Tio, along with Lagun, begin a massive assault against Horrik. Time after time they pound the young noble man, yet only one blow lands on him. Tio is a bit perplexed as it seems the blow would have damaged Horrik more than appears.
Horrik once again tries to smash the astral construct into bits with his huge hammer.
The man is finally able to land a solid blow that causes a spray of crystalline shards to fly across the room. Lagun chest is cracked in multiple places and one appendage is hanging limply by its side, but the construct still stands, ready to do battle.
Tio, looking frustrated, and Lagun, indifferent, continue their assault upon their resilience foe, Lagun's frail, disjointed arm discporating into aether as he swings with the other fist.
Kazushi groans softly, clearly in agony.
Aidan continues his onslaught, sending another blade into Horrik.
Tio, Lagun and Aidan continue their massive assault against Horrik. Lagun lands with a slam as does one of Aidan's blades. Horrik grunts in pain, but both attacks seem to not damage the man as much as the caravan guards would have thought. Kazushi continues to lay dying on the floor.
Horrik once again tries to smash the astral construct into bits with his huge hammer.
The man shatters Lagun before moving closer to Tio.
Kazushi groans softly, clearly still in agony.
"Tio, look out!"
Aidan steps further inside the house, launching two more blades and trying to distract Horrik.
Aiden, worried for his friends, launches his blades as quickly as he can. First one thunks in close to Horrik's heart. Then another. Bleeding profusely, Horrik's face turns an ashen grey as blood pools beneath him. Again Aidan would have thought that they attack would have caused more damage than it did.
Kazushi breath is coming in rapid gasps as the room grows colder still.
Even as Lagun is shattered, Tio starts trying to rebuild him, taking a step back from the juggernaut as he stitches the threads of astral fluff together once more. "Running out of room here...." he mutters, sweat beading at his brow.
Tio summons a new astral companion. Lagun II, who immediately swings out at Horrik. Unaccustomed to life on this plane, its otherworld senses are off and misses Horrik wildly.
Horrik steps forward and strikes out at the soulknife, trying to repay him for the beating he just gave him.
Trying for power over accuracy, Horrik barely misses Aidan.
The caravan guards cannot tell if Kazushi is still breathing.
[dice= Stabilise] 1d20 +2
Another flurry flies from the fists of the new Lagun, hopefully a little more accustomed to life on the plane, as Tio pumps energy into the point of impact.
Aidan back away from Horrik and sends more blades flying into the enemy.
And with that, Horrik falls to the floor bleeding profusely. His warhammer tumbles from his limp grasp and rolls to a stop a few feet away from him.
Aidan checks on Kazushi but is unable to see anything except that she is badly wounded.
"You know anything about healing?" he asks Tio.
" Not a thing, Aiden, He says, though he takes a quick look anyway, finding little helpful. He sighs as he stands, and says, " I don't have any way to heal her, either."
"Well then, let's go search the house," Aidan then carries Kazushi on the sofa in front of the fireplace and goes upstairs. He also checks on Horrik - just in case.
As the Caravan guards spread out and begin to search the house, the stumble upon a room. In that room are Morris and Simon, their fellow caravan guards. Both are bound, but well kept.
In a different room sits a bewildered caravan master on a bed. He looks at you, sees you, but doesn't seem to quite realize who you are.
Aidan frees both of the guards.
"You all right? Can you walk?"
The Morris and Simon look at their former friends. Morris is first to speak. "We are. We are. What the hell happened to us? Where are we? I am a little better off than Simon, but we are ok." he glances to his brother who still has his eyes closed and is moaning softly.
"Long story short - you were captured as a sacrifice to keep something locked up in the mine. If you're all right, than I think Tio and I will explore the house further. There are some weapons downstairs and wounded Kazushi."
Kazushi re-appears, moving slowly and showing rather too much blood. She looks pleased to see Morris and Simon saying:-
"I am glad to see you two alive. I had feared you were killed by House Daurran, though you would have been if House Daurron was left undisturbed as Aidan says.
I have been thinking while I was staggering here. I believe that despite the methods House Daurran were using to keep, whatever it is, contained in the mine, they were right to keep it contained. Now we have stopped them maintaining the containment, we must try to find a way of doing so that does not involve sacrificing people and keeping a whole town mind controlled to do so.
I suggest we search this building for more hints about the thing contained and the barrier. And I suggest people other than me do the.. Ah.. searching, I am not at my most mobile. Then we can have a further look at the journal, examine anything we find here and interrogate Horrick. Then we can see if we can contrive a solution.
Morris, Simon and the caravan master all express their gratitude. On the road to recovery, the caravan master addresses his former employees.
"Boys, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for me. The best decision I ever made was hiring you. This is quite a mess we landed in here, one that frankly I want to stay away from as much as I can. Soon as I am able, I am pushing out of here. I got some of that Phrenoric ore. Heading to Arbil in the Ophid Protectorate. Something is going on there, and they seem to be devoid of numerous metals lately. Going to make a tidy profit, and I'd be happy to cut you all in. What do you say?"
As Kazushi and the others search the house, they cannot find anything that explains the green slime, or any other information in the stanchions.
Horrik has dropped his warhammer, and he and the two guards wait patiently for the barrage of questions he is sure will come their way.
"So, no information," sums up Aidan. "Should we question Horrik more thoroughly?"
Kazushi speaks softly to her companions so others cannot hear:-
"Certainly. I propose to leave the room and try to use the Charm Person spell on him. This is hardly the best time to use it as I suspect Horrick may be harboring some childish resentment over us breaking into House Daurran, threatening to annihilate it, looting it and slicing him up a bit. But it might help a bit. I want to question him in detail about the thing in the mine and what is being used to hold it in check. We will probably have to offer him something in return for his co-operation. Thoughts gentlemen?"
"We might offer him to keep this a secret from the villagers," suggests Aidan. "Other than that I don't really know what we can offer him."
"This one thinks that the townspeople should decide his fate. Free their minds, let them make of him what they will. Had this one to decide, it would be his life's blood, his soul in the stanchion. It is not for this one to decide, however. It is for those he has wronged to decide." Kenax spits on the floor.
Kazushi nods somewhat grimly at Kenax's words. She then moves so she can see Horrick but Horrick cannot see her, probably with Kazushi behind a mostly closed door. She then casts Charm Person on Horrick, enters the room and says to him:-
"Horrick, we want to know everything about what that thing in the mine is and how you are containing it and how the containment process works. And how you were mind controlling the local people. You may think we are the last people in the world you want to help. But think again, all the locals will get free of your mind control soon. You have enslaved them and sacrificed many of their friends and family. I don't know what they will do to you if they have their way, but I would think if they just kill you you should be grateful. Give us a reason to protect you from them!"
Horrik sits on the ground, nursing his wounds and lamenting his new found station in life. He is ruing the day that the particular caravan pulled into Jace's Stanchio when a warmness begins to spread through him. He turns to see Kazushi and beams a radiant smile at the fox-like creature.
"Horrik, we want to know everything about what that thing in the mine is and how you are containing it and how the containment process works. And how you were mind controlling the local people."
"Well." he starts as his pearly white teeth gleam at the caravan guards, "My ancestors were mining Phrenoric ore, and they encountered the slime. Did you see it? it is horribly, dreadfully frightening. Well Jace, you know the founder, figured out that if he installed these stanchions as an oblation, it kept the slime at bay. Well the stanchions don't last forever, they grow weaker as the life force of the psionic individual ebbs. So he needed to create more and more stanchions to strengthen the oblation.
"So the stanchion feed off the psionic power of whomever is placed in it. To counteract the sadness and loss people would feel at sacrificing their loved ones, we remove the memory from them. It is an imperfect procedure. Too much emotion is involved for it to work perfectly. But it allows only a few to be sacrificed, for the greater good.
"The caravan master's mind has been altered. He, subconsciously, knows to hire psionic individuals and bring them here to Jace's Stanchion. Your friends, Morris and Simon, were to be placed in newly created stanchions to strengthen the oblation.
"As for the how, it is a simple matter for ones like us. You will recognize it as you will see memories in you head, as clear and meaningful as the day you are there. That is your chance to resist or fight back. If not, they pop like a bubble of soap and are gone forever."
"Give us a reason to protect you from them!"
Horrik laughs. "What would you have us do? Hold a lottery and have the populace live in fear every day of their lives hoping they don't get picked? Move? Leave everything? People here have cemeteries that go back four, five generations. This is all they know, all they ever want to know. Expose the truth, and you will see their minds shatter. They won't be able to handle the raw emotion of their losses. And then it will be a problem you created and you can solve.
"You are strangers here. What is it you wish to accomplish? You can take your friends, your stolen ore, and leave and never to return." He looks imploringly at you.
"This one is now torn. He would like to feed that one to the town, to the slime, to the stanchions, but he would also like to destroy the slime. Bring the mountain down on it. Its people can find new industry, but lives can not be traded for ore." Kenax looks angry still, and very uncertain of how to proceed. He looks to the rest of the group for better ideas. "This one still feels in favor of slaughtering the one called Horrik, of course."
"I have no idea how we can destroy the mine," Aidan spreads his arms helplessly. "We can try to break the supporting beams, but we have to that from distance, or else we'll be buried. Burn them, maybe?"
Kazushi thinks for a moment and then speaks to her companions out of earshot of their captives, saying:-
"I don't suppose any of you know anything much about mining or engineering? I am afraid I do not. I do, however, have a plan. We go back to the mine, taking these three with us. Along with the two still tied up at the mine, that gives us five sla... assistants to use for labor. With us, nine in all, and we have rope. We should be able to pull out the structural supports for the mine. That should neatly seal off the slime for all eternity. Then we lyn... ah, convene a suitable court from the villagers to try Horrick and his henchmen. Finally, we join our former employees new caravan and hopefully reap some financial reward from all this. How does that sound?"
"This one is in agreement with you, Kazushi. While it is agreed that destroying the mine would harm the town, they can farm or find other work. I am also taking these picks and other items as payment for my trouble. Not all of it, however, let us leave some supplies that the town may have industry and turn it to farming or what have you. Or leave to find a new home." Kenax agrees.
The caravan guards approach Horrik and his house guards. Propping them up, the caravan guards walk their prisoners back to the mine and the tied up guards.
At the entrance to the mine Horrik, and the four House Duarran guards are all tied up. They watch the caravan guards afix ropes to the support beams. They are smart enough to deduce what the caravan guards mean to do.
"You think to collapse the mine. You will destroy Jace's Stanchion. With no ore, we have no income. What is your purpose here?"
"Were you asked a question? You are prisoners and unarmed, if we say pull, you ask which direction. Understand?"
"I suggest you listen to us," Aidan manifests his panoply of blades.
"The choice is yours, meatlings, whether you are in the mine or not when we bring it down," Kenax adds.
Cowed into helping out, the men and women get to work burying the entrance to the mine.
The next day begins like any other in Jace's Stanchion. The sun rises and warms the dew off the grass. House Duarran guards round up the populace, including the dromites from the colony. They all gather in the town square.
Much, if not all of the populace is gathers around a hastily constructed platform at the northeast corner of the square. Flanking Horrik, you watch as he steps onto it. Turning back around to glance at you, he nods then turns to the people of Jace's Stanchion.
Meanwhile, just past the church, you can see the caravan master finishing loading the last of the ore onto his carts, as Morris and Simon assist him.
As Horrik pats both arms down to quite the crowd, he begins to address them in a loud clear voice. "Citizens of Jace's Stanchion. Today is a day unlike any other. As you know my uncle Odafin is away and had left me to coordinate House Duarran to keep us all safe.
"There is danger here in Jace's Stanchion, a deadly danger that threatens us all." he pauses to catch his breath and wet his lips with a pull from his waterskin.
"These men wish to kill me, and take over Jace's Stanchion." he turns and points at you all.
"Help me chase these men out of here to protect our town, our homes, our lives!"
Deciding discretion is the better part of valor, the caravan guards exit Jace's Stanchion with their loot.
Please check in to the new game play thread.