Seraphina wrinkles her nose "Cheese and urine? That is rather specific, is it not? Does anyone know what that combination of smells comes from?"
"Slurk grease," Farrina says with a shrug as she considers the possibilities. "It's foul stuff that they use to lube the gears in clockworks."
"Clockworks? Hmmm. Sounds like they work around clocks or are hiding out in a clock tower somewhere? Perhaps maybe we should start looking in those areas?"
Asking around, Seraphina quickly learns that Vespam Artisans is Kintargo’s largest manufacturer of clockworks—further, this workshop is located square in the section of Old Kintargo where the murders have occurred. She also learns a Varisian man who walks with a limp works there, though the informant doesn't know the man's name.
Relaying this information to her companions, she concludes "It's too much of a coincidence now? The location and the murderers and a man with the limp?"
Turning towards Adolina, she asks "I recommend that we set that as our next destination. Hopefully we can stop these gruesome attacks before another occurs."
"You want me to play bait for a man with a magical kunkree?" Farrina replies with a snort. "Do you know what something like that would do to my clothes?"
"How about I do you one better?" she says with a grin after a moment. "How about I make you some magical bait without having to be right in the middle. We can all watch from a safe distance. Given a description of all the recent victims, I can craft an illusion of someone that shares similar traits as all of them."
"Fine with me," says Tanjona. "Good work figuring out the clues. I would never ha' guessed."
That night, you hide in an alley near the south wall of Old Kintargo while Farrina creates an illusion of an innocent woman out for a stroll. She maintains concentration on it for some time, keeping the bait out where the serial killer can see it.
Sure enough, after a few hours, Tanjona spots a man lurking in the shadows as he creeps up on the illusory victim. The man walks with a limp, and as Tanjona watches, he reaches beneath his cloak to draw a glowing red kukri as he prepares to strike!
Tanjona shifts into his bestial form in anticipation of a fight. The man slices at the illusory victim with the kukri, then stops and looks around in surprise. It seems he has seen through the illusion, and his eyes widen as he spots you hiding nearby!
A spray of colors issues from the entertainer's outstretched hands, washing over the would-be killer.
Tanjona races toward the purported killer with an odd side-to-side gait reminiscent of a shark's fin propelling it through the water.
Seraphina levels her crossbow and fires.
The man just manages to resist Farrina's color spray. Seraphina's crossbow bolt doesn't get through his armor, and he parries both Adolina's and Tanjona's attacks.
Snarling, the man takes a step back and drinks a potion on his belt, surrounding himself with a shimmering shield of faith!
"You were supposed to fall over nicely and neatly!" Farrina snaps. "I hate when people don't follow the script. Now it has to be messy." A ray of fire shoots forth from her hand.
Seraphina groans when everyone fails to do their thing against him and he seemingly strengthens himself. She's not sure what Farrina just said to him, but she's sure it's laced with drama.
She watches as Farrina and Adolina deliver two amazing attacks, moving alongside of Tanjona and guiding his next attack.
Tanjona circles slightly counter to Adolina's movement and then lunges forward with both trident and snarling maw.
Tanjona grazes the man with his trident, while Adolina and Farrina both land precise hits that are shy of critical ones. The serial killer seems to be able to dodge in an uncanny manner, preventing him from being flanked.
He slices at Adolina with his glowing kukri, but she parries his attacks!
Tanjona takes a moment to sniff the air now that the battle is in its full thick intensity, as if he's feeling out the motions of his opponent.
Farrina fingers the simple ring on her finger and then sends another lance of flame at the killer.
When Farrina's scorched ray looks like it is going to miss, Seraphian wiggles her fingers and tries to twist her fate.
Tanjona and Adolina both strike the killer, the latter scoring a critical hit! Badly hurt, the man returns the favor, slicing the cavalier and leaving behind bleeding wounds!
He slices at Adolina with his glowing kukri, but she parries his attacks!
Seraphina tries to mitigate some of the damage that Adolina has taken, hoping to keep her on her feet.
Tanjona lunges in again to stab and bite.
Farrina gestures towards Tanjona and the ranger begins expanding and growing taller.
While Tanjona skewers the man, he remains focused on Adolina. He slices at her again but this time he misses!
Tanjona isn't really used to being magically enlarged like this, but he lunges forward anyway, a bit clumsily.
Seraphina had thought they had this in the bag earlier, so she had been saving the spell for later. At this point, the fight continues to tick along and perhaps it will make more sense to use it now. She blesses the party as more of Adolina's wounds appear on her body.
Adolina stabs the man again, then an enlarged Tanjona impales him on the tines of his trident! Finally, the murderer drops his glowing blade, coughing up blood as he shudders and dies!
Seraphina heals Adolina back to full health and sees to everyone else's injuries.
Later, after the battle when the party has returned to their base of operations, Seraphina makes an announcement. "There's something I need to say."
Standing at the center of the group, she fidgets nervously and takes a moment to collect herself. "I need to leave. I'm sorry. I just can't take all of the death and violence over and over again. I know we fight for a good cause and I will continue to support you and our cause, but... I just can't keep going out there."
She lowers her head, tears welling in her eyes. "It's too much. It keeps me up and night. The voices in my head, they are driving me to help but this, this can't be the way. It's eating away at me."
"I-I'm sorry. I'm too weak." she says, her arm trembling as she wipes away her tears.
"Voices in your head are never a good thing," Farrina says with a shake of her head. "You go take care of yourself, Hon. Some people just aren't cut out for this."
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"You have to do what's right for you." Adolina agrees, from where she's sitting in the street. "Spread the word where you can and keep doing good. That's all we can ask from anyone. Best of luck Sera."
Despite Sera's healing it rapidly becomes clear that something is seriously wrong with Adolina. Her usual grace is gone and she actually asks Tajona to lend his shoulder as they leave, having stripped the body of anything useful. Her progress is painfully slow but it's not until she tears away the leg of her trouser that the problem becomes apparent. The cut is completely healed but every vein in her leg is bulging, as her blood apparently turns into something black and sludge-like.
"Looks like I need to get to a temple..." Adolina says, managing a faint grin before she collapses completely in the street.
"That's not a good look," Farrina says at the sight of Adolina's bulging veins. "What's a good temple to take her to?" she asks, looking at the others.
Tanjona halts himself mid-lunge as he's about to literally bite the man's head off. Breathing hard, he staggers back from the fighting, then as the spell wears off and he shrinks back to his original size he takes a few heavy breaths to center himself.
As Adolina stumbles he first helps her walk, then picks her up and says, "Only legal temples any more are Asmodeans and their allies, ya? We best find some underground priest. Mebbe we go to somewhere in the poor part o' town, where folks hide out to avoid da Asmodeans?"
"Seraphina, you been a good partnah, but you do what you got do to get your head on straight. You got any ideas before you go?"
You rush Adolina to Songbird Hall, counting on your previous alliance with the high priest of Shelyn, Zachrin Vhast. Zachrin quickly ushers you inside the sanctuary and lays Adolina out on one of the pews to examine her. "Oh, my! Those wounds look bad."
He murmurs a prayer and his hand glows with golden light, but the wounds refuse to heal. "I do not think this is any type of infection. A magical curse, perhaps? I am afraid it may be beyond my ability to heal..."
"Well, you just keep looking pretty, then," Farrina snarks. "Unless you've got a means to remove curses?"
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The best Zachrin can offer is to keep Adolina in for observation and prayer overnight which, given the lateness of the hour and the state she's in, is a better idea than trying to carry her home. So the rest of the group leave and Adolina is placed on blankets and left to the scent of flowers and the healing presence of the goddess.
Adolina tosses and turns, caught in a painful half sleep, until a pair of figures comes to stand over her. The first, a muscular man wearing a plain shirt and trousers, puts a gentle hand on her forehead and looks down at the blackness coursing through her veins.
"Dear oh dear." He says, in a warm voice. "Poison, a cowards weapon." The woman nods in agreement. "The weapon of those afraid to face their enemies in true combat. Let me do what I can for you." The woman places her hand over the wound while the man grips Adolina's shoulders with implaccable strength.
"Who... who are you?" Adolina manages to whisper before her back arches in horrific pain as the woman does something to her leg.
"It's not working." The man says. "Stop it or you'll kill her!"
The woman frowns and then instead of pulling, pushes. The blackness goes streaming through Adolina's body as the woman fights desperately not to scream, but the darkness is followed by a wave of warmth and light that dispels the pain. More or less.
"I'm sorry little one. The magic of that blade was infused with a power so malign it would have killed you." The woman says gently. "It is still within your body but I have weakened it. You will carry it for the rest of your days but it will not harm you again. I swear that in Aroden's name and memory."
"You have done Milani." The man says clasping the woman on the shoulder. "Go, see to your faithful. They need your aid tonight." The goddess nods and vanishes in a flurry of rose petals as the man sits down next to Adolina's recumbent form.
"You are a true warrior Adolina Jhaltera." He says, an open smile on his face. "You fight with honor and I am proud of you. The path ahead is long and hard. Thrune would command Hell itself against you to achieve his goals and Milani and I cannot interfere much more, no matter how much we may want to. Just remember, the true winners are those who play the game with honor, and no sacrifice is in vain."
The man fades quietly from view and Adolina wakes to find herself clutching a small talisman. Her leg is healed and the poison creeping through her veins is little more than a darkening beneath the skin. The talisman shows a flexing arm holding a broken chain, with a rose tattooed on the bicep.
The next morning Zachrin gives thanks to Shelyn to find his patient not only alive, but largely healed. She's weak as a kitten but stable enough for the High Priest to request that she be taken home and then given bed rest - four days at least. Adolina doesn't complain, she simply clutches her new amulet and tries to come to terms with what just happened...
In a rare display of some kind of emotion, Tanjona refuses to leave Adolina while she's at Songbird Hall. The sailor even insists in slouching in a corner of the room, trident in his lap, and snarls with shark-teeth at any acolyte who tries to make him move.
But even he is not indefatigable, and eventually he nods off during the dead of night.
Farrina returns to her basement workshop and resumes her magical research, adding more spells to her thickening tome. She also finishes up several sketches for new designs in her burgeoning side endeavor of specialty fashion wear.