"Well that was rude. So much for playing nice here."
The dwarf hefted his spear and gingerly poked the little man.
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HP 37/37
AC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 14
Conditions: n/a
Melee (+1 spear): +5 = +1(magic) +2(base) +2(STR)
Melee Damage (+1 spear): 1d8+4 = +3 (str), x2
4/5 mythic pool, 3/4 touch of flame
Spell used: burning hands
Still wanting to conserve his remaining magic for later, Cithembi again resorts to his crossbow.
It seems we must fight Freyja announces and casts Daze at the creature.
Evelina ducks the pan and joins the fight, but tries not to strike a lethal blow.
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"Oh, for the love of..." Furious at the delay this was causing, Matt muttered some familiar words and summoned a large wooden spear to his hand. He threw it over Evelina's head good thing she's short, straight at the huge midget's chest.
The surprise of the now-not-so-little spriggan's transformation seems to have left everyone a bit off-kilter - Evelina's sword thrust darts ineffectually between its legs, Martok's spear point misses its side by a foot, and Cithembi's crossbow bolt clatters uselessly off the wall. Matthew has more luck, though, his spear connecting with the giant spriggan's shoulder, and Freyja has the best luck of all - her spell overwhelms the fey creature's mind, and for a moment it stands stock-still in confusion.
There is a magic aura present in the room, although you do not have long enough to concentrate and find out precisely where it is or how strong it is.
Cithembi keeps shooting. How hard can it be to hit something this large?
Hoping for better luck, the dwarf pokes again with the spear.
"Quiet! You'll die quietly!"
----------
HP 37/37
AC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 14
Conditions: n/a
Melee (+1 spear): +5 = +1(magic) +2(base) +2(STR)
Melee Damage (+1 spear): 1d8+4 = +3 (str), x2
4/5 mythic pool, 3/4 touch of flame
Spell used: burning hands
Encouraged by her arcane result Freyja casts hideous laughter at the large gnome.
Evelina tries to strike at the creature once more, but her footwork is sloppy and she doesn't seem to have quite recovering from her earlier sickness.
Seeing that the large spriggan was somehow avoiding their fighters, Matt decided to try and finish him off. Rolling his hands as if shaping invisible dough, Matt then stretched them apart, intoning, "Rsusshailr seirr!" A ray of fire blasted from the palm of one hand, moving towards the spriggan with deadly speed.
Mig - 42/48, -4, -13: 25/48
Evelina's string of unfortunate misses continues, as does Martok's. Cithembi has better luck with his crossbow this time, however, striking the spriggan in the elbow, and Matthew sends a bolt of fiery energy straight for the spriggan's gut, causing it to roar in pain. Having altered the cook's mind once before, Freyja attempts again; as she had hoped, but no one else expects, the spriggan suddenly hunches over and falls to the ground in a deep belly laugh.
Meanwhile, Madison, fleeing for the safety of one of the far bedrooms, comes back to her senses to find herself standing before an open door staring into Mierul's bedroom.
From yelling to belly laughs; this was getting worse by the second.
Martok gave a quick look to his companions to see if any would object him skewering the mad spriggan.
Finding none, he tried again. "Quiet I said!"
-----------------
HP 37/37
AC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 14
Conditions: n/a
Melee (+1 spear): +5 = +1(magic) +2(base) +2(STR)
Melee Damage (+1 spear): 1d8+4 = +3 (str), x2
4/5 mythic pool, 3/4 touch of flame
Spell used: burning hands
Maddy slowly comes back to her senses which is accompanied by a feeling of disorientation. The last thing she remembered was the little cook saying something to her and then her mind being consumed by fear. Now the fear was gone and she realizes she must have run away. She silently berates herself for such weakness, turns, and starts running back towards the others.
Imbuing her sword with a small portion of her arcane power Freyja closes to attack the large annoyance. If possible she will move to offer her allies a flank since the creature currently does not threaten.
Not connecting the dots that Freyja was mentally effecting the creature, Evelina takes offense at the creature's sudden laughter. "Hey! Don't laugh at us! You're gonna regret not takin' us serious! Moving in to flank with bard, she strikes at the prone creature.
Freyja and Evelina move to face off across the spriggan's huge bulk, and both blades find their marks; Martok, however, is not nearly so fortunate, and his spearpoint deflects off the spriggan's massive waffle iron. Matthew, unwilling for the moment to expend any more of his magical resources, withdraws his crossbow and loads a bolt into the firing mechanism, cocking it back and hoping for a lucky shot. Cithembi fires his own crossbow at the creature, but finds the spriggan much more difficult to hit on the ground than on his feet, and his shot goes awry.
And the hapless cook laughs...and laughs...and laughs.
Feeling more a butcher than a hero Freyja strikes again.
The scene that Maddy comes back to is quite different from that which she'd left. The cook had grown in size and was laughing on the ground.
Normally she wouldn't attack someone in such a position but it had done something to her to make her leave her twin unprotected. This was something she couldn't overlook. Moving up to the spriggan, Maddy struck out at it with her sword.
Martok redoubles his effort when he sees the cook actually being hit and hurt!
"I said don't move!"
--------------
HP 37/37
AC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 14
Conditions: n/a
Melee (+1 spear): +5 = +1(magic) +2(base) +2(STR)
Melee Damage (+1 spear): 1d8+4 = +3 (str), x2
4/5 mythic pool, 3/4 touch of flame
Spell used: burning hands
Matt shot at the prone spriggan, but Maddy's sudden reappearance infront of him made him jerk aside at the last moment, and the shot went wide.
Freyja and Madison finish the job of silencing the cruel cook and he goes still, a smile now permanently etched into his strange features. In his last moments, he shrinks back down to his former size, small and strange in death.
With the threat passed, the kitchen can be examined more closely. Tall shelves line the walls of the strangely-shaped room, with a rolling ladder leaning against one shelf in the far corner. On these shelves is a jumble of pots, serving dishes, silverware and cooking utensils in trays, and folded table linens. One area of the shelves is closed off with a door; when you pull the door aside, a blast of cold air greets you, and you see slits in the wall behind that allow Irrisen's frigid air to keep this storage area cold. Here, you find the perishable food supplies: bottles of milk, a few stunted vegetables, and several joints of meat. Disturbingly, though, a couple of these are too long and smooth to come from any beast you can think of...
A huge metal oven is backed up to the short southern wall, and on a table near it are several loaves of cooling bread and a silver tray. On the tray is a careful arrangement of tiny parcels; these appear to be cookies, wrapped in waxed paper and sealed with small drops of wax impressed with a stylized letter M.
Cithembi shudders slightly at the sight of the meat and steps back out of the kitchen. "Ah, perhaps I shall keep watch, friends. No need for me to crowd in there, yes?"
Having noted a magic aura earlier Freyja recasts her spell and finds the cookie. Interesting. she says as she studies the treat. I am not sure what is magical about it.
Matt retrieved his bolt, which had gone wide and cracked when it hit the wall. He stowed it away, reminding himself to mend it when next he prepared that spell.
Hearing Freyja's words, he turned his attention to the magical cookie. Recognizing the spell, he said, "It would seem our cook here wished somebody harm. It's a spiteful cookie - don't eat it, don't even unwrap it. It'll make you want to eat it, and then it'll kill you. Slowly."
Picking it up carefully, Matt wrapped it in a piece of cloth and stowed it carefully in a pouch in his pack. "The rest of these are quite safe."
Finishing with the kitchen, he said, "That finishes this level. Shall we try the key to go up? If that doesn't work, which I suspect it won't, we can try the aerie."
Maddy isn't really interested in searching a kitchen but refuses to leave her brother's side, especially since she had so recently run away.
Matty's revelation about the cookie causes her to ask, "Who are these cookies meant for? And what does the 'M' stand for? Doesn't the witch's name start with an 'N'?"
She considers their options for where to go next. "I vote for the aerie. We have the pass phrase for the teleporter and maybe there are other kids trapped as birds up there who need our help."
Martok puts the cookies down quickly. His recent performance has him thinking that something is wrong with him, "Do you think I've been cursed? I know, crazy right. It's not like there any witches around, right?"
He makes sure everyone is OK before readying himself to go up to the aerie.
Evelina had been eyeing up the cookies when Matt gave his warning. Pulling back her hand with a snap, she exclaims, "What the hell! Who makes cookie that'll kill you slowly...What is wrong with these people." Evelina nods to Maddie, "Yeah, let's just go to the aerie..stupid, cursed cookies... she mutters under her breath.
Finally relaxing slightly, everyone makes their way back through the conservatory to the transporter and calls out the passphrase to travel upwards. The sensation of freezing from inside is still unnerving, but more tolerable now that you know to expect it. And before the ice crystals fully clear from your eyes, you notice the first remarkable feature of this room - the smell. The source becomes immediately apparent - bird droppings are scattered across the floor of this crescent-shaped room, concentrated between a trio of pillars. These pillars are surrounded by two tiers of wires wrapped in a triangle around them, creating two levels of long perches that are currently clustered with ravens. As you enter, the birds suddenly turn restless, a few letting out loud caws at the disturbance.
Along the south, slightly curved wall, floor-to-ceiling windows expose this room to the Irriseni landscape beyond, helping to provide some ventilation but making the room sharp with cold. From the view you can see through the windows, you realize that you are high up - a good sixty feet from the ground outside, with the ceiling reaching thirty or so feet up from the floor. Two doors open in the inside wall, one to the left of the transporter by which you entered and one to the right. From the western door, a tall, impossibly slender, blue-skinned woman emerges, a bandaged bird resting on her forearm and her hair seeming to float lazily on a breeze despite the room's air being still. Remembering Maggie's description, you recognize this woman as Jairess Sonn, the raven keeper. I don't recognize you - what are you doing here? Who sent you up here?
Martok stepped forward and calmly stated, "I'm sorry to barge in like this but we are looking for a little girl. You see, her mother misses her very much and we'd like to take her home."
------------
Evelina looked a little uncertain how to approach the situation. If she's like most of these folk, she probably don't care a spit about the missing kid...But on the off chance, I guess it wouldn't hurt to play to her conscience, since she knows why we're here now...
Please, we don't want trouble. We just want to get that little girl home safe..."
Matt looked sharply around the room, wondering if there were any more un-ravens.
As the others spoke to Jairess, Matt stepped behind Maddy and softly murmured, {b]hoamrl nomsa[/b]. He then said, "Yes, please, can you help us find her?"
Freyja wipes the ice crystals from her eyes and focuses on the blue-skinned woman. Yes, We certainly do not mean you or your birds any harm. Can you please just help us find the girl?
Maddy knew when to stay quiet so she listens and waits to see if the group's words positively or negatively affect the sylph.
Cithembi thinks that more words would be too much, and so simply waits and watches.
The sylph woman stares for a few moments, and her unoccupied hand begins to rise as if in a signal...but then Matthew's magic washes over her, Martok, Evelina and Freyja make their appeals, and her hand drops. The raven on her arm croaks a slight protest, but she calms it with a soft murmur. A little girl? she replies softly. Who is she? I don't recall seeing any little girls lately, but I've been spending most of my time up here the last few weeks. Nazhena and Radosek have had the flock on extra watch lately, and they brought me a particularly strange raven who needed some extra looking after. I've hardly even gone down for meals - I've had Jir and Lask bringing up food as often as not.
Freyja is mindful that if the charm worked she is Matt's friend and not necessarily the rest of the party's. So she keeps her hands away from her weapons and looks to Matt to ask questions.
Cithembi shifts slightly to better see everyone's faces, trying to keep up with the conversation. The sylph's words give him the sinking feeling that something terrible has already happened...
Matt glanced at Maddy, warning her to ensure Maggie stayed hidden and quiet.
He then stepped slowly aside, and motioned to Nadya. "The girl we search for is this woman's daughter. The wit...Nazhena took her as surety for Nadya's cooperation in bringing supplies. The supplies have been delivered, but Nazhena and the girl seem to be gone. We've asked everybody we can find, and nobody knows anything about her." He paused, as if considering. "We were hoping this transporter would bring us to the floor below this one. Do you know a way to get down. All we want is to find the girl, and bring her home to her family."
Evelina looks from the sylph to Matt, not entirely sure what magic had made the woman so cooperative. Still, she did not one to get in the way, so she waited for the response. Perhaps she can tell us the way up at least...
While she waited, she glances around the room at ravens. I wonder if they are kids like Maggie. she thought with a shudder, as she watched them for any strange behavior.
Maddy subtly shifts her body to protectively cover her bag with her hand and shield it from the sylph's gaze. She hopes that the gentle touch of her hand through the bag was enough to keep Maggie quiet while Matty works his magic on Jairess.
Looking around, no one notices any ravens as...unusual as Maggie, and from Jairess' comment, it sounds as if Maggie in her current state is something unique. While large, well-kept, and slightly ill-tempered, the rest of the flock appears to be ordinary.
The floor below this? But you would have had to come through the dining room already to get here...oh. You mean Nazhena's chamber. Jairess glances around worriedly, as if afraid of being overheard, though only the ravens are with you in the chamber. Well...I...you have to understand, I can't! This is one of the best jobs I've had, even with half the soldiers and Radosek ogling me. And if Radosek knew I gave you the key he made me, a quick death's the best I could hope for...
Looking around, no one notices any ravens as...unusual as Maggie, and from Jairess' comment, it sounds as if Maggie in her current state is something unique. While large, well-kept, and slightly ill-tempered, the rest of the flock appears to be ordinary.
The floor below this? But you would have had to come through the dining room already to get here...oh. You mean Nazhena's chamber. Jairess glances around worriedly, as if afraid of being overheard, though only the ravens are with you in the chamber. Well...I...you have to understand, I can't! This is one of the best jobs I've had, even with half the soldiers and Radosek ogling me. And if Radosek knew I gave you the key he made me, a quick death's the best I could hope for...
Martok put on his best grandfather face and slowly stepped forward, "Listen, we understand but you must know that little girls' lives are in danger here. I'm sure deep in your heart you already suspect something like this."
He sighed, "We can make it look like you were forced to hand over the key or that the key was stolen from you. Please, think of the girls and mothers..."
-------
"Yeah, we don't want to get you in trouble or nothing. Just get the girl...We'll be real careful to make sure Radosek doesn't find out we got it from you."
Maddy adds what she thinks is an important point, "We'll also make sure that no one ever knows we were even in Nazhena's chamber. We'll slip in and out and no one will be the wiser. We only want to find the missing girl."
Do...do you swear it? The sylph woman stares for several moments, clearly deeply conflicted...but then she withdraws to the room from which she'd come. As she withdraws, the injured raven flaps awkwardly to a shelf against the room's wall, landing heavily. Soon, Jairess returns with a small ice crystal carved into a series of interconnected sinuous curves. Radosek made it for me himself...he said he shaped it after the wind running through my hair, she says, her voice tinged with nervous disdain. You need the key on the transporter pad in order to travel, but anyone who's on the pad when it's activated with the key will be taken through.
But you have to get those girls and get out, as quickly as you can. If anyone finds out it was my key, I'll say you used magic to force me to hand it over. I'll still be lucky to keep my place even with that excuse, but hopefully it'll shield me from worse than that. Nervously, she glances at the crystal as she places it in Matthew's hand. I'm sorry...but there's nothing more I can do. Even this is probably too high a risk.
Evelina nods, "We just want to make sure that the girl and any other kids are safe. Thanks" Looking to the others she say, "C'mon. We should move quickly..."
Martok takes the key, "Your actions will not be forgotten."
The dwarf then heeds Evelina's advice, "Agreed; let's move to the transporter and get to the floor below us."
He looked at the twins, "Hopefully, we'll find something to help your... sister."
Matt took the key solemnly. "My deepest thanks. We will do all we can to help the children, and protect you."
He then returned with the others to the lower level. Taking the key, they stood on the transporter pad and activated the key.