Silver Insanity

"To die here would mean failure. I choose-" The priestess lunges forwards, dagger extended; while you are able to mostly avoid the attack, the black energies around the dagger lash out in all directions, blasting both of you. "-Hold!" the priestess finishes, and you feel the faint tingle of a hostile spell, easily resisted.

Aurora gives an exasperated snort and backhands the gnoll. Although she's pulled the blow compared to what she could have hit for, the slap still packs a spell-backed force and would be enough kill or seriously injure most townsfolk.

The priestess crumples under the impact - dying, now, but not quite dead yet.

Aurora frowns at the fading cleric. She kneels down briefly, touching the prone body with one finger that briefly glows golden-white, and then strides over to the warrior. "If you understand me feel free to tell me your answer, and if you don't you probably think I'm going to kill you. I'm not, least not yet, but you probably won't believe me in a moment." Another brighter golden-white glow as Aurora pokes the cringing warrior with her finger, Finger still touching the gnoll's fur, Aurora reaches out in a way few other spellcasters that she had encountered had either been able to do or been willing to admit they could. It is sort of like healing, only in reverse, drawing life force from the target rather than granting it. She redirects the energy, feeding it into a spell she casts on the cleric, reshaping the unconscious gnoll's form into something more portable... A hyena figurine.

The warrior flinches as you start to draw on his health, but then simply relaxes and lets it happen. (Not that he has the willpower to stop you - but he's not even trying.)

When it's clear that you're done spellcasting, he looks at you and says, very carefully, "You, stronger; hfyrrl.* I, follow; 'till death or person stronger." Then he tilts his head back, exposing his throat to you.

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* "hfyrrl" translates from gnollish as pack leader, or owner, or she-who-gives-commands.

Aurora blinks. Zombies hadn't phased her, the cleric's powerful attack had merely annoyed her, but a lowly warrior's pledge to follow her catches her completely off balance. Leaving the warrior tied up for the moment, Aurora begins rummaging through the camp, giving it a finer inspection than she had before her attack. "While I appreciate the offer, I tend to travel alone and some of the targets I go after for a living would probably munch you to pieces and I'd rather not have to worry about protecting you..." Her voices trails off as she glances at the warrior over her shoulder with a vaguely exasperated look. Prisoners were supposed to be prisoners, darn it all...

Two of the ordinary tents appear to have been living space; the third was storage. The food supplies the villages needed back appear to be mostly intact.

The green tent contains (in addition to the priestess' personal possessions) a human corpse - from its quality of gear, probably the previous bandit leader - in the process of being prepared to be animated as undead.

All of the corpses have some magic items, but the only really notable magic items come from the pile of gear and clothes left sitting next to the hyena figurine. The priestess' dagger, armor, and greaves all radiate reasonably strong magic. Well, and the green tent is probably of some value as well.

The warrior, when you look at him, is simply watching you. He hasn't said anything in response.

With the ease of someone who's done this sort of thing before, Aurora quickly separates loot into two piles - supplies and the likes to be returned to the town, and bulky valuables (the bandit and dead gnoll warrior armor mostly). Smaller and pricier valuables are deftly tucked into her backpack and belt pockets, and the gnoll figurine disappears into her left glove. She then returns to where the gnoll is and seems to concentrate for a moment with an odd half-smile. "Think you could help me cart some of this back to the nearest town?"

"Can help, if not," he tugs at his bonds to finish the sentence.

Then he shrugs. "Still try, else. But, help, not much."

Aurora gives a snort of amusement. "I hardly expected you to carry stuff like that, just thought it best I knew the answer before I untied you." She deftly unties the warrior and points at the pile of armor. "You can use one of the tents to bundle stuff up, don't hurt yourself but the less my mount has to drag the better, it annoys her." Aurora calls up a floating smoky black disk and drapes a foot or so of rope onto it, pressing her hand against the end and faintly murmuring something in Draconic. She then sets the spool down next to the disk and begins heaping supplies on it, keeping an eye on the gnoll the whole while.