"Oh!"
Sookie's mouth opens in pleasant surprise as Rhia's ancestral assist materializes around her. The knightly lady's face turns a shade of red.
"That's not... I mean... thank you... how can I refuse, it's not every day one gets escorted by friendly ghosts... Oh, dear me, makes you sound like Casper. I'm sorry... I mean, I guess, spectres? No no no! That's even worse, Sookie. Just be quiet and enjoy the ride now, Sookie..."
After getting past her embarrassed pride and nervous chattering about halfway up, she turns to smile warmly back at Rhia.
"Thank you, gentle lady."
One gets the impression she would bow, were she standing on solid ground. Remembering Metz's midair tumbling, she opts not to repeat his act, and lets a simple head nod to Rhia suffice.
"And thank you, uh... grandmum and granddad, is it?" she says to her two spectral escorts.
Grunting sourly, Christoph looks down at the remains of the wights. "Pharsma, Lady of Graves and Judge of the Dead, grant the souls of these men a swift passage to their final resting place." As he recites, he traces the Spiral on his chest with his free hand.
Taking out a rag, he cleans the head of his mace but doesn't return it to
it's strap on his pack. He glances at the Varisian dancer and answers her question, "The wall in the other tower I got a look at was supernaturally smooth. If I had to hazard a guess, you can thank the count for that. If it was the Way or the Count who killed them and raised them as wights is anyone's guess"
Unbothered by the too familiar stench of death, Christoph chants the short words of his orison and a light flares up from morningstar.
He cautiously listens at the opening from which the wights emerged and then (assuming he hears nothing else) holds his morningstar up to the opening to see whatever is on the other side.
Beyond the opening, Christoph and nearby Zelda see a rather tight alcove for four wights. Though cracked from the minor structural collapse earlier, they both can discern that the round area is smooth-walled. Whatever smoothed the section of wall he spotted earlier, Christoph bets the same smoothed the circular wall in here too... or created it.
In light of Aliseya's reminder that there were three engineers and four wights, and knowing that wights are capable of creating new spawn from the dead they slaughter, Christoph pieces together the cruel fate the engineers must have met here.
Someone magically carved out this alcove in the wall. The three engineers were placed inside with a wight. They were then sealed in together. The most unfortunate engineers must have spent their final moments in sheer terror as the wight slaughtered them all in the dark, turning them into its own kind...
Other than this horrible revelation, the companions find nothing else of note inside the wall.
...
As Sookie ascends to the greater hallway above, the lingering companions below and those across in the shorter hall regroup with Sookie there. The companions consider whether to rest here for the night before carrying on to the bridge across the river, to find the trail, and head into Shudderwood Forest after the necromancer.
Aliseya's expression grows pensive as she ponders the events of the last few hours.
"Something's not sitting right," she begins. "I don't think the Count did... that."
It is understood she means the engineers' murders.
"I mean, like, we've found more evidence than we'd care to that he constructed pseudo-living-whatever beings from once-dead body parts and machines. And yeah, the distinction may be pretty blurry. But, like, none of his own creations were, technically speaking, undead?"
She shakes her head no.
"He wasn't a necromancer."
After a short pause, she continues. "And the cruel harms he certainly caused? They seemed more like the unintended byproducts of his single-minded ambition. I don't get a 'I'm gonna needlessly trap these three people in a rando wall with a wight for kicks and giggles' kind of guy. I mean, he wasn't motivated by pure malicious intent."
"But, the necromancer?" She speaks of Auren Vrood here, of the Whispering Way. "Who can say the depths of darkness in such a black heart as his. I'd put my money on him doing this while he passed through here days earlier."
"Oh, and, like, let's get our poor horses and get the nine hells out of here. I mean the bedrooms looked ok, but, like, this place has super creepo vibes off the charts," she shudders.
She then gives Rhia a sympathetic look, "Sorry... I know he was, like, your uncle, I guess..."
And after so sincerely thinking aloud about her keen observations and powers of deduction, her thoughts return to a more familiar matter to her friends. After yet another round of supernaturally cleaning everyone's outfits and drying their soggy pants,
"Like, total respect to Desna and the Lady and all, but, cleaning prayers notwithstanding, I'm just gonna have to throw all my clothes in a bonfire and go shopping tomorrow."
This prospect brings a moment of pure delight back to her heart.
As Aliseya speaks of the necromancer Auren Vrood, ...
It reveals some important info that the group could benefit from knowing. You did hint at some of it shortly after I posted this originally, but nobody picked up on it. LOL.
I guess I have two questions for you. Would Naught want to talk about it with Ali? And would she want the group to know what happened to her?
I suspect I know the answers. But I also don't like to tell my players what their characters will do either. :)
I'm asking because when I post to move the game forward to the Shuderwood, I'd like to include something about Naught and Ali talking about what happened to Naught. I know that was a lot to read (sorry!), so I could just handle the reveal for you...
Unless you'd prefer to roleplay that out? I'd be totally cool with that. I was just figuring we could fast forward a bit, away from the castle and onto the next step in the campaign.
Grinning at Sookie's flummoxed response, Rhia smiles warmly. "It's their pleasure...and mine!"
"He may have been a relative..by marriage, but I'm no more a fan of this place that\n you are." Rhia says with a chuckle. "And yes a hot bath and a change of clothes would be amazing!"
Nodding pensively, Christoph gives the Varisian dancer an appraising look as her lengthy speech draws to a close. "Your reasoning seems sound to me, Miss Belododia. The Way can add this to their numberless crimes. With the souls of the engineers at rest, this discussion is only of interest in outlining the powers of the foes we hunt. That the Way is dangerous is not news to anyone, I hope."
A smile, small as it might be, graces the Speaker's face as Aliseya's more normal character reasserts itself. Curious... He nods, "Away from here sounds like a fine idea. I'm ready when you are."
Done with the horrors of Schloss Caromarc, seven exhausted companions plod, climb, and slosh their way through the flooded menagerie of four benighted towers. For the last time, they backtrack through the the late Count’s dark dwelling over the roaring rapids below, aided by Rhia’s ancestors and Aliseya’s ability to levitate to cross the fallen rope bridge in particular.
Entering the main gate tower from whence they first entered this grand hell hole, they find their several horses still safe and sound. Though still spooked by the scent of death which permeates this foul place, they manage to calm their steeds, open the front gate, and, to the great relief of everyone humanoid and horse alike, the companions at last take their leave of Schloss Caromarc, once and for all.
Breathing a sigh of crisp late night winter air, the seven head a short distance north, when they discover a suitable site to make camp. Too exhausted to process what they experienced that day, they tend to the horses, get a most welcomed cleaning from Aliseya’s effervescent magic, and otherwise do the bare minimum to settle down. Christoph offers to take first watch. Without objection, the others collapse into deep slumber.
All except for Naught, that is. Her mind racing with thoughts of the day’s events, she finds herself unable to forget about what she’d come to realize in the late Count’s cage in one of his dark towers. Finding no respite, she gives up on sleep and, eventually, takes over for Christoph who gets his chance for a well deserved rest, at least.
Getting a late start the next morning, the companions decide to head north along the river for just over a mile. They find the late Count’s story of a bridge over the great river to be true. Leaving behind Schloss Caromarc, the Dipplemere Swamp, and even Vieland itself, they cross the stone bridge over the rapids and, on the other side, find themselves in the lightly-wooded western edge of the neighboring Palatinate of Lozeri.
Being the most experienced trackers, Christoph and Naught take lead in their search for the start of the Silent Path. That is, for the ancient and rarely used hunting trail that Judge Daramid suggested they take. The Path is one of the most direct and covert routes through the Shudderwood, and therefore the most likely route taken by their quarry of Whispering Way cultists.
As they travel some twenty more miles south and east, the sparse woods grow thick. They cross a wide yet shallow stream, where the party’s trackers identify the start of a viable hunting trail. Surmising it to be the start of the Silent Path, the companions find themselves, at last, staring eastward into…
...the Shudderwood.
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“All manner of beasts and monsters lurk beneath the eaves of the Shudderwood, but none so numerous or feared as the forest’s werewolves. Although the wood contains packs of these feral killers beyond counting, they can be loosely grouped into five distinct tribes: the provincial Broken Ones; the Kellid-descended Primals; the Prince’s Wolves, with their ties to Sczarni; the mighty Silverhides; and the fiend-worshiping Demon Wolves. Of course, the greatest threat these werewolves pose is that they can be anyone — the rough woodcutter, the itinerant peddler, the riverboat captain — any of them might be a wolf in human skin, and travelers through the Shudderwood are well advised to keep moving, keep to themselves, and leave the dark shadows of the forest behind them as soon as they can. For when the moon is full, the true masters of the Shudderwood fill the night with their howls, and woe be to any man or woman who becomes their prey.”
— Oleandra Amandine, Shadows of the Shudderwood
Standing at the edge of the Shudderwood is almost like staring into another world. Ominous, towering pine trees blot out the sunlight, allowing only occasional splinters of light to pierce through. Within this dimness, broken branches and occasional shrubs growing up through fallen trees create shadowy illusions both wondrous and haunting. Apart from pallid lichens, colorful fungi, feathermoss, and wintergreen, little else grows in the forest. The Shudderwood possesses an eerie stillness only occasionally lifted by the sounds of passing birds and small animals scurrying across the dry pine needles littering the forest floor.
Marked in places with strange bone fetishes, the Silent Path runs several hundred miles through the forest, crossing both the Beustral and the Calscroix rivers, passing by Ascanor Lodge, and finally ending at the town of Chastel on Lozeri’s southeastern border.
You recall to mind Judge Daramid’s advice to traverse this old hunting trail to reach Ascanor Lodge, the posh hunting lodge accessible only through invitation or reservation. All but Rhia received such an invitation from the Magistrate of Lepidstadt; she found hers at Schloss Caromarc instead. At the lodge, the judge advised you to investigate the whereabouts of the Whispering Way cultists. For even if they did not stop at the lodge itself, the lodge’s staff and guests are likely knowledgeable about the Shudderwood: questioning them might provide leads. She also informed you that Ascanor Lodge contains an impressive library open to the use of its guests, and its rare collection of pre-Palatinate histories might aid you in discovering just what the Whispering Way is after in the Shudderwood. After all, there must be some reason the cult entered the forest, and if you can figure out why, you may be able to uncover whatever insidious plots the Whispering Way might be nurturing.
With the Silent Path found, you estimate it will take you several days to make your way east along the trail through Shudderwood before reaching the lodge. You have the skills among you to make the risk of getting lost negligible. However, there will undoubtedly be dangers to deal with as you make your way through the haunting forest trail.
Breathing breath of the still brisk morning air, Christoph studies the edge of the Shudderword from the path with stoic reluctance. If they're expecting us, there will be plenty of cover for them. The passing thought was similar to the ones that had been running through his head since their harrowing encounters in Schloss Caromarc. No use waiting for an unpleasant task to get less unpleasant. Just finish your duty, Speaker.
Turning to the rest of our party, he gestures to the head of the trail and says, "That looks like the Silent Path that the Judge told us about. If we push hard, we can be at Ascanor Lodge soon enough; a few days, perhaps. I think we'd best push in, but keep an eye out. It'd be an easy place for the Way to deal with us permanently and none the wiser. Never mind the natives who'll be in there."
Once he sees that the others are ready, he starts Jitters to walking with a click and a gentle tap of his heels.
After several hours of travel, the dim forest light begins to dwindle with the coming of dusk. The forest around the path thins, and a brisk crosswind scatters concealing drifts of pine needles across the trail. If not for the shallow grooves left behind by the wheels of traveling wagons, following the path would be nearly impossible.
You think you catch the silhouette of something move for a moment. Something graceful, the size and shape of a human or orc yet, you think, maybe not quite that.
Whatever it is, eyes in the wood are watching you from above.
Looking up into the trees for a bit, eyes narrowing, Rhia terurns her focus to the path ahead. "We're being watched. Something or someone in the trees. Humanoid, quick and graceful."
Naught but shadowy pines above can be seen a mere moment later. Whatever it was that the ghost whisperer saw, you don't see it now. Only the sounds of scurrying small animals and birds can be heard.
The unease amongst the party grows tense at the prospect of being watched.
Senses on maximum alert, the companions press onwards. The light dims towards dusk as they trot further along the trail through the Shudderwood for another hour.
Her senses already tuned to anything beyond the eerie sonds of the nighttime forest, Rhia's head turs as something grabs her attention.
"That sounds like a cry for help, muffled but definitely not a bird or animal." she says as she starts to move quickly towards the right, leaving the trail.
Eyes watch the group surrounding the fire below resting in the small clearing between the great tree trunks of the forest.
"I know Chauncy...right?" They whisper to the animal upon which they are currently mounted, gear and equipment bundled onto the saddle adorning the great beast's body, even as they soothingly pat their mount upon its snout.
"Maybe they can be helpin' wiff which way ta' tha' town whut's on our map, hey?"
Suddenly a sound from further away in the forest reaches their ears.
"Ooo! Was at?" And with a shift of their weight, a tightening of their knees, they urge thier mount to move off in this new direction.
The creature's size and strength allowing it to reach from tree branch to tree branch.
There is a bulge in the middle of its body length. It's hard to make out what it is in the dim light of the dense woods of early evening.
It is heading in the same direction Rhia is headed.
Looking up, Rhia shades her eyes against the falling pine needles as she processes what she sees. "There's...what looks like a giant serpent in the trees above...an odd bulge in the middle, either something it swallowed or something attached to it...I can't quite tell." Rhia whispers as the move forward.
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Sookie remained relatively quiet as the mounted companions traversed the haunting trail. She kept her eyes and ears peeled atop Bradamante, her knightly brown horse, with the dangers of the woods ever present in her mind.
She perked up when Rhia, whom she'd invited to ride behind her, broke the silence with news of hearing a distant cry.
Sookie brought them to a halt. Peer as she might, she saw nothing in the trees above. But she trusted the ghost whisperer's keen senses.
As Rhia seemed intent on dismounting and walking off the trail after the noise, a concerned Sookie frowned at the thought of leaving the trail. But her own moral convictions could not leave a potentially endangered person to themselves either.
"Stay with me," she offers Rhia, and rides the pair in the direction she indicates.
Spotting the serpentine creature above as well, Sookie keeps one eye ahead and another above. She has a very bad feeling about all this. She reaches back to unsnap her quiver and composite bow and eyeballs her longspear in anticipation.
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The beautiful Varisian fortuneteller Aliseya Belododia, dressed in her posh winter outfit, rode her peachy halflinger horse, Lexy, in near silence as well. The trials of Schloss Caromarc seemed to loom darkly over the companions, even over the usually energetic Aliseya. The jingling of her assorted jewelry penetrated the dark path nonetheless as they rode.
Halting when Rhia announces the cry, she follows after her and Sookie. Her expressive face grows very concerned for the wellbeing of whomever is crying out.
Looking up as Rhia speaks again, she comments aloud in her sultry Varisian accent, "Oh... that's actually a lady riding the snake. Huh..." She takes a moment to note her own lack of surprise at finding someone riding a large serpent in the trees.
"Guess I've seen too much..." she mutters to herself.
She then gasps and smiles wide-eyed on looking up again, "Is she, like... wearing clothes?!" Her jaw drops, and her hand immediately covers her mouth, giggling at such a naughty lady.
Then, looking over her shoulder at Naught, she gives SUCH a disapproving look at her love whose jaw as well has dropped at the sight above of the lovely snake-riding lady. But then she smirks, winks, and blows her love a kiss before continuing off the path after Sookie and Rhia.
Settling in behind Sookie atop her horse, Rhia enjoys the ride, despite the ominous nature of the Shudderwood. As Sookie wisely discourages her from walking alone off the path, the ghost whisperer keeps her attention on the unusual sight in the trees above, as well as the sound that initially draws her attention.
Keeping an arm around the stalwart warrior's waist...she wasn't, after all the best rider, she notes the dapper looking tweed suit of the lady knight actually feels like armor...clever
Eyes widening as Aliseya further identifies it as a woman riding a snake...possibly a naked one, she puzzles as to what lies in wait.
|
Wait for a moment. I know you want to help but we have someone following as and a strange voice coming from the wilderness. Thus could easily be a trap. Let me sneak ahead and scout it out. Just don't get to far behind me and keep an eye out on whatever is watching us from above. She whisper.
Taking the time to get off her horse and handing the reins to Rhia, Zelda begins to creep ahead of the others looking for and ambush or trap
The elusive rogue unintentionally challenges her companions to keep her in their sights as she sneaks forward, silent as the night. Zelda is careful never to stray too far ahead however, and they do not lose her. She keeps her bright blue eyes peeled as she glides towards the place where she believes the cry came from.
After about 100 feet in, she suddenly halts, raising a hand gesture for the others to stop as well. Tilting her head to one side, she listens intently to something barely audible...
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Christoph nods his acknowledgement of what Rhia says as he silently fetches his bow from its case and strings it with easy familiarity.
------
With bow in hand, Christoph Metzger keeps a careful watch on his surroundings. Long experience tracking through forests every bit as eerie as this let him filter out the creaking of the branches and the normal sounds of a living forest. The soft cry -for help?- draws his attention off the trail and to his right.
He nods agreement with Rhia and opens his mouth to answer when he spots the serpentine creature at the same moment. Drawing an arrow, he slips from Jitters and tracks the creature with hands steady on his bow. What was that? He flushes slightly as he sees that Aliseya is correct. Riding starkers in the forest. On a giant snake. Pharasma protect...
He glances at Zelda as she proposes to take the lead, then nods in acknowledgment. She'll be better at it, I expect. Keeping his hands on his nocked arrow, he follows behind her at a distance doing his level best to avoid making more sound then needed in the forest undergrowth.
He halts, some distance behind the elusive rogue, when raises her hand in alert. Having not heard anything to raise an alarm, he strains to see or hear anything that would give her cause for worry.
Lowering her hand, Zelda ceases to crouch stealthfully and begins casually walking ahead, deeper into the forest.
You sense that Zelda has somehow been magically enchanted.
Sunny tilts her head and gently urges Chauncy forwards.
The large creature easily moving along the brnaches and between the trees.
Sunny's large, blue eyes peering ahead through the foliage. Seeking out the thing that has caught her attention. Though she's aware of the people's below her in the forest.
She softly begins humming along to some tune or other.
Rhia rides along behind Sookie, keeping an eye out for any sudden danger.
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The whispering sounds of the harp echoing through the forest momentarily enthrall the Speaker. He feels that he should remember the melody and he strains to remember where he could have heard it before. Losing himself in it, he even almost crosses The Boundary into the memories of the before-times; he almost opens a door that hasn't been opened in many long years.
A sense of warning, like a bell going off and overriding the haunting melody, breaks his ensorcellment when Zelda breaks cover. What on earth? With the fog on his mind clearing, the overwhelming feeling of alarm makes the next deduction trivially simple. The Speaker curses, "Dawnflower's dung! She's enchanted." Sparing no further glance, he tosses Jitter's reins around a the knot of a tree and says, "Be ready and make sure noone else follows. There's still that thing in the tree. I'm going to try and break the enchantment on her."
With bow in hand, he pauses only a moment to chant in prayer and the holy Spiral, glowing soft white, appears above his forehead for a moment before dissipating.
He then follows Zelda at speed, keeping a wary eye on the forest, and wracking his memory and lessons for any hint of what creature may be luring Zelda into the forest.
A short litany of possibilities come into the Speaker's mind as he fast approaches the enchanted Zelda. A bard playing a harp? An enchanter? Dryads? Nypmh, or possibly a naiad, should a river be near? He grows suspicious of the scantily clad snake rider above... but alas, he is uncertain.
The companions and the serpent rider step up the pace, and Christoph eventually catches up to the enchanted blonde. All now hear the soft haunting melody of a harp drifting through the air. It emanates from a ruined stone watchtower in a small clearing up ahead. The tower stands about three stories tall in the dim light of dusk. Blood ivy and grayish-green lichen blanket the stonework of the tower’s crumbling exterior, while passing winds whistle softly through its darkened, gaping windows.
Christoph grabs a hold of Zelda's shoulders and shakes vigorously. He calls sharply for her to come to her senses. Try as he might, he cannot shake her out of it. She simply stares blankly ahead, unfazed, pushing him aside to continue walking towards the watchtower.
He will have to tackle Zelda to halt her.
Aliseya then notices Naught casually dismount. The storyteller begins walking just as casually towards the watchtower now.
Rhia as well dismounts from Sookie's mount, and likewise casually walks towards the tower.
Sunny's ride comes to a halt as she and Chauncy simply run out of forest.
She continues to hum, only now noticing that she's following the tune wafting from the building in the clearing.
She notes two of the peoples interacting at the edge of the glade, then two others begin to casually wander out of the forest and towards the object of Sunny's current interest.
Then noticing the... scuffle between two of the peoples.
"Here now. That dun't seem right..." She whispers partly to herself, partly to Chauncy.
She frowns for a moment before making her decisioin.
She simply races Chauncy down the trees, across the glade and simply parks their LARGE size in front of the door way. Sliding off she smiles at the people walking towards herself and Chauncy.
"Hey ya there!" (^_^) She brightly starts "Why dun't ye just wait right there fer a tad, like? While I pop in an' see if'n tha' place in't gon'a fall down on people's heads, hey?" She offers in a cheery voice, even as she begins to slip around the curled bulk of Chuncy and tries to get a peek inside the tower itself.
Sunny's lythe, tanned form being wrapped in... some sort of woven, checkered, twine or ropy material. All held in place with glittering knick-knacks of jewelery and baubles. She's wearing a couple of scabbards on her tanned, trim form. One on a natural fiber belt defly looping about her waist (The 'Smaller' one) while the larger one goes across her tanned back.
"♫HullooOOoo...?♫" She calls quietly into the tower's interior " ♫ We is jus' some peoples ? ♫ We is jus' commin' ta' has some chattin'...? ♫ "
Christoph gives off shaking his companion with an irritable grunt. Brigh's buttocks! What a damn mess. Before he can decide on his next course of action, a massive serpent -elf woman in tow- crashes into the glade and parks itself directly in front of Christoph and Zelda. Christoph's instinct outruns any conscious thought and he has an arrow nocked and ready to loose long before rational thought has time to catch up. He holds off shooting as the elf women cheerily greets him and then slips away just as fast as she appeared. Leaving the gigantic serpent directly between Zelda and her apparent destination. For a long heartbeat, his fingers are ready to let slip arrow after arrow before he slackens his bow and grunts, "No reason to think things would start making sense now. Damn forest..."
Potential crisis averted (for now), he catches up to the muttering women -apple pie?- and chants the prayer familiar from his earliest days as an acolyte, "Lady of Graves, grant your guard against the wicked." Tracing the Spiral, he touches Zelda on the shoulder and hopes will work.
Aliseya takes immediate notice of Naught's shift from herself to possession.
"Hey!" she yells at her love, dismounting Lexy to rush over and grab a hold of her. Shaking vigorously, Naught continues to carry on in her own trace-like state of mind, mumbling something about "nice fishies" to catch in the river. There no no river in sight...
Unable to stop her, her face reveals grave worry. She looks to Christoph, only to see his own prayer fail Zelda.
She resolves to loosely but quickly tie the horses and then run to catch up behind Naught, taking hold of her hand.
"Oh! Like... wow." are the first words Aliseya can muster when the blonde snake-rider emerges from the tree tops and stops before the tower's entrance. Though unsure of the unexpected woman's intentions at first, a smile grows on her face in short time. Especially when she calls into the tower in a singsong voice.
"Like, that's quite the snake! Yeah, let's save the introductions for later." Her smile gives partial way to concern for the charmed among them.
Casting a glance at Christoph, "I think she's alright, Speaker." She motions with a free hand for him not to shoot her or her snake.
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When Rhia dismounts too, Sookie grows more alarmed.
Dismounting herself, she calls to Rhia. But Rhia does not respond... at least, not to the living. Sookie catches a glimmer of a few of Rhia's ancestors, seemingly pleading with her to snap out of it... but, alas, to no avail.
Seeing Christoph and Aliseya having a similar lack of luck with Zelda and Naught, she hustles up ahead of Rhia towards the tower.
"Well Metz, if you can't beat them, join them? Yeah, it's definitely a trap," she answers an unasked question, "but lets see what's in that damnable tower first, before they do..."
At this point, the snake rider emerges. Closing in on the tower now, Sookie instinctively halts in her tracks and raises her longspear as the snake rider is but 30 feet before her now. She raises a brow at the blonde warrior's disarming banter. Lowering her spear a bit, she casts a questioning glance back at Christoph and at Aliseya too before starting her hustle around the big snake (keeping a WARY eye on that creature) to get closer in with the new lady.
Though she blinks for a moment, Zelda continues her trance-like walk towards the tower. Not even the Lady of Graves can compete with mom's apple pie.
Unphased by the big snake and its rider, she simply walks around the creature as if it were a mere log in the path.
Meanwhile, Naught and Rhia continue their trance-like walk towards the tower.
Sookie manages to hustle ahead and catch up with the blonde warrior, keeping one eye on the snake, another eye on her, and a third eye inside the tower.
Peeking in, they see that long, taut strands of shimmering silk fill the ruined tower’s interior, forming an intricate pattern running from floor to ceiling. Half a dozen large cocoonlike shapes hang from the ceiling, suspended above the tower’s hard-packed dirt floor. In the far corner, between two larger chunks of rubble, a wide burrow opens into the ground.
There is no response to Sunny's call.
However, the beautiful music suddenly stops.
The three enchanted ladies continue to approach the tower. Zelda now tries to slip past Sookie and Sunny to enter the webbed interior...
Peeking in, they see that long, taut strands of shimmering silk fill the ruined tower’s interior, forming an intricate pattern running from floor to ceiling. Half a dozen large cocoonlike shapes hang from the ceiling, suspended above the tower’s hard-packed dirt floor. In the far corner, between two larger chunks of rubble, a wide burrow opens into the ground.
There is no response to Sunny's call.
However, the beautiful music suddenly stops.
Zelda now tries to slip past Sookie and Sunny to enter the webbed interior...
Noticing the lass slipping past her Chauncy, Sunny deftly tries to get a hold of her.
"Whoop! Sunny exclaims as the lass shimmys away unexpectedly.
"C'mere ye lil' dickens!" Sunny calls sternly, "Tha' place be all draped in wrappin's an' dangly stuffs!" She calls exasperatedly. Even as she moves to at least get abreast of the inquisitive lass and tryingt to spot any thing that might other wise impede their safe progress.
Even as Sunny begins to fiddle with the netted wrapping draped about herself.
"Gon'a be all playin' 'Hard ta' get' is ye..." Sunny sets her eyes on the still wandering lass.
Christoph glances at Aliseya and nods before returning his attention to the still charmed Zelda. Grunting sourly when his magic fails to return the apple pie addled woman to sanity, he nods his agreement with Sookie. "A trap."
Motioning for her to follow, he says, Let's not antagonize our new 'friends' and deal with this threat. I'll take front in case I can see anything." He pauses a moment to chant again in prayer, "She who judges, grant me your sight." Eyes glowing softly, he pushes past Zelda with bow at the ready. He scans the room with an eye for the foes that are sure to be lurking.