Chapter 18 - Part 16

Orphan and his friends watched the rakshasa’s body dissolve in the lava, along with its monocle and robe. The warforged could not help but feel it was an appropriate way to avenge the lost kama. That kama had saved more innocents, and done more justice, than any other bit of Balanced Palm lore, and it satisfied Orphan greatly to see the rakshasa’s corpse disintegrate in the same lava.

“Too bad we wouldn’t have kept his stuff,” Delegado said, tossing in another dead dretch demon. He and Thomas were doing their best to rid the place of all the evidence that anything important happened here. They didn’t want any fiends to come nosing around to find a reason to investigate possible intruders in the Wastes.

“You said it could be used to track us,” Thomas said, tossing in some pieces of the forge.

“Yeah, we had to do it, but it’s still a shame,” Delegado said. “Come on Orphan, grab a dead fiend and toss, would you?”

The warforged began throwing fiends into the lava. Like the babau their initial resistance to fire made them float a bit in the lava, but they eventually sank and burnt to ash. “We ought not to keep any of the forged weapons, either, I suppose,” the Orphan noted.

“No, and mores the pity,” said Delegado. “Did you see the look on that undead shade’s face when those three arrows hit it?” The half-orc gave a satisfied chuckle.

“What day is it, anyway?” Orphan asked, helping Thomas pick up an anvil to roll down the embankment into the lava pool. “I completely lost track of time.”

“It’s the nineteenth of Sypheros,” the half-daelkyr told him. “I guess about an two or three hours to go until sunset.”

“Enough time to get this cleanup done and get back to the horses for dinner,” Delegado said, kicking the skinned kyton into the lava as well. “Do you realize that we beat one of the Lords of Dust? Do you?”

“Don’t gloat, they’ll be looking for him and may find us,” warned Thomas.

“We all die someday, might as well gloat in the meantime,” chuckled Delegado. He threw two longspears into the lava.

“Well, gloat if you want, but we have a eulogy to deliver once we are done cleaning up,” Orphan said.

“The coutal’s ghost?” asked the half-orc. Iron Orphan nodded. “You’re a seriously decent guy, Orphan. I can’t help but wonder why you hang out with Thomas and me.”

“He’s got terrible judgement,” the half-daelkyr said dryly.