Thanara tries again, but once more fails to get past the woman's magical defenses.
With the ground troops out of the way, Shalelu steps into the room to get a better line on the flying woman. She fires two arrows, one of which nearly critically injures her foe.
The woman shrugs it off as her wounds instantly begin to heal, negating most of the damage just done to her.
The two ninjas above heed the woman's command and drop from their perches to approach Relisha. With Shalelu now in the way however, only one of them can reach her.
Confronting Relisha, the ninja uses its siangham to knock Suishen free from the tieflings hands, the Tian blade dropping to the ground at her feet.
Shalelu suddenly finds herself flanked by two ninjas and the one on the south jabs its siangham into her belly, drawing blood.
Olaff doesn't find Ameiko, but he does her snarling somewhere past the screens. There appears to be a corridor in the distance off to the east that leads from this room.
"Skygni!" the flying woman calls out loudly. From the doorway beyond Olaff the sounds of something large quickly approaching. Seconds later it is revealed to be a bear-sized wolf with white fur that stands five feet tall and nearly eight feet long. It has a rime of frost around its muzzle and its eyes are pale blue, almost white in color.
It snarls menacingly at Olaff and unleashes a blast of wintry cold ice into his face
"Crrap!" Olaff exclaims as he sees the ice breath coming towards him. Luckily he manages to hide behind his shield and protect himself from most of it.
Assuming a defensive posture, Olaff eyes the big beast and challenges it. "Ye'll be my coat, beast!"
Knowing that she won't survive long at this rate, Relisha drops her links to her companions.
As the ninja attempts to knock the sword from her hands, she attempts a counterstrike - and drops the blade entirely.
With nary a pause, she pulls her scimitar from her belt and slashes at the dark figure.
Ahreni 40/43
Olaff 37/49
Relisha 15/53
Shalelu 38/47
Thanara 27/27
Ahreni lashes out with a claw as the ninja drops down next to her and tears a great gash down the mans back.
Then the wolf appears and something primal stirs inside her but with Noisemaker in the way she tamps down on the feeling and pursues her quarry. Stepping in behind him she unleashes more blows into his bleeding back.
Thanara moves the stormcloud to the woman once again, hoping to at least affect her a little bit.
Ahreni is able to step into flanking position with Relisha, ripping and shredding the man between them. After slashing her claws across his neck, he drops on the ground between them.
With the new opening behind her, Shalelu steps back into it in front of Relisha and fires two shots at the black-clad man to her south.
She buries two shots into the man, the second pierces his eye and dropping him to the ground with a critically placed arrow to the face.
Thanara finally penetrates the magical defenses of the flying woman and zaps her with some lightning. Her body continues to heal, negating half of the damage done to her by the storm.
With all of the women gathered up on the far end of the room, the flying woman unleashes a torrent of ice and wintry cold all over them. .
The large wolf snarls and snaps at Olaff, but due to intimidation and defenses of the large Ulfen, it's unable to find purchase on his flesh.
Ahreni 40/43
Olaff 37/49
Relisha 0/53
Shalelu 38/47
Thanara 27/27
Olaff continues to fight the large wolf.
Ahreni easily dodges the worst of the wintry blast and scampers away from the rest of the group, trying to present more targets. She pulls a dagger from her blet as she runs and throws it at the flying woman, more in hope than expectation.
”UUAAANNNNGGGHHHHH!!!” Thanara cries out in freezing agony from the blast! She falls to the ground, unconscious with ice clinging to her skin!
Things take a turn for the worse as Thanara freezes and drops to the ground and to Relisha barely cling to consciousness, thanks only to her magical shawl that Ameiko had given her. Ahreni's dagger sails far short of its target and Olaff's attempts to stay the wolf also miss.
Shalelu watches as the flying woman's wounds continue to close, leaving her essentially uninjured. With a foe on the ground and one in the air, she's torn on where to focus her attention. She yells at the shifter "Ahreni! Help Olaff, I'll work on her!" and fires two shots up into the air. The first one misses, but the second one hits her in the throat and critically injures her.
That successfully draws her attention away from Relisha temporarily, as she fires two fire arrows into the ranger. Due to Shalelu's eagerness to do as much damage as possible, she exposed herself a little too much and both arrows slam into her chest and she collapses to the ground, dropping her bow.
With the ranger's gasp of pain just before she drops unconscious, the flying woman turns back to Relisha, cupping a hand to hear ear as she feigns listening. In a mocking tone she says "Do you hear that, foolish girl? That is the sound of inevitability... It is the sound of your death... Goodbye, foolish girl."
The tiefling's eyes remain just barely open and she's conscious enough to hear the oni's words.
"I may be foolish, but the goddess is still on my side," she says before casting another spell.
Ahreni 40/43
Olaff 37/49
Relisha 6/53
Shalelu -3/47
Thanara -3/27
With his companions falling behind him, Olaff decides to retreat, grabbing Shalelu's body in the process.
Ahreni watches both Shalelu and Thanara get dropped to the floor and something feral shifts within her. As Olaff retreats from the wolf a blur flashes past him, which resolves itself into another wolf - pitch black in color, that hurls itself upon the white wolf in anger.
The wolf tries to clamp its jaws down on Olaff as he flees, but it bites nothing but his shield as the Ulfen scoots away.
While Olaff heads for fallen ranger, Ahreni flashes past him towards the large wolf as something in her nature pulls her to engage. She is unsuccessful in her attempt to bite it however. In return, the wolf tries to bite Ahreni and rips apart her chest
The woman laughs at Relisha "Truly? Well let's see if your goddess can stop this arrow, hmmm?"
The flying woman above fires two shots, one at Relisha and one at Ahreni, letting the walking piece of armor slowly make his way through the room. Both of her attacks strike, taking Relisha out again and nearly finishing Ahreni's off.
She says to Olaff "You could be useful, Ulfen. Drop to your knees, release your weapons and swear loyalty to me and I will let you live and join my ranks. Otherwise, you will soon perish with your companions. Choose quickly as my men above are descending as we speak and you have no hope of escaping here alive without my consent."
Olaff seethes in fury as his friends and companions drop around him. "The only vay forr me to drrop to my knees in frront o' ya vould involve no clothes and I don't trrust ye even vith that, so shut yerr trrap, vitch, forr yerr fate is alrready settled..."
He then drags Shalelu's body with him as he sheathes his sword. "Ahrreni! Get the hell back herre!"
Badly battered Ahreni leaps backwards, pausing only for a moment to grab Suishen in her jaws.
Ahreni 8/43
Olaff 37/49
Relisha -10/53
Shalelu -3/47
Thanara -3/27
Ahreni heads to the exit just behind Olaff who is holding both Relisha and Shalelu in his arms. The flying woman mocks "What, you think I'm just going to let you walk away now?"
She lowers herself and closes the distance behind them, firing two arrows at Ahreni. The first one narrowly misses, but the second one catches her in the back and puts an end to her attempt to withdraw.
As Ahreni drops to the ground nearby Thanara's body, the woman says "Ohhhh Ulllll-fen. You now have four dying women whose lives depend on you. You can't carry them all and I'll whittle you down bit by bit as you retreat. Lassssst chance. Submit to me and I'll save them from dying. Continue to flee and you all die."
The wolf moves from the rear of the room, closing the distance until it's just in front of the doorway.
Olaff drops Shalelu's and Relisha's body close to Thanara's and turns around, stepping towards Ahreni. He grabs Ahreni, putting her over his shoulder and then assumes a defensive posture. "If ye had any honorr at all, I'd gladdly trrade my life forr theirrs, but how I know ye arre not lyin' to me?"
The woman hovers 20' above Olaff, waiting to see what Olaff does. She holds her hand out to the wolf and says "Skygni. Let him live, he is going to join us, I think." The wolf obeys and back up five feet, but still watches Olaff, ready to strike.
Turning back to the Ulfen, she says "You don't, but your only other option is to let everyone here die, isn't it? So drop your weapons, fall to your knees and swear an oath to me. I will then have them healed."
She waits with an arrow drawn, ready to fire should he try to do anything other than what she asks.
While still carrying Ahreni, Olaff does indeed drops to one knee. "Do I have yerr vorrd they vill live?"
Using his shield as cover, however, what he really does is grabbing Suishen's handle. To the sword, he thinks, hoping he would hear his thoughts. "Svorrd Suishen... I have hearrd Ameiko's voice down the hall, but I can't let all of them die. If I could trust this voman, I'd gladdly trrade my life forr theirrs, but I sense no honorr in herr. Do ye have anythin' to help us?"
"You have my word." she says, failing to notice that the Ulfen has picked up the ancient blade.
From inside of Olaff's head Suishen replies, "You cannot trust this creature, Ulfen. It is not a woman, she is in disguise. This is not her true form, for she is Oni, an evil spirit that manifest physical bodies based upon the shapes and desires of humanoid mortals. They are extremely dangerous and my sworn enemies. Not only are they skilled combatants, they possess potent magical abilities. Do not underestimate how dangerous she is. She is not just another frail human as she looks."
"Though she may heal them and allow them to live, that will only be for a short moment I fear. Her sworn duty is the elimination of the Amatatsu clan. Her wording will be wrapped in half-truths and lies."
"There are many things I can do, but the odds are against you right now. If the other scions were not dying, it's possible that the two of us could attempt to fight her in single combat. Given her regeneration abilities, we would likely lose. Add to that the wolf and that the others will die if they are not healed, it seems like a long shot at best even with my abilities. And yet..."
"Tell me, do you possess the Amatatsu seal? That powerful artifact has healing powers that could save the scions. I fear you do not have enough time to retrieve it and use it on everyone though. No. Now is not the time. You need to do whatever you can to buy time, for it is against you right now."
"I sense deception in you." the flying woman says with a frown. She turns to the wolf and says "Skygni. Give them another blast of your winter breath and kill all of the women."
The large wolf steps up and sucks in a breath as it prepares to blow another blaster of ice over the fallen, dying women as it did to Olaff earlier.
Olaff gets to his feet as fast as he can and steps back, carrying the sword with him. Dropping Ahreni behind him, Olaff then grabs the doors and close them as fast as he can, voicing the vow the woman was so eager to hear. "I svearr to kill ye, monsterr!"
While trying to keep the door closed, Olaff then reaches for a potion on his belt and tries to heal Relisha.
Wintry ice slams into the doors as Olaff closes them, bits of ice blasting through the cracks and all around it. Olaff can feel the frigid temperature of the stone doors drop as they freeze and hear the snarl of the large wolf on the other side of them as they shut.
The wolf slams into the door as it tries to bust them open, Olaff holding his back against it and pushing as hard as he can while he pours a potion down Relisha's throat, bringing her back to consciousness.
They both see a misty, translucent substance seep under the door from the other side and float past them into the distance ahead of them, disappearing around the corner.
The world swimming in front of her eyes, the tiefling grabs a scroll at her belt and focuses her eyes upon the words that shift and change as she looks at them.
Ahreni -6/43
Olaff 37/49
Relisha 12/53
Shalelu -3/47
Thanara -3/27
"I do not like that mist..." Olaff confess as he looks for potions on the others to heal them.
Olaff searches the bodies of the two unconscious women for another potion, but comes up empty. He presses his back into the door to keep the wolf at bay, a constant thudding come from the other side as it opens slightly only to close again.
There are no taunting words from the woman though, she remains silent.
Having nothing else to do, Olaff keeps holding the door.
Relisha pulls another scroll from her belt and reads it over Shalelu.
Ahreni -6/43
Olaff 37/49
Relisha 12/53
Shalelu 9/47
Thanara -3/27
Shalelu groans as consciousness returns. With the door closed behind you and three of you now conscious, it appears the tide is turning in your favor. As soon as you can get the other two women healed and on their feet, you should be able to retreat and regroup.
Shalelu takes her feet and laments that her bow was left in the other room. She reaches into her pack and pulls out her gladius, turning her back on Relisha to look at Olaff and asks "What's the plan? Run?"
A sharp pain from your back stuns your nerves as you lose feeling in your lower body. Looking down, you see a spiked warclub protruding from your belly. As your legs fail you, it is withdrawn from the women standing behind you. The last thing you see is the woman attacking again, returning Shalelu to ground once more.
From seemingly out of nowhere, the women appears behind Relisha and uses her tetsubo to bloody her bad enough that the oracle begins to die once more. Without missing a beat, she smashes Shalelu with her weapon as well and sends the ranger to the ground again.
Looking at Olaff who is desperately trying to keep the pounding door from opening, she asks "Where exactly did you think you were going to, foolish boy? I must admit, I love your gumption. Some serious balls on you. Now then. Drop the sword, on your knees, lower your head and swear fealty to me or join the others on their deathbeds."
Seeing no way out of the situation, Olaff abandons the door he is blocking and rushes towards the exit, grabbing the pack where the Amatatsu Seal is being carried. Turning around and hiding behind his shield, he shows the seal to the woman briefly.
"Ye harrmed my frriends, but this is vhat ye trruly vant, forr vithout it Ameiko is just a common girrl... I know I can get out o' herre vith it and ye von't be able to stop me." He eyes the woman, trying to know if his assumptions are correct.
"Let me brring my frriends vith me and once they arre safe I'll come back vith the seal to ye. Ye'll have my vorrd." He offers.
While the wolf is behind Olaff, the woman is in front of him and blocks any possible retreat he may have through the small corridor. She nods "Yes, of course, this is a perfectly reasonable plan. I have you surrounded, outnumbered and your friends will have bled out in a moment. I let you all go for some strange, obscure reason to reclaim what already is in my possession. Yet you pretend to bargain from a position of power?"
The woman laughs loudly "I will have the seal, I will have the blade and I finally will have killed all of the Amatatsu scions! Do you know how long I've been waiting here for this exact moment?! No one is leaving here! The Five Storms have placed me here for this task and there is no way I will allow the Amatatsu 's to cross the Crown of the World and return to Minkai to attempt to claim the throne! "
Looking behind Olaff, she calls out "Skygni. Kill him." The door behind Olaff flies open and the wolf blasts wintry ice at him once again.
Olaff doesn't fall and with a growl meets the woman head-on, trying to find her with the seal in one hand and Suishen in the other. He swings at her, but just misses with the strike as she saw his attack coming and stepped back just in time.
Engaged in close combat, she leans into a thrust and buries her blade deep inside his chest, holding it there as he begins to die. "You've failed them all, Ulfen."
Olaff's world goes black as he joins the others in unconsciousness.
-----------------------
An unknown amount of time passes and you awake restricted and blinded. Everything is dark and you are able to move, speak or see. A blinded is tied tightly around your eyes and a gag of some king is jammed in your mouth. Your arms are chained above you and as you hang, you can tell your legs are manacled to something on the ground. Hunger and thirst are overwhelming and your skin is burning from what is likely a fever. The stench of piss and s$+* nearly causes you to vomit, but since you know you would choke due to the gag you are able to fight it back.
You try to scream or call out to your allies, but the best you can muster is a parched and barely audible groan through gag. Struggling against your bindings, you eventually pass out and things go dark again.
You awaken and find yourself in a similar predicament countless number of times, each time finding the situation hopeless. Unable to think clearly you struggle only to eventually pass out again either from exhaustion, hunger, fever or some other unknown effect.
-----------------------
A torrent of cold water slams into your face and you awaken to a splitting headache. Having not drank water for who knows how long, you eagerly try to suck as much of it into your body as possible. You try to open your eyes, but searing light blinds you and the best you can manage is to squint one eye and try to blink rapidly to let your eyes adjust.
The sound of water slamming into something else followed by a gasp repeats as a bucket of water is throw into each of your faces, one at a time.
"Thirsty?" a familiar voice asks. Though you are not able to fully focus on it yet, the woman who is responsible for what you thought would be your deaths is seated before you in a large room. It takes a minute to click together, but you remember passing through this great hall of the upper floor of the building you assaulted in your failed attempt to rescue Ameiko.
Finally able to open your eyes, you find yourselves kneeling, manacled and completely naked without possessions. The five of you are lined up two feet apart, facing forward where something else is laying on the floor ten feet front of you, but you can't make it out yet.
You are filthy and exhausted, barely able to remain conscious. Relisha starts to fade out before the woman slaps her hard across the face "Not yet. There is a ceremony to be performed and I haven't kept you alive this long just so you can sleep through it."
Scanning the room, you see numerous ninjas lined up around the room in their black-clad clothing, standing motionless and watching the woman speak. She moves to a prone figure laying in the center of the room and picks up another bucket, throwing the water down with some force onto the figure who gasps and chokes as they struggle to rise. As your eyes finally adjust, you can see it's Ameiko who is similarly situated as you.
Thanara’s eyes and cheeks are red from tears as she struggles in vain against her restraints. She tries in vain to cover herself, but the shackles prevent her from doing so completely. She looks around the room to her friends, her eyes wild with fear like a trapped animal.
No words escape her lips. Just frightened sobs that accompany her tears.
The woman just nods in mock sympathy at Thanara's tears. "Afraid you won't make it out of here alive, are you? You are right to think so as alas, you aren't here for anything other than to witness the end of the unmaking of the Amatatsu line."
"While I could have done this and let you all perish, I just couldn't resist the opportunity to have a little fun with it. After all, I waited this long, what's another week?"
Ameiko finally gets her bearings and lays sights on all of you. Tears similiarly streak down her eyes as she looks at each of you in turn and apologizes in a croaked whisper "I'm s-sorry."
The woman just laughs.
”P-please...please don’t. We’ve...we’ve done nothing to you...” Thanara stammers between tears, pleading with the woman.
She turns her eyes to Ameiko, basically the only family she has left. ”Amei...”
Relisha struggles forward until she's adjacent to Ameiko. "You may slay us, but it won't matter," Relisha says in a voice lacking strength, but not conviction. "It seems that you know less about the seal than you profess. The seal can select a scion to take Ameiko's place if something happens to her. And according to what it told me, it already has. The heir to the throne doesn't have to be an Amatatsu - just selected by the seal. And the seal has already chosen another."
The tiefling smiles up at the woman. "And I will never tell you who that person is."
Ignoring Thanara's cries, the woman folds her arms at Relisha's statement. "Oh this one has some fire in her, doesn't she? Let's see if we can loosen those lips. Bring her to me."
A half dozen ninjas move forward in front of each of you to make sure you don't get any fancy ideas while two drag Relisha forward in front of the woman.
Once she's there there, she pulls her blade off her back and says "Set her arms free and hold her." Once that is done she commands "Hold her left arm out." Though she struggles, the two men do as she commands. Once her arm is out, the woman looks down at Relisha and asks "Before you lose your hand, who is the heir?"
"You can take my hand, but I still won't tell you," Relisha replies calmly. "Let them go and I'll give you the name. If you harm any of them, I will take the secret to my grave."
The oni just rolls her eyes at Relisha, "Why are they all just so stubborn?" Looking to the ninjas she says "Hold her." and brings down her blade with tremendous strength, cleaving Relisha's left hand off at the wrist. Her severed hand flops to the ground before her as pain floods her like nothing she'd ever known, her blood pouring from her new open wound.
She bends down and picks up the detached limb and dangles it in front of her by the pinky finger. "Now then. Does that jog any memories or should I take your tongue next and get it from another?"
She looks over at Thanara weeping and points to her "She looks like she'd talk rather than me carve her breasts from her body? Hmmm?"
Ameiko cries out "NO!" gasping and struggling against her bonds. "NO!" she repeats again, weeping.
The blood spurting from her wrist is matched by the blood in her mouth after biting her tongue. She mentally retreats into the prayers that she used countless times to carry her through the self-inflicted pain she's endured almost her entire life.
My pain is an offering. Through the pain I cleanse the taint that my flesh represents. Through the pain I offer supplication. Through the pain I come closer to you, my goddess.
"I'm the only one that knows," she gasps out, spitting blood in the process. "And I swear to you by The Cleansing Light herself. That if you harm a single hair on their heads, that I will bite off my own tongue before telling you ."
Leaving her there to sit in her own pooling blood, the woman motions to Thanara. "Bring me the pretty one. Let's see how much pain she can endure before one-hand over here fesses up."
Two more men move to Thanara, dragging her forward a few feet from Relisha.
Ameiko struggles, screaming and thrashing about repeating "NO! NO! It's me! Kill me and let them go! PLEASE! NO!"
Meanwhile, a few more ninjas come out with weapons in hand and stand two to each side of Shalelu, Ahreni and Olaff, prepared in case they decide to get any brave ideas.
"I warn you," Relisha says a little louder as the edges of her vision begin to darken. "I'm the only one that knows who it is and if you harm any of them. You will never know who it is!"
”NO!” Thanara cries as the woman cleaves a hand from Relisha! She reflexively sends a bolt of lightning her way, but strikes the opposite wall instead.
”Leave us alone!”
Watching Thanara throw some magic around, their adversary picks up Relisha's hand and shoves and hands it one of her men. "Some spellcaster you are, that was pathetic. Clearly you are not the heir."
Turning to her men, she instructs "Jam this in her mouth so she can't cast another spell while we jog one-hands memory. She can choke on the tiefling's flesh while I carve hers from her body."
"Hold her down." she instructs. Three men do so, one holding her legs while one each hold her arms and a fourth crams Relisha's blood wrist in her mouth. The woman takes her sword and draws it tight up against the underside of her left breast and looks to Relisha, waiting. "Anything you'd like to say?"
The tiefling sways slightly as the blood drains from her body. "You have received your final warning," she says in a voice that grows weaker by the second. "If your blade draws even a single drop of her blood, you will learn nothing more from me. And I'm the only one that can tell you what you want to know. The choice is yours to make."
Relisha then makes a point of closing her mouth.