Lachen hit Melisenn again, making the priestess of the Yellow King start to look like a pincushion, but her attention was all on Reine.
She squawked in surprise as Reine miraculously jumped and then flew through the air and caught her with her outstretched hands. Melisenn spasmed as she was wracked with pain; she was clearly fighting it but the involuntary muscle spasms as Reine's mental magic flooded through her body were impossible to stop.
Still floating in the yellow mist, Melisenn backed away from Reine, quickly making clear the difference between the magic the two of them were using. "Yes, you float there, you b***h, and watch while I kill your traitorous friends."
From near the ceiling she looked down at the largely neutered party, focusing on the other one who was managing to do damage.
Melisenn spasmed involuntarily but barked out the same spell she had tried on Lachen before.
Lachen readies an arrow, aims... and that's all.
Hannah notices Lachen freeze in place and frowns. "Don't go paralyzing people," she admonished Melisenn, "It's not nice." She whispered a prayer to Sarenrae and touched the big man on his thigh. "Get moving," she said after her spell finished.
Seeing Melisenn fly away Leaving Reine hanging there in the middle of the air, Broom requested that her invisible helpers lower her to the ground.
Since the flying priestess had put some distance between herself and Reine, Broom took the opportunity to throw another blob of vitriolic ichor at her.
As Reine felt herself magically lifted to where the ceiling scraped her hair, she smiled.
"You always did overestimate your own cleverness, Mel. Shoulda flew further away, you cocky wench."
With that, Reine grabbed the ceiling, digging her claws into the gaps between stones, and pulled. The leverage, combined with the weightlessness of her body, set Reine floating - rather rapidly - across the mere five feet of distance between her and her quarry, with Reine giving a little twist to her movement that set her spinning, hopefully enough to deflect or avoid any counter-attack Melisenn might launch.
Reine arrived at the same time as the residual effect of her previous devastating psychic attack wracked its way through Melisenn, and Reine used the distraction of the pain to wrap one hand into Melisenn's hair, and lock her other arm around the woman's neck.
Broom burned Melisenn with more acid, briefly drawing the priestess's attention. "You'll get yours too, don't rush!"
Hannah, meanwhile, undid Melisenn's spell with barely any effort.
Pain continued to rack Melisenn's body and Reine bounced off the ceiling to grab the evil woman by the neck. With her rapier hanging uselessly at her side, Melisenn couldn't even take a swipe at Reine as she came at her.
Choking and slapping ineffectually at Reine's arms, Melisenn suddenly spasmed in Reine's grip and the yellow mist swirled around the pair and back down to the floor to lash at the party.
Reine ground her teeth. She wasn't going to give Melisenn the satisfaction of acknowledging the pain the other woman had inflicted by screaming, no matter how much she wanted to.
"You might want to head for the floor," Reine grunted into the other woman's ear, instead, "it'll hurt less when you pass out and fall."
Even as Reine tightened her grip on Melisenn's neck, she let the power of her rage and terror flow through the contact and into the other woman.
Worry was written across Hannah's face as Reine winced. There wasn't much she could do from here. Once everyone was back on solid ground, then she'd be useful. But for now, maybe she could help stop that woman from channeling again. She extended her hand and flicked her fingers, sending two bolts of energy at Mel.
Lachen hesitates, unwilling to hit Reine with an errand arrow
Come on, bring her to the floor where I can hammer her.. Do I look like an hunter?
Melisenn continued to fight Reine's surprisingly strong grip as pain racked her body. "If I am going to lose I will see you DEAD!" The yellow mist wrapped around Reine again, pushing itself into her nostrils, her open mouth, her eyes! It blasted down to wash over the group on the floor as well, but Reine was clearly her focus as the two women danced in the air overhead. Even as Hannah's magical darts blasted into her side her hate was reserved solely for the fear witch.
Reine clamped her teeth together as the yellow mist assaulted her again, but this time, somehow, the depth of the assault - perhaps it was the absolute rage with which it had been launched against her - unlocked a door somewhere inside of Reine's psyche. That door flew open, and the full might of Reine's own rage surged forward to meet the attack. Meet it, defy it, and overwhelm it.
For one brief moment, Reine felt herself at peace.
"No, dear," she said into Melisenn's ear, her voice beautiful, musical, and calm. Gently, Reine spoke the truth to Melisenn, even as their combined rage and terror flowed into the priestess. "You won't see anything, ever again."
And then Melisenn's mind was swept away into an eternity of terror in the endless dark, and a tear trickled down Reine's cheek. The one tucked against her own shoulder. The one no one else could see.
And then the rage and terror were back, like loyal hounds returning from the hunt. They drove that moment of peace and of sadness ruthlessly out of their domain, settling in comfortably, and Reine slammed the door, and the bars and chains back into place, lest they destroy her.
Reine let go of the body, letting it fall, while she stood floating on Broom's magical cushion of air.
"Broom, could you bring me down please?"
Hannah watched as Melisenn dropped to the floor with a thump, and didn't move. She padded over and looked over the priestess, making sure she was... no longer a threat. A couple fingers to the woman's throat showed no pulse.
"She won't be needing these anymore," she said as she rifled through Mel's belongings.
The party caught their breath after defeating the priestess of Hastur. Her body contained the typical sorts of things one carried when preparing to defend oneself from troublesome heroes, but she had also been carrying something out of place- an enormous book.
Broom immediately recognized the book, snippets of text floating up out of her memory- her memory, not Us's or some other entity. She was sure this particular copy had been one of her possessions when the group had once lived in the manor and served the Count.
The book also encompasses knowledge about flying polyps, yithians, and many other creatures associated with the gods of the Elder Mythos. Spending a week of continual study grants the reader a +4 circumstance bonus on all Knowledge checks pertaining to conjuration magic or the gods and magic of the Old Cults.
In addition, the book functions as a spellbook and contains the following arcane spells: gate, greater teleport, greater planar binding, interplanetary teleportUM, lesser planar binding, planar binding, plane shift, teleport, teleport object, and teleportation circle.
"Humph," Reine grunted, looking down and Melisenn's face. "I don't even remember why she hated me so much."
Reine shrugged. The moment of peaceful sadness she'd felt while in the air was gone, driven away by the simmering rage that seemed always to be beneath the surface of her thoughts, her moods, her very skin. The curiosity remained, but even that was something minor, a distraction.
"Thank you," she said, turning to Broom, "that was a neat trick, with the floating thing. Let's remember that, if we ever need it again."
"Oh hey, I have one of these, Hannah said, holding Mel's headband up next to her own identical item. She separated everything out to inventory and frowned, not seeing much she could actually use.
Broom's friends were just in the process of lowering Reine when the frightening woman vigorously motioned upwards. Broom frantically redirected the motivating force towards the roof rather than floor.
...
Broom beamed as she asked her invisible friends to gently lower Reine back down to the ground. "Thank you! We are glad We could help."
Her smile became a look of concern as she noticed Reine's condition, but that concern was alleviated as Hannah's healing light bathed everyone in the room.
"Could you teach Us how to use light to fix people?"
She looked at the corpse as the black goo continued to burn. She sighed, the sorceress really didn't like how messy her spells were. After waiting for the goo to run its course she helped clean the mess while everyone else examined Melissen's belongings. "Why was she so angry with all of us? We don't even really remember her either.. Oh, wait! That book. We remember it! We think it might have been Ours. May We have a look?"
Broom waited politely for permission to peruse the heavy tome. Her eyes lit up, the little black veins in the corners of her eyes become a little more prominent. "We know some of these things! We remember stuff about Things from Outside of Here. We don't understand a lot of what is written here though. We... 'feel?' like it tells you how to call things from Outside to visit Here. We think some of it is also about making Them behave while they visit."
She absently cast a spell and called forth another invisible servant and asked it to start cleaning up as she became engrossed in the book. "There are ideas in here about ways for Us to travel to other places, some of the other places Here and even some that 'feel' like they would take Us There. But..." she trailed off for a moment, a look of consternation on her face. "These are all very strange feelings and difficult ideas. We don't know if We can do any of these."
As the group discussed divvying up Melisenn's belongings , her body dissolved away into nothingness, leaving her clothes and equipment behind.
To the north, past the stairs at the other end of the hall, in the middle of a circular, vaulted chamber, standing on a platform of natural bedrock, a black stone monolith similar to the two standing out in the open in Thrushmoor glowed with a pale, yellow light. Blood stained the floor surrounding the monument- this was probably where the unfortunate townsfolk who had been brought down here had been sacrificed.
Hannah frowned at the dissolving Melisenn. "Ah, a denizen of Leng then." She looked to Reine, the target of Mel's ire. "She's not dead; she just went home."
She tucked a few select scrolls into her tunic, but left the rest of Mel's things for the others to examine. "So what's next?" she queried generally as she padded towards the exit.
"She's what?" Reine asked, though she didn't really expect an answer.
"Well then," Reine started removing some of her gear, including the magical chain shirt she'd only recently claimed. She then picked up Melisenn's brighter - and equally magical - chain shirt. Reine paused only a moment when she realized how much lighter the new shirt was. Then, with a wry smirk, she put it on.
"This should piss her off even more the next time we see her."
Reine strapped the other woman's sheathed rapier to her belt as well, then handed her discarded chain shirt and rapier to Broom. "Think you can carry these? Or do any of you want them?" With that last question, Reine had been looking at the rest of the group.
Having picked the magical ring, Lachen shows it to Broom
It's not a proposal, let's be clear on that. You deserve better than me, anyway. But won't you find an use for that? If not, I can, but I'm better armored than you are.
Melisenn defeated, the group spends the next few hours scouring the rest of the house. It appears that somehow news of the cult leader's death had preceded them and by the time they get upstairs all the cultists and supporters have already cleared out. A few things of interest stand out:
On the writing desk lies a disorderly stack of handwritten notes, drafted by Lowls in the immediate aftermath of his dream journeys. The last note mentions the Mad Poet, who told the count to look for a book called the Necronomicon. In the note, Lowls mentions the PCs as his companions in this revelatory dream, and says that “the sacrifice of their minds” put them into “a fugue state, but they lived, unable to remember their lives or react to outside stimuli.” Lowls concludes his last note saying that the PCs are to be turned over to the warden of Briarstone Asylum “according to our agreement.”
Reading Lowls notes triggers a brief memory in the PCs where they recall accompanying the count to a dreamlike desert and speaking to an old man called the Mad Poet.
The collection contains a wide variety of books, though many of them focus on old cults and other occult lore. By spending 8 hours sorting and reading through the various books and papers, the PCs can uncover the following relevant pieces of information.
• A notebook holds an account of Lowls’s interviews with Ulver Zandalus, which took place in Briarstone Asylum. Though Zandalus was mute, Lowls would interview him while he drew his charcoal drawings of the mysterious city, and during the process details would emerge which Lowls would interpret. In later interviews, Count Lowls made use of magic to read the man’s thoughts. Through this process, Lowls was able to learn about a distant lost city in some nameless desert that reportedly featured three Star Stelae, identical in shape and arrangement to those in Thrushmoor. In the last pages of the notebook, Lowls stops relating what he learned from his interviews with Ulver, and begins writing with maniacal fervor about his obsession with the city and his belief that its discovery alone can repair his academic reputation.
• An annotated map shows Lake Encarthan and the lands to the south. The count has drawn a route from Thrushmoor to Xer, traced a line down the Sellen River to Cassomir, and then marked the coast to Katheer, from which he plans to mount an expedition to the lost city of Neruzavin.
• A draft of the equipment, supplies, and number of slaves the count plans to purchase for the final leg of the expedition is scribbled on a piece of parchment.
These finds show that Lowls has been planning his journey for a long time, and the notes hint at his destination. There is more to learn from Lowls’s collection, and the PCs can pack up many of the annotated books and notes and take them along as they begin the next adventure. The noted books are gathered in a small trunk whose contents are listed below in Treasure.
Mnemonic vestment
Scroll of Sepia Snake Sigil x2
Scroll of See Invisibility
Composite Shortbow [+3 Str]
Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds (20 charges)
Wand of Invisibility (20 charges)
Black Adder Venom x5
Padzahr x2
A slim spellbook bound in red leather. The spellbook contains the following spells: blindness/deafness, dancing
lights, detect thoughts, eagle’s splendor, expeditious retreat, gust of wind, hypnotism, illusory wall, mirror image, owl’s wisdom, protection from good, and shield.
A small lockable trunk contains research materials the PCs will need in the following adventure, as well as a few special items, including a book of the loremaster (houserule: can be used by any PC) and two scrolls of psychic surgery. It also holds the following books: Atop the Valley’s Soul, The Codex of Three Prescriptions, Curses of the Black Lake, Dichotomous Translations of Aklo Syntax, Elements Through the Spirals of Time, Emotions of the Past, The Falling Silk, Festival of the Snake, The Forgotten Servants, The Illusion of the Weeping Ones, In Admiration of Keeping Pacts, Manual of Silence, Men and Vultures: Denizens of the Darkened Depths and Dead Skies, Monuments of the Forest, The Shadow’s Ship, Shards of Sight, Spiders of Sin and Sky, Theological Agreements of the Kingdom, Tigers and Flies, The Unified Manual of Understanding, Voyage of the Rainbow Servant, and The Wise Harmony. These books are necessary for the next adventure.
A bag that holds a finely cut emerald (worth 1,000 gp), a silver necklace set with garnets (worth 400 gp), a pair of black pearl earrings (worth 150 gp), a gold ring set with a large diamond (worth 2,500 gp), 13 freshwater pearls (worth 10 gp each), a jade comb (worth 100 gp), and a silver-and-amber bracelet (worth 120 gp).
1000gp
They should more or less understand that Count Lowls arranged for a journey to Cassomir, planning to meet up with his old friend Miacknian Mun to translate and research the Necronomicon.
The count was then going to travel farther south to find the lost city of Neruzavin for some purpose, as yet unknown to the PCs.
The PCs also learned that the final stages of Count Lowls’s research took place through dreaming—and that an occult ritual sent him and the PCs into the Dreamlands to speak with a figure known as the Mad Poet, which is why the PCs lost their memories.
Now that they have uncovered Melisenn’s cult in Thrushmoor and learned where their former employer is heading, the party can start making arrangements to follow him.
When they report their success to Cesadia Wrentz, she is relieved that the troubles facing Thrushmoor are coming to an end. She apologizes to the PCs for any disrespect or doubt she might have showed earlier and encourages them to seek out the missing Count Lowls. In addition, Wrentz offers to help the PCs in whatever way she can, including an offer to further research anything they discovered (though occult lore isn’t her specialty, she has a large network of agents spread throughout the Inner Sea region).
Cesadia also offers to arrange ship passage for them to Cassomir so they can continue their pursuit of Count Lowls. She of a ship called the Sellen Starling helmed by a feisty halfling named Skywin Freeling that is capable of making that journey and is set to arrive in Thrushmoor in 2 days. She offers the PCs lodging in Thrushmoor until the Sellen Starling comes to port.
3 days after returning from Iris Hill, the party finds themselves down at the docks. Cessadia Wrentz had arranged passage for them on the Sellen Starling, a riverboat Wrentz says she has sailed on before and is owned by a good woman, Skywin Freeling. Even before the group arrived they could hear the shouting.
“I’m not making them reload it,” shouted the fat man in an ill-fitting harbormaster’s jerkin. “And you’d best be on your way shortly, shorty.”
The red-haired halfling woman in stained overalls jabbed her finger up at the man. She was barely 3 feet tall, if that, and wouldn't be able to reach his face even on tiptoe but her voice rang out loud enough to hear a hundred feet away. “What do you mean, you won’t reload it? It’s loaded wrong! Ships can’t just list to one side like you drunkards. Hardwood is heavy and as thick as your skull - your people loaded it nine stacks deep to port and three stacks starboard. I’ve got to get it all the way to Cassomir, and I won’t make it if my boat rolls as easy as your sister!”
There were a couple of other passengers waiting at the bottom of the gangplank, a small, grey haired woman in a purple shawl and a dark haired, matronly woman in yellow chatting amiably next to their piles of luggage while the captain and harbormaster had it out up on deck.
Hannah fiddled with her new ring while she waited in line with the others. The argument indicated that they probably wouldn't be boarding anytime soon. But there really wasn't any way for her to help. She didn't have any magics that would move large crates, and she wasn't exactly built for manual labor.
"Hmf," she intoned, looking generally towards the argument, "Someone should probably help. We won't be sailing until the load is fixed."
Reine gave Hannah a look out of the corner of one eye. The priestess was right. Reine then gave Desdemona a look out of the corner of her other eye. This kind of thing was where the smaller woman was normally wont to speak up and put on the "imperious noble" act, but today, in this particular instance, Reine didn't see any obvious indication from Des that she was going to take an interest.
Which was fair, Reine thought. After all, Reine herself had been acting - and feeling - different since the group's encounter with Melisenn. Something about that moment...
Anyway, Reine had slept surprisingly well that night, and awakened with a sense of... if not peace, then at least confidence. While the rage that seemed always to be just beneath the surface of her skin was still there, it seemed... more controlled, somehow. But the bigger change, as far as Reine was concerned, was that the thread of absolute terror that had always accompanied the anger was... not gone, but... different. Like something she could see and observe and understand, but it just... didn't affect her.
And for someone who had been grappling with that undercurrent of terror literally every moment of her life since waking up in that asylum (and probably before), suddenly being able to hold it as something at arms' length was... Well, she was still figuring out what that meant.
but for here and now, Reine gave a sigh, nodded her head, and stepped forward.
"I'll do it."
Reine walked forward enough to clearly be ahead of her companions, but not so swiftly so as to make it impossible for any of her friends to join her, should they want to.
"Hello," Reine said, her voice actually sounding friendly, without the dangerous hint of threat beneath it that her companions were so used to hearing from her. "What seems to be he problem?"
Halfling captain and portly harbormaster both turned to look at Reine- a beautiful, dark haired woman in expensive gear, whose rapier alone could probably pay for a small house, and with a voice like an angel. The man actually gaped.
"Close your mouth before a fish jumps in, Durrikan," the small woman quipped. She smiled at Reine before he could respond. "Ah, my lady, this idiot's longshoremen loaded my hold so the poor girl will list to port so badly we'll go in circles until we start shipping water. And he says he's not liable!" She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "If he's not then who is!?"
The two women standing off to one side murmured to each other a little more animatedly at that.
The harbormaster harrumphed, finally finding his words again. "We've got other hulls to load, you little menace! What have you got crew for if not to work!?"
Reine smiled, and it was almost natural. She wasn't a diplomat, and she didn't try to be one. But she did know how to get people to do things, if needed - though they usually didn't appreciate her approach.
Still, not knowing all of he facts, or who the observing women were, Reine did her best not to immediately start threatening people.
Yet.
"Tell me," Reine said to the air between the two arguers, "who are the women over there?" She didn't nod or do anything to indicate whom she was talking about, and kept her voice pitched to a normal - if slightly quiet - conversational level.
"And are they likely to be animatedly discussing what's going on here because they're pleased or displeased by the position that each of you are currently taking in this little disagreement? In other words," Reine's smile went a little more predatory, "what's the goal here, what's getting in the way, and why are the two of you not working together to solve the problem?"
Captain Skywin glanced over at the women. "Two more passengers heading for Cassomir." She smiled at Reine and looked past her at the other Briarstone survivors. "Like you, since even though we haven't introduced ourselves I recognize you from Cessadia's descriptions." Skywin's tone was friendly and much different when speaking normally, nothing like the powerful bellows she had been directing at the harbormaster.
She shrugged, glancing back at the two women for a moment before looking back at Reine. "Pardon my frankness, miss, but they can stuff their displeasure if they don't like it. Pleased or displeased, I'm willing to bet we're the only boat heading all the way to Cassomir for weeks, if not months." Skywin chuckled and shook her head. "But who doesn't like something fun to gossip about, right?"
The halfling woman sighed. "As to why I'm not working with this tub of guts here, it's because my crew is busy getting ready to cast off. We're working sailors, miss, and we have our own work to do. Just like this," Skywin turned back toward the harbormaster, jabbing a finger in the big man's direction "blob has an entire dock full of roustabouts whose job it is to load MY damn boat CORRECTLY!"
"You'd think..."
The harbormaster broke in, waving his arms at Skywin "They're already loading other boats! You're not the only vessel making way today, and you're already loaded! All you have to do is move half a dozen logs from one side of the hull to the other! With all those men you can certainly..."
"We don't have a boom, you great thundering idiot!"
"Well I don't have the men you half-baked little..."
"Lazy piece of..."
"Runty little..."
And they were back to where they had been when Reine walked up.
"That," Reine said, softly, "will be quite enough of that." Her voice was still musical, and her volume rose not a whit, but there was a cold so deep in Reine's voice that frost should have formed on every surface within a dozen paces of her.
"As the Captain said, Harbormaster, we have a schedule to keep, and a significant voyage ahead. Even if her sailors were able to move the wood without the aid of your men, to do so without a crane is to put them at needless risk of injury, which thus puts our trip at needless risk."
Reine's smile was nearly beatific.
"I. Will. Not. Have. That. Happen."
The words were, if anything, softer than anything else she had said. She let the incontrovertible fact that was her will hang there in the air for a moment.
Then she continued, in a conversational tone that nevertheless was not up for debate.
"You, Harbormaster, will call back enough men to operate the loading boom, and your men will assist Captain Skywin's crew to redistribute the cargo in an expedited and safe fashion. By working together in such fashion, we will have the situation corrected in less time than has already been wasted by arguing. After all, we'd hate to miss the tide and be here on your dock for another half-day or more, wouldn't we?"
The harbormaster backed away, bowing and babbling his intent to get a crew here forthwith, as soon as possible, and faster than you could imagine. Skywin's eyes were wide but she couldn't keep from taking another shot. "Just think how we wouldn't have had to do that if you'd just reloaded it like I asked!"
"Ha!" The halfling ship captain turned fully to Reine. "That was innncredible! Thank you! Cessadia didn't tell me how... formidable you were. Amazing!" She gestured up the gangplank. "Please, please, welcome aboard! I'll show you to your cabins."
She waved at the ship and whistled. "Katsin! Come see to the new passengers!" Skywin smiled at the two women who weren't with Reine. "The purser will speak with you in a moment, ladies. I'm sure we'll have you settled shortly."
Skywin waved the Briarstone Survivors up the gangplank. "Right this way, folks!"
Hannah smiled sweetly, "Well, I am glad that disagreeable man saw reason at last. Thanks to you." The last mentioned sidelong to Reine.
As the party mounted the gangplank and boarded the ship, Hannah stepped aside to speak briefly to Skywin. "I'm Hannah Sunheart, doctor of Sarenrae," she said, briefly touching her golden holy symbol dangling from her neck. "I am at your disposal, in case of... crew injury."
Skywin smiled at Hannah. "That's so generous! We have a ship's surgeon, actually, a real medicae from the Lepidstadt!" "But a Sarenite healer will definitely be welcome. Is that why you're going to Cassomir, a mission for the church? Cessadia was as tight-lipped as ever when she arranged for your passage."
Hannah just smiled. "I go where I am needed. I may stop by and see him, Lepidstadters have some... unique techniques." She bowed her head briefly and rejoined Reine and the others, letting Skywin get back to her work.