Ehren listens to the discussion about the quasit without saying anything. He suspected that the small demon had been their easiest means of ridding themselves of the treacherous hag. But then, that was how temptation worked - he would never have suggested such a thing. It heartens him to know that Isilme had something in mind.
"Whatever we do, we had best be more discreet." Ehren briefly glances over Valaria's shoulder, as though he could see her stalker just standing there. "It is safe to say that it is well aware that we are planning to rid ourselves of it."
Ary grimaces, "I thought you said she was on a different plane. How could she know what we're planning if she isn't here?" She'd been talking about her thoughts - out loud - for a reason, after all.
"Right... not much we can do about it but head back to town and see what we can do." She takes the time to unload the various objects that she'd found within the tower, making it unnecessary for the crusaders to move those particular objects. The intent was to keep as much of it in allied hands as possible, after all. "Plus, we need to go check on our highblood and his mercenary."
Ser Holton Albright salutes Ary as she leaves with her group. Annabelle rolls her eyes when Markus shakes her hand. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, boss" she says, gripping his hand tightly. She then dashes over to Hinagiku to give her a hug before she departs.
"Be safe, senpai!"
Hrut escorts the group to a set of horses along with Callus and Cynosure and they ride back to Gundrun. By the time the heroes arrive, the rain has dissipated, though the skies overhead are still grey and gloomy, but the cold and wet isn't enough to keep the native kellids from going about their day to day lives.
The heroes pass through a muddy bazaar filled with wagons and tents peddling food, weapons, tools, livestock, and the odd lost treasure and demon-forged curiosity. A mix of kellids and travelers peruse the wares, haggling loudly in Hallit and Common.
From outside, the Splinter seems fairly emptied out - now that the storm has passed, everyone is back to work. Meanwhile, in the market, Alase stands in front of a particularly large stall manned by a tall, thin kellid with short, thick black hair in a precise, angular style, inspecting an ornate chain shirt.
"Maent yn dweud hyn comisiynwyd ar gyfer Prif Helka i amddiffyn hi o'r gân o seiren..." the man proclaims.
"Ych, peidiwch talu malu cachu fi, Dalmard. Rhywun rhwygwyd hynny oddi ar y corff o ryw Deheuwr ddiymadferth." Alase scoffs.
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Ehren's feet are cold and wet and caked with mud, but as always, he does not seem to mind. For whatever reason he still had the pair of boots he was given weeks ago in his bag, but they sit mostly forgotten. It was not just typical Kellid stubbornness that compelled him to keep things this way, but a genuine enjoyment of being joined with the earth. Still, he was rather cold because of ths, not that he would admit it; the fur cloak helped, at least.
As they pass through the bazaar, the druid's eyes wander, on the off chance of seeing something that could be of use against the hag. The idea of waiting until they reached Nerosyan troubled him some. Still, he manages to find some amusement in the exchange between Alase and Dalmard. He approaches them, eyeing the chain shirt with skepticism.
"Byddai peth gwlân yn y clustiau wedi gwasanaethu Prif Helka cystal, yn sicr," he remarks wryly. He then acknowledges Alase with a slight bow of his head.
"Prif Alase. Rwy'n gweld Gundrun yn dal i sefyll."
"Clan-Liege Alase. I see Gundrun still stands."
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Ary returns the salute, and looks to Hrut with a grimace. She was still fairly certain that he'd have done much, much more with the power than she had. No sense in dwelling. And besides, once the war was over, maybe she could look into training as an Empyreal Guardian. But only if she didn't have to worry about more oaths in the process. She was already having trouble figuring out which one came first in her mind. Thank goodness for the easiest one to follow that sort of made it okay to ignore one for another. Sort of.
She placed a foot onto the stirrup of the offered horse, which reacts poorly for a moment, as more than three hundred pounds is placed on one side... but once the balance is restored, the horse doesn't seem quite so perplexed by the christmas tree that climbed atop it. On the other hand, there were quite a few shiny sharp bits on the girl, so it kept nervously looking in her direction as they went. She did her best to keep it calm as she went, though.
Rocky
She doesn't seem too offput by the exchange, though, especially given the grin she was wearing by the end of it. Even still... she probably should learn the language, since more than half the people they'd met since leaving their home had chosen not to speak in common.
Before leaving Ghalcor's tower, Hinagiku bids Annabelle farewell, and with a supportive smile, she tells her that she will be waiting for her in Gundrun.
Back in town, Hinagiku readily unmounts, tired being lugged around by the horse. Guiding the horse by the bridle, she follows the others through the bazaar. As she does, Hinagiku stays sharp, looking at everyone around in hopes of spotting Graukur.
Hinagiku's search is interrupted when Ary comments on Ehren's behavior. With a subtle smile, the monk focuses on the pair of kellids, trying to read their body language as best as she can.
"Do you know the courship rituals of the people who live around here?" she answers to Ary in taldan.
Val is more than happy to make it back to Gundrun. It seems that every day now is some mad rush to defeat great evil or the like. At least they get some down time in-between. Of course, she feels just about as lost in this conversation as at the tower. "Ary, if Ehren's going to be teaching me Hallit, do you think you could do Celestial at some point?"
"Subtlety, Hina. Subtlety. Usually alcohol, lots of it. And 'sneaking' into other people's bunks. Or absconding. Lots of flirting before that, though. At least for the Crusaders. I don't really know about other folks." she says with a small shrug. "And... I think Isilme's a better choice. Remember, I've only kinda fluent. It's easier to understand than speak, though, yeah?"
"I suppose I could use some private lessons with Isilme. I'll have to be careful or Avi might get jealous next time we see him."
Markus jumps into the conversation between Val, Hina and Ary about Ehren and languages. "Not that I'd know how to flirt," he says, with a little sly smile. "But I doubt Alase will do any flirting. Her type's not the...type." he finishes somewhat lamely.
"And why spend time learning Celestial when you could spend some lovely time with me learning the language of the dead?"
He lets loose a couple of stray laughs before he realizes it was sort of a lame joke. "Nevermind. I should probably learn Hallit too."
"She most certainly is on another plane," Isilme answers Ary.
"The Ethereal plane is interesting, being excruciatingly close to this plane. Those within it can see and hear what transpires here, and move about freely as a ghost might. Conversely, with the right magic, it is possible to see ethereal creatures, though affecting them is only possible via force-based magic." She approaches the mounts and pats Cynosure on the side, pleased to see he'd survived the onslaught unscathed. Riding back with the others, she's quiet but obviously in a good mood.
After their arrival, while proceeding through the market, she sees Alase pointing out that his wares were less than authentic. She manages to stifle a chuckle, and then a second one when Ehren jumps in and makes a clever comment regarding the purported use of the chain shirt. She turns to Ary in response to her question, whispering "In my opinion, unequivocally."
"I suppose I might have some expertise in the subject," Isilme says to Ary and Val with a grin after their exchange on learning celestial. "Or at least I should hope so given how long I have been speaking it! I would love to teach you Val, and while I would certainly love to see him turn red with envy, I suspect he will be fine with it," she responds to the tiefling with a wink.
Turning to Markus, she says "You'll learn to flirt eventually, you certainly have half of the girls in Defender's heart chasing after you, Markus," she tells him with a grin.
Edit:
"Ah... right. I always get the Astral and the Ethereal mixed up. Nothing terribly interesting from either, as far as I remember. Maybe.."
Ary tilts her head slowly to Markus's joke, but doesn't seem to get it.
"Or not. Flirting is usually a product of necessity. If you don't have to, no need to learn, yeah?"
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"I wouldn't mind learning... it's Necril right? Still, I think I'll have enough on my plate trying to learn Celestial and Hallit. Assuming Annabelle doesn't mind. Oh, maybe you should teach her first. I'm sure she'd love the alone time with you."
"Necril indeed." he says. "I learned it in school a few decades ago. Felt like I had to. Not very useful, like Dwarven or Infernal are nowadays. All my associates made fun of me, but I didn't feel right not taking it."
He looks at Ary when she mentions her own thoughts on flirting, opens his mouth to respond, but doesn't say anything. "We should get back to business." he says. "We've got a waitress to talk to, right?"
"But... not for flirting. Unless we find out she's not a demon, and then I'm pretty sure that Valaria always gets dibs." He looks around slightly awkwardly. "...Right?"
"Given this week, she's going to be a succubus," Val mutters. "Think we can deal with it after we get some rest and recover? Maybe tomorrow morning." She has no real hope of the party agreeing, but it can't hurt to ask.
"I'm... not sure that we can afford to wait. Or, given your...visitor that rest would really help you." says Markus. "The one-armed inn keeper didn't seem as surprised when I told him."
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"Can try. But I think it'll get worse before it gets better. I'll do what I can... if I can. In the meantime, I can hit you up with the ability to not need sleep. Cause... that's one of the things I'm good at." she says with a small smile, as she realizes she'd already had a solution.
"Yeah, I thought you'd say that." Val sighs and rubs her temple. "Well, no reason to wait if we're gonna do this now. We can get to my... visitor tonight when it's actually time to go to bed."
"We should be ok to investigate her now, I know despite how hectic that battle at the tower was, I still have most of my spells left. Better to get it done now, like Ary says. Keeping Val from having to sleep in the meantime is likely the best solution for our other problem," Isilme says to the others.
Clan-liege Alase brightens at Ehren’s appearance. ”Ah, Southerner of clan Ferron,” she greets, then gestures to the north, towards Ghalcor’s Tower. ”There was a flash of light earlier. I’m pleased to see you’ve made it out in one piece, druid.”
”Bydd Gundrun sefyll cyhyd fel ein perthnasau tynnu anadl,” she adds, with a smirk.
Dalmard frowns, lowering the chain shirt for a moment. ”Mae'n hysbys.” he agrees. Then, he grins. ”So, southern druid of clan Ferron, is there anything I can interest you in?” Dalmard wears luxurious black fur clothing draped over linens dyed a golden yellow.
”It is known.”
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Fortunately, Ehren does not pick up the group's commentary on his conversation. His ability to form coherent sentences might not have been able to take it.
The druid looks to the north, nodding slowly. "The weapon was not the engine of destruction that I feared it would be. So naturally, the demons had no use for it. They tried to destroy it... and failed, of course."
He then turns to the trader, recognizing his garb. "Ah, well..." He turns back to his friends, conscious of the fact that he was not really carrying any money. "Is there anything we need from here, or should we wait?"
Suddenly, Val gets an idea. "Actually, we might want to put off having me not sleep," she says. "We don't actually know if the hag is gone. If I can sleep and not get weaker, then the weapon must have done it's job and killed her. If I have more nightmares, we should be able to find help in Nerosyan when we get back."
"Do you... really want to risk your soul being harmed again?" Ehren asks gingerly, not liking the idea. "My second sight could not determine what it is that is following you for sure, but there must be some other way of making certain."
Gods forbid that she has a third invisible stalker.
"Unfortunately, that's exactly the problem. Unless you have some spell that can identify my stalker, then we really don't have a way to figure it out. If it's the hag, she won't do any damage that can't be repaired by an hour with a good priest. I've suffered nightmares most of my life. One more night won't even phase me. If it's my unwanted tag-a-long, then I'm not in immediate danger. At least not yet."
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Markus purses his lips. "We can identify your creepy stalker with a simple second-circle spell - see invisibility. It pierces the veil between the Ethereal and the Material. No need to expose yourself to further harm if we can get access to that spell."
"Besides, it doesn't cost anybody anything except Ary having to sleep to cast the wakefulness spell on you."
"Hear that, you dumb old crone? No food for you, tonight." Ary says with a grin as she looks towards the space behind Valaria.
Ary knows exactly what she's doing. And she's pretty obvious about it, apparently. Taunty Taunt. Taunt, taunt, taunt.
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Dalmard grunts. ”Well if yer not buying anything, move along. You southerners scare away paying customers!”
”Ych, don’t get yer underpants in a twist, Dalmard. Haven’t you heard? These are the big ‘heroes’. The ones who who blew up the menhir.” Dalmard shuts his mouth at that assertion, his dark eyes narrowed into slits. He grumbles, then turns away to address a different customer.
Clan-liege Widowknife tilts her head, listening to Ehren’s account. ”Hmmmm, so the crusaders have retaken the tower, then?” She smirks. ”Clan-liege Clefthorn won’t like having so many southerners drifting up the Silverscale River and messing about in his business. But that’s just fine by me.” She winks.
The petite teenager crosses her arms and hangs back for a moment, listening to the heroes silently. Finally, she interjects, watching Ehren carefully. ”So you’re leaving, are you? Does our beautiful homeland not agree with you?” she jokes, gesturing around at the drab, dead landscape. ”Ah, I’m headed for Storasta in the morning myself. But first I think I’ll head by the tower and make sure Holton isn’t mucking with something he shouldn’t. It’s been a pleasure, Ehren of clan Ferron.”
She grins, moving over to Ehren and clamping a fist around his forearm to pull him closer to her, her grip like a steel vice – not at all what you’d expect for someone so thin and wiry.
” I ni, nid oes gwanwyn. Dim ond y gwynt sy'n arogleuon ffres cyn y glaw.”
Alase lets go and steps a few paces away. She brushes her bangs back, revealing a blue runic tattoo on her forehead. She closes her eyes and holds her hands up to the sky, the rune on her forehead glowing brightly. A great boulder falls from the sky before her, landing on the ground. That’s how it looks anyway. It isn’t a boulder though – it’s black and furry, and as enormous as a bear. The biggest damned bear you ever saw… only on closer inspection it wasn’t a bear. Rather, it is an enormous wolf with a matching glowing blue rune on its head, matching its eerie blue eyes.
Nearby, kellids stop and stare, several dropping to their knees in reverence at the sight. The creature growls at the heroes as Alase climbs onto its back. To the rest of the group, she offers a curt nod. ”Stay warm.” She and the gigantic wolf ride away.
The heroes head for the crusader’s barge to spend the night. A few hours after the sun goes down, Annabelle arrives with Blossom, accompanied by a few other crusaders on horseback and Nurah Dendiwhar. Ary blesses Valaria with magic to allow her to stay up all night. Annabelle is certainly happy for the company.
Isilme’s nights are beset with horrible dreams, and she awakens somehow even more weary than she was before she fell asleep.
10-11 Rova 4713
In the morning, the barge departs. Nurah stays behind – though before they leave she presses a medal into Ary’s hands. ”A commendation for your good work!” More seriously she adds, ”That… hag that’s following you guys around. I’ve put in a word about it, but perhaps you should seek out some sort of specialist to take care of it for you. You know, before someone gets killed.”
The heroes depart down the Silverscale river and reach Nerosyan in a little over two days of travel, reaching the diamond city a little after midnight. Orlovski and Embla ride with them, headed for more formal judgment among the crusades. There is a little bit of confusion when they are screened upon entering the city and the hag’s presence is detected, but thanks to a letter of explanation from Nurah Dendiwhar, they are (begrudgingly) let through.
12 Rova 4713
The heroes bunk in a inn called The Hunting Vrock, one of many inns that dot Pilgrim’s Rest within the Egelsee District. It is a cold and windy day outside, a bone-chilling 3°F, though the inn stays warm courtesy of a large and beautiful hearth. The common room is filled with early morning sunshine, and many crusaders, pilgrims, and travelers sit at tables enjoying a hearty breakfast of grouse paired with sharp cheddar cheese and spiced cider.
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Ary huffs, deflating once more at the mention of their destruction of the ward stones.
Likewise, the following morning, Ary doesn't feel all that great about having not been tormented by nightmares. Stupid hag.
After the first night, she instructs Valaria to wake her up at the first sign of bad dreams. As soon as she wakes her, Ary will press her hand to Isilme, blessing her with Protection from Evil. If that seems to have any positive effect... she'll continue to do so.
Ary actually has ideas for several things that the group could use to make them significantly more efficient... but doesn't like the idea of spending commendations unless they have a good idea of what they want to spend the rest of it on.
Ary attempts a warding spell on the second night after hearing about Isilme's horrible dreams... but unfortunately it doesn't do anything for her, and the aasimar is tormented the next two nights as well.
"Hmm. Clan Ferron has been away from home for far too long, I think. I will be returning soon enough."
Before he can even ponder the implications of her going to Storasta of all places, he is pulled in for the handshake, almost forgetting to clasp Alase's arm in turn. His own squeeze is disappointingly weak, not at all like her vice grip. However, the momentary discomfort does not seem to faze him. Listening to her words, he smiles back at her.
...but the druid can only stare when the clan-liege summons her tremendous bear... wolf... thing. Not out of reverence like some of the other Kellids, but just a sense of awe. He watches as she rides off, telling himself that he had seen stranger things.
Ehren finds himself as helpless to aid Isilme as he was for Valaria. To him, there seemed to be a very clear message sent by the way the hag changed targets. At Nerosyan, he makes addressing the problem his first priorities.
"We should seek out a specialist as Nurah suggested," he says, looking to Valaria and Isilme.
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Well, we had an interesting day, I will admit. First, our unwanted friend finally revealed exactly what Illayna’s deal was. It seems that she was a night hag the entire time. Of course. We never get to meet anyone nice. My nightmares were the result of her invading my dreams and feeding on my life force. Which is honestly a bit of a relief. I was beginning to worry that the Worldwound’s demonic energies were starting to get to me. Unfortunately, night hags have a particularly nasty ability to remain half in the ethereal plane at all times, so we really didn’t have a reliable way to actually do anything about her. Of course, we didn’t actually have time to even try to figure something out before yet another emergency forced us to do something about it instead.
It seems that back before the Second Crusade, a powerful Iomedean priest named Ghalcor had built a tower near the town of Gundrun. He was using it to do research into the menhir and apparently he was trying to build some kind of super weapon. The tower had been sealed ever since the second crusade, when something went very wrong and an impenetrable barrier was raised around it. The demons had laid siege to it when the region fell under their control and the Ghalcor and his men raised their defenses to fight them off. Somehow, the defenses have been running ever since, including the shield. At least until a few weeks ago that is. From my understanding, the shield was powered by the menhir and it constantly feed the barrier. Then we blew up the wardstone field and sent a massive backlash through all of the menhir on this half of the continent. Oops. So we were roped into infiltrating the trap laden tower and finding the weapon so we could keep the demons from getting to it with the barrier down. Honestly less of a pain than some of our other recent quests. I’ll take abandoned crusader fortresses over demon infested cities in enemy territory any day.
On the way to the tower, we met up with the Empyreal Guardians. It was nice to see Hrut again and his commander seemed to be in charge of the defenses around the tower. We certainly turned out to need the back-up, but I’ll get to that. Making it into the tower actually wasn’t all that hard. There were some fun traps in the entry hall, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Markus mentioned some nasty holy fire orbs, but I was more focused on clearing a safe way through for everyone. Surprisingly, the tower was in pretty good shape. We found Ghalcor’s lab right away, with a number of useful items inside. Mostly research equipment, but there were some potions and these interesting magical items lying around. We found a few bound outsiders lingering as guards, but we managed to talk them down despite my obnoxious stalker deciding to put on an appearance and almost screw us over. I was really not in any shape to fight hound archons with my life force being sucked out be a hag. Would it be too much to hope that the next thing that tries to eat my soul be a succubus? They’re attractive at least.
Anyway… that was about the point where we encountered Ghalcor’s ghost. Yeah. Well, I call it a ghost, but it was actually a maddened spirit called an allip. I was a pain to defeat. It seems that Ghalcor was still just as powerful of a spell caster in death as he was in life and he did not hold back. That and the natural madness inducing nature of an allip made the fight an absolute mess. We did finally manage to defeat him and Ghalcor managed to regain his reason long enough to explain what his weapon did. With the demons bearing down on us, we had no choice be but to try to finish his project and activate his weapon. He even provided us with some fancy suits to keep us safe if we had to be in the room with the weapon when it activated.
I’m not even going to try to describe the process but it was powered by a set of magical prisms that could store and discharge holy energy gathered from the menhir. Quite an interesting set of devices, though most of them were destroyed in the process. Just as we were going to get started, the biggest demon I’ve seen since the Storm King’s attack on Kenabres made his appearance. Hrut’s commander and the rest of the guardians threw themselves into fighting the thing while we held off the rest of the demons and tried to get the weapon running. Of course, Ary had to be stupidly brave and not wear one of the suits so there would be enough for everyone else. And the helmets didn’t really fit over my horns, so I was out too. Then Ary had the brilliant idea to be heroic and stay in the room with the weapon when it fired to make sure that the demons couldn’t damage the weapon while we were working on it. Gods. Damn. It. What is it in the water in Mendev that makes all of the crusaders stupidly brave? They are not immortal and I am getting sick and tired of seeing my friends nearly dying on some insane quest. I swear, I’m going to beat that lesson into everyone’s heads, one way or another. Luckily for her, the power of the ley in our bodies protected her from the weapon’s negative effects. The demons were… less fortunate. I’m fairly certain the little quasit was banished too but somehow the hag survived.
The crusaders have the tower safely secured and we headed back to Nerosyan to recover. Ary’s been using her magic to keep my awake, but now Isilme is suffering the nightmares instead… I really hope we can find a specialist to help us get rid of her.
Val wakes Ary when Isilme begins to toss and turn, but she can't do anything for her friend. She silently curses her lack of ability, not able to even see the hag, much less stop her.
"Agreed," Val says, looking more concerned for Isilme than herself.
Markus enjoys the two days on the Crusader barge as much as he thinks he's probably able to, making sure to spend as much time as he can with Annabelle, going over vampiric ancestries and feeding her, teaching her Necril and asking for swordfighting lessons in exchange.
He's concerned for Isilme and Valaria - unsure what it is that causes the hag to select targets and by its boldness with which it just follows them into Nerosyan. He experimentally tries lesser restoration on each of them to see if it helps, as well as his soothing touch (which does actually clear the fatigue from nightmare), but is disappointed by the results.
When the reach Nerosyan, Markus is struck by its size and glory. After their time in the Worldwound itself, and in Gundrun... and after watching Kenabres' destruction... the prosperity that the large city enjoyed was staggering to notice.
"By 'a specialist'", asks Markus, "Do you mean a caster who can use invisibility purge? We should be able to find a caster who will do it for us. Hell, visiting a temple to Iomedae should do it."
"Not just seeing it. Hurting it. Ensuring that it doesn't simply slip away and come back to haunt us later... or harm someone else. It can be anybody, and now that we are in a city this big..." Ehren shakes his head and sighs.
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Though Alase’s comment was meant to be a sarcasm directed at the awful state of the Kellid lands, to Isilme it was something more. She’d wandered these lands long before the worldwound, before she’d known Elan even. Though they were cold and unforgiving, they were in fact beautiful. Just like Storasta had once been an amazing city. It was sad on multiple levels. The Kellids had lost their lands and been reduced to refugees dependent upon the Crusades, a terrible fate for such a proud people, but they had also lost the memories of what their lands were. Certainly stories remained, and perhaps a few kellids still lived who remembered it as it was, likely those with celestial or abyssal blood coursing through their veins, or perhaps an odd hierophant. The vast majority, like Alase, had no idea of what they had lost. Thinking upon it further, she wonders whether humans short lives are a curse or a blessing in that regard. The pain of the loss was more an abstract one to the current generation of Kellids, dulled by distance and lack of direct personal loss.
"It was once a truly beautiful landscape, Alase," Isilme responds wistfully to Alase, though she knows it's primarily directed at Ehren. ”Y mae'r nefoedd yn wylo yn eu colled ac eto ar gyfer eu pasio o'r cof.”
”The heavens wept at their loss and again for their passing from memory.”
Isilme takes note of Alase’s sign of respect for Ehren, and then looks on in amazement as she summons the giant wolf that she mounts and rides off on. Apparently the girl was quite a bit more powerful than her age would suggest. She had intended to warn her about Storasta, but it was clear that she would be capable of taking care of herself.
That night on the barge, she sets down to compose her journal entry for the night, the day’s events at the tower still fresh on her mind.
After she finishes writing she finds herself feeling more exhausted than normal and lays down to sleep in her hammock aboard the vessel. Instead of her normal dreams of Elysium which her lady had blessed her with, however, she finds herself under the clear blue skies of Golarion, in a town she recognizes as Mossbrad. Before her stands Minagho, clutching the Sarkorian woman's child and looking for the mother’s response to her offer. The woman looks to Isilme and to her child before turning back and my mouthing an apology. Isilme hears the words “I wish...” issue forth from her lips, and the air seems to thrum with power. Though she can see the woman’s lips continuing to speak it, a terrible ringing fills her ears as the magic begins to act upon the woman’s wish. As she finishes, the look of fear and desperation on the woman’s face fades into a look of confidence and then finally an almost euphoric delight in the situation, any hint of empathy gone from her eyes.
Isilme's sight begins to swim and the ringing continues to build in intensity, giving way to a pain that while truly terrible, was only a pale imitation of what she’d felt that day. Still, the pain is nearly unbearable, and Isilme cries out in pain in her sleep, waking up with a start, sweating and looking terribly pale. Though the memories eventually fade, she spends the rest of the day feeling completely drained from the nightmare. The next night the dream repeats, the pain tearing her from her sleep again and leaving her shaken. The third night she tries her best to stay awake, obviously dreading falling asleep, but repeatedly refuses Ary’s help, insisting that the Hag will only torment someone else instead. Eventually she passes out and wakes with a cry again. She gets up and moves to the corner of the cabin, huddling there with her arms wrapped around her knees.
When they arrive at Nerosyan, Isilme writes a small note in neat elven script and hands it to Valaria, saying ”Amin anta lle utu- i' tenkela no' sina len. Lye Mellon uma il- duila lye san- mani naa he`”
”I need you to find the spells on this list. Our friend does not expect us to take what is hers”
”see invisible x2, non-detection, blink, borrow skill”
”i can steal her heartstone. If we prepare we can kill her when she ceases to be ethereal. One scroll of see invis for you, remainder for me so I can steal her heartstone. She will try to become invisible when she ceases to be ethereal.”
Val turns the paper over in her hand, glancing at the note. "O mo. O laun fo'nn no fario cinghio ammaul fil, nial O cirio diro fil fo fon."
"Hey Ary! We need to go shopping for some supplies. We're running short on some basics after that little adventure."
"Um... alright, sure." Ary nods to Val. "I wanted to pick up a few supplies to make our lives easier, as well. Keeping the wiggly fingers apprised of their magic sticks and all that." she nods as she follows her along.
Once they're out of earshot of Isilme and her passenger, Val shows the note to Ary. "It's a list of scrolls Isilme wants to help us kill that gods damned hag. She thinks she has a plan to strip it of some of its powers so we can hurt it. There's also a few alchemical items that can help us. It should be vulnerable to holy water and holy weapon balm."
Ary nods slowly. "That's all well and good... unless it followed us instead of her." Ary says, chewing her lip. But she shrugs. "Nothing for it. If we split up into two groups, we can collect everything on the list and leave her without the ability to know the whole plan, maybe? Bonus points for throwing in a few things like 'Ball of Twine' just to confuse her."
"She seems to like staying close to her victim unless something drives her off. But that's probably a good idea regardless. I'm not carrying much cash though. That's why I came to the lady with the fancy commendations."
"Mmm... right. That also complicates things. If we split up, we have to use both." She says with a grimace. "Guess we do it the less-clever way." she nods. "Lead the way!"
"I've never been to Nerosyan before. At least not long enough to learn where all the good shopping is. You lead the way captain Bishop."
"Should probably debrief before all that... maybe it's better for you and Gloomy to go do the shopping for magic stuff, and I'll go report, and tell them what's going on? He should be able to use the commendations, as well. Or... we could make him do the report..." she says, but she already sounds like she plans to do it herself. She sighs. "Nope, Gloomy is the magic fingers person."
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From what Ary had said, it seemed that courtship was not different here in next to the worldwound than it was in Minkai. Well, except for the tiptoing into people’s bunks. That was not proper.
As she watched, the discussion go on, Hinagiku realized that Markus was quite right, unless Ehren changed greatly, it would not matter whether he was interested in Alase or not. What matter was what Alase wanted. If she wanted Ehren, than he would not have much choice in the matter, whether he realized it or not. This was made even clear when she summoned the enormous wolf.
Regaining quickly from the surprised of the beast falling from the sky, Hinagiku focused her attention on Ehren trying to decipher his thoughts. However, hearing Alase speak of her destination, Hinagiku turns her attention back to the woman, giving her a word of warning.
”If you meet a … tiefling sorcerer, be careful, he is dangerous and blessed by Deskari. However, stealing or destroying any books he might be carrying would be wise.” she says, enigmatic.
At night, Hinagiku is pleased to be reunited with Annabelle. As usual, she spend the night with her and with anyone else who might be staying awake in fear of the hag. When it comes to Isilme’s turn, she spends as much time as possible with her, trying to help her stay awake, and giving a few words of wisdom her and there. When the woman awakes with a cry, Hinagiku joins in with the others to comfort her. Not the most talkative woman, she tries to lift the azata’s spirit by breaking the silence now and then with some awkward jokes.
After eating a few fruits for breakfast, Hinagiku joins the others. Listening to their discussion about the hag.
” Isilmeさんは、私がEhrenとマルクスに同意します。しかし、一つの専門家を採用するのが賢明ではないかもしれません。私たちは、十字軍から助けを求め るべきです。彼らは私がより多くのよりも数聖なる戦士たちを支援する準備ができているだろうと確信している、優れたリソースを持っています。” she says, unaware of the woman’s plan for now.
”Isilme san, I agree with Ehren and Markus. Yet, it might not be wise to employ a single specialist. We should ask for help from the crusade. They have good resources, I am sure that more than a few holy warriors would be ready to help us.”
"Um," says Markus, pulling out his coin purse and looking within. "I've got fifty-seven platinum pieces you guys can use, if you want. I'll keep ten of 'em to buy Annabelle" He looks around to check that she's nowhere near before finishing, and says, "A new weapon... but you can have the rest so that you'll have petty cash and don't have to spend the commendations on small alchemical and disposable gear."
"I've also got a couple of things I can sell, and will gladly take all of the things you want to sell, if you want me to do the shopping." he says. "I can't be swindled, you know - by magic salesman."
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"Buying her expensive gifts. Now you're getting the hang of it, Gloomy. Alright, so we're heading off to the market place. Should we see if anyone else needs gear? I'm sure there's more than enough craftsmen in Nerosyan to get everything we need and then some."
Ary takes a moment to think... then nods. "Yeah, sure." she unbuckles her backpack, and starts digging through. She removes the Pauldrons of the Bull, a Potion of Bull's Strength, the Invisibility potion, the oil of slipstream and the bag of gems. Then pauses for a moment. "Hello." she says, pulling out the potion from near the beginning of their adventure. "Any idea what this is? Also, any of this stuff that anyone wants they can have. Or we can sell them if you don't think they're worth keeping. Otherwise, I'm happy to hold on to all of it."
Markus twists his mouth. "It's not a romantic gesture, Val." he says. "I just feel like I need to be nice for awhile, and purchasing a new weapon is just a pragmatic gesture. I hadn't realized that her weapon wasn't made of cold iron until we were in the tower and she was fighting those wrecker demons."
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Ehren initially blinks at the mention of shopping, but quickly catches on. He rummages through his equipment a bit, looking for things he no longer required. In the end, Ghalcor's potion is the only thing he pulls out - it was potent magic, but it could only be used once.
"Let's get the shopping done together and then report," Ehren suggests, "Given our luck thus far, yet another matter of import will be put into our hands. Best we all hear it from the source."
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I cannot bring myself to recount the day’s events as I normally would. Sitting here aboard the vessel, exhausted, my thoughts churn relentlessly, reliving those last few moments before we banished the demons within and without the tower. In those final moments I knew I might die, the abrikandilu before me would have felled me with but another strike, and I had no means to escape the coming blow. Somewhere beneath me, Ary stood unprotected in the weapon chamber, awaiting the triggering of the device, hoping to buy us time by distracting the demons. I was keenly aware that the weapon’s discharge could very well have slain her as well.
In that moment, aware of my own possible death, and of the possibility of Ary’s death, I was afraid. Afraid of dying, afraid of losing someone I consider a friend though we’ve only known each other for but an instant of time. Mortality was always merely an element in a plot to me, lovers separated by death like Li’an and Valaria, sacrificing yourself to save someone else. These were fascinating but my journeys never truly involved any such risks myself. Not before Mossbrad anyway. I was always confident I could escape, and the passing away of those I knew was inevitable, so I never concerned myself with the means overly much.
In retrospect it was a cold way to view the lives of those close to me. Now I worry about my companions, their story is secondary to a desire to see them live and grow, and to become closer to them all. Is this change in view related to my being no longer bound by that which defined my kind? If I were still a celestial today and Ary had died, would I have viewed the loss as a wonderfully tragic ending? Simply boiling her life down into the tale of the last scion of a bloodline of heroes who sacrificed herself so that her allies might press forward? Would I have mourned her loss?
I long to be me again, soaring the skies, unbound in form, experiencing that electric feeling when I reach out and feel the written word close by yearning to divulge its contents to me. But if that means viewing those with me in that light again, as just characters whose ends are an element of some grand story and nothing more, I do not know if I could accept it. I wonder if my lady knew I would be affected thusly, if this is part of her gift to me. The freedom to feel for the people surrounding me in the same way I felt for Elan, to love them. I feel more strongly about those I am surrounded by today— Ehren, Valaria, Markus, Hinagiku, Annabelle and of course Ary—than all of my companions in my journeys save Elan… and Aravashnial. I know now I would not hesitate to sacrifice myself for any of them, even though the thought of dying frightens me. I also know that one day it may not be within my power to save one of them and I believe that terrifies me even more so.
The remainder of the day seems somehow dull in comparison to that brief moment in which the world seemed to stop. We headed to Gundrun after our failure to retrieve the prophet’s tome. Morale was a bit lower for the loss I think, but I am thankful that we all survived. Orlovski and Embra are with us, and despite my attempts to soften up Orlovski, he seems to not care that he was serving the cultists beyond the fact that he is now in trouble. They will be taken care of by the crusaders, hopefully for their sake, neither was actually directly involved with the cultists.
The town itself is run down, composed of ramshackle buildings which appear to be supported, if I didn’t know better, entirely by magic. Or perhaps luck might make more sense. We stopped in the tavern there to join Nurah, reporting our failure to her. The barkeep there, Whalt, seemed like he had some tales to share. He was missing an arm, and had a shield which appeared to have been bitten through by a Herzou. I was unable to get the story out of him this time around, sadly, but when we return I will attempt to get him to share it. I suspect it will be something else.
We also met a Kellid girl, Alase Widowknife, apparently the Clan-Liege of her clan, and also apparently a Sarkorian Duw-galwr, or god-caller, though we did not find that out until we had returned from the tower. She seems to have taken notice of Ehren, perhaps because he is the only Kellid among the crusaders. We were only able to stay in town briefly, as it seemed that Ghalcor’s tower, apparently the site of an unfinished crusader weapon was soon to be under attack. At Nurah’s insistance, we went to aid in uncovering the weapon in hopes it might be used to stop the assault on the tower.
We arrived to find Ser Albright and the Empyreal guardians, Hrut included, standing watch at the tower. I recall hearing stories of it from Elan, Ghalcor’s research and construction of the tower, though I knew little more than that. With Nurah’s aid we entered the tower, and found signs of a massive battle in the entrance. Cultists and crusaders alike dead from a battle which must have raged in the final moments before the tower was sealed. Some, apparently, were also dead from traps within the hallway. In fact, there appear to have been more trapped tiles within the hallway than untrapped tiles, from what Valaria saw.
After making it through the trapped entrance, we entered a room depicting the acts of Iomedae, and a door sealed by a code related to her acts. Four phrases adorned the door, witten in celestial, each of which appeared to contain references to multiple acts. Each phrase was accompanied by four dials, with which we were able to enter the appropriate acts. With a bit of work, Ary and I were able to piece together the entire code and clear our way to the next room. There we encountered a pair of hound archons who had been enlisted by Ghalcor to help protect the tower. I was hoping to persuade them to aid us in the battle against Val’s new friend, unfortunately due to some complications I ended up having to talk them into leaving instead.
We proceeded to search the tower further in and found several prisms, including one in the room with the Acts of Iomedae. We grabbed one, and continued onward until I opened a door and found what appeared to be Ghalcor’s body, along with his maddened spirit. I heard his keening wail start to rise and was able to cancel the worst of its effects before he reached into my mind and madness took me. I remember little of the nightmares save that I saw Elan murder Li’an in her crib. Thankfully Markus was able to suppress the effects, and eventually we dispatched the allip that he had become.
What followed was a mess that somehow we managed to pull through. With the aid of the Empyreal guardians, we held off two abrikandilu and a Shemhazian long enough to fire the weapon. The details of the battle seem irrelevant in retrospect. What was important is that we were woefully unprepared in the beginning, and being so could have cost lives beyond that of Jamas, the Empyreal guardian who died fighting the Shemhazian to buy us time. Starsong must have been watching over us, because we somehow managed to charge the prisms and get them into the weapon’s console to fire the weapon just in time without losing anyone else.
In the aftermath I focused more on the story of the tower and Ghalcor than of the events that had just transpired. Perhaps it was just too much to process then and there. Outside the crusaders and guardians celebrated, and it was there that I recounted the Tragedy of Ghalcor’s life, and of his redemption. We would not have survived here if he had not given everything he had to try to ready the weapon. The tale might have been one of the best I have told, though Nurah chided me for embellishing the story. She is still young though, and I did my best to explain how tales change through the centuries. A tale properly cared for will take wing and fly far beyond where you set it free, and those that travel the furthest and live the longest combine both elements of fiction and reality within them.
We will be in Nerosyan in a couple days now. Hopefully once there we can find a solution for Valaria’s guest before it causes her any further harm.
10th of Rova
Keeping Valaria from sleeping apparently forced her to choose a new victim. I do not know how Val has handled such nightmares for the past few days. I cannot close my eyes without seeing Minagho and the Kellid woman’s face now. I know it will come again tonight, it hangs over me with the inevitability of an executioner’s blade. I will not allow Ary to grant me relief, though I am certain she will offer. I cannot accept it knowing one of my friends will instead suffer this torment.
11th of Rova
I barely slept, the pain was even more vivid tonight and the look of delight on the mother’s face more sickening still. I feel so drained, but I must endure until we reach Nerosyan. I hope we will be able to take care of here there. I do not know how many more nights of this I can handle.