Hareton is shaking with fear. He clenches his fists and tries to steady himself.
S slinks like a panther and stands at Quinn's shoulder. She listens for a moment. "It's Melanie."
There's the sound of a door opening and closing...maybe Melanie coming back from the washroom. The footsteps approach the lounge from the ground floor hall at the back of the mansion.
"Someone should go intercept her and stall. Buy us a little more time."
"Very Well. I am of little use here."
The Mechanical Manservant moves towards the door.
The monk clenches his fists and grits his teeth while staring up at the ceiling."Uggghhh" He then inhales deeply and exhales ready to be the one to step up to the task at hand.
On his way out he turns to Dr. Hareton and whispers, "Do you have a sleep potion or a potion that will give her a stomach ache? If you do then come meet us with some drinks and make sure that her drink has the "punch". After stating the plan the monk walks from the lounge and through the hallway towards the footsteps.
Her mouth cracks into a smile. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! "Lord Caromarc, your mission is foiled. Your friends are as good as dead!"
When Quinn and the Mechanical Manservant enter the hallway, instead of Melanie, they meet Paige Carlisle heading towards the lounge. She smiles a lascivious grin.
"Well, well, well..." She sashays up to Quinn, wraps her hands on one of his biceps, and leans in. When she speaks, she blows her breath like a little wind on his neck. "You couldn't bear to be without me," she coos. "I have to admit, I feel exactly the same way." She glances at the manservant, a little surprised. "You brought a robot?"
It is a strange thought - that constructs might guess what I know to be true. But I - this body - was a construct at one point, was it not? Does that not suggest the same could be true for other constructs? Could for example Quinn become, well, a person? It sounds like a bad joke. I feel sick.
Thrown back into reality by the dramatic events around her, La Siréene stiffles a laugh at Quinns obvious discomfort, only to also prevent herself from throwing up moments later. There's a setup for an amusing conversation. Pity I am not in a mood to enjoy it.
With time short, and finally registering that the situation may be dire, La Siréene decides to do what she can to help matters. Inquisitively, she shapes a hooded robe around herself, draws the hood over her head as she walks up to the fireplace, picks up the urn and replaces it on the hearth, and then tilts it in the manner Caromarc did.
** spoiler omitted **
The Earl smiles a disturbing grimace of a smile, and lets his carefully worn civility drop. The madness that has long eroded his mind comes to the fore.
"You filthy lich-blood. I half hoped you and your decadent Salon of half-trained amateurs wouldn't believe us. My friends and I let you live because we needed to question you, but you have outlived your usefulness. There will be no return from this dread damned twilight for you, harridan hag. Give my regards to the Abyss. Your victims will be avenged!"
There is no attempt to deceive, befriend or even intimidate. Only at the last two sentences does the cold, mad, hard voice rise into a screaming, insane pitch.
Distract, she said... Mr Quinn seems to have it well in hand.
"I believe my purpose here is to act as a lookout - do you and he require one, Madame?"
Quinn smiles at Lady Carlisle and says, "Last I saw you, you and Dex wanted some alone time. I don't mean to be nosey but that was pretty quick."
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As you near the door, black, necrotic energy slithers out to meet you. It hisses and strikes at you, like cobras, coiling around your limbs, torso, and head. It squeezes tightly, yanking you off your feet. You are dragged into the vault.
Here is the MAP.
The door to the vault closes behind you. You find yourself in the same lounge as before, but now your surroundings are a dark afterlife of billowing shadows. Everything is still black and white.
Reeva Windermere is just beyond the room in the hallway. She is colorless, shades of gray, except for a shock of bright orange hair. Her eyes, no longer green, are completely black...like ink has drained into the whites, making her appearance look alien, insect. In her hands, she clutches an orb that emanates with a pink glow. The light casts up against Reeva's features. The effect adds to her ghoulishness.
It is suddenly clear to you what's been going on. The sorcerers' vault exists in the afterlife. Reeva may have created the vault...she accesses it by killing and resurrecting herself. It is this journey back and forth across the threshold of death that requires her to fortify her physical constitution at the expense of her sanity.
You see Caromarc standing against the back wall of the room, facing Reeva. She is laughing in evil triumph. You hear him say the following. ...There will be no return from this dread damned twilight for you, harridan hag. Give my regards to the Abyss. Your victims will be avenged! You've never heard his voice like this before; cold, mad, hard...reaching a crescendo of a screaming, insane pitch!
Between you and Reeva stands a small army of halflings with bruises around their eyes, all bathed in blood. They have ashen skin...angry eyes...little, limp hands...torn clothes. They look at you. Their childlike mouths twitch with hate. Your back is pressed up against the fireplace.
They gather in a circle and shamble towards you.
They reach out their little arms to you.
After La Sireéne touches the urn, as she nears the fireplace, black, necrotic energy slithers out to meet her. It hisses and strikes at her, like cobras, coiling around her limbs, torso, and head. It squeezes tightly, yanking her off her feet. The necrotic energy has the same effect as on Caromarc: her jaw firmly sets in a grimace, her eyes roll back into her head. She drops to the plush red carpet next to Caromarc.
The fireplace continues to crackle before her, warm and inviting.
Paige slaps Quinn playfully across the cheek. "You're bad. You'll fit in here quite nicely." She looks the manservant up and down. "You bring your own chaperone? I guess that's sort of cute."
"C'mon," says the sorceress, taking Quinn's hand. "Let's go back to the party in the lounge. I want to give your girlfriend dirty looks."
Quinn continues his conversation with Paige Carlisle.
"I had to get out of the lounge. The others were having such a boring conversation, so I decided to take a walk and visit the balcony."
Quinn continues to smile and does not reject Paige's flirtatious actions."The stroll to the Balcony would be better if I had.... female company. Care to join me?"
You see the urn on the floor levitate into the air and come to rest back on the fireplace mantle.
La Siréene suddenly begins thrashing wildly, as if dozens of invisible hands were tugging and pushing her about the room. At the same time, bloody wounds from invisible teeth appear across her body! Her eyes begin to bleed. Her body slides across the floor and crashes into a small table. The lamp on it teeters and crashes to the floor. The glass shade doesn't break, but it makes a loud noise.
Paige looks ready to take Quinn up on his offer. She links her arm with his. But then she hears the commotion in the lounge, and the lamp hit the floor. "What is that? What's going on in there?" she says, frowning. She breaks away and squeezes past Quinn and the Mechanical Manservant, heading towards the lounge.
The quick monk (50 ft move) responds and grabs her arm and pulls her towards his body. His other hand goes around the small of her back and he press her body close to his. He positions his lips close to her ear and whispers,"Dear lady...let us not waste time. It is a beautiful night....one that should not go wasted on foolishness."
He continues to hold on to her and then he grabs one of her free hands and places it on his chiselled chest. Besides feeling his muscularture his heart begins to pound stronger....it can be either from the anxiety of being found out or being close to this beautiful woman....only Quinn knows.
He continues to whisper,"Like I said...very boring conversation and it sounds like a heated one at that. Lady La Sireene and Master Caromarc are probably tossing stuff at each other. I can send the manservant to hush them or let them know to play nice. Anyway, they are mages. They have the proficiency to mend anything that breaks." The monk gently tries to coax Paige back towards the stairs.
Pathetic, mindless things. Utterly uninteresting. They will not scare me. Might distract me, thought. Should do what is important before then. That orb looked important. It’s worth an attempt
As the teeth of the halflings close in, La Siréene does not attempt to flee, and does not flinch, but merely attempts to cast Suggestion, targeting Reeva. "Hand Master Caromarc the Orb, Reeva. It needs to be done. Your perceptions cannot be trusted."
Blackacre watches Caromarc and La Sireene in horror, unsure how to confront what has seized them.
When he hears Paige in the corridor, he turns, a hand going instinctively to the pistol in his coat pocket. He listens intently to what he can hear of the conversation, and relaxes slightly when it sounds like the group in the hallway is not immediately coming in.
His attention returns to his companions on the floor.
Look at those two - what afflicts them? Is that dread fireplace the source of this accursed wailing? Can I stop it?
After a moment of hesitation, he begins to reach for the urn La Sireene replaced. He pauses, arm outstretched, not yet touching the urn, listening to the exchange in the hallway.
Concentration:
Reeva whines, hugs herself, and petulantly turns away from Caromarc. Reluctantly, she opens her hand. The orb rolls from her fingers, falls to the ground, and rolls a short distance at her feet. Her bottom lip quivers with anger and despair.
"Ludo will never forgive me for this," she groans self-pityingly. Not one to play the hero, she gathers up her skirts, and runs away down the hallway into the darkness.
The halfings close in...
La Siréene rises into the air, her eyes closed, her arms outstretched and limp at her sides. She is thrown violently around the room by unseen forces. She is torn apart until nothing remains but a red skeleton draped in her gear.
La Siréene is dead.
"There. It is just as well. Now you're stuck here too..."
She pauses for a moment.
"Of course, we should not jump to conclusions. This might have been the kind of flesh tearing, gut ripping, eye-gouging incident one survives."
She turns to Caromarc, and smiles as she sees the orb at Caromarcs feet for the first time. As she does, she also goes back from speaking like Nameless to speaking like La Siréene.
"We got the orb, though. How are you? You sounded angry."
As Caromarc sees mademoiselle Siréene murdered, giving her life to get him the orb, his hands told cold, his heart shudders, and the madness retracts back behind his etiquette.
At Reeva's parting words his famed intellect finally kicks in. Stooping to pick up the orb he turns and grins at La Siréene, a flash of the madness showing again.
"You're not dead yet m'girl. Reeva has a way back"!
as he finishes speaking he turns to run after Reeva, calling back "Allons-y!"
Hareton sees La Siréene's gruesome end. "NOOO!!" he screams.
At the sound of Hareton's scream, Paige smiles. "Thaat's my cue."
She girlishly tilts her wrist back and snaps.
Ludo, Melanie, and Dex appear near the door to the room. They had returned to the lounge and were invisible. Dex swings his arm, raising his palm towards the door. "Telekinesis! PUSH!" he yells. Hareton is thrown backwards and flies across the hall into the opposite lounge. The doors to that room slam shut!
"DOOR!" he yells. The doors to the lounge you are in slam shut. The furniture in the room, as if drawn by a magnet, hurls to the door and stacks against it, trapping you in.
Melanie sees Caromarc unconscious on the floor and also La Siréene's remains. "Spellcasters are down," she reports.
Before any of you have time to react, Ludo teleports behind S and puts a blade to her neck. "Stay back! Don't do anything foolish or she dies right now!" He runs his nose through her hair, enjoying her scent...one last time...and grabs her chin roughly. His next words are uttered dripping with menace. "So, Xa, you little minx. The double-crosser finds herself double-crossed. Now, you'll be punished by daddy Ludo for real! What shall I do first? Cut out the tongue that told me lies? Cut off the ears that listened at doors? Break the fingers that pointed out our secrets?"
"Melanie, Dex...I trust you'll take out the trash." Then to S, "Come with me darling, this will be fun!"
A blue light strobes up and down their bodies. He teleports S away.
In her last moments with you, S looks into your eyes. Sandru...Ianez...Blackacre... "Don't think about me. Remember the mission!"
Then, the blue light. And she is gone.
Paige sneers at Quinn. "I knew I didn't know you."
La Siréene catches up to Caromarc, as he chased away after Reeva, who La Siréene considered dead, for reasons not entirely clear to her.
"Perhaps not, yes. She had a path out, yes. Question is, is that orb it, or does the orb serve another purpose."
The liar is dead? I will not believe it. She lies to survive, even if she does enjoy it too much. Her strength is survival. Nothing here is better at that, except maybe... me.
She changes what she is to survive. I become more of what I am. Always the same. Always Sandru. Always the same, but always better than before. Like a butterfly.
Split up... Stop their magics.
Quinn releases the Glamer and as a result reveals his true appearance. "Maybe you recognize me now!" Bald head, scar over the eye and monk robes and let's not forget the bow in his left hand and arrows in his right.
He says to Paige "I offer you the chance to surrender or else."
If possible, at La Siréene's untoward end Ianez will cast see invisibility. "Gods, what's doing that to her?"