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Willow was prepared for the lornlings, a grateful prayer to The Dreamwalker falling from her lips as she steps lightly out of the way of their little outstretched hands with a grimace. They had tried the trick before above...it was easy to prepare for a known quantity.
Willow was not, however, prepared to face what looked so convincingly like Nuruk, his face twisting into a contemptuous expression that a teeny, tiny part of Willow's rational mind knew Nuruk didn't feel, his reaction to the curse was always accompanied by immediate regret or anger. This one wasn't; it seemed to revel in her emotional turmoil with a relish that she only experienced in nightmares. Her eyes go wide and her breath catches in her throat, fear twisting within her stomach and coiling its way up into her chest.
The rising panic building in her lowers her defenses, and she hisses with pain when the claws dig into her arm and drag jagged, bloody paths down her arm. She grips her arm reflexively and tears her gaze away from the facsimile of the Dragonborn, her eyes resting on the known quantity: the lornlings in front of her, blocking her way to assisting poor Jingle Jangle. Willow turns away from Not-Nuruk for a moment and swings her mace wildly at the lornling pile, but the fear proves to be affecting her more than she anticipated--her swings go wide.
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His comrades rush into combat against these shapeshifting manifestations of fear and horror just as the massive paladin lands on the ground. His eyes take in the sights around them as their personal demons are brought into reality. Swallowing hard, he takes out his greataxe and catches sight of lornlings attacking Willow.
A fear captures his hand, a shake that makes his grip tremble for a moment as he hears the sound of combat erupting all around him. Like a child again, his feet refuse to move any further.
"Move, damn it, move!" Nuruk screams at himself, watching as red lines appear where his doppleganger self strikes Willow.
"Willow! No!" He shouts, his one hand grasping the ivory and ever-living thorn amulet that he wears around his neck while the other pulls a javelin from over his shoulder. "Solas! Dìon i!" The Sylvan runs off of his tongue with an echo of power to it.
Symbols glow upon Willow's armor and shield, manifesting in a tongue so ancient as to be undecipherable and undescribable. The First Tongue, the first words uttered by any living thing, form wards of thorns and radiant light. The strikes of nightmarish beasts seem to lessen as ancient oaths and pacts are brought to the forefront of their mind, slowing their attacks.
Seeing her a little safer, he turns his fearful ire against the Lornling mass that swipes at her. Drawing his javelin, he throws it with shaky hands but with all of his might.
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Khalil stumbles as the face of the harengon transforms and his mind is suddenly inundated by a flood of feelings upon seeing the man who was once his father charging toward him. How he knew the snarling visage was his father, he did not understand. But know it he did. And seeing that face from his lost past triggered numerous different feelings within his body. Fright, anger, pain, loss, and a deep, deep sorrow threaten to overwhelm the druid this most desperate moment. Freezing him in place.
The father-thing buries its claws deep into his side. The pain awakens something else within him. A deep anger, born long ago of past pain suffered before his exile into the Feywild. The anger races through his body like a storm driven wildfire. White knuckles grip his staff and he once again calls upon the stars that comforted him over the long days in the Summer Country. His staff flares to life. With a snarl of hurt and pain, Khalil drives the glowing hardwood weapon toward his hated attacker.
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Vashrin winces as the would-be-Celeste's claws dig into his neck.
Shocked by the creature mimicking his sister's form, Vash shakes his head, still reeling.
"Y..you are not her!" he screams, trying to convince himself more than anyone else, as he unsteadily strikes with his blade.
Overcoming your fears, or in spite of them, one by one you take down the phantasmal creatures who somehow know your weaknesses enough to use them against you.
Nuruk's javelin flies through the lornlings, each of the little creatures erupting into bleeding sores as they melt away into liquid. Khalil's staff crashes down on his fake father, caving in the man's skull gruesomely. The man reaches for his son just before disintegrating into a slithering pile of snakes that quickly disperse and vanish. Vash runs his sister's imposter through and she falls against him in a dying embrace, her body then crumbling into dust, the weight of her suddenly gone as he loses her once more. Karley stares down Sowpig as she and Snook charge the ghoulish girl, Snook jump-kicking the little terror with the power of the wind and sending her crashing to the wall behind her, where she bursts apart into a swarm of spiders that seem to vanish into nearby shadows.
The creature between the Willows snaps its fingers, and all of your lights go out, plunging the cellar into complete darkness.
The one appearing as Nuruk, wriggles its clawed fingers and his real counterparts feels his feet sinking into the black moss that carpets the floor and walls in this place.
The third raises a hand beside it, causing another of the weak but terrifying phantoms to form.
The creature between Willows teleports suddenly, reappearing behind Vash. It claws at him, but he manages to dodge the blow with a nimble shift to one side.
Not-Nuruk attacks Willow again, either unaware of the protection Real-Nuruk placed upon her, or not caring. The shield holds, and the thing's claws scape along the magical barrier inches away from her.
The one near Jingle Jangle decides tormenting the goblin can wait. It teleports behind Willow as well, the things showing an uncanny instinct for ganging up on vulnerable individuals. This one manages to bypass the shield Nuruk placed upon her, it's long insectoid claws stabbing deeply into her, and it hurts. She's barely standing as it retracts the claws.
Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature’s Attack rolls have disadvantage.
When the light disappears in an instant, Willow glances around, knowing the humans and Karley were going to have a hard time in this lightless room.
A faint flickering of gratitude towards the real Nuruk breaks through the irrational fright she's feeling as Not-Nuruk's swipe grazes the shield he had cast on her, but the feeling is quickly replaced by pain and anger as the claws of another of these creatures digs deep into a weakness in her armor and punctures her belly. Willow cries out a strangled, pained gasp at the attack, hanging on out of sheer spite.
Willow huffs a dark laugh as her duplicate fades out of existence, the various attacks knocking her concentration just enough for her divine channeling to fail. "Аз кори кардаатон пушаймон мешавед," Willow spits in Infernal, the caustic sound of her tone and the language itself conveying her fury to all who could hear, even if they don't understand.
She lays a hand over her belly and casts Cure Wounds, hoping to stay up long enough to enact her revenge.
Ahh! Damn this floor!" Nuruk shouts, his feet entangled in the ground. Darkness consumes everything, bringing the world into black and white. He reaches onto his back again, grabbing another javelin and readying it. This time, he does not have the same fear but a righteous anger spurring his actions. The creature that had appeared behind Vash was the target of his ire as he tossed the pointed weapon.
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Khalil barely begins to react with some sense of satisfaction, and more than a little guilt, over seeing his father's form collapse under the impact of his staff when the lights go out. Although somehow shrouded, he can still feel the power of his glowing celestial form flowing through his body. But with no ability to see, what good is such power? His mind shouts.
Hearing Willow's pained, angry, unintelligible shout, the druid scrambles to try and do something to put an end to these creatures. He recalls the little pouch of fae dust in his pocket. Pulling it out he quickly takes a pinch in his fingers. Channeling the power of the stars he blows on the dust. He aims the spell to land just beyond where he'd last seen Willow surrounded by several of the phantom creatures and hoped for the best.
Empowered with celestial energy, the bit of dust multiplies and grows into a sparkling, starlit stream. It swirls across the cavern and then bursts in a cloud of twinkling stardust. The tiny motes attempting to attach themselves to anything threatening Khalil and his friends.
With specter of his dear sister dispatched, Vashrin whirls around to strike at the latest assailant, but fails to land a meaningful blow, still a bit off balance from dodging the latest set of claws.
"Come on Willow, hang in there, we've come too far to fall to these second-rate apparitions."
Luckily, the creature first teleported and then used the spell to create darkness. Had it been the other way around, Sam would have had no way to see where it went.
Unfolding another dagger, he carefully walks so as to not stumble, and tries to hit the monster with it, in the hours that killing it will switch the light back on.
Willow's spell prevents her entrails from becoming extrails, but she's still badly injured and in a lot of pain. Nuruk wants to help, but the black moss encases his feet and he can't pull them free -- his javelin strikes one of the creatures, but it seems the remaining creatures are hardier than the phantoms that popped if you looked at them wrong.
One of the creatures is coated in the faerie dust and glows like a beacon to the rest of you, but unfortunately for Khalil, the other dodge the magic.
Elemental Snook tears through the tunnel like a mini tornado and shreds the newly formed minion to pieces. It dissolves into a roiling pile of maggots.
Vash, still shaken by killing his dead not-sister, misses his strike against the creature north of him, in spite of it glowing. Sammy's strike is equally unsuccessful as his eyes adapt to the sudden darkness.
--------------------
The creature north of Willow transforms...into her father. His eyes are red from crying, and he looks much more gaunt than she remembered him. "My girl...they took my girl. Have you seen her?" he asks plaintively.
Not-Nuruk wraps Willow into an embrace, then stabs its claws into her kidneys, the shock and pain blinding her with white hot pain that immediately fades into darkness. The imposter dragonborn holds her limp form up for the rest of you, especially his counterpart, to see.
The glowing insectoid creature shifts his form, and Celeste is once more standing before Vash. This time, though, she's not dead -- her face is a vision of hatred. "You let her take me. You should have done something. You should have saved me. It should have been you!"
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Willow catches sight of the creature shifting into her father and freezes with shock--despite knowing it is not him, the sight rattles her. She had left her father without so much as a goodbye--no chance for him to sweep her up into a hug and keep her from leaving. No chance for any kind of meaningful goodbye, as she knew she would have been stubborn and snuck out to join the carnival anyway.
She spent years wracked with guilt over that; no way to send him a message, no way for him to know she was alive and as well as one could be, cursed at a carnival.
Her mildly introspective pause allows Not-Nuruk the chance to grab hold of her and wrap her in an embrace that feels wrong. As she strains in his grasp, trying to flail out of his grip, a white-hot flash of sharp, stabbing pain in her side blinds her vision and the room seems to fade.
---
She finds herself standing alone in an endless, starry expanse filled with swirls of gray, pink, and purple fog--as if she's floating through the night sky. A familiar sight, one she had seen many times when the Dreamwalker still visited her as a child.
"Hello?" She calls, beginning to wander around the space aimlessly, looking for a glimpse of the beautiful, dark-haired woman who had comforted her so many times before. "Anyone? I can't stay here. I need to get back. I need to help my friends, Zybilna..." She feels strangely calm, clutching at the crow's foot pendant around her neck as she begs the empty space to let her go back.
She continues to wander for what feels like ages, feeling more and more distressed as an indeterminate amount of time passes. She shouts desperately, tears welling up in her solid silver eyes. "Please?" She whispers, voice breaking slightly as the tears begin to fall. "I don't want to be alone."
But nothing answers, and Willow stands, solitary, among the stars.
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Nuruk fights against the holds on him, struggling to get out of this black moss that held him down. He pulled hard before his eyes focused into the light and watched as the mockery of his form stabbed its claws into Willow's side. He sees the moment of pain etch across her face before a stillness finally covers it.
"rrraaaaaaaaarrrrgggg" Nuruk roars, his voice nearly shaking the whole cavern. Wide-eyed and furious, the paladin rips out of the black moss and charges the mockery of himself with the greataxe in his hand.
Nuruk rages, swinging his greataxe down on injured one of these monstrosities.
-
"Celeste's" words sting deeper than any blade, as the apparition digs right into Vashrin's feelings - he had always believed it was his fault that Celeste was taken all those years ago...
Trying to steel himself against "Celeste", he somewhat unconvincingly shouts, "You are not her! and stabs at the imposter.
Seeing Willow fall out of the corner of his eye, he utters the word "Sana.", healing a fraction of the tiefling's wounds.
Khalil steps forward, worry churning in his stomach as he sees Willow fall. Nuruk's anguish charged fury rattles his ears, the dragonborn racing past him to charge the shadow creatures. At first the druid tries to find a way to reach their dying companion, but he sees Vashrin whisper something as the tiefling starts to breathe again.
With the immediate emergency averted, Khalil focuses his efforts on trying to put an end to these despicable, mind affecting creatures. He once again calls upon the power of the stars to send a second shining bolt of power toward the Not-Nuruk enemy. Unfortunately, the creature shifts aside at the last moment causing the starlit arrow to miss.
Unsheathing a second dagger, Sam calculates where the light Khalil sheds allows him to strike better, and launches a quick succession of thrusts.
What was only seconds in real time feels like an eternity for Willow. She collapses to her knees, sobbing, overwhelmed with loneliness and sadness in the middle of a swirling fog. Her Goddess is locked away, her friends are out of reach. No chance to see her father again, no chance to break free from her curse and regain her smile, no chance to voice her feelings...
A slight breeze begins to blow in the previously-still space, forcing the fog to part and reveal a small, rectangular door made of light. Willow looks up, tilting her head to the side and leaning forward slightly to get a better look at the newly-opened door. Suddenly, her stomach drops and chest tightens, vertigo gripping and dragging her forward into the light.
Willow wakes with a loud, heaving gasp, tears streaming down her face. She wipes her cheeks, wondering why she seemed to be crying? She felt like she had been somewhere, seen something... The memories slipped through her fingers rapidly until she only had a vague notion of colorful, swirling fog. Not to mention, pain. Horrible, sharp pain radiating from her side. She grits her teeth and inhales sharply, grabbing at the wound that had downed her and glaring at the creatures looming above her.
Nuruk, Vash, and Sammy are able to finish off the glowing creature, who'd transformed into Celeste. Upon its demise it reverts to its insectoid form.
Karley removes the helmet from Jingle Jangle, but the goblin woman is still cowering in terror. The helmet's removal didn't see to affect her. But then...
"Jingle Jangle? What is wrong my little friend? Why are your thoughts so troubled?"
The hill. Telemy Hill was speaking to her. It had thought her asleep -- the helmet must have prevented it from communicating with her.
Two of the creatures remain. They don't seem to notice or care that Willow is conscious.
Not-Nuruk charged south towards Karley, seeing her trying to free the goblin. It swiped at the little halfling, and tore open a gash in her leg as she sat atop Snook.
Willow's father, whom all but Khalil recognize, turns to strike at Nuruk. The claws score a hit against the paladin, but Nuruk is ready and takes the chance to strike back, doing a fair bit of damage himself.
"Begone, foul nightmare! You do not belong here!" Nuruk shouts, bringing the greataxe around again with his incredible strength. The pain resonating from the wound that had caught along his shoulder goes unheeded, his focus on putting down the nightmarish form of Willow's father.
Willow watches the facsimile of her father attack Nuruk, a firestorm of rage swirling in her core and radiating out. How dare they invade her mind? How dare they take her worst fears and attack her friends with them?
She snarls with satisfaction when she sees Nuruk's greataxe come down on her pseudo-dad, shifting uncomfortably on the ground. She tries to stand, but the pain in her side is too much. Instead, she grasps the crow's foot pendant hanging from her neck in one hand and covers the wound with another, gasping a quiet prayer in Sylvan to her absent goddess. "Aisig mo shlàinte, a‑chum gun sgrios mi mo naimhdean."
With faux-Celeste gone, Vash rushes to help Karley, stabbing at the creature that had just harmed the halfling.
Khalil looks for an opening as Nuruk unleashes his fury upon the shadow creature. At first the druid is simply unable to find a decent angle until suddenly all aligns and he sends another radiant arrow into the badly wounded enemy.
Willow swings hard at Not-Nuruk as he tries to move past her, rolling over on her side as she swings. She loses her grip on her mace, sending it skittering away from her. "Fantastic." Willow groans, gesturing rudely at the monster.
Sammy waitress patiently for an opening, checks who of the still standing enemies goes down and suddenly darts into the one remaining.
Nuruk finally manages to unleash some of the retribution welling up within him, his sword nearly gutting the horrible facsimile of Willow's father. Khalil puts the creature out of its misery with a well-placed shot through the sternum.
Vash slips in behind the one that looks like Nuruk, overcoming the disturbing feeling that goes along with stabbing your dear friend in the back, knowing with certainty it was an imposter. Sammy comes up beside Vash, getting a sneak attack of his own in as his dagger sinks into the creature. Karley takes the more direct approach, and Snook pummels the thing with his windy body. It's barely standing as is... then Karley sets it on fire. The image of Nuruk screams in agony before reverting to its insectoid form, and collapsing onto the ground, dead.
A low rumbling begins to shake the tunnels, a few small, loose bits of rocks raining down from the ceiling.
Telemy Hill is angry.
Nuruk stands there, his greataxe dripping with whatever constituted as blood for these creatures. His shoulder burned but the more pressing concern was the sudden shaking of the tunnels around them. The hill was growing furious, more and more so. Rock and debris began to spill down around them as Nuruk moved to cover Willow with his frame.
"Telemy Hill! We've rescued Jingle Jangle! Please, don't hurt us and we'll bring her back to the top and outside upon your grass!" Nuruk shouts, his hand rest on Willow's chest. A warm light glows from his palm and the painful gut wound would grow slightly less painful. He will then move to where the poor goblin sat, resting his hand upon her and using the last of the power the Light had gifted him.
Willow sits up as the hill starts shaking, steadying herself slightly against the dragonborn while he heals her. "Thanks," she says quietly as he begins to move away.
Finally feeling somewhat normal, she rises slowly to her feet and retrieves her mace from where she had inadvertently tossed it. Willow murmurs a soft prayer of guidance and adds her voice to the attempts to calm the hill: "The monsters tormenting her are gone, Telemy Hill! Nuruk has healed her! Please, by the Dreamwalker, calm!" As she speaks, she presses her hands against the cavern wall, willing it to feel her sincerity.
"At the very least, please calm down lest you hurt your friend! She's still in here with us!" Vashrin pleads, not interested in the least in being buried alive in a living hill.
Khalil kneels down next to the goblin and looks her over for any serious injuries. If she seems well enough for the moment, he focuses his concentration on freeing her from the makeshift key manacles. Calling upon the wisdom of the stars that constantly look down upon the world, he does his best to bend the keys enough to allow the goblins hands and feet to slip free.
"Jingle Jangle, are you--"
Karley ceases to hear the remaining words of Telemy Hill as she puts the helmet on, the telepathic connection severed by the strange contraption. It almost looked like a colander, with tubes and a few clockwork gears on its surface.
"Jingle Jangle, are you alright?"
She doesn't seem to be badly hurt, just a few bruises and the like, and several of you generously heal her beyond what she requires. She still has her eyes squeezed shut, until the quaking hill speaks. Then, she peeks one eye open and replies.
"Tel? Is that you? I can hear you! I'm okay! But I won't be, if you bring the tunnels down on us!" Her voice was a bit warbly, and almost sounded like a man speaking in falsetto. By goblin standards, it was lovely.
Bit by bit the quaking stops. "You were experiencing abject terror. What happened?"
Jingle Jangle didn't answer right away, looking at each of you. "I have company right now, Tel. Feel free to eavesdrop, I know you always do!" She lowered her volume a bit, no longer shouting at Tel -- though raising one's volume was unnecessary when speaking to a telepathic being, it seemed to be the natural inclination to do so. She addressed the group of you.
"H-hello. I'm Jingle Jangle. Thank you...I was in a bit of a pickle before you came along." She looked a little embarassed.
Willow moves over to Karley, kneeling down and gathering the sorcerer up into a hug, squeezing her friend tightly. "You're pretty badass, Karley. Riding around on a dog cloud? Amazing," She whispers, gesturing at the elemental Karley had been riding (if it hasn't disappeared).
She then moves to gather around Jingle Jangle with everyone else, standing near Vash and Khalil. She places a hand on each of their shoulders and squeezes gently, comfortingly--they had all experienced a measure of trauma in this fight, more than the usual amount at least. Seeing a physical manifestation of Celeste had to be different than just seeing her in a mirror...and she had certainly recognized Khalil's father.
Willow will glance briefly over at Nuruk, but if he makes eye contact with her, she will look away quickly, avoiding his gaze. She knew a conversation would need to be had about the fact that he manifested as a fear, but she was not ready to face that yet. At least they had Jingle Jangle to distract them.
"I'm Willow," she says briefly, bowing politely at the waist, waiting for the others to introduce themselves before speaking again. "I hope you haven't been dealing with them for long, Jingle Jangle. That was...unpleasant."
Nuruk looked at the goblin, smiling softly and losing some of the fearful mien that he had been exuding. The dragon was calm and sleeping once more in the paladin, who let out a soft sigh of relief as the shaking stilled.
"Thank goodness. It is a pleasure, Jingle Jangle." Nuruk mentioned, looking over towards Willow and watching how she quickly looked away. It spared her from seeing the somewhat hurt look on his face as she did, a wounding that was slight and quickly recovered as his attention turned around to Jingle Jangle. "I am Nuruk Faerjhan, Knight of the Brambles. It was our honor and duty to help destroy those nightmarish beasts. What were they?"
Sam was so getting used to mental talk that, when Double J introduces herself, he unconsciously answers with his mind.
"I'm Sam. Pleased to meet you."
Still shuddering from the sight and sounds of his "sister" laying so plainly what he had always believed - all of this was his fault, not just Celeste being gone, everything that all of the Defenders had lost, none of any of these heartaches would have occurred had he not suggested going into the carnival without a ticket all those years ago.
When Willow lays comforting hand on his shoulder, Vash takes a deep breath and nods in thanks. Taking note that Nuruk had healed Willow of her wounds, the bard tends to his own wounds with another word of healing.
"Hello, Jingle Jangle. Good to see that you are well...for the most part. I'm Vashrin by the way."
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"Khalil Quietcrow." The druid says with a quick bow of his head. "A pleasure to meet you Jingle Jangle, although I wish it were under better circumstances. Still it seems you are safe now, but I must ask you, what were those terrible creatures after?" He adds, doing his best to focus his full attention on the little goblin. Unfortunately his gaze does keep slipping toward Karley to see if the odd Helm of Pasta Preparation has any unnatural side effects. Then again, how would I know what is the helmet verses what is just...Karley. And with that internal moment of enlightenment, turns back to Jingle Jangle.