Alandra is on her knees shaking when the episode ends.
That weas horrible. But its still here, we need to find a way..."
Anya, white as a sheet, took a sharp, halting breath and grabbed the side of the cabin for support. Her mind was reeling from the vision, she felt a burning in her throat as if she either had thrown up recently or was about to. Her hand was shaking. "Just a dream... Just a dream... just a dream..." She whispered, while biting her lip again and again just to force the last bits of the vision from her mind.
Despite just being a phantasm, the effect had chilled her.
"Tristan is out there, somewhere. We need to find him." Despite her sorry state, she was able to put a little bit of authority to her voice. "We start where he lost his doll."
Lev shakes his head, trying to dislodge the weight of the memories and sensations that have settled over him. Finally he comes back to himself, feeling the weight of the toy in his hand.
"That bastard." He mutters, feeling a dull pulse of pain in his head that matches the beat of anger rising in his chest. "He didn't deserve such an easy death."
Using the anger to keep him moving, he returns to the search of the house.
Lev
For those searching around the house (but not near the axe)
DC 12 Perception
For those investigating the axe (within 5 feet of it)
A heavy blow to your back makes you grunt and it feels as if the breath has been knocked form your lungs. Looking down you see the heshen shirt pushing out from your chest as if some sharp object had been caught in the fibres and was tugging at the garment. Confusion rolls through your mind as a pain begins to spread through your back and lungs like wild fire, even as you see a spreading patch of blood soak into your shirt.
Turning you see three men approaching from the trees, their bows strung and arrows nocked. You grab the axe, realising they mean to murder you and begin to move towards them but another arrow sinks deep into your side with agoising results. Still you stagger on, blood dribbling from you lips and you every breath tearing more of your lungs apart around the shaft of the arrow buried there. You are only ten feet from teh now, but every step is an agony, every breath sprays blood. You try to lift the axe and charge, but the centre man, the one with the beard (He died on teh hangmans noose, but how can you know that?) looses another shaft into your stomach. Your legs go cold and the ground rushes up to meet you even as a horse scream comes from your lips. You can hear them laughing now and you want to kill them all before they can find your beloved wife and son. A man leans over you (Happs and his damnable dagger and stag pendant. Why is that something you know?). His dagger is held in his hand now and it moves towards you, touching your neck and moveing down above you heart. With a grunt he drves it through the bone there and impales the beating muscle in the blade of knife. Your life fades and all you can see is the damned pendant and knife blade. you reach for the axe....
For those going to check the area where the doll was found
DC 16 perception (raining and difficult ground to search)
Additionally, a scarp of fur seems to have caught int he briar here. It has the appearence of having been in the brush for quite some time, and whatever it came from must have been desperate to get through for the fur has skin attatched.
Arianna, visibly pale, squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head as if to dislodge the memory. With a muttered "Animals" she steps outside of the cabin. She will walk around to the window and look in the direction she saw the boy run. Mustering her courage she heads off in that direction.
Percerption Check:
Instinctively seeking refuge from those memories, still taking deep breaths, Elsebth takes some steps out of the cabin,toward the axe she was so curious about. Maybe searching some support to sit on or maybe because she still wants to know if there is something about the wood-cutting tool she reaches for the axe.
Elsbeth
[ooc}Last post before I depart, good to see you back Arianna. Cheers[/ooc]
As soon as she touch the axe, Elsbeth freezes for some secs, her eyes widely open, staring at the trunk with the axe.Then it happens: she is thrown forward by some mysterious force,her legs barely move but her chest is pushed down then up again, she screams.Her arms cross in front of her, like to protect the breasts, she turns around and is suddenly struck by another invisible foes.This time her torso is pulled down from the head which almost reaches her knees, then the legs bent on themselves and she falls on the ground; she gives another scream while feeling like someone in kneeling on her stomach.She starts to kick the grass and out in the air, her left hand closing on her throat while the right takes the first thing she can think of to defend herself, feeling the pummel of a knife she pulls it out and slashes at mid air, again crying "Let go of me , DON'T TOUCH MEEEEEEEE "
It finished in a moment like it started; Elsbeth lays in the grass, breathing desperately, faster as she ever did, tears rolls down her cheeks.She touches her throat, her chest and stomach and finds no blood, no wound, pain is gone.
" This is it!!!! I have had enough of this place" she cry.
Mawj looks around, not quite knowing what to make of the entire episode. "Was that it? Are we finished here? I hate things like this..."
Anya shook her head as she moved past Mawj, her steps still shaky and smaller than the confident strides she usually takes. "No. We need to find Tristan, or this place will remain as horrible as it is, and probably draw in even worse things. It's already cursed, and that won't be better if the let the child die."
She lowered her body besides elsbeth, bend way down into the knees. Her hand touched the ground, both for her own support and because the feeling of dirt somehow grounded her in reality. "Elsbeth... I... are you..." she stopped, shut her mouth. She wasn't really sure what to say, found no words to express a meaning that eluded her the more she tried to chase it. Was she going to tell her everything was going to be alright? But how could she say that?
Her eyes still filled with tears, Elsbeth tries to stand up, her hands searching for Anya's.
"Help me up please" she whispers, her entire body still trembling for the shock while the young swordswoman helps her getting on her feet.
"I'll be alright if just someone takes me to the estate of my family right now. And i mean it"
Arianna, already fearing the worst, walks slowly into the woods calling out, softly, "Tristan. Come out, come out, whever you are."
Lev pulls out the two pouches and speaks quietly to the emptiness of the room.
"The three of you will be remembered," he says. "We'll see that you're put to rest and properly buried. This I vow."
Alandra also searches the house.
"What did you find? And what are you going to do?"
Anya kept Elsbeth's hand a moment longer than strictly necessary, and squeezed it without hurthing too much. Despite her training, she wasn't too strong, and had good command of the strength she had.
"You don't. You don't run half across the world to give up now. It was a dream, a phantom. There was no IT. Just this cursed place, and those dead seeking revenge." She ushered the rival back towards her brother, for the moment ceasing her endless planning and thinking and considering of contingencies. "Happs is dead. We killed him. Vengeance is our specialty. Let's see if we can't save a life for a change."
She twisted her lips into the approximation of a smile, even though it died on the way to her eyes, which did not lose the haunted look one bit. Yet as always, she kept on doing - thinking would come too soon anyway.
"Just give me a moment please. I'm hurt everywhere <COUGH>"
Elsbeth passed her left hand on her face, and felt dust and tears and dirt all mixed together.She had a mental image of what her face must look like at the moment.
"Holy Calistria, i must really be charming now.You know, you could find it funny, but it is terribly humiliating for me to be seen like this"
She bit her mouth a bit "but i'm grateful to you, thanks Anya"
"I suppose I would be a malevolent haunt as well, given the circumstances. A proper burial and a few prayers should go a long way towards making things right." Mawj will search around the house, looking for a shovel.
Lev straightens and looks over at Alandra. "The people that lived here left a stash of coin and jewels. Presumnably their life's savings. I guess their spirits prevented Happs and his people from finding it. I was just telling them -- if they are listening -- that they will not be forgotten."
Mawj finds a spade just inside the walls of the wood shed. It seems to be functional, if someone rusted from lack of use. While she has the shovel, she has not at this stage found any bodies to bury.
She notices Elsbeth and Anya moving cautiously away from the woodsmans axe, which is now lying discarded on the ground near the tree stump. The two women have just finished a conversation and Elsbeth's face looks a little puffy from the tears she's obvioulsy been shedding. The Elf moves across to the women and stands quietly while Lev and Alandra walk out the door of the house. Lev is carrying two money pouches in his hand, and has a thoughtful expression on his face.
Arianna comes out of the woods having searched for a few moments without success. She walks a little dejectedly back to the group who have now all gathered near the front of the house. Things seemed quiet now, with even the rain having died back to just the odd drop falling from its accumulation amongst the leaves of the forest canopy.
"We should probably continue searching the grounds," Lev says to Alandra and leaves the room.
He exits the house from the rear and searches the general area out there.
"We certainly do need to see that these two find a better rest beneath the ground. They've suffered enough. And if we could find the boy..." He falls silent. Looking around for a few moments, he saw Anya comforting Elsbeth, shook his head and walks over to where the axe was, mindful of the visions he'd already experienced.
His face drawn into a rictus of pain as Lev comes out of the vision, he touches his side where he'd felt the second arrow strike, fully expecting to find blood there. "That was certainly...unpleasant. Useful though, in a way. Now I know what the pain of death can be like, perhaps I'll be more prepared for it when my time comes." Despite his calm manner of speech, the white pallor of his skin suggests that he took the experience more personally than he intended to let on.
He turns to Anya. "I'm going to go search the area where we found the doll and see if I can learn anything more."
Returning to the area, he kneels near where he found the doll and examines the ground there carefully.
"In my...distraction...before, I missed this." He points out the fur to any who are there to see it. "But that isn't as strange as this print. It's not that of the child and it's fairly recent. Hmm."
Still dazed, Elsbeth reach out for the knife she used during the "assault"
"Did you see the same nice play as me Lev ? Thinking better on it, i believe it was this blade i took after our first showdown at Oleg's"
Her voice now trembles "I...I...believe it really saved my life...i felt the ....pain....the wound....they was so real....excuse me..." she then hides her face with her hands.
Arianna returns to the group, dejectedly, and says "I couldn't find a trace of the boy in the woods" She joins the others in their search of the grounds. Coming upon the grisly scene she calls out to Mawj " I think we found a use for that shovel" She then turns to Alandra " I think that a few words might help ease their passage"
Mawj begins digging a single large hole. "I am fairly certain that they will not mind being buried as a family. Digging individual graves would take too long with this small trowel."
Lev
Luckily for you there's two things to stop you being hurt - Firstly, now that Elsbeth has triggered it and repressed it using Happs dagger, it isn't actually active for another day. Technically you didn't see the vision, but I'm not going to retcon that because it was good roleplay from you, poor instructions from me.
Secondly, if I remember correcty Lev has the stag head emblem from Happs still, and that is the one I'm discussing.
So at this stage, let's accept that you saw the vision but haven't actually taken the real damage. I think it would be unfair of me to punish you for your good roleplay and my bad communication. Hope that's ok by you.
Cheers
Alandra makes her way to the group behind the house and sees the remains of the two homesteaders. She helps as she can with the digging of the grave, and when it is finished she says a prayer for each of the two bodies.
"May Pharasma finally ease the way for your souls to find peace on the plane it is destined for."
All that sounds great to me. I'm glad I got things mostly right! Also glad the roleplay is coming through well enough. I went back through the thread to double-check the status of the stag head emblem and though there is no clear statement as to who actually has it, Lev mentioned carrying it a couple of times and it makes sense that he has it still. So that certainly works. Anyway, thanks for keeping the vision intact as is; I rather enjoyed roleplaying it out.
Lev nods. "In a sense. I experienced it, rather than saw it. It was quite a...vivid experience. Unpleasant to be sure."
Forcing herself to stop the weeping, trying to clean her face with leaves and her own skirt, Elsbeth after 1 or 2 minute was more or less again calm enough. "Well, i saw a man using me as a target for his arrows, while two of his comrades hit me with hatchets and knives in the belly, i felt them sitting on me, ripping my clothes off my skin and opening my flesh.One of them was that bloody bastard named Happs, i'm pretty sure"
She has to breath deeply here "I'm sorry you had to see me in such conditions, but i don't think <unpleasant> is what i felt, but much, much more"
"I could have really died if not for this blade ; everything stopped when i unsheathed it"
With the two homesteaders now interred together, the small party begins the search for Tristan, either the boy himself or his remains. Given the murders of his parents happened in the Autumn, and it is now spring, very few of the explorers hold much hope of finding the boy alive.
Lev and Mawj again scout ahead, moving naturally through the scrub as ones born to life in the woods, while the rest follow behind as best they can. Lev and Mawj both identify the track as belonging to a kobold, and it was recently in the area too, maybe an hour or so before the group arrived to search the house. As they move through the thickets and trees, more of the little dragon men footprints appear here and there, possibly 8 or 9 of the little men, most likely a hunting party.
The woods seem to lighten and become less forlorn as the group moves away from the hut, and more natural sounds begin to fill the air. Birds whistle in the distance and insects buzz loudly now the rain has stopped falling. A strong smell reaches the group, something rotting in the undergrowth. As they push the foliage aside, a small kobold corpse becomes visible, its body seemingly mangled from some creature. A little way ahead, another corpse can be seen
DC 10 Heal or DC12 knowledge nature
Survival DC 12 or Heal DC12
The kobolds have been stripped of their gear, recently by the looks of the tracks around them. Even as they are going over the corpses, a terrible howl erupts from ahead in the scrub, followed by a childs scream. Both noises sound close.
With quite voice"Seems like we found the boy, or rather a boy;and seems like we have to hurry"
Elsbeth follows the others in the back lines.
"It's alright. We are all out of sorts occasionally." Anya replied, playfully nudging Elbeth's shoulder. She really wasn't too good with these situations herself, and the grave feeling, the horror had scarcely left her.
Heal
Heal
Anya was just about to comment on the curious kobold corpse, when the scream cut all the thoughts short. She darted towards the source without giving half a second thought about fae mischief or just plain traps.
Lev frowned. "That's strange. My experience was solely limited to that of the man's death. I felt nothing of the woman." He shrugged and moved on.
"Strange. First all the Kobold tracks, and now some of them lie dead? I wonder--" His words are cut off by the scream. Like Anya, he hurried toward the sound, drawing his greatsword as he went.
Survival
Knowledge (nature)
"The bodies are at least three days old, from the smell and state of decay. Hearing the scream, Mawj nocks an arrow and runs toward the source.
At the sound of the scream Arianna's head snaps around "The boy!" she shouts even as she thinks to herself "impossible"
"It must be another one! Let's go!" Alandra follows after the rest.
As she follows the other toward the source of the shout Aianna pulls her twin short swords and prepares for trouble.
As the party rushes headlong into the forest they are heedless of the noise they make. Ahead of them, the sounds of yowling and snarling can be heard, interspersed with small yipping barks and high pitched screams. Above it all the sounds of the childs screams cover everything.
The noise grows to a crescendo just as the party reach the scene of battle.
In a small patch of less tangled forest, a large and ancient wolf stands surrounded by kobolds. The great creature snarls and snaps at it's aggressors, great ribbons of saliva flying as the jaws move in vicious arcs through the air, trying to grasp one of the creatures. The little dragon men seem to have tangled the wolf in some form of sticky meshing and are standing back, pelting it with sling stones and dashing in to stab it with long spears. As the party emerge from deeper in the woods, one of these kobolds at the back turns towards them, its eyes opening wide and screams a warning in their barking little language.
Even as one group does this, a second, smaller group has circled behind it to where a tangle of deadfall and tree roots have formed a natural cave. Inside, a small boy, no more than 4 years of age is screaming with each attack the kobolds make. He throws small rocks and is waving a stick in his hands, trying to keep the approaching creatures away, but his attacks are very innefectual. As the group watches, one of the kobolds lifts a small jar and is about to hurl it at the boy.
Initiative:
Arianna makes her way toward the cave, attacking any kobold foolish enough to get in her way.
Attack roll:
Damage:
Anya briskly circled the first group of kobolds, counting on Lev and the others to sufficiently keep them occupied without having to worry about them in her back all too much. While moving, she eased the newly-acquired bow from ther back and only stopped to fully draw the string.
The closest kobold to the boy was an obvious target - hit him before he could throw whatever vile concoction he was holding.
Ranged Attack
Maybe due to her haste in drawing the bow, her arrow flew whistling past the reptilian menace.
The sound of chanting magic joins with the yips and snarls of the combat so far. Elsbeth is momentarily covered in a light of force which seems to seetle over her shoulders before becoming invisible. The young chelish noblewoman moves carefully into the cover of the foliage near and behind Lev.
Anya responds rapidly to the scene as well, moving to the right of the combat and drawing her bow to target the kobold with the vial. Her arrow flies well wide of her target, whistling off into the thickets beyond the three kobolds.
In response, the kobolds panic a little and begin to sling stones wildly at the new threat. At least three stones whistle past Anya, one coming close enough to her head that she heard the hum of its path though the air. Lev was similarly targeted by two of the creatures, but one of the stones flew true, striking him solidly in the chest
The three closest to the wolf continue to press their attack, and the creature yelps in pain as one of the sling stones strikes it.
With a slow grace, the vial held in the middle kobolds hand sails through the air and strikes the ground at the boys feet. A large mass of sticky tendrils and web like goo explodes from the flask, covering the boy and entangling him firmly to the ground and roots around him. He yells in fear and despreately struggles in the mass, but only succeeds in further entangling himself.
None of the little dragon men move, seemingly caught between the need to kill the wolf and boy and attack the new threats.
Arianna will do an end run around the group of 3 kobolds on the left hand side, keeping distance between them.
Mawj fires at the closest kobold.
Attack
Damage
With a roar of anger, Lev charges toward one of the kobolds, determined to destroy those that are attacking the wolf since Anya is defending the boy.
Alandra follows Arianna and Anya to the left of the Kobolds and shoots a shard of ice at one of the slingers.
Lev's battle cry echoes through the forest as teh big woodsman engages the group of kobolds closest to his companions. The mighty weapon he wields easily slices through the kobolds defenses...and its armour...and its torso, exploding out the other side of its body in a gory spray of red blood and viscera.
Mawj, far more sedate in her approach to things draws her arrow and fires casually into the group, skewering the closest target throgh one of its bulbous and reptilian eyes. The creature stiffens and falls back, it's tail twitching in a brief spasm as the death blow takes it.
Alandra, seeing her friends so successful, aims to complete the task of killing the closest group and shoots a ray of frost unerringly at the remaining kobold near Lev. The creature gasps in pain, as its breath fogs around it. Lev can clearly hear the crackly and snap as it's blood freezes within the arteries and veins of the little reptilian. It stands there, eyes wide in a frozen tableau of death.
The wolf snaps at the creature nearest it, but it is innefective, the injury it recieved from early obviously paining it badly. Meanwhile, the child at the back of the battle continues to struggle and scream within his bonds.
Anya dropped her bow, and grabbed her sides, where she found her weapons ready and eager. She moved, plowed through the brust towards the kobold attackers. "You picked the wrong day to get to know me" she hissed, as she swung her large duelling sword in a viscious arc towards the lead kobold's head.
Attack roll:
Confirm Critical:
Damage
Damage Critical
The weapon sliced effortlessly into the reptilian's head, and severed its main arteries, showering his surroundings with its cold, dark blood. Anya turned away, shiedled herself from the shower while at the same time engaging the next enemy.
Anya's display in swordmanship is impressive to watch, and the little dracinic head sails though the air as it trails blood behind it. The Kobolds surrounding it yelp in a mix of fear and anger at the sight of their dead companion.
Elsbeth follows up her defensive casting from earlier with a well placed splash of acid. The orb flies true but the power behind it is weak, and the kobold continues to stand.
Responding to the far greater threat that these humnoids present, the kobolds change focus on mass. The kobolds near the tangled boy drop their slings and take their spears in both hands. The nearest one attacks Anya, the strike being true but with barely the strength to push through her armour
The other spear wielder moves cautiously around this combat and tries to stab Arianna, but the nimble girl is too good for its attacks.
Closer to the wolf, the spear wielding goblin breaks off its attack on the Lupine creature and charges at Lev. The wolf snarls and snaps at it, but misses again, yelping as the wounds to its body tear a little in the struggle. The charging kobolds spear catches Lev unprepared, driving deep into his thigh, near wher he was struck two days before fighting the bandits
The remaining two kobolds continue with their slings, one targeting Alandra and the other Elsbeth as the closest targets they can see in the open. Elsbeth's barely misses her, but Alandras is far better with his, striking her solidly in the lower leg