You question the other fishermen of Chum. It takes a bit of time, but you learn that Micca did indeed head out into the waters this morning. When asked if they noticed anything unusual about him, a few fishermen look around at each other awkwardly until one finally says that Micca pulled a bronze medallion out of the water just last week.
An hour after sunset, thick fog rolls in from the ocean and heavily obscures the village. The eels continue to shriek and splash in the waters, but now you can hear eerie voices crying out among the din.
"The son has returned! The son has returned!"
"Sounds bad. Get ready to fight.", says Chiruut as he tries to ascertain where the voices are coming from.
Back at the inn....
Excuse me, Ven and Chiruut. I'm sure you must have a good reason, but why are you looking for this man?
As the fog rolls in and the strange voices speak out, Kris pulls out her stone egg held by the chain and holds it close to her chest. What is that? she asks no one in particular.
Chiruut peers out into the fog, and he catches a glimpse of a figure moving within. It looks vaguely human, but its transparent form glows faintly with eerie green light. The true shape of its body is indistinct, with blurred edges.
The thing turns to look at the yerathi, madness dancing in its eyes. "The son has returned!" it shrieks before suddenly vanishing.
A little earlier
"Asked Griselda about enemies of Chum. She mentioned Micca and Soren lost sons lately."
******************
Chiruut meets the apparition's eyes until it disappears.
"From softskin to noskin.", he notes.
A huck sound follows.
"Anyone see a solid enemy?"
Thomas stood by the door of the establishment, scimitar at the ready. "No, but I'll cover the door, any filth trying to get in will get their comeuppance."
"What is this? Some witch's spell? Faeries?" He says the last one with exceptional venom.
Enemy?! Is someone assaulting the shores? Kris asks. She is unaccustomed to such language - her people have always been a peaceful people. But Chiruut, of course, wouldn't know that.
She backs towards Thomas and Ven, wanting to keep close to two of the only people she knows on this island.
"I guess the witch Griselda pointed Chiruut to those men, Soren and Micca, who have had bad things happen to them and their families recently. The idea being if anyone here's got enemies, they might know more about it."
An involuntary shiver runs through him and he looks toward the nightly fog.
"This is getting creepier. Nightfall is bad enough with what's going on, but fog as well? I refuse to go out there right now trying to find whatever is causing this. If you think talking to the witch after what we heard is a good idea, sure, lets go do that fast and quiet since we know the way."
"Will speak to witch quickly, then lock up in here if we know no more."
You quickly make your way through the fog-shrouded village, the shrieks of the eels and the cries of the phantoms creating an unholy din. The witch Grisla huddles in the corner of her hut, eyes wide. ”It is as my dreams portended. The faceless man has come, and he is out for blood! You must find him and stop him before he kills everybody in Chum!”
As if to punctuate her point, you hear a bloodcurdling scream from somewhere nearby—a scream that is abruptly cut off.
"Right. We follow the shrieking, dying softskins before Faceless Man kills more."
"Well, let's kill this creature then. I want to sleep." Thomas grumbles. He takes the lead, scimitar in hand, and heads for the noise.
Thomas leads you through the fog to the shack where you heard the screams. Inside, you find a scene of gruesome murder. A man’s body lies on the floor, blood pouring from his slit throat. Another man crouches over him with a knife, sawing at his nethers. As you watch, he finishes slicing off his victim’s sexual organs and holds them up triumphantly.
The man, who can only be Micca, turns to face you. Covered in blood, his chest burned from a bronze medallion hanging around his neck, his eyes flash with madness. ”Your screams will join the chorus, and when you are all dead, I will have my son back!”
Chiruut looks straight at the lunatic softskin, then focuses hard.
The Yerathi gathers the force of his mind and directs it in a torrent at that of Micca!
Oh, no... Kris whispers, her hand moving to her mouth to cover her shock. Shavra, Protect us all, she says. Power radiates out from her and to her companions. She lays a hand on Thomas and Ven, her tail touching Chiruut as the magic of the blessing envelopes them.
Thomas lunges forward, bringing his scimitar to bear on the madman.
"Still your tongue, madman. You've claimed enough lives today!" Despite his words, Thomas's swings are clumsy. He's clearly still shaking off decades of rust.
When they found the witch huddled in the corner of her shack, Raven's exterior of nonchalance cracked.
"Oh hell!" Raven said as he nervously took half a step back away from the horrible figure and what it had done to the unfortunate man.
Spent all day looking for clues and trying to figure out what's been going on, and it turns out all I had to do was wait.
He felt some resolve course through him as Krislyx cast her spell, but it didn't help too much as he didn't have a weapon anymore.
As Chiruut attacked with his strange magic and Thomas stepped forward to attack with his weapons Raven hesitated, waiting for his moment.
"Screw you! You're son's dead and we're not joining anything!" he said, attempting to shoulder check and then wrench the the knife out of the man's hands.
As Krislyx calls upon Shavra to bless the group, Chiruut reaches out with his telepathic powers. Micca groans and staggers, blood pouring from his nose as the yerathi stabs into his mind. Thomas charges forward, but Micca dodges his clumsy swing.
Micca makes Thomas pay for the attempted attack, driving his long knife deep into the older man's chest.
Raven moves in, then, and wrenches Micca's wrist backwards. Micca snarls as he drops his knife!
Even softerskin soon!
Chiruut feels even more confident of imminent victory now that Ven has disarmed the crazed softskin. The Yerathi grasps his axe as he advances, ready to hack down the hissing lunatic!
Poor bloke, first he loses his son and now some sort of dark power is taking his will from him. He just wanted his boy back.
Raven's mind worked with an unusually calm demeanor despite the frenzied pace with which he glanced at his companions as they were wounded but tried to deal with this madman.
"You better pay me back somehow, if we make it through this!
He then ducked down, grabbing the bloody knife off of the ground, holding back against the momentary rush of revulsion he felt. Then he reached forward and tried to cut free and snatch the medallion off the man's neck.
Kris moved towards Thomas and says, Do not let the chaos overwhelm you. Be assured that the Shavra's will is stronger than that of this creature.
It hurt. He hadn't taken a hit like that since catching that arrow thirty something years ago. It reminded one of the fate of many soldiers, death was always a possibility. But this was no time to think on such things. Thomas focused on the pain, compartmentalizing it and locking it away for when action was not needed.
Thomas's steadied mind help guide his hand, his attack was cleaner than before.
Raven quickly grabs Micca's knife and slices the medallion from his neck. The fist-sized bronze amulet is hot to the touch. Looking closer, Raven can see that it is wrought to look like a leering old man's face, and its shadow seems to flicker and dance regardless of the light around it.
"No! Give that back!" Micca shrieks. He lunges for Raven, but the rogue dodges away from his clumsy attack.
Meanwhile, Krislyx casts a spell to negate chaos around Thomas. The warrior slices Micca with his scimitar, while Chiruut moves in to chop into the madman with his axe. Micca groans, badly wounded, but the madness in his eyes does not abate.
"Time to put down a mad dog." Thomas said as he continued to attack Micca. He moved like a machine, almost exactly replicating the attack he had done just moments before. It was a foreign feeling, as even when he would have normally faltered, some black magic demanded his body obey. That snake did something to me! There must be answers for this!
"No!" Kris yells out as the man lunges towards Ven. Without even realizing it, a beam of light emitted from her, striking the strange man and burning into his skin.
"Damn, you must really want this." Raven said, wincing as the strangely hot metal caused some discomfort.
I think I know a priest who had better be ready to do something useful.
"Come and take it back!" Raven said, rushing away from the madman, taunting him with his stolen prize.
Chiruut's small mouth clacks with satisfaction as his axe strike lands home. He rapidly raises his axe arm then slams it down again!
Raven rushes away with the medallion as the rest of you attack Micca. He narrowly dodges Kris’s beam and Thomas’s blade, but Chiruut slices him with the axe. Micca growls and swings his fist into Chiruut’s mouthparts, cracking a mandible!
HRACK! is the garbled clacking sound that emerges from Chiruut, who seeks swift and brutal vengeance via axe edge!
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Kris watches back and forth between Chiruut and Ven, uncertain who she wants to stay with. In the end, she decides to stay with Chiruut and Thomas, as that is where the danger lies the most. She should be here to help them as much as she can.
What's wrong with you? she yells in a shrill voice. Why are you doing this?! She picks up some debris and throws it at the strange man, hoping to cause a distraction and give Thomas the opening he needs.
The serpent's shrieking provided a minor distraction which Thomas was more than happy to exploit. He sliced into the maniac, though not as deeply as he'd like. As the insect took a crack across mandible, Thomas found he did not particularly care, better the bug than himself.
Chiruut misses with his attack, but Kris’s distraction gives Thomas the opening he needs to land a strike. It’s a light cut to Micca’s side, but the madman is already badly wounded, and this blow is enough to push him past the limits of his endurance. He puts his hands to his bleeding side and groans, then his eyes roll up into his head and he collapses.
Ven! Kris pipes out, We need to make sure he's ok! Kris turns and heads after Ven as quickly as she can, hoping that whatever happened to this strange man wouldn't happen to him.
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Krislyx slithers after Raven, who rushes through the fog-shrouded streets of Chum to the temple of Oceanus. If Father Yenniker was drunk earlier in the day, now the man is absolutely sloshed, groaning as he lies before the statue of his god, slipping in and out of consciousness.
He suddenly sits bolt upright as Raven approaches him. Eyes wide, he waves his arms to hold the rogue at bay. "By Oceanus's salty balls! Keep that damn thing away from me! It's cursed! Cursed, I tell ya!" Yenniker shrieks.
Raven could have found it comical, the priest's reaction, had he not been out of breath, his leg still throbbing from where he'd been bitten earlier, and holding the cursed burning metal medallion in his hand. "Gee... thanks for that, had no idea ... now pray to your god or douse it in... in holy water or jus-.... just do something about it!" Raven wheezes, trying to catch his breath, shaking the medallion out in front of him.
Kris finally catches up with Ven - those humans were fast! - and discovers him trying to get the inebriated priest to do something. She decides to be the one to do something instead and looks for the holy water that Ven had spoken of.
Give it here, she says to Ven in a soft yet commanding voice. She's not sure if she's confident in herself and the contradiction of such a state was worrying on its own. But she put forward a strong face as she tries to do what was right.
Chiruut reaches down and starts shaking the man, trying to wake him enough to speak.
"Where did you find the medallion?"
Micca groans and his eyes flicker open, though they are distant and unfocused. "My son... It said it would bring back my son..."
***
Yenniker gestures to a nearby bowl of holy water. Kris takes the medallion from Ven and douses it in the stuff. The water immediately begins to boil, and the medallion cracks and shatters! A foul stench fills the temple as a cloud of steam suddenly coalesces into the form of a horrid demon! Cloaked in shadows, the vile, crablike monstrosity's, eyestalks wave about as it clacks its pincers menacingly.
"WHAT THE F%%~ IS THAT?!?!?" Yenniker shrieks.
Thomas shakes his head. "He's tainted with madness, step aside and I'll put the wretch out of his misery." The warrior prepares his scimitar to sever the man's head. As he raises his blade to strike, a shriek rings out from the temple.
"Damn, something must have happened! Come insect, there's trouble." Thomas takes off running for the source of the sound.
He was just starting to catch his breath when Kris came running up behind him and demanded the medallion from him. He gave it to her without complaint.
He was just starting to think how Kris acted much like an actual priest or god's avatar that her people supposedly believed in should be, especially when compared to the near useless drunkard of Oceanus who sat staring wide eyed at them, when the hissing holy water snapped his attention back.
Despite his attempt to cover his eyes, when he heard the medallion crack, Raven couldn't help but glance at the monstrosity that appeared... and it was all too much for him to bear.
"Gaaah! That thing has too many teeth and eyes!" he shouted, the terror rising in his voice. "RUN!"
Kris jolts back in surprise as the medallion releases the demon - unsure of what to do. Ven! Wait! she calls back to him.
She looks to the door where Ven ran and then to the drunk priest on the floor.
Ven! Thomas! Chiruut! Help! she calls out.
Then she scrunches up her face in concentration and grabs something nearby - anything, a book, a pillow, a curtain, a piece of wood - anything to push against the thing and hold it down in the Holy Water.
Raven bolts out of the church, leaving Krislyx behind with the demon and Father Yenniker. The priest babbles in paralyzed horror as the creature turns its eyestalks towards him. It lunges towards Yenniker, ripping open his belly with its pincers. He screams in pain, clutching the deep wound.
Kris tries to force the demon into the bowl of holy water, but her efforts prove futile as she doesn't budge the monster one inch.
Outside, Raven races through the fog before encountering two shapes running towards him. They resolve into Chiruut and Thomas!
Ah! Kris grunts in frustration as she is unable to save the priest or move the crab thing even an inch.
She takes a breath and calms herself, focusing on the Shavra and the Cosmic Egg. Even though she has memories of her being the Shavra, she is still not fully convinced and get life of training and habit still have her praying to someone else. And what if she's wrong? What if she's not the Shavra? "No, put those thoughts away and focus."
And so she focused on her holy egg wrapped in a metal band and held but the thing chains. Light emerges from the egg and shine, brightening up the whole room before it focused into a beam and struck the demon.
Raven shook with fear, but he stopped running momentarily as he heard Krislyx calling for help and began looking back at the temple where he'd left her behind.
Damn it, why didn't she follow me?!
As the other two came through the fog, he shouted. "Hey! My plan worked. Kris and the priest are back in the temple with some sort of demon. They didn't run!"
As soon as Chiruut hears screaming and yelling, he pushes himself from the madman and begins to run towards the newest softskin crisis.
"Demon? Then there's no better place to put it down than a temple. Follow me, and don't be slow!" Thomas doesn't stop running for the temple, his sword drawn and hungry for blood. The elderly man was bursting with adrenaline, moving like a someone half his age.
The demon shrieks as Krislyx's beam burns its eyes. It staggers around a bit before turning on the naga, lashing out with a pincer. Despite its momentary blindness, its attack connects, though luckily it only grazes the naga's belly.
After a few more seconds, Chiruut, Raven, and Thomas appear in the doorway of the temple!
Raven's shaking had finally slowed down to something resembling a manageable level when he and the others made it back to the temple.
"Kris, get out of there!" he said to her, sizing up the demon, taking several seconds to breathe and ready himself.
Thomas burst into temple, breathing heavily. He quickly scanned the room and was taken aback by the crab-like creature. But he was able to quickly overcome the fear and attack!
He swings his blade with wild energy, catching in the crab-creature's hard shell. He spots the standing bowl of water and makes a quick assumption. "Dump the holy water over the demon, snake! We'll see how it likes it!"