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Feeling no remorse, Simon easily steps back from Ema's swing, then glares daggers at her retreating back.
Nodding to himself in self-satisfaction, he turns back to Calamity. "Subtlety be damned!
The time for trust is over, Calamity. We are at war now, and I have enough trouble trusting the people I am closest to. Are you a faceless stalker or not?
if not, then explain your presence and your previous comments."
"I don't remember you from no ship," Calamity calls, "No offense but none of you look very familiar to me. I just arrived two weeks ago. Is, is that a problem?"
A loud whimper comes from behind the tree as the talk turns to faceless stalkers.
"N-n-nnot one of them!" shouts the halfling, poking her face out from behind the tree. "I, I've a face!" with a large hand she gestures in a circle at her own face. "I've teeth and a mouth and, and a normal tongue! Not one of them, no. Do, do all you have faces?"
She edges out and scurries closer, only to hide behind a different tree. "Have you all escaped too?" she asks, seeking some reassurance the big folk aren't just here to kill her. "Or maybe, maybe you're lookin for where they're keepin them?"
Simon running his mouth off and making Ema cry finally causes something to snap in the berserker.
The cold flame floods throughout her body, tightening her muscles with renewed purpose.
Before the passive-aggressive, insensitive jerk can say another word, Victrix marches up to him, her eyes blazing with an icy, serene fury.
And throws a punch that hits Simon squarely in the jaw.
"I should have done that a long time ago." She growls, her heart pulsing with undiluted anger. There's a red haze in the corners of her vision.
"Simon, you know a lot of book-things. But you don't know shit about how to talk with someone else without sounding like a smug, insufferable know-it-all cunt. You have no f$&#ing idea what Ema's been through with them, have you? No? Did you ever think to F%@$ING ask?" Her tone is cool. Almost conversational, even. "No. Of course not. That'd cut into your brooding about how you weren't the first one to 'discover' this place, you self-absorbed twat."
"Go over there. Apologize to her. NOW." She points a finger over to where Ema is sitting on the beach, crying.
"Or am I going to have to wring it out of your hide?"
She glances over at Calamity, Kip and Oorka. "...sorry."
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Sprawled on the ground, Simon begins curling into a ball. Memories of the beatings he used to take from bullies as a child flash through his head.
Realizing what he is doing, he steels his resolve. Too intimidated to try standing up, he instead sputters, attempting to put words together. "Apologize?! Feelings?!
What do feelings have to do with anything?! If you haven't noticed WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!!
Self-absorbed?!?! You are the one more interested in whatever perverted pleasure you can find from some monstrosity sucking your life force than working together as a team to extract information. And Ema? Finding the abducted villagers seems to be pretty far down on her list of things to do."
Sitting up, he wipes the blood off of his mouth and spits some more on the ground.
"I look around, and it seems like I'm the only one with his priorities straight. Discovery? I got over that a long time ago, not that I'd expect you to have noticed.
We have powerful enemies surrounding us and attacking us every waking moment. Now is the time to fight, and THAT is all I am trying to do right now."
Attempting to scoot backward so that he can stand up without risking another punch, Simon continues to feel affronted. "Here we are on an island populated by nothing by faceless stalkers and some random halfling pops out of the woods. I would think the rest of you would be interested in questioning her to make sure she isn't the enemy.
No, immediately Ema has to break in and override my efforts to keep everyone safe. Well, fine, I'm done. As soon as the town is safe, I won't be able to leave fast enough."
Getting on to his knees, he scuttles back a few more steps. "Apologize? FOR WHAT? Feelings have no place in war!!" Standing, Simon runs in the opposite direction into the woods before ducking behind a tree himself.
Calamity cowers behind her tree, begging that the violence won't spread her way, but as the shouting dies down, she pokes her head out once more. "You're from the village?" she asks. "You're-uhhhh, the ones, that, uh, keep it safe? I'm-I'm from the village! I w-w-would like it very much if you would p-please consider, ah, keeping me safe!"
She pokes her head out and smiles, trying her very best to come across as not a threat.
Kip stood to the side in utter surprise as everyone exploded at one another.
After Simon had stepped back, Kip slipped up beside Victrix and spoke quietly. "You're both right, you know Vicki? He could have said it better, but it's probably smart to be cautious. Why don't you go talk to Ema, and I'll check out our new friend. If you hear me screaming, come back and get to choppin' though ok?"
The grippli turned back to the halfling and called out to her. "All right Lamity. We need to be sure that you're not secretly gonna turn on us, and I happen to know an excellent way to find out. Are you hungry? The faceless types can't hold down proper food for long, so come have a meal with me, the more you eat the better." As he spoke, Kip began pulling various biscuits, meats, cheeses and cookies out of his pack. "It's always a good idea to be prepared, and even better when it's tasty preparations."
Kip succeeds in coaxing out Calamity. She tiptoes nervously around him like a feral animal in a new environment, but at the promise of food, her big brown eyes practically turn to dinner plates. She goes right for it, shoving uncut chunks of bread and cheese into her mouth, and then slows, as if remembering her decorum. Overcompensating, she puts a slice of thick cut sausage and a little grueyere on a cookie, mistaking it for a biscuit. She frowns eating it but makes several more.
"Er, what-what's your name, Mr., uh, Mr. Frog?"
Oorka looks confused by the sudden strife, not being able to understand the language the argument is taking place in. She stays close behind Kip and smiles shyly at Calamity.
Kip stood up to his full height and bowed, lowering his hat enough that a small pufferfish could be seen waving a fin at the halfling. "I'm Kip, and this is Gerald and Oorka. That's Vicki over there, and she's heading over to talk to Ema. Simon was the one yelling earlier, but don't be afraid, he's normally quite nice. Everyone has been on edge for weeks now what with the faceless types skulking around wearing our friends' faces, and I'm afraid you popping up was just the final bit to kick it over. Don't worry though, I'm sure they'll calm down soon. We're actually here to rescue the captured villagers and put an end to the abductions for good."
Suddenly noticing the confused look on Oorka's face, Kip quickly gave a short summary of what had been said in Azlanti, and introduced Oorka to Calamity.
Victrix glares at Simon as the obstinate half-orc refuses to apologize for anything and storms off in an adolescent fit of paranoia/pique.
She sighs in frustration as Kip proves to be the voice of reason again. "...right. Sorry for the outburst."
She then nods at Calamity, their guest, before turning to approach Ema.
"Hey. How are you feeling?" She asks, knowing full well what her answer will be. She sits in the sand next to her.
Emma looked up at Victrix as she came over to her and sat down. there were obvious tear tracks in her eyes and they were still coming, and she latched onto the warrior as she continued to cry. The sobs weren't as bad as they had started out but she was obviously still rather upset by what Simon had said to her. Eventually she managed to reply shakily to Victrix question, "Awful. I know Simon's an insensitive jerk sometimes but that was too far even for him. None of us knew what Not-Carver was," she shuddered again at the thought of having slept with one of those monsters both willingly and repeatedly, and worse unknowingly, "But he didn't either. He only disliked him because of his being one of the Pathfinders."
Emma choked back another sob and cried some more at the horror of her recent discovery and after after a few minutes, during which the elemental went back home after a departing strafing of it's summoner, she managed to speak again, "Then he accused me of not caring about the captive villagers?! Of course I care about getting them back!" She was quite emphatic as she spoke, "They have survived this long in captivity they are likely to not be killed for a while giving us some time still. I only thought we should shore up the town defenses before leaving because if not for use the town would have been wiped out and we aren't there to protect it now." She seemed rather irate now as opposed to sad as she thought about that insult again, "I don't want to leave them in the clutches of the aboleth either, I..." she gulped and her outrage turned to fear, "somehow I know what they are going through, I can't remember how but I must have been left to their 'tender mercies' at some point, I wouldn't be surprised if that's why I remember nothing now."
Once you are ready to move on, you realize that Simon is nowhere to be seen. A few footprints seem to indicate that he has decided to forge on ahead into the forest alone!
***
"Good riddance. You are far more capable on your own without them holding you back," the buzzing whisper says in your mind.
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Desna weeps! What have I done?! I hope its telepathy doesn't extend to reading minds...
"Yeah! Who needs them anyways? I've always taken care of myself before and it has brought me this far."
Will they even take me back after the things I said? Will they even be looking for me?
Simon takes out his sword and starts whacking at shrubs and small branches as he walks.
In the meantime, he keeps his eyes open for any nearby threats.
"Stupid women and their stupid feelings. My mother was never slowed down by such frivolities. She always made sure I had food and was safe. Life was so much harder for her, as well.
They just don't realize how much of an asset their beauty is. They take it for granted, and think the world owes them something because of it."
Simon spits loudly. Alone?! Out here with danger all around? Even orcs know that they need to stick together! I should head back.... No, what if they have already left? They'll head for the shipwreck, surely.
Calamity looks around, curious. Still not sure what to make of the strix and the grippli, she turns to address the two humanish women. "Er, w-wasn't there more of you? A large, loud man? He, he was green, yes, and and and, and angry? Where do you s'ppose he's gone off to?"
"There was." Victrix gets to her feet and helps Ema up.
"I didn't see where he went--Kip, did you see him go anywhere? Or can you at least figure out where he's gone?"
Emma accepted Victrix' hand and rose to her feet before smoothing out her sparse clothes with her hands. She then chanted and gestured and any dirt or stains sloughed off of her and the tear tracks vanished from her face. Ready to face the others again Ema said, "Thanks Viki, let's go back."
Emma strode back to where the others were and approached Kip, Calamity, and Oorka were gathered and noticed quickly that Simon was missing. Shrugging his absence off for the moment she said to Calamity first, "Sorry you had to witness that, we've all been on edge after all that's happened and it was bound to explode sometime. Simon's reaction isn't without concern given the shape shifters we've been dealing with but he could have still been nicer about it."
Emma looked to Oorka and recognized the young strix's confusion at what had happened. While she spoke to the young strix Emma once gestured to Calamity and then looked to them at one point before turning back to speak softer to Oorka conspiratorially.
Victrix sighs and starts looking for tracks...
...but having never had training to do so, loses the trail almost immediately.
Kip, on the other hand, waves the rest of the party over to point out the tracks. "Looks like he went this way!"
Oorka giggles at Ema's words.
Kip's expert tracking skills allow you to swiftly follow Simon's trail. It seems like the half-orc only has a few minute head start on you. At this pace, you should catch up to him fairly quickly.
***
Your fears are confirmed a moment later as an all-too-familiar blurry insectile form emerges from the undergrowth ahead of you. "I told you it wasn't over. No, your nightmare is just beginning!"
The sahkil gestures, blanketing you with greasy darkness!
***
You hear a defiant shout in the distance ahead, followed by the droning buzz of insectile wings!
"...oh, bloody hell." Victrix readies her axe and charges forward!
Simon, you idiot! You played right into their hands!
As they walked through the trees following Kip, who followed Simon, Ema regaled Oorka with her conspiratorial whispers about who was who in their family.
Ema would have kept talking to Oorka about their makeshift family but they suddenly heard the defiant shout in the distance and she paled at what that meant. She agreed with Victrix and quickly followed as they made their way to where Simon was.
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Shaking off the ill effects of the swarm, Simon quickly considers his options. He knows that a defensive effort, and running when he has a chance will be his best bet, but he has to deal with the swarm first.
Stepping out of the swarm, he drinks an extract of Fire Breath and unleashes a gout of fire on the swarm.
The swarm seems to weather the worst of the fire breath. Numerous wasps remain to continue stinging you. The wihsaak swoops in, impervious to is own summoned insects, and rakes you with a claw!
You can hear crashing in the woods behind you...
***
The shouts and buzzing noises are getting louder. You also hear the whoosh of a burning flame.
Victrix keeps on running.
"I sure hope your friend ha-hasn't run afoul of another of those, uh, those big sucker bugs!" says Calamity, struggling to keep up.
The flames burn more wasps, but the wihsaak is barely scorched. As you tumble away the enemies follow in pursuit!
***
The rest of the party bursts onto the scene to see him fighting for his life! The half-orc is engulfed by a swarm of wasps, and a familiar grasshopper-headed fiend claws at his flesh!
Calamity, seeing Simon floundering in pain, fumbles with her harrow deck and carefully chooses a card. She pulls her arm back and gives it a throw! It soars through the air until its face sticks against his bare flesh. His wounds reverse themselves, and the card flies back to the halfling, where it shuffles itself into her deck.
Victrix lets out a bloodthirsty yell.
"SIMON! GET OUTTA THERE!"
Then she charges in to hack at the grasshopper-headed freak!
Realizing just what had attacked Simon at thing's name and sight of it Ema stopped moving and ripped open a gateway to heaven and and through it stepped her most recent contact. A bipedal hound in armor and carrying a drawn great sword appeared right behind the devil. the hellish creature felt an aura of menace as the hound lashed out twice with the great sword at it using Victrix as a distraction to get the drop on it.
Victrix's axe and the summoned archon's sword slice into the wihsaak, striking the fiend despite its blurry form. Chittering in pain, the creature twists and jukes as it flies straight up in the air, avoiding creating an opening as it retreats. "The orc is lucky that you are not as willing to abandon him as he was you! We will meet again!" There is a flash of light, and the sahkil vanishes. The swarm of wasps disappears as well.
Victrix glares at the fleeing, cowardly beast, getting her rage back under control.
She then turns to Simon. "Simon, I understand you being paranoid. But we can't afford to be divided. Not now. If we let paranoia get to us, we'll end up playing right into their hands--which you damn near did."
"Oh, and feelings do have a place in war. It's called morale."
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As the demon escapes again, Simon's ferocity ebbs, and the terror of the situation hits him.
His hands go limp, letting the empty vial and sword clatter to the ground as he falls to his knees and hangs his head.
In a weak monotone, he starts talking.
"It... it... talked to me. Tried to compel me..... Only the magic of my ring protected me.
But.... when it first spoke, I was so angry... so upset... the voice sounded so reasonable. I thought it was my conscience. By the time I realized, I was embarrassed at what I had done... what I had said..."
He slumps even further, and his voice gets softer. "I thought you might have moved on, and thought to head toward the shipwreck to meet you there. It spoke to me again, and I tried to make it believe I was under its control, but it sensed my fear."
Still not looking up, he raises his voice a little and regains a bit of emotion, his voice wavering weakly. "Ema, I am so sorry for what I said. I lashed out without thinking. That.... thing.... I've felt it, I think. Watching... waiting....
No! I won't use that as an excuse. It was me. I'm acting just like they always said I would... I... can be better, and I will.
We... like to think of ourselves as a family. But, families share a past, shared experiences. They know the reasons that drive each other's thoughts and actions. We.... don't share that."
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Firming his voice, a little, Simon attempts to remove some of the impediment.
"Childhood was not... easy... for me. My father was not exactly a bad father. He cared for us, saw to my education personally. But, he would get.... focused... on his digs, on his discoveries.
My mother and I would be left to fend for ourselves, sometimes for days even weeks at a time. An orc female who barely spoke Common and her child in human settlements. It didn't matter that we had coin, nobody would sell to us or even let us into their stores.
We scavenged as best we could. My mother was a runt. She was allowed to survive only because her father was chieftain and hid her away. So, she didn't know how to hunt or forage very well.
Other times, life was... normal? When I got a little older, I resolved to make myself useful, so I could help on the digs. I studied, I learned to do everything at least as well as the others around my father.
I became essential because I was small and could get places where nobody else could get. For a while, I was the one to make sure my mother had the things she needed.
As I became a teen, size was no longer an advantage. I had to be better than everyone to stay useful. If anyone tried to take a task away from me, they were threatening me and my mother."
Sniffling now, Simon looks up toward Ema through glassy eyes. "I think now I understand why I lashed out. But, this behavior is beneath me, and you did not deserve what I said, what I thought. I hope, one day, you can forgive me."
Dropping his eyes again, he begins to put away his sword. "Regardless, that demon... It is focused on us, on me, for some reason. I can feel it. But, it knows now that I have protection." He wiggles his ring again.
"He isn't going to stop. Next time, he is going to target one of you. He wants to break us apart and deal with us one by one. I'm scared."
Victrix listens, her expression softening. Any lingering resentment she may have held toward Simon starts to melt away.
"...then we won't let it break us apart again." She offers Simon a hand up.
"I understand that's... well, what you told us couldn't have been easy to tell." Her eyes turn distant. "And, if you're being so open with us, I've got something of my own to share."
She sighs. "I don't deserve to be here."
"I don't mean here here, on this island looking for our missing people. I mean the Andoren Army should have drummed me out a long time ago." She says as she helps Simon to his feet. "Because, let's be honest--what professional military outfit would ever accept an angry, undisciplined idiot like me into their ranks?"
"I mean, ever since I was a kid, I couldn't help being angry. Other kids loved to pick on the sickly, scrawny, little me for all manner of reasons. I couldn't help but beat them up in response. I was too unruly for my Mum and Pa to discipline--so they helped me get into the army."
"Turned out to be pretty good at leading people--and hacking monsters to bits. But the discipline never really rubbed off on me. Eventually, the brass offered me a chance to join an expedition to the colony, and I signed up without thinking about why they offered it to me."
"In hindsight, it was a golden opportunity to assign me to a post where I wouldn't be so much of an embarrassment. It's taken me until recently to realize that. Now, I'm just trying not to demean my family name any further."
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Simon flinches as Victrix extends her hand, then shakes his head at his reaction before grabbing the offered hand and standing up.
As Victrix tells her tale, he looks incredulous. "Scrawny? You? I find that hard to believe."
As she finishes, Simon smiles. "Their loss is our gain, Victrix, and I wouldn't be too sure that they wanted to get rid of you. While you might not be best suited for the routine boredom of regular soldiering, you are perfectly suited to this life."
Calamity stares on, feeling an awful lot like an intruder or an unwelcome guest. But scared of the world and aware of Simon's lack of trust in her, she opens her mouth to speak, to join in the sharing.
"My family left me on the side of the road when I was ten and rode away. They said I was bad luck, and they were better off before I came along. People are always sayin stuff like that." Oh wow, way to go Lamity, that'll convince them to keep you safe. "B-b-but it's not true! Bad luck or no, I'm good at things and I'm worth havin along. I can, I can read your, your uh, fortunes andandand I can swim and do medicine and I know some, uh, some hedge magicks, real Varisian stuff, yeah! I can't survive alone on this island, but I can make your journey easier! So, is it okay if I come along?"
Ema was relieved to see the nasty evil bug leave, though not half as pleased as if it had died. She nodded her thanks to the houndman and then tore the gate back open so he could return to his duties in heaven. She turned to Simon as he began to speak and watched in surprise as he fell to his knees and began to spill his life story out. She nearly dropped to her knees beside him when he apologized t her but was too surprised to respond.
Ema finally came to her senses enough to give Oorka a running translation of what he said. When he was finished and Victrix gave her brief story Ema waited until Simon rose with her help. "I would tell you my story but...well, I think we all know that's not possible." She stepped forward and reached out to pull Simon into a hug and said, "You're part of the family I chose so of course I forgive you Simon."
Victrix looks over at Calamity.
"I'm fine with you coming along."
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Simon uncertainly returns the hug, then looks to Calamity.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen a stalker use magic yet, and I've seen you use magic twice, not least of which to heal me when you could have easily let me die.
While I could worry about you setting us up, I think I'll try to trust again. You are more than welcome to join."
Replaying her quick words in his head, he asks, "Left you by the side of the road? That's horrible, and suddenly makes my troubles seem like the griping of a privileged teen. How ever did you survive?"
Calamity blushes and turns away. "I walked myself to a farmhouse, farmer said I could stay for, uh, for as along as I needed to, but the next day the farmhouse burned down, so's I just kept walking. Eventually, some Varisian nomads saw me passed out by the side of the road and nursed me back to health. I stayed with them for a good long while."
Victrix blinks, the cold flame beginning to flicker in her heart again.
"...that's bloody disgusting, throwing out a kid on the side of the road like that. 'Bad luck', my arse. I oughta--" She starts, her eyes beginning to blaze with fury.
She stops herself and takes a breath. "Well, so far, you've been more of a bearer of good luck for us."
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Simon chuckles lightly. "Well, she did show up just in time for the party to burst into flames and our demonic malefactor to return..."
He smiles to show that the comment was simply a jest. "I believe that Desna smiles as much as she weeps. If bad luck follows you, it means that good luck shines somewhere else."
Tightening the straps on his pack and sword belt, Simon turns back to the north. "Well, Calamity, we were just about to head toward a shipwreck to find the enemies of our enemies. Would you care to join us?"
Calamity tries to smile but just looks hurt and uncomfortable from Simon's joke. Her jinx is clearly a sensitive subject. Nonetheless, she nods soberly in answer. "I'mmmm here to, to help."