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The party closes in around Fangwider, as coordinated as a pack of wolves, smashing it to pieces.
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With a groan, Wallace leans against the wall and breathes. "By the power of our faith in each other we've one. That was a hellish beast," he admits, resting his head against the cool stone. Strength now, I must lead by example.
With a deep breath, he pushes away from the wall and scoops up the bleeding fairy. With a spare cloth, he tries to tie off the worst of his wounds."He attempted to deceive us, but the fellow fought at the fore with us, however briefly."
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Not by choice, Silvia thinks, but keeps it to herself. Instead, she replaces her pistol in its holster and spends several seconds shaking the stiffness out of her arms and legs.
"He still alive?"
No longer swaying from side to side, Ketra does a victory stomp and then turns back to the tooth faerie audience with her hands on her hips "Eh? What do you say about that? No assassins going to be killing us any time soon." She notices the fallen herald and curbs her enthusiasm a little "I guess that makes the little guy a hero too. Can you do anything for him Wallace?"
A stunned silence from the faeries peeking through the doorway quickly gives way to excited whispers and giddy laughter. One of them whispers something and suddenly the tooth faeries scramble to fly away and out of sight--perhaps to alert their Prince to the new of his would-be assassin's demise.
Silvia scowls as the tooth fairies fly off and abandon their herald, even as she feels a measure of relief that they won't be stalking the party forever.
Ketra looks around for the "glass angel", trying to spot if its still hanging around or if this might be a good opportunity to slip away and see what the Queen's angle on this is.
"Hey, you!" Sanduro stalks angrily up to the stained glass whatever-it-is. "We need time to heal up if your master wants us to face the Queen. You don't seem to be of any use in a fight, but do you think you could manage to watch the doorway and warn us if any more horrific creatures come to kill us?"
Without waiting for a response, he goes back to his friends. "Wallace, let's try to get you patched up. Did anyone else get hurt?"
Sanduro reaches out a hand to Wallace's shoulder and, with another prayer to Pharasma - this one silent - calls forth a bit more healing energy.
The stained-glass angel does not respond in any way to Sanduro's demands, staring at nothing and standing still as a statue. The druid's whispered words of healing easy the wounded little fey's breathing a bit, but he doesn't wake
"Only my pride Sanduro, again. What a weird snake that it had most of us swaying along with it..." Ketra returns her machetes to their sheaths and crosses her arms. "Bah, the glass menace doesn't look like its going anywhere. You think maybe if we left the herald here, the angel would stay with him?"
She decides to experiment for a moment and steps out of the room and down the hall to see if the angel stays with the group or follows her.
"I was hoping the same thing, actually," Silvia says, before joining in the experiment.
Zsofia searches the room for shinies.
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Wallace unstoppers a potion once he's done the best he can for the Herald and throws it back, pinky only slightly up. He groans as his various puncture wounds close up and some strength returns to his limbs. "Magic can be quite the marvel..."
"Once we figure out what our 'bodyguard' will do, I think now is the best chance we have of having a frank discussion with the Queen," he points out.
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The stained-glass angel doesn't move to follow Silvia and Ketra, or even track their movements. It remains perfectly still. Wallace gently picks up the wounded and unconscious Herald, and after moving only a few steps the glass angel follows, remaining a few steps behind the knight.
Zsofia's search of the room is perfunctory, but in a drawer of the large mahogany desk the phantom does find a painted white wand engraved with the spiral symbol of Pharasma, as well as a pair a very pale grey ballet slippers.
Wand of Cure Light Wounds [22 charges]
Garret casts detect magic and helps to search the room.
He looks at the magic items as well.
Sanduro stares at the wand for a moment, then grins. "Thank you, Lady."
He turns to Silvia. "You're still wounded from our fight yesterday, aren't you? I think this will help." He taps her with the wand and triggers the spell.
The druid consults with Garret about the slippers, but neither of them can identify what magic they contain.
"Hold on a minute, Wallace. Maybe we can wake up the little jerk enough that he can go back to riding on Garret's head."
He taps the tooth fairy with the wand.
As Sanduro applies the wand's healing to the faerie, the tiny figure sputters and coughs to wakefulness. Groaning in pain, he gives you all a very confused look.
"Ah, um, well I suppose it makes sehnse to see you here, since we ahr already in se Boneyard...not sure what else I expected..." He looks around with a resigned air until his gaze falls on the shattered remnants of Fangwinder. "Wait, what is that? Ahr we not dead??"
While Garret sweeps the room for magical auras, he detects a weak Conjuration pulse buried in one of the pillow-nests. Digging around a bit he retrieves a relatively large pearl, perfectly white and smooth.
”Wow, a Prayer Bead of Healing!” says Garret. ”This could be very useful if we can find the rest of the strand—I believe it must be assembled properly to work,” he adds, looking for the string of beads that might be around to support this magical one.
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Satisfied that her experiment has worked out, Ketra heads back to the assassin's room in time to see the herald brought back to consciousness. "Nope little herald, we're not dead. Thanks to us, Fangwinder is dead and dealt with." Her expression says 'I hope you're thankful'. "So one threat to the toothy kingdom has been dealt with. But you're not looking so good, so I think you should take a quick lie down here-" She pats the pillow nest "-and we'll go take care of the queen and her other supporters."
While she's in Fangwinder's room she helps Garret give it a quick search.
Ketra waits to see how the herald responds to her suggestion, but also starts thinking about the route upwards.
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Excellent, I'd have that mangled monstrosity follow nobody else, if follow it must. I won't go quietly if it goes berserk.
"Which way to the Queen's quarters? For real, this time," Wallace asks the Herald. While he isn't outright trying to intimidate the little fellow, he does lean over him to impress upon fairy the fact of their relative mass.
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"Oh, these are interesting! Feather step slippers - I'm not sure who would get the most use from them. Ketra, maybe?"
"I'd love them! You know those old stories about the boneyard where skeletal hands start reaching up out of the ground to grab you?" She slips the slippers on and mimes out jumping out of the reach of grabby undead.
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Silvia's head swivels around to Ketra, a look of mock horror on her face. "Don't put that evil on us, Driscoll. I hate this place as it is." Her serious words are undercut by the smile that forces its way through.
The herald faerie gives Wallace a weak, obsequious smile. "Stairs? Oh oui, no stairs in here! Foolish me, I cahn fly and have no use for sem, so I had forgotten whehre sey are! Sey are actually in se gatehouse! Is very funny, oui?"
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The faerie coughs weakly and gives Garret's hair-nest a plaintive look.
Ketra nods, her face a mix of friendly and patronizing. "Very funny! You're a clever little guy that's had a really hard day and has probably earned himself a nap. That cough could really get worse if you don't rest, you know. Even for faeries."
"Now, just point us to where we need to climb, and we'll handle it from here." She speaks as reassuringly as possible, but fully intends to ditch the herald as soon as he acquiesces. Or even starts looking like he might - the path forward seemed obvious enough.
Zsofia turns to Ketra. "Aw, hey, why don't we bring the little guy along? We can send him into the Queen's room first, like we did here." The phantom makes sure to speak loudly enough for the herald to hear her.
The herald's eyes go wide as he looks between Zsofia and Ketra. "Well...se Prince said I should go with to keep an eye on you. Also I vehry much like my job. Plus...if se Queen kills you and I stay here I will be se last to know and all of se good teef will be taken!"
”You were almost killed, oh Herald of the Prince,” says Garret, looking at the herald with concern. ”We killed the assassin after it took you out in one bite. Don’t worry, our teeth will remain safely in our mouths and YOU have earned a rest. Listen to Ketra and stay here to recover. You’ve earned it. There might even be some teeth worth salvaging from the assassin snake, eh?”
“Garret’s right - look around you. Fangwinder was made of teeth, and now there’s nobody here to collect them except you!”
"Oh! if that's what you're worried about, we could always bring you some teef. Assuming the Queen even has a hoard left. If she's as mad as you say, maybe she's thrown them all away, in which case you wouldn't be missing anything." Ketra tries to be amiable, but she's seriously considering tying the faerie's wings and stuffing him in a closet until later.
Silvia just paces back and forth across the room, clearly beginning to lose her patience with the tiny fey.
At the mention of Fangwinder and the many teeth that make up its form the faerie's expression goes calculating as it eyes the wreckage. "I wish to accompany you," the little fey says, wincing exaggeratedly. "But my wounds in battle against se Queen's assassin pain me. You should go on without me...I will coll--recuperate hehr."
Ketra needs no further permission and leads the way back to the ground floor and out the front door. She hurries past the gathered faeries with a "Assassin slayers coming through, make way, make way. We're on urgent, very deadly business with the Queen and can't stay to chat." She hurries onward as she speaks "Yes, I know you want to ask us all about how cool that fight was. But it'll have to wait. Element of surprise and all that. Toodles!"
Silvia flanks Ketra on the dancer's right, giving stern looks to any tooth fairies that try to delay them.
Garret trails along at the rear, assuring any tooth faeries that try to ask questions or follow along that the party has it well in hand and is following the prince's orders to the letter.
The party gathers up their new treasures and leaves Herald to the trove of broken teeth that is Fangwinder's remains. Barring the door they make their excuses to the crowd of watching faeries and make their way back down the steps.
When Prince Uspid sees you descending he throws his arms wide in a 'what-can-you-do' gesture and says something in Sylvan that positively drips with smug satisfaction. The look fades when he notices his herald and favorite enforcer are no longer behind you, and he steps away to whisper furiously to a small gaggle of the nearest faeries.
Sanduro keeps an arrow on the string as they march to the stairs, doing his best to appear indifferent to the Prince's reaction.