Aibek's eyes swung from the corpse to the ghost and back, pausing a moment to consider what the ghost said before setting up and shooting another blunt bolt of solid shadow towards the corpse's torso. Aibek's dark eyes watched the both the ghost and the corpse warily...
"Okay, that's it. So much for the bow."
Mihara transfers her bow over to her left hand and flicks her right wrist, releasing of her hidden daggers.
She vanishes into the shadows and surges out near the undead, opposite Nigrum. She ducks and strikes at the creature's leg, hoping to bring it down to its knees and leave it open to attacks "Down!"
Prepared to deal with the ice aura, Mihara leaves her dagger embedded in the creature's knee.
With a final hiss, the skeleton sank to it's knee with a clump, frozen eyes dying down to a mere gleam. Ice began to rapidly grow, surrounding the monster, sealing it away.
The Ghost whispered, "You have bought time. It restores itself as we speak. Complete the task. Put me to rest, and destroy that creature."
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Ayreth looks back-and-forth between the ghost and the reanimated body for a moment, confused at the separation. Deciding that the corpse needs to be stopped before it turns Nigrum into a block of ice, she casts a spell, intending to touch it. Before she can move forward, the energy shoots from her hand towards the creature. "Well, that's new...
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"You've got to be joking."
Mihara quickly snatches the dagger back before the ice covers it, thankful for her nimble fingers.
Azri finally arrived downstairs, pressing a hand to her side to heal her remaining injuries as she did so.
"Anything special you want us to do besides breaking the body?" Azri inquired of the spirit. She didn't want to have to go through all of this again later.
"The body is irrelevant," the ghost replied, "Much like old clothes that have become a nuisance. I suggest it more for your comfort than mine. You must complete the task. That is..."
The ghost paused, and looked lost, even with the spectral helmet. "What was the task? I...cannot remember. It was so important but I...I gave my word...my family..."
"I like family - my new one is great. Is there anything belonging to your family down here, maybe on your body?" Azri pressed, trying to get the information. "I could poke you a few times or something - the extra energy might help you figure things out." She raised her right hand and negative energy crackled around it.
Selena nods at her sister. "Yup, I think that's it. Tough..." the half-succubus gave a critical look to the ice skeleton "...shouldn't we, I dunno, heat it up a little before trying to pull the sword out? We may break it."
With effort, it will be possible to melt the area around the sword, or chip it out. However, you have no idea how long it will take the creature to regenerate.
The shade shook his head. "Already I recover from the wounds your...brother...managed to inflict. It is a result of what I am. A soul with no mind. Slowly, all I was has slipped from until only this shadow is left. I can be no more help. Find one who knew about this place, perhaps, and discover the parts of my tale that I have lost."
Nigrum cocks back Tsui and brings it across the frozen corpse like an axe man going after a standing tree.
A small smile came to Aibek, still cloaked in shadow and holding a solid shadow weapon "There is rarely an only about a shadow -- especially in the right hands...and thatyour shadow has quite a bit in it as well it seems before firing another solid shadow blunt bolt at the corpse...
Speaking to the others, "We need to go see Azerna it seems. We can either divide up, having a team go see her while another keeps an eye on things here, see if we can find something in the mean time, or we can all go. Aibek said with a shrug, glancing at the others for their input before turning attention back to the ice corpse.
"Well, we can just close the door and tie it up. I doubt that skeleton is smart enough to pick locks." Selena replies pensive to Aibek. "As for the sword..." the half-succubus moves near the corpse, putting one hand under the guard of the sword and the other at the base "...we just have to yank it away!". Putting all the strength she can muster in her arms, Selena tries to pull the sword up from the corpse.
Azri watched, rather amused at Selena's display of strength - there were only so many places for people to cluster around, and she'd decided to avoid crowding them. "I'll go and talk to her if necessary." the Lich volunteered, though she did wait to see the results of Selena's efforts.
"I'll go with Azri. I'll likely be more useful there than with dealing with this thing," Mihara adds as Selena tries to pull the sword.
Although the ice chips of under the assault, it is obviously harder than usual ice. The hilt of the blade is barely clear before Selena grabs it and yanks. Only her impressive strength and the strange powers running through her system allow the Half-Succubus to rip the blade free.
The weapon is almost three feet long, with a thick, heavy blade. One side runs with a brutal, serrated edge. The blade is of a darker metal, the black wrapped handle threaded with silver and studded with onyx. It is an impressive weapon.
With a grunt, Selena pulls the sword away from the frozen body. Studying it for a moment, she grins at the party "So? How was that?".
"Do you still want some of us to stay here, or we just tie up Mister Frosty here, close the door, and go Azerna all together?"
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Ayreth claps excitedly at Selena's impressive show of strength. "Oh, well done! We should definitely talk to Azerna. And lock up behind ourselves." She looks to Mihara who had illustrated her talent with locks. "You can do that, right?" She seems to be disregarding the fact that there is still a reanimated corpse in the room. After all, Nigrum is handling that.
"Wow..." Aibek commented as Selena grinned with an obviously impressed look on the witchwolf's face before it turned into confusion looking at the three foot long blade. "That thing is a bit amazing too. It reminds me of the Tesubo I found behind the bar...."
Pausing a moment, Aibek continues with a small shrug, "I'm happy either way. It would have been nice to find what was needed for them quickly, but the state...states they're in... going all the way back and talking to Azerna may be quicker than chasing around here looking and trying to get answers from them. Might look at that fountain as well..." Aibek thought out loud...
"Can I lock a door? Do birds chirp as the run rises?" Mihara replies with a smirk, tucking her weapons away.
"Azerna is most likely our best bet, at this point."
Selena giggles once again at Ayreth and Aibek, before pulling some bloodvine rope from her backpack and tying up the skeleton.
"It should hold up, I think. Let's go see Azerna and wrap this whole situation."
_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_
After stowing the sword in her backpack, Selena goes with the others at the Dust Devil Inn to ask Azerna what was up with vengeful spirits in her previous inn.
For the whole time before they got there, Selena is unusually quiet and pensive.
After a while, she asks to Azri "Hey Az, how long have you been, you know, not that alive?". She pauses for a moment, thinking back to the crazed ghost at the inn. "Isn't it...hard? I mean, I haven't seen you eat since we met and..." the half-succubus trails off, unable to find the words.
Damn, I hadn't thought about it since now: can't Azri eat, sleep, or feel anything? That's terrible...I couldn't live like that for even a day...
"A few years." she said. "And I've never really been bothered by the lack of food - I don't get hungry anymore, either, so I've never really wanted to eat. And if I'm feeling weak or hurt, I just make myself feel better again." Negative energy gathered around her slender fingertips for a few moments before dissipating into the air. "It's quite convenient, actually - I don't have to care about the basic needs of the living, so I can give all of my attention to the important things... like helping my family." And with that, she gave Selena a sisterly hug.
"You don't even get hungry anymore?" the half-fiend echoes Azri, visibly shaken by the undead's situation.
I don't know if convenient is what I'd call it...
Before she can collect her thoughts for a response, Azri hugs her, and Selena squeezes her back.
"If I can do anything, just ask, ok?" the half-succubus says warmly, an unusually serious expression on her face.
"Just let me know if your own powers end up having a way to supercharge undead." the lich girl said, looking highly amused. "I doubt our enemies would see that coming." Her mortal visage was almost frighteningly realistic, complete with a slight blush of pleasure at getting some attention from her family. "And no, I occasionally got the urge to nibble on people's souls a bit, but Zhen pounded that out of me pretty thoroughly. Now I'm just hungry for knowledge and success, since my body's more-or-less self-sustaining."
Nigrum flexed his fingers, trying to get the full feeling back. He speaks more to himself then at the two girls.
"Must be nice, self healing like that. That inn nearly got another undead, for surely upon such a dishonorable death I would not rest."
His normally flawless skin had patches of gray where the spirit's blades had struck him, as if it was aged or nearly rotting. While the skeleton's claw marks left similar wounds but with purple furrows where it got to the blood as well. His hands had a slight tint of pale blue where the frost had worked it's way in. A good look at the swordsman made one wonder how he could remain in such fighting shape despite all the damage he had suffered.
Elie met you as you exited, looking vaguely concerned. "That was one hell of a noise. What happened in there?"
"Ghosts, zombies, ice, and the strength of an ape." Azri said cheerfully. "So, pretty normal day for us. Where's Azerna?" she looked around, pushing up to her tiptoes as she did.
"Yeah, OK, sure, normal day." The Half-Orc snorted. "My usual day involves peeling up a drunk and washing baby vomit off my clothes."
Shaking her head, she points across the bridge to the Dust Devil's Den. "Haven't known Azerna to stray far from the Inn since I got here. If she isn't there she'll be close by."
"We met a dead man. He didn't look too happy about it. Neither part of him did, in fact. It's... a long story."
"Wait, what baby?" Selena eyes lights up for a moment, before returning to the situation at hand. "Oh, right, Azerna. Yeah, we've found a ghost haunting the inn, and Azerna has something to do with it. We'll need to ask her how to get him to be less stab-happy, I guess."
_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_
Entering the Dust Devil Inn, the half-succubus looks around for Azerna. Having spotted her, Selena asks her to have a word with them for a minute.
"Hey, Azerna, could you help us with something? We went at the Thirsty Driad Inn, what's up with the painted sign anyway, on the other island, to try to fix the pump(in hindsight we should have checked the fountain first but oh well). We found a ghost there, said that 'the job wasn't done', something about a sword(got it here by the way, after a bit of handling. Ahah, that's always fun), and Ayreth was hovering around and we thought that maybe you could help. Aunt Elie said the place was yours before it got closed down, really nice by the way, love the giant tree, but everything was kind of dark on the first floor after he said we wouldn't help him, but we actually wanted to so-." being rather confused herself about what was going on, Selena doesn't really manage to explain what was going on and instead gushes out randomly the events of the last two hours.
Aibek smiled at Selena's spoken string of thoughts as Aibek often had moments such as that, and patted the monk gently on the arm for encouragement before turning shyly to Azerna.
"We should have checked the fountain first, but I got distracted by the nature and beauty of the Thirsty Dryad Inn and then a figure and movement were spotted inside which became of concern as was trying to figure out how far from the flowing fountain the water was working...I apologize for us entering what is yours without consent, it is still well - other than the ghost Selena mentioned and ice corpse Selena mentioned and from which Selena impressively pulled. Those trapped beings want help but unable to provide us with much information beyond demands and attacking. We've returned hoping you can give us the information they can not - a job undone as Selena mentioned - and to properly ask permission to assist that which is trapped in your inn. I then hope to follow the water pipes the other direction as they were working in the inn..." Aibek said, bowing with the apology, and then tried to step back slightly nervously, unsure how Azerna would take this information...
The dark skinned woman looks non-pulsed for a moment. Now that you see her up close, and have hints of her race, it becomes more clear that her skin is the colour of smoothed, aged oak and her eyes are leaf green.
After a moment the woman gestured to a table, where she sat down with them for a moment. "You were in my Inn? I...I'd stopped thinking anyone could get in and out alive, or would help if they did. I can tell you what I know."
The woman closed her eyes. "I was brought here by one of the rules of the Towers more than a thousand years ago. He wanted to know about Dryads, and so he brought me and my tree both. It took a lot of magic to keep us alive, and when we got here it took even more to allow the tree to grow here. Water was redirected directly from the main well water system. Nothing short of stopping the artisan wells will stop my tree getting water."
Azerna shrugged. "Eventually that master died, and the new one had no interest in me. I certainly wasn't worth the effort to send back. So instead, they paid me for the...inconvenience I'd suffered, and I built my Inn."
"And I survived," she replied with a small smile. "Even during the time the city fell. I'm not as defenceless as I seem, and near my tree I can make things quite...difficult. So when one of the Masters came to me, asking me to hide there Symbol of Authority, I did so. It was simple enough. It's still there, so far as I know."
Opening her eyes, she glanced in the direction of the Inn. "And then your friend came. He and his party had been tasked with finding one of the Symbols and letting the mage with them study it. It was important to them. They had kin being held in Khatapesh, and the item would have bought them freedom. But...the people who held there kin were vile. I feared what they might do with the Symbol, or the knowledge of it. I didn't give them the one I had. I regret it, now, but..."
She shrugged. "Regrets are like sand is the desert, and as much use. I don't know exactly what happened. They entered the Towers, found a weapon they believed to be a Symbol, lost some of there members doing it. They were wrong. It was a magic sword - nasty one too, called Soulbiter. It hurts those who use it. But it was just a magic sword. They argued, and most of them left during the night. And then one of them - Zedath, a fighter - appeared as a ghost the next night, demanding they finish the job. He killed anyone who didn't agree to help him."
Azerna sighed. "I destroyed him, or so I thought. As soon as I did his body rose from the roots of my tree - my tree! - and attacked. I beat that too. And the ghost reformed. If you destroy one, the other is healed. If you attack the ghost on the upper floor and enter the basement, both will be your enemy. The ghost can be reasoned with, to a point - it simply wants rest. The thing in the basement is...I don't know. The result of some kind of curse, I think."
She stared at you, hope in her eyes, making them light up. "I want my tree back. Being here...hurts. I'm too far away. But neither of the undead will let me in. So, here's the deal - I'll tell you where the Symbol is. Once it's found, the ghost should go, I think. Just tell it you've found it and show it, and it should go. His job was only to find it, I don't think he'll care about it once it has been. I think it will destroy thing in the basement too. But you don't harm my tree, and as soon as you've done it you tell me. You can keep the Symbol. You can keep anything you find, too. I don't care. Just...get me my inn. Agreed?"
"You're really pretty to be more than a thousand year old!" Selena observes with a smile.
Uh, I thought that dryads had leafs for hair and danced around naked in the forest all day. Guess I was wrong.
"Of course we're going to help you! If you've been here for this long, why didn't you ask someone for help sooner? Even if the ghost doesn't want you in there, it couldn't have been hard to find someone to hand him the symbol."
"It's a done deal." Mihara nods, recalling how many times she'd said the same phrase to passing traders in her youth.
"I got the ghost to go downstairs. It helped." Azri said cheerfully. "I'm still kind of mad at him for being crazy, but we can work with that. Besides, it's the job of rulers to support their followers - if somebody took what's yours, then we do what we can to get it back. Where is the Symbol?"
Aibek listened intently and quietly, sitting at the table with Azerna as the Dryad did so. After Azerna spoke, Aibek was quiet for a long moment while listening to the others and gathering nervous whirling thoughts.
"Your tree seems unharmed, though I have no idea what having some...such a being like that near its roots for so long would do. I'm very happy to help keep your tree safe and help you get your inn back and glad that this job that the ghost could not remember will not take as long or as much as I feared. We can see to it, come and tell you once completed and you're safe to return, and then check out the pumps nearer the fountain..." Aibek thought aloud quietly, glancing from Azerna to the others and back as a small soft shy smile spread on the witchwolf's face.
Azerna sighed. "Thank you. The item you seek is the Archon Stave. It's about five feet tall, made of what appears to be silver with bronze runes and is topped with a crystal orb. When you enter the Inn, head to the second floor and head along the eastern corridor. Before the last door - the one that heads into the attic, there is a patch of bare wall. Look for a knot, about three feet from the nearest door, four feet from the ground. Push it and the door should open. However, the door is past the ghost...hence why I couldn't get to it. It's also warded - don't try to enter it via magic, or it has...unpleasant repercussions."
She paused for a moment. "Inside is a small secret room, a vault where I kept business documents, gold and the like. Take what you will, bar the deeds of ownership, with my thanks. The Stave is in a locker at one end. It's locked, and I long lost the key, but it's not trapped. You should be able to pick the lock - or smash it."
Azerna considered for a moment. "Is that all you need?"
"What kind of repercussions? And getting past the ghost shouldn't be too hard - he might still be in the basement." Azri observed. If the traps were too dangerous, she might try leading the way and deliberately triggering them. Either way, once she'd gotten the response, she quickly headed back into the Inn and up the stairs so she could see how clear the way was.
Nigrum nods at Ayreth.
"You have my thanks, no need to ask permission to heal me. Just don't sneak up on me, reflexes and what not."
He turns to Azerna concerning the inn. Crossing his arms.
"Not good enough, I am a bounty hunter. My services require payment."
For a moment he gives the sense of being stubborn, then a slow smile creeps on his face.
"A favor is enough. Make sure to let me know when you get some good wine in, some days I could kill for a jug of sake. In fact now that I think about it I have, but it was in the line of duty I promise."
Mihara cringes as Nigrum requires payment, but chokes on her admonishment as he reveals the true intent behind his statement.
"So, this sword we found, is that Soulbiter? Is it of any use to us?" Mihara asks her companions. "I don't think I've heard of either it or the Archon Stave in the past. Have any of you?"
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Ayreth arches an eyebrow at Nigrum as she remembers her inability to heal him earlier. But she proceeds and Nigrum feels a deep cold broken by brilliant flashes of heat as her healing takes effect.
Like Mihara, she starts to react to Nigrum's response to Azerna before he cracks his joke. She mouths to the others, "He has a sense of humor?"
"I don't believe so, Mihara," she responds as she searches her memories and that of her rider for lore of either. "Though I may be able to discover more... just not today. The earlier vision took a lot out of me."
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Selena is about to have to same reaction as Mihara and her sister, when Nigrum makes a joke for the first time since they met.
"Rovagug is going to crawl out of the Dead Vault this evening!" Selena exclaims as she holds the swordman's head with her hands and kisses him on the cheek "You're learning, big boy!".
At Mihara's question, the half-succubus shrugs "I have no idea. But I know that things called Soulsomething, Reaver of whatever, Defiler of stuff, or something like that are always bad news. Let's finish what we have to do and then destroy this sword in my backpack. The last guy that used it got stabbed in the gut and is now roaming around as a ghost."
Aibek glances nervously around, first at the talk of unpleasant repercussions, then at Nigrum for his comments, then the others as they responded to them.
Looking back towards Mihara, Aibek thought for a moment before responded with a slow shake of the head with a growing smile at Selena's comment, "That is true. When I'd first looked at it after you impressively pulled it out of him, I thought the materials were similar to the odd Tesubo I had seen behind the bar. I do not recall there being any sake there though I could have missed it. My past is mostly forests, claws and shadows, not giant vicious looking swords or Archon things...". Aibek commented, pondering on them for a moment, trying to pull any stories from the whirl of thoughts...
Elie and Azerna glanced at each other when Nigrum made a joke. Apparently it caught them by surprise as well. Azerna smiled and shrugged. "They'll be some, somewhere. I'll let you have it with cheer."
Elie added, "Soulbiter was a famous sword one of the Tower's Guard captains used. As I understand it, it was made from a rare metal, and inflicted horrific injures...but it also harmed the wielder. There were some nasty rumours about it."
After a moment, Azerna added, "The Archon Stave, other than being one of the Symbols of Authority, is supposed to be a weapon for a spellcaster. Arcane, Divine or other. It can be used as a weapon, but as it's true power is unlocked it also helps to boost it's owners abilities. It also had something to do with Rods of Metamagic, but I'm not sure how they worked."
"The Tetsubo?" Azerna chuckled. "It's actually a magic weapon. I didn't need it - I fight with my hands - but it sometimes helped to make more rowdy patrons calm down when I pulled it out. Keep it if you want. I can find something else to scare people with." She chuckled softly.
Aibek's shy smile brightened as the witchwolf spoke to Azerna, "I prefer fighting with my hands as well -- though lately we've been running into many things that makes doing so less appealing. Still catches me off guard sometimes when it is more dangerous to me than them to use my hands, but thankfully being trained to use my shadow as a weapon makes for a very versatile backup. Maybe if I have a better look at the Tesubo I could make a shadow version - get rid of rowdy patrons twice as fast with two. As it is magic, it may be more useful to one of you...." Aibek babbled, glancing at the others...
"Sounds like you have the right idea about that sword Selena, and that this symbol of authority may suit Azri or Ayreth best. First we need to go get it and Azerna's inn back. Does anyone want to do or get anything before we go?"