"Yes MIZZ COR-RAL! They are being mean right now though!"
Two small creatures howl out in pain as they are scorched fire and intimidated from Lola's spell. One of the pair seems to howl louder and more intensely than the other, it's position in the room glowing brighter as it begins to shed even more light.
Both of the invisible targets now firmly set their sights on Lola, slashing her with their claws repeatedly.
Thanks to the one being on Fire, Vlad is able to pinpoint its location and attack it, landing a blow. He feels his blade get hung up on its skin or hide though, not delivering the full extent of the blow.
Coral is able to pinpoint the other one, directly on the opposite side of Lola, flanking her.
.
Damian gasps as Lola is being harried from all sides by the invisible menaces and bleeding profusely from multiple wounds. Channeling the power of Sarenrae, he prays for mercy and relief.
"Stay together!" he shouts as he moves to protect Lola with his own body.
Coral keeps her eyes closed. She listens for sounds of motion, and tracks the scent of burning pixie.
"One right next to Feena!" she shouts as she moves to attack the one that Vlad hit. To help Damian, knowing he won't hear her shout, she points at the other enemy.
She strikes with her short sword.
Marya charges her gauntleted hand with positive energy and strides up to Lola, discharging the heal on her. Marya immediately flips off the burning, screaming invisible thing while she finishes walking to the wall.
Lola's triumph is short lived as she plops to the ground, weakened only to be instantly revitalized. Sputtering, she shouts at the invisible attackers, "janal in mierda, paal jump'éel cabra ma' na'!" She still can't see what's happening, so she tries to hum a merry tune to everyone other than Damian, hoping to raise their spirits. She whispers the words under her breath, but they sound rude in any language.
Feena cried out in pain as she was quite literally stabbed in the back. She felt something drain her strength and staggered a moment. She saw Lola get stabbed twice more and felt Damina's magic wash over her healing part of her wounds. When she saw a one of the creatures burning Feena knew roughly where she had to go. She shifted back away from her friends, maybe a bad idea but a necessary one, and did what she had to do.
Feena chanted, gestured, and then cast a pall of sparkles all over Damian, Lola, and Vlad...and the two invisible creatures...she hoped. Then, to protect herself should there be more of these things, she burst into flames and began to burn.
The sparkles get into his eyes, but Damian shakes his head and blinks rapidly, clearing them out.
Feena splashes the battleground with sparkles, hoping to reveal and blind her enemies in the process. Two small humanoid lurks at the edge of illumination, their fine features bleeding away at the edges, making it appear blurred and out of focus only visible through Feena's spell. Though now revealed, they do not seems blinded as she had hoped.
Damian sends some healing across the battlefield and Marya also delivers a spell to help keep Lola conscious. Unfortunately however, it isn't to be for very long. Still flanking the fallen, poisoned and injured bard, the first creature buries its claws into her chest twice and rips open two new vicious wounds on her body that causes much too much blood to pour from her body. Though you have seen your allies wounded in battle, none have been so devastated as Lola's body appears to be on the ground. After she drops to the ground again, it slides up next to Feena, apparently unhappy about being covered in sparklies and wanting to do something about it.
Vlad's attack and Coral's attack both land as they are able to see the location AND the creature on Lola's west and critically injure. Both are met with the same issue with their weapons not dealing as much damage as they wish it would.
With Lola back on the ground again, the already injured enemy moves five feet southwest to Vlad's left side and puts its back to him. Facing Marya, it cuts her twice with its claws though not nearly as bad as it did to Lola.
Damian rushes to heal Lola again, blinking back tears at the sight of the ravaging wounds. "Please don't die, hermana, please stay with us..."
He then moves to interpose himself between one of the now-visible assailants and Lola.
"Lola!"
Coral doesn't see what is going on, but she hears the sounds of Lola being (at least) gravely wounded, and Damian's desperate words.
She steps forward and attacks.
Marya is absolutely stunned as she sees the little monsters rip Lola apart. She begins trembling, first with fear, then with rage. She should have done something else. Stood over Lola's body and distracted them, prepared a different spell that would have let her see the enemies, even just healed her a bit better. Anything. She beats her fist against her shield with a heavy, dull clunk. "Not again. NOT AGAIN, YOU ABSOLUTE F%%%S."
She reaches for the cold iron sword as she beings walking, deciding to test the childrens' assertion that their "friends" are faeries. She levels it not at the creature that attacked her, but the one that murdered Lola. She approaches it steadily, her eyes never leaving it. "I see you, monster. There's nowhere for you to hide any longer, you coward, you cur, you damned a%&+#&+. Go back to whatever hell you crawled out of and DIE." She swings with all the righteous fury she can muster. Iomedae tells her to honor her companions to the last, and she will. Oh, she will.
Damian restores Lola's life with divine healing, but strangely she doesn't stir afterwards. Even after the healing, her body continues to pass blood onto the floor at their feet, spill around both Damian and Coral's boots.
The creature swipes at Marya as she stomps away, but is too distracted the other enemies swinging at it to connect. Marya on the other, is not distracted. Exacting vengeance for what it has done to Lola, she lands a devastating critical blow.
Both Vlad and Coral miss their attacks, too caught up in everything else that is going on to focus on enemy before them.
Feena saw Lola drop again and something seemed different than before. She felt horror rising up within her...and anger, so much anger, and then one of the little bastards moved next to her. The flames wreathing her body burned it without mercy as she shifted to flank it and lashed out with her fist in anger and made a sound like an angry bird of prey.
Feena's flames burned the creature next to her, but her fist comes up short as it dodges out of the way.
Moving away from Coral, the semi-invisible but glittery who is near death decides it has had enough playing for now. Zig-zagging south, the makes it around the room and halfway out the door.
The creature that killed Lola which is between Feena and Marya does not flee however, moving south of the burning woman and slashing at her twice. She misses on the first attempt, but the second slashes her left forearm.
Hearing Marya say that she can see the creatures, Coral opens her eyes.
There they are.
She drops her short sword, draws her bow, and takes a shot at the fleeing one. The memory of Lola's song inspires her.
The fleeing one drops to the ground in the doorway, the fire continuing to burn its dying body.
Feena felt like the poison had run it's course. It had ravaged her muscles but she knew she had to push on. She saw the creature move around and slice at her twice more but it shied away enough to miss with one while the second sliced the sorceress again. She waited until Mary moved in to strike the creature and then lashed out herself when it was flanked again.
Marya keeps her single-minded focus on Lola’s murderer. She walks around it to place herself between it and the door. ”No escape for you, either.”
Something was wrong. The healing, it wouldn't catch. The energy flowed through the body, not into it. Then he sees Marya enter a rage, and Feena as well, so driven that she punches at their enemies - and begins to understand. Stunned for a few moments, is all he can do to keep his remaining friends alive. He won't lose one more to these horrible creatures. Not one more.
The party continues to collapse around the last creature and with Feena, Coral and Marya's attacks, it nearly falls. Staggering back, it stumbles away from Feena into the wall behind Marya. Determined to try and make one last escape, it casts a spell in a defensive manner that may allow it to make it past the cleric.
With it's back against the wall and nowhere to run, the party quickly finishes off the second creature as it slumps down the wall and falls to the floor.
The final notes of Lola's song come to an end as the battle concludes. In the center of the room, Lola lay unmoving. Numerous wounds have spilled unnatural amounts of blood from her body.
The ghostly children gather around her body, looking down at her. "Sing us another song, Miss-ses Lo-la?" one asks curiously.
Another looks to Coral and says "Mizz Coral. What are going to learn today?"
Six DC22 Knowledge or linguistics checks are required to close the location. Anyone intimidating previously takes -2 to all checks. Subsequent use of skills even by different members of the party take a -5 penalty as the children bore easily.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
With the last creature dead Feena's flames went out and she rushed to where Lola lie. She knelt next to her friend's body and reached out slowly to touch her face and choked off a sob when she realized what had happened. "Oh gods no, Lola!" Her hand moved as the ghostly children spoke and brushed down along Lola's face, closing her eyes.
Feena suddenly understood they were not done here yet. This wasn't over, they had to explain unfinished business. Feena looked up at the children and said sadly as they asked Lola to sing another song for them and said, "I'm sorry children but...Miss-ses Lo-la, is dead. She can not sing for you anymore." It was heart wrenching to have to tell the children about this but she knew it had to be done.
Feena looked up at her friends and said, "The children need to finish their lessons for the day." It was obvious that Feena was a bit too broken up to start the lessons so she left the job to someone else to begin. She'd help once she collected herself.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oh no...
Coral sees Lola's body and the others' reactions. She is not trained as a healer, but can accept the obvious without needing to double-check for herself.
She watches as the ghost-children gather around. "Are you sure you can't hear her sing? Can you listen carefully? Maybe she is in a place where you can hear her?"
No, stupid, they aren't real spirits.
"Give me a minute."
She kneels down next to Lola. Then she looks at the bodies of the fairy creatures. Why? Why did they do this? Did they just not understand what death is to mortals? Or did they know and not care? Did they not want us to interrupt their play?
"Okay... I can help with some lessons. Lola... Lola would have been the best teacher, I think. Marya, Damian, can either of you teach?"
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Marya stands fierce and stoic through the spell cast on her. ”I told you: I see you.” She never saw the babau as it killed Hilde, but she saw this monster. She then pins the presumed faerie to the wall with her sword. She leans against the wall with her now free hand, and she breaks. She cries heavy and long, her chest heaving from the pain. She needed to be better. She let it happen again. They are even both bards for f&++’s sake. If “fate” is real, then the Lady of Graves is a f#~~ing b*~%+.
She does listen as Coral and Feena talk about lessons. Lola would have been the best at lessons, yes. Gods damn it. They are stuck with her, though. She wedges herself up and trudges over towards the spirits. She’s normally good with kids, but it’s hard to focus when she just wants to curl up and cry for a week.
”You, uh, ever hear about heraldry? They teach you that? I’ll tell you about how to blazon a coat of arms. You can, uh, learn a lot of cool words that are fun to say.”
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Damian is broken-hearted as he cradles Lola's head on his lap, tears flowing freely. How could this happen? Why were those fey so cruel? And in front of the children, too! Only... they are not children, not really. They had a job here, and mourning would not bring Lola back. What could bring her back? Damian has the feeling that it wouldn't be as simple as a resurrection spell, and even that would be extremely difficult to achieve. Perhaps the broken spirit of the village could help, or intercede on their behalf? But first, they had to make it whole.
Finally, Feena and Coral's words filter through the haze of pain and wrenching guilt. Right, lessons. "Guide me, Dawnflower."
He wracks his memory for a while as he sits in a pool of Lola's blood, trying to find a good story for the children. Lola would have known, she would have put on a show as well and dazzled them with her charm. He sighs deeply.
"Alright, have you ever heard the story of Aroden and the mean wizard?" He had to hold on to hope. Evil had been defeated before, and it will be defeated again.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Vlad tries to remain stoic, but the loss of one of his companions brings tears to his eyes.
Life is a tragedy, and there are those with malevolent intent. The hope is that the divine helps the good to prevail. But not always. Perhaps the divine care nothing for us mortals. Perhaps I care nothing for them.
He shakes his head to clear the cobwebs. Vlad feels he should says something. "She was an unusual woman," Vlad offers. "I will admit I did not trust her--at first, anyway. There was not much to trust where we were. But she was a good and capable ally. I did not always understand what she was saying, but her tunes were catchy. I can still hear one in my head." he says.
He takes his blanket from his backpack and drapes it over the still form.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Let's continue with the lessons," says Coral quietly.
And something topical, I guess.
"Miss Lola has passed from the world, children. When the physical body cannot sustain life anymore, the soul remains. Miss Lola can continue to sing her songs and tell her stories, just not in our world. Her spirit has entered the River of Souls. Marya, can you explain more?"
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Marya nods. This is ultimately an opportunity to intellectualize what just happened. She certainly learned enough about how this process worked when she was at seminary
"Yeah. I can take it from here."
The explanation that follows is almost perfect. She explains in the way that only someone who has attained true mastery can; the hours of study have allowed her to cut past the most uninteresting and arcane elements and straight to the heart of the matter. She adds Lola to each step of her explanation, having her going through all the afterlife in loving detail. Her explanation is accurate and thorough without once ever dropping into the mundane or dry, every word chosen to drive the children's interest. That her heart is in the explanation for the first time in a decade makes it all easier. It is her unofficial service for Lola, so she has to do it right.
The children are initially interested in Marya's heraldry lessons, but they start to get distracted as the cleric continues on. Damian and Feena's lessons bring them back into the fold, though, and as Coral starts to broach the subject of what happened to Lola and Marya chimes in to assist, the faint echo of a bell rings in the distance. The children stand from their desks and begin walking toward the schoolhouse door, dissipating into wisps of light as they move.
One child remains behind briefly, smiling at Marya. "Thanks for takin’ the time to teach us. I don’t think there’s going to be many more classes. Some of us wanted to say you should be careful of the yelly purple lady with the pointed ears. She’s mean! She smashed up all the spiral god’s signs in town, and the spiral god must make her so mad she can’t think straight.
"Okay, bye!" She waves vigorously before running off after her classmates, dissipating as well.
|
|
After the ghostly children dissipate, Vlad wipes a tear from his eye, angry at himself for showing emotion.
I fear no pain! Why must my weakness show to the others!? Must the burden weigh on my mind as well as my body?
He takes one of the classroom's chairs and smashes it into the floor, turning it to kindling.
"Gah!!! We let our guard down! She was one of the few points of light in this dark world, and now she is gone," the zealous warrior says.
"We should probably bury her in the cemetery with all the honors she has earned," he suggests after he calms down.
"'Yelly purple lady,' huh. Fair chance she's with the Whispering Way if she thinks destroying Pharasma's sigils is a good way to spend her time." Marya searches over Lola and the area around her for a small piece of flesh, preferably one she does not have to sever herself, and packs it away in a folded bloodly cloth. "Sorry, Lola. Call me selfish, but I have to try. You deserve as much."
"For once, I agree with you Vlad." Marya shrugs her mouth in a "not bad" expression, pleasantly surprised on Vlad's compassion.
Coral is distracted by the ghost-child's words and the thoughts of Pharasma.
"I can see why one would take a disliking to Pharasma. Sometimes I feel like smashing her spirals.
I dread her misguided agents coming after us. Like Mictena.
I hate that her Fate can decree that we face such awfulness - though I know it is up to us how we respond.
And I think Lola had some trouble with Pharasma. I'm not sure.
But with the Whispering Way, Pharasma and we have a common enemy."
"I agree, Vlad. We should bury Lola with honors.
I tried, Vlad. I tried to find them and finish them off. But I couldn't see them at first, and then she was in a bad position... she tried to fight them instead of falling back... inspired us instead of healing herself... if she had just done one thing differently...why did she have to be so brave?"
Coral sniffles a bit.
"Okay, listen. I know how to fight dirty. Well we had two fights in a row when people pulled that trick on us. The cultists with their potions of Invisibility, and then the murder-pixies. That happens again? BLOCK UP IN A CORNER. Like we did against the cultists."
She looks around. "I'm sorry. I can't blame Lola for being brave. And I can't always be fighting the prior battle. I'm just trying to think what I can do to not have this happen again."
Feena gave her part of the lesson and spoke of loss of those you cared for and what it can do to you. She knew the topic well as her life seemed to be one of continual loss, first the parents she never knew, then the loss of so much of her innocence when she was trained to serve as a pleasure slave. She was bought and freed by Gregory only to move from their home to this town then lost both the town and Gregory. Yes the phoenix woman had suffered loss her entire life and now she had suffered it again. It gave her a lot to talk about to the children.
When the children left Feena rose and smiled as she waved to them. There wasn't much heart in her smile but she tried at least. As they began to discuss Lola's remains Feena nodded in agreement, "Yes, we should bury her, and then we need to find this purple lady and end her." Before they left the schoolhouse Feena tried to figure out how to protect herself from suffering a similar fate to Lola and a new spell came to her. She chanted, gestured, and created a barrier of raw force that overlapped her torso conforming tightly to her body. It wasn't perfect but it should help when they got attacked again.
"Maybe we should wait before burying Lola," says Coral.
"If we complete the tasks for the spirit of the town, it may be able to do something for Lola.
And if not... Marya, do you have the ability to cast Speak With Dead? We could ask Lola if there is any unfinished business to attend to... any family to notify... we could say 'goodbye' to her. And 'sorry'."
Damian winces at Vlad's admonishment. "I should have kept her alive, should have healed her... more. It is my weak faith that is at fault here." He lets out a bitter laugh. "It was the one job I had, and I failed. Not like I could have done anything against the pixies, I couldn't hear them, or see them until it was too late."
He straightens a fold on Lola's greatcoat, tracing the silver filigree with his eyes. "Yes, let us see if the village spirit can aid us, and if not, we call Barzahk the Passage and ask them to intercede on Lola's behalf. It is the least we can do."
|
|
"It's not your fault, Damian," Vlad says. "We all let our guard down. I might have saved her if I could have seen her, but I was blinded the whole fight," he adds with some degree of irritation.
"I do not like the idea of leaving her unburied. Someone might raise her into one of these--things," he says. "But perhaps for a little bit while we visit the town square. Then perhaps we can go to the cemetery."
"We can take her back to the consecrated ground for the time being. She won't be raised there before continuing on."
The party decides to take Lola back to the jewelry shop where the ground was consecrated previously. It does not appear that the previous bodies have been disturbed.
You head towards the loci spirit's final fragment. As you approach the town square of Roslar’s Coffer, you spot a glow coming from a wide porch on one of the buildings adjacent to the square. The glow emanates from a pair of translucent figures that resemble an elderly couple. Their forms are indistinct, so it is difficult to tell their races and genders, but the figures are holding hands as they sit in ancient rocking chairs on the porch and look out onto the square. The figures rock slowly back and forth, and the squeak of their old wooden chairs echoes eerily.
An old stone pool stands in the center of the square, its water stagnant and murky with dirt and rotting vegetation. Next to the pool is an oddly overgrown flower bed filled with strange, squirming flora surrounding an enormous pitcher plant. A large, muscled man with blond hair is actively engaged in combat with the creature. A holy symbol of Pharasma swings around his long coat as he dodges one strike and lunges forward with an attack of his own.
As you approach, the two figures call out "Oh. Are you here to help that nice young man with our plant problem?"
Driven by pure instinct, this monstrously sized pitcher plant is much more aggressive than its more common and harmless insect-eating kin. Though a capable hunter, the crypt flower has no qualms about scavenging for its sustenance and eagerly devours living or rotting flesh.
It maintains a proclivity for growing in graveyards and cemeteries, nursing itself on a diet of carrion, corpses, and vermin. Because the crypt flower gains its nutrients from decomposing organisms, the plant is nearly rootless and moves about by extending and retracting four thick clusters of rootlike shoots.
Feena walked with Marya to take Lola's body to the consecrated ground. She felt worse than useless, her friends might have been able to save Lola but Feena knew that she could not. Even worse the spells she had cast so they could see the faeries to kill them had blinded Vlad and that may have been what tipped the scales of Fate against Lola's survival. Feena knew, deep down, that Lola's death was her fault.
When they reached the others and made their way tot he town square Feena was very quiet. She was not handling the death of Lola well, of course were any of them really, and she wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings. The creaking of the rocking chairs and the voices of the old couple were enough to bring her out of her daze. Well, that, and the fact someone was fighting a giant plant! Feena's eyes widened and she was pretty sure she didn't want to get near that thing so she quickly began to chant and gesture as she moved to a clearer view and sent a beam of scorching hot energy lancing out at the plant thing.
Damian nods at Marya's suggestion. "Yes, let us take her there, but... not bury her yet. I am not ready for that. It feels too much like we are giving up on her." The man sighs shakily. "It pains me very much to leave her like this, but Vlad is right - we need to finish helping the town spirit, perhaps they can help us bring back Lola once they are whole."
As they come upon the strange scene, Damian wastes no time in pulling an arrow from his quiver and sending it flying at the plant creature, having recognized it for what it was.
"Watch out, it's a flesh eater and it's mobile!"
He briefly wonders who the blond man is, seeing as he does not seem either a cultist, fae, or undead. The symbol of Pharasma worries Damian a little as he thinks of Lola and her alluded troubles with the Gray Lady.