It is currently empty.
Melira looks up at Aisha. "You borrowed things from houses that you cannot identify?"
She squints. "...Why?"
Aisha removes the bow and digs out the jar from her pack, and book by happenstance of it being with the other two, and begins detecting magic on the objects, trying to figure out precisely what she had missed previously!
"Because the owners can be presumed deceased until we find them, and we are going to rescue them. If we find that the items are of value in their rescue, then we can assume that they would have liked for us to use the items to rescue them!" Aisha says brightly,
"Do you think that you would prefer that I left a magical bow in your home and then for you to later die because we did not kill the thing killing you quickly enough? Also, one of these things may be a Central Plot Device, and another may well be Chekov's Wondrous Item! Since we do not know, we should bring them with us!" she pauses after the explanation, "Do you read Cyclops?"
Lyon's face was starting to turn red again when Marcus tried to blame her for the death."Yea we just left the caravan with you, Kesten, Ishana, and other magic users in a heavily fortified position for less than a day. Of course, it's my fault he died and not the one that sent them on patrol instead of just setting up a watch inside the FORTRESS." Lyon took a deep breath, she wasn't going have a repeat of last night.
"If firearms were a deciding factor in the fight then we can you some." When Ishana tries to mediate Lyon immediately drops the topic. She was right this was pointless and Marcus was stupid.
"Aisha is right...Kind of. We need to focus on the mountain right now. The Chokers came in force and even being near them when they died would probably be enough to kill someone if they didn't have protection." She presented the map again. "We'll deal with them then go clean up the ogres."
Melira looks with surprise at the bow which Aisha produces. Her eyebrows shoot up, and she says, "Wow, that looks powerful! Here, let me help you..." then she casts her own detect spell, hoping to discern its nature. "It's clearly electrical, but I feel there is some second element underneath..."
Marcus shook his head, bewildered. "When we get back, I'll enjoy watching you try to get everyone in the caravan into a 'fortress' meant to hold two squads at most."
"Ishana and I did everything we could to ensure the safety of the caravan, but we cannot be everywhere, nor do everything. We are lucky only one person died."
"If you think things should have been done differently, perhaps you'll choose to stay behind next time, instead of leaving when you know we have enemies behind us."
Kaussek's nostrils flared in sync with his temper. "Enough, both of you!" he snapped. "One life has been lost, but this bickering may yet kill all of us if you continue! I have seen enough mercenary companies defeated before battle even starts by such strife to know this. Leave the past lie and focus on the present, or the loss of one life shall be the least of our burden."
He inhales deeply, striving to take control of himself before he falls into the bickering himself. "Now, I have heard none speak against moving forward towards the temple. If there are none opposed, let us continue on swiftly, that we leave those we guard unprotected for as short a time as possible."
"Yes. It is better to focus on the positives! Because you stayed, you saved many lives. Because we went, we saved many lives. If no one is capable of helping us to identify the magics here, then I am ready to go as well." Aisha says, saddened. She felt like she was quite close to figuring it out.
She decides not to share what the Jar does, worried that the others would decide to break it. And it could easily be sold to some clergy somewhere that would pay to have the opportunity to destroy it. Or it may yet be important to the overarching plot! It was related to the people who made a terrible mistake, after all!
Melira shakes her head when offered the book. "Sorry, I don't know Cyclops. It would be fascinating to study, but it's certainly not my priority... I've learned Abyssal, Dwarven, and Taldane scripts and I speak Hallit and Skald."
Pushed forward by Kaussek, the group drops the argument for now and heads out onto the road. Well, not the road - Lyon leads the group off the road and into the wilderness on a downhill route that will lead the group quickly to the foot of "Mount Eden", the group's destination. Today's weather is very nice. The sun is shining brightly, the temperature is a brisk 57 degrees F (14 C), and the plant-life is slick with leftover rain from the previous night's light shower. The downhill walk is somewhat taxing, but none of the group are particularly frail or weak, and so all weather the hike well.
The birds chirp cheerfully. It almost seems as though nothing could be wrong, with how normal and natural the wild world is behaving. The hike lasts all of three and a half hours, and the day has transitioned from afternoon into early evening by the time the group reaches its destination. "Mount Eden" rises dramatically from the valley floor into the sky, its top point wreathed in pleasant-looking fluffy clouds. The sides of the mountain are covered in trees and undergrowth, although they are not forested thickly. Frost covers the mountain's upper reaches, although since it is spring it is likely in the middle of a thaw - many of the region's rivers are fed by mountain runoff from the Nomen Heights. It is a truly beautiful sight, and with the oncoming sunset (about 90 minutes away) it's sure to be a breathtaking hike.
The Nomen Centaurs' map has a spot on the mountain marked as 'the Seven Thousand Steps'. Even from here, partway up an adjoining peak, you can see the entrance to the Seven Thousand Steps. It is a stone arch in between two sharp foothills, and it seems to lead to a pathway up the mountainside. From this distance, you can see three figures prowling around outside of it, but it is not possible to tell any details about them other than that they are humanoid.
"We should approach warily," Kaussek says, "And stay out of sight as best we can for as long as we can. Aisha, perhaps you should stay in front a little ways and scout, though do not go very far. Perhaps twenty or thirty feet ahead of us, staying in sight."
Melira frowns. "If we're only twenty feet back, won't we be in plain view?"
"What's our goal here? To see them before they see us? Or to strike first?"
Lu squints at the figures above, but cannot seem to make out any features. "Aisha will need more than that. It might be best if she went closer while we waited here to see if she can get a better look. While we can fight if we need to, they could be townsfolk who woke up somehow and are confused as well."
Lyon ignored Marcus's comment, she'd have to teach him how to set up a proper perimeter later. She was quite done dealing with their emotional manipulation. She wanted to stay at the fort in the first place but Lu had guilted her with his speech about people dying while they they napped in comfort and now Marcus was doing the same because she'd left and he was stuck in the past with outdated weapons. "I'll lead." She folds the map up and heads out, leading the party to the short cut she'd found.
"Βουνό Εδέμ in record item. You're welcome." She says a little smugly, taking any victory she could get right now. "I'll go with her. I know how to be quiet and if things go bad you'll be able to hear a gunshot easier than a scream." Unless stopped Lyon draws her weapon as she moves ahead of the group, keeping an eye out for any attacks.
"Maybe not all the way back." Aisha says to Lu, "I can move quickly, so will rapidly outpace you. Perhaps they will see you if you are further back, but that is not as dangerous. If we go all the way forward and have to come all the way back, then we are wasting time that could be used saving people. But... you will all do what you want. I'll lead." She says to Lyon as she slips away from the group, heading towards the stairs. "I am a fool. I left an object of great value on the ground in the ogre tower. That was a perfectly good broken spyglass..." she pouts as she disappears into the treeline.
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Marcus was content to settle back into work. He needed to hurt something. Whoever these three in the distance were would do just fine. He moved into the shadows quietly.
That could have been handled better.
Pride is the most common sin.
You would know.
As would you.
I'm not sure who we're even talking about anymore.
All of us.
Lu gives Aisha and Lyon a good two hundred feet of head-start given that he hadn't ever been effective at stealth. Hopefully they would avoid starting a fight before he could close the distancce.
Aisha and Lyon take point, creeping in between the mountain valley trees, stepping over tiny brooks and birds' nests and crunching through undergrowth while the others remain behind. Going slowly to avoid making too much noise, the group creeps forward a quarter-mile over the course of about three minutes while the second group remains about a hundred and fifty feet behind them.
The pair on point reach a point where they can clearly see the figures. From a slightly farther distance or from certain angles, each of them appears human, but each has subtle or not-so-subtle things wrong with them. There are three - one, a man. Tight, stylish pants have been torn by bristly fuzzy legs ending in hooves erupting from them, and a shirt that once must have been very poofy instead bulges with muscles. A human's head has been replaced by the oversized head of a boar, although it is still topped by a perfectly coiffed hairstyle that must have taken hours to arrange. He carries a rapier in a tightly-clenched fist half-human hand and half-hoof.
The second wears the same clothes as Lyon - green and brown semi-camouflage gear made to be practical for traveling in. He carries a bow, and stalks back and forth in front of the stone arch entryway to the Seven Thousand Steps, however his arms have been replaced with furry wolf legs - although those end in human hands. One of his knees has been inverted like a canine, and his ears stick straight up, daggerlike in their triangularity.
The third is a red-skinned, blue-robed woman carrying a staff made of bronze that's topped by a red ball. She has horns that curve up and back from her head, although one of them was broken by something. Even from this distance, you can see a disturbing fact - her flesh flows like oil, and where her eyes must once have been there are only empty holes. Reaching out of the holes like grasping vines are black tubular... branches, or... tentacles, or.. tendrils. These wind out of her eyes and wrap partway around her face.
They commonly possess some of all of the physical features of whatever creature whose form they share - in this case, wolves possess powerful jaws capable of pulling a man to his back and very swift running feet. Boars possess disemboweling tusks, extraordinarily thick skin and an innate ferocity that causes them to continue fighting until the moment of death.
"Oh no. We are too late." Aisha's internal monologue reports to no one, as she continues being silent. She begins to slip back to the rest of the group to inform them of exactly what has occurred, possibly with Lyon in tow, or possibly staying where she is. "The wolf wears clothing." Aisha whispers to the others when she arrives back, "That matches the clothing that Lyon borrowed for wilderness travel from Thorn. And the tentacle-faced person is a girl with a staff, with a shiny jewel on it. That must be the Salazar. And no one would wear a shirt that poofy if they were not attempting to be a swashbuckler like in the stories. The boar must be Varn. We are too late!"
"The wolf cleric will be fast and has strong jaws capable of biting. The boar swashbuckler will be ferocious like the edritch monstrosities and will not die easily. I do not know what having tentacles coming out of one's eyes will do. But... this is a magical experiment akin to what created Bulettes and Lamia!" she says in a hushed, though excited voice. "Should I attempt to speak with them before we have to kill them? I wish that we had arrived sooner."
"The last monsters that we fought attacked on sight and didn't talk," says Melira. "You think these might be different?"
Lyon returns to the group with Aisha, they had the drop on these things they need to plan for it and take advantage of the opportunity. "Based on those eyes, I don't think there is anything left of the old Varnhold heroes." She matched their tone as she spoke. "If they were still themselves they would be trying to free their people instead of staying guard. If you want to try and talk to them then the rest of us should get set up and ready to attack if it goes wrong. We have the jump on them right now and I don't think we should give that up unless we have to." Lyon glances over to where the creatures were standing guard. "We need to make a plan before we go charging in and we need to assume it's worst case. If they still have their powers then we need to take down the caster first. I didn't see any back up weapons on them so if we can disarm them then they'll be at a huge disadvantage. So well attack the caster first, disarm the rapier, then move to the archer after the caster is down? They have a lot of range so getting in their faces will be our best bet."
Lyon would wait to see if anyone had other suggestions but if no one spoke up she would try to confirm the idea. "So kill the caster, disarm the rapier, kill the archer, then deal with the last one sound good? Keep in mind I can't really do stealth in combat, when I fire everyone will know where we are."
"Then you are the bait," Marcus said quietly. "Find yourself a shooting position. The unquiet of our number will stay with you. Those skilled in stealth move behind them and signal you. Take your shot. The boar will move toward you. That is when the scouts will strike the caster."
Melira looks at Lyon. She asks "Which caster is first?"
"That's fine but I'll need to get relatively close, ideally within thirty feet but I could maybe do forty. Do you think you can get that close without alerting anyone?" She turns to Melira to answer her. "If those are the people from Varnhold then the one with the staff is an arcane caster, she'll be the biggest threat. The other is likely a cleric but I don't know if his god will still provide him power in this form."
"Heroes do not shoot first and ask questions later. If we attack them and they just look evil, then we are the bad guys. But discretion is the better part of Valor." Aisha responds, not bouncing for once. A test of the party's mettle! Would they be HEROIC and attempt to speak in peace, or just assume that just because someone's eyes are leaking qlippoth that they are evil..?
"Disarming a foe is quite difficult in real time. Are you capable of doing so? I believe I would just get my starknife taken from me in the attempt... or cut badly. I think that ideally, I should approach them from the opposite direction in a friendly manner, and if they attack me, then you shoot the one with tentacles for eyes, and I will do my best to return to cover and protection. With luck, the boar will have attempted to follow me. I am very good at being bait."
"This is not a story," Marcus said flatly. "In real life, notions of heroism get the wrong people killed."
"Everything is a story if you survive to write it down." Aisha replies quietly, starting to bounce in place slightly. "And not doing heroic things also gets the wrong people killed."
"Aisha is fast and if the change was just physical then we might be able to get help from them. Are you ok with being the bait then Aisha?" She's going to die. "We can get into position, you approach them and if things go bad we unload on the caster. I can't disarm easily, if someone else can't maybe we could disable him some other way?" Lyon looks to the groups magic users hopefully. "Any chance you guys have any way to disarm or disable someone?"
"Thirty feet is a little close for me," says Melira. "I'll stay a little farther back - I'm not the most nimble of dwarves, if you know what I'm saying."
"I have a casting of grease prepared," she adds. "With luck, it can cause a foe to drop a weapon, but it only works if your opponent is not fast. It won't hurt to try, of course! I also have a spell I can use to bolster somebody's... everything. It's called heroism, does somebody want me to use it?"
"I'm actually also capable of casting Grease, so Melira and I could attempt to disarm them of any weapons if things turned aggressive" Ishana responded helpfully, weighing things up.
"I would have to be relatively close range to use the spell though, close enough to move into combat and still reach anyone with the spell if things escalated quickly. Unfortunately, like Mellira, I'm not naturally nimble and wouldn't be much good on a stealth mission. I could accompany Aisha if she isn't going to openly hide her approach "
"You could also blind them. And if they explode in the bright light, we will know that they are no longer the good guys." she turns to Marcus, slightly, "Though, that does not make them bad guys.
"I am going to climb up the southern cliff facing so that when they summon a wall of tentacles - or foliage - to grab me, it will not affect the pathway." Aisha says, surprisingly calm, though the bouncing betrays that.
Lyon squats down and pulls out her dagger to mark the dirt in an attempt to visualize the plan. "Well then we don't really have many options. In case they attack on sight we need to be close by and if you climb up the mountain no one can follow you. We will just have to get as close as people are comfortable with and hope they don't kill you before we can get there." She returns her dagger to her wrist and cranks the gears back into position.
For the first time the party has seen, Lyon loads her shotgun with real slugs. "No offense but maybe you should use that on one of the less subtle?" She suggests to Melira. "I'm going to try and set up pretty close, now might be a good time to use any defensive magic you have."
With most of the plan settled, and no clear naysaying, Aisha nods her agreement. "I am very good at being bait!" she whispers excitedly, seeing that it is almost time to enact The Plan™. She casts a minor cantrip on Lyon, then begins looping far to the south, sticking to as much cover and concealment as she can manage, before beginning to make her way up the hill, returning her nanite-keratin spikes into points that allow her to easily grip even the tiniest of cracks. She hoped that they would not have to fight... but she felt she was likely wrong and that everything would go badly. But a hero wouldn't just murder everything they came across. And she really wanted the party to be filled with heroes, because those lead to better stories. Or... stories where all of her friends died to make way for better stories. That would be unfortunate.
"Good idea." Melira approaches Marcus (the most heavily-armored member of the group) and lays a hand on him, transferring an enchantment that fills him with a sense of bravery and competence.
Lu prepares for a possible confrontation by casting barkskin, knowing that it would last long enough for them to continue into the temple if it turned out the three above (for some reason) weren't a threat.
Kaussek considers Aisha with a look that speaks volumes about his opinion of her desire to speak with the creatures... but he does not speak against her audibly.
"I shall hang well back. It has been a long time since I was capable of slipping silently through the shadows."
The group creeps forward slowly, trying to get as close as possible before they're spotted so that they can unleash an ambush. Aisha, who is the fastest, makes it all the way to her position first and waits behind cover for Lyon to signal that she is in position as well.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group creeps through mountain undergrowth... but unfortunately, many of them are heavily armored or just slow, and the wolf-cleric advances to the edge of the ledge where they stand. He points a fuzzy clawed finger down into the valley where the group is climbing up and shouts, At the call, both of the other heroes of Varnhold drop into a fighting stance. All already clutch their weapons.
1. Varn
2. Aisha (message v. Lyon)
3. Lyrudrada Salazar
4. Kaussek
5. Ezekiel Thorn
6. Ishana
7. Marcus (heroism)
8. Lyon
9. Lu (barkskin)
10. Melira (grazed)
Varn is the first to react - swashbucklers are very fast! He snorts through his immense pig muzzle and then begins to charge down the staircase towards the group, his footfalls pounding on the stone ground. He's ready to take on the entire group at once by himself!
"Spotted, one is charging us. They seem sentient but called us demon?"
Aisha clambers up over the edge into view, whispering to Lyon, "Yes. Tell Lu to pull his punches. They may be enchanted."
"We are not demons! Aisha calls out to the two people on the cliff with her. "Do not run and do not attack!
We are here to protect Varnhold and it's people. Please do not make us hurt you!
Aisha clambers into view and moves towards the tiefling with the crawling, oily skin. She speaks words of peace and then brings her starknife to bear against Lyrudrada, her blade carving through the tiefling's meager armor and thin fiendish scales. Her elemental strike takes the wind out of the tiefling caster and she steps away from Aisha in surprise.
After Aisha's attack a nearby tree appears to chime like a hand bell - a clearly audible sound to Aisha, clear and bright. Then, from inside of it there comes a horrid buzzing as a large lump on the tree suddenly disgorges thousands of wasps that immediately fly over towards Aisha. Seeing the danger, she blinks back out of sight. The wasps pursue her, wheeling around and flying towards her but cannot reach all the way to where she is.
Lyrudrada calls to her allies - "The demon spoke nonsense even as it slashed me!"
"My guardian wasps have it handled. Kill the others!"
Kaussek breaks into a run, trying to close the gap as swiftly as possible.
While Kaussek closes the gap, Ezekiel Thorn enhances himself with a prayer and a holy hand gesture, casting a spell upon himself.
"I can't really pull punches on a shotgun but I'll let the others know." Lyon whispers in reply.
"Knock them out if you can, Aisha thinks they might be enchanted." Lyon shouts to the others as they rush forward. She moves up ahead of them, range wasn't on their side against that bow and a caster. "Ok kind of a long-shot but you can do this. Remember what Flynn taught you." She tells herself as she starts lining up a shot against the charging Boar-Varn.
Breath. She takes a deep breath before releasing about half of it. Relax. She kept her grip firm but was careful not to lock her arms. Aim. She put Varn square with her sight and began tracking his movements. Slack. She tightened her fingers around the triggers. Squeeze. She finally pulls the triggers back firmly, sending two slugs towards Varn's chest.
As soon as the shells leave her barrel Lyon lets out her breath and quickly readies herself to be in a close quarters fights. She snaps open the barrels with improving speed and lets them fill with blue fire before closing them again.
With the battle having started, Lu rushes forward to join battle, running at full speed to join the others.
"Fellow Worshiper of the Savored Sting, Lyrudrada, understand that we are not demons. Your mind is being tricked by an entity that goes by Aria." Ishana shouts. She doubts her words will have much of an impact but she feels like she has to try.
Ishana casts her spell, quickly so as to prevent it being disrupted, but speaks all the same. "Feel the magic within my spell. Use your own arcane knowledge to identify it. This spell you feel is Burst of Radiance, a spell not commonly cast by demons, and a spell that only damages evil aligned creatures! Stop and end hostilities" she asks, before repeating the message in Elven, not a language traditionally spoken by demons.
Ishana casts her spell and causes a burst of light to explode around Lyrudrada Salazar. The light seems to bend around the tiefling, but Ishana's spellcraft proves itself superior to the tiefling's resistance and it leaves her blinking and blinded, but undamaged. She calls out, "The demon spouts lies!" and Varn, pounding down the path towards Lyon, growls, "Yes! We are not evil! You are the evil ones, coming to despoil this place! She told us you would come!"
"We won't let you reach the Temple of Many!"
While Lu and Marcus close from behind, Lyon lets loose a shot towards Varn. Her first barrel ignites a little early, and the recoil sends the second shot way high into the air. The first shot looks to be directly to the head, but Varn strains himself to reverse direction and move out of the way, and it merely strikes his cheek, leaving a vicious line of blood.
Roaring, Varn leaves the path and crashes down through undergrowth and over rubble. "Kill you!" he screams as he closes with Lyon.
Melira comes up behind Lyon. "Sorry," she says, "I'm not too much good in a battle, but I'll lend you a ward - " she lays a hand upon Lyon's back and she feels a stabilizing force, a ward against entropy, decay, and against recklessness.