Dark called to dark, and the shadow reached out for the choking woman even as Desdemona let out a little scream and jumped away from Broom, staring at the other woman's wrist with considerably more consternation than Broom did.
The shadow attempted to swarm down the woman's throat, blocking it just as her hands crushing John's throat blocked his, by sucking away the space in her esophagus until all the walls touched.
Defense:20% miss chance in normal light, 50% miss in darkness. Immunity to death effects, disease, and poison. Evasion.
Offense:
Slam reach 10', bite reach 5', increased by 5' each when Large. Melee attacks affect incorporeal creatures as if it had the ghost touch weapon property. The eidolon’s melee attacks deal only half damage to corporeal creatures. All attacks are treated as magic. Combat reflexes (3 AOOs).
Seeing her coming, the guard feebly tried to smash Reine away but couldn't connect with one hand trying to keep his blood on the inside after Red Destiny had its way with him.
Reine reached out and brushed his bare skin with her fingers, channeling her just-barely leashed rage out through her fingertips. He screamed, jerking and spasming as he fell to the floor.
The shadow serpent pushed its way into the old woman's mouth, leeching her energy down into the black abyss it sprang from. She tried to pull away but couldn't get away from the swirling darkness.
That left her open to Broom's black lash, and the old woman screamed silently as she twitched in the torrent of lightning, Desdemona's shadow muffling her cry of pain.
The other guard bravely- or foolhardily, depending on your point of view- stepped up next to the old woman and smashed his baton into John's stomach.
But John's armor was too strong to let anything through. The thump on his belly barely even registered next to the old woman cutting off his air.
Plastered against the wall, Desdemona threw up a warding arm against the apparent darkness that had sprung out of Broom, only for more shadows to tear loose from the corners and spring forward.
They swarmed around her, but At Desdemona's frightened squeal they reversed direction and flowed after the greater shadow, hungry for a taste of the madwoman's life force. But the greater shadow rode the woman like a lion with its kill, and the smaller shadows could only grab nibbles of the woman's flesh.
"Lady....you are damaging my calm." John growls out as he fights for breath as the old woman's hands close around his throat from behind.
He reverses grip on Red Destiny and jabs it backwards into the old woman's midsection.
(grappled, favored enemy, power attack)
Reine felt herself... expanding. Her body was suddenly bigger, slower, clumsier. She was stronger - she almost had to be, just to support the extra weight and length - but it seemed to take forever for her hands to respond to her will.
She flailed at her target, hoping she could connect with the brave/foolhardy guard.
DESCRIPTION
You manifest an aura of nightmares around you which reacts to anyone trying to attack you in melee, forcing the assailant’s worst nightmares to consume their thoughts.
Anyone trying to make a melee attack against you must succeed on a Will save or lose their attack action as they recoil in fear from the images inside their mind. If the save succeeds, the opponent can attack normally and is unaffected by that manifestation of the power. Power Resistance applies at the same time as a Will save.
Will Save DC is 15, with a -4 to the roll, from Aura of Fear.
"Oh, you bastard!" The old woman's terrifyingly strong hands spasmed on John's throat and he blacked out.
Even as his limp body fell to the floor, the old woman was already spinning to round on Broom and her deadly lash.
"Now for you, you evil witch! If old Aggie's going down, I'm taking you with me to hell!"
She was on Broom in a flash, her gnarly hands going for Broom's throat.
In less time than it took to register, the old woman was cutting off Broom's air.
Broom looked up from her wrist in confusion as the old lady shouted at her. Was she a witch?
Her thought was quickly interrupted as she realized with horror that John had dropped to the ground and the woman now had her hands around Broom's throat.
Broom couldn't think strait and desperately pulled out her sickle, waving it feebly at her assailant.
At -10
Desdemona's serpent-shadow felt the human defying it.
Disrespectful!
It coiled in and around her throat, draining her of life and shutting off her air.
Desdemona gasped as the madwoman attacked Broom! Darkness in her or not, that was simply uncalled for!
Stepping back, she demanded the shadows deal with the madwoman. Grabbing at the darkness in the corners with her hands, as though it had substance, she flung them toward the woman.
But she ended up looking like a madwoman herself, as the shadows stayed put.
Defense:20% miss chance in normal light, 50% miss in darkness. Immunity to death effects, disease, and poison. Evasion.
Offense:
Slam reach 10', bite reach 5', increased by 5' each when Large. Melee attacks affect incorporeal creatures as if it had the ghost touch weapon property. The eidolon’s melee attacks deal only half damage to corporeal creatures. All attacks are treated as magic. Combat reflexes (3 AOOs).
The old woman continued to defy the shadow's strength-sapping power, apparently frenzied by the thought of throttling Broom to death. Her eyes danced merrily- horribly- as she looked into Broom's face from barely a foot away.
The old woman wrenched Broom off her feet, slamming her onto the floor, ignoring Des and Reine and the clinging shadow as she straddled the unfortunate survivor. Like John, Broom learned the old woman liked to sing as she worked, whispering a little lullaby to Broom as she choked the life out of her.
Ninna nanna, ninna oh
To whom shall I give this baby?
If I give it to the old hag,
She’ll keep it for a week.
If I give it to bogeyman,
He’ll keep it for an entire year.
If I give it to the while wolf,
He’ll keep it for a long time.
Lullaby sleep fairies
Send my baby to sleep.
"OK," Reine's voice, while deeper, still interlaced both the musical tones of her heritage and the nearly ever-present anger seething beneath her surface. "Play time is over, you evil b+##@."
Reine took a lumbering step forward, at the same time, drawing forth her will. She reached her long arms forward, in what seemed to her to be damnably slow motion, trying to lay even one sausage-sized finger on the woman choking out Reine's... friends?... People she'd come to care about, anyway.
But the clumsiness of her huge body was too much to overcome - even with her rage - and Reine's hand swept over the old woman's head, slapping harmlessly against the wall, with a loud crack.
DESCRIPTION
You manifest an aura of nightmares around you which reacts to anyone trying to attack you in melee, forcing the assailant’s worst nightmares to consume their thoughts.
Anyone trying to make a melee attack against you must succeed on a Will save or lose their attack action as they recoil in fear from the images inside their mind. If the save succeeds, the opponent can attack normally and is unaffected by that manifestation of the power. Power Resistance applies at the same time as a Will save.
Will Save DC is 15, with a -4 to the roll, from Aura of Fear.
Even as she started to black out, Broom realized her mistake casting the spell on Reine. With what little consciousness she croaked out a word or two, unbinding the spell from the newly made giantess.
Despite her fear as everything started to go black, her concern was more for John's well being than her own. With her final gasps she whispered "Talisman in my pack will heal John". Her last thoughts were of the talisman at the top of her pack knowing that the magic of the pack would ensure that was exactly where it would be.
Desdemona grabbed Broom's pack, rifling through it with desperate abandon. Only she didn't have to rifle long - there it was, right at the top! That must be it.
Glancing at the melee in the hallway, she hesitated.
There was the shadow-thing, right in her path.
Pull yourself together, fool.
Such a cold voice. Was it her own, or that of the malicious dark?
But then the shadow shifted, uncurling from the wall to behind the madwoman, where it, in turn, strangled her shadow.
Desdemona didn't think about that madness. Instead, she focused on what was important at the moment.
There was a path that didn't cross the shadow.
Hurrying, Desdemona took it, intending to put the talisman around John's neck.
Defense:20% miss chance in normal light, 50% miss in darkness. Immunity to death effects, disease, and poison. Evasion.
Offense:
Slam reach 10', bite reach 5', increased by 5' each when Large. Melee attacks affect incorporeal creatures as if it had the ghost touch weapon property. The eidolon’s melee attacks deal only half damage to corporeal creatures. All attacks are treated as magic. Combat reflexes (3 AOOs).
Stabilized
Desdemona's shadow throttled the old woman's shadow and her eyes bulged out of her head. Even so, she pulled Broom off the floor to use as a human shield, her hands not giving an inch on Broom's throat as she threw the young woman around like a doll and retreated down the stairs.
Broom hangs limply in the woman's grasp.
The shadow-serpent's claw-hands were ripped loose from the madwoman's shadow as she fled, and it oozed after her, picking up speed as the light dimmed around the corner.
"Hey, lady-!"Reine's call broke off as she suddenly felt dizzy and as though the world around her suddenly grew to match her size. She staggered forward, and the shimmer around her head flickered and faded away. She found herself 'back to normal,' whatever that was. She shook her head, concentrating - that was harder to do than normal - but after a beat, Reine’s eyes seemed to absorb light for a moment, making it appear darker around her.
"Hey!" She called out again, "where do you think you're going?" A little woozily, Reine threw herself down the stairs after the old lady, trying to keep her from absconding with Broom.
Lurching past the Shadow, Reine almost slipped, and wound up bouncing off of two walls before finally getting to the landing, where she reached out in an attempt to lay a hand on the old lady.
Desdemona's shadow surged after the old woman but wasn't able to do any more damage during the pursuit. Meanwhile, Desdemona put Broom's talisman around John's neck.
A second later, John's eyes fluttered open and the talisman crumbled to dust on his chest.
Reine chased down the hateful crone and even though she tried to hide behind Broom's limp body, Reine was able to channel some of her anger into a painful touch.
The old woman screamed and dropped Broom. Clutching her heart, she wheezed and collapsed to the stairs. "Oh it hurts. It hurts. But I see you, girl." Old Aggie pointed weakly at Reine. "You think you won but I'm gonna see you real soon." The mocking sneer stayed on her face even as the light went out of her eyes.
"That kinda talk," Reine said to the old woman's corpse, "is just going to get you beheaded."
She leaned against the wall for a moment, catching her breath. Then she grabbed Broom with one hand, and one of the crone's feet with the other, and began dragging them back up the stairs. She was considerably less careful with the corpse.
"Good to see you're alive," Reine said to John, as she dropped the corpse's foot. She set Broom down much more gently on the ground near Desdemona.
"I think she's still breathing. I have a potion, but it's the last of any healing I have."
As Reine fished the glass vial out of her pocket, she looked over at John again. "If you're feeling up to it, she said something about 'seeing us again real soon.' Maybe you and Red Destiny want to do something about making sure she's wrong?"
The marks around Broom's neck were deep black, much darker than what one would consider normal bruising. It looked as if someone had tattooed the old woman's grip onto Broom's skin.
Along with the little black veins in the corners, her eyes were now speckled with inky black blemishes, a result of the throttling she had just received.
She awoke with a spluttering gasp as the last of the magical liquid was administered. Although she was conscious now her wounds did not seem any less grievous.
She looked about wildly or a moment until she spotted Aggra's motionless form. Broom tried to say something but it came out as a painful and unintelligible croak so she just remained silent.
Broom was visibly relieved when she saw John sitting up.
Relieved to find that neither of her companions had died, Desdemona let out a shuddering breath and, after making sure that her dagger's glow covered it, opened her own satchel and handed Reine another potion from within it, clearly not expecting Broom to be capable of fine motor control just yet.
"To ease the pain, and restore your vigor," she told Broom gently. To Reine, she added, "I have a healer's kit, but little experience in its use. Only the use of the bandages, really. Perhaps you know more? I'm sure John would appreciate someone with skill using it on him, as well."
She seemed exceptionally calm, relief notwithstanding, for someone whose companions had nearly been brutally murdered by a madwoman. As usual, her primary attention seemed to be the shadows on the wall, behind Reine.
Her shadow lurked there, innocuously mimicking her motions like a normal shadow.
John wakes up with a gasp, still feeling the old woman's fingers around his throat.
It takes him a second to grasp what Reine was talking about, then he catches on.
He stands himself up and picks up his sword and shield.
Then he steps down to where the old woman fell and stabs her cleanly in the heart.
"Really didn't want to stab someone's grandma, but I'm getting over it." he says to the woman's corpse.
While he's crouching over her, he takes a moment to see if she has any possessions of note.
With John up and about again, Desdemona went to see if the guards' lives might be saved. They hadn't seemed bad sorts, if perhaps unnecessarily violent - and they had tried to warn the party of the danger the madwoman posed.
Broom smiled weakly and nodded in thanks for the potion. She fiddled with it for a moment before tucking it away in her pack when she thought Desdemona wasn't looking. Although she felt bad, they weren't in danger at the moment and someone might need it more than she did later on.
She winced as she painfully got to her feet. "She didn't seem to have a problem with choking someone's children" she whispered hoarsely in reply to John, her words tinged with bitterness.
She slowly helped with tending to the fallen guards as best she could before pointing back down the stairs. "Chapel" she croaked.
Reine, after handing the second potion to Broom, shrugged.
"I'm not a healer," she said to Desdemona. "You probably know more about how to use that stuff than I do. I know how to tie a tourniquet. Maybe."
She stood up. While Broom and Desdemona went to help the guards, Reine stood beside John. "Stabbing in the heart is good. Beheading might be better."
"The doctor is close. We can see if he can help." John says.
"Don't worry too much about these followers of Zandulas, never forget all of them are crazies."
"Like we are... were...may have been?"
Reine looked at Broom, hesitated, then shook her head.
"I don't think losing our memories makes us crazy," she said, "and it happened to all of us. And the notes seem to say we all came in together. To me, that says something happened to us - maybe was done to us - and for a reason. Maybe my being angry all the time isn't healthy, but I feel like maybe someone deserves that anger. Does that make any sense?"
Broom pondered that for a moment before asking "What do we do now? Do we try to go back to the chapel, or stay here? It doesn't look like the ghouls bothered anyone up here since the stairs were broken.
We could go get Dr. Elbourne to see if he can help us with healing, otherwise we might need to go all the way to Winter."
"I think we start with the doctor." John says.
"We don't want to give Zandulus too much time to miss his grandmother."
"If the doctor can't help us, then we can retrace our steps back to Winter at the chapel."
Reine nodded. "Either way, we should talk to Elbourne. Maybe clear out this room first? Check for anything useful."
She set about doing that - checking the bodies first, then the rest of the room.
Broom started tidying up the place while everyone else checked it out. After even a few moments cleaning she started to feel better.
The old woman was in slippers and a warm housecoat thrown over a patient's gown. Her only possession of interest was an amulet of some kind of thick grey hide, etched with an arcane rune.
The guards' quarters were meager, nothing more than thin mattresses and pillows on the floor, but between cooked potatoes and a big pot of potato-leek soup it looked like they had enough cooked potatoes to last a couple of days, as well as a stack of torches and firewood that looked like it had once been furniture. It looked like they had been playing cards with a Harrow deck when the group came up the stairs.
There was a rope ladder piled in one corner, which could make the climb back down a great deal easier.
Desdemona picked up the amulet, the darkness whispering inside her mind all the while, of horrid ceremonies and dark rituals that might produce such a thing.
Resolutely clearing her mind of the whispers as best she could, she held it up questioningly. "This... this is for protection. Normally I'd say such a thing would serve John well, but... I think Broom should have it. None of us should remain easy to assault in such a manner again."
She lifted the considerably less grisly one on the thong about her neck from where it had rested beneath her chain shirt.
"I don't think you need worry about its providence at this time, Broom. I have one from one of the other cultists in the bird room - the one Reine and I saw, I mean - though it isn't as powerful as this one."
Reine picked up the deck of cards, flipping through it briefly, and settling on one, in particular. The Foreign Trader. Not every Harrow deck included this card, and she couldn't recall ever having seen one illustrated like this. She frowned.
"This isn't a normal deck," she said out loud to the others, might be worth something."[/b]
She slipped the deck into a pocket. Then she frowned again. "I don't know how I know that."
After a moment, Reine shrugged. "Back to the doctor, then?"
Broom looked at the amulet offered to her with a little surprise "Oh! Shouldn't John have it? If he didn't get hurt, then We wouldn't have gotten hurt, right?" she asked.
Curious about Reine's find, Broom took at peek at the odd card.
She then nodded in agreement with Reine (which reminded her that her neck really hurt) and headed back down the stairs with the rope ladder.
"One of you should take it." John answers.
"I've got pretty good gear as it is."
"Let's get back to the doctor. One of you guys go in front of Broom. There might be more corpse eaters down there. I'll cover the rear."
Broom looked at the amulet for a moment. "Well, if this is for Us, then at least wear these. We don't know why We have been keeping them in Our backpack, but its probably better that you have them instead of needing to find them when its too late."
Broom pulled to more small tokens on leather cords. "This one will stop you from getting hurt if you fall off something, and this one will help keep you brave."
Reine quirked an eyebrow at the "be brave" talisman, but nodded.
"I'll go first," she volunteered, "then Desdemona, Broom, and John."
"I already have an amulet I wear for protection." John tells Broom.
"It isn't as powerful as the one we found on that evil grandmother, but I value it." he finishes.
John sheaths Red Destiny, knowing he could draw it in an instant, hefts his shield, and waits for the others to descend the stairs and rope.
He keeps watch behind them in case someone shows up to investigate the disturbance.
What was she going to do with all these amulets? Broom briefly considered offering the new protection amulet to the shadow, but quickly thought better of it.
"Well, why doesn't Reine take the protection one then? We can keep the two talismans."
What she wasn't mentioning was that now that she remembered she had these talismans, she also recalled that she had wanted to try out the wind talisman. Jumping off something high and floating gently to the ground sounded like it might be fun.
Reine looked at Broom, then the amulet, and shrugged. "Fine," she said, "Evil-granny said she'd see me soon, so I suppose it makes some kinda sense." She took the amulet with a nod, put it around her neck, and tucked it under her vest.
Then she took a few seconds to calm and center herself, getting comfortable with the new weight. After a few deep breaths, Reine opened her eyes, gave the others a smile, and headed down the ladder.
The trip back through the silent halls was almost as nerve wracking as journeying through ghoul-infested ones. The group never knew if they were about to be jumped on by some monster out of the (much lighter now) mist or if they might round a corner and find another ghoul. But after a few minutes of wary walking, they were back in the kitchens, surrounded by the smell of boiling potatoes.
The guards looked surprised they had returned but didn't try to stop them as they walked through to the main camp. They found Dr. Elbourne in the tent, tending to his most critical patients.
As soon as he saw them, Elbourne put a finger to his lips and gestured in the direction of the stairs. "I'll be with you in a few minutes," he said loudly enough to be heard outside the tent. "Why don't you go wait up by my room and we can talk about those supplies I sent you for?"
John nods and gestures for the others to head to the stairs.
He looks around the tent to see if there is anything out of the ordinary or anyone bearing any injuries of note.
Then he follows.