The two very large kitsune prepare to assail the enemy with a flurry of strikes, hopefully.
The back Ogre springs into action, bearing down with heavy thumps towards Itami, "HAH ek vinniger. KRUISHOOF SOOS Druif!"
But before that happens, Ikari obliterates the Ogre. One stab when it gets in range and another as it provokes an attack. The giant body collapses to the ground, gurgling and unconscious.
Ikari (Enlarged & Bull's Strength)
Hiiragi
Blue Ogre (-33 & Down)
Onna
Itami
Toshiko
Red Ogre
Bold are up!
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Ah, well, death it is then," Itami says dryly while shaking his head. He calmly turns and walks through his own Giants' grove of legs. "Try not to take too long now, ok?" he says, patting Hiiragi's ginormous calf.
Pulling out his wand as he makes room, he fires a small blast of force at the remaining Ogre.
________
Onna moves up and attempts to disarm the giant with a bit of butter and luck.
But these ogres seem to continue to be incredibly resistant to spells and the grease is not very effective.
Itami drops back behind the wall of foxes, pulling his wand of win and sending a bit of force damage at the ogre. It's hard to tell if the large bug bite forming on her forehead did anything though.
Toshiko slips up in front of Ikari and prepares a dagger for stabbing... or throwing... or maybe butchery if things go really well.
The Ogre though, even with the head welt and general idiocy, seems to at recognize the bad tactical position it is in. Instead of being dumb though, it uses the walls as cover and at the last second, pops out and whacks the small fox in reach.
for
But the dodgy dagger wielder easily ducks the clumsy blow.
Ikari (Enlarged & Bull's Strength)
Hiiragi
Blue Ogre (-34 & Down)
Onna
Itami
Toshiko
Red Ogre (-3)
Bold are up!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ikari stabs hard at the Ogre, weapon slamming deep into its flesh. Hiiragi's arrow thunks into their meaty neck, who angrily pulls it out and is about ready to swing again when the missile from Itami's wand thunks it right in the head. She collapses to the ground, unconscious.
________________________________
The group moves into the first room wary of more dangers, but sees none yet.
The gently sloping passage leads to a cool, dimly lit area. The air is damp. Animal bones, gristle, and long-rotten viscera are haphazardly scattered across the floor. Stairs to the east and west lead to slightly elevated walkways flanking the recess. Doors lead away from the entrance hall to the northwest and southeast.
________________________________
|
Hiiragi takes a moment to finish off the ogres; Daikitsu is not a goddess of redemption, and ripping off an elderly kitsune's toes for sport is likely anathema to her edict.
With the ogres freshly brained and out of commission for now, she shakes her head and casts Purify Food and Drink around the place. The bones and gristle and viscera will at least smell fresh instead of rotten-- and less stomach-lurching.
She takes her time looking around.
|
|
"It will need to be done by smaller hands," she admits, now back to her normal size. "I can only do that for a short while each day."
And if I need to get between something dangerous and yourself, I'd rather have as much of me as I can get.
"Still, I think Ikari and I can drag them."
"In pieces, if need be."
Right after the last Ogre falls, Hiiragi grabs her flail and moves into the room. She begins methodically crushing the skulls of their enemies, apparently she didn't want a really nice coffee mug out of this deal.
Toshiko and Onna move in and start scouting out the damage. They both notice a large stone plate over the entrance to the room. It appears to have writing on it, though the language is not one any of the group knows. The plate is definitely broken in two as well as covered by two dead Ogres and a bunch of old bones.
But the group indicates interest in moving along, both to take advantage of magical enhancements and to maybe not allow anything dangerous the chance to set up an ambush.
Itami sets up by the south door with Ikari/Hiiragi ready to move in. Right as Itami grasps the handle a spirit manifests in front of him with hands on his? hips, "WELL JEEZE? I know you saw the stone tablet, couldn't even clean it before you ran off to pillage more?"
The spirit merely appears annoyed, not aggressive.
|
|
Hiiragi jumps a little as the specter appears, but quickly recovers. ”Ah, hello—we simply thought it best to remove that which does not belong here before cleaning that which does,” she explains. ”We have come here to restore this place to good condition—so rest assured, cleaning the tablet is on our to-do list!”
”Although I suppose we could handle that now, if you’d rather.”
|
|
Onna quickly follows."Uh...hi? Um...yeah, we saw it, but we wanted to make certain there was nothing else dangerous nearby. As my friend here said, we are actually here to try and undo the damage the last foreign interloper did when he came through here. We had to convince the Shoanti Elders to allow us to try. I'm Onna by the way. That's Hiiragi. To be honest, the one who desecrated this shrine was someone from our 'tribe's. We have come in an attempt to restore things the way they were. You know, as you are someone very familiar with this sacred area, we would be humbled and honored if you allowed us your insight on how to makes everything whole again."
The spirit flits around the group looking closely at you all, "Oh, well that's a way to do it I guess. Is this place actually in bad shape? That's sad, I really liked all the stuff here. But I figured since only this room was messed up and you weren't cleaning you were probably robbers. So, where are you all from? You don't seem... Shoanti-ish. Plus you were talking in common so I figured, ya'know probably not Shoanti."
You can tell the spirit is definitely dressed like the other Shoanti you met earlier. He now seems quite a bit friendlier and very interested in all of you.
The spirit stops behind Ikari, "Oooh, a tail. Yes, most definitely not shoanti. May I touch it?"
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Can I touch it?"
Sionnach can't help biting her lower lip as her eyes glide down Hiiragi's back. She catches herself and quickly looks at the others to see if anyone else noticed. Oh hevens, am I blushing?
Smiling at herself, the bard tries to get herself back on track., "I haven't had a lot of experience with spirits, and I don't want to jinx anything, but you seem pretty easy going. What would you like us to call you? Can we get you anything or pass on a message to a family or loved one?"
"Can we talk as we work? Our magic is limited, so we kinda need to keep moving to make the most use of it."
"Are you allowed to help us? It would really be helpful. For instance, have you seen anyone else in here, or monsters like the ogres? Were any evil-bad tgings accidentally released when the shrine was disturbed? Or has anyone else come by, even some Shoanti. One of the cheifs doesn't think we can handle the responsibility, so he may have come out here with a few of his men. Anything like that?"
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hiiragi isn’t about to offer her own tail to the friendly spirit, and averts her eyes—
just in time to catch where Onna’s are.
She tries to pretend that she’s cool and raise an eyebrow, but she’s a mess and can’t help but grin and blush and pretty soon she’s giggling and then she’s trying to STOP giggling and that only makes her giggle MORE, and she’s desperately burying her head in her hands.
The party’s professional shrine maintenance vixen, undone by a glance!
The spirit reaches through the tail, grasping loosely at it swishing by. "Oh quite fantastic! What sort of creature are you?"
The touch, maybe expected to be cold is simply a tingling pins and needles type of feeling, like when an appendage 'falls asleep'.
The spirit gasps, looking around at the group after being mesmerized by the swishing tail, "Oh my, where are my manners. I am merely called the Hearth Keeper. I was buried under that slab over there as a high honor, my purpose to greet those coming to the sepulcher. Unfortunately it appears some significant damage has occurred here, it is just very disappointing. It was such a nice place to be buried."
He seems a bit lost in thought, "So I tried to talk to the Ogres, but they just smashed through me. Other than them though, no one else has been here since... well since I remember. It has been a very long time. I mean, I'll answer any questions you may have about the shrine, but it appears I am currently tied to this room so I can't go with you."
|
|
By the Divine. If the Lovebirds aren't giggling at each other, they're telling the world our collective life story. Honesty isn't over sharing and not everyone we meet is going to deal with us in good faith! Itami looks at the ghost, his hand still on the door-handle.
"Are you going to assault us if I open this door?" he asks flatly.
________
The spirit smiles genuinely at Ikari's question, "Ah yes, that room was designed to commemorate the fallen warriors from one of the Sklar-Quah’s battles with Chelaxian colonists. A Sklar-Quah tribe was traversing the Ashwood when they found themselves under attack by Chelaxian raiders. To allow the rest of the tribe to escape, the jothka and three of her finest warriors stood their ground and fought while the rest of their number fled across the Skull River. Outnumbered and outarmed, the Sklar-Quah warriors nonetheless fought valiantly and ferociously, felling their pursuers before perishing to their wounds. Members of the tribe later returned to the site to recover the bodies of the heroes. Tales of the heroes’ ferocity and tenacity are passed down through the ranks of burn riders to this day, and their final stand was memorialized in this room—not as a defeat, but a victory in defending the people of the tribe." The spirit seems quite proud to be sharing the history.
He turns to Itami, "Oh no, I won't stop you from going anywhere, though if the sepulcher has been pillaged or damaged there may be other restless spirits that do not feel as I do."
With that, Itami opens the door.
A recess in the floor seems to have once contained water but is now empty. A plaque sits on a stone shrine to the south, with two shallow indents flanking it on either side, carved out of the stone. At each of the four corners of this room are steles depicting Shoanti warriors in battle stances.
Ikari hears the very light sounds of battle cries and splashing water. It is quite possible that this location could be disturbed enough to have created some sort of haunting scene.
Onna looks into the room, listens to the sounds of battle and is able to make some really good educated guesses. Firstly and this is sorta obvious, nothing will happen until someone moves past the doorway. Secondly, this doesn't seem like a normal haunt that can be damaged by holy energy. Therefore so some other form of resolution will be necessary. As to what that might be one can hope more information could be gathered by actually seeing more of the room. And lastly, it is possible that an invisible individual might, for some odd reason, be able to avoid triggering the damage of the haunt.
One indent is just outside the range of create water (blue), but Hiiragi is able to quickly fill up the other one (red). The noise of battle continues.
When Hiiragi begins filling the main recess, she notices that her water seems to be instantly draining away.
|
|
”Not without passing the threshold, I am afraid,” she says, frowning. ”I recall a Daikitsun shrine that was haunted, though I was not there myself. I believe that one was resolved with a contest of wits—it was haunted by tricksters, you see—but I do not think this will be solved with a riddle.”
”Any objection to me stepping through and filling the other?”