"Well, you never asked me, and thank Desna you never checked." Crow laughs "Truth to be told, I never knew myself, really, that with the whole thing of existing to keep Zses out of trouble and to keep his memories sealed, without having much of a sentience myself. It's great being finally a person, you know? I was just thinking that this morning when I woke up and got a little teary, but then I stopped thinking about that when I realized I was naked. I agree that I need some clothes: I've heard that other Lyrakiens just fly around naked, and I really don't want to be lumped together with them. Bunch of harp-playing, perv streakers..." the Lyrakien keeps talking, nonchalantly talking about stuff no one knew about, as she follows after Percy.
"Ooooh, right, if I'm getting a new dress, can I have some of my old feathers on it? It feels weird not having any of them, I can't even do this anymore when I'm cold!" Crow says, bringing her shoulders close to her head and her arms straight around her sides "It doesn't really work without wings and feathers all over."
Zses just stands there immobile without saying anything, the situation currently completely escaping his understanding. With wide eyes, he goes back in his tent to come back shortly after, carrying some raven feathers.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Allie runs up, rubbing her eyes. "Whats all this yelling abou-" She looks at the small woman and her cheeks go red. "So I sleep next to my sister for one night and you bring a SMALLER WOMAN TO SLEEP WITH YOU?!" Allie kicks Zses in the shin. "WHO IS SHE!?"
Allie! It's crow! The dumb bird went and got him-herself fairied. Percy intervenes from the direction of the tent before Allie started spitting fire. Literally.
Hobbes subconsciously lets out a laugh as Allie starts her jealous tirade. "Ha!"
"Ow, ow!" Zses holds his shin. "Allie, it seems that's crow...I think. I have no idea how that happened" he says apologetically, before looking back at the gnome as his irises flash with a starry pattern "I got my memory back, though!"
Allie! It's crow! The dumb bird went and got him-herself fairied. Percy intervenes from the direction of the tent before Allie started spitting fire. Literally.
"Hey! I'm not a fairy! I'm an Azata, completely different thing!" the Lyrakien protest ass he follows Percy in her tent, waving to Allie before entering "Allie, dear, I'll get there in a moment. Don't kick Zses' shin too much, okay?"
"Oooh, Blue, I like this one! Do you think that maybe Hobbes and Silence could..." Crow keeps talking incessantly from the inside of Percy and Allie's tent, picking what to wear: more precisely, what Hobbes and Silence were supposed to refit to what she wanted to wear.
After a good bit of talking, it seems Crow settles on a blue skirt a little shorter than knee length, and a matching long coat, with some of her old feathers incorporated in both of them.
Allie's face goes blank. "Crow is a girl?" She stops kicking Zses and looks after her sister and the new Crow.
For her part Percy looks just as dumbfounded as Allie, but is hiding it better.
It doesn't take long to get the alterations done thanks to the skill of Hobbes and the Samukitteh. Percy emerges looking confident. That should do. For now, at least.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Crow follows just after Percy, giddy at her new dress.
"Muuuuuch better." the Lyrakien giggles, patting the feathers on her coat "Yeah, Allie, the whole thing surprised me a little, too. Hey, I can feel surprised now! It's great!".
"I guess I should explain what's going on though, as I'm pretty sure even Zses is still puzzling out what in the Hells is going on. " Crow sighs, scratching her head. "So, Zses always had a penchant for magic, (kinda dark and shadowy stuff, if you ask me) even if it'd never showed back in the day: never tried to study magic, and nothing bad ever happened to him to ever trigger the potential. Well, nothing bad ever happened until his mother died of sickness, when he was eight: left a scar on him, but instead of getting all magicky I was...born, you could say? on the Shadow Plane, out of the sorrow of that moment. Pretty s~#%ty thing to be born out of, I would have preferred kittens and rainbows, myself.".
The fairy shrugs. "I can't remember of what happened there to me either: I just...existed, I guess? Then, barely more than a year ago, Zses comes running, chased by a swarm of Gloomwings...but I guess you already know that part." the Lyrakien bites her lip "I recognized him, after years of not really being anything more than a memory: of course I offered to help him and to get him out of there. Technically I could have just done that, but..."
Crow turns to Zses, a serious look on her face "I thought that if you just kept knowing what had happened to your family, that you had nothing left, you would have just wallowed in the past and not moved on. So...I pretended that forgetting everything was the only way to get out of there. I don't deny that was really presumptuous on my part, and right now I feel really bad about doing it (also because now I can feel bad about stuff), but sorry, not sorry Zses: I just wanted to protect you.".
She turns to the rest of the party, looking apologetic "...And this is where you guys come in and where I really apologize. Simply put I didn't trust you at first. Like, at all. You are a bunch of weirdos: I mean, one of the most normal of you is Lyosha, and he recently started bleeding acid. Where is he by the-oh right, don't need to tell me. (Can I go wake those two up, afterwards? I wanna see their reaction!)". She coughs "Anyway, what I wanted to say is: sorry if I doubted you."
For the first time since you've seen her this morning, Crow smiles warmly to you.
"And, from the bottom of my hearth, thank you. Zses wouldn't be like he is now if it wasn't for you. Please, take care of him, don't abandon him. And, most of all, don't get killed. It would break his hearth and mine.".
She chuckles, reverting back to her chatty and perky.
"Really, Zses wouldn't know what do without you: the guy is a dork! Like, when he was a kid he could never even distinguish a crow from a raven! And that's just the tip of the iceberg, really."
"Yea, he wouldn't know what to do without us. But seriously, ya did what ya thought was right. And we wouldn't abandon him or anyone else here."
Percy comes to stand beside Hobbes and nods her agreement.
The felinerai had worked over the night on the crafted Hila armor, but no doubts his conversations in the crystal ball distracted him from getting any real progress done.
Vurnirn (approximately 5,000 people)
Spellcasting: 5th Level Druid spells, 4th Level Cleric spells
Base Value: 3,000gp
Purchase Limit: 15,000gp
----------------------------------------------
Wispy clouds race across the gleaming blue sky overhead, but the floor of the crevasse lies in shadow, the sunlight blotted out by the massive cliffs on either side. Gray grasses and scraggly trees poke through drifts of ice and snow, weaving their way through black boulders that lie at the base of the towering cliffs.
Crudely carved into the face of these cliffs, several miles apart, stand three impossible sculptures that each rise over half a mile in height. Each carving depicts a naked humanoid woman holding forth a warning hand. The first resembles a young maiden with flowing hair, the second depicts a pregnant matron, and the third a stooped and withered crone.
Percy stands in awe at the statues. They aren't Imbrex, but I have to admit I'm impressed.
"Yeah, that's amazing!" Zses nods, now finally back to his usual (if not even more) cheery self "I wonder who built them...and how they work as a safety mechanism against Kotschie. I doubt someone got up one day and told himself 'You know what we need to stop a demon lord? Giant naked statues'. "
"They're beautiful!" Sigrun says staring up at the magnificent representation of feminine power. It must be the work of master artisans."
"Yea, not bad at all. "
Allie looked up in awe. "They are pretty magnificent aren't they. And they each depict a time in a woman's life. I wonder what that means in regards to this place... She scratches her head
He sat on the back of the horse wishing he could speak the language to the exotic mare that had led them there, so instead he busied himself with looking at the statures in wonder.
"Well, just one way to find out. Let's go!" Crow smiles at Allie, sitting on Zses' shoulder. The Lyrakien had materialized a lute out of thin air, and was touching its cords to try to understand how it worked, marveling at the wonders of having opposable thumbs.
Zses happily trots after the others as they move on, pointing to the statue of the Maiden.
"I think we'll have to start from there: remember what the ravens said? The moon should be waxing tonight, so that's were we'll have to start." the witch chirps as they move closer to the gargantuan statue.
"If you ask me..." Zses continues when they reach the statue, scanning for magic at the feet of the sculpture "I think we'll have to wait until this night and see if something happens to get us up there. If that doesn't work...Well, I hope it does, or it'll take me several days to get everyone up there!"
"Of course, it's better if we check if there's actually an entrance." Crow says, getting up on Zses' shoulder and starting to flail her arm gently up and down.
"No, right, that's not I should do that anymore..." the Lyrakien stops, before starting to flap her wings and ascending up and up, looking for the supposed entrance of the statue.
It takes the Lyrakien over three minutes to reach the top of the statue. By the time she's scanned the area and returned to the base of the statue, it's been approximately seven minutes.
10 gp of progress will be done in six years :P
He frowned looking up at the statues and then looking to Mule... then to the statues again. The pixie fairy crow's antics almost made him snort with amusement especially when she flapped her arms instead of wings but he stayed quiet.
"That will be one hell of a climb." Sigrun says staring up into the distance.
"I don't know if climbing is a good idea." Crow says, as she flies back down. "Beside being one hell of a fall, there are Will-o'-Wisps along the way: they couldn't get to me fast enough, but climbing we'll be sitting ducks. And that's not even mentioning the killer tree." the Lyrakien shrugs, before telling the party what she had found.
"I'd say to wait this night and see if something happens that could get us up there: trying to just climb the thing is suicide. It took me more than 3 minutes to get to the top and let me tell you, I'm pretty fast now."
"We're in the right moon phase now so we wouldn't want to wait more than a day or two. Is there a way we could all fly for that long?" Sigrun asks.
After a night to rearrange his spells, Zses proceeds with the plan together with the others. After finding a spot from which they can't be seen from above (), he starts casting Flight and the required spells on Hila.
"Everyone ready?" he asks, before Allie casts an invisibility spell on him, too.
Walking unseen out of their hiding spot, Zses focuses to project an image of himself and whoever else was invisible in the group walking to a nearby section of the statue just under the will-o'-wisps, apparently casting some sort of spell and reading scrolls. After these preparations, the witch makes the images start climbing the statue as they were under the effect of a climbing spell, swiftly ascending the wall as he hovers invisible close to the illusory images.
Crow, on the other hand, starts flying up between Zses and the actual group.
When the witch's fakes are found out and he starts flying away, the Lyrakien summons an illusion mimicking Zses' voice away from both of them while fleeing up, to fool the Wisps to believe there actually is an invisible Illusionist, but attempting to give out the wrong position.
Percy sits quiet and hopes this works.
-------------------------------------------
Hila sits there rather patiently as various spells were cast on her. She was honored to act as a furry Slaygon and the small ones weren't heavy so it was easy. She nods at Zses' question.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Preparations complete, you begin the ascent. First, invisibly, Hila and the small folk start air walking up the East side of the Maiden Statue. Then Zses and Crow quietly move to the West side of the same statue and begin their ruse. Once the image appears, the rest of the party begins their ascent of the East side of the statue.
About halfway through the ascent, a quartet of will-o'-wisps fly toward the West side of the statue to investigate. Soon, they're flashing their lights in an attempt to entice the illusory climbers toward crumbling ledges and treacherous hand/foot holds.
Noticing the wisps, the Illusions stop for a moment to look at them with worry, before continuing to proceed up the statue.
After continuing to flash for several seconds, the wisps fly toward the illusions in a coordinated attack.
The Felinerai just clings to his mount eyes closed with worry
Hobbes just holds on for dear life as Hila walks through the air and up the cliffside.
Percy is living the ride. Noone can see it, but she's sporting the biggest grin right now. Hila can probably feel her nearly vibrating with excitement.
The wisps have realized that the climbers is an illusion and have now begun to circle around in search of the one responsible.
Without saying a word, Zses drops his illusion and starts flying up at full speed towards the rest of the group, still invisible.
As soon as Zses stops maintaining the Illusion, Crow concentrates and attempts to put her new powers to practical use for the first time.
"Dammit! They didn't fall for it!" Crow's voice seems to originate close from where the illusion of the group was, in the opposite direction from which Zses was flying away to.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Only one of the wisps is fooled by Crow's distraction, and the wisps quickly pinpoint the Lyrakien's location and swoop in for the attack. Of course, since she is significantly faster than them, this merely results in a lively chase until the wisps give up. By this time, everyone else has reached the top of the statue.
At the top of the statue, you see that vertiginous cliffs surround the mesa top on all sides, though a rock wall backing the top of the Maiden's head rises above the plateau, creating some cover from the cold winds blowing across the mesa. From every direction, the view is dizzying, offering a clear panorama of miles and miles of Iobarian wilderness. A small copse of bare, weathered trees stands in the shelter of the rock wall, their knotted roots clinging desperately to the cold, hard stone. Dozens of bones litter the ground before the grove, some so ancient that the tree's roots appear to grow right through them. Behind the trees, a shadowy arched opening in the wall leads deep inside the rock. Partially blocking the opening is an 18ft-tall Witch Tree with a gutted centaur corpse hanging from its branches.
Sensing your presence, the tree speaks. "All who seek to enter Artrosa must first present me with a sacrifice." A branch extends and points at the gutted centaur.
Percy sighs and crosses her arms. Nothing was ever simple, was it.
Anyone know how to summon animals? She asks under her breath.
"Or we could just kick her ass. I'm not really inclined to do what an evil tree-thing tells me to do." Crow says quietly, hovering near Percy.