I can't fail a DC 15 perception check. Is it just the two of them or are there more?
alright, shard, do your work...
"Your plan has failed," Teldon calls out fixing his gaze on the sczarni, "give us back the wolf cub and we'll let you go in peace." As he speaks a strongman with a greatclub and two acrobats with daggers, all wearing garish faire costumes, come charging into the alley.
"Get out of my way!!"
"Get out of my...*OOF*!"
Zee starts to shout at the crowd, but a rotund man wearing a comical pig mask walks right into her, knocking her off balance. Seemingly very embarrassed, he grabs her arm to keep her from falling. "By the gods, miss, I'm so sorry! I was looking over my shoulder at my friend Brin here... Hey, Brin, where'd you go? Anyways, so sorry miss. My name's Drumpf. What's yours? Hey, you look familiar-- have we met before? Can I buy you a drink as an apology...?" Drumpf continues to prattle on, seemingly in love with the sound of his own voice. He also doesn't let go of Zee's arm...
Joanna picks herself up and helps the couple to their feet with another apology before the young woman leads the young man away in a huff.
The young paladin hops up onto the rail once more and begins making her way down it. After a few steps she shouts out,
Shadlah, clambering up on to the wall of the bridge and moving along it with an almost unnatural grace, is quickly past the crowd and into the city... for a moment she loses track of Teldon ahead of her but then, as the moon picks out a familiar shape moving into an alleyway, she sees Teldon.
...whilst, out on the bridge behind her - Ziomarra, Joanna and Briana all get slowed on the overcrowded bridge.
- the Sczarni, seeing the Varisians moving into the alleyway, finish loading their crossbows... and, spitting insults down at the illusory figures, level their weapons.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Move on, people! I'm on a mission from my goddess. So let me pass!!
"Make way for Councilwoman Remiria! Coming through!" Zee names the chairwoman of the Varisian Council, and the crowd parts to let her pass.
As Arsith and Shadlah rush into the alleyway, confronted with the sight of Teldon standing amongst two wolves… and a gang of burly Varisians that appear to have come from nowhere. The women also catch sight of the sczarni standing on the rooftops… A sack, wriggling and straining as something moves inside, has been placed precariously on the roof between the two sczarni… and the sound of crossbow bolts clicking into position tells that there will be no peaceful resolution to this situation.
****************
Knowing Shadlah's abilities to manipulate earth would be more than enough to get rid of simple thugs, Arsith runs on a lonely barrel and jumps on the wall, climbing it with a near cat-like ability toward the wolf-nappers.
As Arsith clambers up the walls and on to the roof of the single-storey building, she has to duck to avoid being caught by the bolts fizzing down towards Teldon’s illusions…
Both bolts ‘strike’ the illusory figures marching along the alleyway before clattering harmlessly on to the cobbles behind them. Finally seeing the illusions for what they are, one of the Sczarni drops his crossbow and shouts a torrent of insults into the alleyway… whilst the other, not realising what his companion has deduced – and oblivious to Arsith clambering on to the roof, starts to load another bolt.
…as, finally free of the crowds that had so impeded their progress, Joanna, Ziomarra and Briana enter the alleyway…
Teldon walks cautiously up the alley with his shortsword at the ready . The strongman staggers backwards with a grunt and leans against the wall while he yanks out the two bloody bolts stuck in his chest. Meanwhile, with suitable flourish, the acrobats make quick work of joining Arsith and the sczarni on the rooftops.
Joanna sees Halli in the alleyway and relief floods into her. Any relief she had felt at seeing Halli safe vanishes when she sees the two Sczarni and the wriggling sack up above. She knows where to focus her attentions, seeing as the "acrobats" on the ground were helping Teldon. She moves to scramble up to the roof and help Arsith.
As she joins Arsith, she calls out to the two thugs.
"You have taken something that is not yours to claim. Lay down your arms and surrender and no harm shall come to you," she tells them as she readies herself for a fight, though she dearly hoped there would be no need for one.
Joanna, seeing the same handholds and ledges that allowed Arsith to climb on to the roof, is quickly up and facing the Sczarni... one of them, the one who has dropped his crossbow, is about to spit something in retort when his voice becomes slurred - held in place near the edge of the roof, he watches Arsith and Joanna approach... defiance writ across his face.
Holding her dagger, Arsith prepares herself for a battle waiting for Joanna's actions
You're all alone now.There is no need to shed blood. I'm all in favor of a peaceful resolution. Gives us the pup, and go away. We won't pursue you. I'm willing to give you twenty gold pieces, for the baby wolf. Not only you will go unscathed, but you'll be richer.
Shadlah's feet pound the cobblestones as she runs into the alleyway. Taking a moment to assess the situation, and noticing the thugs on the ground seemingly not harming Teldon, she breaks into a run again, leaping for the wall of one of the nearest buildings and shimmying up it like a squirrel climbing a tree. Once her feet are planted on the shingles, she turns her eyes on the Sczarni not currently paralyzed, before calling a burst of earth and stone to rip from the roof beneath him.
Even as Arsith starts to offer terms, Shadlah is climbing to the roof... and as the kidnapper who is still able to talk laughs at the paltry offering, "Hah... and that money will keep us safe from Mister Frallino when he don't get what he wants?", the shoanti rips part of the building away from beneath him...
...for a moment, it seems that he will fall - but he quickly regains his balance...
Seeing that Brianna has held one of the Sczarni, Zee makes the sign of the Evil Eye and gestures at the other.
Ignoring the illusory acrobats climbing up the walls... instead focussing their efforts towards the clearly dangerous shoanti, the Sczarni Kidnappers - the briefly paralysed criminal suddenly freed - rush at Shadlah...
Zee flings a Harrow card at the Sczarni she'd just cursed. The card spins through the air, slicing at the rogue, then arcs back to her hand.
One of the two acrobats stands on the roof with his feet firmly planted in a broad stance and his arms straight out to the sides from his shoulders, and he begins chanting. The second acrobat climbs him and settles into a headstand atop his head. Once so positioned, the second also extends his arms straight out and does a split so his legs are straight out. When he begins chanting too, geometric tattoos on both men glow and their bodies melt together creating a bizarre, headless, six-armed giant. The monstrosity has two large eyes on its stomach with one nose and mouth below them and another nose and mouth inverted above them.
Teldon stands below watching .
Seeing the men fail in their attack on Shadlah, Joanna sighs and tries to grab the wriggling sack before it can fall off the roof.
"He already has those barracudas he uses to threaten and torture people, why would he need a wolf," Joanna asks as the name Frallino triggers a memory from before the trip to Ravenmoor when she, Nalathi, and Aristh had been "relieved" of employment by a certain Pellius Crispin, and then she had helped a man named Birt break free of the Gallowed.
As the sczarni become increasingly outnumbered atop the roof of the Ordellia shack, they consider their options... and, as Teldon transforms (at least in the eyes of one of the kidnappers) the acrobats into a fearsome monster, the decision becomes one of survival... dropping their rapiers, and electing not to fight Joanna for the wriggling sack, they flee...
...leaping across the alleyway to a nearby building, one of the kidnappers slips in his run up and, caught by Ziomarra's card flicked towards him, barely manages to hold on to the ledge of the building at the other side of the alleyway. Cursing, he starts to scramble upwards... away from the wolves prowling beneath him.
The second kidnapper is less fortunate, mis-judging the jump entirely, he crashes into the opposite wall and, winded, can't hold on... falling to the cobbled ground of the alleyway, he instantly disappears beneath the two pouncing wolves...
...looking back into the alleyway, his face aghast, the surviving sczarni takes a long look at Teldon before fleeing...
The retrieved sack, when it is examined, somewhat unsurprisingly contains a very young wolf cub... and, clambering back down to the alleyway level, Joanna is able to return it to its parent... the larger of the two wolves... whilst Halli, the fur of his muzzle stained crimson red from the unfortunate sczarni, pads next to Joanna; resting his head against her waist, he sits... his eyes fixed upon the rest of the friends...
The hideous giant swan-dives off the roof, separating back into two acrobats on the way down. They both land gracefully in the alley and nod appreciatively at the adventurers before helping the injured strongman out of the alley. Once in the crowd they quickly vanish from sight.
"I suppose we'd better get the cub back to Lady Midnight," Teldon suggests while nodding back to the departing performers, "and let her know who was responsible, and that it might happen again."
"Shall we go then," Joanna asks as she sees Arsith and Shadlah clambering down. She's sitting on her heels and scratching Halli's ears with one hand while the other does the same to the wolf cub.
Once the others are ready, the young paladin walks with Halli at one side and the other two wolves at the other. She doesn't speak. Instead, she revels in the rightness of having Halli at her side and can't seem to stop the grin on her face from going ear to ear as the six of them head back to the faire.
"I am glad they are gone," Shadlah mutters, concentrating and allowing the shards of marble clustered at her joints to withdraw, the hard sheen to her skin disappearing. "They were most unsettling." Making her way down the side of the building with ease, her fingertips sinking into the wall and pulling out with a gentle ripple. "It is a shame one of the Sczarni escaped. There was no time to bring him down," she sighs, running a hand over her bald scalp.
As the group walks, she casts glances at Joanna and the wolf. "You seem to have grown attached already," she remarks casually.
Making their way back to Lady Midnight's fairground, the friends find themselves walking against the flow of folk returning from the carnival grounds yet their way is easily navigable - the two wolves padding along the street ahead of them cut a sizeable gap within the crowd. The cub, which must surely be no more than a few weeks old, is held within the muzzle of the larger wolf... and, by the time the friends reach the outer stalls of the faire - some of which are now closing up for the night - the cub has fallen asleep once more.
The masks worn by the faire workers have, for the most part, been dispensed with and gratitude is writ large across their faces as they see what the friends have done. And, back towards the centre of the showground where the tent looms quietly over the surrounding stalls... and to the clearing where Lady Midnight kneels, with two other faire workers, over the injured wolf. Racing ahead of the group, the wolves rush to Lady Midnight's side... and, unsteady at first, the injured wolf gets to its feet. With open arms, Lady Midnight greets the friends, "My friends... you have done a great thing... the Gallowed had demanded this pup as payment for their so-called protection but, as I explained to them, they are not mine to give. I was foolish to let my guard down, I should have known they'd make a play for it... but you were here my friends. The thieves who took the pup? Did they escape?"
...and then, noticing Halli has already returned to Joanna's side, "I do believe... yes, yes I can see it now... Do you feel the connection? She is yours as you are hers".
Lady Midnight, looking to one of her companions smiles, and within a couple of minutes a young lad has brought her a bottle of fiery looking spirits, "Friends and companions, a toast for the road?"
On the way back, Zee agrees with Shadlah's assessment about the circus performers who'd assisted them earlier. "Yes, there was something strange about them." She arches an eyebrow at Teldon.
Back at Lady Midnight's, Zee notices that the wolf is injured. "I might be able to help, with Desna's blessing."
Zee also kneels by the injured wolf. Her Harrow cards are in her left hand. She speaks a few mysitcal words and one of the cards rises from the deck a few inches in the air, glowing with a soothing bluish silvery light. Zee takes the glowing card with her other hand and presses it against the wolf's injury. The wounds begin to knit.
"I hope that is better."
Joanna Shrugs when the discussion about the acrobats that had helped comes up.
"I'm afraid I didn't have much attention to spare for them. I saw they weren't attacking Teldon, so I assumed they were there to help. Are they okay."
Joanna gives Lady Midnight a sheepish grin.
"I've felt since I first saw Halli. I knew that we would be friends from the moment she told me her name. I just didn't want to cause an inconvenience for you," she admits before kneeling beside Zee and calling on one of the last bits of her divinely granted power. A soft silver glow comes from her holy symbol and her eyes as she helps heal the wounds the wolf had suffered.
Joanna stands and absently scratches one of Halli's ears as she looks at Lady Midnight again.
"One escaped, the other, well. He learned first hand that wolves are hunters, and he was a pretender. As for Frallino, from everything I've heard he won't be happy. I just hope he and the one that got away didn't see me the last time I crossed paths with him," She says, her brow furrowed slightly in worry. She closes her eyes and sighs, relaxing a little. When her eyes open once more, she smiles and says, "but that is a worry for another time. I'd be honored to join your in a toast."
"They weren't real," Teldon confides in his friends, "I created them with my shard to distract and perhaps demoralize the sczarni."
Turning to Lady Midnight, Zee says, "I would be honored to join you in a toast!"
With a toast to the health of the friends, the prosperity of the fair and the wisdom of the gods, the friends are finally on their way… their numbers swelled by one as Halli, with one final look at the fair which had been her home, pads alongside Joanna. It is a long trek back to the Heidmarch Manor, with so many Magnimarians having attended the faire the streets remain quite crowded and there are no carriages available to take the friends back to the Summit… but finally, the long day draws to a satisfying close as the friends arrive back at the Pathfinder Lodge to find rooms ready for them… and, after the excitement of the faire, sleep comes quickly.
The next morning brings with it the smell of freshly brewed coffee and fine cooking… wafting its way up the stairs, the smells lead the friends – making their way downstairs, the friends find Lady Heidmarch and Unselm sat at the large kitchen table. Lady Heidmarch stands as each of them comes in, Good Morning to you all… I trust last night was a welcome distraction from your work for the society? Please, take a seat and help yourself to whatever you want… I’m sure today will be a busy day!!!”
…and when Joanna arrives, Halli padding along beside her, Lady Heidmarch is only mildly surprised. Smiling, she passes a letter to Joanna, ”It’s from Sandpoint… and Joanna, you have a new companion?”
Sitting down, Lady Heidmarch looks across the table, ”Unselm will tell you a little more once you are all gathered… but he has managed to find a vessel that is willing to take you to the Lady’s Cape… it won’t sail until tomorrow morning so you have one more day in Magnimar – today, you will need to ensure you have everything you need out at the Lady’s Light, there will be no opportunity to re-provision out in the Mushfens!!!”
Joanna squeals in surprise as a cold, wet nose finds the exposed small of her back under the covers and wakes her up. After a second to get her bearings, Joanna finds Halli, front paws on the bed, her tail wagging furiously, and panting happily as she looks at Joanna.
The paladin chuckles as she reaches out and pets the wolf on the head with on hand while she uses the other to help steady herself as she slides off the bed.
"Halli, you're gonna have to find a less disturbing way to wake me up," she says as she makes her way to the water set out for freshening herself up. "I think I woke half the manor up just now."
With that, she goes through her normal routine, save one alteration where she plays with Halli after finishing her morning prayers.
If Joanna's squeal hadn't woken anyone up, her laughter probably did.
===
Joanna shows up for breakfast in her normal adventuring clothes, thinking it would be better to go armed and armored after the events of yesterday and last night. When Lady Heidmarch mentions a letter and a new companion, she pauses fixing her plate and takes the letter and opens it, a little too excited about it to think of waiting. As she breaks the seal, she turns her attention to the Venture Captain.
"Yes, milady. Allow me to introduce you to Halli. We met at Lady Midnight's Faire and, well. I don't think there was anything short of chaining the both of us that would have kept us apart," She says before turning her attention back to the letter.
As Joanna reads, Halli begins to sniff around and catches a whiff of something that wasn't familiar to her. using her keen nose she goes to Teldon, sniffling at his boots, then to Briana, touching her wet nose to her hand to get a better smell. A few more minutes pass before Halli finds Rowenna hiding under one of the buffet tables that lined the walls of the dining room.
What's this? It looks like one of the big cats, but littler, and it doesn't smell right, she thinks before slowly crawling forward to get a better whiff.
===
After a hearty breakfast, Joanna heads out to the Crow with Teldon, Briana, and anyone that wanted to come or didn't want to help gather supplies. Halli, of course, stays with Joanna, who keeps a close eye on her as she explores the new environs a bit. Travelling through the thinning morning fog, Joanna keeps an eye out for trouble as she rows the boat out and is grateful that none managed to find them as she pulled the boat close to the "dock" at the waterline and tied the boat off.
As the others are busy cataloging and sketching, Joanna makes for the chamber they had found Brast in, Halli walking close at her side as she lights the way with a torch.
Halli looks at Rowenna a little confused. She was just wondering what she was, and it wasn't like she was going to eat her. She scooches under the table a little more and gets a better whiff. Unfortunately, she gets a nose full of cat fur along with the scents of the two humans she'd smelled earlier, causing her to sneeze right in Rowenna's face.
Gah! Itchy nose! Itchy nose! It itches where I can't scratch!
"Ah! Forgive me," Joanna says quickly after Briana thanks Lady Heidmarch, "I seem to have forgotten my manners. Yes, thank you for all your help in getting this arranged. Though, given that we only have a day, what if we were to split up, some of us gather supplies that we need while some of us head to the Crow to finish up our business there?"
"I can't think of who else it could be," she answers as she turns to Brianna, "and I certainly hope they are doing okay."
The young paladin then begins to read the letter.
Joanna sees the worry on Briana's face and gives her a reassuring smile.
"It'll be alright, Bri. If there's any baddies left, Halli and I will protect you," the paladin tells her friend, "and I know Teldon will be by your side the entire time. You'll be fine."
The letter from Sandpoint is, as Briana suggests it might be, from the Korzha's. It is written, not in a particularly elegant scripr, but with clear affection - it thanks Joanna, and the rest of the friends, for what they have done for the Korzha family; for 'rescuing' them from the nightmare that was Ravenmoor, for helping them to find a new life in Sandpoint and for taking care of Shel. There is an open invitation for the friends to come to the Korzha farm in Sandpoint whenever they are passing through... and a request that they ask Shel to write to her family when she can. It is clear, from the tone of the letter, that the Korzha family have found happiness in Sandpoint.
Returning to the kitchen and pouring himself a particularly strong smelling coffee, Unselm takes a seat - and when Lady Heidmarch nods to him, he lets the friends know how his business at Dockway went, "Well... it was as I thought, there are few captains willing to take their vessels anywhere near the Lady's Cape. Most fear stranding their ships upon the rocks yet some have slightly more... esoteric... concerns - the tales of beasts coming from the mists around the coast and dragging sailors into Sorshen's lair persist... no doubt exaggerated and amplified over the years through tale and sea shanty. Still, suffice to say it wasn't easy... but I have found one captain willing to take you near enough to the Cape that you could row ashore. Yarnelle Fessender of the Wanton Ways... I've taken the liberty of paying for your passage already. She's preparing for passage to Absalom as we speak... and sails at dawn tomorrow".
...and then, aside to Joanna, "I enquired about the Golden Key for you... it set sail for Osirion yesterday at noon".
The Crow seems to exude a strange atmosphere now that the friends have explored, and defeated its most hazardous denizens, its ancient chambers and passageways. On the surface, it certainly feels 'safe' yet somehow there is a feeling that this is an ancient - almost unknowable - place; and that even the very rock of the ancient structure resents the presence of the Pathfinders.
Slowly, and cautiously, the friends make their way down to the lowest levels of the Thassilonian ruins. Taking the opportunity to make sketches of the various relics, murals and statues that still stand, the Pathfinders do a fine job of recording their exploration... and, after maybe two hours of trekking through, they come to the final chambers... where the familiar sound of Brast's singing, more morbid songs about funereal practices around the Inner Sea, echo along the tunnels...