Orik frowns, and tries to interrupt Synkomidí "please, we don't want trouble - this place isn't safe for you either." He tightens the grip on his bow.
"Oh gosh, really? Tell us of these dangers," interjects Yrja, hoping the dawn pipers they had fought were not relatives of these fae.
Dezső stares into the alluring fey's eyes, trying to will himself to stay focused on finding the hut, even though she's ever so interesting...
Synkomidí notices Orik's bow stance and takes pause. "...are you worried about us being dangerous?"
Another baccae comes over, looking eagerly at the part. "...do we look dangerous? wild?"
The situation suddenly seems a bit more tense.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Kseniya laughs heartily. ”We are in Irrisen! Everyone and everything is dangerous. I am dangerous, you are dangerous, a five minute walk without a coat is dangerous! We are used to it, da? Your hospitality is welcome, and I do wish I had time to stay, but we have big work to carry out. You understand, da?”
The second woman says "We could make them stay and learn," somewhat darkly, but Synkomidí raises a hand, gazing into Kseniya's eyes. "Maristasias, hold," she says to her companion. "The Jadwiga of this dulled world is right. Danger is everywhere."
She refocuses on Kseniya, glancing at Dez with a wink, then returns to the Irriseni noblewoman's icy eyes, drinking them in. "This place is poisoned. Women rule here, yes, but you have slaves. You hurt foreigners. You would outlaw anything that these horrid icy Winter Guards and their mistresses deem unseemly. How may these lands love freely again? How may they bloom? Surely it is through the entrance of the First World. These merchants are now happy, liberated. But if you are not to join us, give us something--" at this point, Synkomidí gets rather close to Kseniya--"To help us part...merrily."
She smiles beatifically. "To remember us by, and we you."
Seeing the possible diplomatic resolution and the apparent repartee between Kseniya and the fey, Dez slides slightly closer to Kseniya and his tail emerges from the back of his coat to slide the silver mirror into Kseniya's hand.
Orik’s expression softens a little bit as he responds, ”isn’t my place but Irrisen has powerful guardians who don’t let much change. Tinker ‘round the edges like we are - but not much. A permanent portal to the first world in their capitol - you’re messing with the Queen. Not a wise idea - we have only avoided death through luck.” He puts his bow away, ”sorry about the weapons” he grumbles.
Synkomidí glances at the mirror. "We'd look good in that mirror together," she says, drawling her words slightly and fluttering her eyelashes at Kseniya.
"I am a jadwiga. I always look good in mirrors." She folds her arms so as to make the muscles bulge a little. She finally takes the mirror and hands it to the fey, throwing a cocky smile her way.
Synkomidí takes the mirror and gives Kseniya a wink...then draws out a long appraising look. "Maristasias, escort our guests onward. Perhaps we'll see them again."
The other baccae pouts but nods, and beckons you onward with a grape-stained finger. You hope it's grape juice. The third baccae is leading two of the merchants to a tent, for purposes not too difficult to divine, although the men are barely able to walk.
Yrja smiles timidly at Synkomidí, part of her wishing they did have time to spend with the baccae. Just a little. The witch finds the fae fascinating, despite multiple unfriendly encounters.
"Ah well, maybe next time," the tiefling mutters to herself as she glances over her shoulder at the clearing.
You soon leave the debauchery behind, although the noises carry through the maze of thorns fairly well.
You come to another clearing after climbing through several more blasted and destroyed buildings.
An enormous dead beech tree towers over this clearing, standing apart from the evergreen trees around it. Dead, dry leaves lift from piles around the tree to rustle and dance amid whorls of fine powdery snow. Knots of roots appear among the leaves, making the entire clearing treacherous to walk upon.
The whirling leaves occasionally leave their dust devil spirals to fly up and reattach on to the tree. Some are slowly, almost imperceptibly turning from muted brown to orange and red.
A flaming-eyed dawn piper stands here, arms wide, but not in welcome.
"“Go now. This forest and the Dancing Hut are ours, and I will not yield.”
"My apologies, but we quite literally have no choice. Return to your world and impeded us no longer. Our patience has run dry."
Orik grits his teeth, and raises his eyebrow, "look, we really don't want to fight you, but we will. And it'll hurt. And yer gonna lose, too, so just give up." He thumbs back at the forest, "and we already won, for that matter! The other pipers are gonna wake up with bad headaches." He cracks his knuckles and furrows his brow, grumbling, "I mean - do you really think you can beat the queen? Come on..."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The dawn piper shrugs, and raises its pipes.
Dawn Piper 3: Set The Controls For The Heart of The Reality Siphon
Yrja
Piper
Kseniya
Dez
Orik
Yrja is up, then the piper, then the rest of y'all, but feel free to pre-post for the sake of moving things along!
It looks to me like Dez can only get halfway with a move, in which case, and assuming Kseniya moves in as well, Dez pauses to carefully take in the Piper (studied combat, move action) and then runs towards the piper with his cold iron rapier in hand.
Orik sighs and takes two shots at the piper after stepping forward.
Yrja walks forward to get the piper in range of her magic, huffing.
"Are all of you this stupid and this stubborn? This is getting tiresome! You cannot win this, and you know it!"
The dawn piper shrugs off the tiefling's spell, lifting off into the air effortlessly. It raises to perhaps 10 feet into the air.
One arrow feathers the piper's foot as it goes aloft, causing it to wince with pain.
Kseniya enters her battle stance and advances to the front. ”You picked the right person for a fight, fey!”
Without warning, a spray of splinters and brambles flies out of the undergrowth behind Dezső and Orik. Something back there growls in a creaky voice like the snapping of old tree limbs.
Dawn Piper Pt 3: Dawn of the Piper (Round 2)
Yrja
Piper, -3 HP, Flying
Unknown Assailant
Kseniya, Oppa Dragon Style
Dez
Orik
"I see that I need to soften you up first," murmurs Yrja, throwing concerned looks over her shoulder at whatever was making a ruckus in the bushes.
At last, the hex hits the piper and crawls over its skin like hungry invisible caterpillars.
Dez's sharp instincts easily enable him to avoid the main of the spray of sharp objects, but several splinters lodge in his leg.
He turns to face the new assailant.
Dez, you can dimly see a twigjack hidden in the thorny walls of the Market Square labyrinth.
The piper raises her fippled flute to her lips, hovering imperiously above you. She blasts out notes that have no earthly analogue; they tear at your conceptions of reality.
For Kseniya and Yrja, the sound is a physical pain that makes you feel like your eyes, and sinuses, and innards are suppurating!
The twigjack sprays Dez and Orik with another barrage of thorns and brambles.
The barely seen twig-like fey cackles like the crunching of dry leaves and disappears as if whisked away to the First World.
Kseniya, Orik, and Dez are up!
Orik steps away from the twigjack and and takes two shots at it.
If Dez is able to target the twigjack, he moves over to it and strikes with his rapier.
But the foliage interferes with the attack.
In any event, Dez moves such that the twigjack can't target both him and Orik with the splinter attack. That is, he moves to engage with the twigjack without having Orik in the line of fire behind him.
Orik and Dez are both unable to hit the twigjack, who is concealed deep in the thorny underbrush.
Kseniya growls and throws a javelin at the dawn piper, as she is unable to reach the twiggy fey, and cannot grapple the flying piper.
The javelin's throw is spoiled by the bizarre currents of upward rising leaves, however, leaving the jadwiga stymied.
The twigjack's spray only coats Orik, as Dez seemingly has a prescient knowledge of the future.
Dawn Piper #3 Round 3
Yrja
Piper, -3 HP, Flying, Evil Eye Hexed 9 rounds
Kseniya, Dragon Style
Dez
Orik -8 HP
Twigjack, whereabouts unknown
The twigjack disappears after its attack.
Yrja winces in pain at the dawn piper's nonsense, but it feels like it could have been worse. The young witch retaliates with her own sound-based magic, although only the piper can hear the deafening scream she aims at him.
The piper, already weakened by Yrja's hex, hears the scream--but the spell suddenly shatters and dissolves away.
The piper must have spell resistance!
Imperious and burning with the fires of the First World, the hovering piper again raises its pipe to its lips, playing its jagged, discordant sounds of the creation before creation.
Dawn Piper #3 Round 3
Yrja 26/39 hp, needs to roll another save
Piper, -3 HP, Flying, Evil Eye Hexed 9 rounds
Kseniya, Dragon Style, 43/56 HP
Dez
Orik -8 HP
Twigjack, whereabouts unknown
Everyone else is up!
The rules of Fey are odd with the twigjack.
The twigjack is using bramble jump to dimension door through the briar. By your estimates, it can probably only do this three times in a day, maybe only twice. Furthermore, its spray of thorns can be used only three times. After that, it will have to leave the briar to attack you.
Dez delays with the intent to run to and attack the twigjack if it exposes itself again.
He calls out, "Everybody, spread out so their attacks can't hit more than one of us!"
Blood streaming from her nose, Yrja curses. "Drat! My spells won't work!" She takes Dez's advice and moves a little farther away from the others before flinging another hex at the piper.
Dez calls to Yrja in orc, which he figures the Piper does not speak: "Have you tried to put it to sleep? Maybe it would fall. If not that, maybe you can web it to the tree? If we had access to a grease spell maybe it would drop its pipes, but I don't think any of us can do that."
Kseniya completely avoids the annoying fey’s blast. She draws a javelin and chucks it at the piper.
Orik steps away from Dez a little, hoping to avoid the damage, and just fires at the dawn piper.
Plonk! The javelin hits the dawn piper with a decidedly wooden sound. Are dawn pipers made of wood? However, it does bleed, its expression remaining imperious and impassive.
Orik also lands a shot, but the piper barely winces.
The tiny twigjack emerges from the shadows of the briars to poke at Yrja, who fails to notice it until too late. Despite its miniscule size, it strikes dangerously close to an artery in her leg.
Dawn Piper #3 Round 3
Yrja 26/39 hp, needs to roll another save
Piper, -3 HP, Flying, Evil Eye Hexed 9 rounds
Kseniya, Dragon Style, 43/56 HP
Twigjack
Orik -8 HP
Dez, delayed. <--we are here