”What a pitiful excuse for an ambush. Fin!” Selena says as she steps in, calling for Fin in obvious command as she steps aside, with as much noble haughtiness as she can muster, to give Fin a clear line of fire right as he steps inside.
Fin annihilates one of the lioness-like divs in a hail of arrows before anyone else can even react. With a snarl of rage, the other one runs around the rest of the group to slash at Fin with her claws.
The nimble elf feels the brush of fur on his nose as he just barely evades the attack. The smaller blue-skinned divs crowd in around the party and attack.
They have no more luck than their companion.
Mametqul steps up behind his 'harem' and swings his large blade over their heads.
But even he misses.
Maka easily evaded Mametqul's blade without breaking eye contact with him. "Coffee would have been easier." She said flatly before unleashing a flurry of fiery blows.
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Quasit turns and squares herself with her dance partner, drawing her blades with a delicious *sching!*.
"You know, I'm almost glad you guys decided to pull this. I liked your boss OK, but you guys were like the snottiest concubines ever. And please, you were trying to look like a human slut but that was the best you could do? The bad-built bleach-blonde butch-body? Gag. I've known penny whores back in Cassomir with more class in their pinkies."
As she taunts the div-lady, Quasit twists, evades and trades parrying blows, like she wants to draw this out.
With the Div's taking on their true forms and his comrades piling in, it doesn't take long before the tent is quite crowded.
Kalchine starts casting a spell to make it even more crowded, but it will take a bit to complete.
Selena laughs coldly at the enemy antics, ”Betrayal is met with the harshness of s winter blizzard! Reap the consequences of your choice!” Selena stands back as she rarely gets much of a chance to do anything anyway, so she is ready to either counterspell or heal if the need arises. And also looking high and mighty enough at the div to make her small stature easily forgotten, and hopefully disconcerting to the div. She is totally playing the part of a noble in command of well trained troops right now.
Bulvi started on the minion to the south of Maka trying to clear a path for her to close with Mametqul.
All but one of Fin's arrows strike home, but the lioness-like div is still standing at the end of his attack. Maka strikes home with all of her fiery blows... but the div simply grins at her, entirely unharmed by the flames. Bulvi's sword, however, proves much more effective, cutting down the fireproof div and then slashing her companion with his final attack. Sakitu attempts a spell, but feels it slide off of Mametqul's defenses.
The div attacking Quasit growls in frustration and attacks wildly . The divs also continue their assault.
The lioness div sinks her claws into Fin and tries to lift him from the ground but he manages to squirm out of her grip.
Quasit narrowly dodges the claws of the div attacking her.
Bulvi's armor shields him well from the attacks of the two divs focusing on him.
Mametqul takes a step back and points at Fin, a ray of green energy leaping from his finger towards the elf.
In the chaos of the melee, however, he fails to properly keep track of his surroundings, bumping into one of the poles holding up the tent just as he attacks, spoiling his aim, resulting in him disintegrating a 10' square of the side of his tent rather than his enemy.
Frustration flickered across Maka’s face as her flames washed harmlessly over the Div. She exhaled slowly, forcing the anger down, centering herself. Energy surged from her core into the gems set in her gauntlets, and the fire coiling around her fists twisted, warping into something sharper, thinner, no longer heat, but pressure.
The air screamed as she moved.
Maka stepped in and unleashed another flurry of blows. Each strike landed with the force of a desert gale, a cutting sirocco that battered the Div with rippling waves of sonic fury instead of flame.
Kalchine finishes his spell and a large oval cuts itself into the very air in the tent. Like a window in reality, it shows a snowy, mountaintop speckled with massive pine trees.
Almost as tall, is a giant humanoid with a fur covered body and long ears much like Kalchine's. It walks through that oval, stepping into the tent and swinging his icy axe at Mametqal.
He sees Fin taking damage from a Div and projects healing magic at him to counter it.
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Encouraged by how much she's enraging the female div in front of her, Quasit grins at her like the cat who's caught the cream.
"Oop. Where am I going? Where am I going?" she taunts, juking left then right, then diving past the div off to her right that's busy with Bulvi, doing a little half somersault to get past her.
Once past her and into a flanking position, she begins to really start to stab with earnest enthusiasm.
Selena watches everything going to plan, with a bit of pride at the companions she got handed for this, but keeps watch for what will likely come up to cause trouble. Probably a spell, like the disintegration spell the div used, which she is ready to counter if he tries again.
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The battle rages in the tent and Sakitu feels so helpless. She quickly goes through the list of spells she knows and most of them, the ones that could help right now, affect areas. Her friends are just too close together.
But maybe she can confuse some of the enemy. She focuses on the div closest to her. With a gesture and a few words she casts a spell hoping to overwhelm the creatures mind.
Bulvi focused his attacks on the Div between Quasit and himself, trying to force it to pay attention to him and give her some openings.
A flurry of fierce attacks lays low every div save for Mametqul, who is slashing frantically at the threat suddenly in his face (that did hit him).
With the other Divs defeated, Maka set her sights on their host.
Mametqul staggers under the onslaught of attacks, then topples to the side, several arrows sticking out of his chest. He falls dead to the ground.
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Quasit looks down at Mametqul’s corpse, not with satisfaction, but with righteous anger.
”We could have helped you. We even believed you were a friend. But I guess Baba Yaga was right about you.” Kneeling now, she grabs his hair in one hand and starts sawing jaggedly through his neck. ”I guess once betrayal is in your blood, you never really come back from it. So thanks for the coffee. Burn in hell, creep.”
Once the head is cut off, she slumps and exhales heavily. She looks around at her companions. ”Everyone ok? That seemed to go pretty well.” She looks up at the interplanar monster summoned by her boyfriend and offers it a fist-bump. ”Thanks for the assist. Solid work.”
”We could have helped you. We even believed you were a friend. But I guess Baba Yaga was right about you.”
Maka nodded in agreement with Quasit. "Yeah. You should've just made us coffee."
Quasit looks over at Maka specifically.
"Did your fire glands go dry or something? You were making a funny noise, like a big hunk of tin would make when it gets dragged over rocks. Made my skin hairs stand up."
"Not exactly. It's the crystals I got from Zilvazaraat. If I feed enough energy into them, I can change my flames."
She lifted her fist, blue fire blooming to life around her knuckles before warping, the flames collapsing inward and reshaping into a shimmering sonic distortion that made the air vibrate.
"It doesn't last that long, though."
Selena gives Quasit an, attempted to be comforting, pat on the shoulder as she passes, looking for the required cabinet, and coffee.
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"Not exactly. It's the crystals I got from Zilvazaraat. If I feed enough energy into them, I can change my flames."
She lifted her fist, blue fire blooming to life around her knuckles before warping, the flames collapsing inward and reshaping into a shimmering sonic distortion that made the air vibrate.
"It doesn't last that long, though."
Quasit watches the transformation of Maka's energy with great interest. Her friend's abilities had fascinated her from the first time she'd seen them, all those many weeks ago, and she was always just a trifle jealous about all the things Maka could do.
"Wow. Amazing the things they come up with!" she says with genuine enthusiasm after the display. "That's the sort of gizmo that Nevar would have loved to study. He was always very interested in the theory and mechanics of spells and supernatural abilities. If he was here, he'd be lecturing us all now about how the micro-mana-flows would reorient the vibrations of the energy and realign its what's-a-doodle into a sleek new thing-a-ma-jig."
"I just got a cool sword from Mr. Z. Cause I'm basic." she adds with a delighted grin as she wipes off the blood on her sword onto Mametqul's coat and sheathes it.
She leaves the dismembered head for the others to fit with the crown and put into the cabinet, wherever it might be. In the meantime, she begins picking through the possessions of the dead divs, focusing especially on any tasteful costume jewelry the harem might have been wearing.
She removes a jangly earring and holds it up to one ear. "What do you think? Too much?" she asks, her eyes flicking between Maka, Sakitu and Kalchine.
Maka watched Quasit sift through the div's belongs with quiet amusement. When Quasit lifted the jangly earring, Maka tilted her head, considering it seriously.
"Not too much." She decided after a moment. "But you need something else to go with them.
Mametqul wore 7000 gp worth of fine silks and jewelry. (The silks may need a bit of magical repair before sale) The six other divs each had 1000 gp worth of jewelry. Beyond that, the tent and its furnishings would probably be worth an additional 8000 gp... but the total weight of them would be over a ton. The coffee supply and assorted implements for preparing it would, on their own, be much more manageable to take. In addition Mametqul had a large-sized +1 falchion.
The cabinet is not hard to find, standing along one side of the tent. It's currently empty.
The furry frost giant does not truly recognize the significance of Quasit's gesture and punches her fist a bit too hard. Nor does it speak her language so it does not understand her compliment.
Instead it turns to Kalchine and they exchange somber words in Triaxian after Kalchine returns to his true humanoid form.
"So it is," Kalchine responds.
"May we never have need to meet again."
"May it be as you say."
Kalchine then uses a technique to channel energy directly from the positive energy plane to heal the giant before the portal it came through opens once more. The giant steps through with only a momentary glance back before striding off into the distance, the portal snapping closed behind it.
Kalchine does not watch him leave. Instead, he grips Quasit's shoulder firmly. "It is lovely but you do not need it," he comments as she models the earring.
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The furry frost giant does not truly recognize the significance of Quasit's gesture and punches her fist a bit too hard.
Quasit puts on a brave face as the giant whacks her little fist, smiling like a warrior.
Then she turns away and cradles her battered hand and closes her eyes.
"Owwwww." she moans under her breath.
"It is lovely but you do not need it," he comments as she models the earring.
"Of course not. It's for you." she says, holding the earring up to one of his wiggly ears.
"Do Triaxians pierce their ears?" she adds sweetly as she pulls a long sharp needle from her bag of lock picking tools, her face innocent as a newborn baby demon.
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Sakitu helps looks through all the items in the tent. It all seems so luxurious, especially the silk cloth. For a moment she drapes one of the larger silks over her shoulders and around her body. It feels so smooth. It looks so vibrant.
While everyone else is busy she stuffs the silk into her bag.
She looks up as Quasit comments.
"What do you think? Too much?"
"What? Too much? Of course not. A fine lady like you can never have too much jewelry?" She looks over the Kalchine to see his response.
"It is lovely but you do not need it"
Sakitu smacks Kalchine on the arm and laughs. "Pshaw. That's not the point."
"Of course not. It's for you."
Sakitu laughs even more then she turns to Fin. "Are you going to pick an earring too?"
"Do Triaxians pierce their ears?" she adds sweetly as she pulls a long sharp needle from her bag of lock picking tools, her face innocent as a newborn baby demon.
"No," he replies, "But then I'm not on Triaxus anymore."
He eyes the big dangly piece of jewelry warily and his ears flick in agitation at the very idea of supporting that slinging weight.
"But perhaps something a bit smaller," he suggests.
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"No," he replies, "But then I'm not on Triaxus anymore."
He eyes the big dangly piece of jewelry warily and his ears flick in agitation at the very idea of supporting that slinging weight.
"But perhaps something a bit smaller," he suggests.
Quasit giggles with childish delight then leans forward and kisses Kalchine on the nose.
"I'm only teasing."
Gathering up the rest of the jewels and silks and invigorating drinks, she takes the severed head and places the True Crown upon it. She admires the gruesome thing in her outstretched hands for a moment, then goes over to the cabinet and places the head inside, as they had been directed to do.
When you place the crowned head in the cabinet, the whole group finds themselves suddenly standing back in front of the cave entrance through which you first entered the tent, with Quasit/Fin holding the crown in their hands.
Selena gestures for the crown. ”Well done. I didn’t even need to counter any spells. Let’s see what the spirit creature has to say then take a break before our next move.”
Selena adjusts her clothes as they wriggle for a moment before Winter hops out, stretches, and starts hopping around the group a bit.
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Stepping out of the cave, Quasit looks around, recognizing the strange ravine where they'd fought the drakes. She lets Selena carry the crown.
"You know, I'm not going to know what to do with myself when I'm back in the normal world. I'm going to expect every door to lead to another planet and every cave to lead to a different plane, and monsters to be lurking behind every wall." she says matter-of factly, as one might notice that the air is a bit chilly.
She goes about tying off a rope to slither down to the ravine floor, prepared to hike back to the Norn.
"Once we check in with our scavenger hunt prize, we're taking a rest, no matter what Grandmother wants. Assuming we aren't jumped by a giant newt or an eight-legged ocelot." She rubs her fatigued eyes and arches her back to stretch it.
"Maybe you don't have to go back to a normal world," Kalchine suggests.
"You know quite a few powerful spell casters and will have quite a bit of wealth with which to pay more. You could create a house where every door and hallway takes you to some other wondrous place," he points out.
"Do you think we need the head, too or just the crown?" he asks in an aside.
Selena nods in thanks to Quasit for the crown, checks for magic, and if finding none, promptly wears it herself. Winter yaps something at Selena who responds with ”Oh hush.” Looking to Quasit, ”What do you think?”
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"Maybe you don't have to go back to a normal world," Kalchine suggests.
"You know quite a few powerful spell casters and will have quite a bit of wealth with which to pay more. You could create a house where every door and hallway takes you to some other wondrous place," he points out.
”Oh no, I definitely want to go back to a normal boring world with normal houses and minimal monsters. I’m tired of living in an eternal puzzle-box world. I want my chief excitement to be that the local pub has a fresh oxtail soup.”
"Do you think we need the head, too or just the crown?" he asks in an aside.
Quasit shrugs. ”The head didn’t come through to this side, so I’m assuming we just needed it attached to the crown to act as a key to get us out of there. And we’re probably about to lose that crown, which is a real shame.”
The crown has powerful but non-specific magic.