Khar winces at the pain, and chuckles a bit "If you wish to have my companions fight as well that is your decision. I will not with hold a challenge you seek."
"Sure, the more the merrier! Have at it folks, and let's see where you bravery lies!"
Standing back up from the tree he'd been leaning on Valeeran dusts off his hands and absently says, "Ah well it's certainly sporting of you to allow us all to join the fun." To the party he adds, "Prepare yourselves, this should help but I don't think it will for long."
With that he calls out words of power, weaving his hands in intricate designs through the air. As he does so faint lines of light begin to follow his fingertips. Finally he points at the creature and speaks a final word.
The rabbit, obviously unaware of the face that everyone can see it now, is looking on from behind a bush, his face an obvious smirk!
As Shan-yu releases his first arrow, the sound of the feathers alerts Brambleson and he turns around, dodging and turning, striking arrows with lightning speed and agility like you haven't seen before.
In the end, 3 arrows out of the five have hit him, and he stares confoundly at the wounds on his body...
Anja draws her ranseur as she moves around the exposed rabbit. She harnesses her rage as she swings to pull away his broken sword.
The sword drops to the floor, and as Anja looks at Brambleson he dissappears once more.
From in front of the house, right next to Shan-yu you can hear: "You got me, all of you... In exchange for my sword, I will give you my token. You have defeated me fair and square."
Khar grins and nods to the others "That sounds like an even enough trade to me." He waits to let Anja deal with the sword as she would.
Anja steps to the dropped sword and picks it up. She lets out a long breath as she comes down from her fury.
"Toss your token to Khar - the oversized bard over here - and I'll drop your sword for you while we move on."
She nods to Shan-yu to head back toward the way we came. When Khar receives the gem, she nods to him to head back as well. She follows him, backing away from the house, holding the broken sword out with a taunting flourish.
At the edge of the clearing, she softly speaks to her allies behind her, "Keep going." She turns back to the house and calls out to the invisible rabbit, "You said you were bored with this house. I think, somehow, you're trapped here. How far can you go?" She steps out of the clearing, the broken sword in her hand, listening for any pleas or explanation from the rabbit.
Valeeran claps, "Well fought all. Your bravery is surely worth it's own tale Brambleson to allow us all to join in the battle. If you are willing to share an additional tale, I must admit I am curious as to what wrong caused you to take up arms against the creator of this place."
"That... Euh.." the rabbit starts humming..
"That's not very honourable is it? My sword and I have a special connection, it would not be wise to separate us..."
He turns to the others, ignoring Anja, and turning visible again.
"If you wish to leave my terrain, I suggest you inform your friend that my domain does as I wish, and I wish to keep my sword."
He might not be big or sound intimidating, but the seriousness in his words is palpable.
"Gods, no wonder you're so desperate for stories. You're a dull rabbit. Every chance we've given you to tell us about yourself, you've dodged the question. I could care less, but some of these guys seem honorable enough that they might help you if they can, but oh well..."
She throws the small broken sword to a far corner of the clearing, away from the rabbit.
"I got no need for a toothpick. Enjoy your house, the doorknob, the scratch on the doorknob and whatever else, murderer."
She turns to the others, "Come on, we'll leave him to his prison." She leads the way some distance from the clearing, then speaks up. "All right, so which one next?"
"Perhaps it is just as well to continue in the order they were introduced and make our way to see the Barrowking."
Khar nods "Fine by me as well."
The Demon’s Fen is a twisted, rotting swamp, at the center of which stands a dismal lake and marshy island. The lake once plunged to icy, crushing depths, but years of muck and sediment have filled it in and reduced its depth to a range of 1 to 4 feet. Nothing lives in the Demon’s Lake anymore, but fanciful notions of dead fish line its shores. The island stands 60 feet offshore, but provides no obvious beach. Only the suspension bridge seems to provide easy access.
Valeeran scans the fetid lake and island at its center with an odd mix of sadness and excitement on his face. He could see the echos of what once might have been a pristine natural wonder buried beneath layers of decay and atrophy. The loss was a tragedy but it was also the cause of his excitement. Such corruption was not natural and clearly they now stood on the edge of some form of adventure. So far this land had offered an eclectic string of oddities and the elf looked forward to pealing back the next layer.
Anja takes the lead, stepping onto the bridge. She stops and turns before going further, "Shan-yu, you want to keep us covered from here as we cross?"
As she sets out across the bridge, the picture of one of the cards comes to Anja's mind: The Demon's Lantern. She remembered wondering why there was a swamp on the card, when she imagined a demon's lantern would be some kind of ugly oil lamp.
"My shadow? I don't recall sending if off anywhere." the wizard quips as he glances down to the ground where his shadow should be. From his back Skitter huffs in an odd way that almost sounds like a giggle. "And what's gotten into you?" the elf asks the creature turning his attention to his odd behaviour.
At Shan-yu's revelation, Anja looks around for the various light sources, wondering if her shadow is just washed out by another light. Confirming that her shadow isn't where it should be, she has an uneasy feeling. It's just a freakin' shadow. Why do I feel like something was stolen from me? She shakes off the sudden feeling of vulnerability.
"Hey, I was just thinking about that card, 'The Demon's Lantern'. It's got a swamp on it like this. Is there any such thing as a light source that's invisible, but might still wash out our shadow somehow? Or it's on another plane, or something?" Stupid magic. Can't live with it... She continues on the bridge, more cautious, but undeterred. "Demons vulnerable to cold iron, by any chance?"
Anja reaches down to touch the blanket sewn to her ankles. Assuming she doesn't feel anything when she touches it (like it's part of her), she'll cut it away with her cold iron longsword. She drops it into the marsh, and continues across the bridge.
"Well now isn't that odd." Valeeran mutters looking down at the odd dark cloth attached to his ankles that seems to have replaced his shadow. Bending down he reaches out and touches the "shadow".
Continuing his investigation he speaks arcane words of power, his eyes once again glowing softly for a moment when the last is spoken. Using his enhanced senses he focuses on the shadow-cloth.
When the rags repair themselves, Anja resigns herself to figure it out at the other end of the bridge. "What is this? And why are we the only ones with them?" She only worries that they'll trip her up if a fight arises. As a test, she spins around quickly, and tries to kick at the rags, to see if she can catch them, or if they'll move out of the way of their own volition.
Anja continues to spin one way and then the next, trying to catch her replacement shadow. When she pulls her ranseur, she realizes how silly she must look. She puts the polearm back with a chuckle.
"Let's backtrack real quick and figure out what's going on with these shadows. It doesn't look like this blanket will trip me up, but if y'all don't know what this is either, then who knows what else this magic might be doing to us. Or might enable someone to do to us. The next token will still be here when we get back."
Poking at the material the wizard says to no one in particular, "I don't know of any spell that could cause this. A shame really it would be a great party trick." Rising he continues, "You're quite right Anja, if we're to learn more about whatever's been done we'll need to find whomever did it."
Starting to set out with Anja Valeeran stops short and reaches to one of his myriad of pockets.
When he draws out his hand the elf is almost surprised to find himself holding one of the cards from the Harrowing deck.
"How did that get in there?" he ponders as he looks over the image of an owl holding a needle and thread in its beak.