Locke doesn't pause in swinging his blade in tune to his chants.
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Illonna's strength fails her at the final moment, despite Rikkan's assistance, she can't land the telling blow when Vuelib's powers are showing signs of waning... fortunately Drancis is there - his strange powers ripping more shrapnel from the equipment and finally ending the menace of the strange creature lurking beneath the ruined manor house.
The voice, fading as it continues its pronouncements, rings one final time in the mind of the friends, "Curious, you resist even though assimilation is inevitable... You... will... be...", Zoreck's blade stops the voice before it can deliver its final speech. The sword cuts the creature into two separate chunks of formless meat.
Breathing heavily Illonna collects her two swords and returns them to their respective sheaths. She passes over herself with her healing touch.
"With the creature dead, I wonder what will become of the afflicted?"
"Not sure, not sure, click. Maybe some experiments would be in order. The alchemist and I could try to figure it out, click. Any other rooms here? Other than the sarcophagus, are we missing anything?"
Drancis sighs in relief as Vuelib is finally destroyed, but the alien's final words fill him with unease.
It sounds like there are more of them...an invasion?
He nods to Illonna, "I am not sure. Maybe they will be catatonic like poor Silas. Only one way to find out..." He moves back out into the room with the pit and proceeds to lift the remaining captured villagers out of the pit and to safety.
Once finished with that, he looks over each of them making sure they are not injured in any way.
Zoreck leans against the wall to catch his breath after the death if Vuelib. He looks at his friend Illonna with a look of curiosity, but without any sense of judgement. "Do you have any idea what it meant when it said you were 'constructed'?"
He then takes out a cloth to wipe the goo off his sword. He continues, "And it kept going on about something called 'the Jagdaline.' Any idea who or what that might be? I guess the Jagdaline must be its employer or superiors, but I've never heard of 'em."
Locke smiles victoriously and perhaps a bit viciously as Vuelib is cleaved in twain. He then does his best to clean his blade of various slimes. You won't be hurting this village anymore! But... I hope this slime doesn't hurt my blade.
When he speaks, his voice is harsh from chanting, "I do worry at the words Vuelib spoke. Holver's Ferry may be safe for now, but it seems this may not end here with just that creature."
Locke considers his next words carefully, "I... can't let this happen to somewhere else. If more like Vuelib are out there, I wish to stop them too." His eyes are overcome with determination.
Zoreck leans against the wall to catch his breath after the death if Vuelib. He looks at his friend Illonna with a look of curiosity, but without any sense of judgement. "Do you have any idea what it meant when it said you were 'constructed'?"
"I couldn't say..." she says, though she indicates the scars across her limbs and chest with a lazy gesture. "I have not given much consideration to that creatures blasphemous words."
"And you shouldn't," Astraea says between coughs, having sunken to her knees after Vuelib fell. "That thing was evil. Who knows what kind of nonsense it was trying to put into our heads?" Then again, it might not be nonsense at all. I don't know what it meant by "assimilation," but I don't like the sound of it...
Astraea wishes she could see the stars. She needed their light for comfort. With a wheeze, she gets back to her feet and wipes at her lips, though she finds them dry.
"Let's get the survivors out of here... but we need to make sure this machine, whatever it is, is disassembled. Maybe we should do something about Vuelib's remains, too- I don't want to find out the hard way that it can pull itself back together or something."
"Well, one thing I've learned from fighting weird creatures in buried chambers that have strange equipment... There's usually treasure to be found!"
Zoreck starts going through the weird equipment in the place, looking for anything that might prove useful or valuable.
- the equipment, no longer humming in gentle motion after Drancis' ruinous kinesis, certainly demonstrates some similarities to those which you have seen in the ruined places of Numeria. Whilst the function and exact purpose of the machinery is way beyond the Kellid's knowledge, it is obvious that it somehow generates and stores its own electrical power source...
...no detailed understanding of technology is needed to decipher the next observation - connected to vats and cylinders, it first seemed that this machine is some form of alchemical laboratory... but a look through one of the glass portholes into the main tank reveals something much worse! A human, presumably one of the villagers, strapped inside and, from the multiple cuts and openings across his body, subject to some awful vivisection - there is no saving this person, indeed were they still alive, death would surely be a mercy...
Zoreck's intuition and experience with such equipment allows him, at least, to find the equipment store secreted below the equipment...
- Five potions of lesser restoration,
- One technological syringe containing an amber fluid, (Knowledge - Engineering DC30 to identify),
- Five much smaller technological syringes containing a crimson fluid (Knowledge - Engineering DC22 to identify),
- and a Small-sized masterwork keen dagger - slick with blood...
Meanwhile, out in the room where the thing that was the sheriff was defeated, Rexel assists Drancis in getting the villagefolk from the pit... Blank stares are all the gratitude that they receive though; whatever psychological effects imbued upon the folk by Vuelib seem to outlive the creature itself. Rexel frets around them, "Oh dear... Oh dear... Their minds seem subdued somehow - as if they were to become puppets to Vuelib's will. Do you think we should get them back to the village? Somewhere where we can care for them and look for some kind of remedy?"
"Yes, we should burn this place on our way out and seal away the miserable dead with it."
"I'm not sure attempting to burn this place will do much good with the flooding, but we can try." Locke begins to herd the mindless villagers out of the tunnels. "Hopefully the villagers who are still sane will be able to help those who are less so."
"Rexel, do you think one of these potions of lesser restoration could help the villagers get a bit of their, whrrr, well their minds back? I'd prefer to heal them now, if we could."
With the ebb of the battle slowing going away Illonna starts to recall the villagers and becomes immediately concerned. She heads towards them and starts administering, trying to determine the damage that Vuelib has caused.
Drancis looks over the syringes that Zoreck discovered closely...
...but the purpose of the fluids proves completely elusive.
He nods slowly at the mention of using the potions to help the villagers. "I don't see why not. At least it will cure their fatigue, if nothing else."
– it is a complete mystery as to what has happened to them to leave them so mentally crippled… there is some relief however when there is no evidence of surgical experimentation.
At Rikkan’s suggestion of using the potions discovered in Vuelib’s store, Rexel gets quite excitable, ”It couldn’t hurt, could it? Come on, let’s try”… One by one, the curative fluids are administered to the villagers and, as if shrouds were being lifted from their minds, they start struggling for words – questioning where they are, what’s happening and, most worryingly of all, who they are? Rexel tries his best, reminding Mrs Cuadrav, Ol’ Man Dirach and the Bewstead brothers what their names are, where they live, what they do… all responded to with blank looks, ”Oh dear, oh dear… it seems that our abductor has done something terrible to their memories… we should take them back to Holver’s Ferry as soon as we can”.
"Do we crack the locked sarcophagus open, or do we head straight out for town," Rikkan asks the others.
Drancis shakes his head slowly, "I dunno...We should get the villagers out of here as quickly as possible. No telling if Vuelib has any other minions...or other beings like Vuelib out there."
Zoreck looks around the dungeon rooms with its alien equipment. Thoughts of similar-yet-different places back in Numeria return to him, and his face turns grim.
"Yeah... let's get the hell out of here."
"Let's mosey."
Astraea fights back a cough. "...Agreed. Let's get everyone out of here first, then we can decide what to do... about the sarcophagus and everything else."
The villagers, increasingly distressed as they start to question why exactly they are down here, are shepherded out of Vuelib's laboratories, through the flooded tunnels and, finally, up the staircase and into the soft daylight of the early afternoon. Rexel does his best to distract the villagefolk from their predicament by pointing out the birdsong, the sun in the sky and the fact that they are now safe...
With everyone evacuated into the relative safety of the ruined Manor House, Rexel sidles up to the friends, "We've probably got around four hours of daylight left... I think we should get my friends back to Holver's Ferry before nightfall... Were you planning on doing anything more down..." - a look of distaste washes over Rexel - "...down there?"
Drancis stares at the Manor House, a clear look of reluctance on his face. "If you want to see if that sarcophagus has any clues...or treasure, then we need to leave now. I don't know if it is worth the risk though." He tells the others.
Rikkan had been focused on the sarcophagus, but waited on the others to chime in before heading back to try to open it.
Zoreck sighs. "It'll be a long walk back to town, and these villagers will need us to help get them there. Rikkan, if that damn sarcophagus is so important to you, we can come back and take a closer look tomorrow. But if it's full of more snot-monsters that try to melt your face off, don't say I didn't warn you!"
"Think about what secrets it might hold, click. Could be more information about getting these people back to normal," Rikkan bluffs, more interested in the secrets, rather than thinking a cure would be inside.
With the villagers safely outside and Rexel keeping a keen eye out for trouble, the friends make their way back down through the flooded tunnels all the way through to Vuelib’s lair. A thorough examination of the area suggests that the creature was the only occupant of this laboratory although, with the technology that is present here, it is impossible to be entirely sure that other such creatures won’t soon follow. With that in their minds, the friends set to destroying the machinery and equipment within the three rooms… smashing various dials and gauges, ripping pipes from the walls and severing the wires that connect everything together, the friends reduce what is possibly a technological marvel to so much junk…
…leaving behind the horrors of Vuelib’s rooms, the friends return to the locked sarcophagus at the far end of the dry tunnel… once more Rikkan determines that the locks are exceptionally secure…
Zoreck eyes the sarcophagus suspiciously, his pistol drawn.
"Rikkan, are you sure that this is a good idea? And is the lock there to keep us out... or to keep whatever's inside in?"
- a strong aura of evil radiates from the Sarcophagus... It swirls and pulsates around the stone...
Rikkan's determination to open the sarcophagus alarms Astraea, but she is too shy to openly protest. Thankfully, Zoreck says his piece first.
"Um, and I did detect some magic in there earlier," she meekly says, still hugging her aching chest. I really think there's a good chance something bad will happen if you open it. Like, fire and brimstone kind of bad."
She warily backs away, though she debates internally if she shouldn't just drag Rikkan away from the thing, kicking and screaming.
Illonna draws her sword slowly.
"It's decidedly wicked, Rikkan. Leave it be."
Drancis shakes his head at Rikkan, an alarmed look on his face. "I agree with Illonna! This is a REALLY bad idea Rikkan! Let's leave it be until we can learn more about who...or WHAT is interred here."
"Sigh...well, whrrr, if you are sensing evil coming from it, we'd better leave it be. The lock is so tough, I don't even know if I could, click, get us in there or not. I guess, we can leave it as an unexplored mystery, and go home safely."
Locke sighs in relief as Rikkan agrees to leave the sarcophagus, "I worry about leaving something so obviously dangerous here with the unsuspecting villagers. Perhaps we can somehow collapse the tunnels on our way out?"
"I can't imagine they would be willing to return after what they have been through."
Wisely leaving the secrets of the sarcophagus sealed and buried, the friends make their way from the catacombs and, blinking as they come into the afternoon sunlight, climb the staircase one final time. Rexel, waiting outside of the manor with the four villagers, waves frantically as Illonna leads the friends from the ruined building, ”We should go… It would not be wise to be out after dark – Vuelib may be gone but there are other things out here in the woods after the sun goes down. There have always been large packs of wolves here in the Churlwood and, with everything that has happened here, they will be getting bolder ”.
…and so, leaving the ruins of the Aravenhode Manor – and the strange horrors of its catacombs – behind them, the friends start the long trek back to Holver’s Ferry. Somehow, the woods seem less oppressive to the friends than when they first made their way here – birdsong fills the air and, on at least three occasions, deer can be seen crossing the path and then galloping back into the undergrowth.
Within two hours, the friends come across the burnt out ruins of Silam Oddle’s home; seeing the wreckage of the building, Rexel is concerned for Silam’s wellbeing until Zoreck fills him in on what happened here. Two hours or so later, with the sun starting to dip towards the horizon, the friends – with Rexel and the four amnesiac villagers – make their way out of the tree cover and into Holver’s Ferry. The ominous quiet that oppressively hovers over the village is still present and, as far as it is possible to tell, the only sign of life is the plume of smoke coming from the chimney of the Redthistle Farm. Keeping their wits about them as they pass the deserted Abadarian temple, the Hapless Harpy and Yenser’s store, the group make their way back to the farmhouse where they left Milda Vesk, Silam Oddle, the child they rescued from the crazed clergy and the catatonic prisoners.
The front door has to be knocked thrice and then Rikkan has to reassure Milda Vesk – speaking through a small opening in the door - several times that the friends are indeed who they say they are before the door is unlocked. With a huge look of relief across her face, she hugs each of the friends in turn, ”I was worried that I would never see you again!!! Last night was so dreadful… there were more of the crazies running around – they know we are here!!! They were banging on the doors and the windows but they couldn’t get in. Oh, I was so worried!!!”
…and then she sees Rexel, ”Oh Rexel!!!! How wonderful to see you… you are okay? What happened to you? Where have you been?”, Rexel explains as best he can – and then ushering the amnesiacs into the farmhouse and explaining their predicament, asks Milda to look after them for now.
Rexel turns to the friends, ”For what you have done for our village, I thank you… there are hard times ahead and I don’t know whether this place will survive but some us, at least, will live – and that is down to you. Tomorrow, we should go door to door and find those of us who are still unaffected by the madness… but tonight, I suspect we will need to defend the farm from whoever is still out there. Silam and I will take the midnight watch, would you take the late evening and early morning watches?”
"I do not need to sleep, I will be awake throughout the night."
Illonna will take some time to go check on Silas, the old woman, and the afflicted man.
Drancis nods, "I can take either watch, but to be honest I prefer to sleep in." He suddenly yawns as his body reminds him just how long a day it has been.
"I really need a nap right now. I'll take the early morning watch."
"I'm fine with any watch. Does anyone have any good acid or alchemist's fire I could use, click. My supply is all gone! I could do with a resupply!"
Rexel smiles a mischievous grin, "Alchemist's Fire? Acids? Why, back at my apothecary I should have some supplies left... We can go and restock tomorrow morning - in the meantime, let us hope that the doors and barricades can withstand whatever is thrown at them".
- it seems that the condition of those affected by whatever has swept across the village is unchanged - the woodsman and Vorthad remain catatonic whilst Silam and Milda, both of whom have shown some signs of infection (Milda's suicidal tendencies and Silam's madness) before, are apparently healthy.
"I'll take first watch... I'd like a chance to see the stars. I could use it after the day I've had.
With the sun far beyond the horizon and a starlit sky above, Holver’s Ferry seems quiet… peaceful even…
Fussing around the old farmhouse, Milda Vesk cooks up a fine stew although it is with some concern that she notes, ”This is the end of the supplies… we will need to forage tomorrow… or leave” and, soon enough it is time for Zoreck, Locke and Drancis to head to their beds for a well-earned rest. Astraea, Rikkan and Illonna take the first of the watches; finally, an opportunity to watch the stars and to consider the events of the last few days…
…and, before they know it, Silam and Rexel are there – ready to relieve them from their watch… Illonna, seemingly immune to the fatigue of the last few days, stays with the woodsman and the apothecary – her eyes keenly looking out for movement in the midnight shrouded village…
Far above the slumbering farm, the stars turn in the majestic heavens… the friends, tucked in their beds, dream… dreams of home, of their childhoods, of their friends and of their families, of the places they have visited… they dream the dreams of their life…
My father's laughter at some childish joke I had told, my mother's elven cooking, my perfect moments with sweet Natalie, my adventures since leaving home. Home, where suddenly I would give anything to be. I watched the tale of my own life, tears left tracks across my cheeks and I knew not why. It felt like saying goodbye.
Illonna enters a state of lucid dreaming, where her eyes remain open and receiving while waves of subconscious stimuli wash over her vision. The frightening visions of the other night have left, replaced by fleeting glimpses of Varisian countryside. Sometimes she sees a temple or battlefield breaking up her mental landscape, but otherwise the paladin remains seated in a semi-catatonic state.