“What is my next step? I know of the ritual, which I’ve started to practice...though, in honesty, such Arcana is not my strength. In the meantime, is there more I should be attempting? Or that you can teach me?”
"In the future, but the ritual must take precedence. Consider it a kind of right of passage...once you are able to see the truth of things as Revich does, other tasks will become easier, more clarified. Now...I will set the circle. Concentrate...mimic my gestures...there are subtleties here hard for us mortals. But of course, such movements were designed for the bodies of celestials..."
Lexi kneels at one of the strange spiky plants on the mountainside as Raseri and Carnadine dance away. The spiky leaves are actually the blinds on a window that she and Kjeta step through, imploring Hrungnir to come along.
The spikes soon twist somewhat into fins, the fins of fish in an infinite ladder the adventuers climb hand over hand.
Lexi considers her options for the briefest of moments, before turning tail and running out the door. As soon as she breaks line of sight from the creature, she opts to hide.
"Man, this place is the definition of insanity."
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Carnadine, you notice the longer you spend here, the more often a cockroach slips under the door to a crack in the wall...
But mostly you focus on the reading. First, you confirm the centaur's story of early Zobeck...the Shadow Fey accounts corroborate in every way. There was a terrible betrayal at Rosehaven Hill 1400 years ago that created the schism in the fey courts and started elfs on the path to shadow.
The written account here gives a few more details, but the story is much the same:
For thousands of years from the beginning of time the fey ruled the Margreve and the surrounding area, including the lands upon which now sit the city of Zobeck and Castle Shadowcrag. Over fourteen hundred years ago, on the advice of an evil advisor named Chorvodni, the Holly King and his fey followers sacrificed a young fey woman with a sword of light and planted a black oak on Rosehaven Hill.
Chorvodni—a shadow lammasu who served Sarastra, the goddess of night, magic, and shadow—led the Holly King to believe this magical sacrifice would trick the goddess and allow him to steal much of her power. Instead, the Heartwood Pact, as the ritual became known, forever cursed the fey to the Plane of Shadow, where Sarastra forced them all into servitude. Their pact also linked the hilltop, and the castle that would later rise upon it, to the Shadow Plane.
The Pact ultimately granted the fey great power, and they became the goddess’s willing servants. However, their time on the Plane of Shadow transformed them into a twisted version of their former selves called scáthesidhe, the shadow fey. Over time, their hearts grew bitter, and they longed to regain all they had left behind. But they could not act directly against the curse, which they had sworn to honor in the Heartwood Pact.
About 600 years after Sarastra stole the fey from the land (and 200 years before the Stross family came to rule Zobeck), a tribe of kobolds began mining the abandoned lands. Under King Brandorek’s orders, the kobolds built Brandor’s Keep, a simple square fortification, on the fey’s beloved Rosehaven Hill. The structure remains intact as a part of Castle Shadowcrag. Eventually, Sarastra allowed the fey to occasionally return to the place where they had struck their bad bargain. When the fey discovered the kobolds had usurped their lands, the Moonlight King and his followers drove the kobolds off the hill in a rage. The kobolds, under the leadership of a kobold wielding the fey's sword of light, resisted from the shelter of their mines. But the fey worked carefully to destroy the kobolds who had trespassed on their black oak.
This led to a long alliance between the fey and the family Stross...'
...it goes on for centuries as Stross and the shadow fey effectively ran Zobeck together. All until the recent independence of Zobeck and the death of Stross, that is.
So Sarastra, the goddess of night, magic, and shadow is the ruler here at the Shadow Court. The Moonlit King must be the duped and transformed Holly King brought here to be Her pet king. However, it is from the Moonlit King who rules Zobeck, hence the Earl of Zobeck.
Carnadine wonders if this Chorvodni still serves its mistress here at court. And, why would the Goddess permit the Moonlit King to be corrupted again by this Roach demon lord? She should know of the king's disease. If he is foolish enough to be corrupted by the demon, then the king deserves his fate and a stronger king would prevail. If She knows, then She not only does not fear the Roach lord but intends to extend Her demesne to the Roach Lord's. If She does NOT know about the Roach Lord's ambition and progress, then perhaps that is a card to play. And this Sword of Light, the knight captain incorporeal wonders if it is still in play. Maybe the Lords of Light would know, being the experts of Light.
If he was the demon lord of roaches, the noble dhampir would use the common cockroach that lives everywhere as a scout. Information is power. The cockroaches probably don't have the demon's essence within, but they probably deliver what they sense and touch. He wonders where they are going.
After a cockroach enters the crack in the wall, Carnadine investigates it for a secret passage. But he times himself to return to the tomes before another reconroach arrives in the hall.
Kjeta finds that--somehow--even the absurdity of climbing fish starts to dull in this bizarre Puzzle Box.
She looks for small variations among the fish, and continues to pray to Ninkash to show her the way.
Kjeta nods her thanks to Wenceslaus. When back in her chamber, she again reads the instructions they'd been given. She meditates on the prism, and breathes deeply the scent of the ointment.
She feels some fear rise in her, and she prays to the Ninkash. "Sweet, Malty Mother of Ales, please help me. Studying things like this ritual...It was never my strength. Please, if it be your will that I see through these illusions, guide me in mastering this!"
She hopes for some Divine Words of inspiration. When they don't arrive, she seeks to draw closer to the Alemother through drink...and in the morning wakes with a her head pounding and eyes red.
Carnadine notes the roach hole soon flattens into a crack much too small for dhampir knights to pass through.
The arctic worm seems to somehow sense Lexi retreating down the tiny goblin tunnels, but luckily for her is much to large to follow.
Unluckily for her, a small squad of goblin fighters in rickety armor and wielding rusty, questionable weaponry turn the corner and make straight for her...likely responding to the screaming monster. There is no where to hide in the cramped corridor, and though invisible how will they ever get past Lexi without feeling her...
"I think Sara was there when it happened...but she isn't saying anything! She isn't even moving...maybe you can get her to talk, or at least to move! They'll kill her if they find she isn't working!"
He leads you to a chamber used for washing servant clothing, the grimy goblin warren stones here are actually quite clean...the strong lye of the laundry here keeping the stones wet but spotless. From the wall is a gentle spout of ice cold water that leads to collection basin overflowing into another outlet at the base of a wall.
Numerous tables are stacked with the stinky linens of the various lower servants. When the coast is clear, he shoves a thick wooden basin filled with water from under one such table. There, back in the shadows, you see a little goblin girl hunched down staring forward just grasping her knees...her eyes glowing soft green in the candlelight.
Johnny stays at the archway, keeping watch down the hall "We can't stay here long..."
Kjeta kneels down, and speaks in a gentle voice. "Hello Sara. My name is Kjeta. I'm a friend of Johnny's. I'm from Zobeck, and want to help anyone here who I can.
"I'm very sorry to have to ask this, but Johnny says you saw what happened. The more you can tell me, the more I can help. Will you be very very brave for me?"
Carnadine lets the Alemaiden deal with the goblin-child. The noble dhampir who once was a squire and no stranger to kitchens looks around for clues, or at least to kill some time until the Alemaiden can Speak with Scutarius and Deimus.
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Kjeta kneels down, and speaks in a gentle voice. "Hello Sara. My name is Kjeta, and this scary, evil, half-vampire man is my friend Carnadine..."
Raseri ventures into the puzzlebox again the next day after sleeping to recover, determined to not make a fool of herself, she tries to navigate the pathways to Vale's new hiding spot as quickly as possible.
Can I climb up the wall or use a corner?
The fish ladder seems to go on forever in every direction, but Hrungnir suddenly realizes that you aren't climbing the fish at all, rather the fish are swimming in space giving the illusion of climbing. So, why not stop climbing and ride along?
After a circuitous journey downstream, you pass through a devilishly dark tunnel defeating even your darkvision. When you emerge, space is filled with a number of seemingly random spheres...and your faces have taken on a ribbon-like quality, with half their mass missing!
Raseri follows the strange instinct inside, that slender inner iron spindle that never points her astray...or so she thought. Bursting through a stuck and swollen wooden door, she immediately fell face first into an icy, muddy puddle. Strange carriage tracks littered the road cutting through the unreal pine forest. A bright full moon reflected in the water.
As the Thorsdottir picked herself out of the slop, she heard growling all around...it resembled that of dogs but sounded like it had rumbled here all the way from Hell. 3 red eyes fired to life like points of a triangle with her at the center...
Inits:
...and one stepped forward out of the shadows, canine but walking upright like a human, and extremely tall -- large like an ogre. It had batlike wings at its side, and a jaw made of polished iron. Its single eye glowed a deep red before emitting a beam of pure energy...
The blast strikes Raseri hard in the stomach and she is knocked back some 15 ft () but oddly...her moonshadow stays in place. It takes on a life of its own, a life of service to the Psoglav demon that is. A pair of purple eyes flare up in the shadow's head, waiting patiently for Raseri to approach it seemed.
At the edge of darkness, the other cyclopean eyes blink, watching.
As they start to get ribbony, Kjeta gives a somewhat shakey "Wooooah..." As she finds that she's unharmed, her curiosity comes back, and she finds herself trying to peer into Lexi and Hrungnir's ribbon heads.
While she's doing so, she notices an odd pattern to the globes she sees through Lexi.
"Hmmmm, do you two notice that?"
At Kjeta's words Sara blinks as if realizing something suddenly -- where she is perhaps, but its the Heroism spell that finally gets her to speak "...I didn't go. I froze. Why didn't I go..." tears of regret well up inside the goblin-girl "...she looked like us...like you I mean, not a dark elf...but I thought it was another trick. She said she knew a way out, that a 'trade' was made and we would go home. She took the other Zobeck children away...and I didn't go with them. I could've been gone like them but I stayed..." she weeps.
The only thing of some alarm here uncovered by the investigating adventurers is a cloth blindfold with bloodspots where the eyes would be. Sara confirms the woman was wearing it when she came in and is part of why she was scared to believe her.
Kjeta offers Sara an understanding smile. "You can't be blamed for fearing tricks in this place. But tell me more, please. What exactly did she say? Did she say anything else about the trade?"
After thinking a moment, she adds, "And can you tell me how many were taken? And--" she looks at Johnny as well, for this"--Has a group of stolen children disappeared like this before?"
To Carnadine, she adds quietly, "I heard a rumor that Elegyn, the Zobecker elite, has made condition on her pledge to marry the Black Prince that these stolen wards of Zobeck be returned. At the time I heard that half of what was promised, 10 in number, have already been secreted out of court...I wonder if this was more of the same?"
Carnadine perks up when the Alemaiden speaks of Elegyn and thinks, who cares about goblins or kids, besides the Alemaiden? But, to sabotage the Zobecker elite would be something.
Standing on the other side of the Alemaiden from the goblin, the noble dhampir whispers, "can she describe the ruckus person who was wearing the blindfold? Enough for us to recognize her later?"
"Do you think she would know where the morgue is?"
Raseri rolls back to her feet and faces her attackers. Part of her wanted to run, but thunder roared within her as the storm below the surface blows past the polite facade and makes its presence known. Lightning crackles over her as she straightens and raises the symbol of Thor over her head as she backs up. Not in fear, but to give the storm room to vent its fury.
"Deyjið ykkur trúlausu fífl."
A rain of hail and ice showers the three demonic canines and her traitorous double, stopping just shy of Raseri's toes. A ferocious grin spreads across her face as she sees her handy work. She sways tauntingly as she moves back and blue-white fire arcs around her.
Given that she has no chance to avoid a confrontation, and having little desire to fight....whatever that thing was, Lexi opts to instead kill the creatures hustling in her direction. Taking a deep breath, she draws her Scorpion Stiletto and clicks the button to envenom the blade, then draws her Dagger of Venom and uses it's magic; she wields her stiletto in her main hand and the Dagger of Venom in her off hand. After that, it was just a matter of waiting...
In a flurry of precise and practiced strikes, the trio of goblins never knew what hit them...all fell to the Shadow's onslaught, barely lifting their meager little wooden swords in response.
But as she steps over the carnage to further her escape, a strange gurgling comes from one of the fallen like boiling popping tar. Turning, she sees the goblin's form changing, polymorphing into something much more slender, waif-like...
The body becomes that of a little elfmarked boy.
The eyes at the edge of your vision flutter and scatter at the assault, and the shadow is broken apart like wet paper...but still stands, oddly.
However, the demon before you () takes the brunt of the damage as the forest is pelted with fist sized hailstones. It takes a step forward with a *crunch* in the ice, then wags its finger and actually retreats back under a tree.
No...to the shadow of a tree, where a dimensional doorway springs forward...starting with a vertical blue line that splits into 2 parallel lines. The demon steps through and vanishes.
You feel its breath on the back of your neck just before the first strike...
...nearly double your size, you feel like a ragdoll in the canine demon's maw, torn asunder.
She mumbles counting on her fingers, but makes multiple mistakes and has to start again "...Timmy...Eliza...maybe 7? 12? But they trick us too, sometimes the goblins pretend to be like us...maybe they weren't all kids. She just said we had to go now before they changed their mind...the rush is what scared me."
Johnny builds up his courage before responding to the inquiry about if it had happened before "No...except to punish us. They like to keep friends separate...they'll move some to another castle if we get too close. That's why I don't want to be seen with Sara when she's like this...but never a Zobecker comes to take us. You all and the blindfolded lady are the first Zobeckers we've seen down here...'cept each other." he keeps his nervous watch on the corridor outside.
Kjeta nods.
"And the person wearing the blindfold? They were a Zobecker?"
Kjeta quickly describes Elegyn, to see if that's who they saw. If not, she asks for the best description Sara can give.
Then she says, "Thank you both. Sara, you're going to be OK now. Don't talk about this with anyone except Johnny. We're doing everything in our power to rescue any of you who want it...but you'll need to stay tight for a bit longer.
"You can do that, right?"
Kjeta carefully folds up the blindfold and puts it into her purse. As they leave, the Alemaiden turns to Carnadine. "Now we need to find out who this was. I pray that it's an ally of ours in some way. Any ideas?"
The environment was slowly eating away at Hrungnir’s mind. Despite his earlier success, he was quickly becoming disoriented. He stopped and closed his eyes, taking deep and steady breaths to focus and calm down.
Lexi took the path of least resistance and lowered the bodies into the water where the remorahaz stays, then leaves before more people show up.
Carnadine turns toward the Alemaiden and whispers his reply, "The Zobecker is no ally of ours. They want to marry a daughter to the Black Prince to secure their control of Zobeck. And, I thought the kids were a dowry of sorts."
"Do you want to try to make it to he morgue and speak to Deimus and Scutarius?"
Raseri tears herself free from the malicious mutt's maw and mutters the words to another spell. It isn't the only one with tricks as she tosses her hammer into the air, and it forms into a hammer like Mjolnir, but different. It strikes at the hellish hound while she brings out her sword and sends lightning arcing along it as she strikes.
The monster in the morgue waters lunges at the bodies as they mysteriously slide into its lair, but the beast is no scavenger and seeks live game. An insectoid-like hum chitters behind its mandible and it screeches right towards Lexi...
...astonished, Lexi raises her sword arm in a last second parry before drawing back out of reach.
Raseri slashes out and catches the enormous hound in the gut, sending crackling energy ripples across its furry surface...at the same time, a bit of the demon's hairs are sheared by the slashing attack and come off in a tight bundle -- for some reason at that moment the Grey Ladies come to mind.
From this distance, you also note its collar seems to be made of amazing gemstones...emerald and carbuncle you think. Fitting, perhaps, for the royalty they are said to serve.
Raseri falls to the ground, unable to comprehend much of anything as blood flows out of her mouth as much as air. The demons gather round her and snicker...but one of them speaks in a strange tongue. The others respond with a confused tone, and she feels her chest poked a few times...poked right where the Grey Ladies badge lies.
She sees one of them kneel and pick something off the ground just before losing consciousness...
"Hey..." it was Vale, looking upside down at her from above "...what are you doing out here? Did you already forget how to reach my Castrovalva?" he smiled.
"...yeah, she was..." Sara goes on to describe the woman as best she can: an older human lady, black and gray hair but strong and fit. 5 long old scars crossed her face and she dressed extravagantly, like a courtier...but was covered in a dirty blue velvet cloak. When she describes the weapon she carried it sounds an awful lot like Lexi's Mharoti stilletto...
All in all, nothing like Elegyn.
When asked to sit tight again they look at each other and nod...they want to believe you.
As you gaze closer and closer to the sphere pointed out by Kjeta, you realize the ribbon-forms you were seeing earlier are actually just the reflections on the spherical surface. It hurts your brain, but with a little bit of focus you can will yourself to look at reality.
As the puzzle box chamber again shifts, you feel you are quite distant from where you started from. You also have an alarming sensation on the back of your neck, as if someone is watching you...or if you are somewhere you aren't supposed to be.
You gaze upon a sectional overview of a large labyrinth whose walls are slick with shadowstuff, black bone, rotted wood, and crumbling dark stone. The image is formed on a waterfall that flows without sound. At its side is a small polished spherical crystal along with a silver lever.
With a little experimentation, you find that moving your hand on the sphere changes the view of the waterfall image, and the lever controls the zoom of the image in and out. There are a number of small figures moving around that you could focus on if you wish.
Not looking at the others, Lexi tries to lead them away from this place so with the hopes that how they appear won't remain that way.
Raseri winces as she sits up and takes stock of what is going on around her. She hurts all over and feels the humbling sting of humiliation and defeat.
"The, ah, psoglavs? Are they gone," she asks.
He glances around "Psoglavs? Dear me...no, truly you were attacked by the Queen's Guard? And lived? Astonishing. Are you quite certain it wasn't just those thrice-damned Bronson children wearing their masks? They do love a good trick now and then." Vale helps you stand up and moves to a nearby pine tree, picking away a few brittle pieces of bark to reveal a blue sky underneath -- a passage.
As he is about to widen it enough to step though "Come, I thought you might join me again today. I've a picnic prepared if you like...let me play you a song and the cultural memory of rejuvenation will carry your wounds into the valley of my Castrovalva." he soothes.
Lexi will command the vision to zoom in on the figures, try to see who or what they are and what they're doing.