IC - Village of Limm

Damir let's himself fall back a few steps so he is positioned between Danill and Podreg, whose nervous energy the Guardian can feel all around him. He softens his voice as to create both more tension and familiarity and answers the twin with an ominous tone:

"Tis an onryō spirit,
that much is sure.
The shrieks, that cool your blood -
we've heard them before.
Tis a spirit of vengeance,
in a place of violent death.
It will know those involved,
and feed of their breath."

Here the Guardian stops for effect and listens to the men beside him.
Fear of the unnatural fiend in the dark, a terrible spectre that knows what they have done, might make them speak more of what has happened to the young flutist.

Conspiratorially he proceeds:

"Tis our duty to best the bloodthirsty spirit tonight,
before it leaves where your young man Tiyem has died.

'cause

if it can't find those responsible for the murderous deed...
it'll go on to Limm - slashing, and tearing and killing.
here Damir makes explicit gestures even the darkness can't conceal
- until after much bloodshed it has satisfied its need."

Danill cluntches his jaw against the sound then addresses Damir and Podreg.

"Whatever it is this bloody wailing is going to drive me mad".

He unshoulders his sheild and draws his short sword. And follows the Guardian's toward the pool.

Ognimir turns to Podreg. "You'd be a fool to discount Damir's wisdom. The Veil may surprise you yet."

He hunches his shoulders as if that might somehow deaden the shock of the wailing, thinking: Let's be done with it before the sound drives me mad as well.

"You have found your courage, man?
Let us ride - complete our duties then." Damir closes rank with Ognimir at the front. He looks to his friend and shrugs his shoulders as if to say Well, I tried.... Damir too has been struck by the man Podreg not answering the question about the victim earlier. This topic, should he survive the night, has to be revisited - and soon.

To his credit, Quintus does not shirk when the party moves off into the benighted wood. He keeps pace to one side of the more familiar Ognimir and Damir, carrying a flaming brand in one hand, a loaded crossbow in the other. At Damir's shrug, he half-shrugs in return; the night and the torchlight flatten the colors in the cloth over his shoulder.

It's hard to gauge Podreg's attitude with that dreadful keening going on, getting louder as they proceed in the direction of the pool. Quintus rather suspects that the 'onryo spirit' is Damir's strategic invention, never having heard of such a creature himself, but then the other man does have more experience with the Veil than he does...

Suppressing a shudder, Quail raises the torch higher and peers keenly into the darkness ahead.

Ognimir turns to Damir. "Shall we charge forth in a show of force, maybe we can drive this spirit back beyond the Veil? Or, proceed with caution, so we don't stumble into a trap?"

He looks to the flickering torchlight, knowing they don't arrive with any sense of stealth.

Danill strains to here what Damir's response to Ognimir will be.

To make himself "useful" he turns to Podreg, and whispers to the villager in a cloud of frosty breath. "Whenever whatever starts up, keep your head bumpkin. I don't fancy an arrow in the back--and I'm sure my fellows don't either."

His tough attitude dissolves as Danill finally sees the origin of the wretched keening. He stands straighter, jaw slightly slack and eyes going wide..."Gods..."

He's never actually seen a manifestation of the Veil...

...and yet his will allows him to keep his cool. He closes his jaw and crouches low again.

Quintus is too perplexed to be frightened.

"What manner of thing..."

It's beyond him. Is the cloud some sort of animal? Is it a manifestation of Tiyem's vengeful spirit, as Damir's ghost story suggested? If so, why does it have paws? The boy had no paws. Quintus Quail had a very good look at his corpse on the way to Limm, and the late flautist clearly had hands and feet like any other man. If the spirit takes the form of Tiyem's manner of death, why isn't it a floating bow, or phantom arrow, or suchlike? Might the Guardians have erred in their assessment of the scene? Perhaps... perhaps, the poor lad was still alive when something had a go at his entrails?

Lost in such ruminations, Quintus Quail stands his ground. It has, at least, the appearance of bravery.

"Proceed with caution, I should think." Damir stops, but feels his stomach turn when he beholds the creature. It has no proper physical form. These are the tricky ones, the manifestations of the veil that he, as a fighter, has only a few measures against. Damir has no sorcery at his disposal and it is moments like this that his inadequacies become clearer.

"Let us hope I will not be the weakest link..." he mutters to himself as he readies his weapons to encounter the horrific apparition with his fellow Guardians.

Ognimir squints his eyes and looks away. He can't help but put his hands to his ears.

Even though he's kept his composure, Danill's mind still recoil at the sight of the roiling cloud of claw.

He asks the Guardians, "What is this? How do we approach this...?"

Barely acknowledging the physical reaction to the sound, Damir produces a sibilant signalling Ognimir and Quintus to retreat. He contemplates shoving either villager into the thing for good measure, then decides against it - for now. This would be an overly harsh way to determine guilt... effective still...

Damir shares his knowledge as soon as they have brought some distance between themselves and the dark hole of teeth and claws, and gives the others time to process, while he changes his clothes.

His sword now sheathed, Danill rubs his hands over his arms to warm himself up. He glares daggers at Podreg, "Oh ya reckon do you?!"

Danill pushes away from the tree he was leaning on and stalks over to Podreg. He stabs his finger at the young bowman's chest. "Cut the shite Pod. What'ya know? Being that Tiyem was soooooo loved, the list of folk who'd kill 'im is pretty small. So where are you on that list?!"