Drancis stares at the fallen form of Illonna with a look of panic on his face before he clenches his fists in anger. A white hot fury bubbles in his mind and he extends his hands outward, calling the myriad bubbles surrounding him to himself and shooting them out towards Silas, aiming to slam the man into the wall.
Locke's face turns grim as Illonna goes down. Silam, you just lost your chance. He swings his blade at the man again, this time with lethal intentions.
Round 2
*bleeds*
In a mirror of what happened earlier with the bugbear in the attic, Astraea drops to her knees over Illonna and lays hands on her, hoping to channel some healing magic into her and hoping that Silam is too preoccupied with his various other attackers to chop her in half...
Drancis' anger manifests itself In a wave of energy that crashes into the woodcutter - it pushes Silam against the wall just as Rikkan's bomb explodes on the stairs adjacent to him - showering him in glass and splinters...
Hoping to end the fight before it turns too far in Silam's favour, Zoreck lines up another shot with his crossbow... But, in the confusion of melee, his bolt cuts harmlessly into Silam's cloak...
If Silam recognises Locke from days gone by, the woodcutter shows no sign of it - turning to face his attacker and swinging his bloodied axe upwards, he catches Locke beneath the chin and sends the bard into the dark, welcoming oblivion of unconciousness.
Silam's breathing and movement is laboured as he looms over Astraea...
Rikkan again tried his trick to splash the large man with the fire bomb. He against carefully measured his aim to just above the man on the stairs, so that the others would be spared from friendly fire from the splash of the fiery explosion.
RTA within 30'
Oh...NO!
Drancis frantically snatches another piece of wall with his mind and flings it at Silas, seeing the beheading of Astraea clearly in his minds eye.
Locke falls in a heep, pain flaring briefly from a grevious wound before he fades to black. Will I really fail here?....
Silam, starting to froth at the mouth as Illona and then Locke fall, stands over Astraea... his axe, dripping with blood, held aloft - looking up as the man draws near, Silam's bulk fills Astraea's view before, within a flash of mercury-white fire, the huge man is abruptly thrown backwards... The force of the explosion crashes the woodcutter against the wall where, with a dull thud, he smacks his head against a wooden pillar and collapses...
Rikkan uses the cure light wounds potion (that was discussed in the discussion thread) to stop the paladin's bleeding.
CLW
Next, the aclchemist had one additional CLW potion that had been found earlier. He uses that on the half elf.
CLW
"Whrr, I bet I know what happened to the Sheriff," Rikkan whispers.
As Locke is coaxed back to consciousness - Illona still unresponsive after two attempts to heal her - a wet sound comes from Silam's prone form... Cautiously looking for the source of the noise, the friends observe the tumour like growth on Silam's neck flailing around with two tentacular appendages. These protuberances are not particularly long, reaching out over six or seven inches, but they are quite unsettling.
"Can someone cut that thing loose? I'd like to take a sample of it, click. If that's causing these people to act out, we could learn something from it.". Rikkan produces one of his many vials for collecting it, if the others could help him.
Drancis stares fascinated at the growth before he motions for someone to find an old bucket. Once one has been procured, he reaches out with his mind to lift the wriggling tumor and deposit it into the bucket, then into Rikkan's vial.
"That should be good for now." Drancis says as he moves over to first Illonna finding her potion of Cure Moderate wounds and gently administering it to her.
Once Illonna wakes up, he turns to face the unconscious Silas. "I would like to revive him, but it will take some time first. Let's tie him down and finish searching the orphanage."
For a moment there, Astraea saw her life flash before her eyes. Thankfully, Rikkan's bomb managed to do enough damage to send the hulking man to the floor.
Astraea sits on her knees for a moment, hoping to catch her breath. "That," she starts, her voice wavering, "is probably the scariest thing that's ever happened to me..." When she rises, she immediately gives Rikkan and Drancis a few hugs in thanks for their swift actions.
Afterwards, seeing that Locke is stirring and knowing her own spells are running low, she searches Illonna's gear for any potions she might have. Probably better I do it than one of the boys, she thinks grimly. Eventually, she fishes out one of the Cure Moderate Wounds potions and, with an apprehensive gulp, forces it down Illonna's throat.
Afterwards, when the squelching sound alerts her to the... thing coming out of Silam's tumorous neck, she almost gags. "Ugh! Well, this is probably what made him go crazy... Rikkan, are you sure you want to keep that thing? I'm just saying, I don't think I'd try to stop you if you decided to just kill it..." Despite her words, she knows that it is probably more important to study it, in case there is some hope of a cure...
"Maybe Rexel can tell us more about it..."
Locke struggles to a sitting position. "I can't say I was expecting that. Is he still alive?" however, he is soon distracted by the strange tumour. He stares at it intently looking for any signs of magic.
Illonna slowly gets back to her feet for a second time that day. Once she's collected herself, she takes little interest in the strange creature. Instead, once she is thoroughly satisfied that Silam won't be dying anytime soon she heads for the stairs.
"I will look for the sheriff, maybe they yet live." she states as she begins to head up.
Drancis’ removal of the horrific ‘tumour’ from Silam requires a significant amount of mental effort – whatever it is, it seems to be firmly embedded into Silam’s neck… so much so that, as Drancis finally wrenches it free, he opens a savage wound in the back of the woodcutter’s neck – blood pouring from the ruined flesh, Silam twitches before becoming still once more… Running to his aid, Astraea and Drancis work to stabilise the failing man – using rags and a fair amount of pressure to stem the flow of blood, they manage – at least for now – to save Silam.
Illona, Zoreck and anyone else who is inquisitive move up the creaking stairs and come to a small, dusty classroom contains 16 child-sized, wooden chairs, all neatly stacked against the south wall. A blackboard decorated with chalk drawings hangs slightly askew in the middle of the west wall, and several pieces of white chalk lay on the floor nearby – the images on the blackboard are drawn with quite some artistry… faded depictions of birds and other wildlife are distributed around the border of the board – whilst the more distinct drawings, in the centre of the board, are of a ruined building… a highly stylised key… and various images of an amorphous blob….
There are two other rooms on the first floor, the first, a small bedroom contains a bed, tiny table, dresser, and a single chair. A large, open trunk also sits on the floor, containing various articles of discarded clothing, all sized for a very large man. The pillow on the bed is ruined with a large grey-green stain… that still seems wet – stowed beneath the bed, a sizable collection of woodworking tools has been collected: three wood axes, a lathe, a chisel and several saws. Also beneath the bed, a large key – exactly as drawn on the blackboard in the classroom – carved from a single piece of black granite and marked with the symbol of a flying raven.
The second room is a musty bedroom is modestly furnished with a large canopy bed, a small desk and chair, a wardrobe, and a cold fireplace – through the decayed canopy that shrouds the bed, a shape can be seen lying upon the blankets…
Illonna will cautiously move forward to get a better view of the figure on the bed.
The smell of decay emanates from the ill-preserved, partially mummified corpse still lying on the bed in a threadbare nightgown. Shrouded in fresh flowers, it appears that someone has put a lot of effort into keeping the body neatly composed. The corpse still wears a thin, silver necklace studded with shimmering ornamental stones.
"I bet we've found mother," Rikkan sadly announces as he shakes his head at the grisly remains. "I don't picture him an artist either, whrrr. Those drawings had to be inspired by his parasite. Now what does that key go to, I wonder?"
Illonna elects to leave the dead woman to her rest. She returns to the first room and collects the key there before regrouping with her companions.
Turning it over she notes nothing of interest with it. "The Sheriff isn't here either, we must search elsewhere. In meantime we should collect Silam and the Apothecary and return them to the farm house with the others."
Drancis nods in agreement with Rikkan. "I think you are right on who that poor corpse is. As for where that key leads, I'll bet that key ties into Arvarenhode Manor in some way. We should head there first thing tomorrow morning after we take this...specimen back to Rexel. I don't relish traveling at night here, what with Father Voss and his buddies running around Holver's Ferry."
Rikkan decides to explore the rest of the place while the others discuss options.
Perception
"I can attempt to carry Silam back. Though I don't tire, the going would be slow. I'd likely have to head directly for the farmhouse to make it back before sundown; another group would have to split off to collect the Apothecary."
Drancis speaks up, "Why not rest here for the night? This place should be safe now, once we finish searching it that is. We can also get the chance to question Silas once he wakes up. He should be able to tell us what happened to the Sheriff."
With the dessicated corpse left to rest upstairs, the friends return downstairs to continue their exploration - Exploring the first of the rooms off of the parlour, a dingy bedroom holding eight, dusty bunks is found - the beds themselves are draped in cobwebs and reeking of mildew. This room clearly hasn’t seen use in years- dozens of small, harmless spiders scuttle about the cobwebs and the detritus of desiccated insect carcasses crunch underfoot.
Following the next door through, another communal bedroom - painted a soft, rosy hue, and holding four bunks, as well as the collapsed ruins of what may have been four more. Thick sheets of cobwebs hang between them and over a fireplace in the southwest corner. Underfoot, a multitude of gaps and holes show in the haphazard floorboards.
Almost immediately, it becomes apparent that the cobwebs throughout this room represent the handiwork of hundreds of aggressive black-and-scarlet spiders which have made their nest in the fireplace. The hungry swarm boldly skitters forth along the floor and through the webbing... rushing towards the friends...
Rikkan throws his next to last bomb of the day at the approaching swarm.
PBS RTA
Damage
Round 1
Illonna backs away from the swarm, unable to do much more than smash a few with her longsword.
Drancis casts about with his mind for something to affect the wriggling mass of spiders and eventually settles on a loose plank. Squeezing the bubble surrounding it tightly, he flings it at the mass of spiders.
;
;
With Illona quickly retreating, it is left to Rikkan and Drancis to deal with the rapidly swarming spiders… hundreds, if not thousands, of the skittering arachnids rush along the gossamer threads that shroud the room… coming up on Rikkan in a grotesque black wave…
Almost instinctively, he flings a bomb out in front of him – it clatters to the floor and, fizzing for a second, explodes in a white flash of light… flames quickly spread within the room – carried by the intensely flammable spider webs. But, beneath those flames, the spiders still rush onwards – Drancis, seeing that Rikkan is about to be engulfed, steps forwards and uses his unique powers to lift an entire section of the floor, carrying the entire swarm, and fling it back into the flames… the webbing, the tossed floorboards and the boiling mass of spiders burn in a small bonfire towards the far end of the room…
…a fire that quickly spreads to the timber framed walls…
"Eek," Rikkan shrieks, seeing his flame beginning to take the building. "Click,, I hadn't planned on that happening! Someone grab that big oaf, and get him outside too. I don't want to burn him, if that strange creature had taken control of him." Rikkan knew that he would be on no use if trying to lift the gargantuan human, so he manned the doors, throwing them open, so that the others could ease out as easily as possible.
Drancis blanches as he sees the flames rising quickly. "I think we should also grab that cadaver we saw earlier. Silas's mother it was?" He points to Astraea and Zoreck. "Make sure you get both of them out of here!"
Illonna heads up stairs quickly and tries to pick up Silas. She waits, directing the others as they evacuate the old orphanage.
In a way, Astraea is kind of glad that the place is on fire- because she is feeling completely at a loss as to what to do next. "I, uh- I'll help carry out Silas's mother, I guess!" she shouts, having only barely registered Drancis's suggestion. She bounds up the stairs after Illonna as quickly as she can, mentally steeling herself for what is sure to be a horrific and repulsive operation...
* * *
In Mother's bedchamber...
Zoreck continues to examine the corpse of Silam's mother for a moment as his friends leave the room.
Looking at the corpse's necklace, he mutters, "Well, she doesn't need that any more..." and removes it from her neck. He pockets the necklace, noting to himself to share the proceeds with his friends.
* * *
In the parlor
"Spiders! I HATE those things!" Zoreck scans the room for a broom or something to shoo the spider swarm away, but then the bomb goes off and the room starts to go up in flames. He sees Illonna struggle with Silas' body, and goes to assist her carrying the unconscious man out of the burning orphanage.
As the flames engulf the dormitory, Drancis recalls the nearby kitchen… and the sink full of unwashed plates. Quickly making the connection, he sprints around to check whether there is enough water to assist with controlling the fire – and is surely disappointed when a poor flow of brackish water trickles from the tap… As the fire threatens to rage out of control, the friends work together to first drag Silam clear of the burning building – not an easy task with his considerable bulk – and then, seeming the right thing to do, rescuing and carrying the dried husk of the corpse from the master bedroom to safety.
In minutes the Orphanage is completely engulfed by fire… a column of smoke and glowing embers spiralling upwards into the late afternoon sky as the roof collapses in upon itself.
"This guy is heavier than he looks!"
Drancis watches the inferno rage out of control. "I wish we could have saved the place, but perhaps this is better in the long run. I just hope Silas can forgive us the loss of his home." He sighs as he moves to assist the others in dragging the mummified corpse back to Holver's Ferry.
Rikkan had stored the 'tumor' in one of his glass flasks and placed it in a belt pouch for safe keeping. "Long walk ahead of us tonight. Stop by apothecary and show him the tumor and the. Take Silam to the farmhouse, if he's not evil still. If he's evil, knock him out again," was Rikkan's summary of the situation and the group 's plans.
Whilst getting ready to bring Silam back, someone notices a barrow beneath a nearby tree... Whilst it isn't large enough to accomodate the dead weight of the unconscious woodcutter, it is sufficient to carry the dessicated corpse rescued from upstairs... With the dead body and the contained tumour - secure within one of Rikkan's vials - in the barrow... and Illona, helped alternately by Zoreck and Locke, carrying Silam, it is a long trek back to Holver's Ferry.
The sun has long since descended, and the moon started its traverse, when the friends finally make their way into the village. Darkness fills the forest and the nocturnal noises of animals make for a strangely 'normal' trek...
...a normality that is instantly broken when the noises of shouting cut through the air... and, finally breaking through the tree-line, the alarming sight of a fire rising in the centre of Holver's Ferry...
1b]"Drop the wheelbarrow! There's, click, trouble over there!"[/b]. Rikkan breaks into a run as he heads for the fire to see what caused the blaze to break out.
Perception
"That's not a good sign!" Drancis exclaims as he quickly hustles after Rikkan.
"It is surely the work of the mad clergy! We can't risk them discovering us!"
There are enough buildings and trees in between the friends and the clearing at the centre of Holver’s Ferry that it is easy to approach unseen… Momentarily leaving the cart and the unconscious woodcutter beneath the shelter of a tree, the friends sneak forwards to take a closer look…
…next to the enormous white oak that dominates the clearing, a raging bonfire is spitting flames into the sky. The intense orange light throws strange shadows across the buildings that surround the clearing – shadows that move as four figures, each stripped to the waist and daubed in mud, dance around the fire. The source of the shouting is quickly seen, a robed figure – silhouetted by the fire – is dragging a young child, of maybe eight or nine years, towards the fire. A large dagger, heavily polished and glinting in the firelight, hangs around the figure’s neck…
…and chanting fills the air…
”Vuelib… Vuelib… Vuelib…”
Rikkan whispers to the others. "What's the plan? Maybe Drancis and I can attack from range and distract them, while one or two of you go and try to save the child. Wrr, how does that sound," Rikkan proposes, his whiskers twitching with excited energy.