With Talib in the way, Talienda uses the rune she'd used before to send a bolt of lightning into another undead monster with unerring accuracy. Sparks dance as she traces the rune and sends it on it's way with a snarl, or as much of a snarl as she could manage.
Recovering from the shock of her vision, Sinésiel sluggishly begins to take action. Her companions' requests breaking her out of her stupor, she pulls out the incense from earlier and lights it in hopes that it will take effect as soon as possible.
Rissi skilfully pierces the shadow right in the middle of its chest, but the shadow's incorporeal, gas-like body does not seem to even notice what would likely be a fatal strike on a living being.
Skurly follows suit, flailing and jumping in front of the creature, hoping to draw its attention whilst Talienda's movements crackle with energy as another bolt strikes the shadow, this time the impact briefly altering the monster's shape.
It is then that a smell of lilies begins to emanate from where Sinésiel is standing. Light seems to shift and waver slightly, acquiring very faint multicoloured hues; more urgently, while before the shadow seems to have become clearer and more solid to the eyes of the group. Talib seizes the opportunity and strikes the creature with controlled rage.
Moving in the room now feels different, almost as if the group had been submerged in water. The shadow seems to be experiencing something similar as its claws widely miss Talib.
The creature shrieks in frustration and, as if responding to her, some of the toys lying around the room begin levitating and then hurtling themselves against Talib, Talienda and Skurly. The first hits Talib against his chest, the second smacks Talienda on the head whilst Skurly dodges the third one.
Talib barely notices the toy as it scuffs him on the shoulder, so focused is he on his quarry. Ignoring the relatively harmless playthings, he continues to slash determinedly at the solidified shadow. Rissi had said the incense would not burn forever, and the inquisitor intends to put every second to good use.
Talienda is blindsided by the attack and stumbles a bit as she's knocked off balance. Dazed and seeing stars, she crouches down and tries to get out of the way, only to find she's trapped. She backs up into the corner and tears open a hidden seam in the skirt of her dress running from hip to hem, revealing her stockinged leg and the dagger strapped to her thigh. She pulls it free with fumbling fingers, obviously unused to the weapon as she holds out before her to ward off any more attacks.
Breaking further from the stupor of her vision, Sinésiel draws her scimitar and attacks one of the dolls.
"Tali, if you can, get out one of those scarves! It may distract her, just trust me!"
Rissi knows that the inspired courage from her song will last just a bit longer, and while she isn't really any good at fighting, she hopes she might be confusing the shadow with her weapon.
Rissi, so far unnoticed by the shadow, repeats her move from before. This time, however, the tip of her rapier stabs what feels like a piece of charcoal and the creature shrieks in pain.
Next to her, Sinésiel's attack hits the doll. Something like an invisible barrier seems to envelop the wooden toy, but it seems brute physical force alone is enough to penetrate it: the small soldier is cut in half and falls to the ground destroyed. Looking to Talienda, she sees the young woman unsheathing her hidden dagger.
Talib meanwhile continues his relentless attack, encouraged both by Rissi's song and the increasingly frayed shape of the shadow in front of him. His next slash cuts it in half and releases a wave of negative energy that knocks the air out of everyone in the room.
The remaining animated toys fall to the ground with a loud thud.
The undead creature's remains linger on the ground in small black chunks for a few seconds before scurrying to the corner of the room. They reassemble in an amorphous shape that hovers above ground for a few seconds before disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Talienda's heart thunders for a few more moments before slowly calming. As the adrenaline fades, her hands begin to shake and she leans against the wall for support.
"I'm-I'm sorry! I... I couldn't... I..." she stammers as she lowers her arms and drops the dagger. Her head aches from the hit and she reaches up to rub the spot with one hand as she tries to hold the two seams of the split together with the other.
"Halgrak, he-he ran. We... I should..." she mutters after a moment as she straightens and starts making her way to the stairs to go find the half-orc.
"It's alright, we'll find him soon as we catch our breath," Sinésiel says, placing a gentle hand on Talienda's shoulder. "Sorry for my delayed actions, everyone. I had another one of those strange visions about this place." She picks up the toy closest to her. "I'm pretty sure that spirit was a woman who died in an attic just like this—maybe even this one. She was murdered, though she struck back with her sewing needle before she was. She had beautiful red Varisian scarves..." She trails off in a sorrowful tone.
How much has happened here? How many died for this injustice? Dawnflower, please illuminate the truth for us.
Rissi stares at the strange bits of shadow, racking her brains for any bits of lore about such a creature, but just shrugs as she can't recall anything.
"Strange creature...."
"Scarves? Didn't we find some scarves?"
"Mord's wife?" muses Talib, sheathing his blade. He walks over to the corner where the shade dissipated, searching for clues.
"You say she struck the assailant?" he says after a while, looking to Sinésiel. "Where, exactly? If she managed to wound them, they may still bear scars from the encounter. Normally, I am loath to put so much stock on visions of such uncertain provenance, but our circumstances are... unusual."
"W-we did," Talienda says, giving up on keeping the revealing split in her dress closed and pulling out the scarves she'd hidden under her short-waisted coat. She lets Rissi take them while she carefully retrieves her dagger and tries a couple of times to get it into its sheath before succeeding.
"I guess there's not much point in trying to hide it now," she says as she catches her breath. She watches Talib for a moment, not sure how she could help, before she starts humming, then singing a soft ballad about a girl who walked along rivers at night before walking among the stars.
While her skill is obvious, she is still pretty badly shaken by the fight, and her voice falters at some key parts.
Talib, and whoever helps him searching, unearths an iron key, a small pouch with 13GP and a box with 10 red scarves similar to the ones found on the second floor. He also finds two knitting needles: one by stairs, the other closer to the remains of a chair in the other side of the room.
Rissi examines the scarves for just a couple of seconds, then hands them back to Talienda. "They'll look better on you than me." she says with a quiet smile, then notices the other scarves with the additional items found. "Is there any blood on those knitting needles? That could add confirmation to the vision."
Wracking her brain to think of anyone who has a scarred face among the other jurors, Sinésiel speaks in a deliberate tone. "She stabbed their face. They brushed their cheek with their hand and it came away bloody," she says, shuddering at the memory that did not belong to her.
Looking closer, Rissi does seeold blood stains on the needle found by the stairs, giving some credence to Sinésiel's vision. The half-elf registers the information with some distraction as she searches her memory and finally feels fairly sure that none of the jurors had any signs of wounds on their cheeks.
"Too bad they don't go with my outfit at the moment," Talienda chuckles as she takes the scarves and neatly folds them into a bundle. She looks around, the sad scene stealing her mirth.
"If there's nothing else here, we should find Halgrak and the others. I fear what may have befallen them in this cursed place."
Talib nods to Sinésiel, writing down her observations. He pockets the key and the knitting needles, and then moves for the stairs. "Let us proceed."
"Talib, hasn't Mylock been gone a long time," she asks as they head down the stairs.
The inquisitor glances at Talienda, as impassive as always.
"Yes," he says plainly. "Under present circumstances, there is little we can do. Hopefully, he is as competent as he is confident."
Rissi points to the little bit of dried blood on the needle. "But if the wound was small any scar might be hard to find. Or it could've been healed with magic. Then there might not even be a scar. But this needle confirms your vision."
"Thank you for your trust," Sinésiel says with a light blush. "We're lucky to have been thrust into this with each other, I think. I do wish Mylok were here, though. Hope he's doing okay."
"I do too, but we still need to get to the bottom of this, don't we? Hopefully the others haven't had as hard of a time as we have," Talienda says before turning and giving Sinesiel a smile. "As for trusting you, why wouldn't we? We all have things we'd rather keep secret."
Even after all the horrors they witnessed in this courtroom, no one is ready to the scene they witness when re-entering the barrister's lounge. An even more sickly and pitiful Ebin dances around the room flailing in his hands something wet and bloody. Instead of singing, the gnome gargles meaningless sounds at Halgrak, who is sitting in front of him with his head hung low and the ice bucket next to him. The half-orc is seemingly working on something with equal degrees of clumsiness and concentration, reaching into the bucket every now and then. Finally, Ebin stops prancing and uses the bloody thing on his hand to slap Halgrak on the head. The half-orc does not flinch and Ebin looks at the object for a moment, gargles another laugh -- it is then that it becomes clear Ebin is holding his own severed tongue.
Entranced by their actions, neither of the ex-jurors seem to have noticed the group's arrival.
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Skurly has been sullen and distracted since his hopes of a meaningful revelation were dashed amidst the papery promontories of the clerk's offices. He sulked alongside Talib, his only reaction to the proceedings being a redoubled misery at the mention of Mylok, but he says nothing.
As they come upon the macabre, mad scene, he remains voiceless- but the malaise evaporates into a purposeful, bowstring-taut silence. Like a ghost himself, he raises a finger to his lips to hush his comrades, and slips into the room at a moment when all eyes are off the door, feet surprisingly nimbles below his rotund body. Slipping into the room, he takes a position behind a high-backed chair, where he hopes to catch a glimpse of what so engrosses Halgrak, and puts a finger within a hair's breadth of the trigger of his crossbow.
Talienda stifles a gasp of sickened horror at the sight and turns away before she could make any noise that would attract the two jurors' attention. She barely notices the tears streaming down her face and over her hands that tightly clasp over her mouth.
Talib holds up an arm, barring the others from following Skurly, and raises a finger to his lips. Hopefully, the halfling would prove as squirrely as he had been when the inquisitor first tracked him down in the Coins...
Skurly manages to avoid detection as Ebin turns to dancing and singing once again. He can now see that Halgrak has sewn his toes back to one of his feet, though not necessarily in the expected or correct spots. Gulping down, Skurly notices that the half-orc's skin seems to be turning purple and bloated, corruption spreading quickly from that foot and into the man's torso. His eyes have gone completely blank and someone, probably Ebin, has drawn red circles on his cheeks and nose, like some sort of obscene clown.
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Rissi casts Detect Magic and starts carefully scanning the room. "What sort of evil is possessing them? Could the toes have been cursed?"
Rissi cannot sense any magic within the room -- even in the off chance the toes themselves were magic before, they are certainly not now. Ebin also seems to be under no influence of any magic and seems to have gone insane in a similar manner to the old dwarf Tablark.
Talib counts silently to ten, giving Skurly time to get into position. With no sign of immediate danger forthcoming, he then draws his weapon and advances into the room, pointing the blade at Ebin. "Keep your distance, jester. No sudden movements."
"Check on Halgrak," he says to the others, without letting the gnome out of his sight.
"I-is he going to be okay," Talienda asks, unable to look at the gruesome scene.
Siné will draw her weapon and skirt around to approach Halgrak, doing what she can to keep her eyes on Ebin.
"Halgrak," she says softly, appraising the man's condition with an embarrassingly untrained eye. "We're here now. Everything is going to be just fine."
1. Ebin
2. Halgrak
3. Sinésiel
4. Talib
5. Skurly
6. Rissi
7. Talienda
Ebin suddenly begins to prance around excitedly, clapping his hands and gargling some macabre version of a common carnival song. One of his sad displays of acrobatic skill (or lack thereof) brings him close to Talib and then, almost as if on a whim, the jester jumps on the inquisitor and bites him, though the teeth do not actually pierce any armour.
Halgrak lazily stands up. His eyes are bloodshot as he simply stares at Sinésiel.
Talienda looks up in shock as she hears Ebin attack Talib, she runs up and around them, avoiding the corpse of Malgrim as best she can before turning to try pulling the mad gnome off of Talib.
"No! Stop it! Please, stop it," she begs him, having to try even if she has a sinking feeling that both of them are too far gone.
Rissi steps back and readies her bow and arrows. "If they're crazed enough to attack we need to defend ourselves. Just make it quick!"
She calls out her battle chant, focusing her bardic magic into the words.
Unsure of how to manage the one hostile and one potentially hostile, Siné stands in the way of Halgrak and her newfound friends. If Halgrak makes any sort of hostile maneuver she will attack him.
Talib raises his weapon threateningly. "Stand down, now!"
There is tension in the room as the group holds out in hope that Ebin and Halgrak can still be reasoned with and somehow brought back from the brink of insanity…
…but that possibility seems to become even more remote. Ebin tries to smack Talib with his own severed tongue, but the slab of flesh is far too soft to pose any risk. The inquisitor retaliates, but he still cannot bring himself to cut down what seems to be an insane but mostly harmless creature.
Nearby, Halgrak grabs Sinésiel with violence, his unexpectedly sharp fingers stopping short from drawing blood only due to her chainmail. Surprised, she fumbles with her scimitar which gives the half-orc an opportunity to dig his malodorous mouth deep into her shoulder. She retches as whatever corruption has overtaken Halgrak seems to contaminate her; along with a rush of weakness, she feels her muscles lock up -- again that quick flash of her mother's perfume and she can move freely.
Talienda looks from Ebin to Halgrak, unable to think for a moment as she panics. She doesn't want to hurt them, but what can she do? Without thinking about it, she pulls off one of her shoes and throws it at Halgrak.
"Halgrak! Get a hold of yourself! This isn't you," she shrieks as she starts to cry.
Seeing Halgrak bite Sinesiel Rissi aims and shoots. "Enough is enough. Put them down before they kill anyone!"
Tears welling in her eyes from both the pain and the loss of another juror, Sinésiel steels herself and slashes at Halgrak. "We can't risk ourselves here, Tali," she says, her tone somber and reserved. "They're just as gone as Malgrim."
Talib steels his heart and tries to incapacitate Ebin, but the jester keeps dodging, tumbling, and getting tangled up in his feet.
Sinésiel and Talib attack their respective targets at the same time, but both their blows fail to connect. Rissi's arrow fortunately flies true and nests itself deep within Halgrak's flesh, though he pays little mind to it -- and to Talienda's flying shoe. Ebin sees the young woman's throw and points at her, laughing.
The gnome changes his victim and smacks Talienda in the face with his tongue whilst Halgrak continues furiously clawing at Sinésiel. As he digs deep into her flesh, her muscles once again refuse to lock up.
The slap from Ebin did one good thing, it snapped Talienda out of her spiraling despair. She was tired of this place, sick of it twisting people into monsters and the never ceasing horror it bombarded them with. She wanted nothing more than to go home and pretend this was all a nightmare. She glared at ebin for a brief sliver of a moment before taking a step away and focusing on Halgrak. It hurt her to admit it, but they were right. Halgrak was only gone, and this monster was hurting her friends. Lightning arcs around her hand as she draws the run before her, and with some of the remaining power she has discovered, she sends a bolt of lightning streaking towards Halgrak with a last furious stroke of her hand.
Seeing her arrow hit, but be ignored does little to inspire confidence in Rissi. Fortunately her song was still resonating, for one more round. She draws out another arrow and again targets Halgrak.
Talib moves with Talienda, circling around Ebin to be closer to Sinésiel. He continues making wide swings at the jester in an attempt to keep the elusive creature at bay.
Ebin, seeing Talib's swings on one side and Talienda's hands trickling with energy on the other, simply ducks at the right moment. It is a close call, but the fledgling sorceress manages to change her bolt's direction just as it's about to hit Talib on his torso, only singeing the edges of his tunic instead.
Rissi's arrow, meanwhile, strikes one of the paintings, causing it to fall to the ground. Halgrak slowly turns his head towards the sound, just in time to see Skurly's crossbow bolt follow a similar trajectory; Sinésiel uses the distraction to mercilessly open a big gash on his torso, out of which a small trickle of black stinky blood begins to flow.
Ebin tries to grab Talienda's ankle and bite it, but, shoeless, she easily frees herself with a shriek.
Nearby, Halgrak turns his attention back to Sinésiel, but the half-elf is prepared this time and gracefully evades his claws and bite.