Bardigan shakes his head, fighting off the magics. He calls down, encouraging his friend, "Whatever's down there with you isn't messing around, Ganner! Take it out!"
"There's a kid down here. Shackled to the wall. Nearly toothless." Ganner calls back out. "Anyone any good at opening locks?"
"Worry about the kid after you've taken out whatever just hit me with that spell!"
"Don't see anything... yet. I'll apply proper leverage when I do." Ganner calls back.
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He (Ganner) doesn't have long to take in the scene, as the last of the creatures appears right before him. Before Ganner can react, a wave of exhaustion washes over the area. Suddenly, Ganner feels so very tired, as does Bardigan. The two men have to fight to keep their eyes open. With Ganner clogging up the hole, no one can really see or tell what's happening.
Ganner punches the damnable fairy. for damage and for damage!
Ganner and Bardigan both manage to buck off the drowsiness that washes over them, and instead, Ganner lashes out at the now visible fairy. The first punch just kind of knocks it off balance, but the second uppercuts the thing into the ceiling of the crowded chamber. It thunks hard into it, before flopping to the ground.
Ganner grabs the fairy and drags it back outside the crevice with him, before heading back in to remove the poor child's body.
"Ganner, check to see if you see my teeth down there, won't you? Wretched little devils..." Grumbling to himself as he pulls away from the small breach in the building, Bardigan bags the last of the little gremlins and turns back to the others with a broad, broken smile.
"Well! I think that accounts for all of them. At least I hope it does." His gaze shifts to Zea, though it's hard to see much beside just her silhouette in the dark. "Thanks again for helping us, Zea. This whole mess wasn't at all what I was expecting." He sounds chagrined at this last bit, and shakes his head at the notion of a tribe of tiny, murderous toothstealers being the savage culprits. Who'd have ever guessed?
Krizta is suddenly overwhelmed with the sense of having done something truly good in helping these people. She hadn't felt like that in a long time. She was glad that she took the risk and teamed up with these people who were serious about helping the city. She doesn't let on though, and simply says to Zea
You guys can decide what you want to do with the fairies that are still alive. I don't know if you want to talk to them or put them on trial, or... whatever. But I'm hoping that is the end of the threat.[/b]
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Tasha begins trying to patch up the last of the flying pests, but its clear that her skills with impromptu bandages aren't as great as they seem. "Don't die, you little bastard." Does it matter?, she thinks. They're going to get executed regardless, and it's not like they didn't deserve it..., she sighs, before continuing her efforts. But it matters to me.
Bagging the survivors in her satchel, Tasha sighs. "Well, that was a day's worth of work.", she chuckles, sheathing her bow. "Now, I think we've got a tailor to see. I, for one, am in a dire need of one.", she sighs, before glancing at the skeleton. "And... it would be good if we find this poor child's family... or someone who cared about them. And give them a burial, at least.", her voice turns sorrowful as she runs a hand across her nose. It would be a good idea to turn that imagination now, Miss Valenti.
Dawnilea offers, "We could just add a few rocks, tie the bag closed and throw them into the river. I get upset when people do that with kittens or pups, but these things seem to be pretty evil."
Bardigan nods along with Tasha in agreement regarding the small body Ganner recovered, then turns to Dawnilea and adds to her observation, "Yeah, what even are these things? Does anybody know?" He looks inquisitively across the group as he shakes his head at his own question. "Because I sure don't."
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Tasha lifts her bag. "Well, I'd prefer it if we didn't. I think showing who did it to the people is important, and I wouldn't want anyone to drown.", she shudders. A smile appears on her face. "And I kiiind of like my bag, too." Looking at Bardigan, she runs a hand through her hair, scratching her head. "Too vicious for their size, that's for sure. Maybe someone from the area might know a little more about them."
Krizta nods, and says back to the Tailor's? She starts heading in that direction.
Dawnilea shrugs, "Not sure that the people will feel better knowing there were tiny fairies on a killing spree - but I'm good with taking them to the tailor, as long as we're sure none of them will be waking between here and there."
Bardigan arches an inquisitive eyebrow at the suggestions to return to the tailor, "It's the middle of the night, this seems a poor time to be showing up at his door." His gaze then falls on the almost ritualistically prepared body of the young boy. "And what a dreadful thing to be bring to him." He kneels down then, looking more closely at the small figure and what had been done to it.
Krizta shrugs as her idea gets shot down, and waits to see what the group will come up with as an alternative.
As Ganner quickly collects the gold tooth as the only thing of potential value, he easily moves to freeing the child's body from its bound state. As he works to cut the sinews binding the poor boy, he notices that there is very fine writing along them, in the form of dozens of short phrases, but it is in a language he does not know.
As the others recover the little creatures around the area, ready to bag them up, Bardigan notices his other missing tooth. It is hastily and crudely pressed into service of the mouth of the one that managed to zip out before Krizta burnt the others. It is pressed in crookedly alongside all its other mismatched teeth, the blood on the root still a little fresh.
Zea approaches the others as they discuss what they should do with the things. As Bardigan thanks her for her help, she retorts, "No, thank you. The people of Devil's Nursery owe you all for finding and ridding us of these little murderers. It's not like the Dottari give two s@$$s about what happens to us here in the Nursery. I mean, I with her on this." She indicates Dawnilea, "Why can't we just toss them in the river and be done? Heck lady, you can keep your bag, I'll tie a rock to each one of them personally if I have to."
Tasha nods, her mouth forming a narrow line. Hm. Maybe I've gotten ahead of myself. I guess they are kind of like wild animals, after all, a cow or a dog being judged is just as silly., she reconsiders her original point to have the creatures be punished, shoving her bag in Zea's hands. "Sorry that we couldn't do that sooner...", she says. "Right. But... I'd feel better if you... snapped their necks before throwing them in the river.", she says, fidgeting with her rapier's hilt. "A painful death for a painful death sounds fair, but... leaves a Thrune taste in my mouth.", she reasons. I mean, I'm lucky enough not to know how she feels. Biting her lip, she moves from foot to foot.
Dawnilea sighs, "Aye, you're likely right. I mean, I don't think they'll wake up, but if I want to throttle people who do it to kittens, then I can't be doing it to these little evil things."
She nods, "We need to be better than His Thruneness and his goonish minions... Let's just run them through."
As Bardigan plucks his bloody tooth back out of one of the fallen creature's mouths, he looks at the others, "This is all exactly why I'm curious what these things are. It's one thing to put feral alley cats down and another to bring them before folk for a trial. Are these things nearer to cats or to people? Are they even capable of speech?"
When she sees it, Krizta takes a stab as interpreting the writing.
Ganner examines the sinews.
Examining the phrases on the sinews, even though he can't read the language itself, Ganner realizes the awful truth that the child was a sacrifice for a vile ritual to create the murderous little creatures.
Ganner makes a disgusted sound. "They killed the child to summon these things. Despicable."
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Dawnilea asks, "Does that mean these things are little fiends? Do we need to do something special to make sure that they stay dead?"
Her brow furrows as an unpleasant thought dawns on her, "Wait, doesn't that mean that whoever sacrificed the child is still out there?"
Bardigan shrugs, "It could be one of these things used this poor kid to summon its ilk or you're right, Dawnilea, and someone else is still out there who ultimately caused all this. All the more reason to figure out what in all the realms these malignant little beasts are."
Tasha nods, anger crawling on her face. Looking away as the beasts are killed, she stares in the distance. Doesn't quite fix things, but, like Maniferus said, vengeance is the sweetest of all deserts. Ugh.
"Good point.", she says, then puts a hand on her chin. Okay, Valenti, mental exercise time. Scratching her head, she begins slowly mumbling to herself, paused by the occasional humming.
As the party approaches their destination, she starts bubbling once more. "Okay. So...", she starts saying. "I'm guessing the main reason behind these things being here was, well, fear.", she reasons, gesturing with her hand. "The slu... bad... poorer parts of town are usually the first ones to get 'uppity'", her fingers draw the quotes around the word, "when there's a reason to be uppity. And them being afraid of a killer is sure to keep them looking away from the bigger picture, right?", she looks around for reassurance.
"Cui bono", am I right?", she asks, crossing her arms. At the very least, if we tell the people that, they'll be willing to join up more than ever before. Unless I'm just making things up, and I end up lying. Damnit., she keeps her last thoughts to herself.
Cui bono - to whom is it a benefit?
Arrgh. I thought for sure we had found the cause, but if someone summoned them... what else can we do? Who has the power to summon creatures like this, long-term?
Ganner shrugs. "Bad people. Anyone who summoned this thing is bad news. But I don't know a lot about summoning and the how's of it." He looks slightly uncomfortable at having spoken so much and so boldly. He blushes furiously and looks away.
Tasha glances down nervously. "Uh. That's my theory. Only summonings I've seen were, well.", she let out a chuckle. "At the opera. I'm pretty sure real summoners don't need ominous robes, ominous daggers and ominous chanting, too."
I could probably summon something like a ... skunk... if I studied, but it wouldn't last long. These things have been murdering for weeks, right? Whoever summoned them would have to be much more powerful than an average person. It isn't a very good lead, but something to keep in mind, I guess.
Dawnilea shrugs, "Hard to say. Could be that they get summoned every night... Or at least every night there's been an attack. We're just assuming they've been here the whole time."
She then winces as a darker thought occurs to her, "Plus, I tend to imagine that using the blood and soul of innocent children changes things from the type of magic you usually use... "
Err, yes. Good point.
Dawnilea says, "So let's kill the lot, quickly, mind, and keep one of the corpses for study -- maybe if we learn what they are, we'll know what we ran into... and what it is we should be looking for, if this isn't over. We can check back at the tailor's in the morning when they open, so unless someone knows an all-night sage, maybe we head back...."
She looks over at Ganner and winks, then says, "..unless anyone wants to go raid a warehouse which is fronting for mercenaries.. you know, while we're up?"
Ganner grins. "Since we're up.."
Bardigan chuckles, mistaking Dawnilea and Ganner's exchange for poorly disguised innuendo. "Fighting tooth-stealing critters summoned from elsewhere is what lights your respective fires? Huh." He elbows Ganner and shakes his head, "I wouldn't have guessed!"
Bardigan then nods to Zea, still grinning at his own joke, "I'll give you a hand with those murderous beasts if you'd like."
Ganner's face is suddenly very, very red...
Um, so... what are we doing? Should I go home and meet up with you lot in the morning, or is there actually something else we are going to do tonight?
Dawnilea laughs at Ganner's reaction, "Careful, Bardigan, or he'll blush himself to death."
She says, "Trust you to think everything revolves around your nethers, but we were talking about striking the warehouse where the prisonnersv are -- you know, the thing we went to scout earlier? Or has the giant pile of teeth got you too worked up to think clearly?"
Bardigan winces, taking the admonition on the chin. "That's fair. Though, in my defense, having teeth ripped from my face and then chasing the murderous little tooth-takers across half the Nursery in the middle of night did help in it slipping my mind."
He adjusts the balled up fabric in his mouth before conceding further, "I'm exhausted and wouldn't mind a pillow under my head before long, but if you and Ganner think there's good yet to be done and that now's our best opportunity to do it, then I'm with you."
HP: 19/20
AC: 16 (12 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 16
F/R/W: +6/+3/+5
Hellfire strikes used: 0/3
Eldritch Pool used: 1/5
Lvl 1 Spell Slots used: 1/3
Ongoing Effects
2 Cha damage
Dawnilea shrugs, "We didn't learn much at all, so we'd be mostly going in blind -- but the reaction from the locals makes me think that's going the case either way. Figured some of the people who used to work there might want to complain and talk about what's going on, but we couldn't find any. Maybe they've all been disappeared."
She winces as she hears the thought spoken aloud that she hadn't wanted to admit, then shrugs again, "That said, I'm up and good for some fun of the town-saving, rebellion-fuelling kind... but it's easy for me to say. I still have all my teeth."
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Zea looks at Bardigan with big moon eyes, dull yellow with their odd horizontally-aligned hourglass pupils, as he offers to help with finishing off the foul beasts. She pulls them out of the sack, and offers one of them back to the group to study. With enough consideration to step off around a wagon so Tasha doesn't have to see, given her qualms about killing them off, Zea prepares to make quick work of them.
With at least Bardigan by her side, offering to help as he did, she seems uncertain at first how to do it. She finally settles on the idea that it will be quicker and cleaner to just break their tiny necks with a simple twist. She looks to his gratefully, and offers, "You guys have done more for us than you know already, but it's already a couple hours past curfew. If you go running off to whatever else you have in mind, just be careful," she looks genuinely concerned for them, or Bardigan at least, "The Dottari patrols are harder to avoid outside the Nursery."
Bardigan pauses at Zea's comment, then nods slowly. "You make a good point. You sound like the others, too. When we all started, ah, working together, I wanted to shout from every square and fountain that Barzillai's days were numbered and to rally the people of Kintargo together. I had visions of a grand and just coup, Barzillai cast down and his proclamations torn up and burned. But," and at this he nods back to toward the group, "they all had the wisdom to see that so much attention would just bring the dottari down on us like a hammer and we'd be finished before we could have made any real difference." He sighs, quickly dispatching one of the tooth-stealers with his kukri. "You and the others are right, though; at our utmost, we need to be careful."
Ganner will step up and snap the necks of the fairies if he needs to.