"Tha town got attacked? Well then..." The dwarf stroked his beard. "Dat's troublin to hear, an' the fact silver may have not been worth tha trip." Rudolph nodded. "Then ya may be roight, once we deliver these, we best be off. Though it don't spell well fo the town, seems like they be on their last legs." He shrugged, "But they ain't our employers, an' da need of the many outweigh da needs of the few." Rudolph mulled over what she said. "Though why tha knife-ears? 'E be a bit stringy no? Actually a lot of our companions 'r pretty lean." The dwarf began walking, "Oy'll share some jerky with ya when we get back, got sum in m' rucksack, by the way, ya lot didn't look through it roight?"

"Indeed," Sir Dreimon nodded to Aurea's statement regarding the silver. "However, don't underestimate the power of morale the silvered weapons may bring. Every militia saw your silvered spear carve through the lycanthrope's skull like it was paper. Confidence can mean a lot in warfare. Now we must meet with the rest of the party, I assume they are with you, sir changeling."

Visage nodded and the wolf turned back to the way towards the party. The changeling lead the team towards the remaining group, back where Rhea was.

=-=-=-=-=-=

Esther raised an eyebrow to the town's dismal night but she said nothing about it, nodding back at Rhea's smile and noted something else. "Quest?" the Order member said inquisitively. "What may that be?"

In mere moments, Visage appeared to the rest of the group from the bramble to the west, alongisde four horsemen whose faces were all familiar: Sir Dreimon, Lera, Rabbit and Aurea.

"It has been one night," Sir Dreimon smiled. "But I did miss seeing your faces."

Ox, a man eager to leave the forest so he could claim any reward available at Thornfell, was incredibly disappointed when the group didn't start moving as soon as possible. He was even more disappointed when he saw more lovely adventurers come out of the woods like wolves during mating season... was that a good analogy? Ox wasn't very well versed when it came to wolf sex patterns. But, no matter how disappointed he was on the inside, he made sure his face had the friendliest smile he could muster. Rook looked back with Ox as the new people started speaking, taking it in for a second before looking down at his half-Elf companion.

"What're ya lookin' at me for? You can see them, yeah?" Ox said, before stepping forward to be a part of the discussion that would, probably, follow their arrival.

He looked at Esther, "Da nova near Highpoint. The government hired people t' see what it's all about. Surprised y' didn't know, but guess ya had more important things to attend to."

He looked at Sir Dreimon and snorted. "If yer happy t' see moi face, makes m'think ya need to find yerself a woman." The dwarf began making his way past the knight. "Now let's make our way back. Got things to finish before we make way to da church."

"Hm?" Aurea looked towards Dreimon when he mentioned her throw, at first not comprehending what he was talking about. "Oh, right...Silver...Yes..." Now realizing the sense of his words, and perhaps her own mistake, horse's stomps substituted for her nervous moves as she briefly looked away. The knight knew that silver haven't played that much of a role there, but... Maybe that's for the better, its the result that counts.

She jumped of the horse with a muffled thud as she landed, and followed the changeling leading the animal by the reins. Very soon it will have to bear her weight who knows how far and long. When they've rejoined the group, she quickly glanced over old and new faces, stopping for little longer at the latter ones. Just as Visage said. Some terrified little girl, a freakishly tall elf, an oddly familiar-looking machine, and an armed woman in a tricorne with a strange lantern. As for the others, it seemed like their escapade was rather uneventful. Aurea nodded in their general direction as her by now usual greeting.

She couldn't help but to crack a tiniest, shortest smile at dwarf's comment before her face became stone again. "Speaking of things to finish, I'm afraid we're heading in opposite directions as it is right now...Do deliver the silver then, and don't wait for us too long...Maybe...Maybe you all should join and help them actually." She looked back at the party behind her, her mask breaking a little, as a note of resignation slipped through. "The faster the weapons are ready and distributed, the better...I'll be fine, really."

Esther noted the dwarf's response only for her lantern to grow brighter at the arrival of the rest of the party. The Order member looked at each of the newcomers with suspicion, first at the knight captain, then at the two humans before finally landing her eyes on the paladin. As if in response, the lantern dimmed and Esther narrowed her eyes.

"Curious," she muttered to herself, still staring.

Before she could act however, the knight captain interjected. "If I had the time, Rudolph," he chuckled. "I may ask one but for now duty first. How fast will you be able to distribute the weapons? We can go on ahead. I suggest Visage come with us since he is the only one capable of relaying a message between parties."

He turned to the changeling. "You could use your familiar to lead them right to us, correct?"

"Rudolph..." Lera couldn't help but sigh from the dwarfs remark. Was it because it was offensive? Or was it because the little blacksmith was acting exactly as Lera had thought?

And here I was hoping I was wrong to think of him as a better dwarf.

Then she turned her attention to the rest of the group. The church group was there, but also Rhea and 4 new faces. A Lantern Cross priest with her signature lantern. A small scared girl. Orphan? Lost? Kidnapped? By Rudolph himself? She wanted to chuckle at her joke, but the sheer likelihood worried her. Then there was an interesting duo, a tall elf and a big clockwork. Add in Rudolph and you have a setup for a pub joke.

The clockwork showed signs of sentience and relationship with the elf, who had a finely honed craftiness to him underneath his friendly smile. Like Visage. His whispered chastise to the clockwork didn't help. He ought to have an eye out like the sneaky members in our group, so she had to take notes.

Lera relaxed and smiled back at everyone.

Rhea looked from the lantern to Esther's face, and then over at the group that the lantern bearer was... evaluating? "What's got you and your lantern there so, curious? Anything worth sharing with the rest of the group?"

Ox felt like this little pow-wow was going nowhere fast. So, he took the time to study the features of those around him. There was the dwarf, the priestess, the girl, the changling, the archer, and some weird religious fella, all of which he had already looked over about a dozen times or so. Now, he needed to catalog the newer episodes faces whom he had no prior contact with. There was the knight on a horse who seemed to be rather... enthusiastic, another knight whose armor looked too old to be useful, and another human. He noticed a couple of things that were off about the final one, however, starting with the fact her ears looked a bit deformed towards the top. She also seemed to have noticed what he was doing, which made him feel glad that someone else in the area knew how to pay attention.

"Hey, we should keep the conversation going on our way to wherever we're going, yeah?" He said, making sure his tone was as friendly as possible.

"Opposite directions? Lassie where ya goin? To tha church? Ain't nothin there now, cept a lot of bronze n gold." The dwarf wiped a tear. "All dat gold, such a waste."

He smiled. "Da weapons shaint take long dou. So you can go wit da lassie. Most 's just gotta grip and staff da weapons. Can do it m'self less you got a capable blacksmith, will need to see his work first as to make sure 'e dunt ruin m' work."

Rudolph looked at Lera. "So what're you doin here lassie? Come out with yer stick to play fetch with da werewolves?" The dwarf shrugged. "Oy dunt mean nothin. After all, yer so capable Oy'm sure ya know what yer doin out here."

He looked quizzically at Ox but shrugged as getting back to town was also in his best interest.

The Order member regarded the ranger after a brief moment of thought. She looked at her sideways, addressing her without moving.

"I am curious," Esther replied to the ranger coolly, sheathing her blade. "The lantern responds to a certain type of danger but I myself don't see it. Do you?"

"Oh you little dwarf. What I lack in brute strength, I make up with wits and speed. There are problems a fist can't solve. Nor a pointy stick. Or bombs." Lera scoffed.

"Even so, sir Rudolph. What I can't handle, I will gladly let you handle it. Every one has their own sets of skills. Some a lot more than others."

Both being the last people to inspect each other, Aurea's and Esther's eyes crossed for a longer while, the lantern woman being the first to look away however. "I am going after the Lycanthrope..." The knight answered simply.

Rhea shrugged, "from the things I've heard about Lycans is that they're ordinary people, infected with some disease that allows them to shapeshift into the form of a rabid animal, mostly at night or during a full moon. If that's truly what we're dealing with here, then I don't see why it would be out of the question that any one of us could be playing for the other team." After contemplating for a moment, Rhea continued, "How does your lantern work? If what I know of them is true, and your lantern is able to detect threats that your eyes cannot, then it would stand to reason that you would be able to detect the enemy among us, wouldn't it?" Rhea turned her eyed slightly to look at Sir Dreimon out of the corner of her eyes before facing Esther once more. "Perhaps I'm just being paranoid."

"Da lycans? Yer bonkers ta do it alun. Take da laddie wit ya, take most of em, Me 'n da golem can more den handle dis load."

The dwarf glared at the woman. "Oy dunt appreciate bein called little. An' speed dunt mean much if ya dunt got da stamina to keep it up." Rudolph looked at Rhea. "Dat's da most documented cases ye, but it makes no sense for it ta be any of us, we just got here." He crossed his arms, "Oy see n'reason ta do this test, only one worth testin is laddie over there." He nodded to Dreimon. "As Oy already tested on da whelp wit silver, 'n she been around lassie the entire time."