A wisp glowing a familiar sickly green color materializes and rushes forward. ”You ruined my personal feast! You will pay!” It charges right at Annalla and sends a small arc of electricity at her! Meanwhile, two more appear, one glowing red, the other blue.
Sophiel shakes her head, "alright, you f+!$er, you're going down this time." She raises her voice and in clear way says, "remember this floating a!$*@$+? He was hurting a kid. Let's kill him for good this time - focus on the green skull!" She's fuming at him.
The other two wisps float in and send shocks at Isabella and Annalla, but thanks to your resistance wards, they seem to do nothing. The will-o-wisps all flicker in frustration!
"Bella, next to Anna, if you would." Chrysa suggests as she rushes around to get into a flanking position. Drawing her swords as she goes, she'll order her scabbard to impart additional magic into her fey bane sword.
"There was no need to be hostile," Annalla says, her disappointment clear. She gestures and the stone in her forehead glimmers before four arcane missiles streak towards the green wisp.
Ipmeek moves to get a clear shot.
"Bombs away!"
;
Bella does as requested and spins, leaving the one behind her and tumbling into position across from Chrysa. She then thrusts her flaming blade towards it.
Orri steps back, unfurling his whip before calling out inspiring words to his companions "We are prepared this time and we will prevail! Work together and we will be victorious!"
In the confusion of their attacks not even harming the humanoids, the lead will-o-wisp that evaded you the first time is eviscerated by the team's assault! Seeing their ally slain so quickly while having no effect themselves, the other two aggressive ones quickly fly up and away from the fight!
The rest of the lower level seems to have once served as guard posts and foyer, though the place is in severe disrepair and ruin. A doorway on a central spire is blocked by a significant amount of rubble.
Pregnant Isabella struggles to move a medium size piece of rubble, taking a few breaks and finally sitting on the ground next to it, breathing hard.. "I think I ate too much cake and didn't do enough training these last days."
"Really? Nooooooo..." Chrysa laughs. She is really just delaying since she looks at the rocks, imagines trying to lift one, and then wants to laugh at her own mental image failing miserably. So she goes to find a stick to use as a lever.
Sophiel thought to herself, "perhaps we could step out and climb up the broken part of the tower instead of clearing this? It would take less time, certainly."
Orri quirks a brow at Sophie's suggestion "No offense, but with those things floating around I would rather walk up some stairs than be attacked in the middle of trying to climb up the side of the building..."
Sophiel shrugs, "except we're basically immune to their attacks. We won't be if we spend twenty minutes clearing rubble."
"Only for the next three minutes and thirty two seconds," Annalla adds. After Sophiel's admonition regarding favoritism, she doesn't feel the need to mention that Isabella's immunity will last an extra ten minutes. After all, she had to give the extra ten minutes to someone.
"Although, I can cast the spell again if we feel the need."
While the others try brute strength, Ipmeek considers if there might be a clever way to clear through the rubble, especially with well-placed explosives.
Thanks to the clever guidance by Ipmeek, the group is able to move key pieces of rubble to cause the majority of the pile to roll away courtesy of gravity. The door beyond can now open enough to let one through at a time into the spiral staircase beyond.
Chrysa looks over the thing for traps and keeps an eye out as she leads the group up the stairs (pausing of course if things need to be reapplied)
Isabella was happy for the brief respite to recover from the battle and catch her breath. As Chrysa started up the stairs, she says "What are you doing, Chrysa? Wait for me, I don't want you to run into something and get thwacked. That's my job, remember? You aren't trying to take my job, are you?" she teases with a wink.
She leans down and whispers "I need to pee soon but don't want to make a fuss of it. Yes I should have gone earlier, don't give me that look."
It appears the stair circles all the way up a central chamber of the tower, with landings for every level. The path seems safe enough to the next floor, and the group finds itself outside of the second floor door without trouble.
Knowing the short duration of the magical resistance she can create, Annalla postpones renewing the spell. Although she keeps her eyes open for more of the wisps.
Seeing some begin to follow them up the staircase, Annalla turns back. "If your intentions are hostile, then following us would be ill-advised. We've already demonstrated complete resistance to your attacks and the capability of defending ourselves with lethal force."
Sophie says to Bella, softly and gently, putting a hand on her arm, "scouting is her job, yours is to protect us. You don't have to prove anything - she's right there, and you can get to her if need be. If she misses something - there's no reason for two of us to get knocked out. Remember what happened with the castle?"
From the back, Sophie tries to look for any mechanical traps on the door herself.
Chrysa whispers back to Bella "Don't listen to Sophie, BIGGER targets are great to have around when scouting." she teases, fully expecting to get a boot in her rump for that one.
Orri just follows along behind the others quietly watching out for wisps to attack the rear.
Isabella nods to Sophie. "Alright. I just don't want you all thinking you can replace me just because I'm having a child. I'm still here, doing my job."
As Sophie moves on to inspect the door, Isabella attacks Chrysa's rear by firmly placeing her boot into it.
Chrysa stumbles forward but gives a smirk back at her big friend, before continuing her inspection.
Annalla rolls her eyes with a smile at Isabella and Chrysa's antics.
”Does anyone know what languages the wisps speak? Perhaps if we used their native languages we could converse...” She looks back and says to them in each of her languages: ”we could have an accord - you don’t need to be violent. Can we give you something to keep you from harming us and others?” quietly.
The party realizes that Sophiel knows a number of strange and esoteric languages, some which are utterly alien to the modern Taldan speaker.
Orri looks to Sophie hesitantly as she talks about bargaining with these things that they have seen torture children and he moves close to her an notes "If you want to make some peaceful bargain with them, perhaps you invite them to come live with you? If the rest are anything like the one we just destroyed then I am hesitant to enter any sort of bargain with them..."
"That one..." Chrysa stops Sophie on Aklo "The wisps should be able to understand that one." her voice shifting from mischief to flat as she listens though, agreeing with Orri that she is not about to let them leave to torture another child. But if Sophie can get them close...
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The group opens the door after making certain it is free of traps. They file in cautiously, noting the chamber beyond is a dusty library. The shelves stand bare, with shreds of tomes laying scattered across the dusty floor. Standing near two of the empty bookshelves are a man and woman, unmoving. They look as if they are holding books and looking down at them in their hands, but their hands are in fact empty.
As you approach, the woman's head turns slowly in a jerking motion, as if controlled by a slow puppeteer. "Arvand! Look! It says here they don't like cold iron! Maybe we could do something with that!"
"Don't be foolish, Eleanir! That sort of information is to harm them, not keep them away," the man says as his head snaps sideways at an unnatural angle and he turns at the waist to her in a way that is physically impossible to do without breaking something.
"We have to do something! I have had it with these fey! They are driving me mad! Do your job and find something to keep them at bay!" she says angrily.
The man turns and takes a couple lurching steps and backhands her! "You may be a baroness, but you will NOT talk to me that way!"
She shrieks, her voice rattling inside your heads painfully, before she bends over backwards, her shoulders and hips dislocating and turning to resemble crab legs before she scurries hurriedly up the wall and across the ceiling and into the stairwell behind you!
Ipmeek stares enraptured at the bizarre puppet-like man and woman. As their argument becomes more animated, so does Ipmeek, until he too seems to recoil as the man backhands the Baroness. "Wdhaora elheeti itcott ngess tennosd aemþéso!" he shouts back.
”Oh, ghosts or a haunt. How dreadful...” She points at the wisps, ”you must think this is very entertaining...” She turns to the others, ”So: how do we let these poor spirits rest, any thoughts?” If Sophiel is affected, she doesn’t act like it.
Isabella squints her eyes and rubs her head, a fog filling her. She turns to Chrysa and sees the Stag Lord standing next to her! Gasping loudly she shouts and thrust her blade through her would-be sister's chest.
With the bizarre scene and then Bella seemingly reverting to her old self that Orri only remembers, attacking one of their companions he steps back and starts hitting himself in the head as if trying to force out the sight of evil Bella just murmuring "Nononono...."
Sophie boggles at Isabella's actions, then tries to move to interpose herself. "It's messing with your mind, snap out of it!" She shakes Isabella.
Sophie tries to grab Isabella but it doesn't work.
She grumbles, "anyone, help me hold her down - she's the most dangerous."
Chrysa was studying the scene, about to ask Sophie how do they deal with them before Bella screams. The searing pain of her sword follows, just missing a fatal wound.
Chrysa teleports away, holding her bleeding hole, and yelling "What the F&%# is happening!" her trembling hands get her wand out, and adds protection in case Bella keeps coming.
Round 2
As Bella attacks Chrysa and Sophiel tries to grab Bella, Ipmeek shouts--intelligibly this time. "Wicked warmbloods, you die for your treachery!"
He hurls a bomb at Sophiel!
;
The bomb hits both Isabella and Annalla!
A 10-foot radius area around Sophiel is filled with stinky smoke! It smells like concentrated marsh gas, and makes everyone want to give up the contents of breakfast.
Sophiel shrugs off the effect on her turn.
Isabella shakes it off, looking down at her blade and over at Sophie trying to grab a hold of her. "Sophie, let me go, what are you do-" she gasps as the kobold throws a bomb at her.
Isabella falls to the ground and starts retching.
In spite of (or perhaps because of) her strange physiology, the gas bomb seems to hit Annalla even harder as her insides rebel and reverse.
When her wife strikes out at Chrysa, Annalla pales. "Isabella! No!" She steps up to the swordswoman with Sophiel. "Drop your blade, My Love," she begs. "You're under a spell of some sort. Please!"
Orri continues pounding on his head, blood starting to run down the side where he has broken the skin. "This can't be happening again!"
Coughing lihtly, Sophiel moves out of the gas, to be next to Chrysa, who's kept her wits as well.
"I'm going to grapple Sootscale - you disarm Bella."
Sophiel casts a heal spell on herself, and looks much better.
"Disarm the best swordswoman in your group..." she snaps but sighs since she doesn't really have a better plan here.
Sophiel grumbles through gritted teeth, "Or tell her to drop her weapon when the smoke clears! Either!" She adds, then says, "when she's lucid." She points at King Sootscale "Nobody else can reach Sootscale, so someone has to do something about that."
"I UNDERSTOOD, Sophie!" Chrysa snaps, as she starts moving toward the warrior, "One just wants to point out the difficulty of the task."