”Well, if we are going to go up there we should be as prepared as possible.” He pauses a moment to unload all his firearms and reload them with cold iron bullets. ”I suggest we should divvy up the rest of healing potions before we go. Can anyone make use of the ring, boots and cloak we recovered?”
The seven constables make their way across the rest of the seawall and past the far tower that joins it to the harbor wall, in pursuit of their seemingly invincible juggernaut quarry. Marines and sailor messengers slow down their movement however, like angry ants boiling out from a kicked nest. The thought of Asrabey regarding the men he slew as nothing but ants is a chilling thought, but they have quite literally seen nothing like this. In the rear of the harbor, the Falcon burns, with whaleboats from several ships now out to rescue those that can be saved.
Admiral Jellicoe had evidently moved his forward command post away from the tower to the twin towers of the nearby outer eastern gate, never in direct danger from the assault of Asrabey Varal. Marine officers - including several war-mages and storm druids - cast their arcane and Old Faith magics respectively, preparing what they can for a potential return and attack of their admiral, captains and commanders. There is no sign of threat now however, with Varal last leaping down off the seawall past the tower to the harbor below, where he sped to the siege tower being formed up by the wall at its center between the two harbor wall gates. The enforcer of the Unseen Court went over the wall and into the town, with more destruction on the other side once heard. Now, the sounds are more "normal" with the marines fighting the rebel army elements for various streets and buildings of the main town.
Just as the constables are deciding to pursue further into the contested town itself, a messenger flanked by two marines comes trotting up behind them, apparently looking for the esteemed constables of the R.H.C. Though they cannot be ordered around by the military branch, Admiral Jellicoe "strongly" requests their presence at the eastern outer gatehouse towers, to coordinate with him directly and provide support in light of the recent assault by the "rebel agent" as they describe it. For now, Asrabey Varal is long gone, and they heed the request of the Admiral; clearly they know more than military command does as to the nature of this latest lethal turn of events.
*****************************
Over the next hour the Seven constables find they are advising Admiral Jellicoe, his command staff, and the various fleet captains as to the nature of their most recent enemy threat, as well as gleaning a better understanding of the next phase of the assault.
Captain Smith of the Impossible and Captain Allister of the Gryphon greet the constables in friendly fashion once again, introducing them to the other present captains of the fleet and recounting their heroics of the day. They receive numerous bouts of thanks and praise for opening the sea gate – it’s clear the military men do not make a distinction of the “Four” and “Three” and simply group them all together in the action collectively. Runners and scouts steadily stream in and out of command over the next hour to provide reports from the various marine companies and sectors of battle: most of the eastern side of Axis town is now in the hands of the loyalists, with fierce action only near the inner walls where a covering fire is being laid down. The western side of the town is about two-thirds taken, with fierce resistance by rebels holed up in three sections, cut off from any chance of retreat to the inner walls of the central keep. The inner walls are still intact but being heavily bombarded by the Wolf and Heron along its front section and main gate. The admiral and his command staff relate to the constables that it is their intention to encircle the inner keep walls and stage several probing attacks across multiple parts of the walls to tire the defense and look for vulnerabilities to exploit when the final assault to take the walls come in the afternoon, once all the portable siege towers are built.
As for Asrabey Varal, reports come in that he killed several more Risuri marines in the contested streets of the northwestern part of town after he went over the harbor wall, with estimates that he was shot by three men at close range but did not even flinch. However, the reports then go on to say that Varal crossed over into rebel-held streets with the same lethality and aggression, setting a street barricade on fire and killing no less than a half-squad of rebel army soldiers guarding it. Varal disappeared into the streets of northwest Axis amidst the sounds of screams and metal ringing upon metal. He has not been scouted or seen since.
The hour passes, and runners from the southeastern town sector report to command that they have liberated a blockhouse brig, discovering scores of Danoran prisoners there, including twelve tieflings. Apparently a lone Danoran lieutenant is rallying his countrymen to be stubborn and answer no questions to the Risuri marines, finding their “rescuers” no different than the Risuri rebels who captured them days ago. With Gemma’s reminder that Minister Lya Jierre of the ruling house requested for a finding and return of her cousin Nathan if at all possible, orders are given to escort the constables to the southwest sector of the city, given their own honor guard of marines from the Admiral’s own detachment from the Triumph.
*****************************
Axis Map
The Seven step out from the stinking common room of the converted stables and livestock pens, converted by the rebels to house nearly a hundred Danoran prisoners with many of them wounded. Their informal leader, the wounded one-eyed Lieutenant Marseine, was a tough and bitter nut to crack at first, not wanting to give in to reasonable words and the reality that the Risuri were not all cut from the same cloth. The constables, however, had recently talked down the likes of Johnathan Jackson and Ifris Lanvaldan – not to mention three of them doing the same to Spencer Hopkins a full day earlier – and so the persuasion to the proud Danoran lieutenant eventually wore his indignation down. Allowing him to wear his recovered sabre and pistol as a sign that he was no longer an enemy captive, he relented.
Lieutenant Marseine confirms to them that Nathan Jierre is not amongst the captives held here. What he does tell them is that the initial assault of the Duchess came by way of the teleportation circle on the far western side of town, its wards and defenses to prevent an unauthorized intrusion rendered completely void. Marseine suspects that a member of General Alsanor’s command staff was a traitor, somehow working for the Risuri Duchess and relating the exact nature of the wards and passcodes to the enemy at the worst possible moment. Though he doesn’t know who did it – certainly not General Alsanor himself as he was killed in the assault to defend the inner keep – Marseine strongly believes someone amongst his inner staff had to be a traitor. He just cannot fathom why such a betrayal would occur. To further display his honor and bargain struck with the constables, he provides an iron key to them that was hidden in a pile of hay in his cell – a key to the roof door of the central keep tower that would lead down into the main chamber of the observatory; though they would need to gain access beyond the inner walls to the central keep tower itself, a side stairwell about midway up would lead them to a balcony set of stairs that could gain them access to the roof from the outside. He grudgingly wishes them luck, commenting that he never thought he would help Risuri to kill other Risuri before.
Willem looks at the Cloak, "I can make use of the cloak, it will help me get into snipin' positions easier and I will register it with the armory when we get back. I could also use the ring to get down faster from roof top shootin' positions but since I claimed the cloak, I don't want to get greedy and will not fret if someone else claims the ring. It just makes sense to me to have the ring as the team's sniper."
Suddenly, a flash of red-orange light illuminates the street from above, and as it streaks by you hear footsteps sprint across the roof of the brig. You hear shouts of dismay outside, a gunshot, and then more shouting. A marine runs in from the street and yells, "The fire warrior is coming!"
As you approach the outside doorway you see an entity leap from the roof and into the street past a squad of surprised marines, sprinting for the inner wall at tremendous speed. The figure resembles a cloud of smoke with a faint humanoid outline inside illuminated by an orange glow – just as you witnessed Asrabey Varal the first time as he sped down the seawall as well as at the harbor. A group of rebel defenders up on the inner wall start firing a volley arrows at him, and though most seem to deflect off of his armor and shield harmlessly, you hear an audible curse of pain from Asrabey even as he runs. He ducks behind a bit of debris down the street, roughly eighty feet away from the wall and one-hundred-twenty feet from the brig. He pulls out an odd unknown orb that glows with white light, which pierces even his smoke shroud.
The whole street suddenly begins to shake, along with the makeshift brig they are in. Iron nails and iron prison bars shudder in their mountings, and a few rip violently free. In the street outside, cobblestones shatter upward and iron spikes burst out of the ground to float inches off the ground. Then, everything changes around the constables; some of the Danorans in the brig cry out in shock as the space they’re occupying becomes a tangle of reddish jungle. Up on the wall, the duchess’s rebel defenders scream as the wall beneath them turns instantly to mist, plummeting them to their deaths on a swampy morass that was not there moments before.
In an area roughly two-hundred feet across, the landscape that was the inner wall is now co-mingled with a day-lit jungle landscape. Only in places with enough iron does the original landscape remain, while in a few pockets, typically along the edges, other landscapes flicker in and out: a fiery landscape with magma plumes, a swamp with yellow frogs and purple sky, a beige bank of thick clouds. You notice the edges of this change are shrinking inwards slowly, and you can guess the wildly powerful magic will only last a minute or two at most. For the four constables that found themselves in the swamp on their way to the fortress the prior evening, there is no doubt in their minds that this seems to be the same type of manifestation, only more powerful and farther reaching.
On the other side of the co-mingled terrain, you can make out the central keep where you suspect the duchess is, except that it has a huge tangle of green hedges completely encircling it. Asrabey Varal discards his now-dimming orb and runs forward without hesitation though the temporary gap in the inner wall. On the other side he casually lashes out a whip of flame to kill a rebel who tries to get in his path, and then sprints onward toward the central keep and the hedges surrounding it.
The white light in the orb is slowly fading, the cross-dimensional effect will end soon. Rebels guarding that portion of the inner wall are either dead or fleeing from what is happening. For the Seven that stand there at the brig entrance, they have a choice to make.
The young woman looks on surmising that just maybe that it is not their job to stop this legend from the past. The Fey always had their own agenda, and right now it does not favor either side.
It is then that the world, for the lack of a better word, changed. Some strange jungle where once part the the small town stood. "How... What..." there were no real explanation to what was happening.
But there it was too, a chance to get within the inner keep. Jesselle looked to the other Constables, "Looks like we have our way in."
She then starts running after the Asrabey Varal, she turns her head back, "Lets go before we loose this chance."
***
Tobias grasps the iron pendant he wears on his neck almost instantly as the landscape changes and flickers around him. His eyes go wide, having never seen anything like this before, but his years of training keep his mind focused on the task ahead of them.
"What the hell is going on?" He shouts as he sees the advantage they've been given and moves to take it. He runs toward the opening behind Jesselle, keeping his eyes forward, afraid that he'll lose his opportunity if he looks away.
________________
Gemma yells to Tobias. "It's just the sort of thing that happens here. It's what killed Resilience."
She then looks to the others not already running forward, knowing this is the opportunity they've been looking for. "We need to move..NOW!" She motions for everyone to surge forward through the opening while she will bring up the rear to make sure everyone makes it in safely.
"Agreed. Let's move before the wall re-materializes!" Emerson starts for the inner keep at his best possible pace behind the others.
Fethryth watches, stunned, as the street bursts into a jungle. ’Is this the Dreaming? How the hell is he doing this?’
Regardless of where the jungle came from, it’s given them a golden opportunity. Fethryth charges forward with no hesitation.
"Yeah, here goes that crazy stuff again?! Let's go!" Making sure not hit anyone in the head with his is rifle and watching muzzle discipline, he runs with the rest of the team through the portal, distortion, or whatever that Willem can not explain.
Jesselle manages to scoop up the discarded orb with its fading white glow, even as the rest move forward to step into the “breach” seventy yards across where there was once the inner wall. Though there are eight or so rebel defenders dead on the strange ground of the jungle, there have to be more rebels in the area but it seems they have fled away from here. Perhaps not so surprising as the jungle canopy with strange crimson-and-burgundy leaves and bright emerald green flowers is not the only transformation – the other even stranger landscapes all appear and shift around the edges between the jungle and the normal world, including the lethal fiery landscape of fiery magma plumes on one side and the thick beige clouds on the other, with the strange swamp of yellow frogs and a purple sky competing for space on the far end.
Jesselle and Anneca can both see the orb is made of glass that is highly etched with arcane runes and sylvan writing, bearing deep groves in the glass that seem to converge in places like ley lines of power. There is no time to detect magic upon it but they simply know it is powerful…and most likely in the arena of conjuration school magic. However they do see the fading white glow of the glass orb mirrors the now-slowly receding form of the strange jungle they are about to enter from the last street by what was once the inner wall.
The humidity hits them like a wave as they feel a strange lurching sensation in their bodies. Their boots now move across slightly damp dirt and crunch through foliage of a rainforest floor, not unlike scribed accounts in the dailies of old Elfaivar where Risur has a small colony. It is no illusion they are in, that much is certain. Sounds of insects, bird calls and the alarming cry of some small animal high up in the canopy of trees calls out to them, the jungle teeming with life. To their left they see the landscape of blasted black rock glowing with orange light from lava underneath it and they make sure they veer right away from it, not daring to lurch into that terrible landscape. They are past what would have been the wall now, passing by bodies of rebel soldiers who plummeted to their deaths some forty feet above. An opening in the foliage shows a path to the right that would take them directly into the bank of beige clouds, whereupon they catch a faint smell of rotting eggs like sulfur; as a group they jump into foliage to keep on straight through, hoping they do not encounter a snake or other creature hidden there. A few moments more and they clear the jungle that is narrowing all around them, their boots sloshing into the very different swamp terrain that is even hotter than the jungle – yellow frogs croak and jump away in alarm into strange grasses, the sky now purple with the heat of a blue sun pressing down upon them.
Then it’s over, and the constables are on the other side, looking back at jungle that is steadily shrinking and fading behind them. Twelve seconds later there is a final glow from the orb in Jesselle’s hands and then the magic winks out entirely; the jungle fades and the walls of the inner keep of Axis snap back into place. They now stand upon manicured lawn of the central keep between the inner walls and a strange series of hedges that do not fade as the jungle did. They are mere yards from the thick hedges.
Alarms are heard now from the central keep tower that looms before them at the center of the massive hedges. For just a moment the constables see the smoky form or Asrabey Varal running and jumping across the tops of the hedges as if nothing more than stepping stones to him; wherever his feet touch the tops of the hedges they start to burn and smoke. They see that his flaming sword turns to a whip and he lashes out at…something…atop the hedges near the far side, eliciting a strange shriek even as his shield gets hit with what seem like porcupine needles. Then he’s over the hedges and down in front of the central keep itself, lost from view. Men shout and the sounds of metal on metal can be heard, as well as the familiar sounds of men screaming and dying in battle.
Nearest to you at the southeast corner of the hedges, you see a strange sight: the hedges are burning steadily where Asrabey must have climbed upon them. Suddenly, the fires go out and several feet of hedges wither to ash, opening up a path into what can only be described as a hedge maze. A green-skinned man of normal height with what seems like unkempt hair made of grass and a bulbous nose, wields a stout club just inside the hedges, beating at the flames of an adjacent hedge nearby in frustration, whimpering and cursing audibly as if desperately trying to put them out. He sees the constables approaching, and points at them with the oaken club furiously, shouting at them in Primordial, ”YOU! How dare you defile my beautiful grounds so! How dare you try to accost the new mortal Queen without so much as a proper invitation! Your flaming friend may have gotten by me, but I, Ghillie Dhu, shall not let you pass! Blixx! Noxx! To me! We have more mortals here that need a good walloping!”
Hedge Maze (full extent)
Hedge Maze (southeast corner)
"Good day to you Ghillie Dhu. Firstly, the fiery man is one Asrabey Varal, and is not our friend. Perhaps he is a friend of yours? Secondly, one cannot merely call themselves a queen and it magically is so. Trust me, I have done soon many times as a child. And lastly, might we kindly ask you to step aside in this matter of mere mortals?" Jesselle says to the fey creature before her.
"Ho hu hu! You're a sweet one now, aren't you lass?" Ghillie Dhu's scowl turns to a leer at Jesselle, and he begins to caper about doing a little lewd jig with his club before returning to a more guarded stance inside his hedges. "Asrabey Varal! Phah! That fiery fiend is no friend of Ghillie Dhu! Friend of fools, friend of yours and your King of Oblivion! Oh Asrabey, the "great" and "powerful" lackey of the Court! Not Ghille Dhu's Court though! Oh no no! Whatever lackeys you all are, you unwittingly serve these cursed Danorans in their quest to destroy both our worlds! He he hu hu!"
He swings his club threateningly at the others, but says to Jesselle, "You have a sweet mouth, little one! I should like to kiss it, but I cannot let you pass my dear hedges. Come no further so you do not get harmed in this."
Tobias hangs back a little, surprised that Jesselle's at diplomacy didn't end in outright combat. He looks to his fellow constables and cocks his head.
"King of Oblivion? What do you suppose that means? What is the Duchess telling her allies?" He turns towards the green man and hopes to piggy back off of Constable Wesmere's previous success, moving up next to her as he speaks.
"Destroy both our worlds? How so exactly? If there is such a threat why did our 'new mortal Queen' fail to share this knowledge before spilling her countrymen's blood?"
He waits patiently for an answer, hoping any of the others can use this time to get closer or at least prepare to fight Ghile Dhu if need be.
For a moment, just a moment, as Gemma sees the green man attempting to put out the flames on his burning hedge, she feels the briefest of sympathies, but it is quick lived. As soon as the "man" responds to Jeselle with his lewd dance and crass words, she quickly returns to her senses. Her innate hatred begins to burn as much as the brand on her ankle and she raises her crossbow with a cold iron bolt set in the sight. She sidesteps to a better firing position, keeping a close eye out for the "friends" that have been summoned.
Staring directly at the green man, Gemma can't help but to speak. "There's no reasoning with him. Even if he did agree to let us pass, he'd be just as likely to try and swallow us up in the hedges. Any help the fey give is purely on a whim. So how about this, Green Man... how about you call off Blixx and Noxx and let us pass safely and we don't burn your precious hedge to the ground. Sound like a deal?"
For those that have known Gemma, her intensity, even for her, seems misplaced. She has always shown herself to be very measured, some would even say detached and clinical, and "by the numbers". This is not that, despite the fact that she still seems to be very much in control of herself. She appears to be prepared to drop the creature where he stands given the slightest provocation, even if he were to help them. Whether she actually would or not remains to be seen.
Emerson moves up to get a better look at him, and also to get a clean uninterrupted line of sight for when the shooting starts.
"Look Ghillie. We were invited here. And Varal definitely is Not a friend of ours. But one thing is for certain. We're going to get through your garden because we have orders. We would rather not tussle with you but you have three seconds to move..." He doesn't finish the statement, but the meaning of 'or we will move you' is apparent in his body language.
Willem remains where he is and starts to study Ghillie. While at the same time, he emphasizes reloading one barrel to cold iron bullets. He uses his actions to help intimidate Ghillie;
Fethryth steps in front of Jesselle, forcing Ghillie Dhu to look at her instead of the bard. She glares at the fey with all the hate she can muster.
"He he hu hu, know the words of Ghillie Dhu are true! King of Oblivion! King of filthy unpleasant noise, the ringing ringing ringing of his blighted contraptions! The Great Blight upon the Dreaming...and the Waking!" Ghillie Dhu points to Tobias with his cudgel and proclaims to him, "What drops of blood spilled by the mortal Queen is but a trifle, seeding the plants to grow anew! A sea of blood your foolish King will spill in her place, with all being reaped instead! All! She has foreseen the..."
The Green Man is about to go on further, when Gemma's rude words and presence stops him short. His face twists to a mix of incredulous surprise, followed by anger as he goggles at Gemma Atherton, raising his club now in her direction. "You! You dare? Branded THRALL! How dare a thrall of Lord Ekossigan defy his edicts and challenge Ghillie Dhu! O larnio fo an oth ar on hirwar, fistlrad findo oth fo Iotryv Sen oth Rurgen! To fin pof Sigio Beshela, pof fo moriam helndim Fav! Ar fis hin o an ton ferlalndio! Othrui! Othrui as fin nin gau no bialorad cer ar funrario, or O fidr madian ar tud gau Sen Ekossigan an a sin nidr cer fo glaran drithan!"
It is then that Emerson Hill moves forward and threatens Ghillie Dhu further, enraging the fey beyond all reason. He sputters and howls at Emerson's nasty words, but his eyes keep looking to the cursed technological weapons he bears, his eyes seemingly fearful of them. As Willem and Fethryth both join in, Ghillie Dhu looks at the Risuri elven constable with another startled start, almost as if he is reading something about her just as he seemed to see something pertaining to Gemma. Yet where he is outraged by Gemma's presence, he is downright fearful of Fethryth's appearance arrayed against him.
"No...it cannot be...Lerina's Chosen...Marauder's Pride!" He is too scared to speak further, but goggles at her and shakes his head, as if he cannot believe Fethryth is there to oppose him. Ghillie Dhu moves to retreat deeper into his hedges, daring the mortals of the Waking to follow him...
Sensing the malice in Ghillie Dhu’s words against Gemma and Fethryth, Emerson decides there are no more words that could sway this creature to leave peaceably. He draws both pistols and fires at the green man. One round barely misses the fey and can be heard punching through the hedges behind him. The second round strikes him squarely in the chest.
Jesselle steps to the side and takes up an arrow and notches it within the bow she has been carring since the the attack earlier in the day. She calls upon her arcane magics and empower the arrow and lets loose at Ghille. The arrows flies just past his head but does not connect the fey.
Willem sighs, "This could have been easy but now it will be real easy!" Willem then moves to Gemma's right side to get a better shot on Ghillie for not letting the constables pass without harassment. He then aims in on Ghillie with his double barreled musket. Using his steady hands, Willem produces a clean sight picture and slowly squeezes the trigger. Willem fires the musket without flinching and the Cold Iron round travels down range searching for its studied target ...
The round finds its target next to Emerson's but not quite as much tissue/matter damage due to range.
Tobias does some quick consideration, then turns and clasps Gemma on the shoulder and stares at her intently for a moment. "That should help."
He then heads toward the hedge maze, keeping his eyes trained on Ghilli Due and pushing his will onto the target.
________________________________________________
Cursing and screeching as greenish sap pours down his chest from the two cold iron bullets that pierced his thick hide, Ghillie Dhu brings his club down to the grassy ground at his feet, uttering a curse to bring the interlopers to their knees.
Suddenly the grasses all around them writhe and come to life, tendrils shooting up to wrap at their feet and legs; it is as if the earth itself tries to stop them from further harming Ghillie Dhu, the weeds and grasses wishing to strangle them but can only manage to keep them rooted in place.
”You wicked wicked fools! Beasts of metal and blight! Ghillie Dhu will show you yet!” With that he scampers away through the ashes of an inner corner of his hedge maze and retreats beyond it, past where Asrabey’s passage still has some of it aflame.
As if answering Ghillie Dhu, a high-pitched screech is heard from near the center of the hedge maze, almost sounding insect-like in origins. There is a cracking sound of sticks and a brief rustling sound from a closer hedge nearby where Ghillie Dhu retreated, and then all is quiet once again…
Anneca twists her leg up before the vines can grab hold of her. "I hate the fae. Ugly little bastards." She knows that Gemma is aware of the fact that she speaks Sylvan, but doesn't make much of a big deal about the strange pronouncement of the faerie creature. She can put two and two together, of course, but she wonders if it is really her business. Considering the vetting that the constables go through - though perhaps in doubt with the arrest of three of their number in the last day - it is unlikely that it is a secret to the R.H.C. She doesn't have time to really consider it before running out of the mass of writhing grass and vines. It gives her an unsettling feel to look at, as if there is something grossly wrong with it all. She ends up on the far side of the field of entangling greenery, but it is better than being trapped inside. She points up to the elemental floating above. "Go above, scout him out. If you spot him, fly above him to let us know where he is!"
Willem was almost free of the entangling vines but as his leg moves up to dodge the wreathing vines, a vine reaches up and grasps his leg and the rest converge securing Willem to his position. He spits on the vines, "Well, I'll be!"
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No, no, no, no, no... Her eyes widen with the Green Man's words. The secret she's held onto for so long was now out in the open for everyone to hear. Her worst fear realized in this singular moment by this worthless creature. She wishes she knew sylvan to know what else he says, but she knows for sure that Anneca knows, and desperately wishes she didn't. Who the hell is Lord Ekossigan?? And how dare you call me a thrall!
She can't help but scream out what's in her mind. "I AM NO ONE'S THRALL, GOOLIE DHU."
Gemma's initial panic at Ghillie Dhu's words is quickly replaced by overwhelming anger. If her seething hatred could burn the hedge and vines, it would. The only thing that startles her out of it is Tobias' hand on her shoulder. "What?? What the..." Her question is cut off by the vines that start to twirl around her legs and hold her tight to the ground. Try as she might, she can't seem to break free and with the green man disappearing into the hedge, she has nothing to even take a shot at.
Another answering high-pitched screech is heard from near the center of the hedge maze, followed by more silence. Ghillie Dhu has allies somewhere in the hedge maze, though for now it does not impact the constables that are struggling through the entangling magic uttered by Ghillie Dhu.
Ghillie Dhu’s reaction throws Fethryth off center. Lerina’s Chosen? Marauder’s Pride? What in the Bleak Gate is he talking about? Surprise costs her precious seconds, so instead of charging the fey she gets caught in the vines. She struggles against the plant but fails to break free.
As the fey's spell makes the ground to bust forth with long vines and grasses the young woman jumps free of those attempting to grab ahold of her. Seeing safety just within the hedge Jesslle darts forward at a run easily making it out of the spell's area. She stops before she goes too far.
If Willem sees the group majorly dispersing, he yells out, "We need to stick together or constables will die. Both movement and numbers improve survival."
Tobias dodges a few tangling vines as they threaten to hamper him, then beats a path out of the over growth and into the hedge maze.
_____________________________________________________
If Willem sees the group majorly dispersing, he yells out, "We need to stick together or constables will die. Both movement and numbers improve survival."
[dice=Reflex DC 15]1d20+3
[dice=STR DC 15]1d20+2
Tobias dodges a few tangling vines as they threaten to hamper him, then beats a path out of the over growth and into the hedge maze. He finds he is the first one to make it out into the maze itself.
”Ghillie Dhu, laughs at you…sings as you fall…stuck in the grass…fool little men…come to play…play in your blood…your blood feeds my friends…smash and bite…stab and rend…oh how Ghillie Dhu will dance on your bones! Dance and sing…your tongues cut out…your eyes pierced by thorns…”
Ghillie Dhu continues to sing-song his improvised tune even as he moves deeper into the safety of his hedge, though at one point he interrupts his song and curses at the flames of Asrabey Varal which marred his perfect, beautiful hedges.
There is only the faintest rustling of the hedges next to Tobias, and then a stick-like spear with a black thorn on the end of it lashes out towards the constable’s left shoulder, piercing through leather between two metal studs to nearly impale through him. Wrenching free, Tobias turns to see what he can only surmise is a fey creature only two feet in height, made entirely of a bundle of twigs and sticks – as if fashioned together by a child from his rural upbringing to make some sort of rudimentary stick doll. It moves as if animated, and though it has no eyes, ears or mouth its “head” turns slightly and peers intelligently at Tobias. He can see, however, that much of the twigs are burnt or charred, and in one area it appears a large chunk of it was sundered by some sort of blade or weapon, probably from Asrabey Varal’s recent passage.
The aerial assistant to Anneca flies higher and effortlessly over the southeastern section of the hedges, looking for Ghillie Dhu at her command. Soon it stops and hovers over an area briefly, then maneuvers to the west to hover over a particular area of the hedges. Sounds like the variation of winds howling in intensity and pitch can be heard over the hedges.