Feeling all his hair suddenly start to stand on end Neverhome sets the unresponsive cat creature down on the ground. His body hardening as the current runs though his veins he couldn't help himself but to reach over and poke Sigrun in the shoulder, causing a harmless discharge.
Neverhome looked about the room and all that it contained, his eyes lazily flowing over all the eldritch ingredients. He had never been here before, and yet, it still felt all so familiar. Like finding long lost toys from one's childhood he started to move about in a daze, picking up this and that and putting them in the cauldron.
It felt... right.
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Jumping slightly at the little jolt, Sigrun looks over at Neverhome and smiles giving him a wink.
Smiling back at her Neverhome mouths a slightly sincere "sorry".
"Ah, okay, this looks easy!" Zses mumbles as he examines the cauldron. "Vashti, could you give me the ingredients the Black Rider gave us? Thanks." the witch asks, as he fetches a big wooden bowl and an egg, handing everyone a wooden spoon. Breaking the egg into the bowl, a little baby chick comes out of it, and Zses cringes as he has to toss it into the pot after the Frost Giant's beard and the Plague Doctor mask.
"Does someone here have any idea how much a Plague Doctor mask has to stew before it's edible? Anyone?" he asks as he stews the pot with the ladle.
...
"Well, it looks like it's ready. I'm sure nothing bad is going to happen." the witch chirps as he pours the stew into the wooden bowl for everyone to eat.
----------------------
Zses eyes grow wide as he finishes his part of the soup.
As they finished the Last Rites and the censer stood still, a buzzing, flapping noise filled the air.
Zses' mouth starts to open, and the grip on the wooden bowl starts to grow faint.
And he heard it. That sick, sticky noise of something cutting trough flesh with a small blade. Turning, he saw the funerary shroud on the bodies being torn open from the inside, as if they were nothing more than cocoons for some eldritch monstrosity.
Trembling violently, Zses drops the wooden spoon and bowl he was holding to the ground.
He ran away as fast as he could. He tried to not look back, he really tried: but in the end, he turned and saw the swarm of winged insects blotting out the moon, and the stars, and the swarm of worm-like creatures biting at his family and turning them to nothing but shadows. As he kept running, he opened his mouth to...
With a shriek, Zses falls to the ground, holding his head, as tears start to fall down his cheeks.
"They're all dead..."
Allie is frozen. All she could do was keep her eyes closed so she wouldnt see the true evil inside of her. "No... No... No!" Allie falls to her knees and begins to sob, but suddenly, the tears stop and the rage comes. When she finally opens her eyes and sees Zses and Percy she leaps towards them, slapping the prone Zses with all her might. "HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME? YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST WALK AWAY AND TRAP ME IN THERE! I THOUGHT YOU CARED FOR ME! YOU MONSTER!" She slaps him once again and turns on Percy. "SOME SISTER YOU ARE! WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM? JUST THE FALL MAN FOR YOUR STUPID MISTAKES? I SPENT YEARS IN THAT CELL AND YOU DARE TO PUT ME BACK IN ONE? WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT YOU COWARD!" She attempts to attack her sister.
Percy rolls from under Hobbes'arm and defends herself. Noone knows Allie like Percy, but even then she us barely able to hold her sister at bay.
I WOULD NEVER PUT YOU IN A CELL She yells back through the punches. Incredible lanes of pain stab through her arms when she is forced to block high, but her fire swirls around them. I SWORE I NEVER WOULD AND I STAND BY THAT! She finally catches a break and pushes her sister back.
She then does something odd. She sits down and crosses her legs. Hopefully the non-threatening posture would snap the cycle of escalation.
Allie growls at her sister. "YOU LIE! YOU'RE LYING TO ME YOU CRIPPLE!" She tries to kick he now sitting sister.
Percy's flames flare and hiss and spit. Drops of magma form in her eyes. You need to calm down. Percy says in an errily calm voice. Her changed eye flashes and her fire roars, then shifts into birdsong. Mockingbirds, robins, thrushes, and more in a serene chorus. Her fire morphs into a decent illusion of a forest clearing, one they had grown up playing in. A mix of conifers and deciduous types grow up together, though the mind still girly knows where it is (the Hut). A spring scent wafts in from the direction of the door, though nothing actually opens or changes much at all in reality.
Remember where you are Percy commands.
As much as he wants to intervene, Hobbes knew it was best to let the sisters handle it. He just nods at Percy letting her know he was here if she needed him.
Hila wakes up, not having seen any vision but instead wakes to find she has grown! A lot it seems as she is now twice the size she was before.
Allie blinks as she is surrounded by the trees. "What? Whats going on?" Allie touches one of the trees completely confused. Looking around she realizes she had been hurting Percy, seeing the emotions on her sisters face and she falls to the floor. "Dont lock me up again! Please! I'll be good this time. I promise!"
Percy lets the magic fade and stands. She takes her sister in her arms and says much more gently, I swore I wouldn't let that happen.
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Watching the drama play out between the sisters, Vashti backs away, then darts into the closest room and quickly shuts the door behind her.
Grabbing her holy symbol she begins to kneel to the floor, holding it tightly a prayer forming on her lips.
Then drops it as she collapses on her side retching up bile and blood.
no...nonononononononono I am not that person, I can not be that person I will not follow my parents steps.
The moans of the dead, the dying breath of her friends and family, one and the same now.
Vash...vashti, that you there, isn't girl? cough....cough be a good lass, fetch me some thing to drink could you? Fever seams high, why all the wood work? They been pounding nails all day and seems like half the night. We got cough cough a bad storm comin?
Yes uncle, we have a real bad storm coming. Here's some hot tea, I made it with some “extra” in it to help you sleep. Drink it up, it'll help you get a good nights rest. That it, there you go. Extra blankets and a pillow...comfy, yes.
I love you girl, even if you aren't my blood, your my daughter. You call me uncle now, but twas papa for the first bit of your life....where....wheres your mother, where is she off and go ta?
Shes looking to the animals in the barn papa, you'll see her soon, real soon.
Your bad at hiding tears...I'm bad sick aren't I? Can you tell be how bad? Got to be bad if I'm asking bout your mother. I know she died...then she turn into one of those dead things, right?
Wiping tears from her eyes, lying on the floor in her vomit and blood, she nods her head.
It's bad papa...it's really bad. I can't save you....I can't stop it, not like the last times, it's like it's evil monster. It won't stop.
I'm going to be one of them things then? Like the others...No. NO, you...you...I don't have the strength left in my arms. You know how to end the pain, when there is nothing left. Please, child, be a good daughter. Give me mercy...please.
....yes...papa....I love you....look away......
The gate of the village, everyone holding torches, no one moving. They had followed her commands, boarded up every home, locked all the gates but this one. The moans of the dead mixed with the screams of those locked in with them. They begged, pleaded, threatened her, damned her, cursed her...those that where left, could do no more.
So she began, one house to the next, ignoring the screams, she knew she would relive them in her nightmares for the rest of her life. One by one until her home was ablaze. Throwing the fire down, she walking in a smokey haze full of embers.
From her rear, a loved voice, dead for two years.
Are you going to leave with out saying good bye, my wife?
no, not again, you died...i watched your last breath pass your lips to mine...i buried you under the tree you never chopped down with honest work...you are dead....you are dead
Stepping into the light of the burning village, it was him, the balding hair, slight pudgy of the belly, the full toothed smile.
The unholy light in the eyes was not him, something darker than humanity could conjure dwelt there now.
Yes, I did. I am, reborn? I...guess that is good a word as any now. Your father
Without thought she backhanded him with every ounce of her strength, the blow broke some of her fingers, but his head never moved.
sends his love, as well as your mother. When you are ready, his offer still stands. He once held another god in highest esteem, but your mother called him to a different path. One they hope you will tread upon. Until then, I love you my sweet wife, I have not stopped, nor will I.
A quick turn and he was part of the shadows once more.
i kill them...was it the right choice...or the easy one
Curling into a ball, Vashti holds her stomach and cries herself to darkness.
One minute they were smiling and flirting and the next everything was wrong. Everything was so wrong. Everyone was else was crying and screaming. And Sigrun, she was... the river...
Afraid to look over and heavily breathing Neverhome finally forced his head to look over at his love. Was she actually there? Did that actually happen? Did any of this?
What did I do... I did this... I am Witch... and I did this to everyone...
Fun, wasn't it?
Watch as they scream and squirm,
And it was all so easy to do.
What else can you get up to?
What else can you make them do?
As he feels the magic shift and the world go sideways, Ered stares at his hand. For the others, time has not changed for anyone outside of themselves. For them, the world is only fearsome, something to hide in the light from. A cold sweat drips from the elf, forming subtle black ice droplets in his palm before melting due to body heat. He shivers, although not from any apparent cold; the action is visible, a shudder of utter dread. Not at what he knows is impossible, but what he knows in his heart to be coming: one Queen will die.
You have GOT to be kidding me...You signed me up as your successor?!
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Shocked out of the….fever dream? Sigrun stares down at her hands.
I…I could never be that person could I? The kind of monster father stood against.
Looking over at Lyosha, she registers the horror in his eyes even as she takes in the chaos all around her. Given the nature of what she’d just witnessed “herself” do and he love’s own inner turmoil, she knew it had to be bad.
”It wasn’t you! Whatever you saw it wasn’t you….none of it was. The hut ….somehow it…made us see ourselves as evil…doing things we’d never do.” she says taking hold of his face in her hands, forcing him to see her standing there in front of him.
Allie shudders and looks at Sigrun. "But its something that could happen! You all could lock me up again! It could happen!" But Allie sinks into her sisters arms and sobs loudly, holding nothing back.
"If we didn't do that before, we're not gonna do it now. Big red is right. This place makes us think the worst about us."
A part of him wanted to back away as Sigrun approached, but he stood his ground. Her touch and voice was comforting. Real. Letting out a heavy sigh he speaks up.
"Da! Sigrun and Hobbes is right! Could and will are not same thing! Nyet!" he says to calm the others as much as himself as he gently takes his Sigrun's face in his hands, all too wary about his nails and fingers.
Zses gives absolutely no response when Allie slaps him, staring motionless and blankly in front of him.
Vaguely, he could hear the echoes of what was going on: everyone had seen , like him, an unlikely, far, but still fearsomely possible future. Yet, he didn't just see the future: he also saw the past, and remembered...
"They're all dead..." Zses manages to say, weakly, half a lament and half a plead of help "I remember...my family, they killed them all..."
He clasps his forehead, before letting out a grim, mirthless laugh.
"And I've been looking for them all this time...I'm an idiot" the witch stares at the ground "Where am I supposed to go now...?"
"Stay with us Zsestrian." Neverhome calls out to the Witch before looking over at the door that Vashti ran to. "Please, Mamushka. Come back out, we are here for you."
Allie shudders and looks at Sigrun. "But its something that could happen! You all could lock me up again! It could happen!" But Allie sinks into her sisters arms and sobs loudly, holding nothing back.
No. It won't. Not while I'm here.
Her tone is decisive. Her hug painful. Her love obvious.
Current Location
A sturdy black cauldron sits in the middle of a rustic room with timber floors, log walls, and a high ceiling framed by long beams cut from whole trunks. A grand cobblestone hearth fills one corner, its dying embers feeding the room with a dull red glow. Various barrels, farm tools, crates, and other miscellaneous items clutter the remainder of the space. In the corner opposite the fireplace, a rickety wooden staircase climbs to a small wooden landing. A shallow alcove off the landing holds two thick wooden doors.
Vashti's Location (through the doors)
A long corridor stretches out to both sides, the aged plank floors seeming to continue forever. Solid logs form the passage walls, intricately carved with images of lances and centaurs, ravens and female figures. Pale-winged moths and tiny fireflies flutter throughout the hallway, their flickering glows filling the corridor with dim light. As you continue down the passage, the wall carvings gradually begin to take on a more sinister caste, depicting people in torment and agony. Eventually, the faces seem to be screaming silently at you. By now, you've reached a door with a strange symbol carved upon it. It's an inverted half-circle with a horizontal line across the top and several lines exiting the circle.
The Migrus has absolutely no reaction to anything that's going on and continues to stare at Neverhome. Perhaps it's expecting something....
The other (talking) cat lightly touches Allie's back with one paw. "Nightmares can be good ways to learn more about yourself. Determine WHY you fear whatever you witnessed, and you can use the knowledge to transcend."
Sigrun goes to the door Vashti rant to opening it and slipping in to kneel beside her distraught friend. "Breathe Vasthi, just take slow deep breaths." she says holding the cleric.
Silence was quiet merely rocking back and forth where he stood next to Mule, One hand feircely stroked the horses mane like the noble creature might suddenly fade away. His eyes were a bit distant and hollow. . . He was muttering to himself in tien. His tone was incredulous and sad however off he seemed.
Allie went from hugging Percy to hugging the kitty, her wet tars soaking its fur. "But I d-d-don't want to h-h-have nightmares!"
"Stay with you guys?" Zses chuckles grimly at Neverhome. "I have nowhere else to go now anyway...let's just keep going." the witch says without even an hint of determination in his voice, before freezing when he sees Allie crying.
Allie...
Allie went from hugging Percy to hugging the kitty, her wet tars soaking its fur. "But I d-d-don't want to h-h-have nightmares!"
Kneeling near Allie, Zses removes his Desnan silver necklace and gives it to the gnome.
"Here, maybe this will help. I had nightmares in the past, but this helped me since I wore it." Zses tries with all his might to smile to Allie, but fails miserably. Standing up, he shambles in the direction of the new doors that appeared, without a word, with blank eyes.------------------------------------
"This means 'Twilight' in the language of...the Witches of Iobaria?" he says examining the symbol, before sighing "Not that this matters anyway..."
After Zses leaves the two gnomes, Crow flies off Zses' shoulder and lands near their feet. Strangely, the raven seemed to have changed in the last minutes, and looks at the two and anyone still in the room with now light violet eyes.
The most surprising thing, however, is the bird's shadow: nothing like a raven's, it now looked like the silhouette of a woman, pleading with her hands.
"Please, don't leave him alone." he(?) pleads clearly without cawing or anything of the sort, with a feminine voice.
Watching Zsestrian walk off, then try to interact to Allie, then not, while Sigrun tries to comfort Vashti, Neverhome gets a focused look on his face as he nods down to Crow. Marching over to the Witch and wrapping his arms around the smaller man in a great hug that lifts him off his feet the Barbarian sternly says "I have already lost my Brat once, I will not again."
He then marches back over to Allie, but does not set the Witch down. "Now, Iobaria? Who or what is that?"
Allie looks up from the kitty as Zses puts the necklace in her palm. She sniffs and runs her other hand over her eyes. "Thanks." Allie, shaking, puts on the necklace as she watches Zses walk away, too broken to help or follow.
When Neverhome comes back holding Zses, Allie smiles a little dispite herself. "I d-don't know.." She slowly inserts herself between Neverhome and Zses, basking in the warmness of the bodies surrounding her. "You wont lock meup r-r-right guys?"
"Da." Neverhome says affirmatively while holding bothe the witch and the gnome.
"Course not."
Allie, finally calming down, snuggles closer to both Zses and Neverhome, smiling.
At first, Zses doesn't know how to respond at Lyosha and Allie. He stays still for a moment, until the gnome talks.
"Of course we aren't going to, Allie." the witch manages to smile reassuringly: he still couldn't see a future for himself right now, but the last hings he wanted was to also to vent his pain on Allie and the others.
Iobaria is located on the continent of Casmaron and lies northeast of Brevoy. Long ago, most of the inhabitants were wiped out by a plague. Those who remain have almost no contact with the rest of the world. Iobaria is notable for being the birthplace of Demon Lord Kostchtchie, one of Baba Yaga's fiercest foes.
Zorka abruptly waddles into the room and cackles. "Can't say I didn't warn you. Eat the stew; it'll help."
Percy looks wary. You realize that I just had the worst vision dream thing of my life when I ate that stew....
Neverhome eyes the both the fey and the stew cautiously before dipping a finger in to try it.
His finger just entering his mouth his eyes go wide at Percy's comment.
With just a tinge more energy than he had before, Zses moves near the cauldron and examines the stew, looking at it warily.
The stew looks ... surprisingly good. Considering the ingredients, that may or may not be accurate.
"Stew lies. I nyet feel different." Neverhome grumbles as his eyes narrow at the cauldron.
At neverhome's proclamation Percy also takes a nibble. It was tasty, and no mind-melting visions were forthcoming.
Huh. Is all her suspicion will let her say on the matter.
"I'll pass thanks."
"My tummy hurts, no thanks" Allie sits down, feeling a bit dizzy.
after seeing the horrible visions of his cowardice in his mind there was no way he could not eat the stew. They literally could have poured a gallon of venom in it and the effects wouldnt have changed his actions one iota.
He moved for the stew pot and looked for some sort of bowl.
Supporting Vashti as she expresses her pain, Sigrun waits until she calms down a bit before guiding her back to the others. Taking her to the main room she turns back to look t the odd room that the seeming closet door opened into.
Even if the stew seemed to not provoke any ill effects, Zses still doesn't eat it: magical or not, it would still remind him of what he had seen just before.
"Should we move on?"