Chapter 2.3: Return to Hochoch

"The lockbox and chest had a great deal of coin. Whatever we get from selling the equipment we salvaged, I would like my portion to go to the Jarls to help them get settled here in town," Theran tells Olpert before heading off to find Gwydn.

Myrtha will seek out Cormac as soon as she has obtained a sufficient share of the loot taken from Orlane. She also seeks out someone to confirm whether the longsword found in Bertrand’s coffer has any dweomer or other feature of note. If it doesn’t, the sword will also be put to sale.

Aanbo, satisfied that they've reported all they can to Olpert, addresses the coordinator privately. "I must take a leave of absence for a few days," he says. "I will not be far, in fact you will find me with Master Tuan Vo at the nearby monastery. If there is an emergency, please send for me. Otherwise, I will return."

The monk departs to visit the monastery, hoping to reconcile the conflict between taking lives and sparing them. He saw how killing someone under the influence to do evil promoted just as much suffering when that person's friends and family discovered the act. Yet would sparing the lives of such a person not just leave them to continue their acts of evil? Aanbo doubts that Constable Grover, Donovan, and Hulbar seek to make amends for their acts, and they may even be threatening innocent Orlane citizens this very moment.

And now with reports of the undead, has Aanbo left more fodder for whatever dark force to use against travelers in the Dim? Should he have tried to capture those bandits and turn them into Hochoch's authorities? It would have been difficult while also escorting the Jarls, but not an impossible task, and Aanbo begins to think that the early convenience in killing the bandits may have made things more difficult in the long term.

Aanbo hopes that the wise Tuan Vo may have some insights that could lift this mountainous weight off his shoulders.

Chase will head off to train with Green Allen but will also let Olpert know where he will in case something important should arise. Chase is excited to get some more archery training. He loves shooting bow. There has always been something calming to and he swears there are times when he can actually call the target to him and know exactly where the arrow is going to hit. He is also looking forward to learning some spells that can help the party when in a jam. Chase is also hoping Green Allen can tell him the difference in the white fletched arrows and their purpose. Also a trading in his scale armor for a chain shirt.

Theran will find time during his training days to have Derek's belongings checked for magic (and if need be identified).

He will also hand 20 Imperial Dragon coins to each of the eight active members.

Before he leaves for the monastery, Aanbo turns over his 'Pretty Good Shortsword' confiscated from the Dim Forest Bandits. He wonders if the craftsmanship might hold additional secrets, and he will return for it once his meditations are complete. Even if it is just a pretty good blade, Aanbo reasons that its light weight will work for quick strikes, as opposed to the sweeping style of his quarterstaff.

The monk also stops by any general or specialty store to replenish the supplies of his healer's kit.

Manthis last seen was in the bar drinking. And currently he isn't there and is nowhere to be found. (Manthis has left the game.) As for where his share of loot goes? Not his problem.

Hearing that someone just named "Cormac" is the recommendation for training her, Myrtha asks around about him. What she hears is somewhat enigmatic; since they've arrived in Hochoch, the Dungeon Busters have heard stories about the scarred champion who has a standing challenge: anyone can bet him that they can last a full minute in the battle ring against him will win his crown of office as fightmaster. So far, he's beaten every challenger, including Albertus, Klak, Morgran, Sara, and Durren from the Dungeon Busters. Xana apparently challenged him in secret, but she won't say anything more about it. Several of the others have encouraged Thacogygax to try his luck, but the gentle thraakon is enjoying his present life and doesn't want any reminders of his time of fighting wars in chains. "Too much this like my life before is when fought I in pits" he says in his broken language (which always becomes more pronounced when he is upset).

Myrtha goes to find Cormac. She's not sure what to expect - a fighting pit, a training hall, a smithy, or even a stable, perhaps? - but she is directed to a small scriptorium where several scribes work diligently at copying scrolls and books or documenting major transactions. One of them looks up at the towering armored woman as Myrtha enters. "You're here for Cormac?" he asks. At Myrtha's nod, the scribe sighs and calls out "CORMAC! You've got another challenger!" One of the scribes raises his index finger in a gesture to wait while he finishes a line of text. Then he sets down his quill, sprinkles some sand on the document, and stands up from his cramped little desk. This is Cormac?

Cormac wipes his ink-stained hand on his ink-stained robe as he walks up to Myrtha and looks her up and down. "Let's step outside to talk," he says, and Myrtha can see that the man is neither young nor particularly old, and his face is criss-crossed by many scars, most from cuts, although one puckered scar on his neck appears to have been from a puncture, and part of the skin around his jaw to his ear was burned long ago. Myrtha is taller than he is, but he is broader across the shoulders.

Stepping outside with Myrtha, Cormac picks up a bamboo stalk from a bucket and starts worrying and whittling the tip with his thumbnail. "I've been wondering when we'd meet," Cormac begins, leaning against the outside wall. He reaches under his robe, rummages around for a bit, and then pulls out a battered golden diadem: the emblem of office of the Champion of Geoff. "You want this, huh?" When Myrtha shakes her head and explains that she wants to learn from him, Cormac stuffs the crown back under his robe and stands up, looking at her with different eyes. "You know, I've been hearing a lot about you. I'm familiar with the Knights of Holy Shielding and how they fight. The Northern Rangers and the Sentry Corps, those are known to me. The Swordmasters Guild, the Kordites and the Clangeddins - I know their styles. But what I want to know is: how does the Valorous Maiden fight?" As he finishes saying this, he lashes out in a furious series of blows with the bamboo stalk, and Myrtha barely manages to get her shield up in time to block them, though the blows push her back more than three paces. The blows stop. "Good," Cormac nods approvingly, "You are wise to not lower your defenses." He squints and looks down the street, first one way and then the other. "Yeeees...yes, I think I can teach you some things."

Cormac charges for his tutelage, to cover the cost of his time and expertise plus the lost income from not working as a scribe. Would he make that much money for just writing?? Myrtha wonders as she pays him the first 15 eagles. As soon as the coin disappears into his robe, Cormac begins with her training, telling her to run. She spends the rest of the day performing various physical feats with Cormac pacing her easily. At one point, panting from the exertion, Myrtha remarks that he has it easy, because she's running in full armor, her pack, and all her weapons, and he's just in a robe. Wordlessly, Cormac lifts his robe to reveal that he has iron weights strapped to every part of his body. As a smith, Myrtha recognizes that he has at least 400 pounds of weight he's carrying so casually (she also recognizes that he's not as broad as he appears - the iron ingots add considerable bulk to his frame - without the weights, he'd have about the same breadth of shoulder as she has).

The first day is exhausting, but the second is even more trying, as he repeats the ordeal of physical performance but interspersed with sudden attacks from different directions. She gets faster at blocks and parries, her awareness grows, and by the end of the day, her adrenalin is so high that she can push herself to go just a little farther and a little faster than she could before she started.

At the end of the second full day of training (and the second 15 eagles), Cormac stops and says, "You're young and a quick learner. You've made a lot of progress. But for you to improve even further, you must use what you've learned out in the world."

With her training completed (for now), Myrtha is now a L2 fighter and gains the Action Surge ability.

"Rockhead! You survived!" Tuan Vo, using one of the affectionate nicknames for the dwarf, is delighted to see Aanbo again. "Hey, I guess that means I am pretty good teacher, eh?" He laughs, exposing the large gap between his teeth again. "Are you here to learn more?" Tuan holds out his hand expectantly. Aanbo pays him the thirty eagles that he paid for his previous training, and Tuan shakes his head. "No, it will take more time for you to learn. Another day, at least." Aanbo pays the 15 additional eagles. "Good! First, we warm up!" Tuan begins drills with the nimble Earthshaker dwarf.

Aanbo falls back into the routine of the various forms with little prompting, flowing from one stance into the next. But he is taken aback when Tuan begins throwing random objects at him. "No!" Tuan scolds when Aanbo spins out of the path of an flowerpot. "No! You do not dodge!" Tuan throws a stone at Aanbo, and as Aanbo begins to step out of the path, Tuan has already thrown a trowel at the monk; the handle hits him in the forehead. "When you dodge, this happens!" Tuan Vo chuckles as he picks up the objects and returns them to their spots. "Dodging is good, but a clever opponent can tell where you will go when you dodge. Next you must learn to catch."

Tuan Vo watches Aanbo carefully over the course of the day as he moves and begins to learn how to react fast enough to catch or at least knock aside the missiles that his trainer throws. "What were the tenets of your tradition at the Earthshaker Abbey?" he asks, peppering doctrinal questions in amongst the missiles. After a while, Tuan calls to one of the other disciples. "Harford, come! My arm is tired. You throw." Without expression, Harford stops doing the push-ups he was performing and jogs over to begin throwing objects at Aanbo. His rhythm is very different from Tuan's, and Aanbo gets a few more bruises before he develops the ability to spot the throw. Tuan takes a long sip of water, then gestures again. "Larfa, come!" That disciple obediently leaves off striking the training log. "You stand over...there." Larfa moves to the other side of the courtyard. "And throw!" Now Aanbo has to keep track of missiles flying at him from two directions while Tuan asks him more questions about Earthshaker dogma. "Is it a greater virtue to prolong a man's life in pain, or to end it so that he will feel pain no more?"

On the second day, Aanbo starts with a repetition of the drills he did the first day, with all three of Tuan's disciples running complicated patterns around the courtyard throwing objects at him at unpredictable intervals. Sometimes a disciple on the other side will catch the item and throw it back that much faster, sometimes the throws land on the ground to be picked up by someone else. But at midday, Tuan calls "Enough!"

"Now that you are warmed up," Tuan addresses Aanbo while the others immediately return to other tasks. "I will teach you more of ki. Follow!" Tuan walks away, moving as fast a person sprinting full-out. "Why so slow?" he grumbles at Aanbo when the trainee is unable to catch up to him, but he does slow down to a pace that Aanbo can just barely maintain. Soon enough, they have arrived at the Temple of Rao. The acolytes there open the doors and bow as Tuan walks right in. Tuan leads Aanbo into an interior space where Diana is meditating. Tuan kneels next to her and Aanbo kneels a bit behind them when it becomes clear that there is no space next to them. Eventually, Diana opens her eyes and gives Tuan a stately nod. Silently, she leads him and Aanbo to a room similar to the one where Devek recuperated. There is a man laying on a cot there with a mangled leg, with an acolyte praying over him. Diana touches the acolyte, who looks around, gets up and leaves with Diana.

"You have ki, as I have taught you. I have ki, as you know. But all creatures have ki, even if they do not know. Now I show you: you can use your ki to affect another's ki." Tuan turns to the mangled man, inhales deeply, and then exhales in a number of short, fierce puffs as he pushes his hands out from his stomach toward the injured patient. As Tuan's hands touch the man, the man's labored breathing eases a bit, his color improves, and scabs form as Tuan adjusts the angle of the man's leg. Tuan repeats this twice more as Aanbo observes intently; each time the man's injury heals a bit more. Tuan leads his student out of the room; they bow respectfully to Diana and her acolyte, then leave the temple.

"You saw what I was doing?" Tuan peers at Aanbo and nods. "Heh. Good. Now you try on me." Aanbo begins to imitate what Tuan had done, and the master interrupts him impatiently. "No! You cannot heal when I am not hurt. Hurt me first!" Aanbo shrugs and takes a stance, wondering how he can land a blow on his teacher. But Tuan does not defend himself; the punch lands, but punching him is like punching the practice log. "No! No!" Tuan shakes his bald head. "Use your ki to hurt! Like this!" Before Aanbo can see it, Tuan's fist had glanced off the side of his head, leaving his ears ringing. It was a light blow, but he staggers as some of his life force was drained away in the momentary contact. "See? Feel? Your ki can give, or it can take! Take from me first, then give again!"

The rest of the day is spent with Aanbo mustering his ki and draining Tuan's life force with a punch (and, later, kicks) and then restoring life force with a touch.

The third day is more of the same. Tuan's disciples advance to throwing hatchets and knives; Aanbo is able to block most of them. Then the rest of the day is spent redirecting ki from and to others.

As the third day ends, Tuan serves soup to his tired students and applauds Aanbo's progress. "Now you are better able to protect your friends, neh?"

With that, Aanbo has completed his level 3 training, gaining the Deflect Missiles, Hands of Harm, and Hands of Healing abilities.

Drenched in sweat, her short cropped hair plastered to her temples, Myrtha looks at Cormac with respect and thankfulness.

These were two truly harrowing days, reminding her of her very first days of training under the drill sergeants of the Lord’s Keep closest to Three Elms crossing. But this was tougher, more personal, and very practical: she had now experienced real combat on more than one occasion, and unlike her great feat of juvenile glory, she remembered every moment of each of the fights she’d had since taking the road in the employ of the Dungeon Busters. Everything Cormac told her, or illustrated through action, rhymed with or echoed with actual instances of deadly risk faced in the last few days.

She understood Cormac’s teachings all the better for she’d now confronted risks, and pain, and loss that she’d not truly known before. The scribe drill-master was quite a mystery to her still, but he had opened many windows in her mind, and she felt stronger, and better for it.

"The The Valorous Maiden is just some poet’s dream; the girl that survived that day is all she was, and is. Broken as she was, grieving as she still is. Thank you Cormac, for your time and your help. I’ll go and act, and if the gods will it, I will come back to learn more. Good scribing until then!" Myrtha said in parting ways with her tutor.

The exhaustion from the near-daily regimen of physical training helped Aanbo establish a clear mind during downtime. A clear mind prepared to meditate on the flow of ki within himself and within others, now open to resolving the conflict of life and death. Aanbo realized that while everyone deserved a chance for redemption, true mercy also required the understanding that sparing the life of evil meant endangering the lives of others, much like removing a blockage of ki to allow life's energy to flow onwards.

The cult in Orlane was like the patient's mangled leg, a wound that threatens to poison the rest of the body. The flow of ki within the town needed to be restored, even if should be as gradually as Tuan Vo did for the patient. Aanbo resolved to remove the cancerous sores from the town, however long it would take.

Before he left Tuan Vo's monastery, Aanbo asked permission to sift through the garden for plants that might help speed restorative healing and stave off infections. He also shared the recipes he found in the Temple of Pae for the healing potion and the awakening agent; if anything the monks would have a useful reference in the event either was required.