Finally ready, Goldslip steadies her crossbow and looses its bolt into the paralyzed barbarian next to her, aiming to kill.
One barbarian wobbles but keeps his feet while another lays paralyzed but roughly withstands Goldslip's cold-blooded efficiency.
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Bob slides forward, trying to engulf the barbarian, though it is a dangerous action to make!
Cindy glances up and glares at the remaining hairy man.
"I'm bored of fighting you. I want to try and fix Mr. Snuggles but you won't stop swinging and yelling. Aren't you bored of fighting too? I think you're bored."
The barbarian dodges Bob and turns around to the clear, snapping target: Snowball. He brings his sword crashing down and the small dragon falls crashing from the air.
The barbarian is about to hit Snowball when he becomes very distracted and lets his sword arm fall to his side.
Snowball cocks her head a moment at the barbarian not fighting, then aims for his calves!
She bites his boots and claws as hard as she can, which isn't very hard.
The barbarian is clawed several times by Snowball, distracting him. Bob gives him a jelly-filled smack across the face and some of the ooze goes up the barbarian's nose, leaving him paralyzed in place immediately.
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Bob oozes around and collects the bodies, and starts dissolving them while giving all the left over equipment a nice polish.
Do any of these human things interest any of you? That battle was not good. Bob is feeling strange tight feelings in Bob's squishes that Gorthug is not moving around. Bob wishes he was bigger and stronger.
Cindy goes back to trying to tend the bear's wounds with her idea.
"ummmm....Guys? I know the red stuff is supposed to help people stay alive. Mr. Snuggles lost a lot of the red stuff, and he's sleeping now. I'm trying to put the hairy man's red stuff on him but it's not helping. Does anyone have a good idea??"
"Um. Lunch?" Snowball suggests, unhelpfully.
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Tina points at a spot on the ground, and a portal opens near the bear. A rather confused lady in cleric's robes tumbles out, and looks around. Seeing Tina hovering above, she cries out, "Oh, come on. I was right in the middle of a service. 1200 people just saw me disappear."
Tina is floating over towards Gorthug's remains as she says, "Good. Tell them you were called away to a higher purpose. Something about a battle against evil and death. They'll eat that up. Fix the bear."
The cleric shouts out, "No. No. you said we were done. And I'm not a druid. I don't do animals. That would be sacrilege."
Tina zips over to the cleric, her tiny feet landing on the cleric's nose. "Oh, that's rich. I'm sure your god would love to know what happened to your predecessor. Your congregation too." She pokes the cleric in the eyeball. "Remember that everything you have is because of me. If it weren't for me, you'd still be preaching to a half dozen shepherds on a good day. Now. Fix. The. Bear."
They stand eye to eye for a moment before the cleric turns away huffing, and begins to pray over the bear. Its wounds begins to close, and it gently stirs awake. The cleric turns back to Tina, intoning with obvious practice, "You have summoned me, and I have answered the call." then through gritted teeth, "There, I've said the words. Can I go now?
As Tina begins to motion for the cleric to leave, "Don't forget you've been battling the forces of evil here. Sure doesn't look like it. Don't want your congregation to be disappointed. I've put some effort in getting them to love you." The cleric grabs one of the barbarian's sword off the ground and slashes at herself savagely, leaving deep gashes in her flesh. "Oh, and leave your holy water," Tina remarks as as she opens the portal again and the cleric steps through.
Tina uncorks one of the flasks, and fills her own before she flies over to Gorthug's remains, such as they are. "He was good. I remember when Lucian first brought him to Last Hill. I was upset, thinking she had brought him to hunt me down. Then, later, I was glad to have another undead around. I had hoped there would be someone with a memory as long as mine. Shame he won't get to remember any more." She pours out the flask over Gorthug. "Oh well. We should collect all these things. There's probably someone along the way here who will pay us for them."
As Tina's cleric prepares to leave, Cindy toddles over towards her as fast as her legs can carry her and attaches herself to the woman's leg. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you for helping Mr. Snuggles!" When the cleric grabs the sword, Cindy quickly detaches herself and heads towards the waking bear. She floats up and presses herself to the top of its head with a big hug. "Mr. Snuggles, I'm so glad you're okay! You have to be careful. You must come with us and be my bestest friend, but you should probably stay away from hairy men from now on, they're not very nice at all."
Content to just lie face down on the bear's head, arms outstretched and just barely able to reach his ears to massage them, she looks up at Tina. "This used to be your house we're going to, right? Where do we go now?"
The rest of Snowballs wounds close up without help, and she begins to pick over the barbarians' things (while taking an occasional bite of the ones Bob hasn't digested too much yet).
Half hearing Cindy, Snowball hums to herself.
"*Hmmm hmm hmmmm* go now shiny~ *hmm hmmmmm hmm* go find shiny~"
"Well, not my house. I've always lived, or not-lived at Last Hill. I used to have my whole family with me, but I killed my brother, and kicked him out, a few thousand years ago. It looks like he finally settled in on Mount Pardas. And he's decided to steal one of my plans. Now, he's never been a fan of living in the sunlight, running water, or fire. So if we can find some caves or tunnels under the mountain, that will probably be where he is. If we can find an underground river, that should help us move safely." She throws back a swig from her flask. "Well, other than the inevitable patrols he'll send out to keep me from doing exactly that. And now that he's lost contact with this outpost, and its mighty bear, he'll probably double those patrols."
She begins flitting around, trying to detect magical items, "He's probably got sending stones, or some other communication device around here. If we move quickly, and find it, we can imitate the barbarians, and buy ourselves some time, by telling him that everything is alright, and perfectly normal, and we haven't seen a charmingly handsome lich or her attendants."
Cindy, having slid around so that she can whisper into one of Mr. Snuggles's ears while listening to Tina, looks up again. "What's an 'attendant'? Am I an attendant? I thought I was a girl"
Tina determines that the swords are magical.
The bear lies still unconscious on the ground.
You head into the longhouse and find evidence of heavy feasting and drinking. You also find eight rough beds, some minor personal effects, and a cage containing a small fey creature who eyes you.
The bear lies still unconscious on the ground.
Sitting forlornly in the cage was a little Fey. The bottom half of her body was that of a cricket, and by rubbing her legs together she played a mournful tune, as if though she had a fiddle. The top half was that an elven woman...a scarred one. Her left arm was missing, lost at the shoulder, and her body bore the scars of many wounds old wounds and burn marks. On her back were two wings, one red and the other blue, and both nearly transparent. Hanging just out of her reach due to the bars was a sword that was sized appropriately for her.
The music suddenly stopped as the party came in. Her eyes lit up. ”Hey! Hey hey hey! You aren’t with those oaths, right? Let me out!”
"Oaf? Oaf tasty. Tasty meat!" Snowball replies. She cocks her head and sits on her haunches.
"Why you don't chew cage? Bite cage and come out!"
”Because my teeth are...” She stopped herself from yelling. ”Be a good boi and open the cage, will you? Either get the key or chew the bars for me, will you? I...I’ll pay you back. What do you say? Whomever opens this damnable cage I’ll be sure to return your kindness a hundredfold.”
You find the key to the cage one the body of one of the barbarians in the courtyard, the one who had the bear on the chain.
"Snowball is good girl! Snowball help!" Snowball announces before pouncing on the cage and pulling on one of the corners.
When searching the hairy men for pieces of fabric, hair, or trinkets she can add to her collection of enemy souvenirs for dollmaking, she finds a shiny thing that escaped Snowball's notice.
As they head into the longhouse and encounter the fey, Cindy stares at the little creature, perking up when she mentions kindness and leaping off of the bear's head.
"Here's a key! I like kind people and you said you'd be kind. I'm Cindy and this is Mr. Snuggles!"
She floats up to the cage and turns the key.
Mr. Snuggles follows in protectively behind Cindy, snuffling at the cage and peering at the little thing inside. "Grommpf?"
With the cage open Sendi immediately flew out. With a huge grin she immediately embraced Cindy with her one arm. ”I’m free! Free free free! Haha!” Letting go she rushed for her sword. Small lines of ice and fire danced across the sword as she picked it up. ”This feels so good! Who are you? Did you come here to kill the oafs too? Who are we killing next? Can I touch your bear? Where did you find such a good girl? I’m Sendi!” She finished, pointing at snowball. The sheer happiness of flying again caused her legs to rub together, a happy jig filling the air.
As the last barbarian dies, Goldslip watches the light go out of his eyes, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it. All these barbarians were now dead, but it wasn't enough to make up for Gorthug's destruction. If she killed more, would that be enough? Maybe...
A grumble from the unconscious bear snaps Goldslip out of her thoughts. The nixie severs her connection to Snowball and wills her life force into the bear, instead. In moments, it awakens.
Inside the longhouse, Goldslip introduces herself to the former captive. "My name is Goldslip. Have you been here long, Sendi?"
”You’re a nixie! Sendi said, ignoring the question. You’re so pretty. I used to be pretty too. Before...” She giggled at the memory, a happy smile on her face, and then wagged the stump of her arm around. ”...but I’ve been here for so long! Too long! Are they all dead? They all deserve it for locking me up. What are you doing here? Are you going somewhere? I want to go too so we can be friends and we can kill things and sing songs and take stuff...oh it’s been so long since I saw any other fey. Are there more around?” Her questions spilled forth, each one filled with excitement.
"Um, I guess you can touch Mr. Snuggles. Make sure you're nice though, he's my new friend and I have to protect him." Cindy sits up on the bear's head and takes a closer look at the new arrival. "You're a 'Sendi'? What is a Sendi?"
Sendi giggled, spinning away from Goldslip, her attention drawn away. ”Sendi is me, silly! Sendi is the greatest surviving warrior of the family.” She slashed her sword through the air, causing the blade to dance with fire and ice. ”We killed a devil! It nearly killed us, but we got it first. It was so much FUN!” She finished with a grin, though the scars and injuries that marred her body told a different story. She spun back around to Goldslip, confused as to why the nixie hadn’t answered her questions.
"Yes, fighting fun!" the tiny white dragon echos.
"Uhhhh shiny?" Snowball guesses.
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Hi, I'm Tina, Fey, and you're not. Tina flits over towards the newcomer. You've got experience killing devils? That may be useful. We're headed off to find my brother and destroy him again. He's taken one of my plans, and he's absolutely ruining it. For all I know he'll try to use devils instead of demons for phase 13B. You wouldn't have happened to have seen a dragon or a princess anywhere around here would you?
”Hi Tina! Oh that sounds like so much fun. Well you all rescued me so I’ll play with you. No, I haven’t seen any dragons, or princesses. Just elementals and barbarians around here. The elementals are pretty nice if you can talk with them, but the humans? Not so much.”
It is fairly obvious to everyone that the strong stone keep, with its arrow slits on the ground floor, barred windows higher up, and large strong wooden front door under some murder holes is probably where the princess, and therefore the dragon too, can be found.
It is fairly obvious to everyone
"...oh it’s been so long since I saw any other fey. Are there more around?" Her questions spilled forth, each one filled with excitement.
"Hi, I'm Tina, Fey, and you're not." Tina flits over towards the newcomer.
"I think it's just us," Goldslip replies to the question about fey.
You also find eight rough beds, some minor personal effects,
Goldslip rifles through the stuff in the longhouse. Eventually, she manages to find some cloth that is relatively unsoiled by ripping off the corner of some bedclothes that had always been tucked under the mattress. She then goes back out into the courtyard and begins absorbing the spilt blood from the barbarians with it, until the cloth is totally soaked.
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Bob considers the large, strong, front door. He considers it long and hard.
"This is not good. This is the biggest door that Bob has ever seen. Bob is feeling the quesy scared feeling he feels when he sees the biggest doors that he has ever seen. Can Bob do this? Can he be tougher than a door this big and strong? Is Bob going to be the door's b##~@?"
He slides closer, and before attempting anything else, reaching out with his mind to see if a push will be sufficient.
Snowball sees the door and attempts to burrow under it to the other side, just like she did for the gate.