fucking died! / @kiimkaline

@kiimkaline

A stumble forward with arms pinwheeling to keep his balance caused the half-orc to peer wildly around his surroundings before settling finally on the furious-faced deep gnome below his knee-line. Died? Oh... so that's what happened after he'd spent the past few catastrophic moments tripping and shoving Ren along the path headed towards the drop off point from the crumbling monastery.

Only after he realized just how pressed they were for time thanks to the enchanted vines capturing their ankles for a few precious moments needed to make it to the jumping off point, Birvor had turned to regard the tremble of the structure just seconds from collapsing before spending his last moments on the platform casting feather fall for Kim to jump down. After a quick dash forward to position himself behind a wizard struggling with vines wrapped bout his ankles in an unrelenting grip, it took him only a moment to shove Ren straight through the air and over the side of the temple before the sound of the place utterly breaking apart coaxed his gaze upwards towards an avalanche of rocks barreling down upon him.

When he came to again, his arm was still raised over his head in an attempt to shield himself, though it had apparently not worked considering shrill cry of her scolding once he'd finally settled back into his body. "Ehh...I've had worse, actually."

[elkenbulwark]

everyone else believes in you. why shouldn’t you? / @kiimkaline

A squint falters if only because the sentiment comes from her over the other two charming additions to their party who were far more deserving of a mean mugging. "That's all well and good of you to think, but that's what I'd call some damned wishful thinking. I'd even venture up to say it's awful bold ah'you to assume you're the bulk opinion of 'everyone else' here when ya barely meet my knee eye to cap."

Even though his words were of the teasing variety, she'd brought a flicker of a smile to his face, even if it was mostly visible behind his eyes thanks to the way the heavy-set of his jaw settled in at rest.

[elkenbulwark]

i’ve killed two of those who’ve wronged me and nothing is better. nothing feels better. nothing is avenged. / @kiimkaline set when the party have dealt with the druegar slavers oopsie

He frowned, the gesture greatly exaggerated by the underbite of his tusks. If he thought letting her take justice into her own hands would have caused such stress in the aftermath, perhaps he would have done the deed in her stead. He'd had enough rage left to reach the two she spoke of anyway before it fizzled out and left him in a moment of numbness in which he questioned if any of the fury conjured forth had any sort of merit.

"...funny. I felt the same when the Absolute's army wiped all but Ren and I from house Cragdew." Musing half muffled by the sound of steel being hammered angrily from somewhere deep in the mines, he shifted a blood splattered gaze down to meet hers- softening once it had.

"They get what is coming to them, but we are not paid back what was lost. I prefer to think ... what was lost never existed."

[ehrendiila]

i’ve killed two of those who’ve wronged me and nothing is better. nothing feels better. nothing is avenged. / @kiimkaline for when the party has dealt with the druegar slavers oopsie

" No. " He shrugs; an eye of an eye leaves the world blind, and all that. Ren hadn't been shy with his offensive spells against the slavers; firing them off and taking three of them down. That's irrelevant now. He turns his attention to Kim after peering over at Biv and Vesz, nose wrinkling.

" I don't suppose it will ever feel good. Vengeance never does, and it shouldn't, but we did the right thing."