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-----Raven backs away from the horse and looks over at Sarah. "Damn..." is all that Raven says. Raven turns towards Sol, "It will depend on Sarah. If she can lead us to the source of the evil, I think we should kill the source. If she can't, then head south." Raven turns toward, "Well Sarah what say ye?"
-----Kazel gently pats her horse, then turns and faces the group calmly. "If we go to the bandits, we'll fight bandits and get leads on Woder. If we go to the ogres, we'll fight ogres and might save some children. If we go to the tombs, we'll fight undead and maybe stop whoever is raising them. If we go to Sir Hampton, we'll talk to Sir Hampton and find out what little he knows. If we go to Oakwood, we can look for Woder directly." Kazel pauses for a moment, then continues in her dispassionate voice. "Now, I'm all for eradicating evil in the forest, but can we at least know why and what is going on? Or would that be too much to ask?"
-----Raven looks puzzled. "We've got to stop the evil in forest, because it is evil." Raven shrugs his shoulders. "Your questions make sense Kaz. I wish I had the answers, but I don't. What do you think we should do? You know I'm for attacking Woder directly."
-----"We can't be everywhere at once," Kazel replies. "When I ask why, I mean what has happened to lead up to this, besides knowing what we're trying to stop. Should we abandon kidnapped children or give Woder more time to pursue something we have no idea about? We have to decide which is more important. That is my point."
-----The Dread Pirate glares at Sol's denigrating remarks, "Look now, ye scurvy dog, I'm just shooting ideas out. Ye don't seem to have any answers, but ye seem ready enough to find fault with others ideas. As fer what we should do, I'm surprised any of ye even have to think about it. What are ye lookin fer? A pile of dead children on your conscience? Every day that we don't do somethin about them, the ogres will probably kill and eat another innocent. Is that somethin ye want to live with? Woder can wait. He's waited this long. As fer the evil in the forest, that can wait as well. Both of those things may cause the loss of lives. I repeat, may cause the loss of lives. But ye know full well that those ogres definitely will kill those children. The choice is fairly clear. If'n ye want to go do somethin else, then go ahead and do it. But you'll be doin it without me, cause I'm fer rootin out those ogres. I'd just as soon not split up the group, cause it makes all of us much easier targets. And we have no way of communicatin with each other once we are separated. So if somethin were to change and one group had to go somewheres else, the other group would never know of it. If it becomes absolutely necessary down the road to divide our forces, then it will be so obvious that none of us will need ye to read the writin on the wall fer us. If ye can read that is. Primate."
-----The Dread Pirate then rummages through his pack, finally emerging with a wand. He then hands it to Sarah. "There ye go. Anything that ye felt was powerful enough to threaten me life with, had to be safeguarded while ye were ill. Just try to point it in the right direction from now on, or I'll take away yer broomstick and winged monkeys."
-----"Calm down. We don't know for sure it's the ogres who kidnapped them," Kazel says with a detached look. "Who knows if they're smart and sneaky enough to pull this off in the first place?"
-----"Oh Thank You! Thank you! Thank you!" Sarah says, reaching down to get her wand. Then she looks at it for a few seconds. "No...." She says, sounding very sad. "This isn't my wand. Oh Destine, if daddy finds out I lost his wand..." Sarah leans up against Marlexana, looking ready to cry. To Gimplefwick she keeps talking. "I can't really hurt you with that wand, all it can do is protect me. I'm sorry I tried to sound tough with you. If you have my wand please give it back! Please!"
-----The Dread Pirate looks aghast at Sarah's apparently nice behavior and mutters to his parrot, "Arrrr, I think she be schizophrenic..." He then states out loud, "No, I'm sorry to say that I don't really have yer wand. I was going to take it and swap it with that fake one, but somebody beat me to the punch." As if to prove his point, the Dread Pirate empties out his pack and pockets, showing that he doesn't have the wand, or anybody else's possessions for that matter.
-----"Quite right," Comes Zan’s voice from the door of the temple. As the priest looks out, he squints in the morning light, his light-colored hair very ruffled. A bruise is starting to appear over his right eye. "The poor unfortunate children," he says, somewhat answering Kazel while looking down pitifully, "two of them disappeared this past month. Their families live to the west of here. Sir Hampton has still been looking over the area intent on finding them."
-----Suddenly, the Justice Priest’s eyes alight on Sarah standing before him. Almost falling over the threshold, he exclaims, "By the Holy Guardian! You are . . . well?!"
-----"It would seem so," says Rinda. She then approaches Sarah asking, "You are feeling well enough to travel?"
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