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After Maka burns Rasputin’s head to ashes, Fin silently eyes the body for a couple of minutes. Satisfied that the bastard appears to be truly dead, he lets out a light sigh, searches the corpse for anything of significance, also recovering any salvageable arrows still stuck in the body…
"Third, back in the main entry area, I saw some stairways leading up to an upper level. I don't know a lot about vampires, but I'd like to make sure they didn't sneak upstairs to regenerate and plot more mischief. Fin should take Saki and scout around up there."[/b]
Fin nods, turns to Sakitu, murmuring, ”C’mon, Hlao-roo, looks like we’re going on a vampire hunt…stay behind me, just in case…”
He walks west back to the entrance, quietly and warily heads up the stairs to the eastern bell tower to check it out first…
Winter stays near Selena’s pile of clothes, staring at Quasit.
Maka, still leaning lightly against Bulvi, finally let her body relax. The fire in her veins had cooled, leaving only bruises, burns, and the deep, creeping ache of exhaustion.
Her gaze wandered. :ast Rasputin’s remains, past the still-humming machine, to the ashen remnants near where Winter stood watch. A small, blackened pile of cloth. No body. No sign of struggle. Just scorch marks and silence.
Her brow furrowed.
Then her stomach dropped.
“…Selena didn’t leave a body.” The words came quiet, barely more than breath.
She swallowed, her hand tightening slightly on Bulvi’s shoulder for balance, or comfort.
“Does that mean she won’t be able to come back either?”
Kalchine nods and reverts to his normal form. He grabs Fin's arm before he can rush away.
"Just in case," he says.
Then, he turns his critical eye on the rest of the group and can see that Bulvi is in the roughest shape.
He then pulls in energy from the positive energy plane to continue the process.
He pulls out a wand from a bandolier that he wears across his chest.
"That's the last of my magic for the day but I can use this," he says.
But then he hears Maka's words and his blood runs cold at the implications. His mind races with thoughts about how they might overcome this obstacle.
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“…Selena didn’t leave a body.” The words came quiet, barely more than breath.
She swallowed, her hand tightening slightly on Bulvi’s shoulder for balance, or comfort.
“Does that mean she won’t be able to come back either?”
”What?” says Quasit. She obviously hadn’t considered this possibility. She goes to the edge of the magic shield and looks around carefully, very aware of the fox familiar staring at her like lunch.
”I don’t know…” she finally says, looking over at Kalchine helplessly. ”I think the person who would have known was Selena…. Or Rasputin.”. She puts her hands on her hips, chews her lower lip and breathes out heavily. ”Well damn.” she finally says.
Maka simply started crying. It wasn’t quiet. It wasn't pretty.
Her nose ran, her face twisted, and every tear that spilled from her eyes hissed into steam as it hit her fire-kissed skin. Her shoulders trembled, her whole frame shuddering from exhaustion, grief, and the simple, brutal weight of the day. Of everything.
But Maka didn’t flinch from it. She didn’t turn away. She didn’t even try to hide her tears. She just stood there and cried.
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Quasit crosses her arms uncomfortably. What was there to say to Maka? Her own feelings were more akin to dull shock and denial. A slight nausea. She wished the fox would stop looking at her. What do you expect me to do??” she wanted to ask it.
She sneaks a look over at Chest Thumper. Not for the first time she wondered how much of this he understood.
Was Selena actually Baba Yaga’s granddaughter? What did that mean even? She’d always meant to ask the little witch. Would a loyal granddaughter warrant a favor for her efforts?
She looks at her feet, waiting for the shield to come down.
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A subdued Fin stops for healing when Kal grabs him, nodding in appreciation to him…
Upon hearing Quasit and Maka, talk about Selena, he stops again. ”You might wanna check Silver, Q…I could be wrong, but I think I recall Selena saying something about always leaving some part of her on Silver for reincarnation purposes…or something like that…”
He shrugs and then turns to go with Saki to the east tower for a vampire check…
The eastern tower has three coffins in it, as well as some corpses that have clearly been drained of blood.
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As they make it up the stairs of the east tower, Fin turns to Sakitu…
”Jackpot, three coffins for three vampires, Hlao-roo. Father trained me at an early age in fighting undead, t’was an occupational hazard…when they receive wounds enough that would kill a normal creature, vampires flee to their coffin to regenerate…but they’re vulnerable for about an hour before their regeneration kicks in so we should have plenty of time to stake ‘em…but they’ll only be dead as long as the stakes are in place…Bull and I will need to carry their coffins down later and expose them to sunlight…that should kill ‘em permanently…”
Fin will do the coffins one by one while Sakitu stands by with an offensive spell prepped if needed. He’ll retrieve a silver tipped arrow, open a coffin, drive the arrow thru the vampire’s heart, rinse, repeat till all three are done…
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Quasit lets Maka cry into Bulvi's arms for a minute or so. Sometimes a girl just needed to lose it for a bit to regain her balance-- gods how well she knew that. Then she finally turns around and touches her friend on the back.
"Fin's right. There might still be something we can do to bring her back. Maybe she left some hairs or toenail parings with her fox, I don't know. If we free Baba Yaga, she's definitely gonna owe us a favor."
"But we still need to find her and free her. We still have a job to do. Let's search the bodies. Maybe Rasputin is carrying around a magic whatzit that grants wishes."
"Kal, I think a few hits from the magic wand is a good idea. I'm probably gonna have to disable this machine like I did the terminals. I think I can do it, but it might zap me or someone else in the teeth a few times along the way. Bulvi's regeneration ring should have him fully healed in a few hours."
Maka didn’t speak at first. She just took a few deep gulps from her magic jug, the warmth of the sake cutting through the bitter lump in her throat. She wiped her nose with her forearm, then offered the jug to Quasit with a tired, but genuine smile. "You're right, let's get to work!"
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Kalchine remained silent as Maka wept over the loss of her companion. There was a lump in his own throat but he'd learned to subsume those feelings early on in his career as a soldier in the wars back on Triaxus. It was a lesson that they all had to learn or break.
"Even if she didn't leave anything behind with Winter, Winter may be a strong enough connection to bring Selena back," he says.
"I don't entirely understand familiars but I know they have a very strong connection to their masters."
He gets to work with the wand, beginning with Quasit.
Then moves on to Bulvi.
Then, himself.
And finally, Chest Thumper.
As Quasit finally gets the idea of what happened to Selena, Winter starts digging through the pile cloth to pull out the pouches, especially the one with a few snacks to munch on in the meantime.
Winter seems distinctly unhappy with the giant ape, but it being gentle, she decides not to bite it and instead shoot pleading looks at the Kalchine.
There are indeed vampire corpses in the coffins, and staking them seems like it works (as much as you can tell given they're corpses either way...).
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After staking the last of the vampires, Fin looks to Sakitu and gives her a tired wink. ”That’ll do for now, Hlao-roo…if Bull’s healed back up, we’ll come back and see about exposing ‘em to sunlight…”
Upon their return, he nods to Quasit. ”Found the vampires, staked ‘em, Q; when Bull’s healed up, we can carry ‘em down from the tower and give ‘em a sunbath…”
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”Found the vampires, staked ‘em, Q; when Bull’s healed up, we can carry ‘em down from the tower and give ‘em a sunbath…”
"You checked both towers?" asks Quasit. "Sorry... good work. Thank you. We'll definitely do that in a bit."
"Gods, look at me. Rasputin is dead, we might be about to finish our mission, and I'm still so paranoid I'm practically shaking. You'd think I'd be feeling some relief, but I keep expecting some other super villain to barge in here and start disintegrating us. Or Rasputin to somehow reappear as a mongo powerful monster ghost who can just wish us out of existence. And I can't even process Selena being dead. In spite of her creepy fox staring at me. What's its name anyway? I can't even remember."
She pulls out the blueprints again. "And just look at this mess. This is so far out of my league it isn't even funny. I manipulate tumblers in locks with picks. I can't even really imagine how to go about properly disabling any of this. The best I can figure is to just somehow sabotaging that power source back there and hoping I don't get vaporized."
"Maka, I've changed my mind. Gimme a slug of that plum wine. I think I need it."
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Quasit nods. "That'll work. I want to search every corner of this place. Maybe Rasputin was sleeping up there and keeping diary about the girl he had a crush on, I don't know. I'd almost like him better if he wrote bad poetry. Or something that relates to his plot, or Anastasia, or the machine, or Elvanna. Maybe he took notes on a criminal conspiracy. He's arrogant enough to do that. I bet he planned to publish a book about it. 'How I did it.' by Grigory Ass-hole Rasputin."
"We'll be as ready as we can be if Rasputin comes back again. Or if another threat presents itself," Kalchine reassures Quasit. "I am cautiously optimistic that this is a victory, though."
After he has healed her, he simply rests his hand on her shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze.
"You disabled the towers and didn't think you could do that. Now, you'll disable this, even though you don't think you can do it.
"Every problem doesn't have to be solved at the same time. Just do the next right thing."
Maka handed the magic jug to Quasit with a smile. “Kal’s right. You’ve pulled off harder things on less sleep and more blood loss.”
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Quasit nods in resignation at the words of Kalchine and Maka and takes a long drink. "Right." she says, trying to think positively. "If a knob like Viktor can build it, I can certainly break it. That's way easier, right?"
She rolls up the blueprints for the time being, tucks them into her sword belt, and reaches out toward the magic shield again to test for its continued presence. Finding it still there for the moment, she begins rifling what's left of Rasputin's corpse, looking for magical goodies.
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Rasputin has a number of pieces of gear: a fine dagger and revolver, an amulet, a belt, a cassock, and a headband. All but the weapons radiate magic. The headless Cossack also has a number of items: a scimitar, a revolver, a lance, a belt, and a ring. All but the lance radiate magic. The three vampire brothers had nothing of interest on their bodies.
Bulvi gave Maka's shoulder a gentle squeeze before kissing her on the temple as she cried. Selena was always chastising and nagging but he seemed less frustrated with her than many of the others a lot of the time. He hoped she had some trick up her sleeve or they could find something. However long she was going to be gone he'd miss her... at this stage he accepted she really had been killed, sneaking around to leave them under the assumption that she was dead this long, it would be uncharacteristically cruel... unless perhaps it was just being done to Quasit.
He gets to work with the wand, beginning with Quasit.
Then moves on to Bulvi.
[dice=Cure Moderate Wounds]2d8 + 5
After the first whack of healing Bulvi shook his head "Thats enough, by the time I get to the coffins I'll be healed. Save further charges in case we need them."
Bulvi turned his attention back towards Maka. "I'm going to head off Fin.. I would take it as a personal favour if you didn't get into any fights while I am gone, that fight was too close." He drew her into a hug.
Shortly after he'd turn to Fin and starts reloading his pistol. "Alright, let's get stuck in."
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Quasit stows the loot from Rasputin and the Headless General in the bag of holding, for later evaluation. She also retrieves her manacles and puts them back in her pack.
Then she makes her way over to the tumbled pile of church benches and pulls one back up into a proper position so she can sit on it. She begins to pulls off her armor and weapons, then uses her waterskin to dampen a rag and begins to wipe the blood, sweat and soot from her face and arms, then unbuttons her shirt just enough so she can reach in and wipe down her armpits and shoulders. She also liberally pours water over her head, rinsing out her shaggy mop of hair with her fingers, then smoothing it back away from her face and over her ears. All this takes several minutes, after which she swivels around and lays down along the bench, her hands crossed behind her dripping, reclining head. She stares up into the high ceiling, trying to clear the horror and adrenaline of the morning from her mind, at least for a little while.
Kalchine watches Quasit make some impromptu ablutions, though when she unbuttons her shirt, he is careful to look away.
He's too keyed up and still trying to figure out a way to tackle the Selena problem to rest himself and he restlessly, aimlessly paces around Chest Thumper.
The frost ape, like Quasit, knows to take a break when the opportunity arises and having his brother fidgeting around him interrupts his tranquility so he shoves him away, his one handed push making Kalchine stumble several paces.
Kalchine scowls then makes a large gesture which Chest Thumper returns which Kalchine then returns again, leading to a vigorous but silent exchange that only ends when the frost ape turns his back on the triaxian and the triaxian stalks off several paces.
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It seems to Sakitu that so much has happened in such a short amount of time. She knows that she should feel a sense of relief -- Rasputin is dead, the undead monsters are dealt with, and they all survived. But the arcane machine spewing electric energy is still there.
Quasit looks nervous. The whole mission hinges on her accomplishing the final task. Sakitu has confidence in her. Throughout everything they've all been through, Quasit has been a steadfast support. Always knowing the right things to say and the right things to do.
Sakitu thinks about going over to sit with her friend but she decides against it. It looks like Quasit wants some time to think by herself.
Fin and Bulvi have left to get the caskets. Selena is gone. It appears that she was killed in the battle. That fact brings its own set of confusing emotions. She was never easy to get along with but no one deserves to die. But maybe, like last time, Selena will find a way to come back.
Sakitu walks over to Maka and Kalchine. "I guess we wait now? Do you know how long?"
Maka shrugged. "Hopefully not too long, I'm starving."
Kalchine shrugs. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure what spell is in effect or even the type of magic driving it," he replies. "If it was seconds, it would already have dropped. But it may be measured in minutes or hours."
Though normally placid, he seems anxious and nonplussed by the fact that there is nothing for them to do at the moment.
Nothing interrupts Fin and Bulvi as they carry the coffins outside. The sunlight, though weak through the thick clouds still gathered overhead, is sufficient to make certain the vampires won't be returning to life.
After about fifteen minutes the barrier finally fades, and you have access to the full World Engine. While waiting, you've observed that a pulse of multicolored energy suffuses the area about every thirty seconds. You'll likely want to time whatever you're doing between these pulses.
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Quasit had actually nearly dozed off when Findurel approaches her. She starts, and roughly rubs at her eyes.
"I don't know. Let's check it out."
She gets up and makes her way over to where the magic shield was and finds that it is no longer active.
"Good, it's gone. Now we can get to work."
She pulls out the blueprints once more, and spends a long time glancing back and forth between the plans and the machine. She seems to be focusing on manifestations of how the energy is generated and then propagates through the conduits and wires of the many large components. She also appears to be counting very deliberately under her breath.
"There, you see? Looks at all those kinda column pillar things, both out here and inside that next room. They sorta slowly build up a charge of arcane pink lightning energy, then it kinda all flows to the central unit about once every 30 seconds. According to the blueprints, once it reaches that central unit, it gets distributed to the various balanced functions that operate its plane shifting function in tandem with the terminals out in the towers. The lightning current kinda runs in and out, back and forth, which is why it needs to be timed so precisely."
"So, I could spend half a day disconnecting wires and depolarizing energy storage devices, running in and out every 30 seconds. But honestly, I think if we know where to hit this thing, we can just smash it up, and have the whole thing nonfunctional in a couple minutes."
She looks back at Findurel. "So, Fin, you're going to be our metronome. After each discharge I want you to count out loud to 30 to time things out. For 25 seconds, everyone do everything they can to smash these pillar things where the charges generate, then use the last 5 seconds to get away and take cover. Adamantine weapons and arrows, if you have them. Maka can melt things, spells should work, though I'd avoid lightning spells, I think. Even Thumper can smash things. I'll go in and work on that central unit more precisely."
"If this works, we should be able to wreck this thing enough that it can't regenerate and turn itself back on without significant repairs. Then hopefully we can find Baba Yaga."
"Is all that clear? Are we ready to try this?" She looks around at the group.
Maka bounced on her heels, grinning ear to ear, her fists already glowing with low, molten flame.
“Smash stuff then get away at Fin’s signal. Got it!” she said, clearly thrilled.
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Fin nods to Quasit, taking a quick glance around the machine to make sure there are no surprises awaiting…
He’ll cast gravity bow and then, after the next pulse, he yells, ”NOW!” and takes a 5’ step into the area, counting aloud as he fires 10 adamantine arrows in 2 rounds (12 seconds)…
If the machine is still functioning after 25 seconds, Fin will yell for everyone to take cover and he’ll exit, stage left…
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Once Fin gives the starting order, Quasit runs to the back of the far room to the main console of the machine. She's already plotted out which part of the machine she intends to sabotage, and what tools she's going to need to do the work. She quickly pries away a panel with her silver dagger, then sets about plucking wires out of their connections and using their current to short out circuits and blow out vacuum tubes. She works quickly, glancing down occasionally at the blue print, now spread out on the floor by her knees.
As her times runs out, she gets up and flees back to the other room.
Kalchine focuses the heat of this world into a single beam of fire projecting from his fist like some sort of saber made of light then marches in and starts hacking away at the machine.
It is easy enough for him to command Chest Thumper to smash it, too. Chest Thumper likes smashing things.
Maka was everywhere.
She blurred through the chaos, wild laughter echoing as she darted from one machine part to the next. With every movement, she unleashed roaring blasts of blue flame, fire spiraling like jets from her fingertips:
The party's attacks shatter glass and bend metal, provoking bursts of multicolored lightning and coruscating lights. After only a few moments of your assault, eldritch energies start pulsing between the undamaged portions of the bizarre machinery, which soon explodes in bursts of light that seem momentarily to have shades of colors you have no names for.
A few seconds later, and the machinery falls silent, too damaged to continue operation. You feel as if the earth beneath you shakes, though your feet don't move. You feel as if the sky is rushing in towards you, but there is no wind. For the briefest instant you could swear you were in two places at once, but you blink and the feeling is gone. A tension in the air that had grown so familiar you hadn't even noticed it anymore is suddenly gone. The last bits of glowing energy seem to retreat up wires that follow the spiral staircase in the very back of the structure.
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Fin steadies himself, keeping his feet as the machine implodes from the damage they’ve dealt it, furrowing his brows as he witnesses this spectacle. As it falls silent, he sees the spiral staircase and the wires following up it, pointing them out. He nods to Quasit and motions that he’ll scout up there, keeping his bow drawn and moving warily up the stairs to see what awaits above…
Kalchine flinches and dives for cover as the machine explodes. Sheepishly, he gets back to his feet when it becomes apparent that there is no further violence or damage forthcoming.
He fully expects to be mocked by Chest Thumper until he sees the frost ape hiding behind a broken pew that is far too small to actually provide him any cover.
"You're fine, you big baby!" he taunts his brother before looking to the others.
"Is that it? Is it done?"
"Guess we'll have to find out." Maka replied to Kal as she followed Fin up the stairs.
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When the weird shift in reality occurs, Quasit instinctively reaches out to grab onto a support beam in the wall. For about 3 seconds she stands stiff and stock still. Then she steps forward and cranes her neck around to look at the heart of the infernal machine.
"Is that it? Is it done?"
"Yeah. That's it." she says with more confidence than she actually feels. "Hopefully we just opened up Baba Yaga's prison. She might be upstairs at this very moment."
She watches Findurel begin creeping up the stairs. She signals to everyone to follow along, then sets off herself to trail the elf, giving him about 30 feet worth of space, just in case.
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The world shifts all around her in unsettling ways. One moment she feels like she's about to topple over and the next she feels like she's slowly floating up from the ground. The disorienting sensations last for only a few seconds then fade leaving Sakitu feeling slightly dizzy.
With her arms held out for balance, she looks around at the others. They all, well, except Maka who is never knocked off kilter, seem to have had their sense of reality jarred too. But it has passed.
"Ok. That was strange. But everything seems so normal now."
"Yeah. That's it." she says with more confidence than she actually feels. "Hopefully we just opened up Baba Yaga's prison. She might be upstairs at this very moment."
The idea of Baba Yaga being so close sends a shiver down her spine. Maybe they had gotten rid of one terror only to release and even greater one.
Fin glides up the stairs in a way she has seen him move hundreds of times before. The anxiety that surges when he's putting her in danger is less now than it was just a few weeks ago. She's getting used to it and that's probably a good thing. Even so, she keeps her ears on alert for the first sound of alarm.
Winter plonks around Quasit before following Fin, at a distance.
The room at the top of the tower is dark, its many windows boarded over, a yoke that seems to have once held a bell now empty in the upper reaches of the room. On the floor, coils of copper wire snake between and connect to a number of small, ornately painted figures that look vaguely like very rounded dolls. Small sparks occasionally leap between the wires. On the blueprints this room is only vaguely marked 'power source' with no further explanation.