”That should be destroyed,” Bireli asserts. ”Should we prepare for a journey to the nearest volcano? The stories I’ve read suggest that’s where such things are tossed. The alternative is feeding it to Rovagug. The volcano seems easier.”
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"That's a wise choice," Bireli agrees, surveying his bloodied friends and nodding. "In the meantime, does what you know alert you to anything else in this room that needs to be stopped?"
Bireli manages to dodge some of Meitremar's whirling metal but not all. He steps into the snow to take advantage of Puddins' distraction. He strikes with his blade and then steps away so that the cultist must choose how to use his orbiting steel.
↺ Opportune Riposte:
Bireli grins at his sister as the demon evaporates between them. He grimaces and turns around as the cultist's energy strikes him. "Dastard!" With the scent of the ocean and Puddins' quick ministrations, he bounds around the whirling metal until he is in position to strike. He quickly thrusts and then spins to follow with a flashier strike. "Your evil will end before lunch! Ow!" The whirling metal undercuts the poignancy of his boast.
↺ Opportune Riposted (trigger: strike critical fail):
"Did you really think that your grandfather's diary was going to lead you to glory?" Bireli taunts the cultist before stabbing at the demon.
ELSE: +
Bireli's face goes slack as he turns toward the statue and genuflects. "What the hells?" he curses as he hops back up. "Oh, sorry, that wasn't very nightly." Empowered by Henry's magic, he darts over to avenge the indignity done upon his sister. "Hold still you villain!" he shouts as he thrusts toward the demon's heart.
Bireli moves after the demon. "Stand still, you demon, and accept your reckoning!" Unfortunately, that reckoning fails to manifest.
"Let me help you finish off this fellow, then we can concentrate on that maniac," Bireli says as he moves around Puddins. He skips over the snow without slowing. His grace ends there as he overcompensates on every thrust at the demon.
"By all means, when you're ready," Bireli says with a mocking wave of his sword. "You evil-doers will be undone!"
"You look beautiful, Sissa," Bireli says with an impish grin that belies the compliment. "But you don't needs your looks to crush those cultists and teach them not to mess with folk from Osprey Cove!"
"How are things up here?" Bireli asks Elsie.
"We're looking for you!" Bireli says with a grin.
"Did you just make all that up?" Bireli asks his sister. "Vloric? Xar-Azmak?' He distracts himself with the locked chest.
Bireli tries to skewer the toy snake clearly designed by a sadistic clocksmith. "There you go, Nica! Once more a little harder!"
If they're susceptible to off-guard, Bireli is flanking with Henry. I found an 18 that missed. Maybe 19 hits? Just checking.
Bireli stabs at the remaining clockwork automaton. "These are rather dangerous toys," he comments. "You can finish that one off, Nica!"
”I don’t kn—I’m not squi—ah!” Bireli tries to answer through the verbal, magical, and physical barrage around him. He stabs at the damaged snake and steps into the room.
"No worse than when you wake up in the morning, Sissa," Bireli says and flashes her a grin that does not actually reach his worried eyes. When they open the door and he spies the brass coils, he pauses. "Is that thing going to shock me if I touch it? He reaches with his sword to try to nudge the coil off of the chest before waiting for an answer.
After they are patched up and rested, Bireli leads the way. "Nothing else to it but to press on."
"Enough you fiend!" Bireli shouts as he stabs at the demon. He raises his shield and encourages Henry. "Show this lout what he gets for his poor hospitality! You can do it!"
"Then we'll send you back to the Abyss like you deserve," Bireli challenges the demon as he charges in flank it between Otoro and himself. He thrusts at the demon and raises his shield.
"I don't know," Bireli says to Puddins. "We can take this cult on our own. We've done alright so far!"
"If Nica is talking to it and we don't understand, it can't be good," Bireli says with a nervous smile.
"How many colors were still glowing in that cave?" Bireli asks as they turn away from the statue and toward the hole in the wall.
"That's good!" Bireli says and slaps her on the shoulder with intentionally too much force though not enough to hurt her. Her mail stings his hand though. "Now we need to find Otoro and rescue Henry's mom!"
Heart beating swiftly, Bireli rushes over to his sister. "Don't do that, Sissa!" What exactly the it that she did is not entirely obvious, though it probably has to do with letting a hellhound savage her to within an inch of death.
Bireli makes a daring strike at the hound as it approaches. Then he tries to leap over the hound in order to stab it from behind.
"We've got this!" Bireli says encouragingly as he dashes around the hound. "We'll have to, if we want to know what that note says!" He tries to skewer the hound's flank.
I'm posting this to all of my tables: My apologies for my delays and/or minimal posting for the past few weeks. There has been an unusually burdensome conflux of time sensitive urgencies both at home and at work, some anticipated and some not. Things are beginning to finish up, but I expect it to take another week until I'm above water.
Birelli fishes out his tool kit. "Fine. The careful way it is," he says with a chuckle.
"Let's do it!" Bireli says enthusiastically. "Maybe we can just hit it with a hammer?" He laughs.
"I'm game for any plan," Bireli says, "but I'm at a loss about how to go about dealing with that magic."
Bireli wakes as the healing energy flows into him only to get a face full of bone shrapnel. "Ai!" He collects himself and stands. "Well, we showed him!"
Bireli's body withers under the necromantic onslaught. He groans in pain but bravely grins before raising his shield and rushing to the other side of the skeletal sorcerer. "That is far too much from you," he says hoarsely. "Time to go back to sleep, I say!" He swings the hammer at the skeleton.
Bireli momentarily frowns with irritation as he observes the skeletons' bones resisting his sister's blade. With a sigh, he sheathes the magical rapier and draws the cold iron hammer before dashing into the room. Stopping near Puddins, he swings his hammer at the rusty skeleton. "It is time for you to return to sleep!"
Bireli flinches as the necrotic energies wash over them.
"Dad insisted on keeping me busy helping our neighbors, Henry," Bireli replies to the other youth. "And you can't learn to fix something without learning how to take it apart. He was also worried that if a boy didn't keep busy, he'd do something reckless like summon a demon." He poorly conceals his mirth as he looks at his sister.
Bireli draws the blade partway from its sheath and raises his eyebrows. He unfastens the sword from the skeleton's belt and affixes it to his own. The cold iron chainmail merits a second thought, but he thinks better of trying to remove it from the skeleton on this narrow ledge or hauling back the entire body. He climbs back the way he came and hops down with the others. "This is a proper blade for a knight, don't you think, Nica?" he says. . . . Once they turn their attention to the door, he looks it over. "It's trapped the same as the other door. So... slightly harder than Granny Whit's fancy clock." He removes his bundle of tools from his belt.
If that didn't break them or set off the trap, more rolls here.:
"Piece of pie!" Bireli says as he climbs out onto the rock face.
Then he makes it look easy, finding hold after hold.
He slows as he disappears around an outcropping.
He hangs on the wall staring at the ledge and trying to figure out the best way to land. Finally, he secures a hold and drops onto the ledge.
Bireli watches with a solemn face as Puddins conjures a wooden bridge. He raises his eyebrows. The he holds his belly laughing. "You let me do all that work first?" He grins at the dwarf. "Can I borrow that extra rope? I want to go get something while the others cross." He ties off Puddins rope on the old bridge post at roughly thirty feet before tying it around his waist. "I'll be right back." He starts feeling for handholds on the rock wall.
Bireli holds up a finger and then unties the rope around his waist. He ties it off on the bridge post before heading to the grapple. He tosses the rope with the grapple back to the other side of the chasm. Then he pantomimes tying the rope around his waist and makes a beckoning motion. Grapple (though he's just trying to get it on the other side):
”Thanks, Otoro!” Bireli says and accepts the rope. He pulls the first rope taught and ties it to the bridge remains on this side. Then he ties the second rope around his waist and to the bridge post. ”Puddins, could you guard that end just in case?” He hooks his leg around the taught rope and flashes a grin at his sister, ”See you soon!” Then he swings out with his full weight onto the rope in order to shimmy across.
Bireli flashes his sister a grin as he ties the rope onto a grapple. "That's why I definitely won't die, Nica!" He moves over to the edge of the chasm and looks down. "Anyone else have rope? It'll be easier if I take a second coil over." While he waits for an answer, he whirls the grapple in big loops and then tosses it toward the remnants of the bridge on the other side. Grapple Attempt:
"I can get to the other side!" Bireli says confidently. He shrugs off his pack and unfastens a coil of rope.
"Good work, Sissa!" he says as Demonica fells the construct. He helps search the room but finds nothing particularly useful.
”Oh! I thought we were letting it come to us!” Bireli says and charges after Puddins with his shield raised. He swings at the magnetic statue.
"Thank you, Otoro!" Bireli hastily shouts as he composes himself and turns his attention to the cultist beside him . He keeps his shield raised and fences with the cultist back and forth around the corner with his wooden practice sword. "You will not corrupt this island!"
Bireli gasps as the cultist stabs him deep in the shoulder.
"Move away from my sister!" Bireli shouts in challenge to the frenzied cultist. He steps easily onto Otoro's snow. There he raises his shield and swings the wooden sword at the man.
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