|
When the morning rolls around, Quasit makes her way straight back to the coffee fixings to brew up some more of the lovely aromatic bean syrup. She's whistling happily and seems more animated than she typically would be first thing in the morning, as she's not usually a morning person. Also unusually for her she's padding about barefoot and without her armor and looks like she may have actually soaked her head in what was left of Findurel and Sakitu's bath from the previous evening, though in typical fashion instead of brushing it out, she's just shaken her locks like a dog coming out of pond, leaving her looking slightly deranged, like a mad gnomish inventor.
She makes sure to bring a cup of her coffee to Kalchine as he slowly rouses himself to wakefulness. She also brings some cakes that she managed to palm from Mametqul's tent the previous day, giving one to Kalchine and two to Chest Thumper, though the albino ape seemed slightly distrustful of the offering and spent a lot of time sniffing it and testing it with his lips and teeth before taking a grudging bite.
By the time the others are up and ready to go, Quasit has more properly gotten herself ready as well and seems extremely cheerful. The end seemed so close now, and the prospect of a nice warm island with sandy beaches seemed like a delightful destination. For once. Even if the crabs were a bit pinchy.
She follows the doll's guidance down the the side passage, chatting lightly with anyone in the mood to talk.
The smell of coffee and Quasit's bright and beaming face soon rouse Kalchine to full wakefulness. He talks quietly with her about their mission, its progress, its likelihood of being completed soon and her plans for afterwards as he sips the coffee and nibbles the cake. It is a sign of her fascination with her that he does not gulp down the former and gobble down the latter as his soldier habits dictate.
It isn't until he reaches for one of Chest Thumper's cakes that the frost ape quickly gobbles one down then rushes out of the room with the other clutched close to prevent thievery by his little brother.
That leaves him and Quasit alone as they get dressed...
Before heading down the side passage, he goes outside, stepping off the porch and into the treeline, tilting his face up to the sun as it weakly penetrates the pine needles above him and digging his bare toes into the snow and frozen dirt below, letting himself be a conduit between those two opposing forces.
When they are travelling down the side passage, he remains largely silent but there is a bounce in his step as he listens to Maka and Quasit chat.
Baba Yaga's directions lead you up the passage on the northeast of the 'cauldron' (as much as such directions apply in this strange space). It leads into a maze of canyons, which she leads you through with occasional brief telepathic directions. After a while, she directs you to climb up a short cliff to a trail along the canyon wall.
As the trail narrows ahead of them and even though he knows that Chest Thumper can climb these walls as easily as Kalchine can walk the trail, the druid shrinks his frost ape brother into statue shape, sneaking up on him.
Pocketing the statuette, he does his best not to look down at the drop on the edge of the path and contemplates transforming into something that can fly...just in case.
Fin stealthily climbs the path ahead of the rest of the party. It reaches a point where it climbs between two spurs of rock onto a wide ledge in front of a high-ceilinged cave. Five bizarre creatures--ogre-sized, vaguely humanoid beings with vertically-aligned mouths full of fangs and arms that split at the elbows into two forearms--occupy the area, one of them keeping watch not far from where Fin is peeking around the rock spur while the other four gather around a smokey fire in the back of the cave.
|
|
"Well, at least it sounds like we caught them on the hop. Because this doesn't seem like diplomacy situation."
"OK, here's what we're going to do. Saki, you'll put one of your invisibility spells on Kalchine, and then he'll go up and cast a wall of stone across that cave mouth, and trap 4 of the 5 ogre-things inside the cave for a minute or two. They'll start to try and bash their way out, and in the mean time, Maka and Fin will take out the one in front while the rest of us run up the path and get into position. Sound like a plan?"
|
Sakitu pads quietly along the narrow ledge of a trail that is cut into the side of the cliff. She can't see him but she knows that Fin has moved up ahead, scouting, just like he always does. It doesn't bother her now like it used to. Is that trust? Has she seen it enough times to know that Fin's going to be ok?
She shakes her head. It doesn't matter. Soon this whole thing will be over and she and Fin can settle down to a long and happy life together. Maybe even making little baby Fins.
A few moments later Fin comes racing down the trail. He explains what he saw.
"OK, here's what we're going to do. Saki, you'll put one of your invisibility spells on Kalchine, and then he'll go up and cast a wall of stone across that cave mouth, and trap 4 of the 5 ogre-things inside the cave for a minute or two. They'll start to try and bash their way out, and in the mean time, Maka and Fin will take out the one in front while the rest of us run up the path and get into position. Sound like a plan?"
Sakitu nods. "Yep. That sounds perfect. But we have to wait till we're close. My spell doesn't last that long so he won't have a lot of time."
Kalchine looks in nervous surprise to Quasit when he hears his part in the plan.
But then he just nods and readies himself. "A sound strategy," he agrees.
|
|
Kalchine looks in nervous surprise to Quasit when he hears his part in the plan.
But then he just nods and readies himself. "A sound strategy," he agrees.
Quasit notices the flicker of hesitation in Kalchine.
"We could maybe create a small distraction while you move up close enough to do your spell, if you like. Like Fin could fire off an arrow that dislodges some rocks from the cliff face. But you should still be invisible after the spell is cast. And if it seems like that thing can see you even if you're invisible, Maka will flame on and grab its attention and we'll all rush up. I guess that's plan B. OK?"
Kalchine's ears droop when Quasit notes his hesitation. Bad enough to be nervous. Even worse to force the rest of the group to deal with that nervousness when they are so effective. A team can be brought down by the failings of their weakest member and Kalchine won't let this team be brought down because of him.
"No, the first plan was good. I'm ready," he replies, looking to Sakitu expectantly.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As per Quasit's plan, Maka launched herself at the creature in front.
Kalchine feels no change as Sakitu casts the invisibility spell on him. Yet, as he begins to protest that it didn't work, he looks down and sees the stone under his feet. The stone directly under his feet. Holding his hands up, he can't see them and presses them together and then to his face to make sure they are still there.
It's an odd feeling, but he knows the spell has limited time and he hurries up the path. Though he knows he can't be seen, he takes no chances and just leans around the edge of the cave to spot a good location. He then draws up the power of the earth, pulling and pulling and pulling stone up to seal off the inner cave mouth.
Cut off from his companions, he almost feels sorry for the odd creature that is almost assuredly about to die alone.
Kalchine keeps pulling at the stone, though shifts the focus nearer to him. In fact, he is the focus and he encases himself in rock before letting his need to cling to his own form go and closing the space between the rocks. Rather than crushing him, he lets his essence expand into that humanoid shape and it becomes him.
Selena brings up the rear, focused more on playing rearguard at the moment, but she does drop an Aggressive Thundercloud in front of the stone wall should the locked away ones break free.
With Saki's magic aiding him Bulvi starts moving up, keeping pace with Quasit and hoping to overwhelm the isolated larger foe quickly.
The creatures seem completely shocked when you attack (well, at least the one that's not blocked off by a wall does), clearly not having noticed your stealthy approach. The one that was supposed to be on watch takes the hits from Fin and Maka, looking badly injured but still able to fight afterward.
Seeing the creature on watch collapse as Quasit sunk her blades into what seemed to be some very important organs, Bulvi moved up and hopped over the still warm body. Sword and shield at the ready he moved over by the wall in case one of the creatures broke through.
Maka took to the air and began launching flames over the wall.
Since it seems like he may actually be going fist to fist with some of these creatures, Kalchine takes the time to make sure his fist is better.
The creatures shout in confusion and anger at being closed in their cave and bombarded with fire. Three of them rush to the wall and start trying to batter it down.
The remaining one... vanishes from sight.
Hearing the impact of the raging creatures on the other side Bulvi planted his feet and raised his shield ready to be the next obstacle for whichever of the monstrous creatures survived Maka's flameS.
Selena moves her little electric ball of blizzard around to zap at the creatures, attempting to zap them just as they are swinging in hopes of weakening their strikes.
Maka continued to rain fire upon her foes.
Kalchine readies himself for the moment when or if the enemy break down his stone wall, relatively sure that his two ranged specialized companions will finish them off, first.
The creatures manage to evade Selena's lightning. Between the two of them, Maka and Fin bring down another of them, however.
They don't quite smash a hole in the wall, but it's close.
As there don't seem to be any attempts to attack Fin and the brutes continue trying to get through the wall Bulvi stands ready but cheers on Fin. "Keep it up, I'll take an easy win against these things."
"I almost feel bad taking all the fun!" Maka said to Fin with a wink.
|
|
Sakitu turns to Quasit, "Do you want to be invisible when those creatures come through the wall? Or maybe it doesn't matter." She glances up to where Fin and Maka are hovering and raining down deadly fire.
"There might not be any left to get through the wall..."
Quasit seems a little disappointed that Sakitu spotted her so easily in amongst her sneakiness. But she recovers quickly and shakes her head.
"Save your spell. Today might be a long day."
|
|
Sakitu asked Quasit if she wanted to be turned invisible and then turned to face her friend. She was gone! Sakitu looked from side to side and then even turned around in a circle.
"Save your spell. Today might be a long day."
"Oh! There you are." She narrowed in on her friend's voice. "Ok. We'll wait on making you invisible. Besides, it looks like you don't really need my help."
In his new earthen form, Kalchine is tempted to slip through his own wall and smash the creatures on the other side.
But separating himself from his companions is a recipe for disaster so he continues to wait and see if the ranged specialists can slay the remaining opponents or weaken them enough for him to finish them off easily.
Fin kills another of the creatures, while Maka burns the other badly. It continues hammering on the wall.
The remaining visible one finally finishes breaking through the wall... likely just in time to die.
The one that vanished from sight reappears casting a spell at Maka and Fin. A cloud of greasy darkness briefly engulfs them.
It then ducks around a corner in the back of the cave.