Final Fantasy Hacktics

"Yes.  Bring spark to the dead wood bed on which deceased friend sleeps eternal.  Then pray for friend."  N'zla faces the funeral pyre, sitting down in a meditative stance.

   "Ya mean Elia's under there?" Yvonne stares at the unlit pyre. "An' yer givin' me the honor a' lightin' it?" Gold flecks appear to swirl in the flame pixie's eyes for a moment before she closes them and bows in midair. "I most humbly accept." She moves to a position from which she can easily cast what she needs. "O, great Hiran, Everburning Lord of Pyres," she intones, holding her ash-coated hands out, "grant this one the power to destroy the corporeal vessel of our friend Elia. Her life was cruelly cut short, but her soul shall live on. And wherever her soul shall find itself now, likely in the presence of her beloved deity, it be not in need of its former host. However, there is always the chance that those practitioners of the darker arts may find such an unspoiled body to be an irresistible addition to their fiendish plans. Therefore, I shall take it upon mineself to ensure this vessel is properly returned to its baser state. To this end, I shall utilize the unparalleled might of Fire, for its cleansing power doth make everything equal in the end." Between her hands, a brilliant lava shard is summoned into being. It is noticeably larger than those used in the past. "And all that shall remain is dust." Crimson energy pulsates between her hands and the fragment. Finally, the fire lirai utters the Ignan word for 'to ash' and releases the spell.
   Kelgore's Fire Bolt screams strait down towards the prepared pyre below its caster. The very air around the liquid stone is torn asunder and ignited, leaving a blazing path between caster and spell. The sappy tinder provide a pathetic barrier at best and the incandescent pebble punctures through it as easily as the air before it, though its heat is most certainly enough to set the branches ablaze. Upon striking its intended target, the empty husk of a former human, the spell explodes, creating a literal furnace within the surrounding crude structure. Elia's body is incinerated instantly. The wood fares little better as the intense heat of the emotionally fueled arcane magic converts it all to cinders in a matter of seconds.
   Smoldering charcoal continues to sear the ground as Yvonne descends. She turns to her gathered friends and holds out her hands again. As she closes her eyes and brings her hands together before her chest, she speaks the Ignan word for 'it is done' which sounds quite similar to the fire word she spoke a moment ago. After a long pause, she takes a deep breath through her nose and holds it. She opens her eyes as she releases the air through her mouth, her shoulders slumping as though a great weight has been lifted from them. She blinks. She takes another breath through her nose, this time seeming to sample the air, or something in it. A grin cracks the stoic face. "I love the smell of aether in the morning, smells like..." She sniffs again with smaller and more rapid breaths, "stew?" She glances over to where Xun still has his supplies set up and licks her lips. "Imma gonna get me another bowl a' tha' delicious stuff." She explains, making her way towards the food.

N'zla remains quiet a moment.  "Normally, the burning done slow, carefully, and tenderly...  To give time for prayer and the sap to mature in subtle fire... But I suppose this work too."

Shocked, Nathalie stood absolutely still, her hand slightly covering her mouth as she muttered the words "absolutely crazy" under her breath and returned to being in awe of magic. She was hungry, but after the sight and stench of burning people and wood she decided for the best that she would rather like to keep her food in her stomach when she ate it, so returned back to the cart and lie under it, in the fetal position, trying to hold back the foreboding vomit.

"It smells like cancer.." She moaned, "Oh god the smell!"

   "'Burning done slow'?" Yvonne stares quizzically at N'zla, honestly confused by the phrase. She looks back at the pyre, "If it's time ya want, them embers'll be there fer another day or two a' least. There's plen'y a' heat left there." She shovels more stew into her mouth.

Rhyhorn closes his eyes for a moment.  He would've preferred to bury Friend Elia through the night and prevent such a spectacle, but this shall have to do to honor her memory.  He then makes his way back to ALL THE THINGS, intending to hitch up before noticing curled up under his cart.  He stares at her curiously for a moment before rapping on the cart gently with his horn, trying to figure out what the hell she's doing under ALL THE THINGS.

After staring into the still burning embers for a few minutes, Hogarth stands up, stretches, and makes a loud announcement. "Friends, I say we keep the treasure and to Hades with Mr. Sparkle. We lost a friend and withstood tremendous odds. They are rightly ours!"

   "Ahunno..." Yvonne says after considering Hogarth's proposition. "'Is master 'as enough money ta give us a grand each per item we recover. Tha' ain' nothin' ta laugh at, ya know? An' if'n 'es givin' us tha' much, then they're obviously worth far more den tha'. An' if 'e c'n afford such luxuries, then 'e c'n certainly 'ire more mercs ta come after us, ya know." The tiny fey pauses her gorging for a moment as the thinks. "Although... The mercs 'e sends would 'ave their own gear an' supplies, so we cou' jus' loot 'em and live offa the profits from that, I suppose. Eventually, we may even become wan'ed and boun'y 'un'ers wou' start commin after us then. They always 'ave the best stuff, so we cou' make a killin' sellin' that stuff, ya know? Just an idea."

Rhyhorn hears the fey's words and lets out a discontented hmphing sound through the glowy orb of happiny, chancey, and blissey held in his mouth.  He moves from and to the front of the cart and hitches himself in, pulling it away to reveal the fetal and getting ready to make the trek back to town.  Rhyhorn hadn't met this employer, so his good sense of derping around would have none of this talk of betrayal until meeting the man in person.

"Hmph, fine. But if he turns out to be a wizard, I kill him."

   Yvonne shrugs. "Fine by me." Then a thought crosses her mind. "*After* he pays us, of course." she adds.

The bugman somehow looks sad through his stiff face.  "Should avoid unnecessary killing... all killing bad.  All ones that live are friends of someone, yes?  No want to take away others' friends as you have lost this priestess, huh?"

Rhyhorn pulls off, his glowy orb tight in his mouth, and heads for the town.  His mood was unnaturally fowl - the normally aloof, friendly, and derpy rhino wasn't so much as checking to see if his companions followed.  This foul talk, this loss of friend Elia, it all sits heavily upon Rhyhorn's tiny pebble-sized brain.

The priest in the crimson robe runs a hand over his shaved head.  "Not see why we would kill this man.  You have contract, yes?  We follow contract, give him items he requested, everything else is ours.  Not complicated."

"Hmph. He sparkles, is what I'm saying. Not trustworthy." Hogarth mutters under her breadth. She looks towards town only to see the rhino already heading there. "Come, friends. We leave." Hogarth picks up the pace behind the rhino.

Staggering while trying to get up off the ground, and patting Rhyhorn on the back before coming slightly to, Nathalie manages to hold remain resilient until she can get her point across, however overheated and disgusted she may be.

"I..agree..with H-Hogarth," She stammers, "This man sen--sends..us to a cave and didn't..tell us his pur..pose for do--doing so..." Shortly following her two cents, Nathalie proceeded to expel the other ninety-eight cents from her mouth onto the ground around her. After feeling most refreshed by the regurgitation of cancerous air, she stood there, embarrassed, and hoped nobody would exactly judge her for having a weak stomach.

   The fire lirai raises an eyebrow at the healing insect man, "How does one define 'unnecessary' when i' comes ta killin'?" She turns to the sword-bearing priest, "I mean yeah, sure, we got a contract an' all, and I'm all for completin' it. But Hogarth believes simply bein' a wizard is reason 'nough ta kill, an' 'o am I ta stop 'er?" She makes a mental note to ensure Cozwin is never introduced properly to Hogarth when she visits him again back at the mage guild.

"HA! 'Simply being a wizard'! Wizards are cowards. They wait till we sleep, and massacre without honor! Without glory! Hogarth vowed to avenge her tribe's murder, especially Honored Tribe Leader Bizmak. He turned inside out. Last words were 'A wizard did it.' In 30 years of hunt, Hogarth kill 5 wizards WITH BARE HANDS!!" She bellows at the heavens, quaking her raised arms and fists at the sky, demanding hatred and strength to carry out her grim but comical task.

"Friend Nathalie knows my words. We sent on errand by Mr. Sparkle and come back wounded. Is... right." Hogarth lets her hands drop heavily, and plods onward, allowing the rhino to lead the way.

Rhyhorn simply plods along, leading the entourage.  "Mr. Sparkle"?  Rhyhorn thinks to himself as to who such a sparkly person could be, keeping the orb held tight in his mouth, knowing it to be one of the treasures the man sought...

"I will be sure..to give that man a piece of my mind!" She says with much effort, still quietly wheezing from the stench of dead person. Nathalie covers her nose and mouth, before forgetting that she has no water to breathe safely out of, and instead decides to just truck on, perhaps puking along the road while following Rhyhorn.

"He will not! ...Not! be free from my wr..aath!" Nathalie threw up again.