The ominous ball of light slowly approaches Meneas of its own accord and a voice rings forth from it in Common. "Oh, I do enjoy many kinds of sacrifices, the fear of a man is quite hearty and filling, the terror of a woman is oh so sweet tender, and the torment of a child is so decadent and rich that even I feel the smallest bit guilty when I overindulge... But as for my favorite sacrifice..." The orb's dark voice echoes through the open space as though they were in a yawning cavern as it floats ever closer to Meneas' cowled face. "I would have to say... overly curious interlopers."
This was going from bad to worse. Brental does not like the so-called spirit, even less so now that it speaks intelligibly. And that last part was an overt threat. Diplomacy was breaking down. Brental feels the muscles of his sword arm twitch. Should they attempt to withdraw gracefully and then mount a rescue mission once they had better positioning? Or should they take this moment and do their best to end this threat quickly? Either would risk drawing the ire of a significant portion of this tribe. Gods, he didn't want a repeat of last year's mess. They didn't need another war.
But something nags at the back of his mind, and he can no longer contain his burning question. He was, after all, an overly curious interloper. "And why do you not speak the language of your descendants? Draconic is one of the oldest languages in all of the known world--the universe. Nearly all other languages, from the Inner Planes to the Great Beyond, can trace some roots back to it. Taldane, much less the modern Taldane with which you are so fluent, is far younger. So tell me, spirit." Brental says, fixing his flickering emerald eyes bravely on the ball of light. "What are you really?"
Signy finally speaks up, directing her comment at Brental
"That is an awfully good question. It's almost as if the past, what it was to be lizard folk, has been forgotten. If that's something it ever knew in the first place."
Things take an abrupt turn towards the openly threatening, and Lina thinks that if she’s any sort of leader she ought not to let that go from the strange ball of light, as it takes a go at Meneas.
She thinks as quickly on her feet as she can, following the others’ lead, trying to sound as accommodating as possible before turning things around to put the spirit-thing and its pet chieftain on the back foot. “Of course, we are sympathetic. It is nice to branch out into new languages for a bit, isn’t it? And I’m sure there’s quite an informative tale to be found in trading stories of interlopers to Telvurin.”
The witch lets the pointedly Elven name for the Shifting Lands, well, do a bit of prodding as pointy things are wont to do, before continuing with a grin and a shameless disregard for the chief’s demand that they stick to Common as she addresses the glowing orb.
Lina doesn't blink as she tries very deliberately to find a phrasing that the lizardfolk would find outrageous , but - and since she doesn't want to get Kimeera in trouble - she winks at one of the other Nausicaa in her field of vision, before turning her smile to include the priestess as she beams at the whole room.
She braces herself, fully expecting all hell to break loose, and feeling a bit dirty to take a leaf out of Grigori's book, but... Maybe we could show the beggar how it's done.
Meneas remains quiet as his fellow oligarchs take the reins for the moment. At Lina's taunting in Draconic, he goes still, relaxing his body in preparation for the chieftain's seemingly inevitable attack. A little more caution would be wise...
Lina's barbs seem to have the lizard folk abuzz chatting amongst themselves, many nodding in agreement, a sentiment which is only emphasized by Kimeera's heavy hand falling upon Lina shoulder and shaking the elf in a hearty laugh, which sounds more like a hiss.
The orb seems to pulsate rapidly giving off more of an angry red heugh than its previously calm blue. "I AM BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION MORTALS!" It growls then slowly fades back to blue as it seems to hover for a moment as if considering.
"If you seek to leave here alive... I'm certain we can come to an arrangement... I am what your kinds call a will-o'-wisp... I have no name as such things are not afforded to my kind... I feed on the suffering that these fools are willing to provide me and in exchange I give the chieftain greater influence over his tribe as he no longer needs a high priestess if he can speak to 'the ancestors' himself... If you simply leave I will let you go... or We can make a deal where your people send your prisoners to me and the lizards will provide you with warriors to defend your southern borders."
The orb pauses before pulsing a threatening black. "Or we can end your lives here... I expect your final moments would be quite delicious."
Anyone who’s spent much time around elves is probably used to a fair bit of mercurial swings in the energy of a given room or gathering, but most of the time there are fewer spears and arrows liable to be pointed at anyone in very short order.
Which is to say, as – between them all – Lina and her friends seem to unbalance the ‘spirit’ entirely, even she’s finding it quite difficult to keep up without making a huge mess. Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise as the will-o’-wisp reveals itself, though she tries to pass it off as amusement, and makes a mental note to herself to try not to melt down next time things don’t go her way in a delicate confrontation, because that’s just likely to make things so, so very much worse. Did I … hear that right? It did just admit that it’s playing the Nausicaa for fools, and that it’s not really what it claimed?! I suppose only the chief really has any Common at all!
She spares a glance for the chieftain, wondering how much of the sputtering witchlight’s furious outburst he was able to follow.
“No,” the witch says simply, her body language probably clear even for those who only speak Draconic. “Even the condemned don’t deserve to be starved, terrified, and generally tortured to death. My counter-offer is this: you go back to bob in the middle of Candlemere, leave the Nausicaa alone, and no one needs to die today. Otherwise, we snuff you out here and now.”
Fingers itching for a spell – Will-o’-wisp, so not actually undead, for all that some call them dead-men’s-lamps or corpse candles, so that explains a bit. Ordering some more books would probably be an idea – Lina says, with hopefully not too forced confidence, not taking her eyes off the wicked orb of light, “Last chance, chief. If you’re not going to help us against something that’s just admitted it’s using you, just stand back. After all, if it’s really an avatar of the might of your people, the likes of us are hardly going to be able to hurt it, now, are we?”
As the tension in the room thickens, Brental looks at Kimeera and whispers to her.
And so he provides a quickly and quietly hissed (and occasionally yapped and barked--a dialect courtesy of the kobolds) translation of the exchange happening in Taldane.
When the will-o'-wisp threatens them anew once more and Lina responds in kind, Brental lays his hand on the head of his scimitar. Your flame may yet kindle today, Salamander. He looks to Kimeera, fixing her eyes with his.
Brental had only heard Draconic hissed, barked, and yapped. He had never heard it roared. He wonders, with a rush of fire burning in his veins at the thought, whether Kimeera would roar this news to her brethren.
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Signy is missing pieces of the general exchange here and there due to the partial use of Draconic, but the wisp's message and meaning are absolutely clear.
"You're easy to comprehend; you're a parasite. We came for the child. There's no kind of deal or agreement that sees us leaving without the child. You'd best be on your way."
Turning then to the chief, Signy drives home how the wisp's admission erodes his situation unless he changes course. She also makes an appeal to his honor, assuming he has any.
"So that's all it is then Chief Vesket, a shabby and boring little scheme to grab some more power? You know by now that most all of us speak Draconic, and that we're not letting you keep your little secret about becoming that bobbling light's crony. If there is any bravery or honesty or honor left in you, this is your last moment to show it by denouncing your spirit buddy as a fraud. If you hesitate now, your time as chief is done and only your final humiliation will be remembered by your tribe."
Meneas turns to the chieftain, one hand already on his sword hilt. "Let's not make this unpleasant, shall we? Or do. I really don't care." The Hooded Knight's voice is flat, almost entirely disinterested with the lizardman's choice.
Kimeera's reptilian eyes narrow as she grows to understand Brental's words and lets out a long slow hiss.
"Well, well... it looks like I shall taste fear today after all!" The will o wisp cackles and pulsates a multitude of violent hues.
For their part, the rest of the tribe seems to be staying back for now unsure of who to trust.
Before any of the others have a chance to react the ball of malicious light hurls itself into Meneas' chest and lets out a loud crack as electricity courses through the cavalier''s body!
It is a terrible thing to know the name of what one’s fighting and no more than that, so that’s one more thing to go on Lina’s to-do list that’s looking ever more regally imposing in its own right.
Not a spirit like any fey, or undead, or just sensibly magical creature that we know about, the witch mentally rehashes again as she desperately tries to reach a safer position. Needing a free hand for her magic, she gathers her energies for that at the same time as she aims an exceedingly improbable diversionary kick at the will-o’-wisp.
It works like a charm, appropriately enough: it's laughably easy to see such a high kick coming, but the way Lina pivots on her other foot to dance a step back is less predictable, and it gives her the opportunity to reach out to Meneas with a flash of magic.
"You know what to do, Meneas," she says with a grim little smile, and of course he does, but with her spell her conviction and a prescient hint of her own tactics bloom in his thoughts, and he does.
"You have made your choice, Chief Vesket. We only want our pup back. You need not die."
As Lina steps out of the way, the air around Brental cools as crystals begin forming around his hand. He thrusts his hand forward as a few dozen balls of snow and ice suddenly appear and pelt the Chief, his northern caiman (Red), and (most importantly) the Will o'Wisp.
With his other hand, he draws the Salamander from its sheath. "Menyalakan," he breathes, as the black glass is wreathed in flames. In the next moment, he looks at Vodnykel. "Anfalla."
Hearing his attack word, the mastodon steps around Kimeera and stares up at the much larger beast with no fear.
Lina's high kick proves sufficiently distracting to cause the Will O Wisp to flutter just out of it's reach but still not quite enough to make the creature unaware of the storm of snow her druid friend conjures. The wisp manages to flit between most of the ice and snow and yet still it is caught by some unavoidable balls of snow which seem to rip and pull parts of its essence from it. Still the wisp seems unfazed or even amused at the druid's attempts as it cackles madly... which is more than can be said for the caiman which is absolutely buried in ice cold snow.
After a few seconds the pile of snow moves and the caiman slowly pulls itself out hissing and shivering as its badly battered body quakes.
"Is that really the best you can do?" The will o' wisp cackles.
Meanwhile Vod goes after the other caiman and, despite the difference in size between the creatures, seems to be completely overpowering it. The caiman manages to bat aside Vod's tusk with its tail but the mastodon's mighty tusk pierces into the reptile's flesh with ease. The caiman hisses and thrashes, removing Vod's gore-soaked tusk from its body and makes ready to return the favor even as gore drips from its open wound.
Chieftain Vesket wastes no time hissing savagely and throwing himself at Lina. The blows are wild, heavy and savage. Easy to predict and thus to dodge or block but with every block Lina can feel the sheer power or the lizard folk chieftain coming through as the elven woman felt her muscles ache and her teeth shake inside her skull and the force of the blows made their way through her.
This wasn't a serious attack, this was sending a message.
And the message was that the lizard king would not be going down without a fight.
Chieftain Vesket also manages to avoid most of the snow but still earns himself some welts from a few glancing blows.
+2 on all rolls (including damage rolls) and special ability DCs; +4 to AC and CMD; +2 hp/HD.
Signy has her bow up with an arrow knocked in a flash. To her mind the worse of the two villains, by a hair at least, is Vesket since he's selling out his own people. She chooses him as her target and looses the arrow.
Her next order of business is to find some room to maneuver. She slips between Lina and Brental smoother than a greased weasel to spot where she can get her back to the wall.
Chief Vesket hisses venomously as Signy's arrow plunges into his scaly hide. Despite the injury, Chief Vesket continues his pummeling attack on Lina and encourages his pets to follow suite.
However, the sudden ferocity of the party's attacks have completely thrown the beast off and it mostly flails ineffectively at the witch's feet.
Meneas growls irritably at the shock, pushing past the pain with an effort of will. With a quick step, he circles the irritating wisp and slashing out with his sword, aiming for the weakest-looking areas on the ball of light, such as they are.
While the wisp has faded into the ether Meneas finds a new target for his blade and swiftly decapitates the wounded caiman still finding its way out of the snow.
Meanwhile Kimeera lets out a vicious war-cry and flings herself bodily at the remaining caiman. The resulting violence in primal and hard to watch as the muscular lizardfolk shaman rips and tears the wounded caiman to shreds with teeth and razor-sharp claws.
Vodnykel trumpets out in pain as the Will o Wisp appears once again, from seemingly nowhere, and slams into the young mastodon.
The Will o Wisp cackles as it spins triumphantly through the air, appearing to have regained some of its form before it fades back into nothing.
"Such a delicious meal! Your fear is absolutely scrumptious~"
Lina really doesn’t like the feeling of being toyed with, though she appreciates the subtlety of conveying a threat without the bluster that she normally uses when she wants to intimidate someone. She'll have to bear that in mind.
She takes another hasty step back away from Vesket, the sinister chuckle that she might like to offer in answer shaking into rather more of a nervous titter. Fortunately, with the nearest caiman fallen under Kimeera’s hands, Lina has a bit more room to manoeuvre, but even so it’s crowded quarters for her spear, and the wisp is damned hard to keep track of. Then again, with things so tight, just maybe it’s laying low between Meneas and Vod, especially with the watching lizardfolk providing a living wall that it would be difficult to sneak through. If she aims carefully…
She draws her sword as soon as she’s got the dead crocodilian between her and the chief, and watches for a moment when … yes! And she calls forth a blast of flame to catch Vesket and eddy just between her friends to where the wisp was a moment ago, at least.
It's an awkward angle to get the fire only where she wants it, so she tries to make it look like she did it on purpose, flicking her sword as if the spell was just an afterthought.
"Come, sir, come!" she taunts, hoping to goad the chieftain into following her and opening the melee up still more.
Although the shock is painful for the mastodon, its impact is somewhat blunted by Vodnykel's celestial nature.
Brental is shocked as Kimeera turns her claws on the caimans. Not too shocked, perhaps. If meat was meat, then that made a traitorous chief's pets little more than added food for the feast that the shaman must surely be planning.
No, the true shock was what this wisp kept on doing. Brental watches with frustration as the wisp appears near his mastodon and dares to harm him. With the rumors of floating lights at Candlemere, Brental had prepared a spell today that he thought might be useful. Now he utters a brief prayer of thanks to the ground he walks on for the insight. He raises his sword towards where he had last seen the Wisp and begins chanting. A pale purple light coats Brental's hand before bursting in the area he had last seen the Wisp, coating Meneas, Vesket, and Vod as well.
Vodnykel switches his target to the Will-o'-Wisp , but the surprise invisible shock was too much for him and he can barely muster a good counteroffensive.
Lina's impressive burst of fire catches the lizard chief totally off guard and elicits a pained hiss as his scales crackle and burn in the intense heat. The Will-o-Wisp is unseen by Lina's elven eyes but from the sounds of things the fire didn't do much to the floating creature.
Brental's false fire, that was another story, as pale glowing flames wreath themselves around the formerly invisible ball of malevolence, revealing its existence to the world.
"Damn you! What have you done to me!? What have you done!" The wisp laments. "Vesket! Kill this fool! Kill him now!"
The lizardfolk chieftain nods in understanding and carefully steps around the raging mastodon to unleash a vicious barrage of blows against the druid.
Brental swats the first attack with the trident away with grace as his flaming blade cuts through the air and yet he is unable to protect himself fully against the lizard king's savagery and the man-beast's fangs sink deep into his shoulder, ripping and tearing into his soft flesh.
Brental grits his teeth as the chief lizardfolk sinks his fangs in, but smiles. "I did what I had to do: show the people of this tribe that you are indeed a false spirit."
Brental raises his scimitar to Vesket even as he wrenches back out of the way. "It's not too late to save face, Chief. You can still walk away from this alive."
Signy once again finds herself needing to scramble for space to use her bow. She ducks away past Lina before setting up to shoot at the chief.
Signy's arrow goes wide in the flurry of battle though it does seem to further startle the lizard chief.
Meneas focuses, sending the spell over to Vod. "Alright, foul little light, it's your time to die." With that, he goes on the offensive, slashing and hacking with his sword.
Despite Meneas' best efforts and the Wisp now being alight he is still unable to damage the creature even as it seems to regain the entirety of its original mass.
Kimeera, however, continues in he blood-thirst. Her eyes locking with Vesket's as she hisses aloud. "VESSSSKET!!!!"
In an instant she is upon the startled chief who only barely deflects the woman's rending claws but nearly buckles as her shredding teeth clasp around his neck and crush down.
The Wisp cackles at the cavalier's valiant attempts. "No, no hooded foe. It is time for your light to be snuffed out! But not before I get another taste of that exquisite agony of yours!" The creature then throws itself into the cavalier and cracks like thunder. The cavalier's body convulses as the waves of electricity rush through him.
Meneas focuses, sending the spell over to Vod. "Alright, foul little light, it's your time to die." With that, he goes on the offensive, slashing and hacking with his sword.
Lina settles into a defensive posture in case the chief manages to shake off Kimeera, wondering if it’s worth trying to intervene. Bah, presumably she and the others can step in once the fight’s gone out of him. For now, though…
Her eyes focus on the wisp, and if ever anyone could be said to glare daggers, Lina certainly does so now. Not literally (although that would be an awesome spell, and she thinks she’ll have to look into the possibilities), but, nevertheless, the malice in her gaze is almost palpable.
Brental watches as Meneas takes another massive jolt. Rotting earth, he might not be able to take much more of that. But with the battlefield as it is, Brental running up to help him might cause more problems. "Stay strong, Meneas!"
Vesket was still a major threat as well, and they had him surrounded. Brental steps up into a flank with Lina, hefts his sword, and tries to cut Vesket down.
Next to him, Vodnykel's latent celestial nature surges as the Will-o'-Wisp continues its shocking assault. The mastodon's shaggy fur shimmers with golden light as he turns his zealous attention on the floating ball of unholy light.
The will o wisp catches Lina's glare and its essence seems to visibly shudder but it does seem to hold its own against the force of the witch's magical assault.
As it makes to cackle at the witch, however, the usual ominous laughter of the wisp is replaced by a piercing-echoing scream as high-pitched as it is laced with agony as Vodnykel's empowered tusk RIPS through the creature scattering its essence and leaving it a shell of it's former self maybe half-as-bright as before.
"WHAT?! WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT?! HOW COULD YOU?! HOW DARE YOU?! VESKET! KILL THAT THING! KILL IT NOW MY SLAVE!" The abomination howls filled with rage and pain.
Vesket, frustrated, peals Kimeera off of him with an effort and glares at the lingering wisp, his grip on his weapon tightens until Brental's glass blade slices through the reptile's chest causing the man to howl in rage even as the fires burn away at his scales cracking them and turning them into flaky, brittle burns.
The chieftain attempts to bite the druid instinctually but is repelled only further frustrating the embattled chief.
"Very well massssster," He sneers, "If you ssssseek fear, death, and pain then accccccept thisssss offering! I WILL SHOW YOU THE MIGHT OF THE NAUSSSSICA!" Vesket roars as he spins and plunges his trident through the druid's faithful companion Vodnykel.
The brave little mastodon lets out a great pained trumpeting ending in a pitiful wheeze as the trident cracks massive sturdy ribs and sinks deep into Vodnykel's lungs.
When Vesket removes the trident from the beast it is followed by three massive sprays of blood which spray crimson over the chieftain and the druid in equal measure as Vodnykel's legs shake from under him and he collapses to the ground with a whimper.
The chief roars triumphantly as his tongue darts out of his mouth and he locks eyes with the druid, wordlessly challenging him as the druid's companion's eyes begin to rapidly glaze over as the animal lies still in an ever expanding pool of blood.
Brental's conscious mind shuts down as Vesket skewers his longest companion with his dread weapon.
There would be no quarter. There would be no mercy. Vesket would die and Brental would mount his skull on his mantle.
The druid roars in fury, his eyes going fully blood red.
Meneas bites back a yelp at the shock of electricity surging through him, clenching his gauntleted hands around sword and shield. "I didn't say you had a choice, did I?" He grates, his blade a blur of cutting fury - or so it seems, as he whirls his cloak, distracting the beast as best he can. With an effort of will, he sends the last bit of magic to Brental, hoping to aid the druid in his next onslaught.
Signy is shocked to see Vod fall. She's afraid Brental and Vesket will now rip each other to pieces, so she does her best to capture the chief's attention and draw his ire to her.
"So there it is. Even your glowing little pal sees you clearly, and will call you what you are in front of everyone. You're a slave who sold himself for just a tiny bit more than you already had. You came cheap didn't you?"
As she steps back, Signy sends two arrows to Vesket in quick succession.
Meneas' taunt provokes the wisp to further aggression even as it syphons fear off the lizard king to regain a portion of its lost form. [/b]"I will draw out your last moments, every shuddering breath shall be one of agony as I sup upon your soul!"[/b]
The wisp manages to crack into the cavalier's shoulder for some additional damage but this time it is more of a glancing blow.
Meanwhile, Signy's arrows plunge deep into the lizard king's exposed flank causing him to roar in pain and leaving the beaten man barely standing and considering his options, surrounded on all sides as he is.
Kimeera hisses watching Vodnykel go down and glances into Brental's blood-red eyes. There is a moment of understanding before the priestess darts between the lizard king's legs and rests her hands upon the mastodon which glow with healing energies even as the lizard king's trident slams into the ground beside her.
Lina’s briefly torn in several directions at once. Surely the wisp should have fallen by now, unless … could it actually be feeding off fear, like fire, almost, more than anything like a more normal material or spiritual being? And it seems to have more than dodged her fire, and easily shrugged off her most maleficent gaze…
And then Vesket has almost skewered poor Vod, and she can only imagine how Brental might respond. She doesn’t like turning away from the witchlight, and she’s almost afraid of being too lucky now with the chief (regicide sets a bad precedent), but it’s probably her single best choice in this moment.
“Enough!” she barks, lunging with her sword as her free hand curls into the gesture for another spell – but the one is almost a feint, as the other leads into a short, impossibly sibilant run of old Elven seeking out <the big one, the big one, the biggest bloody lizard-man with the trident...>
Her hand curls closed as she takes a step back and finishes her hissing incantation on something like a gasp. And then the nearest shadows - including Vesket's own! - shake, shiver apart and run together, and bloom like wind in a sudden lawn of long grass whose blades surge up to seize the chief.
Brental is scarcely even aware as Kimeera saves his companion from near death, his red-hot rage focused entirely on the chieftain. As Vod's eyes flicker open, he stays on the ground and tries not to draw any further attention . Brental begins spinning himself into a whirling dervish, building up momentum so that he can strike at the right moment.
His rage percolating and extending into the Salamander's flame, the celestial druid spins around with his blade, momentarily taking on the countenance of an excinder, before his blade cleaves through the lizardfolk chieftain's neck. The fires of the blade cauterize the hole on the iruxi's neck instantaneously as the aasimar roars in righteous fury.
Fire and blood. Fire and blood. Fire and blood.
Try as she might Lina's blade cannot pierce the thick hide of the lizard king but his form, though still formidable, is far from agile in its currently heavily wounded state. Lina's shadows wraps around the lizard king and lash him into place, first his legs, then his arms, and finally his neck. The over-sized reptilian struggles against his restraints with a vicious hissing but his stance is wide, his guard non-existent.
Brental takes his opportunity.
With a rage filled roar he lashes out in a whirling dance of death and fire and, in an instant, the lizard king's head is separated from his mighty shoulders and the wound cauterized and smoking and the man's powerful frame slumps to the ground aside his disembodied head.
The lizard-folk cry out in shock, Kimeera cheers, and the wisp pulsates with wild abandon. "MY SLAVE! YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING! YOU WILL SUFFER! YOU WILL BURN! YOU WILL PERISH!" The wisp cries out as it prepares its next attack.
Signy is very relieved indeed to see Vesket go down and stay down. But flying little light balls are tough to target. She decides she needs more help. Signy calls on The Lucky Drunk to aid her.
"Dieviškas palankumas!"
"No doubt." Meneas says coldly, sidestepping and taking advantage of both the opening he leveraged and his newfound flanking position with Brental to go on an all-out assault on the wisp.
Despite his best efforts, however, the attacks fall short of their desired target.
Emboldened by the others success Kimeera moves up to bite at the glowing ball of energy and light but her attack seems to be ineffective.
The Wisp, however enraged, seems to have stopped regaining its life force and focuses entirely on dealing as much pain and suffering as possible. Flying trough the air with the rapid aggression of an angry wasp the ball of light shoots jolts of electricity into Brental's cheek and shoulder as it flies by.
Brental barely dodges out of the way of an otherwise certain shock, whirling his blade back at the floating ball of lies.
<"The pretender called your chief a slave!"> Brental roars in Draconic, <"Eager to abandon him when his treachery was uncovered. Kill the pretender!">
On the ground, Vod tries to make a nuisance of himself by providing enough distraction that Meneas might have an easier time hitting.
Signy tries to anticipate the wisp's movements as she take shots at it. It ain't easy to say the least.