"No magic. 'Cept the church." he said as he watched everything around them. "We should get them down... but we also shouldn't. They might also be trapped in some way... I have no idea." Neri sighed. "I think I'm beginning to believe in evil by association, though.."
Neri frowned. "Church is pretty much glowing with pure magic. So... it's still a bugzapper, maybe. I don't really know." Neri shrugs. "Keep scouting, or go get everyone else, do you think?" His eyes kept invariably going back to the people on the stakes, when he wasn't specifically concentrating on something else.
"If anything was going to attack us it would have by now, double check for traps then we'll head back, Let the bodies rest for now we can move them later if they aren't trapped."
Neri nodded, continuing through the town with detect magic active, checking each house as they came to it, and then letting Luna check for more mundane things. Repeating for the inn and the gopher tannery... Neri steers clear of the church, for now.
While they wait for Luna and Neri to scout the village, Lina realizes that she's never actually had a proper conversation with the newcomers. Maybe Minestria's contempt for everything had influenced her more than she had thought.
With the Message spell up, it's easy to chat while still standing guard. "So, I never mentioned," Lina begins, "But the Priest of Demonreach had these magic earrings, which make the wearer a bit more persuasive. I'm... more brusque, without them, and tend to frighten people. But since Johnny's magic appears to be powered by smiles and friendship, he might find them useful... though we'd have to pierce his ears, probably with fishhooks or something. Or we could put a similar enchantment on that hatband, if you're not up for that."
"Meanwhile, Liisa and Johnny, you're both members of the team now, so we should probably reach some kind of moral consensus. There's three evil 'gods' running this world, though they're probably more like us, with more powerful gems. One's a god of war and torture, one's a god of death and cruelty, and one's a god of healing and farms. We've only met one priest, of the death god, and he had an entire village enslaved and tortured solely because of their ancestry. When we freed his villagers, half of them cursed us, the other half went back with us through the wall—that's Mahb and her crew, and they're not real happy, but they weren't before, either."
"Neri and I think we might be able to gain more power for our gems by killing other priests, but we don't know. If we head towards more settled lands, we'll probably need to blend in—but if we find another small enslaved town, we might want to try and be friendlier to the villagers (they thought we were 'demons'), or ambush the priest before he has time to curse them all, and take him out. I don't think any of us wants to kill a priest of the healing god, if we can avoid it, but the other priests... I don't know. They seem to be the worst villains we've met so far in the world."
"I think, with my new kung-fu skills, if I could sneak up to a simple backwater priest I could wrestle him to the ground and have him in cuffs before he can cast any serious spells. The last priest used magic to force his villagers to attack us, and your new magic would go a long way towards harmlessly disabling them. But I wouldn't mind getting opinions now on deadly force, and how liberal you want to be with it against priests, etc., if it means taking them out before they can do much harm—I don't want to run into conflicts later."
Johnny tugs one ear, thinking. "It's not really my style, but...I suppose I could be up for trying it. I've heard of some guys doing it before. Peacocking it, I think it was called. As for the priests, I think I'd like to talk to some people to make sure that priest wasn't a fluke and the rest are just as bad. If they are just as bad...well..." He shifts, uncomfortable. "I guess it's best to take them out before they kill a lot of people."
If I get strong enough, I'm sure I could convince them to join us. But is that really any better? Maybe I can just avoid getting into confrontations. Or we could try just avoiding the priests.
As Lina talks to the group, Neri and Luna move into the village, and begin to examine the bodies.
...the body on the northern most pole is Sterling...
...the body on the southern most pole is Harry...
They are all predated by animals and insects. They are covered in maggots, and rotting to high heaven. Their bodies are so damaged that it's difficult to tell males from females, or who they were when alive. The smell is only bearable because of the open air.
A sudden booming sound echos over the village center, followed by metallic footsteps.
"Well now, Commander. You see, patience is rewarded. I told the others that the demons would return to revel in their handywork. And now I have two more to exterminate." A chill voice carries through the village center. From the church steps five people. Four are guards in church livery, with the church symbol on their chests.
The fifth is a young girl, in her mid teens by appearances. Her eyes are icy blue, and stare out at Neri and Luna with a piercing gaze. The air around the woman shimmers as she walks, and small bits of dirt and chips of concrete loosened in the fight with the priest bounce and float erratically around her, as if too disturbed by her presence to obey gravity's demands. A cloud of ice crystals also floats around her, and coats the ground where she walks. "I do hope these two taste as good as the last two..."
The girl carries a strange looking double edged and serrated sword in one slim hand. She raises it to point at Neri and Luna, with the other hand, she begins writing in the air. "Cold Wind Blow, Icy Flow Chill, North Wind Howl, Heaven's Cry!" The sword turns icy, and a blast of ice fires down the sword's edge and strikes directly between Neri and Luna. The ball of ice expands, exploding into frozen shrapnel.
...a fireball.. but with ice instead of fire...
...with Rime as an added suckyness...
...and some mythic nastyness just to add to the suck...
"A needle should do the trick - I bet we could even find one in this village. Had a friend that did it with a fish hook - the barb made quite a number on his ear. Now, what wasn't quite planned really ... Ready to join the fashionable crowd, Johnny?"
Liisa winks at him with her left eye, whose eyebrow is pierced, and laughs softly. She savoured the joke, and the opportunity to think about the rest of Lina's words. Damn, that is evil all right... But could I *kill* someone? Her joyous expression faded and she bit her lip. After a long moment and a progressively more pained expression, she nodded.
"All right, if they are even half as bad as you say, I'll do what it takes. Try to anyway ..."
Johnny uses his sleeves to turn his clothes briefly back in to something closer to what he'd normally wear. Straightening his tie he asks, "You sayin' I'm not already fashionable dollface?" His gives her a wink before turning his clothes back to what they were.
Unaware of what was going on in the village, he adds in a more sober tone. "We should probably steer clear of the priests until we're stronger or have a good plan though."
Liisa grins again. "Shush now, there is always room for improvement!"
She lifts up Fluffy to pet him while she wait for their scouts return.
"Yeah, just running into them on a whim would suck. Hard."
"Eh... I can always hold onto the earrings. Make myself a bit more tolerable, et cetera."
And suddenly, Litilgandr starts tapping his tail, and Lina feels confusing in her mind.
"Quiet! She hisses. Something bad is happening. We should check on the village."
Lina reacts immediately, taking a double move (the old her would have just ran, but she's more cautious now) which brings her to the edge of the map. There's a hut in the way, keeping her from seeing the girl clearly and possibly providing some cover, but she is able to react quickly enough to at least let the others know what's happened.
"Soldiers, in the distance, by the church!" she whispers to Johnny and Liisa, "And some kind of... ice shards?"
"Soldiers, in the distance, by the church!" Lina whispers to Johnny and Liisa, "The barricade's stopping us from getting to our allies, but if you can find a way up the building..."
Johnny moves towards the village, whispering to Liisa. "Lees, you can probably get there the fastest. I can make you climb or jump good, which'll it be?"
Ah... in that case, Lina's whisper to Johnny and Liisa will mention that the barricade might be hard to leap, and a spell to help climb buildings could be easier (or, depending on the height of the house, Liisa could vault it instead).
"Luna, get out." Neri says even as he's starting to turn his more delicate parts away from the blast as ice crusts over him. "Strong magic." comes out in a pained gasp as the stuff digs into his flesh.
"Over walls. Get others." he says low, as he zooms into cover from the woman, stripped of his greatest defenses... his speed and his ability to cast.
Luna doesn't seem to notice their old allies bodies as she focuses on the church when the woman comes out and casts Luna barely manages to dodge but unlike Neri She isn't effected at all. "You're faster you get them, I'll keep them busy." Luna runs up the side of the barricade standing on top of it she throws a bomb at the crowd aiming for the caster and she vanishes before the detonation finishes.
V touch
5 Damage to everyone in aoe
**Edit**
The girl's hand flicks out and grabs the bomb as it comes in, and ice explodes as the bomb does. When the smoke clears, the girl appears unharmed. Indeed, she's now wearing sheet's of ice over her cloak that sparkle in the afternoon light.
The two guards on either side of her cough and seem to have cuts on their faces and hands, so the bomb apparently affected them.
The guards go into motion, racing for the entrance to the village. Two double move, the other two run.
[dice=stealth]1d20+40+12 -> 53
"Climb - I just need to get my head over the wall to see ..."
Liisa whispers back and takes off into a sprint. This was the first time she had ran in full armour, and it did slow her down considerably. Still, she reached the wall somewhat quickly.
Johnny runs forwards for catch up with his companions.
Neri successfully climbs the first section of building, but then fails on the second half, almost, but not quite, falling (missed by 4 instead of 5).
Neri's used both movements, and is now standing on the roof of the shorter building, next to the larger one.
That's acceptable, too. Still drop prone, so frost has to deal with cover if she slings spells his way.
.
Lina pulls herself up the barricade, crosses the top, and tumbles down the other side, doing what she can as she falls to avoid too many swords.
Lina dances towards the one enemy in sight, moving quickly (though there's no sign of Neri or Luna, which is troubling), drawing her bow and firing a single shot.
Bodies, everywhere. No time to think. And then she charges, drawing her hooked lance as she does so, and swings her foot at the girl's solar plexus as hard as she can.
Lina leaps over the barricade, but the swords and spikes take their toll for her passing.
The arrow flies straight and true and hits the girl in the chest.
...a metallic sound as the arrow penetrates the cloak...
The girl grimaces from the hit. Lina then drives her fist into the the girl's chest, and it's like hitting a brick wall.
-14
"She's... armored?" Lina calls out, loudly, though she is now outside the range of the Message spell.
The girl looks at Lina. "I see, a third demon. Tasty I hope." She holds out her hand, and it stabs at the air as she writes on air, leaving a frosty outline behind. "Screaming Wind of Ice, Cracking of an Avalanche, Spray of Frost!"
Her sword whips around in an arc in front of Lina, and a spray of ice floods a 15 ft cone in front of the girl with Lina as it's focus.
The girl doesn't leave an opening as she casts, her eyes focused squarely on Lina's, icy shards surrounding them.
Lina casually sidesteps the spray of ice, scowling with quiet rage.