"Yeah... I don't know where they went, so just following you. Be prepared to sneak around if we get closer to where they went, though."
"Bee," she begins quietly. "You're a healer, right?"
Believer kept her voice down as she replied, "Yes..." wondering where the line of questioning was going given that she had healed Tessa before.
"Then you've done more good than I have," Tessa says. "Please, don't beat yourself up over should haves. I'm sure that many people are grateful you were there for them. Me, I'm just a painter that got swept up in this. You were at the protest to make a difference. I was there because I didn't want Llewella to get into trouble, which didn't do much to keep that from happening anyway."
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Believer gives a weak smile, understanding this was the girl's way of offering comfort. "I think perhaps the reasons for our actions matter less than the actions themselves. My feelings are complex about this... It is not guilt or blame, exactly. My kind have been shut-away here, as if a face like my own does harm to the eye that must look upon it. And to live and work outside this pen, I painted my face to hide my nature. Even at the protest, I disguised my features. I had many reasons for doing so, safety, to go unnoticed, sometimes even to be able to treat and heal those who would be too wary of me otherwise. For my own good and for theirs, I thought. But it occurs to me now that hiding my face implied something else... an unspoken agreement that a face like mine should go unseen. And I fear I have allowed myself to do what was easy as opposed to what was right." She said with a somber tone.
"But the past is done. I can only be more mindful from now on. It is all any of us can do." She finished, giving Tessa's shoulder a gentle squeeze.
Tessa nods, acknowledging what Believer says even if she doesn't agree with it. The past may be the past, but Tessa wonders how much good she can do in the future, or if one day Alekto will take over her body or mind, and she'd be no more. She shakes the worries away. They had murderous tooth fairies to stop.
"For what it's worth, I think you have a beautiful face," she says before she can stop herself and think of something else to say. Her cheeks color as a voice, either her own or Alekto's berates her for how vapid she must sound, but she doesn't take it back nor does she get flustered.
The trail leads back to the south, heading towards the city wall for a bit before curving back into the heart of the district. The footprints lead to the front end of an abandoned partially collapsed tavern that clearly hasn't seen any patronage in months, at least.
The tavern itself doesn't have anything interesting in it beyond some rusty silverware and moldy food, but there's a rather large section of the back storage room that has collapsed. A small hole in the rubble looks to lead deeper into the collapsed basement of the abandoned building, though you'll have to get closer to it to see anything.
Seems as if whoever the tracks belonged to were interested in seeing this tavern with its basement so you can probably safely make the assumption that on the other side of this hole, and prepare as such.
Aoede and Tessa pull scarves up to cover their faces and the hoods of their cloaks low when it appears that they have found the tooth fairies' nest.
"What do we do? Wait for them to come out or go in now," Tessa asks the others.
Believer casts Divine Favor on herself and continues to lead the way in pursuit of their quarry. She peers ahead with her darkvision and draws her longspear to be ready to attack.
"I think it's better if we advance." Maccha follows behind Believer, knowing her own senses would not be much help in this situation.
Tessa reaches out towards Believer as she leads the way in. When Maccha follows her, she pulls her hand back and looks at Llewela and Aoede. Her eidolon shrugs before readying her halberd and following the first two women in. Seeing that they are apparently going into the nest, Tessa sighs and follows.
Llewela looks around the abandoned tavern. When the others head towards the hole, she draws her adze and follows.
The main and upper floors of the tavern have been stripped of any valuables long ago, leaving the place bare besides the descent into the basement.
The small hole leads down into a water-soaked root cellar section, where four of what you presume are the tooth faeries are buzzing about in their new lair. Small patterns have been etched into the wall with teeth being pushed into them in a bizarre unsettling attempt to decorate the lair with their trophies.
As soon as you enter the lair, the four fairies turn their eyes on you and wave their oversized (for them) pliers menacingly towards the group.
Init, Round 1
17- Llewela
12- Maccha
11- Tessa
8- Faeries
6- Believer
Aoede's eyes burn as she finally finds the ones responsible for the gruesome deaths of the people of this district. She grips the halberd tight as she closes in on the closest of the vile little sprites.
Tessa stays at the back of the group as she wishes she had something that she could use to help the others.
Maccha runs alongside Aoede, positioning herself behind the fairy, trying to stab it with her silver dagger, hoping it would work on it like it worked on devils.
Llewela moves up to one of the tooth fairies, murmuring a prayer to Milani and feeling the goddess's power enter her. She swings her axe down at the grinning fey.
Maccha's attack goes wide, but Aoede's swift halberd strike finds its mark, splattering the tiny fae's body to the ground against the rotting crates where it explodes into a cloud of white fairy dust. It sticks to the two women next to it, and actually has a foul stench so sickening that both Maccha and Aoede cough harshly.
Seems as if they aren't very sturdy when faced with real combat and weapons, but nonetheless the three remaining faeries fly eagerly towards the party, pliers and teeth at the ready.
The horrible little creatures launch themselves forward towards the group and the ones targeting Aoede and Believer manage to wrench out a single tooth from the two of them.
Init, Round 1
17- Llewela
12- Maccha
11- Tessa
8- Faeries
6- Believer
Init, Round 2
17- Llewela
12- Maccha
11- Tessa
8- Faeries
6- Believer
Caught off guard by the stench of the fairy's death throes, Aoede misses her chance to kill another of the wretched things before it manages to rip off the cloth covering her face and snaking its pliers past her warding hand to rip out one of her teeth. Blood dribbles from her mouth and down her chin as she recovers from the vicious attack. The eidolon snarls, infuriated with herself and enraged by the malicious attacks these things have perpetrated, and takes a step back to bring her halberd to bear.
Tessa, however, reels as she feels Aoede's pain and anger as the fairy attacks her. She starts to pull her dagger, not knowing of any other way she could help right then and tries to get the fairy attacking Believer.
Believer curses in Celestial, sounding like a bell being kicked across the stone floor. Unable to bring her longspear to bear in such close quarters, she punches the tooth thief with her spiked gauntlet instead.
Maccha coughs and covers her mouth and that seems to spare her the worst effects of the fairy dust. The stench sticks to her, however. She moves to flank the one attacking Aoede who got hit harder by the dust and attacks it with her daggers.
Maccha is attacking to kill and braces herself for another round of fairy dust.
Llewela clamps her mouth shut, and swings at the fairy flying at her with a powerful swing of her axe to fend of its attack.
She follows that up with a second powerful swing.
Kinda hoped that Aoede and Tessa covering their faces would help hinder that. Oh well.
Maccha's first strike, Llewela's second, and Believer's are the only ones that manage to connect on the flighty little faeries. Maccha's just barely scratches the surprisingly hardy skin (dealing less damage than she feels it should), but Llewela's heavy handed blow slaps the one she hit to the ground with a crunch. Believer punches hers hard, but surprisingly doesn't finish it off
The two remaining faeries fly towards Aoede and Believer respectively, attempting to strike out at the two. This time
Init, Round 2
17- Llewela
12- Maccha
11- Tessa
8- Faeries
6- Believer
Init, Round 2
17- Llewela
12- Maccha
11- Tessa
8- Faeries
6- Believer
"These Milani forsaken little buggers." Maccha grumbles as she slashes the air for her second attack. Even though she connected on the first one, it felt like slashing at a wall and only managing to pluck a bit of loose cement.
She positions herself opposite of Tessa to attack the one bothering Believer, hoping it would be cornered. Maccha decides to strike with her trusty old dagger, the silvered one not having such a sharper edge. Maybe I could even make it bleed this time...
Believer curses again, thoroughly annoyed by the challenge of striking the tiny creature.
She takes a step away from it this time, drops her spear and draws her quarterstaff.
Aoede's limbs freeze as the fell magic of the tooth fairy's bite takes hold. Panic flares through her link to Tessa as she realizes she can't move, and thus, can't protect the noblewoman turned calligrapher and artist that she is inseparably connected to.
Tessa tries to keep her head and steps back up the stairs to get a little distance between her and the wicked fey attacking Believer. She sings a note and a slick, shimmering oil smelling of lavender and rosemary tries to coat the pliers the fairy wields.
Llewela sensing something wrong with Aeode's movement, quickly moves over to her and smacks at the fairy attacking her.
I don't think that makes it. GM, in the future, I don't mind if you roll saves like this.
Aoede is paralyzed, and the fairy targeted by Tessa's magic manages to dodge out of the way of the greasy spell. Llewela's handaxe hits the fairy square in the chest, smacking it aside and ending it.
The last remaining fairy follows after Believer (granting her another AoO against it) and viciously continues its attack attempt.
Both attacks miss wide.
Init, Round 3
17- Llewela
12- Maccha
11- Tessa
8- Faeries
6- Believer
Init, Round 4
17- Llewela
12- Maccha
11- Tessa
8- Faeries
6- Believer
Llewela seems to have worked out the fighting style of the fey, and she chases after the final fairy and slashes past its pliers, sending both the fey and its weapon to the floor.
She scans the room, but with no more apparent enemies, turns back to her friends.
"Seems clear, at least for now. If you can find your own tooth, I might be able to help put it back." she offers.
Maccha relaxes her shoulders and sighs heavily.
"I think I hate fairies." she says grimly, unaware of how silly it sounds."I'm unscathed, Llewela, thanks."
Maccha walks around the cave, looking for something... anything. She keeps her right hand covering her mouth and not very subtly has her back against the group, trying to not see her friends' smiles without one tooth and, most importantly, desperately avoiding seeing the "operation" to put them back.
She walks around the cave while speaking to the others "Is... that it, though? Were tieflings killed by cruel happenstance?"
With the faeries dead, you can take a closer look at their chosen lair. A few dozen teeth line the walls in strange patterns. In the center of one of these patterns, set in the center in what looks to be a kind of proud display, is a single solid golden tooth worth 250 gold. At the far west side of the room a near-collapsed niche sits in the wall, and even from here you can see there's something in it.
When the paralysis of the fairy's bite wears off, Aoede shivers and pales. For a moment, it seems as if the eidolon is truly Tessa's twin as the two of them hold each other tight for a moment while Aoede recovers. Once her tooth is recovered and Tessa uses the last of her magic to mend the wounds Aoede has suffered, they turn to helping the others search the place.
Both of them wear looks of utter horror when the remains of the child are discovered. The cruelty needed to do such a thing stuns the both of them.
Maccha suddenly stops on her tracks as she sees the body. The cruel happenstance' much more crueler now. Her horrified mood does not let her concentrate and, as much as she tries, she cannot recognize whatever is written on the sinews.
"We need to find whoever did this and kill them."
Believer recovers her own tooth and restores it to its proper place, then lays hands.
Turning to see what the others have found, her breath catches in her throat once she realizes what they are looking at. She moves closer, activating her ability to detect evil and magic, the tears well up in her eyes and spill down her face freely. Her memory flashes to when she was this small, huddled in a dark place, beaten, bloodied and broken. But no one came to help this foundling. No one soothed their tears with warm hands, no one healed their wounds.
Then her eyes fell on the chains and her vision swam, she collapsed to her knees, gasping for breath that did not seem to satisfy her need for oxygen. She reached with a shaking hand that recoiled in pain when she touched the cold iron. "Sh-shackles... Maccha, please... take off the shackles." She sobs desperately.
Seeing and hearing Believer's distress, Aoede and Tessa rush to her side and hold her as she sobs. Not knowing what else to do or say, they stay silent.
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Maccha puts her hand on Believer's shoulder as her friend breaks down and tries to get her when she falls, hugging her friend. She hears Believer's plea and nods, going to the body and undoing the shackles, checking if there are traps.
Llewela grips her holy symbol and murmurs a prayer as she takes in the corpse. As Maccha removes the manacles, Llewela cuts away the sinew wrapping, carefully avoiding injuring the body any further.
She looks around the nest for something to wrap the body in, but does spend some time to pry all the teeth from the wall and collect them into a pile.
"I, I can't leave them in the wall like that, we should bury them, I think."
"I agree, but... where? Back in our base, maybe? Or we could ask Zea if there is a proper burial site we could use."
Maccha had many disparate thoughts swimming in her head. If she found whoever did this, she would do whatever she could to kill them with her own bare hands, if necessary. It was the justice, the struggle for freedom Milani smiled upon, so this crime could not be repeated.
But also the Asmodean upbringing kicked in: What is the point of this? A death of a child could be, following the infernal doctrines, justified, but where was the profit? The power play? Who gained something with this? Using fey? Those capricious, unpredictable tricksters? Unless of course, they are just caged animals. It doesn't matter what exactly they do if you just want to release them in the middle of somewhere where any killing will be viewed favorably. Is this all just hatred of tieflings?
"Can we find out if this child's parents are still alive," Aoede asks as she and Tessa continue to hold Believer and comfort her. "Th-they should know."
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"Can we find out if this child's parents are still alive," Aoede asks as she and Tessa continue to hold Believer and comfort her. "Th-they should know."
Believer composes herself, gently wrapping the child's body for transport. She grit her teeth at Tessa's innocent question. The child's birth parents had probably abandoned this little one to the nursery like the rejectamenta they thought all tieflings were. That's what Hell's Nursery was for, so the nobles didn't bear the stigma from the consequences of their diabolic dealings. But that didn't mean no one cared. "We'll ask Zea..." She said simply, her voice thick as she gathered the bundle up in her arms like precious treasure. She hoped they could at least find a name to sanctify for Milani's rites.
The child's body is so damaged it's hard to identify what actually killed them. Whatever happened to him, it was extremely painful; seems like Tiarise isn't as interested in helping the tieflings as she pretends to be.
When you return to Zea with the body, she is obviously horrified but unfortunately not surprised. A resigned look of weariness comes over her as you explain what happened, that Tiarise likely orchestrated the summoning, if not the entire killing spree. "I am not surprised, this sort of thing happens quite often to...to us." she says, leaving the 'tiefling' part unspoken. Cheliax doesn't have that great of a view on tieflings in general, and it seems as if even here they can not escape the negative treatment. Especially with the new Thrune in town.
When asked about the child's parents, Zea unfortunately confirms Believer's fears. "I don't recognize her unfortunately, which all but ensures she is one of the many orphans, voluntary or not, that you can find on every corner of the Nursery. If you want to put her to rest properly, we have our own little graveyard we keep to ourselves. I can take you there, help you perform our traditional rites, should you wish." she says, smiling somewhat weakly as if to cover the immense pain she is surely in constantly in her line of work.
Maccha remains silent on the way back and once again covered her mouth with her handkerchief, this time to try to hide her own gnashing teeth. When they arrive, she helps the others explain what happened.
"Please do. It's the least she deserves."
Tessa, too horrified and grief-stricken to trust her voice, gives Zea a hug both by way of comfort and as a way of saying thanks.
"Please do. It is pathetically little, but it's all we can do for now," Aoede says as she stays by Believer's side, offering what comfort she can.
Believer gave a heavy sigh but was not remotely surprised. She'd named herself, after all. Tiefling orphans tended to go by street names usually given by each other. "Time to rest, little Mouse. May you nibble sweet rosehips in Milani's Garden." She murmured, gently stroking the small corpses brow.
She nodded to Zea to lead on, gathering the body carefully again for her final journey.
Zea takes you across the street to the graveyard of a long-abandoned church, which you can tell even at a glance was once dedicated to Desna.
"We aren't allowed to have service here anymore, obviously. But they don't stop us from...using the graveyard." she says, finishing solemnly. "We can put her to rest her."
You see that more than one grave has been dug ahead of time, leading you to believe that perhaps death here is more common than you'd like to think about. A couple of other funerals are happening alongside yours, most likely the other victims now that the case has been solved. A few of the other people milling about look over and offer weak smiles of thanks or nod in appreciation as you pass by.
Zea takes the wrapped body of the orphan to one of the smaller ones, placing it inside a small poorly-made wooden coffin from a stack of them before setting it down in the grave.
"I am not very good at speeches, if any of you want to say anything..." she says, trailing off, her voice seeming unsure and unsteady.
Tessa starts to sing when Zea asks if they would like to say anything. Unfortunately, she barely gets through a verse of the lament before she breaks down sobbing.
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Believer aided Tessa's song as best she could, but honestly the chorus of sobs served just as well.
Then, she made an effort to compose herself but her voice still quavered with grief as she began to speak.
"Today we bring a child of Kintargo to her final rest. She may be unnamed, but she is not unmourned. Death came too soon for this little Mouse. But in death, may she find the peace and freedom that eluded her here. Milani, we pray, take her up and give her the comfort we were too late to offer. Her blood stained these streets which were her prison, may she frolic in your Garden and bloom in joy evermore."
Maccha decides to not say anything. What was there to say? She was sure Tessa and Believer would know the right way to act or the right words for such an occasion. What Maccha was good for was the swift vengeance she was hoping to fulfill on whoever did this.
She nodded along Believer's beautiful words, touched by the display of a religion she was part of, in her heart, but never participated in the rituals, so different from her childhood's prayers.
Zea and the other nearby tieflings (whether attending the orphan’s funeral or one of the few others visiting the graveyard) all obviously are brought to tears by Believers’ words. The mention of Milani seems to surprise a handful of them, but none of them are outraged or even look like they want to protest. Seems as if you’ve found a sympathetic group in the hellspawn, which is to be expected.
After the funeral is over, Zea approaches you once more. ”Thank you…so much. That was beautiful, more than I could have possibly hoped for. Both the words and killing those…things…for us. We don’t have much here in the Nursery, but any time you need any sort of healing or even a place to hole up, you are all more than welcome to come calling. You know where to find me, obviously.” she says, laughing quietly despite the circumstances. ”Perhaps I could even make dinner for us all one evening, who knows?”
Llewela stands quietly at the funeral, listening to Believer's eulogy and reflecting. It was good to have been able to do something real to help the community, but she couldn't help thinking about the bigger problem in Kintargo.
--
"We're just glad we could help." she answers Zea after the funeral. "But in our fight for the city, a safe place to hide on occasion would be a great help for the cause."