The Red Lantern Trail

Konan just looked on with a shocked expression after Kelly shot the woman in the pool, but he cried out just a few moments later,

"What the heck! You just murdered her for no reason!" Konan glared at Kelly, how could she do something so evil?

Even Lavender was shocked, especially as she watched -- eyes wide -- as the young woman gurgled, blood bubbling from the gaping, ripped-up hole in her throat, and sank into the pool. Sank, not float, like most humans would. The water turned red, and Kelly, as if nothing strange had happened, put away her weapons while the other girl that had been in the clearing immediately went chasing off into the woods.

Konan was quick to turn on the bandit, while Lavender's odds were stacking. Kelly was volatile. She leapt to conclusions very quickly. Lavender was beginning to see that it was only the luck of the draw that had she and Konan still alive. The woman could just as easily turn on either one of them. After all, Kelly didn't know Lavender or Konan any better than she'd known the woman in the pool.

"Konan, wait," Lavender said quietly, reaching out to put a hand on the halfling's shoulder in case he meant to follow. She took her hand from her bag, a faintly-glowing green vial in one hand. "She is not safe. We had better let her go ahead, otherwise it may be us that she slaughters next," Lavender said with the utmost confidence in her own assumption.

Part of her wanted to throw the vial at Kelly -- but part of her was afraid. Kelly was a quick draw with that crossbow, and Lavender had no desire to test what it was like to be impaled by a crossbow bolt.

As Kelly strolled down the path, she would find the forest around it to be considerably less friendly. The trees seemed to lean in on the path, and the lanterns flickered as she passed. A coincidence, perhaps? Who could tell, really? As she walked, she would spot several bright lights moving around in the woods, along with heavy footsteps. Listening closer, she'd hear cheerful chatter and the clanking of pots and pans. It sounded as though there was a large camp of some manner close by, just getting ready for dinner. That was odd, wasn't it far too early? If the adventurers looked up, though, they'd see the sky already beginning to grow dark. How had the day passed so quickly?

Another succubus? When had there even been a first? Lavender looked at Kelly like she was totally crazy, then glanced down at Konan, taking her hand off of Konan's shoulder. She still held that vial in her other hand, but her grip had relaxed a little now that Kelly had put some distance between them.

"Well, there's only one path to follow, so of course we'll be at her back," Lavender told Konan, as if -- duh -- that was the only thing they could do unless they wanted to venture into the woods. When Konan drifted back toward the pool, Lavender followed, looking at the gruesome sight with mild fascination.

She moved to stand at the edge of the bloody pool. "Humans and most humanoid creatures would have floated," Lavender told Konan, her boots at the edge of the stone as she leaned over to look into the murky red waters for the woman's corpse that had sunk toward the bottom. "The woman must have been very dense to have sunk much like a rock."

Regardless of whether the other two were behind her or not, Kelly crept silently closer to the noise to get a better look at the campsite.  

Lavender lifted her gaze off of the red murky water and at Konan instead. "What are you suggesting? That we exact absolute justice upon that woman and kill her for this?" Lavender gestured to the bloody pool that she was standing on the precipice of.