Biding his time, Gabe looks for the correct target. Deciding the big one needs some work, Gabe assumes a combat stance then dashes behind it to harass it on both sides.
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Gabe pads on noiseless feet -- unsettling silence is one thing he shares with the 'human' Tallmind, anyway. You aim a hard strike at one of the stilt-like legs, and you connect with a crack. This larger oathbreaker is now off balance, swaying slightly from the damage you've dealt.
Benedetto swings hard with his blazing sword, one-two, and cuts the creature away from him. (deleted triangle)
Qizzlvutz the myconian has a small trove of treasures (including the griffon statuette) from their time in Heap, the universal garbage dump and barrel-bottom of the planes. The summoned griffon flaps into the air toward the high ceiling, away from the oathbreakers and their greedy, thorny grip. Qizzlvutz hangs on with their remaining strength.
Aisling, your timing is excellent, and the two flasks impact near each other and almost the exact same time. Flames and holy water eat away at the faceless abomination as it scratches and claws at its own wooden mask-like face. A pungent white foam leaks out of its mouth, and then it is still.
(deleted triangle)
The drained monks huddle in groups, trying feebly to stay away from danger.
The bog which eventually swallows the stairs lies far below, bubbling to itself, but nothing further emerges for now.
****
Benedetto, two of the oread monks help flank the last oathbreaker near you, and you easily finish it with a final fiery thrust (deleted)
With a desperate look in their eyes, they point to the bog below. "Or leader has been down there too long! He was trying to find the heart of this gargantuan monster." He looks too tired to explain further.
On the descending stairs, one of the monks of overwhelmed by three of the oathbreakers. His screams are cut off as his skin crusts over with the same wooden mask as the oathbreakers themselves. (triangle added)
***
The larger oathbreaker takes a vicious swipe at Gabriel, but his psionic reflexes are far too fast for the undead creature to match.
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This one is harvesting a few of the creatures' remains with telekinetic tools that shine vague and gray. A note: Remind all companions when this one returns to 'Hearth'-- a laboratory is necessary.
A Tallmind's duty is to learn.
Samen can't quite reach the group of oathbreakers with the power of the sun, so he moves closer and instead unleashes the inky darkness of his subconscious anxieties.
Glancing up and since Qizz is not in range she can focus on the fight. Wide swings slamming into the oathbreaker
Samen's merciless anxiety coils around the oathbreaker's legs with a ferocity that reflects his worries over storytellers and songbirds. The black, unsettling tendrils constrict further, and the masks gurgle in what might be pain.
Kallik likewise think of ever ugly thing that's happened since she died and came back as a damn ghost and SWINGS her axe. She beheads the empowered oathbreaker, and it topples down.
Qizz, as the griffon flies closer to the ceiling, one of the roots reaches out and attempts to grab you.
Still improvising, acutely aware of the god fragment in his hair, Aisling tentatively prays to Birdsong
"Lady of Song, silenced as you were, could you afford minor burst of holy fire to finish these creatures that served as your guards?"
He holds fire flask in one hand and lightning in another, letting her decide if she wants to involve herself.
"Feel free to use my energy, my sylphness of you will."
Grateful the big beasty hasn't moved, Gabe lays into it becoming a blur of fists and feet.
Benedetto sees the remaining group of enemies in the grasp of Samen's spell, but still worryingly close to some of the drained monks. He moves over to interpose himself, blade ready to strike if one of the enemies breaks free.
The drained monks huddle in groups, trying feebly to stay away from danger.
Benedetto, one of the oathbreakers tries to flee the tentacles, but your preparation pays off. Your vengeful flaming sword turns half the thing to ash by the time your swing is complete. (deleted)
Gabriel, you pummel the thing to pieces, and for a moment your mystical fists take on another property: they glow with yellow sunlight. You feel a nearly painful heat in your knuckles as you set flame to the monstrous oathbreaker with the speed and power of your punches. (deleted!)
Qizzvutz, your try to steer the griffon away from the grasping roots,
but you are unused to piloting this animal, and you come too close to the roots. The griffon drops away to avoid being captured, but Qizzlvutz is stuck fast. You wonder if you will become food for new oathbreakers.
Sensing something is amiss with the drained monks, the uninjured oreads separate their brethren and try to make them comfortable on the floor. They also gently move them away from the 'black tentacle' area as Benedetto takes up his defensive position.
Aisling, at first, nothing but a quiet stillness meets you words. Then, a small chirping sound, rhythmic and sweet. Louder now, like a bard ready to rouse sleepy tavern goers to one last dance. Finally, a sudden burst of SOUND that you feel in your chest-
the fire flask shoots out of your hands, shattering open, mixing with this divine sound flowing through the air, and a storm of glass, fire, and holy energy slams into the far oathbreakers.
(two more triangles deleted)
A creature made of living stone and boulder slowly emerges from the bog below. At first, its ponderous progress hides its bulk, but it becomes apparent that this latest enemy is at least the size of a giant.
(added big grey boulder at bottom of stairs)
Looking up and hoping the height is enough to keep Qizz safe for now. It better Nothing is close anymore which is frustrating, so she runs off to join to fight, it's all she is good at.
With the smaller oathbreakers in check, Samen will move toward the edge of the platform to unleash holy sunlight on the creature below.
"Monks, get your brothers out of here! Now! Move!"
Aisling dashes forward readying one of his own personal bombs.
Ooc: dash forward, lightning bomb in hand
Aisling, as you take a few steps forward, you realize your desperate plea to the goddess has cost you more than you thought -- you are suddenly tired, as if you been toiling for the whole day. You stop to catch your breath before you pass out.
Kallik climbs the wooden walls, hesitant at first. The roots and branches provide ample handholds, so Kallik gains confidence and approaches the top. With a savage backhand swipe of her axe, she severs all the roots holding Qizzlvutz.
The griffon dives and catchs Qizz, who blows bubbles of fright and joy at the same time.
:(
Samen, your sunbeam connects, hitting the creature solidly in the chest. As the sheer force of the beam chips away layers of stone, you see a face, an oread's face, shouting from inside creature's torso.
Samen, your heart lurches as you recognize the oread trapped within the boulder giant, having his strength drained--
your brother Wamblee.
Aisling takes time to regain his strength.
Benedetto waits at the edge of the tentacles, watching the last of the enemies still trapped in them, blade at the ready to intercept it if it breaks free and goes for the still-vulnerable oreads behind him. Without taking his eyes off it, he says to the others, "Once this last one is dead, can you get rid of these? I don't think they'll help much against that big one."
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As Aisling reels from the shriek that tears through his soul, the world stills for a breath—
then answers with a low, thrumming rumble, like thunder pacing behind distant mountains.
The air thickens, heavy with charged silence.
Then, a single bright chime — the sound of wind through hollow silver quill — rings from the spark coiled in his hair.
Feathers of light and shadow burst outward in a spiraling whirlwind, lifting the evangelist from the ground.
The fatigue in his limbs vanishes, swept away by a force that sings of storms and high skies.
As his feet leave the ground, winds coil around him like a lover’s embrace, not pushing but bearing.
Chimes come faster now, vibrations pass through him harmlessly, resonating like harmonics in a tuning fork.
And above the noise, just beneath thought, a faint melody echoes:
Birdsong, alive again — small, but fierce.
As the wind dissipates, Aisling gently drops down, floating to the ground.
Clinging to the griffon and thinking about all their spells. No fire but they can summon fire. Stretching their legs to wrap around the griffon so they begin summoning. So they can be useful.
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Samen thinks for only the briefest of moments. Deceptive magic has been employed on this mission, but that was air corruption, not earth. Surely this is real. But why would Wamblee be here before the path was cleared out?
Uncharacteristically, Samen acts before gathering all of the information. The consequences of hesitating... He dives off the platform and plunges toward his brother. With desperation and no backup plan, he grabs his brother by the face.
You're coming with me now.
Benedetto slays the last oathbreaker as it tries rabidly to escape (deleted)
Gabe stands ready. The situation seems in hand for the moment, so he waits for some dumb bullsh-
Samen jumps like a completely insane person,
and teleports away with Wamblee, landing neatly at Gabe's feet...after falling another several inches to the ground with a loud thud.
Wamblee has gotten the wind knocked out of him from the spell and the fall, but he is clearly alive and breathing.
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such a lush, smelly bog, on a plane of metaphor and dream...a myconian paradise...
The stone husk crumbles as Wamblee escapes, and the huge thing tumbles back into the bog with huge splashes and a noxious smell. A few moments pass, and the surface settles once more, as if all the commotion had never been.
Aisling notices the disturbance first. Though this new presence is only beginning to coalesce, it feels every bit as strong as the bird-song mote nestled in his hair.
...
A gibbering, strange mind, like the lost dreams of ghosts and moldy forgotten bedrooms all rolled into a sad calliope melody, sawing back and forth on minor keys. The bog itself is slowly becoming alive. More terrifying, it is also becoming aware.
With an unsettling feeling, you are certain the heart you are looking for--the weeping, seething heart of earth on this broken plane--is somewhere within the awakening swamp below.
"Beware! Whatever these monks guarded is free now! And we need to free the pure part from below like we did with Birdsong.
Monks! What is corrupted earth on your legends? And which part is missing form earth dream?!"
Aisling is still tingling from the earlier rapture, but he rejoins Samen and Gabriel where the saved monk was.
Samen, your brother weeps weakly in your arms. "Obdurate, no..."
Feeling the climax is upon them, Gabe manifests a shield of pure thought to provide a little more protection.
"Wamblee, good to see you again..." The absurdity of the situation is not lost on him. Nothing is making much sense, so things are as expected.
Kallik doesn't let her shock at Wamblee's sudden appearance show on her face. She doesn't waste time with questions, even though she's curious. Still in her enlarged state, Kallik walks toward the stairs so that she is between the emerging monster and Wamblee. She takes a wide, defensive stance, and waits.
Aisling strides toward the monks that still stand around Benedetto.
"Your comrades need help. Move them away! Come on, something is coming, you don't want to fight them too, do you! Move!
But he has no time anymore. Regardless of them listening or not, he finds a good place close to Benedetto and stands behind a root nearby, his camouflage clothes helping him blend in.
Samen holds his brother tightly, relieved that worked. "Come on Wamblee, I know you're weak, but we need information! What is Obdurate doing, and why? Stof and Abby are both dead in quick succession, and I refuse to accept Obdurate's presence as a coincidence. What is going on?"
Not for the first time, Benedetto feels like he's come in during the second act of a play. Samen and Gabriel know this oread? Questioning the 'coincidences' here certainly seems sensible... but something's happening down below.
He nods slightly to Aisling as he slides up near Benedetto, then turns back to the stairs and the bog below. "So which is more important here, do you think? Literally, physically lighting the dark and burning away the gunk, or doing it metaphorically?"
Whatever the case, he stands at the ready at the top of the stairs, just outside the tentacles, still with his flaming sword at the ready and a prayer to Phoenix in his heart.
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"In this place? I don't believe there is a difference. Let's see what the old new story is, this all is somehow connected to Samen and Gabriel's story."
Aisling whispers back
"And we're all becoming more exotic with their story. Which is becoming our story too, Phoenix, Birdsong, The Tears...we might yet live to see The Sky."
Benedetto nods silently in agreement with Aisling.
Padding quietly over to join Benedetto and Aisling during the momentary calm, Gabe shows his sharp senses and chimes in, "In the past its usually been a combination of both the physical and the metaphorical. But unbeknownst to us, we've had a fledgling god travelling with us befit. Things have gotten a little more literal lately but once again the gods have decided to bless one of us." Gabe grins and nods to Aisling hovering barely off the ground. "Though this one is above the dirt rather than in it." Apparently the situation is making Gabe a bit more chatty than usual.
Throwing two globules of fire near where Kallik is standing. When they land both stretch and push fiery limbs out. Standing nearly as tall as Qizz and looking much like if they mycos was to be set on fire. From their perch on the griffon they smile, "Fire"
Nudging the griffon forward to get a bit closer for a better look at the newest monstrosity.
"Beware! Whatever these monks guarded is free now! And we need to free the pure part from below like we did with Birdsong.
Monks! What is corrupted earth on your legends? And which part is missing form earth dream?!"
Aisling is still tingling from the earlier rapture, but he rejoins Samen and Gabriel where the saved monk was.
[DICE=Religion]1d20+9
[Dice=Planes]1d20+13
The monks, even those who have not been drained, shake their heads exhausted and defeated.. "Nothing prepared us....that screaming thing down there is like a banshee...nothing but pain..." Supernatural despair grips the monks; you can feel hints of it in the air, but the muddied oreads seem to be drowning in it. They stare ahead, catatonic.