Gardevoiran

The Narrow Path

"We were business partners, once, him and I. We went out separate ways when he caused me to become an excommunicate of the Order as well. After that happened, I took what I had learned of Necromancy and I used it, stashing away my knowledge for none to ever obtain. Yashar's smart, but he was never smart enough to take me down."

Brock looks over at Jen's tent, pitched outside the house, before he speaks again. "That girl... Jennifer? She's got a good head on her. Sure, she's a bit of a radical, but the Order respected people like her above all else, and to top it off, she did it all while waving a giant goblin dick in their uptight faces," Brock chuckled before he continued. "Normally females in the Paladin Order never ascend past ranks of squires unless they're related to the higher-ups, but she's an outsider of this world like you. Keep her close, because even though she's angry at you right now for being the supposed 'goat' to her downfall, she's not gonna let you die in the end. Especially considering you're the end of her lineage right now, since you're like, what, her 40th generation grandson or somethin'?"

The Narrow Path

"Sounded like a good time. Nice catch of a bird you got there too," Brock says as he pulls out an excommunication letter from his pocket. "Guessin' the order found out about her ruse too?" He asks inquisitively. "Damn shame. Been through the same shit myself, a century or two ago."

The Narrow Path

"I have answers for you. My head is at the top of Yashar's hit list. I had to go incognito for a bit with the assistance of the lovely dreamweaver you see here. I didn't abandon you, I just had to lay low for a while was all. As for that boat, ask me about it later sometime. I co-own it with a certain pirate named K. Runch. Pretty decent guy."

Abigail pulls Gobbo out of the room with her while you can talk to Brock mono-e-mono.

"So... what happened to your pally friend?"

The Narrow Path

Downstairs, you see Brock sitting at a table with a bottle of liquor in hand, and you see Abigail sitting across from him. Gobbo is beside her, clearly messing around with his own magic.

"Lay it on us, Toby," Brock say as he takes a drink.

"Brock, dear, why do you drink?"

"Force of habit."

The Narrow Path

Eve stirs awake before she sits up. "... who was that skeleton guy...? He said it was his wife's house..." Eve falls back asleep as you realize nothing had happened between you and her aside from cuddles. Glancing outside the nearby window, you can tell it's in the middle of the night.

You can hear Brock and Abigail's voice downstairs, however. Makes sense, considering they're undead.

The Narrow Path

Arise, Tobias.

The proverbial God of something booms in your head as you wake up, in a bed of considerable size and softness, with a warm feathered friend attached to you. On top of you is a blanket, clearly made with the intent of a mother's love.

Eve is beside you, clearly asleep, and clearly humming a song to herself. What the song is, you have no idea, but it sounds rather comforting.

The Narrow Path

"Erm... it'sh been better..." Gobbo timidly says as he steps out, Maggy limping with him. She's rather awkwardly wearing a makeshift cast, but she's not dead, so that's a massive plus. The awkwardness is accentuated by Jen's clothes fitting very loosely onto her figure "Is my dad okay?" "Yes, miss Magdalene." "Good."

Jen and Aithwale remain K.O'ed, which is... arguably for the best, to be quite honest.

Now that everyone has gathered around, including Brock's wife, you can go over the plan with the group. Eve's still holding onto you like a glove on a hand, unwilling to let go.

The Narrow Path

"Trust me Tobias, I want no part in your quest," Brock's wife bluntly says before a green blast fires from her head into Eve's, sending Eve spiraling awake. "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TOBY I DO- Oh... I'm alive...?"

"... Brock, honey, you can come out now.~"

Brock steps out of some kind of shadow before he makes a snarky comment. "Jeez Abigail, you could've made that last thing a bit less scary for Tobias over here. He almost died, and I quite like him."

"Honey, I had to. It was the only way Yashar couldn't track us."

Eve instinctively hugs you as Brock walks over, putting his hand on your shoulder. It's now that you realize your arm isn't dead weight anymore, and everything feels normal.

"You did good, kid."

The Narrow Path

You see mist pour out of Nigel's figure before the world begins to collapse around you, bringing you back to the actual world.

You're now in a dusty carnival tent, the same girl from before weakly floating into the air, and with Aithwale, Jen, and Eve all in a nice pile of unconscious allies. Nigel's corpse is nowhere to be seen, however, but you can at least assume he is, for the time being, dead.

Standing in front of you is the more defined and corpselike body not of a girl, but what was left of one. You can clearly see ribs through the transparent clothes and skin of her midriff, and you cannot see her calves or feet at all. Her upper body and arms are definitely whole, however.

After a deep sigh, the woman speaks. "Tobias Skinner. The man who picked up my husband's best selling book."

The Narrow Path

"I'll explain later. Hold onto something!"

You feel an unseen force prodding at the back of your skull, almost like it's a godly hand prying the rear end of your frontal lobe out of your head. It doesn't really hurt, but at the same time, it's definitely an unpleasant feeling. It kind of feels how rotten eggs smell, if that is any indication.

A large purple cloud, not too dissimilar to Gobbo's own magic, launches from the girl's face and lands directly into the head of an unsuspecting Aithwale, knocking him clean out and onto the ground with a mighty thud.

You hear Nigel stammering. "Y-you little harlot! You were supposed to let Tobias D-" Nigel's words are cut off as he falls down to the ground, landing directly on Aithwale's back before bouncing into the dirt.