Lia gets over being icked-out because we're in the swamp. Rondo represents too many male figures in her life, and well, if death is good enough for dear old dad, it's good enough for Rondo. Lia makes chase.
Rees: Lia, you can't have all the fun! Rees joins the chase and makes some amazing moves. Trystan's mouth must be hanging open.
Rees catches up to Rondo and turns her evil gaze upon him. For Sam, you evil piece of pig meat! He promptly catches fire.
Brenin watches as the arrow strikes Rondo and smiles through the pain of the two bolts sticking out of him. Then suddenly, the wizard catches fire. Brenin looks at his bow and back at the wizard.
"I never knew it would do that."
He looks at Rees. "Did you see that?"
He shrugs it off, puts the bow away and moves to put out the fire.
"Someone help me get him back into the clearing."
Reese laughs heartily at Brenin and levels a smile at Trystan. Brenin, your local witch can heal as well as set britches on fire. Try not to get to damaged in the next 24 cause I can only help you 1/day.
Back in the light of the fire, Rondo's corpse joins those of the now-human mooks and the zombie. Kwava stands outside the ring of firelight holding one of the dark elf's crossbow bolts. It's identical to the two that dropped out of Brenin under the witch's gentle touch.
"The dark elf has to be caught," he says. "She's thoroughly evil. She should not be here."
He drops the bolt in the grass.
"I would very much value your help in catching her. I can track her - indeed I suspect I know where she'll run." He looks around at you all.
"You don't have to tell me she's evil. Those bolts are poisonous. Rondo came to meet her to learn something of the blot. Let's give him a quick search and set out."
"Yes. The poison is a sleep inducer... said to be accompanied by horrible dreams. Probably better the dreams than the real world on waking though, if you've managed to fall into their hands."
His pure white eyes and the albino locks give the elf the oddest look of any you've ever seen. The lack of pupils is unnerving enough in normal elven eyes, these pale orbs remind you of the re-deceased zombie.
Rondos possessions:
A ring made of bone on his hand.
A small gold ring in his pocket.
A black cloak.
2 wands.
Brenin shudders at the thought. "Luck was on my side that time. Let's finish up here and get after her. Where do you think she's heading, and do you think she's the only drow up here?"
I'm assuming one of the wands is a fireball. Any chance I recognize it from the house encounter? I was pretty close to it when he fired it.
I didn't select detect magic last night. Trystan if you have it, feel free. If not I can do it tomorrow.
Brenin, careful with that wand you never know what can happen.
Brenin, careful with that wand you never know what can happen.
"I believe she's heading to a ramshackle lodge north of here - near the Cyphergate. Come."
He leads your group out of the firelight, down the game trail left by the approach and then flight of the dark elf. You come to a beach with a narrow stretch of water separating you from the far shore. To your left Kwava leads you through some trees until you come to the wrecked afterdeck and mizzen mast of an abandoned hulk. The mast sits partially upright, ascending through the swamp's native scrub trees at an awkward angle.
Kwava springs up the mast to get a view over the northern treeline.
"Yes, that's where she's gone. Judging by the distance to my friend," he points out toward the bird you cannot see, "she's nearly there. We will no doubt have to root her out."
"I'm frankly shocked that she managed to escape the cordon at Celwynvian. I would hope that she's a lone escapee, but that seems overly optimistic. Let us see what we see."
He springs from the mast to the slanting deck, then uses some extended wreckage to vault over to the opposite bank.
[ooc]Over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house we go...Wait a second, didn't they just remake that as a horror flick? We are so screwed.{/ooc]
Lia follows Kwava across the wreckage. She gets over her awe of the elf and begins peppering him with random thoughts. "So, the bird is yours, huh? Any particular reason he keeps turning up every where we are? And what's your interest in all this? Are there others with you? Who are they? Why bring us along? We're just gambling hall folk, and yet you'd put us at your back? And how did you know to be at the meet anyway?" At this last thought she eyes the elf suspiciously. Following random male authority figures has never gotten her anywhere she really wanted to be. To the rest of her friends she says, "Um, guys? Why did we agree to this? Seems to me that we're offering ourselves up as meat to someone we've just met. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't put out on the first date." She blushes furiously and quickly corrects her diarrhea of the mouth.
"Celwynvian?"
Kwava speaks in hushed tones as he makes his way through the brush.
"Celwynvian is an ancient elven city in the Mierani forest. You've just glimpsed one of its secrets - our dark-skinned cousins, the drow. They come from the deepest caverns in Golarion and they worship beings of the lower planes."
"This one left some rumor of her passing that made its way to me. I've tracked these shapeshifters for days, but some of them are very perceptive. I could not approach this shack, though I believe this is where the drow hides. I thought maybe I could catch her moving in the open and slay her, but she's only come out for this meeting."
"I knew the wererats set something up. My avian friend tracked the wizard."
With this he slows down and raises a hand to quiet any other questions. His hand moves to the quiver and slips an arrow as he hunches down behind some scrub.
"This place is just ahead. I assure you these guards can see quite well in the dark, but I don't know how many she can have left - if any at all. I counted four earlier, and there were four at the meeting. She may be by herself."
Peering through the brush you can make out the squat shape of a ramshackle house. Occasional flickers of reflected light may be seen through the boards in the near wall.
An updated swamp map.
"Rees, if you've still got that darkvision left, I would fancy a shot. I think I'm going to stick with the bow for the time being."
"Any more drow with her?"
Yeah Brenin I have the scroll. Here goes, I've never done this one before. Hocus pocus, abracazam...can you see better?
Oh hey, I have a scroll of identify also. We should probably wait till we have some free time for that.
Okay, you hot-heads. No need to light up anyone's life...yet. Let me do my thing and check out what's what. If'n she's got answers it's better we get them from her alive than go with the whole reanimation thing. It's just kind of creepy.
"Watch yourself in there. She has deadly aim."
There's a natural line of brush approaching the shack that Lia finds it easy to follow. To her right the ground suddenly drops away into a sinkhole. On a darker night she might have stumbled right into it.
The moon is reflected in a pool of water at the base of the sink. Crouching there, there's no movement or indication of life in the cabin aside from the flickering light within.
Trystan is worried about his friends. That they might be biting off more than they can chew for one day. His crossbow is loaded and ready. His human eyes peering through the darkness to the best of their ability.
Under his breath:
Damn this darkness and all those that inhabit these shadows, present company excused of course. That is if you've not led us to our doom on this godforsaken land of dead that should be dead and necromantic lunatics. Let's bring an end to this day and this mystery, let the coming dawn shed it's light on this madness.
Perception
Stealth
sotto voce: Ummm. Excuse me....this new armour it....ahh...binds...and...uhm...well...crave pardon.
Lia continues to scope out the shack. She's worried about her friends' itchy trigger fingers...
Lia, if things get crazy, get out cause Im going in hot and I mean that literally. I'm tired and want to go home. Hey elf dude, do you have a hidey hole close by? When we are done kickin drow azzz we are going to need some sleep. I could use a recharge of all my good stuff.
"I have some supplies cached here and there," Kwava replies with a glance at Isegrim's noisy plant-life death-match. He shrugs and gestures toward the cabin that Lia approaches. "That may be the soundest structure in the swamp, and you're talking about blowing it up?"
Lia pads her way up to the side of the ramshackle and peers between two poorly fitted timbers. Up close, it's obvious the building is made of timbers from ships abandoned to the boneyard. In places they are poorly fitted, and it's through one of the larger cracks that Lia spies the candle. It sits on a table by itself. Just beyond the table the floor boards are rotted out. The door to the hut stands partially open.
Lia turns and throws some hand signals toward the rest of the crew. They're intended to say, "I'm going in. Follow me in 3 or when you hear the scream." She goes thru the open door. Calistria favors the bold, or hopefully she will this day.
Well Komkwat are you saying this is our best shot for shelter this fine evening? Well I'll just put my wand o destruction away and figure out something else. I look over at Trystan, "should we go in lookin for a fight or what?" I also get close enough to let him see the confusion on my face.
"The rat-men called this place the keel house. I don't know the reference. Up until ten minutes ago, it belonged to them. Now I suppose it belongs to her."
He nods toward Lia, who pantomimes to Brenin...
I am trapped in a box. The sharks swim straight. I have been here for three days. Screaming.
... then starts toward the threshold.
Just before Lia steps in, she glimpses a filament across the doorway at about shin level. The part of the shack she can see is completely bare of furniture. Nothing but stained boards and rags on the floor.
Lia sees the trip wire at the last second and ....
pulls a Melissa with some awesome balance/coordination thing and disables it in mid-air!
Nice move Lia.
What's with the silence Trystan, you mad at me or do you just get cranky when your tired. I think to myself, " those guys are having all the fun. I should be down there with my peeps." Chow..
The tripwire is linked to a crossbow trained on the door. It's easily disarmed, and from the perspective of inside the cabin, Lia spots a second rigged to a wire across a back window. As she spied from the outside, this place is a true s&&&hole. The only remarkable feature is the gaping hole in the floor. The gap in the floorboards reveals a hole in the ground that breaks into the roof some kind of underground chamber. The air by the hole is dank and fishy and the boards immediately around the hole are none too stable.
Lia disarms the other trap with her winning smile.
After dealing with the traps, she waves her peeps in and takes a look down the stinky hole. Seems to her like the icky swamp was a better choice.
Trystan comes to with a jolt when he sees Rees disappear inside the cabin. He was lost in dark thoughts about the very real possiblity of his lady coming to harm, how if it happened at a time like this his healing gifts might not be enough, realizing just how attached he has become to her. He shakes off any doubt and narrows his focus to the moment. "Cayden bless us my friend" he whispers to Isegrim and pushes through the door behind his crossbow.