Nissa says, “Verve, it may be like you were saying. The PhD-Bag probably conditioned Grendel to be like that. And...” Surveying the bones, superhero armor, and other evidence of other-worldly visitors that fell here, she says, “I think I know why we’re here.
“You said it earlier, Valerie. Like when I asked you how I got my powers. Maybe it is divine intervention. I don’t mean like I have my sun-goddess’ powers and Zeus is Theo’s dad sets us above the ones that… didn’t make it.
“More like either Grendel or PhDestruction ticked off so many gods, our paths like, aligned or something.”
Nissa is well aware she isn’t the brains of this company.
She tries to find something with the mark of the Dawnflower, or maybe Zeus. But…
…unless the magic sword Val pointed out has a light-up sun-shaped gem on it, Nissa will likely gloss over holy symbols, most of which she wouldn’t recognize.
What’s Zeus’ holy symbol? A penis that shoots lightning?
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What’s Zeus’ holy symbol? A penis that shoots lightning?
"I'm surprised Grendel's mother has yet to appear." stated Verve, who then started looking around for other exits to the cave.
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"Grendel's mother, I wonder... is it the swamp hag of lore or a chimera crafter?"
She takes the chalice, and casts identify.
"I'm surprised Grendel's mother has yet to appear." stated Verve, who then started looking around for other exits to the cave.
Verve sees no other exits to the cave nor any sign of Grendel's mother.
Hanako watches with fascination as Uncanny Valerie does her thing.
She says to Theo, “She has an amazing and beautiful mind! You should see it from the inside!”
"Grendel's mother, I wonder... is it the swamp hag of lore or a chimera crafter?"
She takes the chalice, and casts identify.
[dice=ID Chalice, Mysticism+Identify]1d20+10+10
[dice=ID Sword, Mysticism+Identify]1d20+10+10
[dice=ID ?, Mysticism+Identify]1d20+10+10
It's also reading the echo of its own pulse back. Why it is intended to pulse is not clear.
That's the first layer of magic that Valerie is able to observe.
As she digs down deeper she sees the cup is designed to change any substance that is put into it, but it isn't clear how it is designed to change the substance.
The sword is radiating an aura as well, but not as intensely as the cup is. The sword isn't pulsing. There is more to the sword ... some kind of spell that Valerie can't identify without knowing the command word. When she begins looking for the hint of a command word, the blade bursts with light, which all can see. The light then calms a bit and becomes words.
Valerie is looking at the sword when it bursts with light, which quickly dies down and becomes words on the blade, in English, conveniently. The words read: "Sharper than this blade, I pierce the hearts of those who love unwisely and am feared by the unjust."
Valerie starts at the illumination of the blade. "Oh dear. According to the data in the universe I recall processing, very few entities love wisely. This may be quite dangerous."
The pulsing cup seems to be reading back its own pulses using some kind of divination spell of its own. Instead of giving the results of the divination magic to a caster, the cup seems to transform the information into liquid form.
The sword doesn't seem to have any sort of combat enhancement on it, but it is magical. With a command word, the sword is designed to project a mind-affecting magical compulsion forcing all those in its vicinity to be truthful.
Nissa watches the sword with the glowing words. When it doesn’t light up This is for Kathy Langford! and fly at Theo, she simply says, “Whoever said ‘better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ never lost to a sword.”
She then says to the sword, “So are you actually talking to us? Or is this, like—” She points to the glowing words. “—all you gotta say.” If the sword does not react, she clarifies she’s trying to figure out if the sword is intelligent or if its inscription is a fixed message.
"You know what, Nissa", Theo says, hands up in surrender, "take that sword with my blessing. I don't need a shiny toothpick cramping my style!"
"Are you all done robbing the home of the deceased? If not, I'll be waiting outside." Verve made her way outside and stood, just breathing in and out. As she was breathing, loose rocks and detritus began floating around her, each slowly and lazily spinning in their own orbit.
She hadn't killed anyone, not since that day in the jungle, at her parents' compound...
Giving the kinetic a sideways glance as she retreated, The Olympian picks up the severed head of Grendel, looking to the others in the cave. "I guess I'm ready to leave."
Nissa looks up at Theo. Then, up at the sword.
“I think the sword would cramp my style. I’d totally fall over backwards on my butt trying to lift it overhead!”
With the talk of leaving, she says, “One moment.” She says a silent prayer to the Dawnflower for all of the dead. So many fell here. So many bones…
She then transforms into a little winged Stellar Mote. “Ready!”
within 24 hours Valerie understands the cup provides information to the person who drinks it, granting a +2 to navigation checks to pilot interdimensionally and also information about where you are in the Tarotverse. Once per day a person can ask a question of the cup, drink the liquid, and get guidance on whether or not the action is wise, as per the spell augury.
The sword sends out an aura at a very specific frequency. The reasoning for that is not clear, but in the past you've heard of magical keys doing similar things. Speaking the commmand word causes creatures within the area to be compelled to be truthful, as the spell zone of truth. It has no combat bonuses. The command word is buried beneath a riddle and will make itself known to Valerie within 24 hours.
Nissa flutters over to Charles. “Are you feeling strong enough for the trek back to the hall?”
Charles nods with all three heads at Nissa's question. "Valerie fixed me up well enough," he states from his central head.
He shifts back to his bipedal form as they walk out of the cave. "So... what's going on with that sword?"
As he spoke, he thought to himself... he'd just participated in killing someone. Yeah, Grendel was a horrible man-eating troll that had almost killed him, but still... shouldn't he feel something? Regret, horror, something? What if getting a bunch of predators' genes mashed into his own had made him like killing things?
Charles tries to brush the thought away, but it's still there at the back of his mind.
Nissa shrugs. Maybe Valerie can figure out the sword.
Once out to where Verve is, Nissa notices the experienced sidekick looks as glum as Charles.
Nissa says to both of them, “I gotta admit. I thought I’d never be able to take a life. Maybe later, when the adrenaline wears off, it’ll hit me hard. Like up-all-night-crying hard.
“And you were right, Verve, that Grendel was pushed. But it’s not the Danes who pushed him. PhDestruction must’ve filled Grendel’s head with thoughts of entitlement, justification for mass-murder.
“But to save Grendel… he was beyond saving before you, Charlie and I were born. Even if you found the words, the Danes… they lost loved ones. Children. The doctor made me do it doesn’t make up for…”
She gestures back to the cave, as well as any of the visible scattered bones.
“…this.
“So you know what? We killed one; we saved many.”
As Nissa began to speak, everything that was floating around Verve simultaneously fell to the ground, as if gravity suddenly remembered it had a job to do. Verve's hand was visibly shaking, but after a moment it stopped and she seemed to calm down.
Turning to Nissa, she said "No one is beyond saving, and that mindset just makes it easy to write someone off as 'monster' or 'evil'; that is just a short step away from justifying murder."
"I won't say that his hands are clean either, and murder is a capital crime, but at the same time I'm not going to try to glorify or justify what we did. We killed someone who is likely the only creature of it's kind."
Tears were starting to fall down her face, but Verve seems to have not realized she was crying.
Sensing the mood perhaps, the clouds grow grayer and a rain begins to fall, not heavy but steady and sure to soak you thoroughly during the walk back.
King Hrothgar invited you to meet him at the ring-hall if you were victorious so that he could give you your rewards.
The weather urges you to seek shelter and stay dry, perhaps back in the cave with the troll-corpse. The body that healed so remarkably quickly is now decomposing at an equally remarkable rate.
Nissa hovers in front of Verve.
“Oh… please don’t beat yourself up over this, Verve. I don’t mean the gods damn him. I don’t mean we should feel good about his death. He called out to his mother. It was awful!
“I just mean, like, you’re asking a lot from yourself to undo decades of brainwashing. To bring a killer of thousands back to society. A society that may unite or may kill each other in another multigenerational war.”
Nissa pauses a moment.
“From one idealist to another, let‘s try the impossible with the Danes. ’Cause they’re not beyond saving either. I want to save the innocent children, as I’m sure you do, and those lovely shieldmaidens I hung out with. The Danes have to unite.
“Verve, it’s not too late for us to make a real impact on this world that leads to peace. Too late for Grendel, yeah, but that’s on him. Not you.”
"And yet, my actions directly contributed to his death." Verve said. "Brainwashing or no, I just can't believe that there is no chance he couldn't have been reached, because that would mean that there are people who are beyond the light's grace. I can't, nor won't, accept that."
"But we should get back and inform the king that his half-brother is dead. I would prefer to linger here as little as possible."
Nissa flutters down to Verve’s hand. She places her warm, luminous fairy-sized hand on Verve’s shaken fingertip.
“Not your actions, Verve. Ours.”
He shifts back to his bipedal form as they walk out of the cave. "So... what's going on with that sword?"
"It's yours, as far as I'm concerned. I don't want it, and Nissa's a little too 'petite' to wield it", Theo said offhandedly.
As Nissa began to speak, everything that was floating around Verve simultaneously fell to the ground, as if gravity suddenly remembered it had a job to do. Verve's hand was visibly shaking, but after a moment it stopped and she seemed to calm down.
Turning to Nissa, she said "No one is beyond saving, and that mindset just makes it easy to write someone off as 'monster' or 'evil'; that is just a short step away from justifying murder."
"I won't say that his hands are clean either, and murder is a capital crime, but at the same time I'm not going to try to glorify or justify what we did. We killed someone who is likely the only creature of it's kind."
Tears were starting to fall down her face, but Verve seems to have not realized she was crying.
The Olympian solemnly reaches down and lift the kineticist up into his arms. The Olympian had much to say about the subject of 'evil' and monsters, but knew now was not the time. Not everyone is made for monster-killing like he was. With Verve in his arms, the godling reaches down to grab the monster's head, and looks to Verve. "Ready to go?"
As The Olympian picked her up, Verve shut down for a moment in shock, then said in a very quiet, very scary voice: "put me down."
"Ah. Welcome back", the godling said casually. The Olympian gently set Verve back on her feet.
Verve opened her mouth to say something, stopped, and then started walking back towards Heriot's hall.
Charles stays silent. This was part of why he'd liked working with animals. He could understand them, and the morality around them was usually pretty simple. Here, now... he still wasn't quite sure what to think.
Nissa flutters alongside of the Olympian.
She says to him, “I did a lot of PR shoots with Flex Luthor, but on the day I received my powers, I refused a photo shoot that involved me posing on his bicep. With both of us in swimwear.
“I didn’t like the look… not ’cause being swept up in a hero’s arms is necessarily a bad thing. But it made me look like a weakling who can’t do anything without someone strong to do it for me.”
Though the words are mostly for Theo, Nissa isn’t lecturing him. Just trying to tell him a woman’s point-of-view on what anyone in the superhero biz knows is a classic image.
She hopes telling her story can distract, just a little, from the dark thoughts and second-guessing of what can’t be undone.
“Funny thing, after telling my agent to talk to Luthor’s agent, I went in solitude on the private beach to sleep under the sun—and believe or not, just me on hot sand at high noon was like church! But for reasons I’ve yet to be clued in on, that’s the day… I woke up as you see me now.
“The irony was that I didn’t even have a swimsuit on, and I wasn’t in Luthor’s arms. I was in his hand. And at that moment, I was glad to be. Even if I knew my wings actually worked—that I even, like, had wings—I wasn’t ready to fly.”
Valerie snaps out of myriad internal analyses. "I am not primarily designed for combat, but I am not incompetent either. If no one else wants the sword I will hold onto it for the time being, until such time as someone else wishes to use it. Perhaps I can determine the mystery of its attunement a bit better. The cup is a divination device. I can already do what it does." She hands it back to Theo. "Best you keep it in case I am separated from you, and you need an informed analysis of a situation."
She watches the interactions, and raises an artificial eyebrow at Theo. "Please be advised that physical contact without consent can end poorly, especially when your target is a telekinetic. Also, it is considered extraordinarily rude by at least 10,328,124,201.3 cultures throughout the multiverse."
Nissa is glad Val spoke up. Her matter-of-fact wisdom is far more effective than the honeyed words of a teen model.
But Nissa can’t help but ask, “Point three?”
"Accounting for various permutations such as different cultural mores for members of different social strata or corporeal states of being."
Theo gives the tiny Nissa a small nod, not looking too concerned.
One should go galumphing back when you carry the severed head of a Jabberwocky, but the day is grey and wet. That--combined with Theo's lack of awareness of Earth's longstanding conventions around consent--makes for a mood not encouraging of galumphing.
As you get closer to Heorot, however, people start to see what Theo carries and start to gather.
There are more people here than you'd seen before. Haward guides you away from Heorot though to a separate building, the ring-hall, where King Hrothgar keeps his treasure. It adds some time to the walk. Haward doesn't ask questions unless he senses you're in the mood to talk. He's obviously impressed but knows not to disturb someone fresh from a fight, wrestling with their own demons.
Unferth rides a horse down the path and starts a bit when he sees Grendel's rotting head. He sneers a bit as he says to Haward, "The thanes are coming from far and wide hoping some gold spills at their feet when Hrothgar rewards the heroes."
He glances again at what you carry and and rides ahead to tell people you're almost there.
"Think what you like about the man," says Haward, "He stayed with King Hrothgar when others hid. He's allowed to sneer as they come groveling back."
The ring-hall is built into the side of a rocky hill and has a wide entrance protected by massive wooden doors. The doors are wide open and Hrothgar stands in the middle of the opening beaming.
Dozens of men you don't recognize, some young, some old, stand in clusters around the clearing. They watch in envy and amazement as the heroes arrive.
Showtime!
The godling walks forward, holding the severed head of Grendel high for all to see, slowly making his way to King Hrothgar feet.
"Your majesty!" The Olympian booms loudly for all to hear. "We bring a hard-won present for thine noble eyes!" Theo sets Grendel's head at the dane king's feet. "Your enemy, the great beast, Grendel, is slain! And rests at thine noble feet to do with at your leisure!"
Nissa is pretty sure what tact Theo lacks around 23rd-century women (and women from centuries 15-22, she guesses), he more than makes up for in the Here-and-Now.
She flutters over to Verve, asking for permission to fly close to her ear, seeing how the closer she is, the softer she can whisper:
“Everything I do now is in the hope that the Danes will unite. So no matter how I might appear to bask in the glory, it’s because a Debbie Downer will just get drowned out by the booze-tainted cheers.
“And right now, I gotta join the party. Find out what the people want now that they’re free of Grendel.”
Nissa sticks around to hear Verve’s reply, if any, then flits into the crowd. She makes sure eyes are on her before she grows back to a towering two-foot-three, and solar plate-armor converges onto her clearweave-clad bod.
Nissa smiles sweetly at the men. She says nothing at first—just pays attention to the crowd’s reaction…
"I promised," King Hrothgar shouts, his voice silencing the whispering thanes, "To give those HEROES who killed Grendel more treasure than they could carry!"
The thanes cheer as if they might get some of it.
"And I will!" continues Hrothgar "But I would not want to bedgrudge these heroes a single coin, so I offer them first, warhorses to help them carry their treasure!"
Wealhtheow comes out of the dark chamber leading 8 white horses out of through the huge doors into the clearing. Their golden bridles and gold studded saddles shine in the sun. The thanes cheer, as much at the sight of the dignified Wealhtheow as at the gifts.
"Now, take a seat upon these beautiful horses and tell us the tale of your triumph," Hrothgar invites you.
Nissa moves as gracefully as she can onto the enormous warhorse.
She postures herself, marrying the imagery of Lady Godiva’s brazen allure and Jehanne Darc, a holy knight in shining armor.
“So… Grendel’s dead.” She says it like his life was trivial. Like his death is cause for celebration. Well, pause for cheering. To the Danes, it is. “I asked him his story. He spoke truthfully—not interested in peace. He thought he could beat us. The bones of many warriors were strewn about his lair, so… yeah, he had reason to.
“The battle was messy. Charles did all in his power to make himself the target, Theo charged alongside, I blasted Grendel with holy fire, Valerie was attacking Grendel with one hand, healing Charles with the other, and Verve struck the blow that toppled the giant. It was our work as a team that did him in.
“We refused to fear him, even when things were looking bad… when I thought we might lose Charles, and then another and another, I saw Grendel react to my attack—a weak one—I barely grazed him, and yet… I saw fear in Grendel’s eyes.
“That’s when I knew we’d all make it.” Nissa looks confident, proud… but now she lets her lips look just a tad pouty. Men find the pouty lips endearing, feminine—in a let-me-scoop-you-in-my-arms kinda way—and it’s not entirely fake. Nissa truly did feel bad when—
“Grendel died crying for his momma.”
—but regardless how she feels,
• If the men burst into laughter, so does she.
• If the men look serious, so does she.
• Nissa watches the crowd’s reaction, the king’s reaction, and…
…quite convincingly, she reacts in kind.
Charles had been silent and dour the whole trip, but he actually smiles a little when he's brought a horse. Considering it, he thinks it's good it's a warhorse, as a normal horse might object more to his unusual weight. Of course, he's not quite sure how a horse will react to his scent and appearance, so he approaches slowly, making soothing noises, trying to keep it calm as he nears it.
The men do cheer and jeer, including Hrothgar and Haward. Wealthheow claps politely. The only one in the crowd--other than those in your party, perhaps--who doesn't cheer is the one woman standing among the thanes. She stares straight at Nissa.
At this point King Hrothgar has Haward and Unferth enter the treasure vault and bring out a large chest. Throwing it open they reveal a significant amount of gold. Not more than you can carry, as was promised, but Haward and Unferth are finding the chest heavy.
Charles had been silent and dour the whole trip, but he actually smiles a little when he's brought a horse. Considering it, he thinks it's good it's a warhorse, as a normal horse might object more to his unusual weight. Of course, he's not quite sure how a horse will react to his scent and appearance, so he approaches slowly, making soothing noises, trying to keep it calm as he nears it.
[dice=Survival]1d20+6
King Hrothgar comes over to Charles at this point and snaps a command to Unferth as he does. Resentfully, Unferth comes quickly with a smaller box, which he opens to reveal a cloak that is rather plain looking, other than being a richer color than most of the clothes you see. Hrothgar proudly takes it out and invites Charles to kneel and receive the cloak, if he wants it.
"I remembered this strange cloak that was left in our hall which, despite its great magic, none of us have any use for," explains Hrothgar.
While accepting the gift graciously, Uncanny Valerie also approaches the horse carefully, as she is not sure how the creature will react to her unearthly scent. She also has never had the practical experience of riding a horse before, so she fiddles a bit with the reins, stalling.
When she notices one of the thanes is not cheering, it makes her curious, and she pays attention to the woman's appearance, wondering who she might be, at least in broad terms of role.