Arsith and Joanna, seeing their friends in peril... Ziomarra terribly injured by the demon's scimitar and Teldon retreating from a very definite charge towards him... call upon the reserves of their faith, and find each of their goddesses smiling upon them - steel crashes against the demon, breaking bone and pausing the beast's assault upon Ziomarra...
Still focused on his target, Teldon continues attempting to gain the incubus attention in the hopes of providing Zee with the opportunity to move out of harm's way.
______
Zee cries out in pain as the demon's blade cuts a deep gash in her abdomen. Red, living blood quicly saturates her blouse and flowing skirt, pooling on the ground below her.
With an expression equal parts anger, fear, and desperation, Zee takes off her Varisian scarf. With the flourish of a kapenia dancer, she swings it at the demon in wide arcs as thehidden blades come out... but more to distract it from Joanna's attack than to damage it directly.
Easily stepping past the roots bursting through the floor here, the incubus chasing Teldon avoids being caught by Briana's hex... although, bolstered by the shaman's energies, Ziomarra does now stand a little stronger against the onrushing demon...
Arsith fails to hit again...
Joanna continues her assault on the incubus.
Joanna smashes into the incubus as it tries to push past Ziomarra, her blade cutting deep into flesh and striking bone... yet it is not enough to stop the demon from its continued assault upon her friend...
Struck twice by the demon's black blade, Ziomarra is sent reeling... and, as the world turns and spins around her, she can do nothing to stop the demon pushing past her... nor can Teldon, taken by surprise by the speed at which the lascivious fiend rushes at him, move out of the way. Smiling with fangs bared, the demon grabs at Teldon's wrist... and the pair of them vanish from view...
Now the only monster in the room, the remaining incubus postures in an inviting pose... and, winking cheekily, blows a kiss towards the assembled group...
Jonna just stares blankly at where Teldon had stood only a moment ago. He was gone.
Just gone.
The runes and the glow from her eyes fades, leaving the young paladin standing there, shocked. Though the magic has no effect on her, she feels its insidious pull and a snarl curls her lips. She can't see the incubus, but she knows it's mocking them.
With a cry of fury, she spins on her feet, throwing her shield like a discus and aiming for the smug demons too-pretty face, white and silver flames flow over her like water, leaving behind celestial runes glowing with divine radiance. her dark hair turns silver and her eyes blaze with holy fire as she charges the demon with both hands on the hilt of her sword. The other one may have escaped, but this one was going to die here. Joanna will make certain of that.
Wiping blood from its brow, the brutal wound inflicted by Joanna marring its vision, the Incubus can only grin, "Your friend has been chosen by my mistress... he is hers now - for a few exquisite days at least".
Zee clutches her abdomen where the incubus' blade cut deeply. She staggers back, away from the demon, still glaring at it with a look of sheer hatred.
"O mie de blesteme pe tine!"
She coughs, immediately wincein in pain. Blood drips from the corner of her mouth.
Struggling with the pain as her lifeblood gushes out, Zee can do little more that watch in disbelief as the demon grabs Teldon and teleports away.
"No..."
Clutching her terrible wound, Zee whispers a desperate prayer to Desna, who answers by healing her wounds.
Her stoney face breaking as echoes of her past life crash over her, Shadlah is momentarily off-balance.... and the blast that she sends towards the incubus is naught but dust.
...and, moving easily out of Briana's panicked grab, the demon slashes at the shaman - the highly polished blade sinking deep into her shoulder and then, as it is pulled free, twisted painfully. Smiling cruelly at the damage wrought upon Briana, the incubus says only one word in response to her demand, "No".
Whilst, as Ziomarra heals herself, she turns and looks at Gnaeus - who has not aided in this fight at all - the dhampir's visage is wracked with confusion... and then, as a beatific gaze of supplication washes over his face, he reaches at Ziomarra, "This is for my mistress... I shall love her and protect her for as long as I live..." As his hand brushes across Ziomarra's waist, a wave of black energy stabs into her skin... and, pulsing as it does so, seems to pull at the Varisian's lifeforce.
A look of shock crosses Zee's face as she is betrayed by her erstwhile ally. "Why...?"
She then collapses to the ground.
As Joanna sees Brianna brutally injured and Zee crumple after Gnaeus attacks her, memories of Ravenmoor come flooding back, but the despair they normally brought was absent. Instead, white-hot rage roared in her heart and a wolf's snarl came from her and Halli. As the paladin lunged at the incubus, the wolf lept at the traitor.
Joanna's blade, fuelled by rage, swings in a glorious arc... and striking hard, takes the demon's impossibly handsome head clean off of it's shoulders. Slumping forwards, the decapitated body crumples to the floor. Halli is already racing at the traitor in their midst... bounding forwards, she leaps and bites at the dhampir - her teeth sink into flesh but, despite shaking hard, she cannot drag Gnaeus to the floor...
Miss Z! You'll pay for that...Briana, save her life, while I take care of Gnaeus
Shield held high, Arsith charges the man, trying to push him away from her fallen friend.
But as she is careful not to step on the prone Varisian, she doesn't put all her skill and weight in the maneuver.
It seems the white haired woman is reluctant to kill the dhampir, but tries to neutralise him all the same.
As Arsith rushes at the dhampir, he easily steps out of the way... and, with black energy wreathed around his hand, Gnaeus once more reaches for Ziomarra...
The dark tendrils that are writhing around the dhampir's arm plunge into Ziomarra's still form, and Gnaeus sighs almost erotically as the energy runs back along his wrist... and Ziomarra, deathly grey, lies perfectly still beneath the traitor...
Halli loops around Gnaeus, but holds her attack, growling and snarling as her blue eyes glow coldly. She holds the traitor's attention, waiting, but for what?
The dhampir is given an answer as behind him Joanna screams in raw fury. Holy fire shimmers down her silver hair and blazes from her eyes and the runes glowing on her sword and armor. There would be no mercy this time as the young paladin charges into the fray, only missing the wings to be the very image of an avenging angel.
Sprawled on the floor, Zee gasps and shudders as the dhampir steals what remains of her life essence. She then lies deathly still.
Joanna, seeing Ziomarra's last moments at the hands of Gnaeus, charges... crashing into the dhampir and sinking her blade deep. So hard is her attack that the aura of energy that had pulsed around him as he pulled at Ziomarra's lifeforce dissipates instantaneously... and then, tugging at his heels, Halli attacks...
...and, even though he has been struck twice - and is hopelessly outnumbered - Gnaeus smiles beatifically through it all...
Arsith seems in shock, as Ziomarra life's is sucked away from her body to the quasi-undead.
Then she bashes him, showing no restraint, tears in her eyes, her white hair a wild halo over her grief striken face.
NOOOOOOOOOOO! What have you done? I would have shown mercy, if you hadn't killed Ziomarra! Now feels my wrath, and die!
Shadlah reels in surprise - one moment, Teldon was prodding at the demons with a spear; the next, he was gone, in a flash of red light and - she sniffs - sulfur. Before the stench can clear, the dhampir has laid a hand on Ziomarra and - with no effort at all - slain her.
The sight of the Varisian woman lying in front of her, lifeless, thick hair spread across the filthy floor - chills her. For a moment, Alessa lies before her, body crushed between stone and stone; her vision flickers, and it's Ziomarra again.
She tries to speak, but her throat is dry as sand; her breath rasps as she draws it, panting heavily. When she growls, the walls rumble. When she twists her body through the familiar forms, the stones move with her. And when the earth shakes, so does she, bones rattling and legs quivering, as she stomps one foot with enough force to crack the stone floor. The blast erupts not from her hands, but from the floor, the rift to the plane of earth bursting upwards suddenly and violently beneath Gnaeus' feet in a shower of jagged shards that slice into his skin and disrupt his graceful balance.
Somewhere...else?
Where am I...? The large chamber is lit with greenish, obviously magical light. She looks to see many columns holding up the ceiling, each carved in the form of the same beautiful woman in different poses. I've been here before... Flashes of memory cross her mind... Had she consulted with the architects that built this place? No, she explored it with her friends. Her friends... Joanna, Brianna, Arsith, Tedon, Nalathi... no, not Nalathi... Shadlah. She steps out of the coffin, finding herself on a square marble platform, raised about five feet above the floor. The stone is cool and slightly damp on her bare feet.
"This is where we found the clone of Sorshen..." she says aloud. She turns and looks at the now-empty sarcophagus. ...and that's where we left the clone. What happened to it? Zee has another odd flash of a memory she can't place... of reviewing the work of the Master Necromancer who'd created it... No, that wasn't me!
Still disoriented, she steps out and looks down at herself. She is wearing an ornate red silk dress with silver embroidery that covers very little of her. Why am I wearing this? She then looks at her hands and gasps.
Her elaborate Varisian tattoos are gone!
What has happened? How long have I been here?
Arsith, too slow to have pushed Gnaeus away as he fed upon Ziomarra's lifeforce, makes no mistake this second time... her weapon swinging through the air with the power of an avenging angel and crashing into her foe's skull. Dazed and bleeding, he is caught by Briana's burst of energy before, utterly helpless before its ferocity, he is picked up by Shadlah's tide of rock... and battered, broken and losing consciousness, is swept against the high ceiling of the chamber. Having left a bloody imprint upon the tiles above them, Gnaeus falls back to the floor... finally dead.
A stillness falls over the room... the carvings of the woman in the columns seem to survey the scene before them - the decapitated body of the incubus, the bloodied remnants of Sorshen's abandoned lover, the empty space where Teldon had once stood... and Ziomarra's corpse, still and lifeless upon the elaborate mosaic of the floor. The stillness is abruptly interrupted by an echoing crash, as if something far away - something remarkably heavy - had crashed to the floor. It is the kind of noise that is felt as much as it is heard.
...and then silence returns.
Panicked and sick with guilt, Arsith cradle Ziomarra's body in her arms
We need to return, and try to bring Miss Z back to life! I have no idea how much that would cost, but surely we must at least try..
As Gnaeus dies, the white flames around Joanna burn out. Her hair turns black and along her armor and her sword are the runes of the celestial language burned into the metal. The paladin turns to where Arsith cradles Ziomarra's lifeless body and falls to her knees next to the priestess of Shelyn.
No. No, she can't be dead
"I-Iomedae, Inheritor and the Eternal Dawn, please, grant me the strength to heal their hurts," she prays while holding her holy symbol. A soft, silver light surrounds all of them and heals some of their wounds, but Zee does not awaken.
"P-p-please," she begs as once again soft, silver light once again mends their wounds, but has no effect on the fallen Harrower. In desperation, Joanna places the her hands over Zee's heart and channels the last of the divine power she'd been granted into healing her.
But the dead do not heal.
Her power spent, Joanna begins to shudder. The nightmares of Ravenmoor call to her, taunt her. Grief and fear squeeze her heart and as she turned to Brianna, she freezes.
"Bri– I... I..." she tries to say, but the words won't come. Her face crumples and tears begin to fall down her cheeks. She throws her arms around her friend, the only other one from that original group now, the one that'd met what seems like a lifetime ago, and begins to sob while Halli lets out a high, grieving howl.
"I'm sorry," the paladin cries, "I'm sorry!" She cries over and over again
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Elsewhere...
And then Zee remembers exactly where she'd seen such a mark: the abdomen of the clone of Sorshen.
She touches her own hair, pulling a handful before her eyes. He hair is no longer thick, coarse, wavy, and dark brown... it's now jet black, smooth, and straight... almost like the hair of people from Tien Xia. Her hair is also longer than her own had been.
She steps down from the dais, and finds that it was lower than she remembered. No, it's not lower... I'm taller!
With a sinking feeling in the pit of her gut, she comes to a horrific realization: I am in the body of the clone of Sorshen!
But what happened to my body?
She then assesses what she has on her person, and also examines the now-empty sarcophagus. She is wearing jewelry: a necklace of blue stones on a silvery chain; a pair of emerald-studded earrings, gold rings on seven of her fingers, and an anklet of pink pearls. Remembering her spells, she instinctively reaches for her Harrow deck, but then realizes that she doesn't have it. She instead casts it in the more difficult manner without it, and her perception shifts, allowing her to see magical auras. The sarcophagus's formerly overwhelming magic has ebbed greatly; even now, she sees the lingering aura ebb. The flimsy dress she wears does radiate faint magic. She then examines the sarcophagus itself, and finds a small metal door that had been under where Sorshen's body had lain. Opening it, she discovers a bejwewled dagger in an ivory sheath, with small leather leg straps. Drawing it, the silvery blade seems lighter than it should. A scene of entwined succubi in a lascivious pose is etched into the blade. Also in the small chamber are six glass potion bottles, but all of them are empty, as if the contents had evaporated over the millennia.
Strapping the dagger to her thigh, Zee casts another spell, and four glowing Harrow cards appear, illuminating the shadows beyond the sepulcher. Remembering the beach with the boats, she decides to retrace her steps in the hopes of determing how long she's been here and where her friends might be.
She approaches the closed red door, and she regards the images carved thereon. Remembering the correct panel to push, the doors swing open. Zee then steps onto the beach. There, she discovers the same four rowboats that she and her friends had taken deeper into the cavern. Yet, looking at the footprints in the sand, she finds no signs of any leading back to the door.
She approaches the water, letting it splash onto her bare feet. While she remembers falling into the water and that it was bitterly cold, it now feels refreshingly cool. "I guess I'll have to row..."
And then another almost alien thought crosses her mind... a memory of rising into the air and flying, high above the Grand Mastaba of Xin-Eurythnia...smiling at the sight of a hundred-foot statue of herself... "That wasn't me!" she says aloud. She also realizes that her feet no longer feel wet. Looking down, Zee sees that she is hovering about six inches above the water. Suprised, yet not, she wills herself into the air, flying above the water to the next beach.
Flying past it, she glances at the island where Teldon had wanted to camp. The glass shards of the destroyed golem are still strewn across the rock. Zee then glides over the beach, looking at the footprints in the sand. Again, no footprints seem to lead back out. She alights just before the door that leads deeper into the subterranean chambers. She opens it, stepping into the chamber beyond.
I'm afraid I goofed with my record keeping. I should have 1 Hero Point left since I'd forgotten, apparently, that I can Smite twice per day instead of once.
As Brianna stands there, Joanna finally cries herself out. Every now and then her shoulders heave with a silent sob, but no sound comes from the paladin. She just stands there, holding Briana tight. Even when Briana speaks, saying they need to keep moving, she doesn't let go.
"Bri," she whispers to her friend in a soft, broken voice, "I'll do what I can, but... But you should know it's not much. If... If we run into more of those demons, I don't know if I can beat them. I'm... I'm sorry. If I'd been faster or smarter or wiser or stronger, I might have been able to stop that one from taking Teldon, or that bastard from killing Zee. I'm sorry, Bri. I'm sorry!"
It's my fault. I should have tried to heal her, instead of attacking our foe. Or I should have shielded her with my own body. Or drag her to safety, with Shadlah. Instead, I took the worst decision, failed whatever stupid plan I tried, and she payed the price. With her life.
Arsith is visibly angry with herself, and full of guilt again.
What is happening? She snaps her hand away, somewhat flustered.
Does some fragment of Sorshen yet live in this body? Will these feelings pass? Will I be able to return to my own body?
After a moment of doubt, she turns and continues down the corridor, determined to find out what became of her friends. Thankfully, the erotic mural was never completed. She then finds herself outside the doors where they'd encountered the dhampir Gnaeus. Her murderer.
Why did you turn on us? We only wanted to free you of Sorshen's influence... She shakes her head at the memory. Not hearing anyone beyond the doors, she steps through. She looks at the sight of their earlier battle, and notices something that gives her hope: Fresh bloodstains on the floor, exactly where the fight had been. The blood is still red and tacky... The fight could not have happened more than an hour ago! My friends must still be here!
She presses on, into the room with the now-headless statues and broken pieces of spider-legged golems. Following the passage, she rounds the bend to approach the last room she'd seen before her... transformation.
Joanna nods, unable to trust her voice. She gathers up her sword and shield and kneels to hug both Arsith and Halli. She looks to Shadlah, and hesitates a moment before wrapping her up in a hug as well.
The show affection seems to bring some measure of comfort to the young paladin. She is far from her normal self, but she was no longer on the verge of crying until she was sick.
"I'll scout ahead with Halli," she tells the others before walking down the hall and rounding the bend...
Coming face to face with Runelord Sorshen.
"What?! HOW?!" Joanna nearly panics as she fumbles for her sword and shield, trying to ready them even as she takes a step back. Halli stays by her and snarls at the newest enemy the group faces as Joanna manages to ready her shield and level her blade at the ancient wizard's heart.
As Joanna turns the bend to come face-to-face with Runelord Sorshen herself, Sorshen smiles broadly at Joanna's appearance. She starts to open her arms and cries, "Jo!" but her voice is cut off by the paladin's challenge and defensive stance.
Startled for a moment, Sorshen's expression becomes alarmed. She raises her arms in surrender. "Sorry, I forgot that I don't look like myself... I surrender. I have no wish to fight you, my friend. We have been through too much together for that."
The woman before Joanna stands nearly six feet tall, with straight jet-black hair that reaches her waist. She wears a diaphanous red dress with silver thread covered in Thassilonian runes... but barely covers much of her body. On her bare abdomen is a rune about 12 inches tall, a darker skin tone, as if it were a too-perfect birthmark.
"Jo— it's me, Ziomarra. I don't know how or why, but I woke up in the body of Sorshen's clone. How long has it been? Did you defeat the demons, and that treacherous dhampir? And have you found Teldon yet?"
Recognizing the blank look of confusion on her friend's face, she continues, "You don't believe me. Of course you don't believe me—why would you? What can I say to convince you...? You are Josephina Whitehall, known to your friends as Joanna, paladin of Iomedae. You are from Magnimar. You don't get along with your stepmother, which is why you became an adventurer. We are Pathfinders, reporting to Venture-Captain Heidmarch. We are searching for the seven shards of the Sihedron; we have found two so far, and they led us here to the Lady's Light."
Her voice is deep for a woman's, clear and resonant, yet sultry... and she speaks with a distinct Varisian accent; an accent identical to Zee's. "Sorshen" pauses, hands still in the air.
She then continues, "Te rog, Joanna... de Cântarea Sferelor, eu sunt cel ce spun!"
The clatter of wood and steel on stone ring out as Joanna's arms fall to her sides, then drop the sword and shield she held. Her eyes are wide as she stands there dumbstruck for what seems an eternity.
It can't be. There is no way, yet she is certain that it is. Somehow, she knows that this is Ziomarra. Halli, no longer snarling, beings to sniff at the tall, beautiful woman before settling on her haunches and looking curiously at her.
Then Joanna rushes forward and wraps her arms around Ziomarra as she nearly knocks her over. Her embrace is tight, almost painfully so, as she begins to cry once more.
"W-w-we thought we lost you Zee," she sobs, "We thought you were gone."
Arsith is still near Miss Z lifeless corpse, when she hears Jo speaking to someone else
Withe a broken voice, she manages to say
What's happening now? Another foe to vanquish, or to be killed by? When will it stop?
Zee returns the embrace, even though her bare flesh pressing against Jo's armor is not particularly comfortable. As more of her friends arrive, she releases her friend.
"Brianna! Arsith! I am so glad to see you! Despite my appearance, It's me, Ziomarra! After Gnaeus turned on me, everything went black for a moment. But then I woke up in a coffin with a stone lid. Just as I was starting to panic, the coffin righted itself and the lid fell away... and I was back in the room where we'd found the clone of Sorshen, but the clone was missing. It took me a few minutes to realize that I was Sorshen's clone."
The voice coming from the mouth of "Sorshen" is much deeper and more resonant that Zee's had been... but her Varisian accent and cadence is identical to how Zee had spoken.
She pauses, then continues. "When I triggered that magical trap on the clone's sarcophagus that almost killed me... something must have happened to reattune the clone to me. So, when I... died... at the hands of that dhampir, I woke up in the body of the clone.
"So, tell me, how long has it been? Days? Hours? Have we found Teldon yet?"
A look of deep concern crosses Zee/Sorshen's face. "Oh. I hadn't condidered that I would see myself... dead. I don't know if I'm ready..."