Hanako sings shine on you crazy dock post, then she looks into the water. If her Light Spell reveals the package.
Unless her Mage Hand song can lift the package out of the water, Hanako considers taking a dip if no one else wants to… but she isn’t so quick to volunteer to swim, as Hanako votes herself most likely to be swept away in an undertow.
Hanako finds that the package is in the pail by shining a light over it. However trying to use mage hand on the package - the package does not budge.
Piotr thinks it may be a bit familiar, or maybe it might not be. He's not really sure.
Hanako says to Piotr, “My magic cannot lift the contents. This means it is either too heavy for my magic... or it is magic!” She makes a sort of ta-da pose, which is immediately ruined by her suddenly-quizzical expression.
“…or both,” she adds.
She steps aside so Piotr can take his package.
Piotr just lets out a long concerned sigh. But just says "Okay" then goes to pick it up, and then open it (if nothing explodes).
Garrosh keeps watch. He is just too suspicious about this all, and expecting something to jump at them at any moment.
"Wait!" - he interrupts his companion before he grabs the package - "Let me check it"
He utters a simple spell, the guttural, harsh words leaving his mouth naturally, and allowing him to detect magical auras.
"There's something rippling in the water." Kilarra says as she draws her greatsword.
Hanako steps back, and summons a violin. She holds up what some might call a fiddlestick and explains, “Should a water creature attack, a musical bow will be of more use in my hands than my hunting bow.” She hopes they will take the package and go before getting attacked by a many-eyed sea monster.
Or are we all getting freaked out by a school of ordinary minnows?
There are several faint auras emanating from the pail.
As Pitor goes to pick up the package in the pail, a horrid mass of eyes, mouths, and formless flesh stares in all directions, its countless maws yammering ceaselessly rises out of water and jumps on Piotr! "Mor llwglyd ..." it yammers.
So hungry...
No one has any clue what this creature is...
"Careful Piotr!" - with a growl, Garrosh moves ahead and unleashes a single shot at the creature.
Garrosh recognizes the creature as a gibbering mouther. Disgusting, loathsome, and hungry—these are the only words that properly describe the gibbering mouther. A foul beast that lurks in underground caves, sewers, and nightmares, mouthers have no societal, ecological or religious significance other than their ability to drive those that listen to them mad.
Garrosh finds that his arrow does not seem to do as much damage as it should.
It starts gibbering insanely, but other then causing a horrible cacophony, it doesn't do anyone any harm.
It then spits a glob of acid at Garrosh, which bounces off his armor
Then it proceeds to start trying to bite Piotr with its many mouths, trying to latch onto Piotr but failing.
"What in the---" he nearly screams as THAT comes at him. Sooooo many teeth. "I think the asylum is infecting everywhere!" he grabs his mace and tries to bash the things lights out.
I'd HELP, but I am trapped in your head! Ann snaps.
Hanako sings to the creature in its own language.
Be careful what you wish for
No matter what you fished for
You will eat my words
The depths of Hanako’s bass violin plays to the tempo of the waves from the sea. She feels the magic slowly building with the intensity of her song…
As she plays, the flowers in her hair dance.
Kilarra jogs onto the dock, casting a spell onto her flamberge, and flicking the pearl of power to renew the spell.
Piotr tries to clobber the gibbering mouther but his mace bounces off its rubbery hide.
"Exactly. Use bludgeoning against that creature" - Garrosh encourages Piotr.
Then he draws another arrow, this time taking an extra moment to study the monster's erratic movements, and lets fly A smile plays on his lips as he spots Hanako's dancing flower hair from the corner of his eye.
"Use my morningstar if you want Kilarra!"
Garrosh's arrow strikes the gibbering mouther on one of its mouths and some greenish ichor spills out.
It continues to gibber insanely and for Kilarra, the world seems to shift in perspective and the dancing flowers in Hanako's hair morphs into a carnivorous plant.
The gibbering mouther continues to bite Piotr as it shifts slowly towards Garrosh.
It manages to latch on to Piotr with a couple of its mouths as it tries to drain him of his blood.
"Damn it!" - Garrosh growls, dropping his bow and wading in on the creature as he draws the morningstar - "I am coming Piotr!"
Piotr struggles to get the mouthy thing off of him.
Kilarra's eyes go wide as Hanako's hair erupts into a maneating plant. She sneaks up behind Hanako, and whispers "Don't move. There's a plant on your head." Then she rises to her full height and slashes horizontally at the plant creature.
“Why, yes there is. I was Beflowered by Miss AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”
Hanako shrieks as the plant on her head clings tightly for dear life. Petals and dark hairs fly as Kilarra’s blade barely misses its diminutive target!
The flowering lattice blasts pollen in self defense.
She dashes away from her friend-magically-turned-foe, and her plant keeps dancing to Hanako‘s violin.
She sings in Aklo to the many-mawed monster.
<Hey!
No fair!
You many-mouthed fat bastard
My hair is a disaster
No thank you to your dastardly
Unfair
Affair
I really hate your powers
’Cause I really love my flowers
So now I’m gonna shower you
With many
Biting words
You look like a giant turd
Are you insulted?
Well I’m just getting started
Your breath’s like someone farted
And that goes for every mouth
The truth hurts much more than lies
Are you surprised?
That I’ll cheer on the clubbing
That’ll shut up all your blubbering
And gladly watch you die!>
Garrosh clobbers its rubbery form badly, battering a couple of mouths and eyes.
Hanako's really blunt and...albeit harsh words strike the gibbering mouther, tearing a few of its mouths. Hanako does wonder if the gibbering mouther does actually have the mental capacity to understand her fine insults though.
One of the mouths latching on Piotr opens impossibly wide, swallowing Piotr whole.
After having it's Piotr snack, it burps, then continues to gibber happily.
Pitor, however is not having a good time in its stomach as he starts getting digested.
, 2 con damage.
Kilarra sees the carnivorous plant on Hanako leap onto her, injecting her with a paralyzing venom.
“Uh… ohh…”
Hanako plays and sings some more.
<Now what the hell
Is wrong with you?
You bit way more
Than you can chew
It seems I need
A few more quips
To split a few
More of your lips
Since you’re so dumb
I’ll keep it simple
You’re bloody gross
Like a greasy pimple
And so my words
Will do their worst
They’ll make you make
Like a zit and BURST!>
Despite the power behind Hanako’s words, that slimy Eat-You-Guy monster scares the hell out of her. She side-steps behind Garrosh and hopes his mind won’t be overtaken.
Hanako strikes it with those really nasty words, and the thing bursts into multiple pieces, spilling Piotr out.
Garrosh goes to his companion - "Piotr. Are you ok?" - then he looks around - "That thing couldn't have been there for a long time, or it would have already hurt someone by now... Can it be you are right, and it came from the Asylum..?"
"No... and I don't think I will ever be right again..." Piotr mutters, but with a stunned mirth. One must laugh or they might scream and never stop.
He concentrates on the weird magic inside him, removing some of the wounds. "I'll be fine." he stands and looks at the pieces of the creature, feeling the fascination inside him, not his. But then looks at the package.
Hanako grins at the way the creature explodes from her words. She looks like she’s about to say more. A shout would make the corpse even more unrecognizable!
Seeing Piotr barely alive seems to wipe the smirk off of Hanako’s face, but for a girl who improvises lyrics with such ease, she is oddly silent when she looks over Piotr.
She simply plays some notes from her violin and touches him with a trembling hand.
The excitement in her eyes dims. Hanako grits her teeth, angered by the weakness of her wordless healing spell.
Yet the second attempt is just as wordless—though considerably more intense, a violent allegro.
The healing tune is stronger this time. And Piotr is looking pretty good for a man who was just swallowed.
Hanako glares at the chunks of dead creature. It’s an eff-you glare, a may-you-rot-in-hell glare. If she’s sorry about anything, it’s that the creature died too quickly to have suffered. If her taunt could destroy its very soul, she’d shout into the abyss.
Whatever’s going on in her head, that look is gone when her gaze flickers back to Piotr. She plays her violin gently now.
A wordless Prestidigitation tune cleans the monster innards off of Piotr, and Garrosh as well if any of the chunks got on him. Hanako clears a narrow path through mouthy remains so Piotr and Garrosh don’t step in exploded monster, but most of the corpse is left for the maggots.
Piotr manages a one sided grin and says sincerely "Thank you Hanako."
“My pleasure,” Hanako says in a voice that suggests she really did derive some pleasure from this encounter.
Piotr finds in the wax paper package a potion of non detection, a scroll of protection from energy, a wand of death knell, 120 gp and 6pp, a belt of giant strength, featherstep slippers, eyes of the eagle, a spell lattice stored with the spell featherfall, a pearl of power(level 1),all neatly labelled in Pitor's handwriting and a silver locket, with Pitor's name engraved on it.
There is a lock of hair, the exact same colour as Ann's. Ann recognizes it as a lock of her hair.
Piotr sits on the docks holding on to the locket, ignoring the rest of the objects.
It's mine
"I know." he answered softly "What does it mean?"
I don't... I don't know.
He nods, then slips the locket over his head, under his armor, Safe. "No answers, just stuff" he sighs, clearly disappointed.
"Well done Hanako" - Garrosh nods at his companion after the terrible fight, then turns to their Paladin - "Are you ok Kilarra?"
Piotr sits on the docks holding on to the locket, ignoring the rest of the objects.
It's mine
"I know." he answered softly "What does it mean?"
I don't... I don't know.
He nods, then slips the locket over his head, under his armor, Safe. "No answers, just stuff" he sighs, clearly disappointed.
The half-orc sits down next to Piotr, looking out into the water - "One step at a time brother - we will get there. How is Ann?"
Kilarra looks dizzy and unstable, like she'd just drank half the tavern. She squints at Garrosh, points at him like he were a naughty child, and says
"If life gives you lemons, wait cuz they'll turn into oranges."
I am fine
"She's worried." Piotr says knowing his sister well enough to know.
Hanako replies to Garrosh, “Thank you. I think I am better with magic than with arrows.” And whatever dark feelings are fading from her mind are gone completely when Piotr offers a pair of slippers. “Ooh! Pretty! For me? YES!”
Hanako snaps her fingers, and her outfit reverts to a beige bodysuit with clear sleeves that would appear to be part of the suit, if not for the bare skin from shoulder to noodly bicep. Remembering how she was mistaken for nude at first glance, and how uncomfortable it made Piotr, she snaps again, making her outfit similar to what she had on since morning, but this time without tights or shoes.
She Prestidigitates seagull turds off a post—
Get this crap outta my way, la!
—then sits down and tries the slippers on.
Kilarra grips her head in pain and says "It mind-controlled me. Feels like being drunk. Hanako's hair plant survived, yeah?"
She'll make good use of the belt, and take the pearl.
Hanako replies, “My hair plant is fine. I will need to consult a mirror to confirm my hair style is intact.”
She finishes donning the slippers, then with a snap of her finger, she makes them appear more suitable for dancing.
“No matter if my hair is a mess. These slippers are really neat!” She ponderously adds, “They surely are for walking on water.”
Standing on the post, she stretches her leg out over the water, leans as if about to tip into the sea—
—then twirls about, leans so her chest is perpendicular to the dock, and archers her leg over her backside until the ball of her foot taps her gently atop her own head.
She then curls into a swanlike crouch and her vulpine eyes flicker to Kilarra, accompanied by a playful grin. “Admit it. You were hoping.”
Kilarra cocks her head to the side and looks at Hanako with a questioning look. "If they're for walking on water, then why're you doing...this?" Kilarra gestures vaguely to the entirety of Hanako. "Just jump or something."
Embarrassed that she genuinely doesn’t know who’s pranking who, Hanako gets down from the post before Kilarra decides to ‘help’ by shoving her in. “Ha ha! I think they do not actually do that—just prevent me from slipping on wet rocks and such.”
Blushing at her backfired joke-attempt, she says, “So, umm… Winter’s church will not go to itself, right? Um. Onward, ho? Time is…” Not money. Fleeting? “…marching on, and… time…” She’s flustered. Where am I going with this? “…is still marching on.”
She just stops talking and points the direction to shore, which eventually leads to Winter’s church, which is probably the intended destination.
As the party head pass a fishmarket towards New Chapel in a drizzle, they see someone clad in shoddy clothes and wearing a signboard painted in red across the shoulders stating "The Brairstone witch is coming!", yelling at the top of his voice. "Doom is coming! The second vanishing is upon us! Pray for your salvation that the Brairstone Witch doesn't take you!". A large crowd has gathered to listen to his ranting, and Garrosh notes he doesn't smell too good, like he hasn't bathed for days. One family is busily packing away their belongings in a wagon, with the woman saying, "We'd better get out of here to somewhere safer, like Caliphas before we all get taken by the Brairstone witch."
Garrosh boggles for a moment at Hanako's dance moves, and all the flourish around changing outfits and whatnot. When things seem to have settled down somewhat, he pipes in - "Piotr, this is your handwriting?"
"Excuse me..." - he approaches the family - "We are from out of Town... Would you tell us what is happening, and why you are leaving in such a hurry?"
"Can't you hear him?" The man points at the ranting man. "The Brairstone Witch is coming, and the last time she came the entire town was taken to god knows where...I have a family and I don't want to die!"
"Yeah, the Briarstone witch...I heard witches love to eat children," The little girl clings to her mother's leg.
"But... Do you believe that story? That this witch may be returning?" - Garrosh adds - "Why?"
"Yeah, it is mine." the warrior confirms flatly.
"And how would that guy even know?" he eyes the unbathed one suspiciously.
“Oh, little girl. Be careful when adults use your fears to manipulate your actions.”
Hanako watches the ranting man suspiciously.
Does he really believe a child-eating witch Is coming?
A part of Hanako also questions why she doubts, after all the insanity she has seen, including that many-mouthed monster.