Elka rakes the necrophidius with her claws, then Elly shatters its skull with a powerful strike from her flail! The creature collapses, breaking its hypnotic spell on the dhampir sisters.
As the skeletal snake is smashed into a million pieces Alessandra shakes off her fascination and curtsies to Ellie and Elka. "My saviours! How can I ever repay you?" Closing with Ellie her voice drops to a whisper. "I believe a kiss is customary."
Unless Ellie pulls away the dhampir leans in and presses a soft kiss on her closed mouth.
Elká shoots a horrified glance at both Gabriella and the esteemed doctor. She mouths a silent what? at them and furrows her brows. It's obvious that whatever it is, she doesn't care too much for it as she almost immediately busies herself with checking out the room for any and all valuables.
There are absolutely zero objects of value in this room. Unless you considerable teeth valuable, as the necrophidius is adorned with a large number of them.
Warm. The dhampir's lips are soft against Ellie's as she stands stock still and accepts the kiss. She blushes pink and her heartbeat pounds as she blankly watches Alessandra slink away.
Except...
"Really? In a charnel house of teeth while I'm covered in bone dust, and that's when you choose to kiss me? You sure know how to show someone a good time. What happened to holding my hand and making me feel comfortable?"
The voice is definitely hers. The sentiment expressed - well, who can say.
Oh no I did NOT just say that out loud...
She bites her lip, but the words have already escaped.
Alessandra takes a step back from Ellie's wrath, visibly upset. "I'm sorry." She murmurs, "I didn't... I'll... I'll just be outside."
She slips out of the room and vanishes from sight.
Stupid. Stupid. STUPID!
Ellie is momentarily rooted to the spot, mortified, before rushing out of the room. "Wait. waiiiiiiit!!!!"
"Alessandra! Wait! Wait! I'm sorry!!"
She slows her run as she approaches, alternating between looking her in the eye and looking anywhere else. "You... took me by surprise, is all, and I'm not - I mean, I haven't, uh, I don't know..." She shakes her head, angry with herself for not being able to express anything clearly.
"I, uh, I do like you, I think. You and your sister make me feel - well, confused, mostly, but you're nice, and you're kind to me, and, and, and if you wanted to try again then I, uh, I won't freak out at you next time."
Her voice drops even softer. "Our father, the vampire, he raped our mother and drained her - even though she was pregnant. That's why we are what we are. I'd never force someone. Never! I'd like to kiss you again." She says, voice more normal now. "But only if you want me to."
Her face is close to Ellie's, close enough to see the sincerity in her eyes. Her lips are close to Ellie's too, but she doesn't close the gap - clearly waiting for Ellie to take the next step.
Gabriella watches her sister's exchange with Eldarel with narrowed eyes. She almost intervenes, but holds herself back. Her ears twitch as she moves just enough to pick up some of the conversation.
Ellie looks horrified by Alessandra's story. "I- I'm sorry. I didn't know. That's... unspeakably awful. But you don't have to talk about it any more if you don't want to." She brushes her hair out of her eyes and leans forward, into a kiss that lasts far longer than she thought it would...
Alessandra makes sure the kiss is a good one, tracing Ellie's lips with her tongue until the blonde opens beneath her and she can deepen the kiss properly. She leans in, tipping Ellie back gently to plunder her mouth until she can tell Ellie is running short of breath.
"Now that's a proper thank-you kiss." She murmurs. "I'd like to do it again, soon."
With that she pulls back, leaving Ellie free to collect her thoughts and lead the way up the ladder. Allie follows, and doesn't leer at Ellie's behind at all...
The ladder leads up to a long hallway. Except for a long weapon rack against the south wall, this room is bare. Another ladder at the hall's east end leads up again.
"Onwards then?" Alessandra suggests, still letting Ellie go first.
Ellie stands, barely, on legs that suddenly feel very wobbly. "Th-that was, was definitely a, a kiss," she mumbles once she has her breath back.
She breathes in and out a few times. "Ok. That, uh, right. Ladder. Ok, then."
She uses the climb to try and collect her thoughts. Once at the top she looks around.
There are about a dozen weapons on the rack, but most of them are rusted beyond repair. However, Ellie does discover one weapon of great value--an adamantine heavy flail!
"Wow." Alessandra says, hefting the weapon and marvelling at its sheer density. "Ellie - this seems right up your street!"
"Now that's a proper thank-you kiss." She murmurs. "I'd like to do it again, soon."
Gabbi moves up as Ellie walks away.
"Was that as yummy as it looked?" she asks her twin, biting her lip.
Once they enter the weapons storage room, she looks around nervously. "Let's keep moving."
Gabbi moves up as Ellie walks away.
"Was that as yummy as it looked?" she asks her twin, biting her lip.
"Absolutely." Alessandra whispers back, grinning like the cat with the metaphorical cream.
"Gosh!" Ellie's eyes widen like soup plates as she picks up the new weapon. "Adamantine! I've read about this stuff, but... Goodness, it's heavy!" She swings it experimentally once or twice to get a feel for it, before moving forward.
"Absolutely." Alessandra whispers back, grinning like the cat with the metaphorical cream.
Gabbi leans in closer, her tongue just peeking out, when her eyes glance around at the others. She closes her eyes and takes her sister's arm in her own and directs her towards the ladder.
"Yes, heavy. Good for bashing stuff. Let's go." Gabbi snaps.
Caught up in examining her new weapon, Ellie fails to notice the tripwires around the base of the other ladder. A mechanism triggers, flinging the other weapons on the rack at the fighter! They stab and batter her, leaving her badly hurt!
"Oh, Hells! I'm sorry," Gabriella laments. "I shouldn't have ... " She shakes her head in frustration and moves close to put her hands on the Lore Warden's injuries. Healing energy passes through her, closing the wounds.
Once she's finished, she steps back away. Her eyes look down and avoid the young woman's. "Sorry," she repeats.
"We all make mistakes." Alesandra says soothingly, laying a hand on her sister's arm. "At least we can be fairly sure there won't be another trap. Although anything upstairs knows we're coming now I imagine."
She climbs halfway up the ladder and then calls up. "We come in peace, to negotiate in good faith. Please do not attack!" With that done she looks down, shrugs, and prepares to scramble up the ladder as fast as she can.
"Hey." Ellie climbs to her feet and shakily dusts herself off, giving Gabi a wan smile as she does so. "Not your fault, I wasn't looking where I was going. Anyway, I'm healed, so no harm done!"
She waits warily to see if anyone replies to Alessandra.
Ulrich stares at the scene in front of him and does not follow the girls when they run off. Kamosh chirps nervously and hides under Ulrich's hat. His fists are clenched and his breathing is deep and measured while he bores a hole in the wall with his ponderous stare. He keeps silent and to the back of the group. When Ellie gets injured, Ulrich thought about helping stitch her wounds and check for signs of tetanus, but the twins heal her up with magic.
There is no response to Alessandra's call.
Ellie shrugs, and starts the climb up the next ladder. She shakes out her newly-acquired flail. After all, what's the point in having new toys if you don't get to use them?
Alessandra follows up close behind, ready to keep an eye out for traps.
This long room atop the gatehouse has several narrow arrow slits to the north and south. Each is 2 feet high and only a few inches wide. The room is bare except for a ladder descending from an alcove at the room’s eastern end. A low door stands in the center of the north wall, with a small, square window at the typical eye level for a human. The window is inset with a small metal grill, which has been stuffed with humanoid teeth.
Without warning, a living esobok suddenly appears, leaping to attack! Its claws scrape against Ellie's armor, but it hits with its bite and grabs a hold of her!
Before you can react, the psychopomp tears at Ellie's spirit, trying to wrench it free from her body!
"Oh no you don't!" Alessandra growls, leaping on the esbok and attempting to grapple it in turn.
Ellie gasps as the thing tears into her, but she struggles free - although not without further harm. Shaking her head to clear it of the pain, she steps into a flanking position with Allie before bringing her flail down as hard as she can on the esobok.
"Ellie!" The sight of her companion being mauled puts Elká into a frenzy and she dives forward in silent rage, letting her claws do the screaming.
Gabbi holds back as her sister and Elká grapple with the creature. She doesn't see a clean shot for her crossbow and there's not enough room for her to move closer to try to strike with her morningstar.
Trusting to her instincts, Gabbi raises her crossbow and fires at the creature.
Her fear at hitting her sister overrides her aim, though, and the shot goes wide.
Ulrich tries to fire his crossbow at the esobok, but he can't take a risky shot and hit his allies. As his crossbow bolt sails overhead, he looks at the extremely weak outsider. Just one good tap on a weakpoint in its fractured skull, and the whole thing would fall apart. He notices that it is about to hurt Ellie's soul, and he can't let that happen.
"Kamosh! Save Ellie!" He yells.
Kamosh flies out of Ulrich's hat like an arrow and beelines it straight for the esobok. "Leave her alone!!"
Alessandra puts the esobok in a headlock, leaving it open to attacks from Elly and Elka. They both strike true, but Gabby and Ulrich both fail to seal the deal. Battered and bloodied, the psychopomp is about to chomp down on the dhampir oracle when Kamosh swoops in with a vicious peck to the skull! The esobok whimpers, wobbles, and falls unconscious!
Alessandra promptly sinks her teeth into the creature, black energy coursing from her hands into the creature as she does so. She glances up just long enough to give her sister a look that says Want some? before she gets back to the serious business of drinking outsider blood.
Ellie's face is a mixture of fascination and... something else... as she watches the dhampir feeding; until the pain of her own wounds draws her attention.
Binding them up as best she can, she drinks one of the remaining potions.
Elká is confused. It's not that she knows what Esobok's are and do, but what little her companions have told her of these things simply do not match this particular Esobok's behavior. "Eh, if these things are supposed to hunt down the undead, why did it try to end Ellie's life?"
She does feel a little bad, however. Like Allie, Elká too wants a piece of the Esobok now that it no longer is. That feathery cuff! That skull! Oh, it would make for such an amazing cloak! Or, at the very least, a mantle!
Ellie can answer that question:
While as outsiders they have no need to eat or drink to survive, esoboks’ gnawing hunger and focused purpose cause them to grow restless, irritated, and unpredictable if denied prey too long. They favor unliving meals, but will hunt anything they can chase. Esoboks prefer rich sources of negative and positive energy—such as characters who can channel energy, beings that radiate these energies naturally, or potions and scrolls of various cure and inflict spells—but most every entity in the multiverse holds some shining seed of energy that an esobok would savor.
Gabriella watches her sister for a moment, seemingly resisting the draw. But after a few moments, with a guttural snarl she falls to her knees next to Allie and plunges her teeth into the creatures flesh.
She looks up at the others after at least a minute of steady sucking and slurping, and snarls, "Stop staring, it's rude!" Heedless of the red fluid runng down her chin, she returns to her gory feast.
When the twins finally rejoin the others, there's no trace of the crimson meal on their faces.
When the twins finally rejoin the others, there's no trace of the crimson meal on their faces.
They both seem much more relaxed though, some of the tension having drained out of them both - even Gabriella!
"So?" Alessandra asks, seemingly unconcerned about any awkwardness. "Shall we move on, or do you want a trophy Elka?"
Alessandra goes to he far door and begins to clear the view slot, scraping the teeth out with an expression of distaste.
A long bridge stretches from the door at the top of the guardhouse to a door at the top of the palace. The southern half of the bridge arches above the courtyard 30 feet below. The northern half of the bridge has a drop of only 10 feet to the roof of the castle below. The bridge is only a few feet wide and has no handholds or railings. The door at the north end of the bridge is flanked by several narrow windows, each 2 feet tall and only a few inches wide.
Ellie looks at the bridge with a certain dubious trepidation.
"Oh, I do NOT like the look of this. "
But it seems there is no alternative. She carefully puts one foot onto the bridge, testing whether it will hold her weight.
The bridge seems sturdy enough. It's three feet wide--if you move slowly and carefully, you should be okay.
Ellie makes her way cautiously along the bridge towards the door on the far side. Assuming she gets there, she will try to force the door open.
Elly pushes the door open. The upper hall here wraps around the top floor of the palace to another door. Strips of loose wallpaper in this once-elegant salon are held into place by teeth jammed into the walls like makeshift staples. A folding dressing screen is patterned with lively scenes of a fat tooth fairy blessing subjects with a wooden scepter. A dressmaker’s dummy leans against it, wrapped in tulle and silk. A door leads east.
The dummy jiggles and wobbles for a few moments, then falls still.
Gabriella readies her crossbow and points it at the dressing screen. "We know you're there." she calls out. "We're not here to fight so why don't you just come out where we can see you?"
She moves inside the room, but along the wall rather than closer to the other side of the room.
Alessandra likewise stands one pace behind Ellie and to her left, making sure that she stays out of the way of her sister's line of fire.