Selena hops backward and stumbles a bit, still getting used to her new feet. She'll try a dispel magic to see if she can break whatever magic brought it here, or disrupt it at least.
As Maka stumbles into the spiked pit, Selena hops back toward Findurel. Her attempt to dispel the pit has no effect.
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Round one: Party up, Selena actions taken.
Though Findurel's first arrow misses, the second two hit their mark, clearly taking the fey by surprise.
Round 1: Tezuzu, Maka, Bulvi, and Sakitu are up.
Not being able to do much to help Maka whether she falls in or not Bulvi moves forward and draws his sword... he just had to hope her training would help her avoid the worst of the damage. "Remind me later to buy some rope!"
Maka called out in surprise as she suddenly found herself falling. Her limbs last out, looking for something to catch herself on. Grasping only air, Maka hit the ground with a heavy thud. "YA!" She called out in pain. The pit was covered in spikes, and though she had managed to avoid any fatal damage, blood flowed from several wounds. Worried about what her friends might be enduring, Maka swiftly rose and began climbing the pig walls.
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Tezuzu grabs the 50ft rope and grappling hook he had prepared to offer Maka and Findurel earlier before they climbed up the tree on their own from his belt loop and quickly chirps to Yang as he takes hold of the other end of the rope in his mouth.
Yang will dart forward dropping the end of the rope down the hole before returning to Tezuzu’s side. Tezuzu will move towards the closest orbiting boulder to the pit and attach the grappling hook to it. He shouts out ”Maka grab the rope!”
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Tezuzu rushes forward, chirping at Yang. As he hits one of the boulders with a grappling hook, Yang takes the other end and drops it to Maka. As Maka makes her climb, she is greeted ever so briefly by Yang. She easily grabs the rope and is yanked from the hole at an angle that pulls her up, but also toward the spikes . Unable to dodge the remaining spikes, Maka is sliced further .
Round 1: Sakitu is up.
Grabbing on to the rope, Maka was surprised by the speed and force which lifted her. Unable to adjust in time, the spikes ripped at her flesh once more, but she shot out of the hole and rolled to a stop. The snow around her splatter red with her blood. Maka's anger literally rolled off of her in waves of flame. The snow around her began to melt, forming steam in then cold air.
The series of missiles don't seem to have any impact on the fey. A pair of small stony creatures emerge from the ground near Bulvi and Maka. Their stony bodies are marred with cracks and covered with veins of a black powdery substance. Gem like eyes glow with malice as they step toward the nearest individuals to attack. (miss), (miss). The one clanks harmlessly against Bulvi's armor while the other misses Maka completely. Meanwhile, the fey coats the surface of the large rock in grease.
Round two: Party up.
As the fey falls atop the rock platform, a bit of grease splatters upon its lifeless face. The rotating rocks and the platform follow shortly after, the momentum of the rotating rocks propelling them along their established trajectory just enough as they fall that Bulvi and Quasit (Ref Sv. DC 12 or dmg) are forced to dodge them. The forest itself seems to shutter as the platform hits the ground, crumbling harmlessly into small rock chucks. You note that the rumbling seems to be coming from someplace between where this fey was and were the other fey you encounters is. The malice seems to lessen in the eyes of the stony creatures, but they remain upright all the same.
Round 2 Find has killed enough. Up to the rest of you now :-)
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Sakitu's jaw drops and she stares at the fey creature. "They didn't even harm it. I can't believe it. Those missiles never miss." She turns to the small Selena. "What are we going to do?" Her voice has a touch of panic.
Then she watches as Fin's flurry of arrows flies into the creature. She yips in glee as it falls. "Oh! Fin! That was amazing." Her courage bolstered by Fin's success, she moves closer to the stone creatures attacking Maka and Bulvi. She fires a quick shot from her bow.
"Good shot Fin! Maka called out before engaging with the rock creatures. Fire swirled around her fists as she sent a flurry of blows at the creatures.
Tezuzu looks towards Maka at his side and chirps ”We should look at a few of those scratches once we finish this, glad to have you back.” as he steps forward and unleashes a barrage of attacks on the dirt creature closest to Bulvi. Yang follows to flank taking a bite out of the one closest to Bulvi as well
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Sakitu's shot shatters the already fractured stony creature. Bits of dusty black stone remain on the ground. As flame touches the remaining stony creature, the veins of black dust ignite. The creature bursts in a flash of flame propelling shards of rock at Maka and Bulvi . The flash of flame ignites the remains of the other creature, propelling additional shards at Maka and Bulvi . A haze of smoke sits in the air for a bit after (1 round), but clears quickly.
Tezuzu looks towards Maka at his side and chirps ”We should look at a few of those scratches once we finish this, glad to have you back.”
"I have a few more scratches to heal." Maka quipped as she pulled a small shard of stone from her arm. "That was really smart with the rope, I thought it was going to take forever to climb out."
He smiles, saying, "That was a nasty fall, Maka...good thing you monks are so tough..."
Maka's various wounds knit shut as the healing magic of the wand flowed into them. At his comment about monks toughness, Maka laughed and flexed her arm. "The trick is to beat yourself up more than your enemy does, that way you are used to it."
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"The trick is to beat yourself up more than your enemy does, that way you are used to it."
Quasit considers this for a few moments, then shakes her head and chuckles good-naturedly.
"That makes no sense."
She looks around at the disrupted elemental ritual scene, considering what just occurred. "OK, did you guys notice that there was a kinda rumbling shudder that seemed to come from back toward the other dawn piper? I think that one and this one were linked into the same ritual. I think we need to go back and take care of her too."
"Fortunately as long as we have Fin the Dragon-Slayer on our side, we seem to have a pretty good shot at dealing with these creatures, no matter how magical and arrogant they are." She says, walking over to Findurel and clapping him on the arm in congratulations. "Maybe we should all just hang out here and let you take care of things. You can kill all the evil fey and rescue all the stranded families and I'll catch up on some reading."
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Sakitu looks over the battle scene. She remains tense for a few more moments just waiting to see if any other enemies emerge. Satisfied that the battle is over, she slings her bow back over her shoulder and approaches the others.
"Wow Fin. Like everyone says, that was some good shooting." She raises her eyebrow and frowns slightly at Quasit's comment though. [b]"Hey, I was the one who slew the dragon with the rainbow, remember?" She purses her lips in a pout and crosses her arms.
The forest is strangely quiet, but clearly returning to its normal level of activity. Smoke from the slightly combustible stony creatures has cleared and the slight haze has moved off over the canopy of the trees. The path the group came through looks clear as do two unexplored path to the north of the shattered platform.
”And you did an excellent job with your rainbow, Sakitu” Tezuzu adds before addressing Quasit half seriously ”I do have a few books you could borrow if you like. We could set out a blanket have some snacks and wine maybe play some cards?” as he collects his rope and grappling hook.
”Excellent shots, though Findurel. I am glad you had cold Iron.” he nods before looking up at the stone platform. ”Does anyone want to scale this rock and see if he had anything useful on him?”
The rubble left is such that finding the fey's remains is more about moving rock than climbing them. When you do find him its clear that the bursting rock was not kind to his remains or the few things he had of use.
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Fin blushes, murmuring, "Just a couple of lucky shots, that's all...must be the new bow the monks found for me...and as Saki said, she took down the dragon. Any way, y'all have saved my a-...err, butt...more times than I can remember, about time I pulled my weight..."
He takes a breath and continues. "I agree with Q...once we're through here, we should go back and deal with the other piper...maybe Q and I can sneak up on her; I'll fire a shot and then we hit her full force?"
”...I am glad you had cold Iron.”
Fin shrugs. "I know there are some creatures more susceptible to cold iron but not necessarily which ones; as they're only a gold more per quiver, I use them instead of regular arrows, just in case..."
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"I'd bet anything she already knows we dealt with her earth-brother over here. Probably not much chance of sneaking up on her now."
Quasit gives Sakitu the customary scritch treatment behind her ears. "Sorry Saki. Remember I missed the whole dragon thing, climbing around outside the tower like an idiot. Hey, how come your magic missiles didn't work on that guy? From what Nevar told me, that spell never misses."
Tezuzu will cast a spell on the rest of the dawn pipers gear once recovered.
As Findurel goes over a plan to deal with the other piper Tezuzu will take a stick and draw a square in the snow with four circles at the corners.”
He will interject once it is finished ”If the dawn pipers are planning on stealing the hut it is likely through some sort of ritual. With this second site themed around earth and the other water...” he points to the bottom two corners on the drawn square, ”Than following sacred geometry it is very likely there are similar sites of fire and wind to the north.” he points to the top two corners of the square.
”I am not sure their exact function, but I suspect if they are laid out this way....then the hut is likely in the center. This is congruent with reports of it being in the center of the merchant quarter and the spread of this strange fauna.” he finishes drawing an X at the center of the square.
He will scratch his head ”I am not sure how long their ritual will take, but the first piper seemed content in merely delaying us. I suggest we take the middle path we overlooked and see if it leads us to the hut. Fighting these fey is meaningless if we can simply steal the hut right out from under them with your keys.”
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"I'd bet anything she already knows we dealt with her earth-brother over here. Probably not much chance of sneaking up on her now."
Fin sighs, shaking his head at his own short-sightedness. "You're right, Q...I didn't think 'bout that..."
He nods as Tez and Q agree on the middle path...when his friends are ready, he'll take point and warily head that way...
"Heel, Izzy!"
Dark forested paths lead north, east, and south out of this large clearing, but the way to the north is blocked by a rippling hemisphere of churning darkness and twisted shadows. The surrounding trees seem to lean toward the area, as swirls of nearby snow and forest debris are sucked into the vortex, accompanied by a distant roar of wind. On the other side of the dark phenomenon, the path leads to a forest clearing containing a dilapidated wooden hut perched atop two giant chicken's legs, surrounded by a picket fence of bleached bones. You hear the chirping of a frantic bird that flew too close to the rippling as it is slowly being sucked toward it from above.
Tezuzu will spend some time wide eyed scribbling notes furiously tossing pebbles grass and strings of twine into the vortex. Constantly stopping for a moment to exclaim a ”Hmmmm?” and a few ”Ohhhs” and the occasional ”Neat!” seemingly oblivious to the reaction or behavior of the rest of his friends around him.
The chirp of the desperate bird is cut off as it is pulled into the sphere, a bit of feather floating about before it too is pulled in.
"IT'S GOT CHICKEN LEGS!" Maka pointed and laughed in her excitement. "Do you think it needs to eat!?"
After a bit of time Tezuzu will chirp "Oh right, ummm yeah it is definitely some kind of reality warping vortex. It's certainly connected to the magical zones the fey have been guarding. My best guess? It is some kind of gate to transport the hut; likely to the first world given the Dawn Pipers seem to be the architects of this magic."
Tapping his beak for a few moments he adds "It looks quite unstable. I doubt they have finite control over it once it is ready I suspect it will take more than the immediate area with them so there could be sizable collateral damage to the city..." he sighs looking it over a few more times "It's clearly not ready and I believe killing that Dawn Piper might have weakened it, but whatever goes in there right now might not even make it to their intended destination. Likely some weird place between planes, maybe the shadow plane? Who knows, but I would not venture too close. Poor little birdie."
Clapping his hands together he will look around at the rest of the group "Well we can try to find a way around it. If either of you all that command magic have some means of teleportation now would be the time to use it on us. As for going around my examination of the forest earlier would make that quite dangerous. The trolls were right to fear the trees and brush. If you venture too deep into them I fear the magic that spawned them will cut you to pieces. Although you are welcome to try, I just would not advise it."
He cracks his knuckles "Well it looks like we ought to at least take the other fey out. Given the circumstances I am not sure what will happen once we disrupt the magic. Maybe this vortex fades back away into nothingness? Maybe it explodes killing us all or shuffles us off to some place between worlds." he lets the last sentence linger before giving a casual shrug.
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Maka’s quip snaps Fin out of his awed stupor, a chuckling snort escaping his lips...he then looks to Quasit and Sakitu, asking, ”How long has it been since we were sent by the Black Rider to seek the hut? Seems like a lifetime ago...”
He listens to Tezuzu, impressed by the tengu’s knowledge of such matters. ”If Tez is right about the pipers wanting to delay us, and I believe he is, time is of the essence...we need to take down the first piper quickly and then look to see if there are others. What d’ya think, Q?”
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"Yup, I think we take out that first dawn piper."
"If this vortex is meant to suck the Hut away, I don't think we dare try to use the Hut while it's active. Plus I'm guessing that the position of this vortex right here in the entrance to the clearing isn't an accident--it's meant to block our way in. Which means there probably isn't another way to get in there."
"I have no love for this city or its denizens, but leaving these creeps here doing rituals to warp and destroy everything doesn't seem like an option anyway. On the plus side though, I'm guessing Queen Elvanna and her pals haven't had much luck studying or using this Hut, thanks to this madness. It's hard for me to see why they've permitted it to go on so long."