Seeing Zazu getting ripped to shreds, Veryna steps forward and, with a thought and a gesture, channels energy into the tengu. Wicked-looking razored chains of pure, translucent force surround him to deflect incoming attacks.
Astrid, visibly frustrated that this thing is not dead yet, hurls yet another flurry of attacks at the creature.
Tired of being a Tengu Pinata, Zazu attempts to roll out of harms way and heal himself.
Willam is becoming exasperated, having stabbed this creature a fair number of times without the intended result.
"Imagine Three-Toes Fredrickson being bad at stabbing someone in the back! Go down, damn you!"
"What do you say to that, you neck-biting little failed attempt at a demon?!"
William (shaken, 24 damage)
Astrid (shaken, 12 damage, bleed)
Veryna
Zazu (20 damage)
Vulnudaemon 2 (34 damage)
Vulnudaemon 1 (8 damage)
Bold may act.
Veryna takes a step to the southeast and reaches a hand out toward #1. A flickering purple light erupts from her fingertips and hits the creature in a flash.
Astrid stands still for a moment and looks at her hands what the hell is wrong with me today she thinks. She shakes it off and attempts to refocus. She then throws another attack at #1. The fire tattoo on her neck begins to animate as she throws her first punch.
"Would you....why won't you just die?!"
The tremble returns to Willam's hand as he feels the fear run through him again.
William (shaken, 15 damage)
Astrid (shaken, 14 damage, bleed)
Veryna
Zazu (27 damage)
Vulnudaemon 2 (34 damage)
Vulnudaemon 1 (8 damage)
Zazu looks over the chaos of the battle and thinks about his next action. He then moves around Veryna to avoid getting to close to the creatures and attacks the creature in front of William.
He then whispers to William "Hold a moment and I will be able to bless your weapon so it can be more menacing to these vile creatures."
William (shaken, 15 damage)
Astrid (shaken, 15 damage, bleed)
Veryna
Zazu (27 damage)
Vulnudaemon 2
Vulnudaemon 1 (13 damage, dazed)
Bold may act.
Finally having found something effective to do against these creatures, Veryna again attempts a Warp Touch against #1. It is again powerless against her magic!
Zazu touches Williams rapier and give a little prayer to Desna. Williams blade then begins to glow yellow-gold.
"Make it count William, we are all depending on you."
Willam steps over the corpse in front of him and around the corner to get in a better position with Astrid. His hands shake, but he steels himself and hopes for the best.
"A touch!"
Astrid seems their foe is weakend and, perhaps, near death. She considers saving some of her energy for he posibility of other fights...but re-considers it seeming how they have sturggled against this thing.
She focuses again on her foe. Simultaneously she stops her foot on the ground in the front of her and throws a punch with her left fist. She follows that up with quick jab with her right fist. Her right fist follows through aiming towards the ground. Using the momentum that the punch generates she brings her right leg up, almost over her head, and tries to kick the monster in the face.
As the creature falls, both William and Astrid feel their fear fall away.
William (15 damage)
Astrid (19 damage, bleed)
Veryna
Zazu (27 damage)
Vulnudaemon 2
Vulnudaemon 1
Bold may act.
Veryna steps forward and sets to work binding Astrid's wounds to stop the bleeding. She is too low on spells to magic it away, unfortunately.
Veryna frowns at the group. They have been badly battered, but they simply cannot afford to go back without knowing what happened to Dern. She touches Zazu on the shoulder, and the painful healing energy of her deity courses through him, aggressively yanking flaps of flesh back together and stitching them closed.
After, she frowns and glances to William.
Willam frowns at Veryna. "My dear, have you known me to be so unprepared?" He pulls of his backpack and fishes around a moment before he raises a claw holding a thin wooden wand. "Of course, I can't use the damn thing, but if you don't mind being the healer this little beauty should do the trick."
"Maybe you oughtta hold onto that, mishka. I'm glad I had it on hand, but it's not much use to us in my claws."
After the healing is taken care of, Willam moves down the hall and puts his ear to door of the northern room.
Once the party catches up, Willam opens the door and peeks in.
Veryna gives William a smirk.
She takes the wand and touches each of her wounded compatriots in turn.
After a moment's consideration, she gives another tap of the wand on Zazu, who was battered the worst in that fight.
The door opens to reveal another sad patient room. The old human woman in the bed is clearly not far from death. She looks at the group with fear at first, then confusion. Her voice is barely a whisper. "Water?"
Astrid kneels down next the bed and retrieves her waterskin from her bag. She helps the lady take a drink and tries to comfort her the best she can.
Veryna steps to the side and watches curiously while Astrid works, making no move to help ease the woman's suffering. She simply watches intently.
After giving her the water and helping her drink some of it. Astrid quietly reaches into her bag again and grabs a thing of rations and offers it to the woman. Astrid is very careful with all this in almost a motherly kind of way. Not moving to fast or anything that might spook the woman.
She will do what she can to comfort the woman until she feels that the woman might be able to speak to either William or Zazu, if that is at all possible.
The woman drinks greedily from Astrid's waterskin, though in her weakened state, she chokes and more of the water ends up outside her body than in. Astrid calmly and patiently encourages the woman to slow down and eventually she is able to quench her thirst. "Th.. thank you." Her voice is very weak. "When you opened the door, I thought for sure you were those terrifying children come back to haunt me again." A fit of coughing doubles her over, and you can see specks of blood on her hand and on her lips. She doesn't seem to notice. "Who are you?"
“New management, madam. No more sharp-toothed neck-mouthed children for you. We’ll send someone by shortly to do a full examination, just doing a little clean up at the moment.”
Willam stares at Astrid and then tilts his head to the door when his eyes meet hers. I have a feeling there’s more evil in this place. Don’t much like giving the enemy time to plan. Strike while they’re not looking, that’s what I always say. I should say that out loud. Ah, stuff it, Longwhiskers.”
“Should we go, then?”
Astrid rests the waterskin on the woman's bed and then stands. She gives her a concerned smile, lets out a big sigh, and then nods to William as she begins making her way to the door.
A single candle provides the only illumination for this dark room, which has a pungent, sweet odor different from the rest of Mother's Care Home. A human man in the grip of a fitful sleep lies on a bed within. Veryna recognizes it as her old friend Dern Fosimuth.
The state of this room is somehow even worse than the others you've seen. It doesn't seem as if Dern has received any care whatsoever in days. His bedding is stained with his waste; his breathing is raspy and pained; and the smell is nearly overwhelming.
After looking over the state of Dern, she purses her lips.
She waves her hands gently over the man's disheveled, filthy form, caressing his temple and shoulder, as she casts prestidigitation to clean some of the worst filth off him, though he will likely still need a bath to be truly clean.
Astrid walks into the room and stands there, not holding her nose, or breath, or anything of that sort. She seems to barely notice the filth and the smell.
She begins helping Veryna tend to Dern anyway that she can.
These poor people. Brought here to be taken care of...and now they are worse off then they probably were before they came here.
Astrid, ever since seeing the first people in this place, has had a look of sadness. She feels terrible for all of these people because they did not deserve any of this...all they needed was help...and now look at them. So...she is going to do what she can to help them now and hopefully, she and her friends can figure out what is going on here and perhaps get things back in working order or at least move these people somewhere else.
Zazu follows Astrid into the room, giving it a look over.
As he notices the spot where his legs should be he leans in close to Astrid and whispers: "Poor soul, they took his legs, but I wonder why."
And then looks to Dern to see how he can easy any suffering he may be in;
But isn't able to get a good sense of it and just shakes his head.
The the entire group he says: "If need be I can heal him, or even provide him some help by trying to restore his vitality, but I believe he needs more than what my limited knowledge can provide him. We should get him and any other poor souls that are suffering out of here asap."
After Zazu is informed of what Veryna found when she looked over Dern, he rolls his sleeves up and says: "OK step back, it's time to see how the sausage is made" and he begins casting lesser restoration on Dern to heal his wisdom damage.
Veryna furrows her brow after Zazu casts lesser restoration before remembering they found a potion of it somewhere around here. She digs through her handy haversack until she finds it, and feeds it to Dern, hoping it's enough to bring him back.
The cleric sputters a few seconds, working his dry mouth and choking out a rasping cough. "There's no time," he says in a hoarse whisper. "Taergan Flinn keeps me here. He plans to murder Crandel and Tulles. Don't let them go to the woods. Fiends and nightmares lurk there."
The elderly priest struggles visibly, as if forcing memories to the surface of his mind. His eyes widen momentarily. "A house in the Hollow. My strong box. My old treasures, and my piece of the watch. Take them to Tulles. She will know you speak for me."
He breathes heavily for a few seconds, then continues, struggling against his weakened his body. "Find Flinn. Make him confess. And tell the town about this place so these families can save their own." Dern Fosimuth closes his eyes, exhausted by the effort. His breathing slows but appears even.
Shocked, Veryna grasps Dern's arm and is about to initiate psychic contact to try and rouse him again, but catches herself and thinks better of it. He was clearly out of sorts, and even if she rouses him, she doubts she'll get any more coherent of an answer.
She sighs and pulls the covers up to Dern's shoulders, then glances at the others inquisitively, as if to ask if they are ready to finish exploring. Clearly they should not leave this place until they can bring all the residents safely back to Cassomir for proper treatment, and that means eliminating any other monsters lurking in this place.
“Could be right, Mishka. It does seem strange that their old friend would trap this man here and commit to murdering his former companions. I’ve seen some compulsions in my day. But I’ve lived enough to be skeptical of giving the benefit of doubt, too. Could be this half-elf snapped when he saw his friends growing old and has turned evil. One thing that’s clear is that we’ll have to find out.”
Willam has been addressing Veryna but gazing directly at Dern, but now turns to his friends. “It does seem a bit...irresponsible to leave here without eliminating the remaining threats. Shall we clear the building and then come back for this man? We’ll need to inform the town guard of what’s happened. Guess we should go back and tell Verus and Branda to keep an eye out and stay safe, too.”
Willam’s brow furrows and his eyebrows raise with an idea. “Did he say a piece of THE WATCH? As in a real watch? And treasures? Seems like we have an awful lot to do before this crazed half-elf gets away with murder.”
Walking past the doors, Veryna pauses and touches William and Zazu's shoulders, pointing to a man in a rocking chair nearby.
The outdoor grounds of Mother's Care Home for Invalids were clearly once lush and verdant, but have become overgrown with weeds and large patches of dry, hard dirt. A frail man sits on the lawn in a wooden rocking chair. He faces northeast as if looking at a place far away. He rocks slowly, muttering quietly to himself.
He doesn't seem to notice the party approaching, but you surmise that he must have because his muttering becomes slightly louder and more intelligible. "I never should have listened. My fiancée was as beautiful as sunset over the sea. I had everything I wanted, until that other woman convinced me to leave my love. I tried so hard to resist, but how can you escape the one you've dreamed of all your life? I told Bethany before the wedding that I had met the girl I'd always dreamed of. We argued. I told Bethany to leave, and to throw her ring into the river. She stole my carriage and fled north. I never saw her again. I never saw the other woman again, either. I drank my sorrows away till my health failed. Been here almost forty years now. Forty lonely years."
Zazu looks to Veryna and Astrid shrugs and says "I guess if neither of you are going to say anything I will handle this."
He walks up to the man and gives him a look over.
"Hello my good sir, I am Zazu, what is your name? Do you need any assistance with anything?"
The man doesn't look at Zazu (or anyone), and just repeats his story, almost word for word.
Veryna gives the bird a scathing glare before striding over to the man and touching his shoulder gently. She doesn't say a word, just smiles reassuringly and lightly squeezes his shoulder, letting her eyes wander over his withered frame to see if she can catch anything out-of-place.
There doesn't appear to be anything physically wrong with him, but he is definitely either mentally or emotionally broken (or both). As you are checking over him, he begins to sob.
Willam allows Zazu and Veryna to approach the man. Not the most comforting claw in the group, there, Longwhiskers. He scans the yard for trouble, still acutely aware of the dangers they've dealt with in this place.
"Veryna, maybe you can establish a bond with him - see what's in his head? Wouldn't mind learning a bit more about this place before we just shove off."
Veryna flinches away when the man starts sobbing, looking clearly uncomfortable. She steps back and gives William a reproving glance.
Zazu and William see no danger. This is an old, lonely, possibly crazy man. You are confident you have rid this place of threats, for now.
"Alright, stand aside. If I've learned anything in my life, it's that everyone loves talking to a rat."
Willam walks over to the man and takes a knee while facing him.
"This other woman seems a dreadful soul, indeed, sir. Care to tell me about Bethany and how you came to be in this place? I'd be most interested to hear how you've been getting on recently." Willam furrows his brow and gazes at the man to show that he's listening. If the crew could see me now....