Georgio begins to perform his magical show. It is not nearly so showy as either of the two that preceded him, although it perhaps is technically a show of greater magical skill?
Either way, he brings with him an assortment of what look like dolls. Some clatter metallically and some appear to be just raw materials. He throws them in little piles around his feet, and as the competition begins he enlarges them until they are piles of steel beams, drywall, human-sized metal sculptures and a large pile of sand. Then, using a spell, he animates several humanoid sculptures, who begin (using a variety of household items such as a broom or tongs) to move the other various materials around. As the sculptures erect two walls, he casts a spell to fuse them. As they begin to brush sand towards the wall, he casts another to synthesize the sand into glass, which he forms into a window. Soon enough, he has a large house and a variety of humanoid golems, who he commands into pantomiming a perfectly boring suburban life. The largest golem unfurls a newspaper, while another golem puts a pot on to boil (water and heat provided by Georgio's spells) and two smaller golems play outside.
As he bows, to show completion of his task, he casts a final quick spell, and the entire assembly collapses into sand.
He earns 2 points for power, 5 points for creativity, and 4 points for style. In total, 11 points. He shakes his head with personal disappointment as he walks off-stage.
"Look to Daggermark's box. That's not right." Her dyed in the wool suspicion comes to the fore, and she thinks Assassins? here? As Baron Jon scans the Daggermark royalty box, she also thinks about her obligation to him. Immediately she stands and moves towards the entrance of their own box.
Are there guards with us? Any that we didn't bring? How do the approaches to the box look?
Kereek is too focused on the show to pay anything else much mind.
Not needing to be concerned about the protection of the people he finds himself near and unaware of any reason for anyone to wish him harm here, Heidan also remains more focused on the contest.
Prazil looks to the box at Katerina's behest then turns back to her with a shrug. "What? What am special about it?"
Each box is simple and small. A 15' square with two rows of three seats inside. Baron Jon brought Orin and six guards with him when he came to Pitax. Two of those guards are meant to be watching the outside of the box. Two are back at the pavilion watching everyone's things, and two are in the stands enjoying themselves. They rotate from Baron-watching to boring-patrol to enjoying-themselves duty every half-day.
The box contains Katerina, Orin, Agnar, and Jon.
Prazil and Heidan are nearby, perhaps directly below the box in the stands themselves (unless Heidan wishes to sit in the box) and Keerek is with the contestants on the coliseum floor.
"Whether man or beast, it certainly seems like some sort of predator in there," he says, whistling softly to call Thkrull to attention. "Perhaps we should investigate...."
He'll begin padding quietly in that direction.
"Wait- what? Them am a predator in a box? What am you talking about, Heidan?" Prazil then looks up at the box overhead to Katerina and asks loudly enough for her to hear, "Am you for knowing what he am talking about?"
Then, with a shrug, he follows along after Heidan, if for no other reason than for another chance to pet Thkrull.
Heidan and Prazil navigate the stands, circling around towards Daggermark's box. It takes a few minutes, because walking laterally on stadium stands is uncomfortable, but eventually the pair reaches the back entrance of the box.
The entrance is slightly ajar. Inside, two bodies lay on the ground. Heavily armored and armed, it's easy to surmise that they were bodyguards. Anyone else who was in the box is missing.
The other contestants are too stunned to do anything at first... What do you do?
Katerina stays at Baron Jon's side, worrying about what she saw in the Daggermark box. In a whisper to the Baron she says, "We need to leave as soon as we can. Something is very wrong here." What she doesn't say is what the old her from is thinking, I need to be as small as a mouse so this trouble walks past me! She looks to the Hartland box's door, and steels herself, But hiding won't protect Jon, or home...
Baron Jon looks alarmed. "What's wrong? I can't see anything..." He gets up, his hand going to the hilt of his bastard sword. He is not wearing his full plate, but he wears a chain shirt underneath his diplomatic uniform. "We can go now if you like, but go where?"
Kereek lets out a squawk of alarm and instinctively fires off a scorching ray at the tentacled thing!
for fire damage!
for fire damage!
for fire damage!
for fire damage!
Prazil's eyes widen in alarm as he sees the downed men, "Whoa! Hey! Hey! Am you ok?" He hurries in through the door and clumsily checks each of the men to see if they're unconscious or dead.
As he does so, he looks to Heidan with wide-eyed concern. "This am not good, Heidan! Not good at all!"
Heidan lets out a growl as Prazil darts forward.
"Wait!" he urges, too late. "There could be something else in there!"
He pulls out his bow, and calls on his connection to animals for the second time that day, channeling aspects of the falcon to grant him the ability to see what's happening and, for the moment, mouse, in case he misses the threat. He grants Thkrull the same aspects.
"Thkrull," he asks, "can you scent anything?"
All three of Keerek's scorching rays land, although too late to save the poor Graltonian. She falls to the ground, a bloody heap. As she rasps her final breaths, Keerek can see one of her arms, raised in self-defense, warp painfully into a very unnatural shape.
Keerek is able to get a better look at the creature now. Apparently humanoid, the creature is still a terror to behold. Its muscular body twitches unnaturally nearly constantly, and it has long razor-sharp claws extending from warped and twisted hands. Its face would almost appear human if not for the wriggling tentacular jaws that nearly cover the whole surface of it. As the creature regards its painful burns for a moment, Keerek can see them heal on their own. Then, it casts some magic. A colorful and distracting pattern appears all around the creature, threatening to fascinate the mage performers!
Unfortunately, Pitax's performer teleports away at the first opportunity and the weak-willed Grigz is frozen mid-boulder-attack, looking with wonderment at the lights. It is up to Keerek!
Prazil rushes into the room to check on the bodies. Flipping them over, he sees something unnatural about them. Though they appear to have been slain by simple violence - one had his throat slit, while the other has many claw and tooth wounds all over - they both have had their limbs and body parts twisted and warped in very uncomfortable and painful-looking ways. One guard's leg is bent backwards, while the other one's lips have curled forcibly inside of his mouth.
Heidan's assertion that there would be assassins waiting to ambush them proves to be luckily false. However, with the aspect of the falcon augmenting his vision, he is able to see several robed figures making an escape through the exit of the tournament area. There are three, and two carry large bags that Heidan, experienced adventurer that he is, recognizes as bags of holding. The guards at the exit to the coliseum are absent. Thkrull picks up their scent. It is the same group that just exited the Daggermark box.
Kereek sighs, appreciating the magical LSD that afflicts the others, but not sharing in it. He Snarls and his dragonish side comes out! "You no am for hurting anyone else! BURN!" He exhales, moving closer if he has to, to get the thing in his 30' cone of fiery breath weapon! He tries to avoid hitting anyone else unless it's absolutely impossible.
FIRE.
Despite the creature's quick attempt to avoid Keerek's blast of flame, the kobold's first attack had weakened it enough that his second completely fells it. In the aftermath of the blast, the creature's body is overcome by an aura of greasy purple darkness and it vanishes.
After about ten seconds, Grigz is freed from the fascination of the creature's spell. The boulder he had managed to lift falls to the ground. He growls at Keerek, "What was that thing?"
He hesitates a moment before adding, "Good job slaying it, whatever it was. It had enraptured me."
Such a creature is from a far dimension called Leng. Scholars are very skeptical and divided on how to reach Leng, but the prevailing opinion among most Material scholars is that it is a sub-plane, a nightmare realm, of the Dimension of Dreams.
Denizens of Leng travel the multiverse in search of riches, artifacts, and slaves to bring back to their dimension. Nobody has ever been to Leng and survived to tell the tale, so it is not known what happens to these slaves. Sometimes, humanoids can make peaceful contact with Denizens of Leng, trading rubies, slaves, or services for a variety of things.
Denizens of Leng are fearsome creatures. Their razor-sharp teeth cause a painful warping in the victim's bones and muscles, causing Dexterity drain. They also have an uncanny ability to seek out weak points and arteries when their opponents can't effectively defend themselves. They heal supernaturally quickly when on any plane other than Leng, and are impossible to kill permanently unless slain on Leng, barring the use of powerful magic. Denizens of Leng are immune to poison, and are nearly immune to cold and electricity. They don't have to breathe, and they have a natural resistance to magic.
Kereek stares at the creature's blackened burnt corpse, casting detect magic on it before answering the bugbear. "It am 'Denizen of Leng', strange alien thing from plane of Leng. They am bad bad news, yes yes! If they am here, we am for being in trouble. We should go and see if more am here! Can you help, please please?" Kereek asks, then rushes out of the tent to see if he can spot any further trouble!
"There!" Heidan exclaims, pointing at the three figures.
He gives a moment's thought to letting them flee and tracking them down afterward as he sees Kereek in trouble, but just as quickly sees the kobold defend himself with little trouble.
"Come on, Prazil, it's time to hunt," he growls, gesturing for Thkrull to precede them.
Grigz eagerly agrees to come along with Keerek, as long as the little kobold thinks that there might be fighting in store for them! Does he want to go back into the coliseum or out into the fairgrounds? Or find his friends?
Heidan and Prazil run out of the tournament area after the three assailants. The cowled figures duck out into the main area, and immediately begin weaving between tents and pavilions and carts, headed for the Rushlight river.
As Heidan and Prazil exit out to the main grounds, they see something strange... there seems to be a ship sailing on the river. Heidan and Prazil can only see the top of the mast and a bit of sail over the tents, but it seems that's where the cowled figures are headed.
Heidan continues to lope after the figures, Thkrull at his side, bow in his hand.
As Prazil and Heidan burst out into the main grounds, he pops into his tauric form and continues to give chase along side his new friend. "Am they taking people? We am needing to be for stopping them if they am!" When the pair near the edge of the grounds and there aren't any tents or pavilions in the way, the earnest kobold gives his whistle three sharp blasts to summon Spike to his side. He then notices the mast and bit of sail ahead and balks, "Am that for being a boat? Wow! Heidan, they am for having a boat!"
"Which won't do us much good if they get on it before we figure out what's going on here..."
The crowd momentarily goes wild when Grigz and Keerek step back into the ring, but they quiet down quickly upon the realization that the pair were not, in fact, the next performer. Murmurs and muttering fill the stadium as confusion sets in.
When Keerek looks up to where his friends were sitting, he finds their box and seats mostly empty, with Agnar, Jon and Katerina getting ready to get out of the box.
- - - - -
Prazil and Heidan chase after the vanishing figures, although neither of them can concentrate well enough to track quickly enough to keep up with the figures. Their targets gain some distance on them... do Heidan and Prazil continue the chase?
As they run through the nearly-empty festival grounds, they see some disturbing sights. Though nearly everyone is in the coliseum watching the magical performance, a few people stayed out in the grounds for various purposes. Either they have work, or they don't like the magic competition. Perhaps they're injured or sick. Either way, Prazil and Heidan notice that every stand, store, and cart is empty. Every tent is empty. It seems unsettlingly silent.
"Where am all the people, Heidan? This am not good!" Prazil then blasts several sharp notes on his whistle, calling for Spike. He was less worried about his faithful steed trampling tents if there weren't people in them and he could tell they weren't moving fast enough. "Maybe we should just be going for the boat? They would be for going to the boat, right?" He blasts another trio of sharp tones from the whistle.
Something is wrong! Katerina shouts down to the arena floor, Kereek! Get back to our tent! She turns to Jon and says, "Now we know where to move to." Stepping out of the box, she looks left and right, searching for lurkers. Then, at a jog she sets out for the Hartland tent, hoping that she can see Prazil en route. Almost immediately she notices two things. The eerie silence of the fair grounds. Her skin crawls knowing that something terrible has happened. In a flash her sword is in hand, and she's ready to defend Jon, or anyone else that is in danger. The second thing she notices is the three whistle blasts of Prazil summoning Spike. "This way, m'Lord." Kat turns towards the whistle and runs as fast as she can. Please fly after us, Kereek!
"I don't know," Heidan responds. "Not sure what could do this. Let me look around while we wait for Spike. If something in this boat did this, I'm not sure getting to there is a good plan."
He asks Thkrull to guard against anything coming from the direction of the boat and begins looking around for tracks.
Kereek makes a beeline toward the boxes, heading for his friends, until he hears Kat. He nods and draconic wings unfurl from his back. He turns to Grigz. "My friends am going to the tent. They am for knowing what is going on, yes yes. Come with?"
Grigz nods to Keerek. "The Hartsland tent? Yes, I will meet you there, if you are going to fly."
. . .
Katerina, Agnar, and Baron Jon run out into the festival grounds, meeting up with Prazil, Heidan, Keerek and Spike after a couple of minutes of negotiating the many empty tents and roads in the festival grounds.
Spike comes crashing through a whole line of tents at Prazil's insistent whistling, snuffling and grunting and nuzzling his tiny kobold master.
Heidan ranges around the immediate area, examining the empty tents and stalls and checking for tracks. He is an expert tracker, and is able to determine a few things. It seems that the festival grounds have had intruders just like the coliseum itself, and that the missing people were taken by the intruders.
As the group gathers, it seems something is happening back at the coliseum as well... Pitaxian wardens, elite soldiers, are gathering at the visible entrances as curious festivalgoers attempt to wander out of the coliseum.
Though the ship on the Rushlight still can't be seen in its entirety, the visible mast begins to move. If you want to catch up with it, you may have to go now... Baron Jon doesn't look afraid - he is a paladin, after all, but his eyebrows are creased with concern. "If these people have been kidnapped," he says, "I believe we should rescue them."
Agnar speaks up as well, saying, "Baron, you should get to safety. I can escort you, if you like..."
"Jon, get home and make sure Hartland is safe. It's our duty to take care of this kind of threat." Kat then remembers she is talking to her Baron, "er, m'Lord." She looks back at the coliseum and asks, "Are the guards keeping people in or, looking for the perpetrators?" Shaking her head, "No matter, that ship probably has the information we need. I'll be right back."
With the command word for her ring she shifts into a colorful songbird and flies off after the ship.
Katerina transforms into a tiny, Shelyn-blessed songbird and gets some height, flying out towards the riverside.
Once she gets a good vantage point, she is able to see the ship. It is very large, and is shaped in unsettling ways. It is of a color that you can't really seem to place or recognize. At one second, it appears like a greenish-violet, and another second it appears like a bluish-yellow, but it isn't either of those colors. It also has a strange oily sheen.
On its deck rush robed and cowled figures, their features indistinguishable from any distance. There are a few humans and other humanoids on the deck as well. Some of them are unconscious, some appear wounded or dead (like with organs spilling out or limbs missing) and some appear charmed or dominated, tamely following the robed figures into unknown chambers belowdecks.
The ship is equipped with six huge arbalests on the sides of the ship, their arms twisted in unusual shapes. The prow of the ship is a huge purple crystal blade that seems so sharp, the front edge of it is not even visible.
Heidan shakes his head, and frowns.
"I don't like this. If you'll have us, we'll accompany you to try to figure out what's going on and put a stop to it."
"Kereek! Spike am for needing to be flying if that boat am moving!" Prazil leaps up into Spike's saddle and once Kereek's magics settle over the triceratops, the knightly kobold spurs his steed on in hurried pursuit.
--Prazil--
HP: 89/89
Resist Fire 5
AC: 33 (16 T / 30 FF)
CMD: 31
F/R/W: +11/+11/+10 (+2 vs arcane or divine)
Cavalier's Challenge uses remaining: 3/3
Tactician uses remaining: 2/2
Knight's Pennon uses remaining: 1/1
+1 arrows remaining: 19/20
-Ongoing Effects-
Colossus Hunter: +1/+1 vs Large/Huge
--Spike--
HP: 97/97
AC: 37 (11T / 35 FF)
CMB: +19
CMD: 32 (36 vs trip)
F/R/W: +10/+8(evasion)/+4
Fly Skill: +18 (+5 skill points, +1 dex, +3 trained, +3 feat, +6 spell (1/2 kereek's CL), +4 maneuverability, -4 size)
Kereek nods to Jon. "Yes yes You am for getting safe while we am for being heroes!"
Kereek casts fly on Spike and gestures for everyone to board, while he flies along side the giant dino!
Katerina flies in the woods alongside the ship as it sails on the river. She waits for Spike and his lethal payload to arrive. Kereek, Prazil and Agnar...no, he's with Jon...Well, it's just us then.
Heidan hesitates.
"I don't think Thkrull will be able to ride like that," he says. "I'd rather not leave him behind if we don't have to."
Seeing their window of opportunity beginning to close, Prazil offers, "Spike and Prazil am for slowing it down!" Spurring his steed into rapid pursuit, the knight kobold guides the eager Spike into a frightful charge!
Keerek casts fly upon Spike, launching the lizard and his kobold rider into the air before growing wings and flying into the air himself. Those on the deck immediately notice the lizard and quickly rotate two of the arbalests to fire at Spike.
One of the ballista bolts ricochets off of Spike's carapace, but the other buries itself in the mount's shoulder. Fortunately, it isn't enough to stop the beast from smashing in the back of the ship. Spike's powerful charge bursts through the back wall of the denizens' ship, leaving Spike and Prazil in a supply-filled hold which is quickly flooding with a great rush of water.
Katerina surges forward on vibrant wings and gets to be just ahead of the ship. She waits for the crew's reaction to spikes rude entrance.