Nethan whispers back, "If we continue down the path of playing along with them, don't you think they are just going to get worse in which it causes someone's death? Perhaps the only other thing to do is completely ignore them? That way, we do not rub their noses in perceived failure." Nethan stops his laughing and turns back to the Captain, "Instead let's just ignore the mischief. And I second Amelia's request, let us examine your artifacts and possibly heal any of the injured."
"Understand to that those with a very long life Entertainment is important. Seeking it does not necessarily imply immoral; just amoral."
"I am sure that if we can provide some entertainment for our friends they will cease their trickery and allow us to be on our way without incident."
"Is anyone, perhaps, an inspired performer? Singer? Storyteller?"
Nethan shakes his head to Al, "Sorry and Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do such things during my studies."
"Sorry, more of the fightin' type."
Jeremiah cocks an eyebrow, "I could try some trick shooting. Back home the boys and I used to bet on who could pull off the most ostentatious shot with their side arm. That was a couple of years ago now."
"I'm with Dreyyn - I make things dead, not laughing." She nods at Flynt "But give it a shot. If we are in luck, the bang will scare them off ..."
Nethan shrugs, "Or we will anger them as much as laughing at or with them depending on how they perceive it? Hopefully, we don't have kill them but if it becomes necessary, I guess we will have to do what is necessary?"
Is there any chance of using Summon Monster II to summon something that can play/sing? I'm thinking of a Grig, here. No intended effect except cheer up the faeries.
The captain grumbles a bit to Amelia "Yes, but it is all we have to follow. There is no other way we know how. If you'd like to take a look at the stone I'd advise not in this forest. Though my companions would love a healer to tend to their wounds I'm sure."
The captain begins mustering those who are wounded to more comfortable positions and gets them to show whomever wants to look them over where their wounds are.
The wrapped up stone is absent of all magic signature. On the edges of the wrap there is a small amount of residual magic seeping through since the cloth isn't air tight. What little magic Alþórel can identify shows that it is a strong divination magic enchanted into the stone.
From what Nethan knows of Faeries on Golarian they are very capricious. Though once their nature has been settled they will be more than happy to help once more. A fight hasn't broken out which is why they appear to be angry and they are being mocked for it. Nethan has a suspicion that a surrogate will be used in place of the knights since they didn't fight. Nethan is doubtful the faeries will fight themselves but something bigger might come along.
With some thinking Elise pondered Flynt's offer. The faë were unlikely to have encountered a 'gun' before - perhaps it would only take a display of skill and daring to soothe them ?
A grin grows on her face in pace with the plan taking form in her mind. This isn't one of my better ideas ... But he's a good shot - and navigating back is going to be a pain without the faeries help.
She winks at the gunslinger and Amelia and asks "The cards were favourable this morning - weren't they ?" That would make this less dumb. Slightly.
Not waiting for a reply she retrieves a thumb-sized coin form her purse and heads back to the faeries, calling out as she goes. "Hey pixies! I've got a deal for you." She holds the coin between her index finger and thumb for them to see. "If you lead us back to our guide, my friend will shoot this out of my hand. At a hundred feet!" Palming the coin she slows down. "After you lead us back to our guide - all of us, those knights included." She leans closer to the faeries, she adds some honeyed words to sway them. "He's got a gun - have you seen those before? They strike with a thunderclap and the roar of dragons. I bet it would take my arm clean off if he screwed up!"
With a laughter she turns back to the party - hoping the faeries were sufficiently tempted. "I didn't promise too much, did I ?"
By the gods, I hope he doesn't actually shoot my arm of! With practised ease she pushes the doubtful thought away, leaving only self-assurance and a iron clad armour of fearlessness.
"Hundred paces?" Flynt says pulling his duster open to reveal his holstered weapon, "Too easy, anyone got a mirror?"
Nethan waves Flynt and Elise over, and whispers, "You know, I wouldn't put it past these fairies to change the trajectory of the bullet or cause Flynt to shoot you in some way, Elise. Remember, these half-pints wanted us to fight these warriors for their entertainment."
The faeries stop their bickering and lean over towards the group. One almost falling off their perch. The captain looks over to find see them once more. He mutters something under his breath, no doubt a curse or two.
One of the faeries asks in a joyous tone "Oh really, this 'gun' can take someone's arm clean off?! Show us, show us this device. If it can't we can make sure it does for your show!" The faerie giggles a little bit.
They seem to have agreed to this game, but as Nethan suspects the faeries are likely to actually increase the power of the gun. Jeremiah hopefully shouldn't miss his mark, poor Elise might regret it.
The captain meanwhile is paying little heed to the faeries worrying about his men. Amelia tends to the wounded who thank her for the aid. The captain asks "Do your friends know what they're doing? I am worried for their safety."
Nethan looks worried and nods at the captain's comment, then whisper to Elise and Flynt, "I know that Flynt is a good shot but I am worried that the fairies are going to either change the environment and/or the weapon to cause you to miss your intended target and hit Elise in a vital. I do not recommend this with our current company of mischief."
"I won't miss unless they blind me," Flynt says, idly rubbing the scar tissue over what should have been his heart. If there were still an organ to beat in his his chest, it would likely be hammering.
Flynt drew his Cairnminer and checked the chamber and the barrel, looking for minor imperfections in the metal that might throw off his aim by otherwise negligible amounts. Guns were never for the faint of heart and Flynt knew all too well what could happen if he failed here. The trick was not to fail.
"I'm hoping they won't go that far - but some shenanigans are to be expected. Flynt's a good shot - and hopefully you and Al can hamper the worst shenanigans." She grins and winks at them "Besides, I'm bound to get shot at sooner or later in his company - better get it over with!" Pausing, her expression grows more serious. "Besides, we are stuck out here in the woods unless the faë brings us back. I've bought a map - but finding where we are is going to be a pain..."
Alþórel starts detecting magic, ready to counter any fae that starts to cast.
"Do we have an accord, little ones?" Flynt calls out to the sprites holding his weapon for them to see as his plucks all but one bullet from the cylinder. He did not dignify Elise's jab with a response.
Nethan gives Elise and uneasy smile of reassurance, then whispers to himself, "Perhaps Al has more "peaceful" spells than I do?"
Yes, yes! The Faeries exclaim in excitement, wanting to see this show get on the roll. A mischevious glint in their eye.
Dreyyn could try to stop the rock from hitting his hand, if applicable.
Alþórel suddenly sprints across the field, his right arm making mystic symbols that counter the first fae's telekinetic effect, dodging the bullet and flinging out his left arm hand in an attempt to block the second Fae's line of sight.
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Flynt holsters his weapon and gauges the distance between him and Elise, pacing back and forth for a moment. He knew the little wingy freaks were up to something but just what was beyond his immediate ken. He breathed the heady jungle air in and out focusing on that distant coin until the features stood out to him in stark relief. The buzzing of nearby insects slowed perceptibly to his ears and the movements of those around his became graceful caricatures of reality.
He drew, the speed at which the gun came to level was painfully slow to his eye but the iron sights soon leveled and he began to squeeze the trigger. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the hovering rock even as Al moved to intercept magic with magic. He whipped around, dancing in a semi-circle out of the way regardless and moving from his previously clear firing lane to one that shot through thick underbrush and leaves, half-obscuring Elise and the coin. It might have made the shot almost impossible for anyone else, but not for Flynt. The coin was fixed in his mind like a beacon. He was counting on that brush to save his bullet from direct influence.
Duster still fanning out around him as he watched Elise react to the softening stone, Flynt felt the stone in his chest throb almost like the beat of his absent heart. He finished squeezing the trigger and the report was indeed like thunder in the noisy jungle.
After Flynt drew his hand, Nethan was very impressed by the gun slinger's surgical hand remaining absolutely still without any wavering. He began to think there was no way the "wingy freaks" were going to possibly do anything to waver him nor his bullet. And before he could finish this thought, Flynt fired hitting is target true and dead center matching perfectly with his front sight picture. Nethan claps, "YEAH! NICE SHOOTING!!!" Nethan makes sure not to celebrate towards the fairies and only cheers Flynt directly.
You can see the faeries begin casting some spells as Jeremiah readies himself. Quick as lightning compared to the faeries, Jeremiah draws his gun and shoots.
The faeries are too slow to stop him however also too slow to stop themselves when they realise the gunman manages to shoot before they could react.
The first spell is countered by Alþórel's wild magic, the second spell has no real effect with the bullet having reached its target. Whereas the third and final spell trembles the earth beneath Elise. However with the coin having had a bullet hole through it Elise is safe from being harmed. She keeps her balance regardless and walks away unscathed.
The faeries sit on their perch momentarily in awe. They take it in turns to look at each other, they begin laughing. The proceed to lean forward with arms outstretched applauding the shot. One of them flies down and says "That was fun! Maybe we should make one of those" The faerie giggles.
"A promise is a promise though. Let's get you out of this tiny forest."
The faerie then leads the group back out to where they were resting for the night. Again it feels like it has taken them only a few moments to leave. Not much time has passed from your departure. The day is still young, ready for the journey ahead.
Only the faerie that flew down guides you and stays a little while to see what you do. The faeries is happily prancing around content with its day.
The Captain breathes a sigh of relief when he sees a different part of the forest finally and some semblance of a path.
Out away from the outpost Daeron reinstates the colour to his garb so he is able to utilise magic once more. His cloak becomes a matted yellow with a tinted gold armour set. Similar to the first corpse you found on the way into the well of sorrows. He has a spear made of bone of a creature he calls a sand eel. This means you're headed towards house Khekeret's capital.
Dreyyn continues, happy to be free of this forest
Flynt gives the faeries a bow and reloads his weapon before returning it to the holster. He was not worried about them reproducing his revolver as he doubted they had access to the machined parts required for an instrument like it.
Nethan motions the knights to follow the fairies and party, "It appears that they will be leading us out of the forest now."
Nethan thanks the fairy guide for leading them at of the forest.
As the group gets closer to the capital, Nethan will be the first one to ask the captain to look at the stone.
Alþórel shakes his head slightly and walks to Jeremiah, hand outstretched.
"I've never seen firing like that without... no... never seen firing like that, even with magical assistance. Incredible."
Elise triumphantly shows the gold coin with a neat hole in the middle for anyone interested. "Now that's a clean shot!" She grins at the gunslinger "I owe you a drink then."
She is in a good mood while they are being led out of the forest, even conversing with the faë. When they are not actively trying to get you killed, they are actually quite nice... The topic is most often Flynt's gun, and she is more then happy to share her own (*ahem* slightly flawed) ideas of how it works.
When they return to Dareon she waves and shouts. "See? We're back! No worries ..."
As they continue their journey Elise tries to get a better feeling for their destination. "Could you describe the city to us? I've got a hunch - we are heading to warmer lands, aren't we?" A 'sand eel' and his cloak is the colour of sand dunes. Bleh, I hope it is not to hot! But maybe they have exotic spices! That might be fun ...
Flynt busies himself with lighting another cigar, likely to hide a wry grin at the praise. It would not make do for a man who lived by the gun to be a poor shot with one.
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The captain tries his best to answer Amelia's questions. "We are from Azlant, I can't tell exactly what we are here after. It is stressed that it is of great importance from our elven leaders. So as not to give our up our mission to outsiders they basically said we'll know what we seek when we find it. As for why, we are under orders from the Mordant spire, we follow these orders without question." At the mention of the Mordant spire the entire troupe of knights who are with them performs salute that seems truly ingrained into their system.
Daeron is put at ease that everyone is back, he does seem a little confused that you have returned with more than you started but it looks like he is mentally chalking it up as people lost in the forest. He replies to Elise "The capital of my house resides at the edge of the lush green land. They are there to at least have some good source of water while being able to harvest the yellow sands further past the forest. Beyond the city lies lots of sand, the weather is a mix of arid and humid depending on the day. Though yes it is often hot, very hot."
Azlant is a lost continent in the Arcadian Ocean that was the first center of human culture on Golarion. Brought together by the alien intelligence of the aboleth, Azlanti society and culture grew by leaps and bounds until their arrogant leaders began to think of themselves as superior to their inhuman masters. In retribution, the aboleth called down the Starstone in -5293 AR, sinking the entire continent and condemning Golarion to the Age of Darkness. Now all that remains of the once-mighty continent are a string of islands and atolls spread across a large swath of the mid-Arcadian; they are the only parts of the continent still above sea level.
"Mhm. Splendid ..." the northerner replies to Dareon's description of his homecity. She was clearly not excited at the prospects of heading towards a place described as 'very hot'.
The captain pauses for a bit trying to think up how to approach this. The expression on his face shows that he is wrestling with what to say, finally he says. "Yes Azlant, some of the continent is still above water, I myself have lived there since birth, like all my compatriots here. We got here through an Aiudara, or as you'd know it an 'elfgate'"
"So Captain, it was the Mordant Spire that gave you the quest to follow the stone's emanating signature you carry in the cloth? And I wonder if the stone is emanating now? Regardless, I was wondering if I can look at it with your supervision?"
Alþórel stands motionless, caught up in memories of the first great human lands that drove the elves into exiles. Hazy memories now. Memories of walking streets. Of faces without names, and names without faces.
Elven leaders? Of Azlant? How did that happen?"