Serak's acid ball misses Olaf completely, but Dusklord's magic missile strikes the flying barbarian. Olaf, in the meanwhile descends and swings at Aeleth again, hitting him hard as he exacts the revenge for the previous grapple. Olaf grins as the blow connects, crushing into Aeleth's chest and splattering blood all around. He pulls the axe back effortlessly, looking around for another target. Michellia begins ignoring everything around her, staring at the distance.
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Serak looks up at Olaf, and then back at Aeleth and groans.
Oh COME ON!! Do I have to do EVERYTHING around here?!
He pulls a wand out of his belt and hustles around the monkey to be beside Aeleth, but not in range of the flying, axe wielding psychopath.
Once there, he pokes Aeleth up the nose with the wand and then shakes his fist at Olaf.
Hey! WE'RE the only ones who get to pick on Aeleth!
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Seeing an ally fall, Cody growls at the woman as he releases her "STAY PUT!".
Swiftly changing his animal aspect to a tiger and moveing 30ft towards Olaf, Cody then casts produce flame {link} throwing the first fist full of fire at Olaf.
The hunter then orders Max to attack Olfa.
Brother Max shifts up to the axe welding Olfa attempting to bite and scratch him.
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Stephani sees Aeleth getting hurt, and rushes up to help. Standing next to him, she tpas her wand on his shoulder. "Be well, my friend."
She then drops the wand and stands guard over him, longsword ready for if the flying barbarian comes within range. "Try me on for size, you flying chicken!!"
Dusklord begins by greasing Olaf's weapon, which slips from his hands and falls to the ground. Aeleth keeps on bleeding unconsciously while Lucien flies around hysterically, but luckily both Serak and Stephani offer him some basic healing to keep him alive. Cody shoots a fist of fire at Olaf, hitting him on the thigh. Max then tears into Olaf, who drops unconscious. Michellia does her best to try and flee, but you manage to reach her before she gets too far.
Upon getting to the boat, you find an unconscious woman who looks very much like Michellia.
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Cody also pops up "I also noticed the hair style of the one that was fleeing was slightly different from Michellia. We should question the them both. Also, why would the men attack us when I firsted checked the body to find she was a Michellia look alike."
The Hunter first ties up the Michellia in wedding dress, then heals his own wounds, and Aeleth if he is not away yet.
what ever healing is required on Aeleth.
Cody questions the awake Michellia first "What is going on here, what where you trying to pull off by impersonation Michellia?"
The wedding-dress Michellia is still sobbing from a mix of terror and pain from the burns she received earlier. She curls up and doesn't respond to Cody's attempts to intimidate her. It seems obvious she's not used to this kind of pain.
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Cody jokes, "What if we just swap the sleeping Michellia for the one in dress, wake up Olaf and tell him was all a mistake and let him row off with the impostor Michellia?"
The hunter waits to see if the sleeping Michellia wakes up, gently shake her awake if necessary, when she wakes up Cody ask her quickly before she has time to look around "What's your name?"
The unconscious woman wakes up, startled to see the group above her. She looks around for a moment then at her own clothes. "I am Michellia of course. The bride from the wedding you've just attended, you know. Where is Eleanir?" When she understands you have no idea who she's talking about, she adds, "my sister. Eleanir. She looks like me. She's probably behind this all." When you gesture towards the still weeping woman, Michellia takes a few steps towards her, then looks at you in astonishment. "What have you done to my sister? Did she harm you in any way?"
She then rushes onwards and hugs her sister, trying to sooth her.
In the meanwhile Serak bashes Olaf on his head with his mace, but the unconscious man just grunts in response.
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Serak rolls his eyes at Stephanie while bathing Olaf in flames.
Yes! Let's let the crazy flying man with the giant axe wake back up and whack Aeleth again. Sounds like a great idea!
He turns his attention back to the inferno coming out of his fingers, and starts singing an upbeat little song, while bouncing his head up and down to the beat.
First you smack the chicken in the head till it's dead,
Then you yank out all the nasty guts!
Pluck all the feathers and cover it in grease
Make sure you really coat its butt!
Stick it in the oven and set the thing on fire!
Make sure you leave it in for the time required!
Otherwise it's gross and maybe burnt!
Eleanir looks at Cody with relief as he heals her, and with her sister hugging her she speaks, tearing up every few seconds but taking support from her sister. "It was me. I wanted to take Michellia's place and marry Damian... I've been away for a few years and just wanted to settle down... Mother would have never let me do this, but... but I thought it was a good plan. Olaf over there, " she gestures towards the barbarian lying on the ground but falls silent as she sees Serak almost burns him to death. She shudders, whispering "that's not how a warrior should go. Not like that." As you coax her into speaking, she continues, "I met Olaf a couple of weeks ago. He had a vision that the world would end unless he marries you," she now looks at Michellia. "He became obsessed with you and when I told him about my plan we decided to cooperate on this. He'd supply the muscle, I'd replace you... I'm sorry about the incident back at the house... I was so foolish. I made a stupid mistake and now three men are dead."
Michellia quietly says, "I'm sorry Eleanir. It isn't like I wanted any of this to happen either." She looks at Serak who is streaming fire onto Olaf's body, then back at the rest of you, concerned and uncertain what's going to happen to both of them next. Eleanir stares at the ground in silence.
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Cody shrugs "Family! You can't chooses them, but you can steal their spouse and make them the slave bride of a barbarian. Go figure. Will need to turn Eleanir and Olaf over to the the Blakros. I'm sure they will want it keep quite too."
The hunter turns to Serak, "Sorry to throw water on your fun, but we will need Olaf alive. Will find you something else to burn later!". Stabilized Olaf, tie him up and gag him.
Cody also checks on Aeleth, "The fellow should be healed by now. He and his bird have been quite for far too long."
When everyone is ready return to the Blakros and discreatly turn Eleanir and Olaf over the Blakros.
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"Serak!" Dusklord bellows after the gnome continues his demented behavior despite repeated warning.
"Don't make me turn you into a skeletal minion!"
With the sisters seemingly reconciled, the wizard says "Well, isn't this sweet. We are all one big happy family again. Now, I suppose we take you two sisters home and report on the happy ending."
Neither of the sisters looks very glad about the outcome, but at least they're both relieved that nobody will be executing them today. Olaf tries to resist with all his might, but being tied and heavily outnumbered he cannot really do anything. He tries to say something repeatedly but the gag on his mouth makes his voice sound muffled, "Ykd dONe deDgRdjsnf, dfIf ld tHf fjD gd jeE lfjLw!! a sUkr dfRly kEr!!" He eyes shine with the fervor of a man who is focused on one task.
The barbarian begins screaming the second you ungag him. "You don't understand what is at stake here! The entire world is coming to an end!! Michellia must come with me!!!" Whatever you might say or think about him, he is utterly convinced in the truth of his message. Dusklord seems unimpressed, and you begin the long climb back to the cliff, and from there to the pavilion. Michellia looks thoughtful, Eleanir sullen. Olaf tries to break free every few minutes, but eventually even he relents. The sounds from the pavilion - laughter, music and general happiness remind you that this was supposed to be a happy event.
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Cody suggest that we try to avoid the public pavilion and ask the guards to get Damian Blakro to report what we found with him first.
Olaf would be bound and gagged, Since Eleanir seems to be behaving she can remain unbound, If there are cloths for her to change into that would be better than the ruin burned wedding dress.
Cody's clothing would look bloody too, and could use cleaning. Anyone have Predestination? Once Olaf and Eleanir are turned over to Blakro, Cody would then re-peace tie his weapon.
Max's disguise as Brother max would be reapplied, before returning too.
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Lucien hops around anxiously as he watches Aeleth's unconscious form.
"Oh crap, Exiel's gonna be pissed off. Why am I the baby-sitter anyway? Or the idiot-sitter in this case. Still, he's going to be talking about responsibility and all that jazz, not that there was much I could have done to prevent this, but..."
He cuts himself off mid-speech when he hears a snore coming from Aeleth. He pauses...and then sighs as he smacks Aeleth with his wing.
"BY ALL THE GODS, WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!"
"Don't scare me like that," he mutters with somewhat-concealed relief as Aeleth's eyelids flutter open.
Checking Aeleth's gear, he eventually finds a slender redwood wand with dark runes etched along its length.
"Hmm...better not let the paladin see this one. Hey idiot, hold this thing, press the tip - no that's the side, the other way, no not at me hey watch the eye - oh for the love of..."
After some fiddling about, Lucien eventually snatches the wand from Aeleth's hand, touches the correct end to Aeleth and says "ok. Now. Aeleth, just touch the wand and say this word..."
As you start moving back to the island's center, the guards stop you well before you reach the pavilion and begin questioning you. One of them eyes the now scantily-clad Eleanir in a manner she definitely does not seem comfortable with. Olaf tries running away at some point but gets bashed with one of the guard's spears. Eventually the guards send one of them as a messenger to Hamaria. The man comes back a few minutes later, leading you all to an area just outside the pavillion.
Hamaria and Damian stand there, waiting. Hamaria - clearly enraged - offers a brief apology and retires with both girls around a corner to sort out some family issues. Damian seems more than a bit puzzled to see the two girls - one with his wife's burnt wedding dress - and a random barbarian. He frowns slightly and asks, "Pathfinders. Would you please explain this situation? What happened? And who is this man?" Olaf tries to break free again, but this time the guard protecting him trips him and kicks him hard as he lies down on the floor. Damian doesn't flinch and focuses his eyes on you.
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Serak innocently looks at Damien and pipes up.
Heck if I know! This crazy guy was flying around, whacked Aeleth something fierce, and was spouting about "the end of the world hinges on this marriage" or some nonsense. He was trying to help your old lady's sister switch places with her so she could marry you instead, which is kind of weird when you really stop and think about it... Also, pretty sure that would be reeeeeeaaaaaalllllly awkward for you at family reunions, you know? Anyway, I was going to roast the flying guy, but no one would let me because for some reason they don't like me "handling important matters" because I'm (air quote) unhinged and a (air quote) freak of nature, but whatever. Anyway, yeah, flying guy, sister tried the ole' college switcharoo on you, "don't set him on fire Serak".... Usual wedding nonsense. Is there any food left?
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Cody looks at Damian, "What a lucky man you are to have married into such an interesting family. Basically what Serak said. What's interesting is that of the two sisters Eleannir seems to truly want to be married to you where as Michellia dosn't seem all that excited about the prospect more like a a family obligation. I'm not sure how you feel about the marriage. The barbarian Olaf just seems to be crazy makes Serak seem normal by comparison, but he is a good fighter. I really hope the world dosn't end just because you married the wrong sister."
Damian listens to your comments and remains silent as Cody spells it out that his new wife isn't too excited about marrying him. He glances at Olaf, then back at you. He's clearly not too happy himself. Hamaria returns with one of the sisters, now dressed in a new dress she managed to procure on a short notice. She seems very annoyed. She signals to Damian and they both move to the side and begin conversing. You can't really pick out what they're saying, as some drunken idiot begins shouting inside the tent. Hamaria's and Damian's gestures become stronger and they clearly seem to be speaking about you and at least one of them is angry about something you've done in this exchange.
A sudden lull in the party noise makes the next words the drunken guest shout sound much more clearly. "...Arastrax of the Onyx Alliance. You are all surrounded. My minions and I will soon feast on your souls. This island is your grave, mortals!" You hear screams and disorder coming from inside the tent. Both Hamaria and Damian realize what's going on, and Damian grabs a sword off one of the guards and rushes inside. Hamaria casts a spell and follows him in. Olaf, who has been tied to a pole does his best to gesture to you to release him so he can help fight whatever's in the tent. Some creatures that seem like smaller demons begin swarming over the hills around you, closing in on the pavilion. The guards prepare for the attack, drawing their swords and preparing to defend the terrified guests who're trying to get out as quickly as possible.
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Serak grins and follows Dusklord.
See!? SEE?! This kind of crap is why you should just let me burn all the bad guys! Now we have even MORE to deal wit-- WHO LET THE FLYING CRAZY AXE MAN LOOSE!! FOR PETE'S SAKE HE TRIED TO MURDER US!!
The gnome hikes his robe up and makes his way close to Aeleth.
For the love o-- Aeleth! Make sure that guy doesn't whack me over the head with anything!
Serak looks back over his shoulder, giving Olaf a look of "Don't you dare try to get back at me for roasting you alive or my friends are gonna get you good.". Or, at least he tries too anyway.
As you all prepare for battle, Stephani cuts Olaf loose. The large barbarian grins and grabs a halberd off one of the mercenaries that decided to flee, then rips one of the dretches open with a single blow. He then starts moving against the crowd. The battle begins to rage everywhere around and inside the pavilion. Everyone seems to be fighting or running. Numerous dretches fill the area with their stench, quasits fly around trying to lunge at fleeing guests and a couple of horrid-looking abyssal creatures are fighting Damian, Hamaria and Rubaani (the mercenary captain). The not-really-drunken man seems much like one of the mercenaries you've seen patrolling the island over the last couple of days. He is still on the platform, having just finished gesturing in what must have been a magic spell. He's holding a large halberd in his other arm.