Chaotic melee suddenly breaks out, as Kara goes off the rails, along with Floria. Though, while the Psychic still has her sights set on Kara... Kara turns her ire on Huni, lashing out, inexpertly, with her dagger.
Huni is easily able to dodge the attack, though the wizard continues to wave her knife around, looking for another opening.
Alrik finally manages to shake off the effects of the weed, though you still see no sign of Sangkip.
With his head clear, Alrik is able to recall some more about the strange pollen that has affected everyone, and with that knowledge, Alessio digs around in his bags for a moment, hoping to help, but realizes he does not have the proper elixirs prepared!
None of that stops Floria though, who continues to focus her rage on Kara.
Your rage is almost all consuming... and is still focused on Kara.
Now your full ire is back on Floria!
|
Kara seems to decide that Huni is not the threat she thought he was, and turns her attention back to Floria.
We used to be friends, and I know the rageweed is affecting you. So I'm gonna put this as gently as I can.
She begins to cast a spell.
|
Floria moves to avoid the ray, but her clumsy attempt just puts her more in the way, and it knocks the wind out of her instead.
She replies with a barked word and a bolt of force jumps from her wand, slamming into Kara.
Forgetting herself in her rage, she moves up to Kara with a ragged gait, spitting fury, menacing her inexpertly with the dagger in her other hand.
Floria, her darker underside on full display, lunges forward with a feral snarl, and slices at Kara with her dagger, cutting a long line across her back. As the blood starts to flow, Kara turns on the half elven woman with just as angry a response, though apparently with a little more control, as she steps away and sends a ray of force, directly into Floria's chest.
You can hear the impact, and Floria suddenly is gasping for breath from the sudden blow!
But as you darker half rages, the other part of you slowly starts to come back to its sense of self. Your dagger slips from hands suddenly numb, as you realize what has transpired... even if your brain can't quite get a handle on all the details.
Instead, your mind slowly starts to clear, and you quickly come to the realization of what has happened. That the knife in Floria's hand... it drips with your blood. The blow that struck her in the chest... that came from you. There was no reason for any of it... not that you can pull from your jumbled thoughts!
Sir Ilivan proves far more difficult to load onto his mount then expected. If its not Hannah, his horse, lashing out with her hooves at anyone who comes too close, Ilivan himself seems unwilling to be moved, occasionally lashing out blindly at anyone trying to take hold of him.
"No, you will not take me again..." He whispers hoarsely, words repeated often enough that you start to think he's not actually aware what's happening around him... instead just responding to some long ago memory that has overtaken him.
|
|
Kara's eyes move from Floria trying to catch her breath, to the dagger in Kara's own hand, to the ground beneath her. Her anger resumes, this time directed at the rageweed itself. She begins angrily stomping on it.
Stupid rageweed! What did you make me do? Oh, you, stupid, weed!
After a moment of furious but ineffectual stomping, she stops and looks to Floria.
Floria, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?
|
Floria looks confused and angry, but eventually calms enough to try to force her dark half away
She rebuffs Kara's attempt at reconciliation, backing away from her and the others.
"Get away from me!"
One last try
After a final failed attempt to control herself and other few seconds of her looking back and forth between the others, ashamed but too angry to attempt reconciliation, the dark half recedes on its own, its energies spent, and she's left collapsed in a heap crying.
You will realize that Ilivan is reacting far differently than the others. Given how the rest reacted, it also seems like the effects should have worn off by now... Unless something else is the issue.
|
|
Floria gets up and collects herself, but finds it very hard to look Kara in the eyes.
"I'm sorry Kara"
"I would have killed you if I could, it's a good thing my magic requires some level of control of my emotions. If Sir Ilivan was affected before, he might have done much worse"
She rushes to his side. "It wasn't your fault. The rageweed takes your control away from you, you're not responsible"
The knight continues to lay on the ground, muttering to himself, at first not reacting to the words of those around him. You get the impression that whatever incident he is reliving in his head, is not what is occurring here, but from his past... and if the few words and phrases you do pick out are any indication, whatever happened then was far worse than your encounter with the rageweed here.
It takes nearly a minute of gentle cajoling, but eventually he seems to come around, becoming more aware of his surroundings. The storm is approaching quickly, and you find yourselves having to speak up a bit to be heard over the wind. On the horizon, the dark wall of rain is nearly upon you.
Ilivanb pushes himself unsteadily to his feet, trying to straighten himself up, and clean himself off a bit. He immediately tries to mount Hannah, as if nothing had happened, but his foot slips in the stirrup and he nearly falls back to the ground again. He pause again to compose himself.
"It was a few years ago." He says quietly, not really looking at anyone as he leans on the horse. "A routine enough scouting mission... but there is nothing routine about the Worldwound. A demon composed of nothing but shadow and claws attacked me in a moment of weakness. I should have had a stronger will to resist, but did not."
"It invaded my body. Took over completely." He continues, after a long pause. "I was little more than a passenger in my own head. It... I. I killed two of my own platoon members before the others could restrain me. All the while, that demonic fiend laughing in my head."
He glances up at the incoming storm, as if seeing it for the first time. "Only the divine power of the clerics of Iomedae that that demon was cast out... but it would seem the damage it did was far greater than any of us had thought."
He coughs uncomfortably, then tries again to remount his horse... this time successfully.
"Come, we must hurry." He says, his normal commanding tone returning. He nods towards the incoming storm. "We can't be far, and I do not like the looks of that at all."
Floria, Kara, and Alrik will all know that you the weed's pollen can affect you again... it just takes a while to adjust to changes in the victim's immune system.
Sir Ilivan shakes his head at Sangkip's suggestion. "We are close, but if that rain is as heavy as it looks, even this obvious trail will be impossible to follow if we let them get further ahead." He eyes the dark forefront of the storm ahead with a slight frown, then spurs his mount forward, clearly set to see your current goal through to its conclusion now, despite his previous objections.
You haven't traveled ten more minutes, when the front of the storm slams into you with a downpour of water, and wind screaming like it were coming from the throats of a thousand demons.
Much to Sangkip's relief, the rain at first seems normal enough... but it comes with a distinct acrid smell, with a hint of decay and rot. The horses especially seem distress by it, and you have to concentrate to keep them on course.
You push your way through for a few minutes, the odd rainfall clinging to your skin more like oil then water, the wind continuing to howl like screams in the distance.
It is Kara who notices the change first, when something strikes her on the top of the head. Not hard enough to break the skin, but definitely enough to sting. A moment later, the others start to feel them too as, for a moment, it starts to hail... small bits of ice about the size of a fingernail.
But much to your horror, as it increases in intensity, you realize it is not ice at all, but teeth. Thousands upon thousands of what appear to be human teeth fall from the sky, many still with hints of fresh blood on the roots. The smell of decay intensifies... so much so that a few of you start to gag a bit. Not even Ilivan's helm completely protect him, as the wind continues to blow with such erratic intensity that for a while, it seems like the teeth are striking you from every direction.
The cries and voices of your companions are almost drowned out in the deluge. Thankfully, it only continues for a few minutes, before the hail of teeth appear to subside, and the wind and rain die down as the storm front moves passed you.
The landscape around you seems entirely different, the ground carpeted by layers of molars, bicuspids, incisors, and canines. Teeth have managed to lodge themselves in every fold of your clothes, and infiltrated the slightest crack in your gear and armor. Many of them are jarred free as you ride across the toothy ground, cascading to the ground behind you at first, then just the occasional one after a moment.
The horses hooves make a disturbing crunching sound as they continue forward.
Any sign of the trail you were following has disappeared beneath it all.
Despite the strange abyssal storm, you remain focused on the task at hand... unfortunately, there is no longer a clear trail to follow. What was obvious before, has been scoured clean by wind, and rain, and the layer of teeth everywhere.
Sir Ilivan stands up in stirrups and points to the northwest. "There!" He calls out. "The pass, it is the only way they can go from here."
You notice the features he refers to, as the land rises up noticeably on either side, creating a natural valley between the two.
Ilivan sits back down and looks back at the Pathfinders. "They have to be heading towards the headwaters of the Silverscale. Its the only way they could get the prisoners over the river."
"Well, without killing most of them." He adds, dourly. "Still, its a best guess."
He turns his horse that direction, leading the way once more.
"Be wary. We are not far from Gundrun, and the Kakuen-taka call this area home." He adds with a dire frown.
You remember the Kakuen-taka... the Hunger that Moves... the giant towering monstrosities that the abyssal hoards used during the Siege... that were really just rotting housings for thousands upon thousands of demonic flesh-eating creatures known as bhogas. You can only hope you do not run into one here.
You've only traveled a short ways, when the horses start to get a little antsy, frequently balking and refusing to obey simple commands.
You notice that the ground beneath you begins to blister and form sickly pustules wherever the mounts' hooves touch. The pustules continue to broil and grow, even after you've passed, some of them growing as large as three feet in diameter.
Still, nothing worse seems to come of them... at least that is until Alrik calls a warning, as his horse suddenly skitters sideways, rearing up and nearly dumping him on the ground. The ground where it was about to step starts to almost hum, and undulate slightly, like something is about to burst out of it.
You only have a moment to react, before thousands and thousands of flying insects starts to stream from small holes in the ground. Clearly the source of the humming sound, as it grows into an angry shrill whine.
They look like wasps, though they are a strange reddish color, and seem to be covered in a strange oily substance that makes them shine in the light.
Luckily, Alrik's warning gives the others time to respond... but as his horse rears, Alrik himself is not so quick to react.
- Round 1 ------
Everyone but Alrik!
|
|
Floria had been withdrawn since the rageweed incident, and the hail of teeth didn't help. The utter horror of it didn't bear discussing, so it takes her an effort of will to even come back to herself at the sound of the next horrific onslaught.
Alessio exploding the bees certainly does it though, and she immediately dismounts her horse, not wanting to fight with it during a battle.
She then thinks to herself how she can improve her aim, and concentrates before transforming into a grippli
The wasps swarm out from the ground, like a miniature eruption, all of them buzzing angrily towards Alrik.
Sangkip quickly leaps off his horse, and as it turns and flees one way, he takes a step the other, towards the nest. His tail quickly pulls a vial to his hand. He lobs it at the swarm, and though he doesn't hit it dead center, it lands close enough to send a small wave of fire washing over those wasps closer to the ground, burning the slower ones.
Kara tries to mimic the feat, but her arm is not nearly as strong as the vanaran's... her throw falls well short, crashing right next to Alessio, splashing both he and his mount with chemical flames!
Where the flames strike the ground, it blisters and boils, the damage slowly expanding, much like what the horses hooves were causing earlier. Its almost as if the ground was not composed of dirt and stone, but flesh and skin.
Huni, realizing he can not help in the current situation, spurs his mount forward to put some distance between them and the nest. The horse is more than happy to go along with that particular course of action.
Floria careful dismounts behind Alessio, as the alchemist works to prepare a bomb. Her horse, much like Sangkips, takes the opportunity to move away from the wasps as quickly as it can.
So much so, in fact, that holy water will damage them just as it would a regular fiend.
They are more aggressive, and their physical forms warped slightly... but otherwise not much different than regular wasps.
She recognizes a few similarities between these wasps and the much larger one you ran into on the walls of Nerosyan, during the Siege... but that knowledge proves moot at the time, as Alessio finishes mixing his reagents, and tosses his bomb towards the erupting swarm.
Somehow, he manages to get it to explode before it even hits the ground, flame erupting from it while it is still five feet off the ground, right in the center off the largest mass of wasps. The sound of thousands of them, burning to ash as they continue trying to fly towards Alrik is actually quite disturbing. Its almost like the oily substance on their bodies is flamable, that's how quickly they burn up.
Only a dark cloud of cinders and ash descend on Alrik.
The few remaining insects that managed to escape the conflagration prove little harm to anyone.
|
|
Floria catches herself before she casts the spell, needing a double-take to see the efficacy of Alessio's bomb.
"I'm OK Huni. That was a good shot Alessio"
That's the most she's said since the rageweed, but she still doesn't look like she wants to talk. She goes to help Alrik with the horses, though in truth she's not that helpful.
"So, the headwaters of the Silverscale?"
Alrik is able to retrieve both horses, though he starts to feel a little uncomfortable tracing over the strange wounds that appear to form on the ground as the errant horses run over it. The damage seems to grow with every body that passes over it, and though it all seems harmless at the moment, he has no clue where it might go if given enough impetus.
He gathers Floria and Sangkip's horses up as quickly as he can, and leads them back to the rest, taking a slightly different path, just to be cautious.
Sir Ilivan is mostly quiet during the aftermath, his face a stoic mask.
At Floria's question, he pulls himself out of whatever reverie has overtaken him, and shakes his head slightly.
"The river is still a ways off," He adds, pointing towards the valley ahead. "But the only way out into the plains is through that pass there. We shouldn't be too far behind now, hopefully we can catch them before they get to the far side."
He scowls at that possibility. "With no trail to follow, chances of finding them then are slim to none."
Taking that as a cue, he turns his horse, and spurs it towards the pass.
The storm has not completely passed, though the back end of it is mostly just rain and the occasional gust of wind. Thankfully, just normal rain, as far as anyone can tell, though still hints of the putrid odor from earlier... though you're not sure if that's coming from the rain, blown in by the wind, or coming from yourselves.
The valley you ride into starts off quite wide, with low slopes to either side... but the further you go into it, the narrower it gets, and the higher the sides go. Even worse, the recent rainfall has fed the dried creek bed that ran down the center of it, and it gets harder and harder to avoid as the sides close in. Eventually, the horses are forced to wade through the stream itself. You are thankful that it never gets more than a foot or so deep.
Everywhere you step, you see signs of long ago battles fought in these narrow confines. Rusted weapons, broken arrows, and the occasional skull, both humanoid and ... other. The tension in the air starts to rise once more, when you realize it would be the perfect spot for an ambush... but with no other path to follow, you are forced to continue forward. Despite those fears though, no such attack manifests itself, and eventually the canyon starts to widen again, the cliffs on either side receding.
The walls along the side of the gulch are only about eight feet high and the passage itself has widened enough that you can almost all ride abreast of each other. Up ahead, it narrows again however, for a short distance, before widening out once more.
Past the narrowed section, you finally spot your quarry! A number of demons stand around a group of huddled soldiers clapped in manacles. Most of the men seem barely able to stay on their feet, the demons clearly haven driven them hard to get to this point. A few of them are not standing at all, laying dead or unconscious on the ground, still manacled to the captive on either side.
Of course, as you spot them, the demons prove to be equally alert, and make note of you back down the gulch as well, quickly alerting the rest,
Two of the demons are definitely dretches, the last is much smaller, barely four feet tall, with flaming hooves on his feet, a goat-like head with black horns, and a flaming sword in his hand. A brimorak demon!
- Round 1 ---
Huni reacts quickly.
Even as Huni moves nearer the demons and dismounts, his sword in hand, Sir Ilivan rises up in his stirrups suddenly, looking across the plain behind the demons.
"There! Look there!" He yells, his face grim, as he points his sword towards the northwest.
You see a large dust cloud off in the distance, approaching your position.
A horde of demons is approaching... if you don't move quickly, you will all be overrun!
"She's right," Ilivan concedes with a grim scowl. "We've little time."
He looks towards the nearer demons and their prisoners, then back at the incoming clouds, then sits back down in his saddle, his face suddenly determined.
"I'll do what I can to slow them down." He shouts, as he wheels Hannah around. "You get those men out of here! Don't wait for me."
"That's an order." He adds, with a rueful grin.
He then spurs his horse into a gallop, racing past the demons to the south, before turning towards the northwest and the open plain beyond.
The demons get agitated as he rides by, but the smaller brimorak starts calling out commands, and they quickly recover.
The farthest dretch, howls with delight at the brimorak's instruction, and turns on the nearest prisoner, clamping its yellowed fangs around the man's neck, and tearing out his throat with one quick movement! The man stands there unsteadily for a moment, unable to even scream, before collapsing to the ground in a ever expanding pool of blood. The demon gives a gleeful shriek, then turns towards the next prisoner in line.
The second, closer dretch, starts to convulse where he stands, its entire bloated body shivering and quaking, as its foul flesh seems to roil and send ripples across its fleshy form like it were about to explode.
The smallest of the demons, the brimorak, raises its flaming blade over its head, and the fire seems to wash down over its entire body. It bathes in the flames for a moment, before they begin to flow down its body and coalesce into a small orb of fire. With one nonchalant wave of its hand, the orb races across the intervening space, right at the Pathfinders! It explodes in a mighty conflagration right over Kara's head, encasing everyone nearby in flames!
There is momentary chaos as the fireball erupts... not from the pathfinders, but the horses! Three of them scream in pain and panic as the flames wash over them, burning flesh and bone, and they quickly collapse to the ground, dead or near to it. All three drag their riders down with them.
Sangkip and Alessio's horses manage to avoid some of the fire, dancing backwards with panicked whinnies. Still, the flames burn them too, and they rear up in fear, clearly wanting to get away from whatever is causing the pain.
- Round 1 ---
- Round 2 ---
Party is up! (though Huni's action will resolve last)