The Flameborn

"What brings you to Hellknight Hill?" Orinda asks, choosing to brush aside the implied insult in his tone.

"I've taken a short leave of absence from the Order of the Nail to attend to some personal business," he replies, his tone short but not unfriendly.

Sayl looks up from her work bandaging Mateo's wounds for a moment - with his life no longer in danger, it's merely routine care compared to the healing touch she had to work a moment prior - and asks the knight, "Oh, so you're a Hellknight then? You might be interested in a tome we found earlier, then. From a 'T. Stagram' to 'Lictor Acillmar'?"

The Hellknight turns and looks at Sayl critically. "'T. Stagram,' you say? I would be very interested in that, given that he was my father." He turns back to Orinda and gives a small, polite bow. "Alak Stagram, at your service."

Telv gets the book and hands it over to the hellknight. "Do you know anything about cultists occupying the citadel here?"

Alak takes the book and examines it with a wrinkled nose before stowing it in the front of his armor. "I can't say I do. I arrived only recently, through the secret passage into the preparatory room."

"You probably know this place better than we do," says Mateo. "Do you know if there's a way into the basement?"

Alak raises an eyebrow. "There should be a flight of stairs in the courtyard."

"On the North wall? It might be buried under rubble, then, I guess you'd not made it far in yet. There's only one room we haven't yet seen, on this floor at least" Sayl points towards the last door the party hasn't opened

"Well, you'll just have to find another solution," Alak says dismissively. "But if you've all been through this entire floor, have you by any chance found a silver signet ring? It bears my family's crest, a wolf's head with a rabbit resting between its jaws."

"I don't believe we have seen anything like that yet, unfortunately. I will say our exploration shifted from careful searching to a quick mapping before we were halfway done, really - we had initially come here to find out what happened to a tribe of goblins living here," Sayl replies, "and once we figured out they were still alive, removing the dangers became more important than sifting through debris."

The hellknight pointedly ignores Mateo's goblin companions, so Mateo glares at him and repeats "We haven't seen it."

Alak sighs. "Well, I suppose it was too much to hope for. I'll just have to carry on my search."

"No reason to explore separately in these dangerous ruins, right?" Orinda proposes. "Travel with us, and you'll get your signet ring once it's found."

Alak considers. "Well I don't see why not," he says. "You lot were helpful against those blasted little devils after all."

Sayl's glare, though now more incredulous than purely angry, shifts to Orinda for a moment, though she keeps whatever her thoughts are to herself.

As the group moves on to explore more, Orinda drifts back to talk privately with Sayl. "Sorry about that," she apologizes quietly.

"Knowing why would go a long way towards accepting that." she replies

"We were struggling against the imps," Orinda explains. "I don't want any of us to be in risk of dying, and his blade will help with that."

Mateo stays close to the hellknight, thinking it best to keep a wary eye on him.

"... You're right, and I hate it. I still don't want him around any longer than necessary." Sayl sighs irritatedly

"Maybe you two should walk him around everywhere we haven't searched already while me and Telv go talk to Helba, ask if she knows a way into the basement. Keep him away from the goblins, and the warg pups, though, please."

"Neither do I," Orinda agrees. "Sure, I'll ask him if he'd like to do that,"

Moving back up to talk with the Hellknight, Orinda proposes "How about we go search through the areas we haven't gone through completely yet, while our companions talk with someone else to see if she knows a way into the basement?"

Alak nods. "That sounds like a reasonable plan."

Sayl takes Telv with her, and the pair go to visit Helba again. When they arrive, Sayl asks, "Helba, we're having a bit of a problem; we've come back to help clean out the rest of the castle, but we've yet to find a path down to the basement; it seems the stairs there were buried when the wall in the courtyard collapsed. Do you happen to know of another way in?"

The goblins have set up their camp in the courtyard proper, although you hear some grumbling about the absurdity of sleeping under an open sky. Helba looks thoughtful. "Well there is our secret entrance."