Ayden watched Thomas brutally take out Brian. Of course, Ayden also didn't take to attempted possessions too well, either. With six jabs of his spear, several Brian's four limbs, head, and genitals were all detatched. Looking at his spear, the blade was now covered in blood. If it was demon, he could fight humans well with it. If it was human, good for fighting demons. Win-win. "Anyone else want to prepare their weapons for fighting... whatever?" He asked.

Garud sat down again at the table. He saw the work that his teammates had done. He was proud. Disgusted, but proud all the same. The room was empty except for Brian's corpse and the heroes of destiny.

"Ayaden, you can tell me about your report on the king now."

The barowner was fuming behind the desk but said nothing about it. Garud tossed him a gold coin and he seemed to recover a little. Garud sighed. Where was Hynd and Duncan anyway...

Ayden sat down and ordered a stein of ale. "Well, its not too long of a story. Very few of the rumors say the king has some demonic pact, some say his generals have found a way to gain an alliance with another country, but the majority say that he's got a new 'girlfriend' if you catch my drift. Even with his looks and the country's turmoil, he's still somehow successfully courting a foreign princess. The demonic stuff was only said by separatists, and the alliance makes sence with the whole princess deal, but the only thing I've managed to confirm is that he is courting a lot more than his wife is." He got his filled stein by then, and chugged it down all at once. "Of course, its understandable why he's still got a smile on his face with his daughter missing now. Barkeep, another drink?"

"Hmm, I wouldn't just discount the demonic stuff yet."

Garud was thoughtful for a moment. He then yelled at Aramust and Thomas.

"We could use your help in figuring this out!"

Garud then turned back to the task at hand.

"Okay, so this girlfriend of his may be the source. Unfortunately we wont know for sure. Dont discout anything yet. He might have been in an alliance with the vampire, and she is just a scapegoat. In all the dramas that nobility read these days, it is allways the seductress that is at fault."

Garud picked up the glass he held before the fight. It still had some water in it.

"Hmm, if he is the vampire's ally and set all this up, then I have a feeling that we may be in deeper than I imagined. Nevertheless, we are going to kill the vampire, and we are going to rescue the princess. But if we end up solving this little mystery on our own..."

Garud smiled slyly.

"Wont that be fun"

Busily dipping all his bolts in blood Aramust glares at garud. "Working here." Upon finishing with that he walks over to the bar. "It seems to me that you should never discredit something a seperist has to say."

Thomas's sword was dripping a bit from the blood he had dipped it in. Before taking a seat next to Garud, he slammed his fist into the side of one of the large wooden kegs of ale. He took a large mug, and it began to fill. When it was full, he tilted the keg so that it would stop spilling out. He then sat down.

"I'm not here for strategy. I'm here to kill things and persuade people with my good manners and chipper humor. Now, if you need me to kill the king, well, that would solve one problem, and cause a shit load of others."

He took a drink, and noticed that the bartender stared strangely at him.

"Oh yeah, and there's the whole 'treason' thing, too."

Hynd shambled into the bar, his hair pointing out in several directions. He threw four silver pieces down on the bar and muttered something about a glass of whiskey. He grabbed it away from the bartender, downed it hastily, and walked over to where the rest of his group was standing. "So, what happened while I was gone? I had a few things I needed to take care of..." He said, removing a platinum piece from his pocket and rubbing it between two fingers.

"We got ambushed by a mental cased who was also possessed. Long story short, there was an attempt at my life, Ayden almost got a case of "Demon Fever" and Thomas and Aramust run in and save the day."

Garud motioned to the corpse. He examined Hynd for a moment, trying to tell what he was thinking. He couldnt tell.

"So, what happened to you? did you get the horses?"

Hynd tilted his head to the side slightly.

"Horses? Oh, so that's what that monsterously huge guy was yelling about when he roughed me up. Or maybe that was the thing with his wife... No I think that's the least of our problems. The guy's out cold, at no small expense to myself, and his wife couldn't care less. She's fairly exhausted too, if you get me." He said, cracking a tired grin.

"I guess we could just take those horses, It's not like I plan on being seen by that guy again after that little fiasco." He finished, replacing the platinum in his pocket.

"Besides, the guy did have some fairly weird stuff lying around in his barn. Besides those broken pitchforks. The ones that broke after I got thrown into 'em, that is." He said, quickly returning to the bar and getting a whole bottle of whiskey. He walked back over to Garud, popping the cheap cork on the alchohol.

"But don't you worry. Old Hynd has always found that even after nearly being killed by an ensuing chase of cultists after stealing their artifact or whatever they were babbling about, after being chased out of town by the entire population after swindling them out of their hard-earned gold, after being exhausted from running with women's unmentionables that somehow found their way into his belongings," He said slowly, downing a swig of whiskey with each description of an event that had befallen him, "That my best friend can sometimes be a good hard drink." With that he plopped down at the table, drinking his bottle with his feet propped up on the table, his heels barely reaching the edge of it.

"I think I will go to the barn and check things out. It would be good to procure some horses." said Aramust. "Although I can't say that I agree with your methods. By the by what kind of weird things were lying around the barn?"