The golem thrashes in the crossing beams of molten energy.
With Olivia subdued, the storm ends. The terrain is still covered in frost and ice, but the whirling blasts of snow die down and ultimately cease altogether.
I move to stand between the bone creature and Blackacre. Hefting shield, and with blade drawn I take a defensive posture.
H28
The bone golem gets to its feet. It chomps rows of fossilized teeth onto Sandru. The bite can't penetrate his expert fighting with his shield. The golem is thrown off of Sandru's arm and rebuffed.
Volst flounders. "I can't...there's too many..."
FOURTH WAVE OF SKELETON MINIONS DEFEATED. BATTERY NEEDS NEW CHARGE.
The Eternity Bracer sparks again, wrapping cords of life draining energy around Quinn.
Round 3:
Ianez calls on his luck and sends a pair of arrows flying towards the bone golem. The first one misses, but the second strikes the animated construct.
The arrow wings through the golem's ribcage, causing damage as it goes...
La Siréene looks towards Olivia, as she asks for Hareton to be stopped. Volst, as he show signs of being overrun.
You are wrong.
... ฉันขอโทษ
You are some aspect of what I used to be, perhaps from the moments after La Siréene's second iteration ended and before her third iteration began, but you are not who I am. I am what you would call a thinking individual, yes, but in identifying as La Siréene, even at the risk of my life, what I have chosen is the act of a construct - to prioritize another being before oneself. You are partially right - I cannot relate to constructs like constructs do, but I can still care about them, in my own way, and thus I evolve, I change, into something else. That is how you grow, you see. You take the pain, you persevere, and you use the experience to become something else. It is how Nameless came to be, and it is how he ceased to be. I am La Siréene now. I live, and I evolve.
La Siréene looks down, towards the ground.
It is the only way. If you let pain win, if you cannot evolve, you are as dead as Endbringer. La Siréene raises her head, looks towards the sky. Lets go see if Hareton can win over his pain.
She notices the Bone Golem, and smiles to herself. But first, this little distraction ...
La Siréene raises her hands, and darkness billows around her hands as she starts casting .
Caromarc wanders over where to Olivia started, studying
Is it possible to use the Olivia's Heart pendant to start a Soulbound doll? Would that have any effect on Olivia's soul here? Guessing not... but it might be a pure "child" of Olivia's soul?
The Archons aim, and bathe the golem in light.
"Leave the boy alone!" buzzes the manservant, swinging his scythe
The archons prep the "patient", and the Manservant goes in and performs "surgery".
"Well done. It seems to me that an exit would be a fine thing to find, and quickly."
The Manservant's attack weakened the golem's construction. The guardian of the soul chamber collapses into a heap of inert, broken bones. From dust thou art, and to dust thou returnest.
As Caromarc studies the area around Olivia's gravestone, you see an image of her as if projected onto an invisible screen, in the air above you. It's her spirit, white, flickering, hands clasped piously, trying to ascend from the soul chamber. Trying to become one with the snow outside...return back to nature...to the world Hareton is destroying.
You've subdued her mad spirit, and brought her peace, if not quite rest...just yet.
She is ready to let Hareton go if she must.
Ianez notices an ornate copper key among the bone golem's remains. There's a door, beautifully carved out of ice, with a matching keyhole, at the far side of the chamber.
Ianez picks up the key and dusts it off before looking up at Olivia's trapped spirit. "I hope for her sake that our exit will allow her to move on as well. Come along, my friends."
Phoebe goes slack for a moment. She shakes her head and rubs the base of her skull, as if recovering from a bad headache. It appears she has returned to her normal self.
The Eternity Bracer unlatches, falls off of Quinn's arm, and plops onto the snow. You all see in your mind's eye your group of allies on the ground. Agent S, Sabina, and Paige still hold their own in their efforts to defend the prisms, but Volst is overwhelmed.
He is caught in a blast of threnodic energy. "NOOOOO!!" he cries. His robes are vaporized. Slowly, horrifyingly, his skin melts clean away from his bones. And yet, miraculously, he remains on his feet trying to fight against the blast.
He is reduced to a skeleton. From deep within his hollow eye sockets, pinpoints of blue light emerge. In a moment, it becomes clear what has happened.
There is a phylactery somewhere.
Blackacre's nemesis has become a lich.
His skull evilly chattering, he turns and flies off into the night. He has abandoned the battle.
Blackacre reels in horror. He screams For a moment he looks around, agape, eyes wide, not knowing where to shake his fist.
The inspectors head drops. Two long sighs, visible in the chill air, issue from his mouth before he speaks again. I have failed. Once again I failed to stop him. That... thing toyed with departments, families, all manner of honest people, for his own amusement. He caused the death of dozens of innocents for his own narrow advantage, and now he is more powerful than ever.
After another pause he looks up, in the general direction of the Earl.
We must be sure to stop Hareton. I cannot let two such necromancers slip through my grasp... and if Volst's phylactery can be found - a sudden flash comes to his eyes and a grin begins to spread. I will find it. Now, more resolutely, Let us go. There is no time to waste!
Quinn picks up the Eternity Bracer that fell off his wrist. He then looks over to Gaston and walks over to the man. "Here! Take this! Not sure if it is any good now. But maybe, with the use of some magic, you can trace the other half of the bracer. With luck it will lead you to Volst." The monk hand over the bracer to Gaston and then head to the door out.
Ianez chuckles once, a short mordant laugh. "You know him better than any of us, Gaston. Does he have the sort of ego that would lead him to make this bracer his phylactery?"
Blackacre looks down at the bracer and ponders the erstwhile Baron's possible strategy.
Hmm..."eternity" bracer.
As he stares at the bracer, Blackacre grumbles to himself as much as anyone else, He might be too shrewd to leave himself that vulnerable...but he would find it so amusing that he hid in our faces and we let him go, and it would give him great pleasure to think that he slipped through my fingertips yet again...
Don't stay too long. Have to get Hareton, too...
The Eternity Bracer is darkened, and no longer gives off a magical aura.
Where to... More madness waits for us somewhere. Somewhen.
I'm not 100% sure on rounds and minutes, but this might be a good time for the archons to wink out?
MM's expeditious retreat and mutagen are measured in minutes. Not sure if you want to wipe them too.
But this can't be it. Be on the lookout for small boxes, gems, amulets, small vials, briefcases, that sort of thing. Blackacre stows the bracer in his handy haversack. Perhaps it will lead us to Volst when our business is ended here. Let us find the doctor.
At this, the inquisitor gestures at the ice door Ianez had pointed out before Volst's (dis)appearance.
Yep - that'll kill expeditious retreat and the archons
"I will."
if we survive
With a sigh La Siréene summons a tiger, who consequently disappears.
La Siréene casts on herself.
"Let's go to Hareton."
... สิ่งที่เกี่ยวกับฉัน
Shadow Sibling?
ถ้าคุณมีสิทธิในสิ่งที่ฉันเป็นสิ่งที่ผิด, ความคิดที่ล้าสมัย ฉันจำเป็นต้องมีการเปลี่ยนแปลงที่จะพัฒนาขึ้น แต่ฉันไม่ทราบวิธีการ ผมไม่ทราบวิธีการที่จะมีชีวิตอยู่.
... La Siréene waits, taken aback.
คุณสามารถสอนฉัน-La Siréene-? คุณสามารถแสดงให้ฉันดูวิธีการเปลี่ยนวิธีการที่จะมีชีวิตอยู่
La Siréene smiles.
I am willing to try.
Your party makes their way around the edge of the icy ravine. Quinn takes point, Sandru walks protectively with Phoebe, Caromarc and Ianez confer with each other comparing notes, and Blackacre and the Mechanical Manservant follow behind, bringing up the rear. Elspeth glides through the ground, and La Siréene treads the air alongside. You reach the door beyond. The key fits perfectly, and with a push, it opens.
You step through into an entrance to sewers. You all hear a buzz. Welcome to the fourth level of the Tower Out of Time. Beware! Beware! You are now time displaced.
The sewers are a network of tunnels connected at points by nodes. The entrance to the sewers is one of these nodes. It branches off into two tunnels forming a 'V'. The walls are lined with brick and mortar. It is moist and dimly lit, though it's possible to walk around and make one's way forward. The water level is just above your ankles.
Down one tunnel, there is straw floating in the water, and splotches of blood.
You have been here before.
"Wait...this looks like where we met Hergelund. Sandru, go slowly; remember how good the dwarf is with traps."
The monk nods his head in agreement and stops short, allowing for Sandru to take point.
"I would expect the same kind of traps but it would be silly of us not to check for any new ones. Pheobe, stay close to me. Uncle Sandru needs to work."
Phoebe clutches the doll that Caromarc gave her and moves near Quinn. "I wonder if my sister is in here. She better be okay."
Scarecrow.... Cutlass and shield out, I walk cautiously. Peering into the unknown with the help of my goggles.
Quinn responds in a low whisper. "When all this is over, we are all going to go fishing, eat and dance. Hey kiddo....imagine Sandru dancing... what a sight. I'd pay money to see that." The monk's intention was only in hope to raise the girl's spirit.
Quinn tries to listen onto any background sounds.
Here and here, the trap's already sprung. Sounds like the old dwarf...
When you arrive at the alcove, you see Hergelund. He sits on the ground, waist high in the water, leaning back against the wall, short, stumpy legs splayed out in front of him. His pallor is waxen and pale. He nods forward, almost falling face-down into the muck. He stares listlessly into the dark. His breathing is labored...raspy and shallow. He does not notice you.
His crossbow and bolts lay next to him in the water.
Quinn... Talk to him.
...
Hergelund has two, small, tell-tale puncture marks on the side of his neck.
- The dwarf is under some sort of enslavement.
Ianez puts a restraining hand on the archer's shoulder. "Careful, Quinn. He's dominated somehow, and look at his neck."
"Dominated? Poor blighter. It never did make sense that he'd turn on the girls as he did. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do for him at the moment, but..."
The Earl pauses
"But I might know someone who can - at least for a while. Help at least - anyone got anything else that might help?"
"I could Suggest him to fight the Domination. It would still be his willpower doing the work, though."
Forcing someone to free themselves from control ...
Quinn slowly approaches the dwarf with bow and arrow in hand. When he is within 5 feet of the dwarf the monk says, "Hey there Short Stack. What's going on? You look pretty bad...worst than usual." The makes an attempt at levity but recoils back when seeing the wound.
Quinn looks to the others. "Can anyone do something for him?"
Hergelund raises his head, becomes slightly more alert. "Quinn?" he asks. "Quinn, my boy, is't you?" He coughs, and continues to look around, unseeing. "I want ta come clean about things. Alright then...I faked me own kidnapping. Went on ahead. Figured t'was on my shoulders to defeat Hareton. Thought ah could do the job. Couldn't trust it ta you and yer friends. Too risky. Too much risk."
"Tried to stay one step ahead of ye. Even beat ye to the tower when y'all summoned it. I snuck in." He shrugs. "Was in...bat form..."
A memory (of Ianez's) outside the tower... A swarm of bats flaps around the tower with high-pitched squeaks, but they are higher up and seem to be ignoring you.
"Was going to wait 'til yer group got the hour hand, then clobber ye senseless, and go on myself to fight Hareton. But I'm only one dwarf, ye'd be right to point out." He frowns. "Am embarrassed to say, I did something...ah, Quinn! I did the unthinkable! I went to the enemy! I...I got meself mixed up with..." He can't bring himself to say it. "With undead! With vampires!" he wails in his degradation and shame.
He looks up at the monk. "Oh, Quinn! What did I do? I let 'em bite me. Now I'm their thrall and turning into a vampire meself!"
Blood flushes into his pupils. They turn bright red. "Maybe it's not too late!" He reaches out for Quinn, but misses and clutches only the empty darkness. "Get me the hour hand! Ye and yer friends." His incisors sharpen and elongate slightly. He smiles deliriously, as if in a fever dream. His speech loses some of its dwarvish brogue, and becomes slightly more smooth and aristocratic. "Yes. Yes. Quinn, that's it. That's what you must do. Get me the hour hand, and let me obtain my glory."
Would MM think that an injection of Lesser Restoration might buy Hergelund some time?
"Move aside!" the Mansevant demands, pushing Quinn away, something small and sharp in the tool-sprouting metal mayhem that pass as hands.
A sudden movement with irresistible strength punches into the dwarf
using a shot of "mixed antivenoms, antivirals, antibacterials and various synthetic gland secretions" - ie potion of lesser restoration.