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"F.. F... FREAK!" The sprite continues to struggle against Lilly's grasp, and manages to free herself, extending her bent up wings. "That hurt, you know!" She backs away, adding enough distance between herself at Lilly to feel safe. "Like I said, go on and cross the chasm, but I'm not anyone's pet! I'm out of here!" As she's flying away, she shouts back in her tiny voice. "Oh, and look out for the uhm, floating zombie heads near that spire. They're both freaky and hungry looking!"
Lilly's thinking process is shattered, her eyes growing big, as the words hit her.
"Huh...sob....sob...Noooooo!!!
It's not my fault! *sob* I can't help it!"
And she curls up against her bat, sobbing miserably.
"Uh, thank you. Safe travels.." She watches the sprite fly off.
Just as she prepares to go, Lilly bursts into tears.
"Hey. Um. Don't worry too much about what she said. Sprites have a few screws loose. Sometimes they get a little too excited. Insulting is sometimes used as a way to flirt."
"This one sprite decided to protect me for a year before I chased it off. Left all sorts of gifts in my sleeping bag. Either stolen or alive. Neither very fun. Be glad she's out of here, at least."
>_>,
*sniff, sob*
"Then they have absurdest courses to declare friendly actings.
I was called...a freak....by my parents....they sent me away, to be locked in a tiny room for years....i'm not a freak....i can't be....sob sob sob"
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"Eh, everyone has an opinion. People think I'm weird because I don't have a mother and father. Well, that's not true, I just don't have two people whom I'd identify with. The entire commune raised me, taught me one thing or another. Foremother is there for everyone, it would be greedy if she was only there for me." Dawn shrugs.
"Look, Yizzik's got scales. I don't know what parents are. Poe has glitter in his beard. We've all got quirks, but we're here to stop some crazy necromancer. If your parents knew you were doing something this beneficial, they wouldn't have locked you up." She sighs. "They would have let you explore, flourish and help the world in whatever way you could. I mean, that's why you're here, right?"
She smiles, trying to console Lilly.
Lilly shakes her head.
"They...abandoned me doing so."
Still, Dawn's well meant words did reach her, and she somewhat cheers up.
"You're right, there's adventure to be had, and corpse-wizards to be punished."
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After the sprites depart and Dawn comforts Lilly, you steer your mobats further along towards the lit spire. The yawning cavern opens up on the side of a large rock formation, and a deck of sturdy, gray platforms awaits within.
At the helm of the deck is a mudstone wall encasing a landing platform. The mobats begin diving down towards it, as if they are trained to land in this particular spot. You estimate three of them will fit on the landing at one time.
"Looks like we're landing there." She grabs her longbow. "I'm going to head towards there. Poe, can you delay landing? You have better ranged support than us."
Yizzik would watch as they followed the paths set for the bats, taking point when it seemed they'd be going in for a landing. He let one hand hold fast while the other pulled free his shield, taking up a defensive hold as he went in first to be his companions protector just in case. He had watched Dawn and Lily speak and though hadn't voiced anything, had becoming that much more protective as he kept a look out for enemies.
Lilly, grabbing her whip again, steers her bat towards the landing zone.
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Yizzik holds onto his mount tightly and allows him to swoop down onto the deck. The gigantic bat grasps in the edge of the wooden plank tightly in his claws, then scurries over and begins pawing at a box on the wall. Despite Lilly's coaxing, her bat still heads for the main Roost.
As Dawn lands just next to Yizzik, four flaming humanoid heads float up from behind the 20 foot wall.
___
The yellow-flamed skull floats towards Lilly and opens its mouth, spitting a jet of acid at her.
: Poe, Green, Blue, Red, Dawn, Lilly, Yizzik
"Floating zombie heads? These are them, right?"
"Zombie or not....RUDE! Spitting on girls, seriously!"
Poe directs the bat to fly 15 feet down as he travels 15 feet and fires a bolt at the yellow skull.
"Ha! I could get used to flyin' like this!"
Poe steers his bat 20 ft closer.
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As Poe's bat glides towards the landing, he fires a shot that impales the skull, causing its flames to go out as it plunges into the chasm. His second bolt is just as effective and takes out the red skull.
Green and blue retaliate with two more jets of acid, one of them burning the flesh off of Poe's arm.
Poe (-6), Green, Blue, Dawn, Lilly (-6), Yizzik
Dawn readies her longbow. It glows with magic.
"Floating undead skulls that spit acid? I can see why this necromancer was stopped. Terribly fashion sense." She fires at the green tinted skull.
Lilly directs the bat towards the landing zone, patting it as it goes, thanking the winged animal for flying there.
She climbs down.
Tapping Dawn's shoulder, she nods with a smile.
"Go at em."
Poe grits his teeth at the burn on his arm and fires upon the one that hit him.
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Dawn's longbow fires a precise shot that takes down the green skull, while Poe turns his aim on blue takes out the final one, and the chasm is now home to four new undead heads.
The mobats that have landed continue to paw at the box on the mudstone wall in frustration. Peering through the wire cover encasing the box, you notice that it's full of solifugid nymphs like the ones the elder gave you in Oremont.
"Good job, everyone." Dawn pets her bat. "They will stay here until we're done, I hope..."
Dawn keeps her bow ready while everyone recovers, and then switches out her bow for her falchion. She casts invisibility on herself when they're ready to open the door.
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The rickety wooden door built into the wall nearly falls off of its hinges as Dawn pushes it open. On the other side, dismal gray planks form the foundation of an otherwise vibrant garden of molds, fungi, and even surface plants. Black iron cages, each large enough to hold a single person, dangle from lengths of rusting chain above.
Six of the cages above house unconscious dwarven prisoners, while three hold something much more terrifying - dwarves now turned into undead ghouls.
Under cover of her invisibility, Dawn notices an animated plant the size of an elephant inside the fungus garden, as well as two floating creatures made up of hollowed out skin.
"Messy..." Dawn frowns, not that you can see that.
Returning to her friends, Dawn keeps it to a whisper. "Six of the dwarves are still alive. Three of them... we were too slow. There's a huge plant in the back. Maybe I can get close enough to strike it quickly?"
"Just tell me which one we're hitting first. They can't see me, but they can still hear and smell me. I ate too much garlic this morning, my breath reeks."
Once the party decides where to go next, she will use some of her magic to blur herself and Yizzik.
"Jus' say the word an ah'll start shootin'." poe replies.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Dawn moves swiftly and silently towards the living plant, now within 10 feet of it. She now notices its a spider made up of purely plants and fungus. Perhaps it was an experiment gone wrong. Next to it, the two undead creatures wearing robes of skin shuffle back and forth, neither of them alerted to Dawn's presence.
"An intriguing spider..." Dawn thinks to herself. Well, let's hope they are flammable.
With her falchion ready and the element of surprise on her side, Dawn decides to charge the spider. Some of her arcane energy is used to light the blade aflame.
A blurry image of Dawn appears right in front of the spider. "Start shootin' Poe! This plan went way better in my head!"
Regaining her footing, Dawn decides to chop into the Spider again.
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Dawn's blade connects with the spider topiary, setting some of its foliage ablaze and then freezing it in place.
Both undead creatures float up to the cages and pop open the doors. They wrap their hollow skin around each ghoul, melding the ghouls to their own bodies as they absorb their strength.
The spider plant lashes out at Dawn.
Its thorny leg tears an especially deep gash across the elf's thigh.
Dawn (-16, blur), Undead red, Spider plant (-26), Undead yellow, Yizzik (blur), Poe, Lilly
"I expected it to sting me, not smash me..." Dawn grunts as the spider smashes into her leg. "What are those things doing? Maybe I should have gone after them first."
Redoubling her efforts, Dawn swings again.
Yizzik had only barely restrained himself from rushing in upon seeing the prisoners. He knew better than to risk his companions and his own life without waiting to see if any enemies lie in wait. Sure enough, the strange plant and undead creatures made themselves known, Yizzik charging in under the cover of his friends spell to aid him fight harder than before.
Lilly doubletimes over towards the fighting, grabbing her whip as she goes.
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Poe steps out of the door and launches a bolt at the spider plant. It finds its mark deep into the body of the topiary. Yizzik and Lilly close the distance while Dawn clobbers the plant once more, this time with enough force to cause the creature to collapse into a ball of dead plant matter.
Both undead descend upon Dawn and bite at her shoulders.
Their teeth graze against her skin, scratching some of her flesh.
Dawn (-20, blur), Undead red, Undead yellow, Yizzik (blur), Poe, Lilly
"Ew! Zombie cooties!" Dawn recoils as the thing chews into her leg and swings her falchion into the ghoul with the yellow pants.
Feel free to come over here, don't let me hog the fun!" She laughs nervously. "Please."
Lilly 2x moves to flank the undead with Dawn.
Realizing his friends were in danger, Yizzik wasted no time in rounding around the corner to threaten the yellow undead.
"Ha! Break your teeth upon my scales!"
"Bah, yer blockin' mah shot!" Poe rolls his eyes. Always running into the monster's teeth. I'll stay right back here, thank you! He fires two shots at the unattended red-pants wearing ghoul.
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Dawn slams her elemental falchion into the yellow-toqued undead, causing it to moan in pain. One of Poe's bolts rips a tear in the other creature's torso.
Both creatures continue to attack Dawn.
The ghoul-and-skin combination grabs Dawn with a claw, but can't see her clearly enough to grab her. The other is more successful, wrapping Dawn in its grey fleshy arms and squeezing the life out of her.
Dawn (-26, blur, grappled), Undead red (-19), Undead yellow (-16), Yizzik (blur), Poe, Lilly
"The last time someone got this close to me they smelled a lot better. And had much more hair." Dawn smiles a bit, distracted.
"I mean, ugh." Dawn tries to kick the creature away.
If that was enough, Dawn breaks free and slides back a few feet. "Okay, the grease I remember. That was the best part!"
Lilly frowns....
Erm...what?
(Sees her own shoulder length hair)
Oh my gosh, she's not talking about me, is she?
For some reason, she turns a shade red.
She steps back, and cracks the whip at yellow's eyes.
Yizzik would roar, coming in hard on his enemies, his first swing coming in strong but his back swing a bit more sloppy.
Poe fires twice more at the red ghoul!
But his aim is quite off...
Dawn rubs her shoulder. "You don't think it's infected, do you?"
"Hey Lilly, can you check on my wounds? I got pretty beat up there." She looks up. "Can you help the dwarves in the cage, actually?"
She tries to get the captives' attention. "Hey. We're trying to rescue you and stop the psychopath necromancer! How do we get you down from there so you don't become creepy?"
Lilly nods.
"Yes, i have the cattleprod of mending wounds still."
"But the dwarves are a bitty too high for me to reach."
"Thanks Lilly." Dawn gives Lilly a quick hug, then looks up at the cages. "How do we get them down?"