Inspired by Baldhart’s singing, Hanako looses another arrow at the same target.
Baldy sings!
Grmmmmmmm mmrrrggrrgg-g-g-g
Grrrmmmm mmmrr, mmmrr-gggrrrg-g-g-g…
Hanako shoots Jaden in the chest and he goes down.
Asa drinks a potion and dissapears as Winter casts guidance on Garrosh. The door opens as one of the frothing red eyed men rushes out and makes a wild swing at Ann with his battle axe.
"Frothing Red Axe Murderer down here, brother, if you wouldn't mind helping out?" Ann yells. Piotr looks to Kilarra, and nods, assuming she has this side of things handled. Then the armored man rushes to his sister's side. The sister shifting to the side to accommodate him.
Piotr's swing flanks off while Ann defends herself rather niftily with her spectral daggers.
Darlene begins to cast a spell.
Eveyone recognizes the spell as mirror image as 4 images of Darlene appear.
Winter, seeing the fight well in hand, casts guidance on Garrosh.
"Thank you for your blessings Winter" - Garrosh fully focuses his attention on the woman, and fires two shots in quick succession.
Kilarra moves up to Darlene and attempts to grapple the real one.
Darlene tries to stab Kilarra with her dagger, without success, and as Kilarra reaches out to grab what she thinks is Darlene, the image pops.
Winter continues to cast Guidance on Garrosh.
Baldhart enters the house and wills a spray of color.
She hopes Kilarra will not be mad at her. Is coloring her armor worse than shrinking her sword?
Hanako takes over the performance.
We already killed the entity
Who overtook Zandalus
The yellow king is our enemy
He won’t make a fool of us
Darlene, I can no longer pretend
For you
Whatever life you’re in, this isn’t the end
For you
Surrender, don’t die
As Asa just left you to
My friends want to talk to you
Sincerely, I’m warning you
Winter casts guidance on Garrosh.
Asa appears behind Kilarra and attempts to stab her, clanking off her field plate.
The other red eyed humanoid comes out of the gatehouse, frothing at the mouth, attempting to chop Ann into two, which bounces off the shield Piotr earlier cast.
His partner also attempts to chop Ann up, which she casually dodges.
As the red-skinned men hack at her with their mouths frothing, some of the spittle sprays at the young woman. That worries her more than the axes in truth. "That. Is. Gross." she snaps trying to work with her brother to put at least one of them down.
Piotr concentrates more on protecting his sister.
The siblings tag team one of the red eyed humanoids, badly wounding him.
Darlene begins to cast a spell defensively.
Piotr and Winter recognize the spell as hideous laughter.
"What happens when you toss butter out of the window?" Darlene asks, looking at Kilarra. "You get a butterfly." For some reason Kilarra finds the joke hilarious and rolls on the ground laughing.
"I can't get to Kilarra and I didn't prepare dispel magic today."Winter informs the party.
"Damn her" - Garrosh snarled as Kilarra was affected by the woman's magic, firing arrow after arrow at her - "Stand down!"
"What happens when you toss butter out of the window?" Darlene asks, looking at Kilarra. "You get a butterfly."
Garrosh fires two arrows at the wounded Darlene and her images, with the second one piercing her heart.
Hanako does find the butterfly joke very cute. “Oh—!” The arrow splashing into Darlene’s heart, not so much.
Her voice is too shaken to sing. Her eyes and mouth gape open as the illusions fade, along with the light in Darlene’s eyes. Her trembling hand takes an arrow, points it at Asa, and looses it.
Hanako doesn’t do nearly as much damage as Garrosh.
Baldhart feels the distress in Hanako. She hums you draw attention and dances through the air—
—and at the end of her dance, she shoots Asa.
Kilarra stands up and looks at Darlene's corpse. "Damn shame." She grunts, before whipping around. After dealing with his attacks, Kilarra tries to strike his sword out of his hand with sheer strength and a heavier blade.
Hanako and Baldhart stick two arrows into Asa,who tries to stab Kilarra, bouncing off her scales.
The other two red eyed humanoids continues to swing wildly at Ann,with one of them shifting slightly.
Winter moves up and draws her dagger to distract the man,but doesn't do a good job,her movements too fake.
Hanako lets the sorrowful sight of the elegant corpse guide her voice.
She sings slowly, solemnly, bellowing her feelings about the wasted lives…
Another follower of that damned Yellow King has died
How many more subjects’ lives have been objectified
As puppets? As pawns in empty suits, swollen full of pride
What did he promise you? What’s the difference…?
“…he lied.”
Her final lyrics are spoken coldly as her arrow attempts to waste another life.
Baldhart looses another arrow!
"Frothy here I think is trying to flank me, brother" Ann says, slicing into the one they have been cuting into.
"Or he's trying to get to Winter back there." Piotr counter suggests, as he stabs the same one.
Left with no clear answer on what to do, they decide to just try and kill one of them so flanking won't be an option.
Kilarra groans from the bad joke, then snaps back to reality. She tries to stand up quickly, then knock Asa's sword out of his hand through sheer strength of her much heavier blade.
Kilarra stands up and looks at Darlene's corpse. "Damn shame."
"A shame I did not take her down earlier" - Garrosh snarls, now focusing his attention on those fighting Piotr and his sister.
Hanako shoots Asa in his stomach but he ducks out of the way of Baldhart's arrow.
Asa tries to stab Kilarra as she gets up and nicks her shoulder.
Kilarra does not find the right leverage to try to get the dagger out of Asa's hand.
Piotr cuts one of the red eyed humanoids down as Ann stabs her daggers into the remaining one. Garrosh sends an arrow through his shoulder.
Asa tries to stab Kilarra again, while moving out of flanking position.
The remaining red eyed humanoid gives a guttural cry as he continues to swing at Ann, but Piotr blocks the blow.
Winter tries to distract Asa,this time successfully.
Drop – dead – Fancy Lad
Fighting in a good suit
Makes ya think you’re so bad
Bossing red-eyes around
Like you think you’re their dad
When my arrow runs ya through
It’ll make me real glad
Drop dead, Fancy Lad!
Hanako shoots the fancy lad.
Baldhart likes the song. She shakes her hips, but then realizes there’s blood and death and screaming and her goddess is only trying to keep morale up by burying her negative emotions in catchy tunes with confusing lyrics.
The big fairy is confused anyway. She shoots the fancy pants… or whatever Hanako called him.
Tries to, anyway.
“Grrm-m-m-mm.”
Kilarra grunts in frustration, whipping her sword around recklessly as an opening shows itself.
"Delema solved" Ann cooes as on of her potential flankers falls. Then the siblings try to take down the remaining one.
Asa dodges both Hanako and Baldhart's arrows, but Kilarra's great sword cleanly lops his head off.
Piotr and Ann both tag team the remaining red eyed humanoid down. On each of the red eyed humanoids the party finds a potion of cure moderately wounds, a breastplate, heavy crossbow with 20 bolts, mwk battleaxe, 15 gp. On Jaden the party finds a +1 chain shirt, mwk dagger, mwk rapier, silver unholy symbol of Hastur, spell component pouch, 400 gp worth of jewelry and fine clothing, and a potion of cure moderate wounds. On Asa the party finds a mithral shirt, mwk dagger, thieves’ tools, matching gold necklace and bracelet (worth 350 gp together). On Darlene the party finds pearl earrings (worth 200 gp), a key, a magical amber ring and a magical amber amulet and a wand studded with topaz. Piotr identifies the wand as a wand of scorching ray with 13 charges left.
Piotr identifies the amber ring as a ring of protection.
Garrosh identifies the amber amulet as an amulet of natural armor.
"They were pretty loaded." Kilarra says as the group pool the loot together. "I did want someone alive to interrogate, but damn they were annoying. After we go over loot, we should take a look around. Maybe there's clues or something."
Kilarra asks for either the ring or the amulet. She'd also like one of the daggers.
"You know how to speak with the dead?" Kilarra asks, surprised. She turns to Winter as if to ask the same question.
"So Lowes and the King in Yellow people are connected, meaning the asylum is connected to him as well, right?" Piotr is slow at things, getting a shaking of the head from his sister, but then Ann bursts out in a laugh "butter...fly!" showing she is slow at certain things as well.
"Well. I still don't know who the hell these people were. Only that they're Yellowers, and I guess they worked for Lowes? Lowls. And I know that if someone's a Yellower, I'm gonna kill them. How come the townsfolk didn't mention them? I thought this place was gonna be abandoned."
After a few lingering chuckles from Ann, she takes a deep breath to get back into the now "THe Yellowers intent only on pharmaceuticals weren't that bad. "
Piotr though agrees "Maybe they don't come up here often, or the few that do are in on it all themselves."
"I do NOT speak to the dead. It's necromancy,which is against Pharasma's tenets." Winter gives Kilarra a stony glare. "Besides you know even by using magic, you don't always get answers."
"I think the townsfolk were too worried about the mysterious disappearances like that of Magistrate Padgett to step out of their houses for long." Winter offers her opinion.
Hanako finally comments, “What could possibly have made these elegant people follow the yellow king? They could have wined and dined their way through li…”
It occurs to Hanako why Darlene’s death is so disturbing to her. She has to force her eyes to look away. She can’t stand to be in that house.
She does check the area for traps, then heads up to see if there are any threats. (Trap-check, if no enemy/prisoner/living thing upstairs.)
Baldhart also checks for traps.
But she will not loot. When Hanako exits, Baldy will come outside with her.
This small landing atop the stairs in the guesthouse has two doors to the building’s other rooms.
This lavish bedroom contains a plush, four-poster bed draped with lacy netting. A fire burns in a ceramic stove in the western corner of the room. A large, padlocked trunk sits in the southern corner near a long writing desk. The trunk does not appear to be trapped.
Large windows span two of the walls of this whitewashed room, allowing in warm sunlight. This chamber was specially built into the guesthouse to provide luxurious amenities to Iris Hill’s guests.
Hanako reports her findings, but does not want to stay in this house. The luxury, the elegance, Darlene using humor as a weapon… somehow this all hits too close to home.
“I need some air. I can be an inconspicuous lookout in fox form. Will we explore more buildings? Or in any case, if Baldhart does not need to fight more, she can fly at fairy size.”
Kilarra shrugs. "All necromancy? Cuz I'm a paladin, and even I can cast a tiny bit of necromancy."
With a hand on her hip, and her greatsword over her shoulder, Kilarra speaks loudly. "So we got room for another fight once Hanako's had her air?"
Kilarra prepares a little bit by activating a pearl of power to renew her protection from evil spell, converts two Lay on Hands into a Smite, and uses the last two to make a Second Chance contingency (when I am about to fall unconscious from hit point damage [sickened]).
Hanako finally comments, “What could possibly have made these elegant people follow the yellow king? They could have wined and dined their way through li…”
”Elegant people can still be stupidly greedy, delusional. Or simply rotten to the core” - Garrosh grunts, looking over the magical armor - ”And the fact we have not found Lowls yet could mean he has actually been murdered, and disposed of? Still does not explain why we apparently worked for him...”
Hanako reports her findings, but does not want to stay in this house. The luxury, the elegance, Darlene using humor as a weapon… somehow this all hits too close to home.
“I need some air...”
”Hanako, is everything ok?”
Kilarra speaks loudly. "So we got room for another fight once Hanako's had her air?"
”I am ready”
”Elegant people can still be stupidly greedy, delusional. Or simply rotten to the core” - Garrosh grunts, looking over the magical armor - ”And the fact we have not found Lowls yet could mean he has actually been murdered, and disposed of? Still does not explain why we apparently worked for him...”
Kilarra nods to what Garrosh says, though she adds "I just feel like he's too slimy to be dead."
“No.” That is Hanako’s reply to whether she’s alright. “But of course I will fight whatever enemy we face. None are in this house, so I want to get out of here.
“I did not see any traps, if you want to rummage through drawers and such.”
Hanako isn’t paying much attention to things that were found. Baldhart could use the natural armor, she supposes.