"Uhh..." Teldon begins, even more awkwardly than before, "don't bother heading to the Lupescu's... they're sleeping off the flayleaf and Shel is headed for, or already hiding at, the Chenowitz place – that derelict farm near the Manor."
Joanna looks at Teldon, her eyes wide, whether in horror or disbelief is hard to tell. And in that single moment, it's clear that martial prowess and the tenets of her faith weren't the only thing she learned from Brother Titus.
"Shit!"
And she's out the door racing for the abandoned farm.
well, I guess that's the end of that conversation...
"We may be back shortly... if we do find Shel we won't have many options for places to take her..." Teldon says to Viorec as he hastily follows Jo into the darkness.
"Nalathi, would you mind staying here to keep an eye out in case we were followed?" or in case Viorec isn't the ally Joanna takes him for...
Zee looks at her friends for a moment with an expression of confusion when Joanna runs into the night. But then reality sets in, "Wait! Don't go by yourself!" She rushes after her friend.
Trying to keep her voice low while running to keep up, "Teldon, what exactly did Shel say to you...?"
Nalathi, who had been ready to run with Joanna, shrugs and smiles wordlessly at Viorec when Teldon suggests she stay behind...
Running from the Korzha household at full pelt, Joanna - nor any of her friends running to catch up with her - has little time to notice the gentle light coming from various houses within the village. If she had stopped to look, she would have seen the flayleaf effigies of Desna burning slowly in the windows... an invitation to the 'Dream Tender' to bestow good dreams upon those living in the house - and a good indication that the residents are sleeping fitfully...
Viorec's words echo in Briana's ears...No one lives there anymore... It's one of the oldest places in the village - a farm that had already failed when Iola went into the Churlwood... It's left there as a reminder of what could have been - and as a place to scare the children... Don't go near the Chenowitz Place... Behave yourself and don't go near the Chenowitz Place...
Five friends run beneath the moonless sky... running past the stone circle with its Desnan effigy propped uselessly in a corner... running beneath the looming shape of the Kriegler Manor up on the hill... and finally arriving at the ruined farmhouse...
...The Chenowitz Place...its windows boarded over with rotten timbers and slowly decaying in a clearing nestled within an overgrown field at the edge of town. During the daylight, it looked to be nothing more than an abandoned farm - a strange anomaly within a village of otherwise reasonably maintained house but now, beneath the stars, it seems somehow a malevolent presence... The feeling of something very old... and very dangerous...
...the tall weeds that seem to infest this part of the village form a tunnel of sorts into the front yard of the building... and, from somewhere off to the right in the yard, a soft light is illuminating the building - the light flickers gently as if it comes from a lantern.
Seeing the light of the lantern and the shadow flitting in front of it, Joanna draws her sword and rushes to it.
Teldon pauses for a moment to let Briana catch up. When Zee rushes by him he matter-of-factly answers, "Μου ζήτησε να τη συναντήσει στο εγκαταλειμμένο αγρόκτημα και να καταστρέφω της." He grabs Briana's hand as soon as she's within reach and resumes running.
I knew when we left that I should have brought my armor and longspear... charging towards Nethys only knows what with no armor and only this shortsword and dagger, this is what I get for trying to follow social conventions...
As they run he calls to Zee in as hushed a voice as he trusts she'll hear, "Any chance you can grant me some mage's armor?"
***
there, in the grass... people, hiding... and, what is she? sh!t...
"Over there," Teldon calls out while drawing his shortsword and pointing with it towards the hidden people, "there are people hiding right where Jo's headed!" As he moves to follow her he invest the shortsword with a spark of arcane energy .
The only acknowledgement that Joanna gives Teldon's warning is to draw her shield as she continues to rush to where she hopes Shel is.
Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay...
Approaching the abandoned farmhouse, Zee appears winded from the run and still feels a bit dizzy from the flayleaf salad.
She looks where Teldon is pointing, but doesn't seem to notice anything untoward. Still, she draws her spell deck from its case.
There's someone in the yard, indeed...Let's be cautious
Running into the yard with little time for stealth, her only concern being for the safety of Shel Lupescu, Joanna is confronted by the strangest sight. What, at first glance and in the dim light of a hooded lantern, appears to be a pair of mosquito headed humanoids is actually two women, both dressed in dirty off-white coveralls and wearing an elaborate mask of twigs and sackcloth. As the friends rush into the clearing, they start to advance, sickles waving menacingly...
...and from the left side of the yard, another figure - a man wearing the same outlandish garb - hisses, "She will do... subdue her!!!"
...there is a sudden rustling from the tall weeds and a rising drone of quickly beating wings - illuminated by the cold light of the stars, four stirges take to the air...
Well... I suppose when defense is not a real option it's time to embrace the adage 'the best defense is a good offense'...
Teldon charges the man who appears to be in control.
,
Surprised by both the mosquito-costumed cultists and a buzzing flock of stirges, Zee turns toward the latter. Intercepting their approach, she fans her Harrow deck while speaking arcane words. Suddenly, she throws her deck at the stirges, and all of the cards burst into flame, trailing jets of orange fire. The stirges are caught in the conflagration.
Her cards then appear in her hand as if nothing happened.
"Briana, try and keep the cultist from dying after we down them," Joana calls out before turning to the two cultists before the lantern.
"Tell me where Shel Lepescu is! If you've so much as harmed a hair on her head, then I'll send you to whatever fate awaits you in the Boneyard," she snarls as she marches towards them, sword before her, her holy symbol glittering in the lantern light and her eyes glowing silver.
Aristh moves to attack a cultist , siding with Joanna
Hearing the man shout before he sees him, Teldon turns and, setting his spear ahead of himself, charges the strangely garbed man. There is a moment of resistance as the spear strikes the man’s stomach…and then it slides in – the dirty robes instantly staining a crimson red as the wound gushes with blood… Staggering backwards and pulling the spear out, the man is still upright… just.
Whilst, pushing her way into the tall weeds, Ziomarra looks to stop the airborne stirges before they can attack. A torrent of flame is aimed upwards and out of the dry foliage catching two of the beasts; instantly incinerated within the white hot fire, their charred bodies fall from the sky.
The remaining stirges, having reached a height of twenty feet or so, swoop at Teldon and at Joanna. Darting downwards, their barbed legs attach to the flesh of their prey and, somewhat disgustingly, their thin proboscis slides into the torso of their opponent… almost instantaneously, they start to drink…
.
With Teldon fighting off the stirge, the wounded man staggers forward and swipes at him with a rusty looking sickle…
The other two, seeming a little unsure of themselves, step forwards – waving their sickles in the air before them…
.
"keep me from dying..." Teldon grumbles in response to Joanna's orders, as blood runs down his arm from the sickle wound and the stirge suckles away at his abdomen. Stepping back away from the male cultist, he focuses on cutting the stirge off with his shortsword
,
Joanna stops her advance and looks glares at the overgrown mosquito before trying to kill it.
That done, she rips out the proboscis and pins the two cultists with a deadly glare.
"Where. Is. Shel," she demands as she she begins her advance once more.
Undeterred by the unpleasant leathery beasts attempting to feast upon their blood, both Teldon and Joanna use their weapons to slice the creature from them and, whilst they struggle and flap on the floor, to deliver a bloody ending to them… and, with that, only the mosquito masked people remain…
Zee moves out of the weeds to close to the cultist attacking Teldon. Her ice-blue eyes are sharp as steel, and she shouts, "Get back, you slave of Ghlaunder!"
She draws a Harrow card while casting a spell. The card crackles with black energy, and she flings it at the cultist attacking Teldon.
The card then flies back into her hand.
Drop your weapons now, both of you, and no harm will happen to you.
the tone is commanding... But will it be enough?
The patch of dirt that is the Chenowitz yard suddenly sprouts a small carpet of vermillion weeds... Waving and reaching for something - they grasp around the legs of one of the women's legs... Tentatively, she pulls at them and then, with a gasp, realises she is caught.
Arsith's words stop the women, their resolve wavering, in their tracks...
Ziomarra's card flies high this time, Teldon's assailant momentarily safe...
Staggering forwards with a hand clutching the savage wound in his stomach, the man swipes at Teldon once more.
Well, if Arsith can handle them, I can help Teldon.
"Do you wish to surrender? Then, kneel and raise your hands," Joanna commands.
Relieved to be free of the bloodsucking stirge, Teldon turns his attention back to the cultist who has just sliced him open again. Drawing back the shortsword he stabs at the man again...
,
Teldon's sword strikes the man hard and, when he pulls the blade back, the weapon is soaked with blood... Making no attempt to stop his fall, the man crashes forwards, snapping the ridiculous proboscis on the mask as he lands...
...and a familiar voice shouts from the two other masked figures, "FATHER... NO!!!"
...Shel Lupescu...
"Dammit," Joanna says flatly as she rushes over and drops her sword.
"Iomedae, please let me heal this man so that he may face justice," she says before touching her glowing hand to the worst of the man's wounds.
Once the man is stable, or she is certain that he's beyond her help, she works on binding his hands and feet before turning to the two women as she picks up hersword, her jaw clenched and her whole body trembling in white-hot fury.
"I am only going to ask once. What were you three planning," she grates out slowly through clenched teeth.
Teldon looks on with some annoyance as Joanna tends the cultist's wounds while his own continue to bleed. He draws his curative extract and drinks it before reflecting aloud, "Well, that explains the bandage he wore on his wrist... Mr. Kyle must have put up a fight... it also lends some credence to the idea that many or all of those bandaged up are involved with this cult..."
Zee marches over to the two female cultists and pulls off their masks, revealing their identities.
Curiouser and curiouser...
Arsith wastes no time and interrogate the two women
What is happening here? Speak now. You see that, despite you attacked us, we try to save your father's life. Surely his life is worthy of some explanations? Or should we let Pharasma judge him?
With his blood staining the dirt of the yard a dark crimson, Joanna has little time to react to the man’s injury… even as the two women drop their sickles and start to run towards their stricken comrade, Joanna is already there – kicking the rusted weapon clear and binding limbs before, with a whispered prayer to Iomoedae, stopping the man’s bleeding… her ministrations stabilise the fallen man but they are not enough to return him to consciousness.
Rushing past the corpses of the slain stirges, still twitching in their death throes, the other two attackers run to their companion’s side… and, when Ziomarra removes their bizarre masks, suspicions as to their identities are confirmed… Shel Lupescu and her mother – and, defeated by two deft stabs from Teldon’s blade, Saul Lupescu lies on the floor…
Gasping for air, Mrs Lupescu kneels next to him and, sobbing, asks ”Will he be…. Will he be alright?”, and then, faced with stony silence and a demand for an explanation, ”Not here… we can’t talk here, it is too risky… we might be seen – I am sure I heard someone in the farmhouse earlier”. Briana’s healing hex brings Saul back to consciousness – as his eyes flicker open, he realises that the tables have turned and wordlessly gets to his feet…
...Mrs Lupescu, insistent that she will explain – just not here, in front of the Chenowitz Place – starts to talk as soon as everyone is beyond the thick weeds that surround the forsaken farm, ”We had to… we had no choice… They were going to kill Shel… tonight!!! And then you came… the Dream Tender sent you to take her place!!! Don’t you see? Shel is too young… How could we let them have her? Would you not have done the same for your blood?”
…whilst Mrs Lupescu is talking, Shel Lupescu is looking at her feet… the very picture of an embarrassed teenager!!!
Teldon reflects woefully on the situation as he looks at the bound but completely healed Saul Lupesco...
"What exactly is your plan for justice," he asks, primarily in response to Jo's prayer but open to an answer from anybody, "you can't turn them in to the mayor, he's their leader... there's no jail to put them in, and even if there were the mayor would have them released and us arrested... and it's a very small town, you might be able to hide them somewhere as a makeshift prison but it won't take long for people to figure out where they are..."
He waits a moment as his words sink in, or are forgotten, then adds, "and I'm certain they didn't mean to sacrifice us in this field and leave us here... some or all of the other cult members are waiting somewhere for these three to return with tonight's victim. Perhaps at the stones, or maybe a secret chapel in the manor?"
As he mentions things like the mayor being their leader, more cultists, and other locations he is careful to study the three captives' reactions...
"Desna's wings!" curses Ziomarra, her blue eyes icier than her friends have ever seen them. She draws her starknife and gesticulates with it threateningly. "You will answer our questions here and now. How deep does this go? How long has your cult of Ghlaunder eaten at the heart of Ravenmoor? And what else are you hiding in this maggot-eaten farm?"
"We send word to Magnimar," Joanna answers Teldon bluntly before turning her piercing eyes to Shel's mother.
”We had to… we had no choice… They were going to kill Shel… tonight!!! And then you came… the Dream Tender sent you to take her place!!! Don’t you see? Shel is too young… How could we let them have her? Would you not have done the same for your blood?”
Joanna snatches the front of the woman's robe, her temper breaking loose of its leash.
"You always have a choice. Always," she hisses, her face just inches away from Shel's mother's, "you could have ran. You could have ran to Magnimar or Sandpoint, told them of what was happening. You didn't do that. Instead you intended to kill one of my friends or myself. You can dress it up and justify it all you want, but it is still murder, and you don't seem to show any remorse about what you intended to do. You beg for mercy, but even Sarenrae has no mercy for the unrepentant. Iomedae has even less."
Grey eyes look to Shel for a moment before returning to bore into her mother's.
"I am only a month past my seventeenth nameday, yet I came here because I feared for your daughter's safety, I have feared for her since I learned that Kriegler is not the man the rest of Ravenmoor thinks him. I see now that I would have been wiser to fear the fangs of her and her family," she says in a voice laced with icy venom before pushing her to the ground and turning to walk away.
"Do what you will," she says to Ziomarra, "my patience with this farce has run out."
She walks away from the group and looks out over the rest of the village. Looking away from the others so no one could see the tears streaming down her face.
Away from the farmhouse, and with only the sound of nocturnal insects punctuating the nighttime silence, the friends interrogate their would be captors. Whilst, in the sky overhead, the cold-white light of the stars slowly takes on an oppressive feel... a blood-red moon gradually insinuating it's way into the heavens...
Basked in the portentous moonlight, Mrs Lupescu stumbles over her words as Ziomarra demands answers, ”I don’t know… I don’t know… we have worshipped the Dream Tender for as long as I can remember – and our parents before us. It has always been the way in Ravenmoor… We didn’t know… we didn’t know it was wrong… not until Shel came of age… we never knew what they were doing with the Queens, we promise!!! And we’ve never been in that Chenowitz farm… no one does… we just knew we were meant to bring Shel there”
…at this reminder of her possible fate, Shel starts sobbing – and as Joanna finally loses her temper, her mother also breaks down…
Through her tears, she whispers to herself, ”You wouldn’t know… you’re not a mother… how could you ever understand?”
…throughout all of this, Saul Lupescu sits slumped on the floor… a beaten man…
– Mrs Lupescu, so far as you can tell, is speaking the truth.
It would be so much more expedient to simply turn the Lupescus over to the mayor, tell him we have uncovered what is happening here, and exchange our silence on the matter for the answers and items we need... Zee is not likely to respond well to the idea of leaving a cult masquerading as Desnans intact though, and Joanna needs some outlet for her anger, preferably not me... worst of all, I fear it might disappoint Briana if I chose the efficient way over the 'right' way... I suppose, then, we'll be doing this the hard way...
"If we're going to walk into another fight we should really run up to the manor so those of us who were foolish enough to dress appropriately for a festival can grab the rest of our gear..."
You're right, Teldon. We should prepare for battle. Of course, I'm already prepared for battle, but I won't go far alone.
"Go, I'll keep watch over these three," Joanna says flatly.
Leaving Joanna in charge of the Lupescus, the friends race back up the hill to the Kriegler Manor... Stopping for just a moment and looking down upon the slumbering village, the scene seems almost peaceful - parents and their children happily sleeping in their own homes after a wonderful day at the Festival... But now the friends have perturbed the dark undercurrents that run within this place... and know that, with Shel Lupescu not being 'delivered' to the Chenowitz place, time is of the essence...
...the Manor House itself is cold - no fires have been lit within the hearth and the fruit in the basket placed appealingly within the kitchen remains untouched - it is clear that no-one has been here since the Festival finished...
Fortunately it seems that the guestrooms remain undisturbed - bags are where they were left and, more importantly, the weapons and armour that are needed are there. It takes a few precious minutes to prepare for what is to come and then they are out again, in the eerily crimson moonlight, racing down the hill and back towards Joanna...
Perhaps being a bit overly cautious Teldon checks each door they pass through in the manor for traps. Back in the room where he left his gear with Briana's, he quickly slips into his chainshirt and then helps Briana into her armor. He tosses his backpack on and grabs his longspear before heading back outside. As they leave the manor he draws an extract and quaffs it, sharpening his senses.
"Shall we?"
She turns to follow the noise, sword and shield out.
"So, if you had been members of this cult, what would you say is now lurking in the grass," Joanna asks calmly, almost flippantly, "I mean if I'm going to die after being attacked by the family of and the very person I was rushing here to rescue, I'd at least like to die without that little question over my head," she adds, her voice dripping in sarcasm as she looks about, trying to see what was making the noise.