Piper recognizes the creature. He signs: 'It's a quickling! It's fast, hard to hit, mobile, and difficult to hit with area spells"
He moves forward a bit and begins to play his flute, imbuing the others with power from the song.
Alara reels from the sharp blow before twirling her nunchaku and giving chase. [b]"Oh, is THAT the way we're gonna play? Alright then."
No sooner does she reach the creature than she swings her nunchaku...
Rawnie will gather electricity in her hand, and then step forward, attempting to shock the creature.
With little he can do to help in the fight to heal his friends...he does something very different...
Cast Burning Disarm as soon as the quickling is not moving/stops to attack.
Piper's melodies inspire his companions, but so far the quickling manages to still be too fast and nimble for Alara's and Rawnie's attempts to strike her down. Unable to make contact, Rawnie's hand crackles with electrical energy.
Masamune rushes forward to attack the quickling before it can further harm any of his allies, but once again the creatures quickness allows it to dodge him.
Nobody has yet proved skilled enough to hurt her, so she makes her best guess at which of the heroes is the most formidable and, being the best armed and armored, she assumes that is Masamune. With a flick of her arm, she stabs out at him...
And that's when Ash's spell goes off. The tiny quickling drops the blade as it rapidly heats up and, unarmed, decides to return to her chambers to pick up another suitable weapon.
She tries to dive under Masamune's reach and does so with such speed that she doesn't leave either Rawnie or Alara a chance to tag her for the stunt. And she keeps her speed and guard up sufficiently to deny both Ash and Piper a similar chance to harm her as she dashes past.
And then, back in her taxidermy-laden chamber, she picks up another knife and is once again armed.
Piper is shocked by how fast the quickling's moving. He decides to put some distance between himself and the fey creature. He continues his performance. He begins to weave the sound of a lullaby into it.
Masamune moves back towards the quickling and readies an attack for when she approaches into range.
Alara pauses for a moment and focuses. She feels her feet becoming lighter...
"忍アート：風のように!" She intones, her eyes snapping open.
In a flash of speed, she races across the room, flipping into position north of the quickling...
...and striking with her nunchaku!
And she misses again. Perhaps she's not used to her own speed.
Her hand still cackling with electricity, Rawnie moves closer to where the creature ran off.
If the creature gets close enough, Rawnie will once again attempt to shock it.
Alara's attempt to clobber the quickling comes to naught and, in a flash, the fey creature is back on the move. She initially takes another run at Masamune only to fall victim to his slashing blade and in a bad way. Her speed fails to protect her.
Nevertheless, something does seem to protect her a little. The blade hits hard, but her magical fey form does seem a bit resistant to it.
The quickling is hurt, but persistent. She slashes at Masamune, giving him a minor scrape (for 1 hp of damage).
,
She then caroms off Masamune, dashes under him with ease, ducks under Rawnie's attempt to shock her, add ends up back in the ballroom again with Ash.
She resists Piper's magical music - but it's a close thing.
Piper decides to stick to his spot and continuing his performance.
Masamune moves up to the creature and again attacks it in the hopes of bringing it down.
Rawnie moves to the creature once more, trying to land her spell again.
Alara gives chase to the quick little creature once again, this time throwing all caution to the wind!
The explorers surge forward to try to defeat the murderous quickling.
Masamune's wakizashi makes a connection with the quickling, but the gash it leaves heals most of the way almost instantly. She seems only marginally more hurt by it.
Rawnie, after two failed attempts, gets a good slap on the quickling. The electricity surges through her body, her hair stands on end, and the distinct scent of burning skin reaches the nostrils. The little fey creature takes full damage from the spell and falls to the ground, her nerves still twitching.
Once again, the general quietness of the castle reigns. The room the quickling came from, with its bizarre taxidermy, remains open to examination.
Piper stops his playing as the quickening goes down, sighing in relief. He decides to carefully investigate the creature's belongings. After that, he decides to take a look at the taxidermy room.
Alara wanders over to the dead quickling and pokes it with her foot.
"Geez, how did it even GET that fast? I've had enough coffee to know you can't do it like that."
Masamune shrugs. "I don't know maybe they make their coffee here with something different?" Glad that the battle was finally over Masamune sheathed his blade and followed Piper back into the room. He looks over at the door next to him. "Shall we head on through or does anybody need a minute to rest after that thing?"
"I kinda got sliced up..." Alara winces as a cut on her leg starts stinging again.
When Alara asks about the quickling's speed, Piper signs: 'That speed is natural. It's absolutely insane how quick it was. We're lucky that Rawnie managed to shock it.'
When Alara says that she needs healing, Piper runs to her. He signs: 'I can heal you if you want, Alara.'
Alara gives Piper an appreciative look and finds someplace to sit down so he can do so.
When Alara sits down, Piper moves and sits down in front of her. He gently lifts her leg and inspects the wounds. He then begins to gently whistle as he lightly touches the scratches. As he touches them, they begin to close and heal.
When the wounds have fully healed, Piper uses his sleeve to help wipe the blood. He the gently plants a kiss on her leg.
Takes a deep breath, waiting to ensure the quickling does not have a chance to receive the benefit of his healing magics.
"There, that should help."
The two doors that flank the entrance to the quickling's lair are swiftly identified as leading to storerooms - or what would have been storerooms in the castle's heyday. Both are populated with crates and musty smells from decades of deterioration. Both appear to have been at least hastily ransacked.
The lair of the quickling is cluttered with the products of the creature's apparent interest in taxidermy. Here and there appear to be preserved remains of humans or other humanoids, amid the more traditional woodland creatures. All preserved, if not all to your tastes in preservation art.
Alara breathes a sigh of relief as Piper's healing magic fixes her leg. She blushes slightly and licks her lips when she feels him kiss her leg.
"Right--thanks, Piper-kun." She gets back to her feet and follows the others as they continue to explore the castle.
Piper smiles at Alara and moves back to the lair of the quickling. He's rather unnerved by the sight of the preserved humanoids. He looks around and signs: 'Where next?'
Masamune shivers unwilling to step into the room with the preserved corpses. "Let's head through the door in the circular room. Hopefully we won't find any more rooms like this."
Piper nods at Masamune and gets ready to go into the next room.
Alara makes a disgusted noise and shakes her head. "I've never understood why some people do these things. I mean... eww."
Behind the door, Masamune finds a set of stairs heading downward into the lower chambers of the castle. The stairs appear to have been well-used in the past. There are also enough sconces on the walls to indicate that this stair would have been relatively well-illuminated. The amount of cobwebbing and dust, however, indicate that the stairs are not currently used by the corbies (or even the quickling or ogrekin) who call this ruin home.
Piper carefully steps down the stairs, trying to be silent and perceptive.
After a flight of steps and a turn at the landing, another shorter flight of steps leads to a stout wooden door - currently closed. All is currently quiet.
Piper carefully steps to the door and presses his ear to it, listening for any noises from the other side.
Masamune stands next to Piper ready to provide any assistance if hostiles were down here.
With his ear to the door, Piper can hear some distant sounds - maybe voices of some sort - it is hard to tell, they are so indistinct. They do not seem to be very close by.
Piper looks at Masamune and signs: 'There are distant sounds. Possibly voices. It's kind of hard to tell.'
Jacen just stands in the back and waits for more danger or more damage. He is, as usual in tense situations where lives are on the line, quiet.
Alara twirls her nunchaku and nods at Piper.
Masamune nods at Piper. "I'll head on through first to draw their attention and then the rest of you can get them while they're distracted by me."
Once everyone is ready Masamune counts down from three with his off hand and then opens the door ready to charge any threat in sight.
Masamune swiftly opens the door, ready to capitalize on any surprise inflicted on the enemy... only to find a long disused room. Cabinets, tables, and firepits are scattered about the large chamber, attesting to this having once been a kitchen. But now a kitchen that has long fallen out of use since there is quite a lot of dust and old, dry cobwebs.
There are several other exits scattered about the room - there are no fewer than 5 sets of doors other than the door thrown open by the samurai. The sounds Piper heard are now a bit louder, though still muffled by distance and closed doors. They seem to be coming from beyond the double-doors immediately to the left (or next door clockwise about the room).
Piper walks in, being cautious and sneaky. He keeps a watchful eye around the room so that they don't get jumped again.
He notices the sounds being louder. He points to the set of double doors.