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Elanna accepts the card with a slightly awkward smile and nods her agreement. "Of course. How about the Arch of Stars?" Since this door was dealt with without a fight she feels reasonable about tracking down the next card, even if there is almost certainly a hag involved.
Once the others return from their shopping trip they find Elanna staring at the arches contemplatively. "There's no obvious right answer here." She says slowly. "So I think we start here." She points to the arch of Crowns. "It won't be a real show, but it's a place to start. You both ready to go?"
Elanna sighs as Natalya charges off and waits to make sure that Anna and Dimitrie are safe as they settle in with the arches. Once they seem to be getting on smoothly she wanders off to explore the castle further.
This change - this awakening - shifts Elanna's very motivation - her sense of purpose. "The Great Dreamer knows just what she wants of us, she has a vision and she has laid it out clearly. Did you all experience that too?" Elanna asks with awe. "This is our purpose now - we do everything we can to fulfil the Goddess of Fortune's wishes and be her servants." Yes - there was nothing in those visions to say Elanna's patron God was involved, but its clear that she is utterly and totally convinced by the fact. Elanna concentrates on her own card stares at it a moment and then closes her eyes - the image ingrained in her mind - thinking of nothing else and using her meditation techniques she learned and practiced everyday.
Elanna slumps back against the wall, wincing heavily and closes her eyes, steadying her breath. "Well, that was unexpected." Her voice is awfully distant. "I need a few minutes before we try to unpick this further. Dieral, you don't have anything here to help do you?"
Elanna is expecting devilish trickery and thanks to Natalya's aura emerges completely unscathed as she turns her fury on the devil with a combination of fury and desperation as arrows threaten to fell her once more.
"There is a vial in my backpack if we need it." Elanna says rather frantically, as she swings again before scrabbling a few steps away from the tiefling creating some space between them and hoping this fiery woman - whatever her name was - immolates it.
Elanna, disoriented from her fall, takes a second to get her head back in gear before scrabbling back up and doing her absolute best to eliminate the tiefling.
Elanna is clearly losing momentum at this stage, but her determination shows no bounds.
Elanna feels a splitting pain and hears a sickening crack as the tiefling's axe clearly breaks a bone or two.
With all the power she can muster, she swings her greatsword in a giant arc as she twists to face the tiefling stood in front of her.
Elanna howls out as adrenaline surges through her body allowing her to remain standing and continue in her onslaught.
Jyst as Elanna goes to open her mouth to comfort the man, so they can finally get some answers, the doors fly open. "Stay behind us Dieral!"Elanna commands as she leaps to action and grasps her sword. "You will regret the day you spawned, fiend."
"No, no need to wait and I don't think we really have the luxury of waiting anyway" Elanna replies, pursing her lips. "I imagine that if the Absalom law enforcement are good at their jobs, it wont be long until someone catches up with us about the mess that started this."
Any more additions would clearly muddy the water at this point, so Elanna nods along with a sober expression.
At this stage in the back and forth to find Dieral, Elanna just wants answers and doesn't particularly want to discuss the antiquities in the room and sighs heavily as Dimitrie accepts a cup of tea, knowing it is just going to lengthen the visit that much more. She walks up to Natalya's side and crosses her arms impatiently, watching alongside the other woman also caught up in this confusing mess of who-knows-what that is distracting her from her actual work.
Elanna, knowing that she was usually right about just going for the direct route, nods and smiles when he answers her own questions. As Natalya suggests they have a go at the obstacle course, she pipes up "I don't think we have the time." But she is too late and before she knows it she is hanging around waiting in the shop tapping her feet impatiently for the others to return.
Elanna nods along in agreement herself, a mobile medical station actually sounds quite useful. "Perhaps it could even have some additional functions such as an alarm system that could emit a loud noise so people would move out of its way when it is coming, as well as a very good suspension system in case you need to move patients without harming them." "Either way, Dimitrie is right, whilst you're helping out Anna here, do you recall anything about Dieral, as we're looking to ask him some questions only he is able to answer."
Ela declines the tattoo at first, but having seen Natalya barely flinch during the process, she changes her mind and passes her forearm to the artist. "Oh, go on then if both of you have had a go, why not." At Dimitrie's suggestion, she shrugs her shoulders and waves a hand. "After you. Maybe we will find answers - or maybe just more of a set up."
Ela lets out a sigh and shakes her head in disbelief at Anna before continuing on her own line. "You must at least know which area of the city he's from right? Might have mentioned it once or twice? Know where he lives or his local tavern?" She couldn't help but hope that he would be so distracted by Dimitrie's ridiculousness that he would answer the question without even thinking.
"Handsome eh?" Elanna says, speaking up. "We don't think anything happened to him, but we've been pointed in his direction and would love to have a chat with him, apparently he has some answers we need." Elanna either not realising, or not caring, about Dimitrie's attempt at subtlety, asks the main question outright.
"Yes - I can join you. I'm getting myself back together thanks. If you wouldn't mind waiting another few minutes I'll be myself again." Elanna replies to Dimitrie with a grateful nod, happy someone noticed about her current condition. "This whole situation feels...off. What is the chance that at the precise moment we all show up at the same time to this particular door looking for answers, that the person who might have given us answers was brutally murdered by these foul fiends? Slim to none, I'd say. But were they awaiting our arrival here so we would know? Or was something else playing a part?" A dark thought crosses her mind causing her brows to furrow. "You wouldn't think this was a set up would you? All of us would have been seen standing and staring at the front door for a few moments before entering. Then the shop owner is found murdered?"
Elanna catches her breath and leans herself and her blade against the closest wall, watching as the others search the room for any hints and regaining her strength. After a moment she closes her eyes, lets the world slip away from her mind, and mutters a prayer to her Goddess.
A few minutes later she opens her eyes again and returns her attention to the search in front seeing them finishing up. "What's the assessment then? Any clues why we were all bought here simultaneously or are we out of the Good Lady's Luck?"
Elanna channels her pain into another loud primal roar, her face snarling as she pulls back her sword to swing yet again.
Elanna, so fueled by adrenaline and hatred carries on without a pause or murmur of thanks to Ana - her focus completely and truly on eliminating the fiends in the room. Empowered by the sorceror's haste, she hefts her greatsword into the ram-headed devil's torso.
Elanna's eyes widen in disbelief as she gives herself a split-second to survey the scene in front of her - fiends - proof that her current theories might be right. She throws back her head and lets out an almost primal roar of anger; the hood of her cloak falls around her shoulders revealing two horns nestled among coppery red hair.
Fortunately she moves faster than she ever has before, with Natalya's wind behind her and Dimitrie's haste, she manages to close the distance between her and the furthest fiend with no trouble at all.
"Focus on one!"
Elanna can't help roll her eyes at the Varisian's typical flamboyance and flourishes before playing around with the card in her own hands trying to fold and gently tear its edges. "Definitely worth taking this one seriously." Elanna says, responding to the others' cynical attitudes to the Harrow. "I used to not believe in them myself, but someone gave me reason to keep an open mind. We cannot understand everything on Golarion you know, sometimes you just need a little faith." As Anna tries the door, Elanna ponders aloud. "Im presuming the person inside has either been directed here themselves or has bought us all here with this little trick of theirs." As long as its not one of Dad's cronies. She cannot help but dread the consequences if it was. "Either way, I agree, we need to head inside as dallying around here is not going to help anyone."
A low rumble of a laugh escapes the lips of the heavily-freckled pale-skinned woman, as her lips curl cynically into a smirk under her deeply-hooded cloak. "I had my suspicions." She replies, without elaborating further. "I'm Ela" The woman adds as her hand cautiously, almost habitually, gently tugs the tip of her hood, checking it was still fully covering her hair. Her right hand delves into one of her deep pockets and she pulls out her own card, left hand still firmly stowed away. "The Brass Dwarf," she says and looks over towards the Rabbit Prince to compare the art styles and shrugs her shoulders, "I presume, given the wildly unusual situation, that they're all from the same deck - pretty though." She takes a moment to sneak a calculating scan of Dimitrie. She had seen his previous skills with the Harrow but hadn't even considered she would be seeing him here outside the same shop of her vision. This certainly complicated her initial ideas at least. "And yours?" She asks, gesturing the card towards Dimitrie and the other unexpected guest. "Perhaps a little knowledge might enlighten us all."
Something in Elanna's eyes flickers for a moment before her usual smile reasserts itself. "Well don't work yourself too hard Hope." The rogue says casually. "We don't want to lose you at this stage! Let Ruby take a few more hits, I think the girl actually likes it!" She adds quietly, hoping to draw at least a small smile from the strange young woman. She isn't a monster after-all, making your friends laugh isn't dangerous and Hope knows how they stand now. ----------------------------------------------------
The rogue has a clear preference regarding doors but does spare a glance for her sister. "You got any 'wrathful' magic Fi? Or shall we save resources and go this way?"
Elanna, who is becoming thoroughly sick of blobby oozes, magical traps and blobby ooze summoning magical traps, is quite content to let her sister go first. Fi has a terrible habit of rushing in, but at least that only applies to relationships. She takes magic very seriously. Seeing Hope falter the aasimar approaches and leans against the wall nearby. "You ok?" She asks casually.
Elanna is not overly happy about this plan but at least she isn't going first so she holds he peace, at least until something horrible happens to Ruby.
"Do it Trel!" Elanna growls, eyes flicking between her fallen sister and where the ghost vanished. "Do it before I burn all these damn books and banish it that way!"
Elanna isn't much of a reader, at least not of dry historical texts, but she can see that her sister isn't quite as unaffected by the Viralane situation as she makes out so she stays by Fi's side as she works. Passing books and jotting down notes when her sister muses out loud is a routine the twins established long ago and the rhythm is soothing.
Elanna stays out of the way and tries not to cough too loudly.
With her plan of incapacitating Viralane quickly working perfectly Elanna falls back as quickly as she can, trying to keep the contents of her stomach inside her.
Elanna stays out of the interrogation, there's no need for her involvement. More importantly it keeps her out of sight once the spellcasters start monopolizing. Much better to let those who have more experience with it take the initial brunt. Then Fi starts grandstanding...
Seeing that her companions have this one well in hand Elanna remains in her hiding place and waits for the foes beyond the door...
Elanna, not run to rush in, moves across the room as quickly as she can and presses herself to the wall so that anyone coming through the east door won't be able to see her immediately.
Ela can feel Hope's gaze on her, and even though she knows that encouraging the girl will only lead to more pain, she can't help but glance back with a sly wink. Ela feels oddly drawn to the dagger that Screaming Moon seems to be eyeing so cautiously and picks it up, sucking in a deep breath as she does so. "This just feels so natural." She says, tossing it between her two hands with ease.
Elanna sets to her, very careful, work.
Thankfully the door doesn't seem to be trapped, just difficult. Luckily Ela has a lot of experience dealing with difficult
"Better safe than sorry." Elanna replies, using the motto that the sisters ignore far more than they follow. She spends a few minutes loosening cogs and springs until the mechanism is simply a load of corroded junk with no remaining power. "Good, no chance of someone leaving us a nasty surprise now." She says with a nod. "Lead the way Ruby." As they walk she glances at Hope, with a sneaking suspicion in her mind that the other woman's vacant glance suggests less than innocent thoughts distracting her...
Elanna examines the figure carefully, trying to work out what on earth it is and more importantly, how it works.
*Glares daggers at Fi and mouths this is your fault!**
Elanna ducks behind another spirit, since attacking them while their ectoplasmic backs are turned seems to be the most effective (and in her mind fair) method of fighting.
Elanna can't help but quail at the specter's and there's very little her blades can do either. Regardless she ducks around them, trying to open them up for Fi to strike them down.
"Well you found that problem well enough." Elanna replies. "I am not prepared to deal with stuff like that. You are. Everything worked out fine." Still, Fi nearly got hurt so Elanna does move to the front of the group and set to work checking to traps, oozes and all things nasty.
Elanna catches the tail end of the conversation and chuckles darkly to herself. Until the twin-Kelhuud makes a move she doesn't need to either, but if he does...
Elanna seems to be the only one who notices the incongruity of a man with a longsword claiming to have an arrow nocked.
This makes her suspicious enough to pick up the tell-tale details that reveal another man in the woods and have her fading back into the trees so that she can take him in the flank if necessary. Just because Triel is talking doesn't mean things will end well.
Elanna debates running out onto the log and then decides that that is far too dangerous, especially since Fi is already there. So she aims at the further mosquito and fires a crossbow bolt instead.
Elanna has no intention of going first and shakes her head adamantly, no matter how many pointed glances she gets.
Elanna doesn't know what the significance of the dancing is, but one of her hands steals into Fi's as they watch Audrahni and Triel dance together. "We should go dancing." She whispers in her sister's ear. "Get dolled up and have some fun before we set out?"
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