"How much suffering should be considered 'enough' is a very subjective thing."
I am a monster she admits, and I don't care if you live or die, so you may wish to shut the &&&& up!
"I don't think I will," says Caggan, clearly pained. "It's one thing to treat me like dirt. I can handle that. I already saw that you were jerks. But now I hear that you've gone and murdered one of my family as well. Somethin' has to be done. This town already lost any sense of justice it mighta had, so if it takes one monster to destroy so many others then so be it!"
As he finishes his statement his voice begins to distort, followed soon after by a darkening and rippling of his visible skin. The bartender's already prodigious frame begins to grow even more bulky, his back soon straining against his shirt. His teeth grow longer and sharper, two from the top row thickening and curving into a set of tusks. His rapidly thickening neck and wrist muscles strain against the wood of the pillory until the boards that had been holding him in place splinter into pieces around the hinges and padlock as Cimri backpedals away from the transformation.
"This is for you, Cathy," he bellows stretching out and into an offensive stance. "I won't let them kill you and get away with it!"
Sister Ismene watches the exchange without comment. At this point, further punishment and humiliation seemed unnecessary, but she'd already given Caggan the chance to get out and he'd thrown it back in her face. She turns away to head back to the jail to look for the requested whip.
Hearing the straining and cracking of the wood behind her, she whips around, reflexively drawing and throwing a shuriken. The star goes wide, flying past Muziel instead of striking the intended target, and she gets her first look at the thing that used to be Caggan. "Oh sh-!"
Penelope laughs Fat Man turns into a PIG Man! she lets the glee of upcoming violence wash through her as she draws her sword, and letting her father's blood wash over it. Than hacks that the former man's face.
but probably not happening.
Even as Caggan completes his transformation, Penelope and Sister Ismene move in to start attacking the creature he has become. Or perhaps always was? In Ismene's surprise her throwing star goes wide, and in Penelope's Zealous haste she telegraphs her swing sufficiently to allow the half-man-half-boar to easily avoid it.
Caggan, quickly becoming surrounded, takes a swing at the still-reeling Cimri before swinging his head at Penelope and trying to sink one of his tusks into her flesh.
The huge, meaty fist connects firmly with Cimri's jaw. Penelope, despite her reckless rage and unprepared state, just manages to get the blade of her sword up in time to catch the brunt of the tusk and deflect it away from her shoulder.
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Kolaiah is a bit taken aback at the transformation, but once it happened, he was determined to use it to their advantage. Kolaiah cried out to ensure that any civilians within hearing know what is going on, "By the gods, Caggan is a terrible monster, a lycanthrope! We must protect the citizenry from his predations!"
Kolaiah charges Kaggan and smites him, swinging Pestilence at the man's midsection...
-3 if Caggan isn't good
P/S 20/x4 -2 if Caggan isn't good
I also gain +3 to my AC vs Caggan if he is good.
Round 1
Muziel is completely stunned by their prisoner's sudden transformation. "Woah, now here's a creature that deserves some study!" Muziel finds himself some cover and sends a bolt of electricity at the werepig, or whatever it was!
Muziel's electric blast hits Caggan square in the back, causing a small shudder of his monstrous form and bringing a whiff of burning hair to those engaged with him in close range.
Cimri wipes a small trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. Already there's the start of a nasty, fist-shaped bruise on the side of her face. "It was just a job until this," she says, glowering darkly. "Now it's personal." She deftly steps back and then circles around out of Caggan's reach until she can get behind him, setting up a potential flank with one of the other front-line types.
Kolaiah wades into the melee, trying to take advantage of Cimri's new positioning to bring pestilence down on the bartender while she's diverting some of his attention to his backside. The distraction isn't quite enough for the blow to land true through the much-thickened hide of the foe, but he does feel the profane energy of his smite take hold and understands, innately, that this is a good creature and his ability will have full effect going forward.
Watching Cimri take a fist from Caggan is enough to make her see red. "Oh Hell no!" Rushing into the fray, she mumbles an Infernal battle hymn as she sinks her fist into the man-pig's potbelly.
Penelope still in the thous of battle lust, does not take the opportunity to flank and hacks away again at the greasy fat chili thorwer
Now that the surprise has worn off and the fight has become more serious and personal, both Sister Ismene and Penelope start to have much more success. Ismene rushes up and, while for anyone else her fist would have just bounced off the thick hide of Caggan's belly, her training with the Sisters of the Golden Erinyes have served her well and she manages, despite the creature's extra girth, to hit the pressure point that she knows is there.
Caggan lets loose a grunt of both pain and surprise that it actually hurt, and that's the opening that Penelope takes to slash him down the side with her flaming sword. The wound left behind by the sword mostly closes behind it as it passes, but the burning from the fire damage certainly sticks, refreshing the unpleasant smell of burning hair.
Caggan bellows in pain and rage, lashing out at both women, trying to gore Sister Ismene with a tusk while simultaneously slinging a meaty fist at Penelope's jaw.
Ismene deftly twists to the side, causing the tusk to pierce nothing but air, but with Penelope's reckless abandon the bartender's fist manages to catch her in the nose, drawing a small trickle of blood.
"A beast of this strength, it is more hideous than a person should be exposed to. It is well that we are here to protect the people of the city!"
Kolaiah continues swinging Pestilence at Caggan
P/S 20/x4
I also gain +3 to my AC vs Caggan for the smite
Round 2
Seeking an unobstructed shot, Muziel moves much closer to the werepig before firing another jolt of energy.
;
But this attack fails to find its target.
Muziel's second shot goes wide of Caggan in the writhing mass of limbs and weapons flying around the shattered pillory. The blast of electricity flies a couple inches past Cimri's ear, causing her to flinch during her own dagger thrust. "Watch it, Greed! I'm on your side!" she shouts back in frustration.
Kolaiah, meanwhile, rakes Pestilence diagonally across the beast's torso. The sickly-yellow blade glows brightly as it passes through the Wereboar's flesh, dealing extra divine damage and piercing defenses at the same time. The resulting wound is deep, looks like it's been infected for hours, and would probably send most creatures to the ground in a heap. Caggan, however, hangs onto consciousness with a combination of deep fury and an animalistic ferocity, bellowing once again with pain and rage.
Sister Ismene uses her momentum to her advantage, whirling back around to deliver a quick combination. Her chant grows louder, her strikes punctuating the rhythm of the battle hymn.
Penelope will also continue her blood lusty flaming sharp things a-stabbing mode she's in.
Ismene's first blow is mostly, but not completely, absorbed by the bartender's current sheer physical bulk. The second strike ends up being just a glancing blow. Penelope's flaming slash is more effective than her last, opening an even wider cut and searing yet more flesh. Even so Caggan still furiously hangs onto his vitality, though the strain is starting to show. He drops his fists to his side and puts all the effort he can muster into driving his tusks into Kolaiah in retaliation.
Kolaiah uses a swift action to do a lay on hands action with his touch of corruption to heal himself.
Kolaiah says nothing, but continues swinging Pestilence at Caggan
P/S 20/x4
I also gain +3 to my AC vs Caggan for the smite
Caggan looks pretty dead, but if he's somehow still fighting after Koliah slices him, Muziel sends a bolt of electricity at him.
;
;
Between Muziel's electricity and Kolaiah's wicked scythe, the pair manage to do enough damage to bring the bartender to the point where even his ferocity can't keep him going anymore. Caggan collapses to the ground, shrinking as he does so. Bloodied tusks become teeth once again in a matter of seconds, and all the other boar-like features similarly disappear, shifting back to what they had been before. Without the extra bulk, the existing damage looks much more intense.
Cimri takes a moment to breathe deeply, then starts kicking his body repeatedly in the ribs.
Kolaiah will TOC himself again...
Penelope will release her bloodlust, bending over, hands on her knees, panting, her eyes a little glazed over and cheeks heavily flushed. But smiling, oh so sweetly.
"Penelope, if I may?" queries Kolaiah as he reaches out to touch Penelope and apply some negative energy to her.
"How is that?"
And he applies his final dose of corruption to himself.
"No, no! How come he turned back into a man again?" Muziel seems most distraught by this change. He then notices Cimri kicking the man in the ribs. "You know, I think he's dead. Though I have to say that the werepig lasted a lot longer than he should've." The gnome goes back to looking for any trace of the werepig, a tusk fragment, some animal hair, anything to prove that what he had seen was real.
Breathing heavily, she spits on Caggan's corpse and shouts a frustrated challenge to the rest of the town, in case anybody else happened to be watching.
Sister Ismene watches Cimri kick Caggan for awhile as she performs a calming breathing exercise. When she begins to lose steam, Ismene puts a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her friend down. Looking at Caggan's beaten corpse, she can't do anything but shake her head. "It didn't have to be this way."
A cold anger grows in the pit of her stomach. Why did it have to be like this? Why didn't he just apologize? Caggan had made his choice, and now they would all have to live with the consequences of that. And unless Kolaiah manages to convince everybody that they had protected the town from monsters that day, it wouldn't be the last time this happened. How long would it take? A week? A day? An hour? There's something rotten in Longacre, and things were going to get worse before they got better.
Penelope practically purrs at the touch before catching herself and mumbling a thanks. I'll go check on our other prisoners she'll go inside the jail and make sure the hobgoblin and barmaid are still locked up.
Muziel finds a few displaced wiry hairs that had gotten sliced off by Pestilence, but no further lingering physical evidence of the creature the bartender had turned into.
Inside the jail, Penelope finds both prisoners where they had been left. The barmaid is still unconscious on the floor while Zaggar is sitting in a meditative position and doesn't react to her presence.
Cimri, once she's calmed down a bit, gives Ismene a nod of appreciation for the support. "So what do we do with him now?" she wonders out loud as she scans the area. "I think we have to assume this is going to be a P.R. nightmare. On the bright side, though, maybe this might cause a more urgent rescue operation for the last barmaid? And maybe we can take the Last Stand for ourselves... at least until the contents of the bar dry up. No sense letting it all go to waste, right?"
Muziel collects the hairs for further study. Then points to the broken remains of the pillory. "He tried to make his Last Stand, and got what he wanted! While Kels was smart enough to finally spill the beans. Simple, really."
Muziel looks around suspiciously before he continues. "Like you said, we should be ready for another rescue mission. I don't think we care about the barmaid anyway, so maybe you should all have some fun at The Last Stand Tavern, while I keep watch? If another rescue mission comes by, we can let it succeed, but then I'll shadow them and find out who's behind it and where their hideout is. Then we can crush them!" Muziel seems positively gleeful at the thought, eager to make quick work of the remaining resistance in town.
"We'd better take care of that hobgoblin, though, before he becomes another ally of theirs. Anyone want to try some more questioning, or do I get to use him as target practice?"
*Edit* - "By the way, I have a few tricks up my sleeve for communicating as I'm following these rebels."
"As long as I can see you, I can talk to you in a whisper." The gnome is indeed whispering, but you can hear him just fine.
He then moves out of sight behind the building. "And even if I can't see you, I can send messages in the wind to wherever I want. Of course, you have to still be there to hear it!"
Delightful Muziel! Penelope exclaims, happy to have a magic user in the group. I'm happy with the plan. I believe Kolaiah wanted to have the goblin as a snack, so let him if he so desires, and then the place is yours.
"Screw the P.R. If it's a fight the bumpkins want, it's a fight they're gonna get."
With Cimri calmed down, Sister Ismene slouches against the busted pillory with her arms crossed as she listens to Muziel's plan. "Sounds good to me, Greed. The sooner we can crush this rebellion, the better." She punches her fist into her other hand, pulverizing the imaginary resistance. Pushing herself off of the pillory, she stalks toward the Last Stand. "I need a drink. If we're gonna talk shop, we might as well get comfortable, especially now that our ban's been exsanguinated."
"Sounds good to me," Cimri says. "Whether Greed or Envy does it makes no difference to me. I'd rather have a drink than watch, though, especially if Envy does it." She starts following Ismene to the Last Stand. "Gluttony can stay at his precious Arch and Lark, I think. If he wants to be included in the shop talk then he needs to stick around for the work, too," she mutters as those heading to the Last Stand pass by the other tavern.
Once at the Last Stand, Cimri jumps behind the bar and starts pouring drinks for everyone who want to join in. She takes a drink of something stiff, sniffs a little as it goes down, then sighs as she leans against the bar. "Not quite the same without music and the crowd, is it?" she muses whistfully before taking another drink. "Though free is nice." After a moment she seems to return to the present. "So I'm thinking it might be better to stay the night at the Jail tonight. With the Castle Gate closed I'd rather be closer than a half hour away if something does go down. Having prisoners isn't nearly as fun as it seemed like it would be." She pauses another moment for another pull from her glass before continuing. "I also admit I don't much like the thought of trying to sleep with Razelago possibly upstairs anymore. I liked him better as a silhouette."
Penelope will wait around the jail in case the goblin puts up more than a token fight against Envy's dinner plans.
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What is usually considered, and viewed as a horrendously bloody and horrible act, is something that Kolaiah relishes, and handles in a very gentile fashion, once he has knocked out his victim. He takes care to not make a mess all over the place. Sure, that might happen on a street corner, or in the back room at a brothel, but in the comfort of your privacy, you should be more civilized in the way you sup on the lifesblood of a fellow sentient, even one as bestial as the hobgoblin.
When he is done, he requests Penelope's assistance in dropping the body off at a convenient location, where he states loudly, "Damn shame that werepig thing killed this hobgoblin, really nasty business that!"
Penelope is impressed witnessing the act, though is his complete opposite in feeding, passion and violence she is.
But she is quite willing to help him tote a body somewhere. She smirks at his rouse, than asks Shall we be off to the Last Stand?
There's a brief struggle with Zaggar, but the still severely injured Hobgoblin is still pretty wounded even with the infernal healing he'd received earlier and is soon rendered unconscious and helpless for Kolaiah to drink him dry.
Disposing of the body publicly, though attributing the cause of death elsewhere, yields a few townspeople quite confused. They don't ask questions, however, and go about their business in a much more hurried state.
Afterward, at the last stand, the two Dhampir find Cimri and Sister Ismene already with a head start on the drinking. Cimri waves from behind the bar after you enter and holds up a bottle.
"You guys wants some?" she asks. "I dunno if you've got any room left, but this is the good stuff."
Muziel, remaining at the Jail but keeping watch, doesn't see much over the next few hours, perhaps too engrossed in his thoughts about the beast that Caggan had turned into, and why it might be that there's so little evidence of the transformation left over. After a few hours, though, he hears a confused and frightened female voice coming from the cell block in the back of the building.
"Hello?" it calls. "Where am I? Is anyone there? What's going on?"
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Muziel stirs at the sound of the voice, realizing he might have dozed off while keeping watch. It seemed the barmaid had woken up. He wondered if she had recovered on her own or whether she had also somehow gotten some magical healing. Muziel decides he will approach quietly to take a peek what was going on, just to make sure things were clear.
If he sees the prisoner but nobody else, he'll stay in the shadows. With nothing else to do, he figures to have some fun. He sends a light breeze toward her , before whispering to her at a distance, doing his best to disguise his voice.
"It's me . . . Caggan. Can you hear me? They got me. I'm dead. But I'm here to tell you. To warn you. These people. They're devils. They can't be killed. You need to get out of here!" Muziel watches from the shadows to see her reaction.
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"Sounds good to me," Cimri says. "Whether Greed or Envy does it makes no difference to me. I'd rather have a drink than watch, though, especially if Envy does it." She starts following Ismene to the Last Stand. "Gluttony can stay at his precious Arch and Lark, I think. If he wants to be included in the shop talk then he needs to stick around for the work, too," she mutters as those heading to the Last Stand pass by the other tavern.
Once at the Last Stand, Cimri jumps behind the bar and starts pouring drinks for everyone who want to join in. She takes a drink of something stiff, sniffs a little as it goes down, then sighs as she leans against the bar. "Not quite the same without music and the crowd, is it?" she muses whistfully before taking another drink. "Though free is nice." After a moment she seems to return to the present. "So I'm thinking it might be better to stay the night at the Jail tonight. With the Castle Gate closed I'd rather be closer than a half hour away if something does go down. Having prisoners isn't nearly as fun as it seemed like it would be." She pauses another moment for another pull from her glass before continuing. "I also admit I don't much like the thought of trying to sleep with Razelago possibly upstairs anymore. I liked him better as a silhouette."
Ismene shrugs, accepting the drink the Cimri slides across the bar. "I dunno. Accuser devils are creepy looking, sure, but I wasn't so keen on that silhouette. At least now we know what he is."
She takes a swig from her glass, letting the alcohol work its magic. She looks around at the room, still in disarray from the disturbance earlier. "Cripes, it's been a long day." She sighs, exhausted from the emotional roller-coaster ride. She stares into her drink for a while, her chin resting on her hand and the weight of the world resting on her shoulders.
Breaking her somber silence, she asks, "How long do you think it'll take? Crushing the rebellion?"
Muziel watches as a horrified look comes over the prisoner's face. Combined with the massive bruise on her face from Sister Ismene's punch, she almost looks inhuman in her terror.
"What? No!" she shouts, then starts banging weakly on the bars of the cell, tears streaming down her face and dripping at uncanny angles from her broken nose. "Help! Help! Can anyone hear me? I have to get out of here! Please help me!"
Cimri snorts a single chuckle when Ismene espouses her preference, and the reason, for the current version of Razelago. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't, eh?" she asks, smirking. "You know, in all the times I'd ever heard that expression I never thought I'd be applying it to actual Devils." The pair lapse into silent drinking for a while until Ismene breaks it once again.
"I got no idea," says Cimri, shrugging. "So far all we've turned up is a smitten bard, a bartender who couldn't tell what was good for him, and an almost entirely unrelated Hobgolblin." She takes another drink, then pokes Ismene in the shoulder, a little harder than she probably intended as the alcohol starts to set in. "But I tell you what, Is, it's just our first day on the job. People need time to get the word around and organize, especially if they're trying to be secret about it. I've got a strong suspicion that the third barmaid, the one which got away if you remember, was the one who slipped Caggan a potion. I'm sure she, and maybe Kels too -- I never could get much of a read on him -- are trying to get people riled up tonight. But we know folks around here are stupid and stubborn, right? So it might take a while to really catch into 'em. Maybe it'll take a few days, maybe a few weeks. All I know is I never noticed until now, when it's quiet in here, that I get really chatty when I got a buzz going." She wrinkles her nose and takes another drink.
"I can't talk much longer. Watch your back!" Muziel sniggers at his little prank before slipping away. The barmaid would have some stories to tell after that one - she might spread her bit of misinformation so that the rebels would properly fear the power of the Sinister Seven.
Muziel considers introducing herself to the barmaid a few minutes later, but decides against it. He figures that if an escape attempt is made soon, it would be better if everyone thought the jail was empty. Instead, he spends some time musing about what'd he'd learned about hobgoblins and whatever Penelope and Koliah were, in the little time he had to watch them do their business.
Sister Ismene nods, sullenly accepting that this was just the beginning. She hoped they might at least get a break while they waited for the rebellion to foment.
Looking up from her drink at Cimri, Ismene remembers that she wasn't the only one who had had a rough day. And since Cimri was feeling so chatty, maybe she'd feel like talking about it. "How about you? Are you holding up alright? That was a rough scene with your aunt. I know you two aren't close, but still..."
Penelope will put her feet up at the bar and try and catch a little sleep. First thing useful they taught her in the army, sleep when you can. And it has been a long day.
Kolaiah joins Penelope as they decompress from the interesting day they have had.
The barmaid continues to call for help for several minutes. Eventually, though, her weakened state catches up with her and she can't keep it up. Quiet resumes in the jail, save for the sounds of her sobbing which occasionally become loud enough to be heard in the other room.
"Ugh, the ol' 'warden,'" says Cimri wrinkling her nose. "I'll be fine. It felt good to rub her self-righteous nose in something for once. It helped me get through her stupid little speech afterward. How if I didn't straighten up and stop falling in with bad crowds I'd end up hitting rock bottom like my parents did. Like she single-handedly saved them from winding up dead in the gutter by getting them those logging jobs from which they never came back, and stopped writing. Ugh! She drives off my parents and then constantly treats me like I don't -- or can't -- understand how the world works. If anything I'm disappointed that I didn't get to see her have some sort of conniption fit." She sighs and drinks. "I know none of us are technically there sheriff at all, but it feels good to have essentially taken from her one of the things she cared about and took pride in, since she took away everything from me."
After an evening of drinking and relaxing, Cimri, rather slurrily, announces that she's going to head over to the Jail to take either relieve Muziel or take shifts with him through the night, in case anything happens.