They received aid from an unexpected source.

Chaos Factor: 6
Expected Scene: Ruven returns to Kobal's wagon to demand help
Test Expected Scene: 1d10=4 - Interrupt Scene!

--What's the focus of the scene?
Fate Roll: Random Event Focus
1d100=81 - PC Positive (nice!)

Nightwind trotted down the valley, Ruven's hand steady on the reins. Bethtali, however, lolled in front of him in the saddle, struggling to keep her seat. Ruven frowned as he straightened her again. At this rate, I worry she may not make it to the merchant's wagon...

Just then, a dark shape flitted across the moon. Ruven glanced up, squinting into the night. "A bat?" he muttered aloud.

Of a sudden, the dark shape fluttered down out of the shadows, alighting on Nightwind's mane. Ruven, startled, yanked out his dagger, but the small creature held up a hand. "No bat, wanderer, but a grateful friend!"

Ruven stared. "Who are you, and why do you call me friend?"

The creature was barely the size of one of Ruven's hands, and Bethtali gasped and shrank back from it as it clambered with its tiny clawed digits up to Nightwind's head. (The horse, for its part, seemed unperturbed.) The little thing looked like a bat, though a bat in the form of a tiny man, with clothing spun of spider silk and a serious expression in its too-large eyes. It crouched on Nightwind's head and spoke.

"I am Chakchik, sir, of the Jendel Breaking Valley clan of nyktera. I greet you humbly, and my home is yours." The creature executed a tiny bow with surprising dexterity.

--Is Ruven familiar with nyktera?
Recall Knowledge (Nature) vs. DC 13
23 - crit!

"Nyktera!" Ruven exclaimed, breaking into a grin. "I have heard tales of your people, little one, though never met one before. I am Ruven, called the Skull Taker, of Kal-Dranor. Well met!"

"Well met indeed, and most well met are you, Ruven called the Skull Taker, for you have rid our valley of a noxious beast," the nyktera said, bobbing.

"What? This demon dog?" Ruven smiled and thumped the corpse. "A nuisance. No more."

"No demon, that, but a spirit of fear and shadow," Chakchik explained earnestly. "A temagyr, and one that sought to turn the shadows of the valley from the warmth they could possess to fear and blood alone. The whole clan hates him, lord - or did. For now that he is dead, even now, word is spreading among my kin about your great deeds. I come to thank you, lord, and offer you our hospitality."

"Is that so?" Ruven smiled. "The hospitality of the nyktera is famous indeed. I thank you, Chakchik. But my woman here is injured and needs medicine..."

"Psh. That is no trouble for my clan," the nyktera chittered cheerfully. "Indeed, I can treat some of your wounds now...as shadow inflicted them, shadow yet can undo them..." It leapt forward, and Bethtali yelped as it clung to her hair. "Be quiet, now, or I shall lose focus!" Closing its eyes, the sprite began to sing a song.

Nightwind slowed to a walk as it did so, and for a few seconds they walked through the valley while Chakcik sang in a strange tongue that neither human knew. Despite their lack of knowledge, something in the song spoke to them: of caves ancient and deep, warm and dark; of family stretching so far that their end could not be seen; of the beauty of the night sky and the sense of homeliness one gained upon returning to warmth and family from thence. As its song finished, Bethtali began quietly to weep, and Ruven smiled.

--How much are they healed?
Heal (3-action), Rank 1
1d8=7 HP

"A good song," he said softly, glancing down to where the temagyr had bitten him. The bite was gone, as though it had never been.

"Indeed!" chirped Chakchik, "Though I am but a messenger. I bid you follow me, if you will, to the halls of Jendel Breaking. There more of my kin can tend to your companion's injuries, and both of you can rest the night - or longer, if you will."

"I thank you, Chakchik," Ruven said. "Lead on."

The bat sprite flitted through the night, darting back and forth again to draw them on through the moonlit valley. Before the moon had risen too much higher, it led them to a cleft in the side of a stony hill.

"It is dark for some way here," it said apologetically.

"No matter," Ruven declared. "I will see to that."

He raised his hand and muttered an oath under his breath, a call to a power Bethtali knew not; but as he spoke, light blossomed in his hand, growing from a single point like a star into a wan but steady light like a miniature moon; and when he released the light it hovered over him, shedding its silvery glow all about [light]. Bethtali stared, amazed, and Ruven smirked. "I told you I am no ordinary man," he murmured in her ear, and she shivered.

"A wise one as well! Remarkable," Chakchik chirped. "Come this way then, o Ruven."

It led them deep into the hill, through narrow passages of stone that seemed to close in upon them till they could hardly move - then suddenly they were come to a large cavern lined with crystals, which magnified and threw back a hundredfold the glow of Ruven's witch-light, and all through the air the tiny sprites darted. As they rode into the cavern there were cries of joy.

"He is here, he is here!" the sprites cried to one another. "The beast-killer, shadow-slayer, is come among us! Welcome, hero! Welcome, Ruven of Kal-Dranor! Welcome, favored companion of the hero!" Ruven smiled at the bat-like spirits, pleased, and waved.

They left Nightwind in a small cavern, contentedly munching on hay piled high by a dozen spritely grooms; as they left the horse, Bethtali stumbled, and Chakchik brought them eagerly to a cave that held a glimmering pool of steaming water.

"This pool is wholesome, Ruven, oh my, yes. Just let your companion bathe in here and her wounds will soon be healed!"

Ruven guided the shivering Bethtali into the pool, but as she submerged herself, she gasped. "Oh...that is...that is good..."

"Good," Ruven said with a smile. "I would have you well again as soon as may be. I thank you, Chakchik," he added.

"Of course, o mighty one! Please, come with me. My kin will see to Bethtali..." Ruven nodded and, dividing his light, left one half with Bethtali as he followed the sprite deeper in.

The sprites had spread a feast for him, and though it was little fare - the nyktera being but little folk - it was beautifully arranged and sumptuous-smelling. He sat upon the floor where they had laid it, spooning up nut mash with his little finger and fruit by the handful. (He left alone the steamed beetles, though they did smell good.) He spoke with Chakchik at length, and with the clan elders too: Kichtik and Hashric, the seniors were, and nearly as old as the hills themselves. He learned much of the nyktera from this conversation, and promised to let them keep the dead temagyr's body for a trophy - for they had feared the beast for many years, and were eager to spread news of its demise.

--Do they give him any treasure?
Fate Roll: Fate Chart (Nearly Certain, CF 6)
26 - Yes

Finally, as Ruven pushed away the final dish, Chakchik smiled and rose, clapping its tiny hands. "We are enormously grateful to you, o Ruven called the Skull Taker. And though my people have little use for gold, we wished to thank you with our skills." Two more nyktera flew into the chamber, bearing between them a leather thong from which dangled a shining white claw. "One of the claws of the temagyr, o Ruven, cut from its body and enchanted that its ferocity may strengthen your blade in ****, even as you cut it down."

"A war-like gift," Ruven said with a grin as he tied it to his blade. "I thank you."

"Our greater gift is yet to come," Chakchik said, "for my people are wondrous weavers and we noticed your companion's lack of clothes...we thought it fitting to gift to you, and her, a thing we made quite long ago for a once-friend who betrayed our confidence."

Ruven turned as a light swelled behind him, and raised his brows at what he saw. Bethtali entered the chamber, looking abashed but healed, led by a group of flitting nyktera - and clad in a shimmering, translucent robe of spider silk. Silver-white, the garment draped in long sleeves and a short train from her shoulders, clinging to each soft curve of her full figure. The robe was so sheer and fine that it was as if he saw her through translucent glass; and though it was an elegant garment, its tightness, sheerness, and its single waist-clasp did nothing to hide her body from his eyes. Her dusky skin, her rounded breasts, and the patch of black hair in the cleft between her legs were all laid as bare before his gaze, and Ruven smiled at what he saw.

"Is it well done?" Chakchik asked eagerly. "There's magic in the weave of it, and it can look like anything you dream."

"Is that so?" Ruven asked, smiling. "I shall have to try that sometime. But for now, I find myself tired...I thank you for your hospitality, Chakchik, and you all. But might you leave me and my companion to rest?"

The little sprite bowed, and all the rest followed its lead. "Of course, o Ruven. I thank you again for the service you have done us. The nyktera of Jendel Breaking owe you a king's debt! Sleep well this night, and we will call upon you again in the morn." With a chirping cry, the nyktera leapt into the air, circling the chamber as it rallied its kin. With cries of "Ruven! Ruven!" the nyktera took wing, circling the glowing chamber before they flew up into a hidden crevice to take to the skies above, where night was fully in dark bloom.

Alone in the chamber, Bethtali stepped toward Ruven.

--Has the water had any strange effects on her?
Fate Roll: Fate Chart (50/50, CF 6)
80 - no

"Are you healed, then?" Ruven asked.

"I thank you, yes," the Rams girl whispered, eyes upon the floor. "The magic of these sprites has...healed my wounds."

"And they have given you a princely gift. Though I suspect for me as much as you..." Ruven raised a cup of springwater to his lips and smirked.

Bethtali blushed, but kept her gaze upon the ground. "I thanked them for it, Ruven. And I thank you - again - for what you did."

"It would be a shame for a woman so lovely to leave this world," Ruven says idly. "Have you eaten?"

"Yes..."

He smiled. "Then I will take your thanks more properly, now. Come...you know what to do."

For a moment neither moved - Ruven reclining on his bear pelt on the floor, Bethtali hovering in the entrance, a witch-light over each. Then, slowly, she raised her eyes and crossed the chamber to him. Ruven's smile broadened as she sank to her knees and, nestling between his thighs on the pelt, undid the bindings on his loincloth. As he slipped free of his wrapping, half-hard already, she leaned forward, closing her eyes as she inhaled his scent, and flattened her tongue against the warm, yielding pressure of his jewels. She dragged her tongue upward slowly, worshipfully, and Ruven groaned. As she wrapped her mouth around his tip, he slid his fingers through her hair.

"No more running, now," he murmured. "And I will not bind you either, eh?"

From her place upon his cock Bethtali gazed up at him, dark eyes wide and pleading, and moaned her assent. Ruven smiled.

"A bargain. Now to it, wench," he murmured. And with a wave of his hand, the lights winked out, leaving just the sound of sucking in the warm and gentle dark.

Chaos Factor +1: 7
Added to Characters List: The Jendel Breaking Nyktera Clan