♥️
Sylva tries a hit-and-run style attack vs. the evil pet, letting ranged attackers handle the thin one.
When the creature topples, Sylva zips back behind the wall!
Sir Batman watches the shadow-eating puppy get all blackened like salmon at Easter.
I am a bit famished.
The bronze-colored bat then Raises his shield, Strides 20' closer to The Real(?) Slim Shady, and aims his baby boy blues at hm!
Blasting Beams
Blood trickling from her ears and nose, Ravenna nonetheless just keeps firing. With a look of sudden realization, she tucks the stock of her rifle under her arm and reaches for one of the bombs she has hanging from a bandolier.
"Sylva, get ready to make a move. I've got a really bad idea and I think you'll love it."
Sylva leans on the wall, ready to spring into action.
“I will definitely love it.”
Her free hand is already on Lemonsbane’s hilt.
Sylva moves in to stab the temagyr, taking down the canine gorga. Kaneepo completely resists Nox's spell. Batman's beams destroy the shadow duplicate. Ravenna fires on Kaneepo, but just as the bullet is about to strike them, the fey slips through the shadows and appears next to Batman!
"Embrace your destiny!" Kaneepo calls as they claw at Batman. Their flayed flesh sucks at the champion's shadow.
Kaneepo then casts a spell, trying to paralyze Ravenna.
Success: The creature is unafected.
Failure: The creature takes 3d6 mental damage and is frightened 1.
Critical Failure: The creature takes 6d6 mental damage and is frightened 2.
Sir Batman quickly Shield Blocks the claw of Slim Shady!
The Batman then shudders a bit!
But the bronze-colored sprite winks at him!
Sylva rushes Kaneepo, knives out again!
Even for a 5-inch-tall sprite, Kaneepo’s wiry lankiness is not easy to hit!
Sir Batman grins at the Real Slim Shady at his side.
Mind if I cut in!
Raising his shield, Striding into his square, the Champion of Mazludeh Strikes!
Ravenna, still reeling from the assault on her mind, struggles to retrieve the bomb from her bandolier, ultimately fumbling the throw itself.
Kaneepo effortlessly dodges all of your attacks! Cackling malevolently, they tear at Sylva with their claws.
Failure: The creature takes 3d6 mental damage and is frightened 1.
Critical Failure: The creature takes 6d6 mental damage and is frightened 2.
Her dexterity returning to her, Ravenna grabs another bomb and gets a running start before hurling this second one right at Kaneepo's weird little face.
Sylva is hurt, but not her shadow!
And not her opponent either.
Sir Batman frowns at The Real Slim Shady targeting poor defenseless Sylva!
The Champion of Mazludeh Raises his trusty shield!
The bronze-colored sprite screams at Kaneepo the Slim!
I asked for The Real Slim Shady to please stand up and all I got was some fake!
The grinning sprite then flutters high enough to Shield Boss his stripped face!
Sylva’s attacks miss. Batman swings his shield, but Kaneepo slips through the shadows before the sprite can connect, reappearing a short distance away. Nox scores a critical hit as he hurls a knife into the Slim, and Ravenna’s lightning bomb shocks the fey!
Hissing angrily, Kaneepo scurries into the light that Nox gives off. They extend their flayed flesh to rip at Ravenna’s and Nox’s shadows!
Success: The creature is unafected.
Failure: The creature takes 3d6 mental damage and is frightened 1.
Critical Failure: The creature takes 6d6 mental damage and is frightened 2.
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Nox's shadow slaps Kaneepo's away as it attempts to take a nibble and the tiny sprite points at Kaneepo again, "You have the chance to surrender, you have the chance to forgive! Yet here you are fighting for some perverse dream instead of enjoying the life you already have!" Another knife raises from the stack that Sylva had thrown before and flings itself at Kaneepo. The sprite stalks towards Kaneepo as it does the world around him warping very slightly.
Ravenna backpedals away from the monster, firing again and reloading on the move. "Not sure how much longer my luck is going to keep," she says, breathing hard.
An exasperated Sir Batman looks up (not just because he is only 6" tall) to see the Real Slim Shady slide and slip through the shadows, making the Champion to wife embarrassingly!
Blue eyes squinting in the new direction of the infuriating fey, Sir Batman yells!
Not cool bro!
Raising his shield, Striding (twice) back into his square, the Champion of Mazludeh again flutters high enough to boss his face!
Flank not included[/ooc]
Sylva waits for the inevitable teleport. Waits for the inevitable Bat attack!
And she STRIKES!
“Die you—”
…umm, that is she…
“—you—”
…strikes and actually hits!
“—you
Kaneepo blips away from Nox’s projectile, but you are ready for it. Ravenna shoots the Slim in the chest, then Batman and Sylva charge the wily fey! Batman bashes them in the face while Sylva stabs them in the gut! Blood pours freely from Kaneepo’s wounds as the slender fey falls to their knees.
”Heh... Ha ha!” Kaneepo laughs, pausing to cough up globs of dark blood. ”You are worthy heirs... indeed! Welcome... home...” They topple forward, eyes staring blankly ahead, features twisted into an eternal rictus grin.
You can claim the Shadewither Key from Kaneepo’s body. This palm-sized talisman hangs on a string of braided bark fibers. It resembles a leaf from some unknown tree similar to oak, carved from jade and then dipped halfway into black ink that looks wet despite feeling completely dry.
As you stand over the fallen Kaneepo, the hat-wearing hedgehog in the cage begins shaking its bars. ”Oi! You smoothies gonna let a hog out, or what?” says the tiny creature.
Sylva heads over to the cage.
“Yeah, I think I can get you outta there.”
She introduced herself and her friends as she works the lock.
The hedgehog grins as Sylva unlocks the cage. He hops down to the floor and dusts off his clothes. He stands just as tall as the sprite. "Thanks, smoothie! Hubert Hedge, at your service! Kaneepo kept me locked in there for months, serving as their jester! Skinny jerk! I'll throw in my lot with you now, if you don't mind. It's a hog-eat-hog world out there!"
Hubert looks at the fallen Kaneepo and takes off his hat. “So, here’s the thing...” Hubert twists his little cap anxiously in his hands. “When Kaneepo welcomed you ‘home’... well, you know that portal you came through to get here? Only Kaneepo can make those. Without them, I don’t know of any way to get you back to your real home. And you can’t exactly walk out, either—the Thinlands are stable enough, but beyond them is Nighthold. The shadowstorms of that place’ll scour you dead, assuming the ankous don’t get you first.” He shakes his head, black eyes gleaming sadly. “I’m sorry, friends, but you’re well and truly spiked.”
Whichever of you carries the Shadewither Key notices a faint tugging from the artifact in a particular direction. The key seems to be urging its wielder out of Kaneepo's Court...
Sylva picks up the key, thinking it’s important considering the predicament. She feels the tug.
“Oh, what is this key’s big hurry? I got wounds to tend to.”
Sir Batman kicks the downed fake Slim Shady!
We kicked your slim butt!
The bronze-colored sprite turns his smiling face to the releasing of the talking hedgehog.
I feel like you would make a perfect Squire, Hubert Hedge! I am Sir Batman.
The Champion of Mazludeh then lay on hands the injured.
After the healing is done, Sylva approaches Herbert. “A jester, huh? I’ve done comedy routines. The funniest part of my act was being covered in rotten tomato sauce.”
She notes the dried blood all over her body and dress.
“Too soon?
“Well, being locked in a cage or doused in your opponents’ blood isn’t the best prep for a humorous act. But I gotta give lip service to Shelyn—I spared an artist today, and… she will go far.
“My prayer is, in part, one of thanks for her life, and my form of worship will be to entertain a fellow entertainer.”
Sylva takes a minute to magically change her outfit to an elaborate gown of silver, flowing with ribbons that glitter the seven colors vividly.
Sylva starts to speak, chant, sing in Draconic as she improvises a dance—a daring blend of acrobatics, ballet, and something feral. For those who don’t understand Draconic, her voice is simply percussion—a beat to dance to!
I’m doused in blood
And guts and brains
And praying I
Don’t go insane
Actions unforgivable
Conditions unlivable
I’m praying that
It’s not too late
I won’t become
The thing I hate
A serial killer?
My cereal has marshmallows!
I’m a marshmallow!
We spared the life
Of Sir Looksee
One look at me
What does he see?
The Chronicler
Lives on to paint
Paint me a hero?
Oh no I ain’t
We spared six fey
They got away
Their souls cleaner
Than mine today
Is there any
Hope to save
My own before
I’m in the grave?
She curtsies to Herbert, confident that her dance was flawless, and feeling better after having exorcised a few personal demons in a language nobody else knows.
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Nox sighs at the fallen Kaneepo after a few minutes have passed and he's calmed down.
"All this unnecessary death. Was it all worth it in the end?" He takes a seat on the step leading up to Kaneepo's former throne.
"We're locked here now too. In this place that feels so, wrong. If you'll give us time to rest and we make a pathway back to the material, or the fey wild, or anywhere would you like to follow and go back home?"
If Sylva would allow him he'd examine the key closely.
Sylva takes in Nox’s words of unnecessary death. She doesn’t say anything, her reflective prayer has done little to quell the relentless flashbacks dwarf, kentauride, dwarf, kentauride, slim, kentauride, slim, red blood, black blood, gutsy blood…
She hands Nox the key and dispels her glittery gown. All she has on is the dweomerweave robe. Normally, such a robe is translucent, but the blotches of reddish brown and inkish black on both skin and robe offer modesty.
Sylva slumps on her butt by the foot of the throne. She looks at a carving of a dying elf, then turns away. She doesn’t want to look at anyone or anything dwarf, kentauride, slim…
Sir Batman stands ready to follow the tug of the key.
If we are indeed trapped here in the Thinlands, then we may as well explore it. We could learn valuable information while also locating a way back.
The bronze-colored sprite glances at the defeated Slim.
At least we will not worry about his machinations. Although most likely plenty of opportunity to still shot stuff, Revenna.
The tiny Champion winks.
Hubert Hedge smiles as he watches Sylva dance. "Don't know what you said, but it sounded pretty!" He turns to Nox and nods. "Aye, I'm more than ready to leave all this doom and gloom behind!"
There are plenty of beds available nearby, so you take advantage of them and rest overnight. And as you rest, Sylva dreams...
But as you dance, you can't help but feel a strange presence watching you from afar. You look out into the audience and see a man in a fine coat, his face obscured by a monstrous mask of white fur and thick horns. Despite the warmth of the stage lights, a chill runs down your spine as you realize you can't make out his intentions.
You try to fly closer, to get a better look, but your wings seem to be weighted down, and you can't get any closer to the man. He remains a distant, unnerving figure, watching you from afar. Your heart races as you realize you're completely powerless to interact with him in any way.
The audience cheers, but their cheers sound distant and distorted as the man in the mask continues to stare at you, his eyes unblinking. You try to ignore him, to focus on your performance, but his presence hangs over you like a dark cloud, casting a shadow on your every move...
As your performance reaches its climax, the dream ends abruptly, leaving you with a sense of unease that lingers long after you've woken up. The man in the mask remains a mystery, his intentions unknown, and you can't shake the feeling that he'll be watching you again, next time you close your eyes.
In the meantime though, you feel a strange sense of power coursing through you...
***
The next day, you begin to follow the tugging sensation from the Shadewither Key. The key urges its wielder out of Kaneepo’s Court and into the shadowy woods, tugging more insistently and glowing green—faintly at first, then gradually brighter—as it nears its destination. Eventually, you find yourselves at the Seven Arches.
Everything about these arches appears identical to what you remember. Whether they’re mere simulacra or some kind of shadow version of the real things is impossible to determine. As the wielder of the Shadewither Key draws near, the stone of the Seventh Arch begins to hum and glow the same magical light as the key. The light cascades down the archway, coalescing into an opaque, shimmering jade‑green veil.
"Well, spit on my spikes!" Hubert says in awe. "There's something you don't see every day! Looks like it's our ticket outta here! And wherever that door goes, it's surely better than here!"
Sir Batman tests easily. The bronze-colored bat is seen sleeping with his head at the foot of the bed. If asked why, he answers with a wink.
Everyone knows that bat's sleep upside-down!
The next morning, the Champion of Mazludeh completes his daily preparations, eats and dresses in his resplendent bronze-colored armor.
Let's follow the yellow brick road!
He hums along the way.
Once at the Seven Arches, Sir Batman watches excitedly. Spitting on the hedgehogs spikes (when in Rome....errr...the Thinlands), Sir Batman Raises his Shield to prepare to lead the Vanguard through the green glowing, stomach turning portal.....
Sylva awakens with a start.
As her mind begins to process what is fact, what is fiction, she concludes truth is stranger. She listens to Sir Batman—humming—and starts to rethink her adventure so far.
Shelyn’s way is to accept surrender. And my companions have backed me up every time. And no matter how grotesque the artistic depictions of suffering, my com… no. My *friends* did not deface the art.
You’re with good people, Sylva. They won’t let you fall. Trust them.
Trust no one, another part of her warns.
Sylva tells that part of herself to…
She contemplates the arch.
“I don’t believe for a second that we’re getting away so easily. Nox, can you…?” Can he what? To something wayyyy beyond your level of comprehension. Yes he can, doi. “…um… magically, uh… y’know. She points at the portal.
She has no idea what exactly to ask.
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Nox sleeps restlessly tossing and turning for a long while before exploring more of the house and seeing the areas that weren't prevalent during their rampage into the stronghold of the Slim. But eventually the weariness takes him again and he is found lounging uncomfortably on one of the bookshelves.
When the party sets out he holds the leaf talisman traveling slowly when they get to the arches he hums as they seem to activate near the leaf.
"Can I magically... what?" He looks at the leaf and then the gateway, "Seems to me these are reacting to the presence of the gateway key, I don't know exactly how or if they'll lead us home. But I remember hearing tales that sometimes that's how the first world works, you just need to know where you want to go. Perhaps the thinlands and by extension these archways are similar. Or perhaps these archways are the thinlands anchors to that extrapolated position in the material realm, which would mean they'd likely also be a nexus for the Firstworld or other places of power." He contemplates aloud though he's got no real evidence to back up his theorization on the matter.
He looks to Sylva, "Is that what you meant?"
After Nox says a bunch of stuff she doesn’t really understand, but in a way she can kinda understand…
“Yes.”
…Sylva is confident that the boy sprites know what they’re doing and going through an arch that glows the same as the key is the best move.
Anybody who reaches out and touches the green veil is immediately sucked into the light and to the other side of the portal. One by one, you step through.
Humid air slaps you like a hot towel. All around is a verdant jungle, nothing like either the shadowy Thinlands or the temperate Wilewood. The trees are huge, sprawling affairs, and the air shivers with chittering insects and hooting beasts.
Looking back, you see the portal blink out, leaving only a stone archway in its place. Yet instead of the now familiar Seven Arches, the one behind you stands alone on a plinth, its shape different, its stone cracked and worn. At the arch’s feet lie the ruins of some building long since collapsed, its large gray blocks and obelisks carved with strange symbols and wrapped in strangling vines.
The arch appears to be an aiudara, just like the ones at Sevenarches and the gates you yourselves walked through on the night of the Missing Moment. The runes engraved onto this arch are in an unusual dialect of Elven. Reading the runes, Ravenna can confirm that it is an aiudara, but is unable to glean little else.
The Shadewither Key does nothing to activate the Nox can feel a vague sympathetic resonance between the key and the gate, but it’s clear that this is the extent of their interaction.
The flora around the archway doesn’t resemble any plant you have seen in Sevenarches or the Thinlands. Thick green vines climb the arch itself, occasionally punctuated by crimson flowers with bright blue stamens.
Stepping through the green gateway, Sir Batman accesses any immediate threats (he does eye a pink and purple caterpillar smoking a pipe a bit) before lower his shield and shrugging.
Anyone recognize this place?
The bronze-colored sprite returns his gaze to the caterpillar.
Sylva looks around. Do I recognize this place?
Mayyyybeeee…!
Sylva is able to ascertain from the ambient climate—hot, humid—and the nature of nearby plants and animals—fruit-laden palms, colorful amphibians—that you’re in a tropical jungle, and not likely one anywhere near Avistan...
As you explore your surroundings a bit, you soon come upon a nearby cliff that offers a stunning panoramic view. From the vantage of a high overlook, a rolling green sea of trees stretches westward. Two points of interest immediately catch your eye.
One is a jagged mountain range thrusting toward the sky like teeth, gray walls steep and foreboding, many miles away. The outlines of pyramidal structures can be seen on one of the range’s lower slopes.
Second, a pair of brilliant purple ropes connect a nearby hill to the pyramids in the distant mountains, like lines drawn in the air to guide your eye. Tiny dots—vessels of some sort—travel back and forth along these blazing magical lines, forming a steady circuit hundreds of feet above the jungle canopy below.
Peering closer, you can see that the tiny dots are large platforms suspended from the lines like gondolas. They appear to be carrying cargo from the nearer hill to the distant pyramids and then returning empty. The pyramids on the mountainside look to be only the largest structures in a more substantial settlement. The pyramids are perhaps 40 miles away. The much nearer hill where the light beams touch down is only 5 miles away.
Sir Batman starts humming as he peers out over the Vista.
....take my love, take my land....you can't take the skies from me....
Sylva reports to the others. “We are really far away. This isn’t Avistan, it’s… elsewhere. Somewhere… else. Really far.
“So,” she concludes, “we’re lost.”
It hits her that being lost isn’t as traumatic as killing people. Plus, being among friends and not really having a home-home, she suggests,
“How about we find a place to wash up, assuming the water doesn’t have piranha’s and/or poisonous lily pads—” Her expression abruptly changes to one of hope (a.k.a. desperation). “—oh but regular nontoxic lily pads are much more common. And fun! It’s like a Fairy Boat.
“Yeah, screw the lack of pay. THIS is our reward for killing Kaneepo. Freedom! A lush green paradise! But don’t touch any colorful plants or caterpillars, because you might end up with lush green diarrhea.”
She hums along to Sir Bat’s tunes, and eventually says, “Ooh. Light beams. Let’s go that way!”
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After being sucked through the portal Nox takes a bit to reorient himself.
"Everyone is okay? Sylva check, Batman check, Ravenna, Hubert?"
Once everyone is ready and the two other sprites have already plotted the course of going towards the light he jogs to catch up. "First it was research, then it was fighting, now it's an adventure. I suppose this isn't going to be as bad as I thought.. I hope."
If able he'll tuck the leaf away in his pack, but assuming it's too large he'll hand it off to Ravenna for safe keeping. "Now don't hurry too fast, won't do any good to have a twisted ankle or a torn wing now of all times."
"It's someplace with elves," Ravenna says, a movement of her head pointing back toward the aiudara through which they'd come. "Or, at least, somewhere they've been." She's quiet for some time, thinking.
You descend from the overlook and begin to make your way through the jungle. The foliage is dense and forbidding, and it is slow going as you are forced to hack a trail forward. Around you, strange creatures abound: mosquito-nosed purple lemurs that reek of almonds and scaly birds with compound insect eyes.
After an hour or so, you reach a small clearing. Several huge trees provide shade for the undergrowth here, offering a temporary reprieve from the clinging vines and bushes.
Ravenna spots the danger just in time! Lurking in the branches of the nearest tree, 20 feet up, is a large creature that looks like a cross between a monkey and a scorpion, with a harpoon of solidified webbing connected to spinnerets at its aft end, held by the coiled, scorpion‑like tail. It is preparing to hurl this harpoon at you!
Ravenna stares at the monkey-scorpion-thing in amazement for half a second, but reflexively draws and fires her weapon all the same.
"Take cover!" she shouts, before following her own advice.
Ravenna’s bullet whizzes past the creature. As she reloads and takes cover, the changeling tries to think about what it might be. It seems to be an ambush predator that reels in its prey, similar to the cave fishers that dwell underground, but Ravenna has never read anything about a simian, arboreal version before. A tree fisher?
The creature snaps its tail forward and impales Ravenna, the barbed filament lodging in her body. It tries to haul her up into the trees, but she somehow manages to resist the pull!
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Nox squeeks in protest at the sudden fire and hurls himself out of the way, before realizing there was no need to do so himself. He certainly doesn't want to be caught in that things web or any for that matter.
Looking around he spots a few errant barbs and decides to see if he can throw them at the webbing in a spin so they might cut the delicate or not so delicate fibers.
Sylva climbs up the…
“Unggg… uhh. It’s wet. Lemme just—“
As I was saying, Sylva climbs the—
“UNGGG—Oh, screw it!”
She whips her rapier at the spimonkorpion.
It might be stuck in the web now.
“Well, s~%$.”
Sir Batman Places both hands on his Shield, Strides just under the monkey-scorpion, and screams!