La Siréene stares into the mist, tired, rage slowly ebbing away. She looks… sad, almost. She replies in a small voice.
”So is mine, I’m afraid, Caromarc.”
Nameless… Why could I not remember their names? I can remember names now. My mind, or my mindset, has changed. While Enbringer, ot whoever that is, deludes themselves.
La Siréene makes a strange little noise, a sad, humorless laugh.
Heh. Still self-aware, then.
So why does this make me so emotional, if so?
"Ianez?"
I can't stop attacking the creature... Damn you... DIE!!!
The last gargoyle trips and falls back under the savage onslaught. WHAM! BLAM! It's blown to smithereens! Flying rocks crash everywhere.
The night is silent. Fog floats all around.
The stillness awaits Ianez's response, and what the elemental tells you.
I sheathe my blade, turning to scoop up Phoebe... as I release my rage. Are you alright?
Phoebe frowns shyly. "You ask about the coughing. You saw that." She wipes her bloody chin on her sleeve. "Don't worry. It's the oracular curse. Each of us has one. Agnes was struck lame. Me, I got the wasting curse." The oracle looks sheepish. "You know...disease." More shameful still. "I have consumption." She diverts her eyes. "Tuberculosis. Don't worry, it will not kill me. It's just exacerbated when I use my powers."
She sniffles and musters soldierly camaraderie. "Thanks for defending me against those things."
Yes, I saw and you saw me. You were not afraid of... me? How I become?
La Siréene indulges herself for a moment, just standing still and looking into the sky, letting the rain flow down over her face and metal plate. Then, she moves the Orb slightly to M,N-22,23. She then moves over to her previous position next to Caromarc at J-23, and heals herself twice with her healing wand.
Then, she hands the healing wand to Phoebe. "Here – heal our dear Sandru with this, will you? Anyone else need healing, say so. Didn’t see who got damaged, there."
Phoebe takes the wand. She waves it at Sandru.
I roll my shoulders and crack my neck... Any more ...friends dropping by?
Ianez and the Mechanical Manservant can observe that they're near another obelisk.
"I could use an application from the wand, Phoebe."
Phoebe pats Sandru on the back, the awkward gesture of a child trying to act like an adult. "I'm not scared," she says. "I know who's side you are on." She furrows her brow. "And I understand getting angry," she says gruffly.
She taps the wand on Ianez.
Quinn approaches Pheobe and Sandu and removes the ropes around their waists. "Our positioning was good. Everyone was around Pheobe, the safe possible spot."
Quinn kneels to the ground trying to determine if there were other footprints besides themselves.
"I have also put no time into studying the elemental tongues."
Blackacre wipes gargoyle dust from his sparking blade.
I could use some healing as well. However, I seem to have a wand of my own.
If memory serves, it should have 43 uses left. We may want to balance the use of our respective wands.
La Siréene turns towards Sandru. She's calmer now, although still tired. They are involved, now. I desire their trust. Very well, then.
"I've mentioned previously that I lost every individual dear to me recently. That was them. My... family, I suppose you might call it. As well as one usurper. It was responsible for all their deaths. It attempted to kill me, steal the body I inhabited. My willpower was stronger than its, however."
La Siréene gives a small, sardonic chuckle.
"Me and Caromarc were brought back by Hareton, but not exactly resurrected. It was more akin to materializing the memories of us, then crafting us bodies. The process has brought the usurper back, and the family he destroyed into his hands. I do not believe they have bodies of their own, but I am not sure."
La Siréene shakes her head sadly.
"The usurper is fixated on my end, and if not it then at least the family appear fixated on taking my body for their own. I don't know how many were included in the effect, but the usurper at the very least remains. It will not give up until I am conquered, and neither will what remains of the family."
She smiles.
"So, to answer your question, dear Sandru: yes. Most definitely. And the friends dropping by will have to be killed."
She forms an umbrella in her hand and picks out a piece of paper from her pouch to read a scribbled note.
"If you do not mind, Phoebe darling, you may keep the wand, so that you may heal us. The wand has... 31 charges, by the way, mad man."
Caromarc picks up some gargoyle dust as part of his pantomiming.
Additionally, there are various humanoid footprints. Assassins of the Anaphexia going to and fro the library?
You don't see the tracks of any other creatures.
Phoebe smacks the wand a couple times flat against her open palm, points it around like a wizard, and puts it in her belt. She looks pleased with her new stewardship.
Quinn, kneeling on th ground, looks up to the others and says, "Looks like Hergelund was around here. Can't tell if he fought the gargolyes. So the question is, how did he bypass these gargolyes?"
The monk looks back down at the ground. "There are a set of other footprints in the ground. Looks like the footprins are going back and forth to the library. Cut-throats? Not sure."
The monk rises and says, "We best be on our guard."
Quinn continues to have his bow and arrows at he ready.
Caromarc gives up
"Forget it" he mutters "Everyone, if this elemental starts trying to defend me from something, then there's probably something coming."
"Perhaps Ms La Siréene could send her orb ahead of us, and we could follow in its path, rather than standing here in this fog?"
"The Orb only lasts 36 seconds, but certainly. Pardon, Caromarc."
Standing close to Caromarc to see better, La Sireéne issues the mental commands and lets the Orb roll past Caromarc, Phoebe and Sandru, and when she's sure it is outside the ward, lets it roll in front of the group, to J-K, 19-20. She then moves back to Caromarcs left, and sends the Orb 20 feet forward of the group.
Caromarc starts moving forward
Ianez returns to his place in the marching order ahead of Gaston.
Quinn follows along.
Phoebe holding my hand, I begin to move...
The elemental nods its head a couple times and rumbles towards Lord Caromarc. It circles around his feet, affectionately nudging his ankles.
Your party moves forward bravely...warily...through the fog about 50 feet without incident. You pass sets of double obselisks. All of them are empty, with clawmark indentations...gargoyle watchmen that have flown from their pedestals. You hear the ball of water sloshing forward through the mist. But otherwise, everything is uneventful.
Your party comes across a patch between the obelisks with shattered gargoyle bits strewn around. The marsh is stained with blood. The see-saw raspy breathing returns. You hear a voice. I...had to kill them. Most of the family...now dead. Only a few of us now.
Problem of you. Me and you, you and me. La Siréene...the final battle.
Also, you see a gargoyle perched atop an obelisk, waiting to attack.
There is a revving sound, like an engine starting. Up ahead, two white lights flash like headlights and span the length of the fog.
Gargoyle high! And... ghost! Stay behind me, Phoebe...
The first gargoyle takes flight, flies off its obelisk, and lands next to Phoebe . Kill those who help La Siréene! it drones in haunting monotone. The gargoyle clamps its burly arms around the oracle, and successfully grapples her! It prepares to fly away with its captive.
The second gargoyle twitches a bull-like nostril, flaps its wings, and dives towards Ianez . It opens this battle with a preemptory swipe.
Blackacre moves around G2 , calls forth Ragathiel's wrath , and takes a swing at it.
The gargoyle that attacked Ianez buckles beneath the furious whomp from Blackacre's sword.
La Siréene speaks, now once more an icy calm.
"You're warped, Endbringer. Before I destroyed you, you killed out of greed and arrogance. Now, you are delusional. I agree: Let’s put an end to this nonsense."
La Siréene moves up to the gargoyle grasping Phoebe, and spits venom in its eye, blinding and poisoning the monster.
La Siréene moves back next to Caromarc.
The gargoyle blinks as the venom burns its eyes, and starts to necrotize the surrounding tissue. The poison radiates in green-black splotches, forming a mask around both eyes. The beast rears its head back and roars in pain, with powerful, elegant movements even in the throes of agony. It maintains its grip on Phoebe. She is flung back and forth in the embrace of its arms.
The creature is graceful with its mighty wings and part of me is jealous.
We are the same you and me... made. Exist to protect! My anger is useless... my strength betrays me.
But maybe strength is not my strength. I step up, the thick mist like stairs. My cloak is not a pair of wings, but... From my higher position I lash out at the creature beneath me.
We will see who is the better... Gargoyle!
Girl! Phoebe... FLAME ON!
The gargoyle's lips curl...twitching. It ducks. The creature is on the defensive. The red eyes, now burned over green-black, glare up at Sandru. But your ally bears down like an avalanche.
Phoebe shouts in indignation. "I ca...n't...Sa...ndr...u!" She reaches up backwards to claw at the gargoyle's eyes. Nevertheless, it pulls her shock of red hair and she can't break free of its hold.
The raspy see-saw breath once again. "Oh! You will pay, Siréene. Watch as I take them down one by one..."
The spectral form of Endbringer revs his sword, with loud chain links running along the outer edge. He circles, wheeling in maddening circles like a dervish, passing through one of the obelisks towards Blackacre .
"BLOODBATH!" he caterwauls dementedly. The sword cuts horizontally with a blue ectoplasmic rrrrrrrrrr! through the torso of the inquisitor. There is no blood, but his skin pulls taut. Jagged...like serrated wounds.
The inquisitor cries out as the Endbringer's sword digs into him.
GAA-aa-aaaHH!
Blackacre sets himself and yells, You will pay for this, ...freak!
Now everyone sees a spectral entity drifting in and out of the fog. It's a young man with crazed eyes, drenched in blood. His head hangs at an odd angle, dislocated and severed from its body. He carries a unique type of sword with a chain running around its edge. He floats a little off the ground.
When he spins towards Blackacre, the warrior's cutlass delivers a smarting reminder that he's right at his heels.
Endbringer's head eerily rotates around on his neck. He looks back over his shoulder at Sandru. Hey! You stepped on my tail! he caws, with a mad frown. He wags his forefinger. Naughty, naughty man-thing. He turns to Blackacre and glowers at him darkly, revving the chain on his weapon. La Siréene makes me so MAD so mad it makes my eyes BLEED! With that, his eyes gush blood, which runs down his cheeks.
The specter rotates his head completely backwards, 180 degrees, to stare at La Siréene. He cackles in a witchy laugh, and stomps, knees going high, in a weird high-step. Though Blackacre tries to plumb the mystery of this creature, he discerns naught except the feeling, as the unusual chained weapon passed through him, of the druid's mind emptying out into this chill night, teasing apart like cotton, thudding like a bad dream, warping into the atmosphere around them. La Siréene connected to Endbringer...Blackacre connected to La Siréene...Endbringer blurring his craziness into Blackacre's head.
Stop him...before you all go insane!
There is a gargoyle between Ianez and the main target. Calling on the luck that's gotten him through so much, the archaeologist drives his sword into the winged statue. Chips of stone fly in a cloud from the point of impact.