While Nasar isn't currently blinded, the sudden flash of light definitely throughs him off. He rubs his eyes to adjust back to the proper light level and he readies an attack with his Kukri for when one of the puppers get into his range.
The two hound-men let out a howl before both charging Nasar with their scabbards and take a slash at the first man they see. Nasars swipe goes on unscathed skin as he whiffs about with his blade.
.
One blade soars past Nasar while the other sinks into his side as his shirt tears from the slash.
Deract backs up as he looses a bolt of energy past Nasar.
The bolt crashes against the metal frame as he mutters. Damn this small doorway.
Lily takes this moment to teleport to the interior of the room behind the dog folk a good 10 feet back.
Nasar reels back from the sudden sword in the side but now is recovered from the flash attack. Nasar readies his attack and tries to bait out the doggos defense so he can cut around it while the pupper is flat footed.
.
.
.
Nasar twirls his blades but the bahgra sees through the ruse all to easily and slaps his sword away messing up Nasar’s entire flow causing him to whiff all his attacks. One dog takes a wild 2 slashes at Nasar while the other turns to chase down Lily.
.
The bahgra slashes past Nasar and nothing tears but he definitly knows he’s bleeding on his leg. The other one soars past him on the return.
Deract jumps past both of them launching off the dog folks head to jump into a flanking position. He slashes the dogs back as he falls downward to the ground wounding the dog. There we go! This should do the trick!
Lily manifests her Babau as they both wildly slash at the unsuspecting dog man.
Nasar grows frustrated with struggling to land a hit but now with the added flank from Deract he grows much more confident in the next attacks. ”Thanks buddy, this should make my job plenty easier!”
.
.
.
Nasar manages to cross slash his 2 first hits but whiffs the other 2. Deract rakes his claws down the dogs back as the dog man side steps cutting Nasar out of sight as he passes behind the metal door. Deract ducks under a slash or two.
An explosion of ice is seen behind him as the dog is quickly dispatched by the two.
Now with his enemy trying to play defense, Nasar starts laughing while talking. ”I love when they run away, makes the fight so much more exciting!”
Nasar goes for an old classic of skadoodling past the dog so he can continue flanking with Deract to try and finish him off.
Nasar dips past the dog as he tries to catch Nasar he is instead caught by Nasars leg tripping the dog before he impales him one last time. The dog stays stabbed in his chest by Nasar surprised at the speed of the fetchling.
The orc stands there surveying the very quick fight that just took place. He gives a thumbs up for a fight well fought.
With a quick flick of his wrists, Nasar slings the blood off of his blades before putting them away. He then makes his way back to the strange portal looking thing. ”So what, they were going to teleport a team to Riddleport through this thing or something.”
The orc looks to Nasar, Magmanar... Marnagrammer... that’s the one. There supposed to go there that’s what the guy you just took out was doing. Apparently each gate has an attuned item that acts like the key to get there.
Deract nods as he runs over and knocks over the iced dog, shattering it as it impacts the ground. Yep he’s right, some planes use tuning forks. Other places have items of certain connection. For my old boat it was my glasses, he walks up to the portal and it shines as it connects with Deracts shades. He looks at Lily, It still works, care to take a trip down memory lane... and also figure out where I left my boat haha...
The portal opens slowly as the center rips open an array of colors and spinning hues. Lily looks at Nasar, Care to take a look Nasar?
”Uhhhh sure, haven’t used one of these before so...i just do it like this right?” Nasar steps up to the portal and leans his upper body through to take a gander to the other side.
What has my life come to. Magic boats controlled by tinted eye glasses. Life seemed so much simpler 8 months ago.
Nasar feels a pull as soon as he sticks his head in, the portal yoinks his body through the cover of technicolor waves. He is met with a quick flash of light before his eyes readjust to the new scene around him. He feels his feet hit wooden boards as a wicked stench of death and decay permeate through his scarf. The area around him is a horrifying mix and mess of trash, rubble, various gigantic beasts left to decay and bones of creatures the size of buildings. Nasar of course is seeing all of this from the bow of a ship about the size of a schooner. Three masts stand with no sails attached and many slats are missing out of the floor.
Behind Nasar is a small wood door that Lily and Deract emerge from, they take in all of the scenery before Deract forms a small tear as he walks over to the back mast and rubs the pole in embarrassment. So this is where you've ended up... Half your size and set to decay with the rest of existence here. Deract is clearly having a moment but he's not really saying why.
Nasar looks around the dilapidated ship, careful not to touch anything as it seems ready to fall apart at any moment. He pulls down his mask since it’s not doing too much anyways and its only the three of them anyways so there’s no one to hid his face from. ”Careful there Deract, you’re almost forming an emotion that isn’t ‘i got punched’. From the sounds of things I take it this is your former ship? Or at least what’s left of it?”
Lily bites the inside of her cheek as Deract gets tiny bit emotional and Nasar points out her blatant wailing on him. Deract looks up at the broken crows nest and just stares. Yea... this is her, all torn up and sad. When I was was a part of all the tyranny I used her for all my interplanar travel to demiplanes and the bigger planes alike. Used to be the size of a brig I remember, he looks over to Lily with a visible water in his eyes. His voice cracks a little as he says, Remember when I took you on your first ship ride? I remember like it was yesterday...
Lily tries to stop him, Deract I don't th-
It was one of those times I felt like a mortal again... he cracks a smile and sheds a tear. Go on adventures, find people who actually want you, have something of a purpose to work towards. he wipes his tears and looks at the mast away from the two, Thats why I can truly say I am really happy you guys are with me. I feel alive again... I wanna feel like that for the rest of my life... he stands facing away from them hand resting on the mast still.
Nasar walks up behind Deract and puts a hand on his shoulder. ”Finally someone has put to words the way i’ve felt with all of you...Feeling alive again. I don’t have any intention to lose this feeling ever again, for any of us.”
Deract sheds a small tear as he rubs the mast of the ship. The ship can be felt vibrating ever so slightly. A high pitched low toned whine can be heard that resembles a whale. It seems to be coming from the ship? Lily's face goes blank for a second as she wonders where the sound came from. What the hell?
Nasar looks confused and taps his foot onto the floorboards. ”What is this thing hiding a whale in its hull or something?”
Deract's face deadpans as he looks down. Ahh... I thought she was dead. Here come with me under the deck. Deract walks into one of the backdoors of the deck and heads downstairs. At the back of the ship sits a pillar of copper with a spot on top to place an orb. The orb currently inside of it glows dimly of a cloudy milky white color with a giant crack on the side of it. Deract inspects the orb. Well I'm no mechanic but I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to be broken.
Lily reaches her hand out to inspect the orb, It's like some sort of planar battery? Deract is this thing living?
Deract nods, Well living is a very broad word. It's uhhh like if a mimic were a shapeshifting ship? It can only get as big as the materials it has on hand though, which explains why its shrunk allot.
Nasar steps up and examines the crack ”If there’s nothing stopping us, couldn’t we take this thing with us? Either it has some value we can make off of it or maybe we can find some way to repair it and make it useful again.”
Deract looks at it, I remember I stole this one from a group of planar scientists in theeeee uhhhh plane of Elysium. The orb was a bunch of concentrated planar essence formed into a battery.
Lily spins the ball, Well we could always get someone to place some more in it? It’s just infusion, though where we get those materials from depends on things I’m not entirely sure are accurate? Like what essence we will need?
Deract nods, Well if we can find a way to recharge the battery. That’d be the start to getting this baby back off the ground. Deract chuckles, Oh the places we could go with a inter dimensional ship, were about to relive my good old days guys once this babies up. You wanted money and power and that’s sure as hell what she brought me.
Lily hands it to Nasar, You might as well hold onto it being as the last time Deract had something important he went insane.
Nasar puts the orb into his pack Im going to have to clean this thing out when we get home...getting a bit cluttered. After putting the pack back on he takes a cursory look around where they are. ”While this was an interesting detour, we should probably get back sooner than later.”
Deract fixes his glasses and takes out an obsidian stone and focuses it on the door they came through, Were gonna have to break back into this ladies house when we get that orb fixed. This is the only dimensional portal I’ve seen for ages and I can’t really get back to my boat unless I have one of these portals and my shades. he pays the floor board as the portal opens, We will be back for ya when we’re able to get you up and moving. Then we can get back to our planar conquest kekekekeee- he laughed but stops as he looks at Lily and Nasar. Of course... if you guys wanna go... conquest... some planes hehe... he sheepishly waits for them to leave.
Lily walks up to the door swirling with technicolor magic. I could go for a conquest or two... but not the succubus kind, the leader or dictator type. Keep your weapons out in case there’s baddies waiting for us on the other side. she whips out her claws and steps in and vanishes.
Nasar takes his blades back out and speaks as he walks through the portal. "Conquest sounds like fun, would like to take care of Jurastis first before we conquer the planes. Come on bud, let's finish this mission."
They pop back out on the other side to be met with the orc they had befriended waiting for them once more. He smiles with his protruding tusks and waves. The area has not changed since they left.
Nasar lets out a sigh of relief and waves back to their temporary friend. ”Well... shall we continue clearing out the rest of this place?”
The orc points at the other door that’s closed tight, On the other side of that door is the hags meeting room, it’s magically locked and soundproofed so no would be intruders can listen in and such. We’re going to have to take the long way around but there’s only 2 rooms to pass through. Not much guards them as they are just storage rooms.
Lily shrugs, Simple enough. Let’s go.
The team of four pass through a storage room filled with hanging hides and meats and such and also a room with a few cages animals. A dog barks at the group but trails off as they pass it to the final closed iron door. Sound can be heard through it as the gnoll yells out. THAT DOG IS BARKING AGAIN CMON JUST LEMME HAVE HIM AS A SNACK!!
The womanly voice from outside retorts. Will you can it about the dog? You can eat Nasar’s horse once we’re done with them?
The old lady from earlier in the day can be heard. No no the horse is off the menu. He was taken out by one of Capris’ other associates the other day. And there will be no consumption of the targets. Capris and HIS boss both want them alive.
The gnoll groans and snarls, Well when do we get to go then I’m STARVING!?
The nerdy sounding individual yells, As soon as you let her finish you mangey mutt!!
Nasar clutches the hilts of his blades very tightly, the sounds of his gloves straining is the only noise coming from Nasar as he overhears the enemies talking about Llamrei in such a way. Nasar digs in his pouch and grabs a copper piece, grabbing Lily's wrist he places the copper into her hand and looks her in the eyes so she hopefully gets the clue to read his mind. This way they can talk without making noise.
kIll THem ALLLily, since this is the kIll THem ALLlast of them you might as well tell kIll THem ALLMarissa to come down if youkIll THem ALL still have a connection with her. By the time they get here I'm sure the fightkIll THem ALL will be aboutkIll THem ALL to start.kIll THem ALL
Nasar tries to calm himself so he doesn't start combat too soon and so they can continue listening in.
Lily palms the coin and her eyes glow as she probes his easily surfaced thoughts. Her eyes open a bit oddly as she is surprised at what's going on in Nasar's head. Alrighty Gen you and Marissa can come down. Nasar wants no witnesses so we need you to come bash a gnolls head in. Hurry I don't know how long he wants to wait. Deract looks at the two and gives a thumbs up as he unsheathes his claws in case anything stirs.
The talks continues with the hag, Thank you. So just as a final wrap up of the talk, there are four- er five of them. A human mage, a demon succubus, and a human paladin. The main two we are looking to get the most from is the fetchling Nasar and the demon Deract. If we capture those the others will surely come looking for them.
Nasar adjusts his hat of disguise to alter himself slightly, his bright yellow eyes turn a dull pale gold and his face becomes a dirty gray color as he pulls his scarf to cover his mouth and nose. "You want me so badly huh? Then I'll make sure you get more than you can handle..."
kIll THem ALLHurry up you two...kIll THem ALLI don'tkIll THem ALLkIll THem ALLthinkkIll THem ALLkIll THem ALLkIll THem ALLI can restrain this much longer...kIll THem ALLkIll THem ALLjust need tokIll THem ALLmeditate
Genesis and Marissa come running down the hall as the dirt can be heard getting kicked up behind. Genesis says to them, Miss anything?
Lily looks at Nasar and shoos them all back, Not yet, back up guys this is gonna be loud. and she shakes a bomb and throws some stuff in before it turns a pitch black. She wails it at the iron door as it makes the sound of a pile of bricks falling. The door shatters into splinters of wood and metal as the gnoll, the hag, a very dark skinned elf looking girl, and a rat like humanoid.
They all turn to look and immediately start to get out there chairs as the gnoll howls and yells. See I’m not the only one who likes to wait, they wanna be captured AWOOOOO.
The dark elf yells as she takes out her curved blade. Seize them!!
Deract yells back, Seize my nuts lady!
Nasar takes out his blades and skips the flourish as he starts his march to the elf. He talks out loud to the team so that everyone, including the enemy can hear him clearly. His voice seems way too happy for what Lily heard going on. ”Looks like we have a little play date here...now everyone, remember don’t stray from my sight, make sure to share your toys...” and with almost a growl his voice drops to a low angry tone ”And bring me the bodies.” As he arrives at the elf to start his attack he lets out a short laugh before swinging his Kukri. ”But most importantly have fun!”
Nasar's blades flies with extreme speed as he catches the drow in the side. As he reups an attack the drow catches his blade with her wrist sheath.
The team all adopt Nasar's blood lust, Genesis gives an evil smirk as she casts haste on the whole party. Let the games begin!
The hag shrieks as she grabs her crystal ball off the table and flees towards the back of the room, as she moves the ball starts to glow.
Deract hops up on Nasar's head and propels himself over the enemies, I'll handle her!
Deract hits the ground over the gnoll and continues rushing her.
Lily pulls out her bomb and reagents and gulps them down before making a small burp followed by a giant belch of flames towards the enemies. all 3 are consumed by flames temporarily though the gnoll manages to duck under the flame.
Marissa whips out her morningstar as her eyes begin to glow a purpleish red. Her hand turns a dull gray as she runs towards the rat folk. I'LL SQUISH YOU LIKE F*$KING VERMIN!! and she slams down her weapon as the rat dodges away he loses his tail under her spiked fury.
The drow pulls Nasar close with his blade caught and brings him close enough to smell the poison on her breath. She looks him dead in the eyes and sternly says, I've never been bested by a target. And I'm not starting now. she releases her grip and looses a bunch of gray dust from her other hand that covers Nasar.
As Nasar is hit by the dust his skin starts to harden almost like when Marissa almost turned him to stone. He knows the dangers of this all too well as his muscles start to constrict.
The gnoll howls as he shakes off the fire from his back. OH HELL YEA! he rushes Marissa with his claws and mouth outstretched to attack.
The ratfolk runs and dips away as Marissa slams the floorboard with her morningstar again clipping his side.
With all the experience of getting hit by Marissa, Nasar shakes off the stoning as best as he can before resuming his assault.
”And I’ve never been bested by some elf playing mercenary!”
He thrusts his Cutlass at the elf’s side so it can be easily dodged, setting up his 3 hit feint combo.
.
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Nasar manages to draw blood with 2 attacks as he slashes and cuts. As he slashes though the rouge seems to slip through darkness as she narrowly evades some of the damage.
She fades in the shadows and almost seemingly dashes through Nasar as she appears behind him to strike once more. Fall into the shadows! and she looses slashes with her blade.
She looks at the hag as she slices Nasar ever so slightly on his arm but manages to not hurt Nasar so bad, the hag focuses on her ball and quickly speaks into it. There here! They've found us! and Deract rushes her and claws at her with ferocity.
Deract yells out like a kid, Find this you old bag!
The gnoll and Marissa trade blows as he yells out, When are we gonna blow this pop stand?!
The rat folk dips around Marissa as he whips out a dust and throws it at her that causes Marissa to start coughing incessantly.
Genesis casts a magic missle that slams the old hag causing her to drop the crystal ball as it thuds the ground.
Lily mixes another bomb and wails it at the drow as it slams against her back almost lighting her on fire. The drow looks back at the demon, Oh you want fire? I'll show you fire! and she clasps her hands together as her ring starts to glow a fiery red. Nasar is nearly blinded by the sudden burst of light the ring exudes before-
PASS
PASS
FAIL
FAIL
FAIL
FAIL
PASS
A giant fiery explosion is loosed from her as the center that engulfs the entire room in flames. The gnoll hits the floor as his hide is scorched but everyone who failed the save is consumed by the detonation. Nasar manages to not be knocked over by the intense heat blast but his skin is horribly charred on his arms and exposed parts of his legs and cheeks. His scarf looks burned to a silky crisp though it still functions.
Genesis quickly snuffs the flame on her robes and Lily and Deract watch as the explosion happens but suffer no effect. Deract turns around, Alright who's messing with Lily's bombs!
Nasar looks at his burned arms and winces at the familiar smell he is now giving off.
"...had to be fire huh...what a pain..." he glances back at Lily and sees that she's unharmed "Since you're doing so well back there, can you lend a hand? Being first in line of that blast wasn't quite what I had in mind."
After adjusting to the new pain he gives his blades a twirl and continues his assault into the elf.
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Nasar twirls and slashes and as he cuts through the drow he sees her almost blur with the shadowy room around her as he feels his blade connect not as hard as it usually does when it hits.
Lily nods as she fastballs a pink bomb in Nasars direction. It crashes splashing a little pink bubbly on the drow as well. Her wounds heal ever so slightly. She smirks as she clasps her hands together as they turn a deep void color of black, Enjoy your life while you have it because when we see you again that scarf is going to be your noose. She stretches her hands and darkness pours out her hands engulfing the room in magical darkness that even darkvision can't probe through. Everyone starts to speak as everyone is blinded by darkness. The drow takes a step back into darkness. Buh bye Nasar.
What the?
OUCH!?
Who turned off the lights?!
I don't care if I can't see you lady I'm bashing your old head in!
How the hell?
...
Silence falls in the room after a brief second of hysteria and the commotion stops.
If anyone was able to see his face, its all scrunched up in anger and frustration as he doesn't have the means to counter the magical darkness at this time. He speaks out loud, sounding plenty salty with the sudden shift in the environment, while staying in total defense to protect from any possible attacks as the enemies may still be around.
"Oh joy, advanced darkness. Team, sound off like you got a pair! Need to make sure no one went missing while they retreated through the shadows. Have anything to deal with this Gen or do we just have to feel our way out?"
Uhhh Marissa? Yea me I’m Marissa!
Lily! Still standing!
D-Bone reporting for duty!
Your so lucky I can’t see you or I’d throw a chair at you for saying that.
Here let me see if I don’t have any spells that can counter this. Light spells aren’t my forte. Pages can be heard being flipped. No... we gotta feel our way out.
A minute or so passes before everyone manages to feel their way out the room back to the orc standing outside. He looks elated to see them all and says, Quiet the show until you guys turned out the lights!
Nasar glares at the orc "Do you have anything of substance to add to the situation? If not, I recommend taking a long walk off a cliff. Now get out of my way." He walks past the orc and starts canvasing the hopefully empty compound for any sign of where they might have went, or for the possible location of Capris Sun
After a thorough investigation Nasar finds that the hags underground lair is void of any life besides the orc who’s feelings he definitely just hurt. Lily finishes looking upstairs and comes down to report. Gone without a trace... must’ve used magic in the darkness to port out.
"That's that then. Let's head back home and plan for our next step. Might be for the best to pick up some guild work or something of the sorts to make money." Nasar takes our his wands to heal up, wincing a lot more at the pain of the lingering burns and blade wounds now that the adrenaline of battle is subsiding. "Any else need to be patched up?"
Marissa looks at a giant bite wound on her arm, Nah I got this. and she limply palms the wound before staring at it and then looking back at Nasar blankly. oh yea... I can’t heal anymore... and shrugs and wraps it in a small bandage. Deract looks around to find anything of worth.
He comes back with a few trinkets he places in his backpack before saying, We gotta make sure we come back once we get this battery charged. Then we can jump the gate and get my ship running again.
Genesis mumbles, A ship?
Nasar puts his wands away and speaks while removing destroyed parts of clothes, bringing with it any dead skin that has fused to the fabric."We found a portal thing that connects to Deract's old plane travelling ship. We just need to get its source of energy fueled up and we can reclaim it as our own. We can just travel back here once we are ready for it."
Lily snaps a finger, Maybe the guild master and her lackey know a thing or two about it!
Deract taps his chin, Or Leo, plenty of people might have the answer...
Marissa pouts, Well great, all we have to go off of now is a boat that won’t float and an assassin squad after us. Do we just wait until they come to us or what?
Genesis nods. Unless we have a trail or anything of them we can’t scry them. We’re going to have to take enhanced measures to secure the house if we intend to lay low for a while and just earn some cash. she opens her money pouch and jingles a few coins. I think we should take some time to earn some money, I definitly don’t have a ton of funds after my last purchase of Deracts sanity back and that... well let’s just say that was a regrettable purchase. and she and the other girls giggle.
Deract scoffs as he looks away, Whatever... you want another short guy to replace me go get the dwarf from the Furniture Sage... and everyone looks at Deract like he’s nuts. Oh that’s right... none of you know who that is except Nasar.
”Honestly, with how things tend to go with our missions, we’ll end up finding a connection to the ship or the assassins while earning money anyways.” Nasar then look down at Deract ”Last time we got separated, I got threatened by your old prison guards. So even if we wanted to replace you, it wouldn’t be the smartest play. Besides that sage gives me a bit of the creeps. Let’s just get out of this damned swamp and we’ll go from there.”
The group gathers their things and Deract points out various things to take from the hags hut to either sell back at home or use. Lily easily identifies a few potions and distributes them among the group.
Obtained:
1 potion of cats grace
2 potions of cure light wounds
Cloak of evasion
Obsidian (9 gp)
Rock Quartz (7 gp)
Smoky Quartz (45 gp)
Topaz (650 gp)
Flask of Oil (1 sp, 1 lb)
5 x Scroll Case (1 gp)
Boots (1 gp)
The group arrives at their house after a few hours of travel.
Nasar heads to his room to change out of his burned clothes and to bandage up his old scars that got activated from the fireball. Once he’s dressed in normal, non-charred clothes, so no one can see those bandages he meditates in his room for about an hour or so before reconvening with the group to decide their next move.
Nasar heads to the basement to find Lily messing with the Cauldron. She pulls out a hunk of very dark coal, she grumbles. Another hunk of carbon... and she documents it.
Deract sitting at a nearby bench with a paper cone on his head says. This is like the 4th piece of coal you got today, maybe put the coal in and try for a gem? Isn’t that grow like diamonds are made? Condensed carbon.
Lily squints as she muddles over the idea. She takes all her coal pieces about 8 in total and places them back in the pot and stirs until the water boils away, she uses her tongs to pull out a lump of metal this time a bit less dull than the last but much smaller. Uhhh I’ll have to look at this under a scope. I definitly can see traces of different metals, thanks Deract. Deract nods and gives a salute. Lily notices Nasar come down and welcomes him to sit anywhere.
Nasar comes over by Lily to observe her working. He takes a gaze at her notes to see what items shes tried. ”Seems like this is going well, what materials have you tried putting into this thing? Maybe a fresh mind could help you with ideas for this thing.”
Lily scratches her head in thought, Mostly just metals I find, I’ve put blades from the enemies we’ve slain in but I just keep getting varied amounts of coal. And I put a leather shirt in but got a heap of sheep skin... and I put in an apple and got a few grapes that tasted ok but not the best.