greater quicken metamagic rod, major ring of spell storing (contains heal, stoneskin), wand of magic missile (CL 9th, 34 charges); +4 glamered human-bane icy burst speed rapier, amulet of natural armor +5, belt of physical might +6 (Str, Dex), boots of teleportation, bracers of armor +8, crimson gown (as wings of flying but takes up the body slot, not the shoulder slot), crystal ball with true seeing, eyes of charming, gloves of arcane striking, handy haversack, headband of mental prowess +4 (Int, Wis; grants ranks in Knowledge [arcana] and Spellcraft), iridescent spindle ioun stone, pale green prism ioun stone, portable hole, ring of splendid security, vibrant purple prism ioun stone (cure serious wounds), gold-and-ruby earrings worth 5,000 gp for the pair, gold anklet set with rubies worth 4,000 gp, gold armband set with rubies worth 3,500 gp
Nicoleta Radacan wrote:
"Such a shame she turned into such a twisted b+**~. Pretty thing."
"I doubt she was ever good to begin with," Roz says. "Kazavon's teeth just amplified the darkness that already existed in her soul. There was never a chance for atonement or redemption here. We did what we had to do."
A loud, wet fart from one her attendant faeries completely undermines the solemnity of her statement. The oracle can't help but chuckle. "Oy, what a long, strange trip it's been," she remarks, rubbing her rounded belly.
She uses her magic to heal the ladies' wounds and remove the lingering pain of the recent battles. "Come on, let's go home."
For once being able to ignore her faerie tormentors' tickles enough to move swiftly, Roz dashes across the room to Aurelia's evil twin. She casts a spell and places a hand on her arm, forcing her with the irrestible urge to dance!
Rozalia renews a shield of faith on everybody. Right before you reach the top of the ziggurat, she casts prayer and blessing of fervor. ”Let’s give her hell, girls.”
As you land and become solid again, Roz groans and puts a hand to her forehead. ”Ugh. I can...feel the powerful magic here. This place is warned against teleportation and the like, but the Harrow spirits are showing me a weakness in the arcane matrix. I can pop the dimensional lock. Get us inside. Do we want to start at the bottom and work our way up, or go straight to the top? Might be better to winnow away at the queen’s guardians than risk facing them all at once.”
"Yes, let's check the last tower and then prepare to deal with Ileosa, once and for all," Roz agrees. Before they depart, though, she steps aside with Vox.
"It's almost over. And when it's all said and done, we need to talk. Like, really talk. I want to try to work things out, if you are willing to listen to me."
Roz follows suit, drawing several cards. Her armor glows a fiery red as it transforms into a different style, one with more fey-themed accoutrements that bares her expanding belly. The oracle becomes a bit more spry and agile as the magic alters her physicality somewhat. An image of keys briefly appears over her head before fading away, then she yelps as a cyclone envelops her and whisks her away!
Will vs Banishment:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Fortunately, the winds return Roz just a few moments later. She lets out a heavy sigh and adjusts her tossed hair. "Stupid elemental. Banished it. Overall, it could have gone worse."
"I've used a portion of my powerful spells," Roz says, swatting at the faeries that have returned to poke and prod her. "Thankfully, the Green Mother has deigned to restore my abilities. But if we wanna be at full strength, it doesn't hurt to get some rest."
Roz squeezes Nicoleta's hand. "It's okay. I wasn't expecting her forgiveness. We need her skills to save the city, but... but I don't need her if she don't want me. We'll kick the queen's ass and then we'll figure our the rest of our s*#%. Tell her to meet us at the rebel HQ. I'm ready to finish what we started."
Roz begins to quietly sob. "Damn it! None of this should have happened. This is all her fault. Fickle faerie b&$!$!"
She looks up at Nicoleta. "Fine, I'll say it. I'm pregnant! But it ain't some normal baby. It only happened like a week ago and I'm already getting bloated and sick. It's growing like a weed. But I don't have the heart to pluck it. And I'm scared of what would happen if I even tried.
"But we got bigger things to worry about. We need to save the city, then I can figure out what I'm supposed to do next."
"Iolaire would know how to use it," Roz says sullenly. Her stomach gurgles loudly, and she falls to her knees and retches onto the stony ground. "Ugh. Sorry, must be some lingering effects of that monster's bad breath," she groans, putting her hands to her belly.
Recovering from her nausea, Roz casts a spell. She begins to emit a calming subsonic drone that allows her allies to temporarily refocus and restore their balance.
Cast recentering drone. Nauseated allies are instead sickened for the duration.
While Roz enjoys the kiss from Nicoleta, her feelings are conflicted. She is grateful that Vox isn't here to see it and get upset about it, but she feels a pang of guilt for feeling that way, then deeper regrets for the loss of Iolaire. She remains quiet and sullen as the group retreats from Castle Scarwall to rest in the skull-topped tower created by the Kuthites.
Later, she sneaks away to find the most robust patch of scrub nearby (which isn't saying much) to perform her devotions to the Green Mother. She strips down and touches herself, reluctantly offering up a secret to her patron as a sign of her continued servitude.
The brand on her thigh glows green, but then the glow travels up to her lower belly, settling there for several minutes. Roz can feel odd sensations inside of her, and when the glow fades, she rolls on her side and becomes violently sick, vomiting into the bushes.
The oracle groans and wipes her chin before gingerly poking at her stomach. It feels like there is a hard spot there that wasn't there before. She thinks back to the faeries laughing when she drew the Midwife card, and her heart sinks as she considers the implications.
Rozalia breaks out the diamond dust and casts restoration on each of you, restoring the strength the dragon's breath drained away. Afterward, she sighs and leans against the wall. "Feeling a bit winded after that. Plus, I've used up most of my magic for the day. Do you all want to keep going or fall back and rest for a bit?"
While the others are away, Roz uses the scroll of resurrection to bring Krojun back to life. After mollifying the warrior's rage, she uses wind walk to bring him and the other Shoanti back to their homes in the Cinderlands, making a second trip to whisk Trinia and Vencarlo away to safety as well.
Drained mentally and emotionally, she collapses into her bed upon returning to the safehouse in Korvosa.
The next day, she glumly approaches Aurelia and Nicoleta. "I'm guessing Vox isn't coming with us? We gonna get this whole damn Scarwall business done or what?"
After reaching an accord with Laori and Sial, the Kuthites inform you they will meet you outside of Caste Scarwall when you are ready to begin exploring the haunted place. They fade into the shadows as they disappear from sight.
Once they are gone, Roz swallows and slumps against the wall. "You guys... I'm sorry... I did something awful last night."
The oracle goes on to explain how the Green Mother forced her into sleeping with Krojun, leading to the brave's murder and the likely permanent disapperance of Iolaire. "I did it to protect Red, but now I think I've lost her for good," she sobs with a look towards Vox.
Roz wakes up to a full on horror show. She looks with wide eyes from the tormented faeries—They'll just come back even more annoying, comes a stray thought—to poor Krojun’s head. She has a brief flash of the young Shoanti boy Gaekhen whose dismembered body the group recovered from the Dead Warrens.
Gulping, the oracle cowers from Vox’s fury. ”I’m sorry! I’m so f#@~ing sorry!” she sobs. ”I didn’t want to! I would never hurt Red of my own free will! I didn’t have a choice! She made me do it!”
Roz wraps her hands around her knees and rocks back and forth. ”She made me do it. The Green Mother. This is what she wanted. A rift between us. A reason for the Shoanti to hate us again. I hate her. I hate myself for what she made me do.”
She looks back up at Vox. ”She’ll never forgive me. And that’s what I deserve. So torture me if you want. You can’t make me feel any worse than I already do.”
Roz stands by Iolaire's side as they watch their two companions pledge themselves to one another. The tall elf is clad in a sheer robe, but Roz is fully in the buff, the short and chubby woman unafraid to let it all hang out. Besides, if she had worn clothes, she's sure her faerie tormentors would have ripped them off of her at some point anyway.
She can sense her lover's discomfort with the proceedings, and once the room opens up to a free love fest, she suggests the elf make her exit with Trinia and Vencarlo. "I'm gonna enjoy the show for a bit. Catch up with you later." She offers Iolaire a kiss and a butt squeeze.
The oracle watches as the orgy intensifies, doing her best to restrain herself. Just lookin', no harm in that, right? she thinks.
You will do more than look, child, comes a sultry voice in her head. Roz's blood runs cold as she feels warmth radiating from the mark on her thigh. It's her. The one who has marked her. The Green Mother.
W-what do you mean? she thinks back at the voice.
As your friends have claimed one another, I have claimed you, child. Thus far I have been content to let you blossom into the power that I have gifted you. But no gift is free, and now I require you to do something for me.
Yeah? And what if I refuse?
Then I will revoke your power. You will be just as helpless as when my faeries rescued you from death in that alley all those years ago. And you will watch as I make your lover suffer for your insolence.
Roz gulps and wipes at her brow. Fine. Ya got me. What do you want me to do?
An invisible faerie cups Roz's cheek and turn her gaze towards the hulking Shoanti brave across the room. Him. You will allow him to have his way with you as you perform your nightly devotion to me.
Roz balks Krojun? Ugh, no! Anybody but him!
Him. And you will not tell the elf. It will be your secret to bear. Do this, and I will ensure your power continues to blossom.
Roz can feel the Eldest's presence leave her mind. The oracle sighs heavily. There is no part of her that wants to lay with Krojun Eats-What-He-Kills. She has no desire to have an affair without Iolaire's permission. But the Green Mother cannot be denied. Reluctantly, she saunters up to the Shoanti and places a hand on his muscular arm. "Hey there, big boy. Wanna get out of here?"
***
Soon enough, Roz and Krojun slip away from the party and head to the nearby park, the area with the most vegetation in the vicinity. The last time she was here, she performed her carnal devotions with Iolaire. But now, a very different lover joins in her sacrament.
"Your friends are very inventive lovers!" Krojun says as he lays the short woman down beneath him. "And they have stamina to spare, but you are what a true woman should be. Fat in all the right places, and wide hips good for birthing! You will bear strong and healthy children!"
Despite herself, Roz moans as the big man thrusts into her, writhing in the leaves beneath him. She feels the pleasure building within her, and as Krojun pushes her over the edge, she whispers her own secret into the woods for the Green Mother to hear: "I cheated on Iolaire."
At least she remembered to take her night tea...
***
Deep in the heart of the Hanging Bower in the First World, the Green Mother watches with satisfaction as her servant perform as she commanded. The Feasting Flower smiles wickedly as she considers the intrigue she has put into motion tonight. It won't be too long until Rozalia Tilescu discovers that her attending faeries switched out her night tea for a harmless concoction. Soon enough, that seed will begin to sprout...
"Everybody deserves a chance to be free," Roz says. "Some of us don't have a choice." She frowns and rubs at her thigh, where Iolaire knows she bears the mark of the Green Mother.
"So, how long we staying in town for? That magic sword in Scarwall ain't gonna claim itself!"
Rozalia rushes after Zenobia and gestures for the faeries to help. One of the chamber pots in the nearby cell flies at the bars, splattering the undead arbiter with the foul stuff within! Zenobia shrieks as she is temporarily blinded!
"We can make some aesthetic tweaks without compromising the magic of it," Rozalia offers. "You know, make a peekaboo window for the cleavage, cut out the middle bits to show off your belly button. Form over function, I always say."
Rozalia casts a powerful spell of banishment! The three summoned mantises disappear as quickly as they appeared, sent back to Hell. You hear a high-pitched shriek that sounds like the goblin bartender you encountered as the invisible fiend is also banished!
Roz weathers the spiritual torrent well, already used to numerous voices whispering and laughing in her ears. She kneels beside Iolaire with concern, rubbing her shoulders until she comes back to herself.
"Sounds like there's no help for it," Roz says. "We gonna rush back to the city right away? Got some magic that can help us get there quickly. Or should we wait for the Sun Shaman to come back?"
"Yeah, it's nice to get away from the city. Especially the city lately. Bleh, the queen's really let everything go to s$*&, hasn't she?"
Roz snuggles herself under Iolaire's arm, the faeries merficully quiet for a change. Seeing her expression, the oracle adds, "I'm sure they're fine. Cressida'll make sure nothing happens to them while we're gone."
