Elaine held the large gash on her side, taking a moment to actually take a breath. The shaking that had taken over her entire body had subsided, and she was finally able hold steady. She removed her rapier from the zombie child's chest and held it tightly. The bard could see in Orel's eyes that he thought he knew her, she could see the judgement in his eyes.
"You're making a great many assumptions, Orel," she replied softly. "I wish we had time to take a moment to patch up our, or at the very least my, wounds, but creepy children singing is never a good sign. Do you know where 'mama' is?"
"Marius, was it? You can stay in the back and keep flinging your magic. How's that for tactics?" He finally takes a look around at the group. His own wounds ached and he could feel the blood oozing out from his bites, but it wasn't safe to rest in the house yet. They could exit and return later, but they had just began to progress. He sighs deeply, "What do you suggest, kid? From what I remember, I was the only one calling out commands at all during that battle. You didn't expect this place to be flowers and fancy welcomes, did you? I expected everyone here to know how to handle themselves. If not, they wouldn't be here. If you failed to find your place on the battlefield, that's on you."
He points to the door in answer to Elaine, "My guess is she's in there, waiting for us."
"Do you have any idea what she is?" Elaine asked, grabbing her viol bow and straightening up. "I'm with you, we need to get in there and deal with her now, before it's too late. I am just not a big fan of dying today, I hope you understand."
The bard walked over and gave Marius a pat on the cheek. "How's this for a plan: kill anything that's not us."
"The two battles we've had started before the rest of us were ready, because you decided to open doors before anyone else even knew what you were doing!"
He pivots on his heel and nearly collided with the approaching bard. He takes a deep breath, trying to get his racing heartbeat and emotions under control.
"Look - I'm not trying to sound like some Watch Commander. I take bounties for a living. I know that you don't live long in my line of work kicking down doors before you have ANY idea of what's behind them. There - I've said my piece. Let's find Mama before she finds us.... Oh. And there's still that room up there." He points up to the top of the rickety staircase.
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid,Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions! I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
Stone had sank to squatting against the wall, resting his hands in his lap and eyes closed to the scene around him. As the others debated, the monk imagined them through different forms. Orel stood as a spiral pillar of Water and Fire; always driving and moving in reaction to circumstance, but somehow built of contradicting emotions. Elaine was a swirling fog, free as the driving wind, but retaining a substance of sorts. Rey seemed to be a lurking shadow trying to mask a secret, like an adult version of a child with a pilfered toy. Then there was Marius, an enigma. He seemed flexible, yet driven by something greater.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
Rey leaned against the wall, struggling to breathe, favoring the leg with a chuck missing. When the child started singing again, she noticed how the sound... lingered and bounced. It was a trick of the house, the shape of the rooms. But she couldn't pinpoint it when everyone was bickering among themselves. "Shut up! Everyone just shut up a moment!"
Then the silence set in. Rey cocked her head toward the closed door Orel was so intent on opening. "It's quiet in there. If there's something in there, it's not moving or breathing. Just... nothing. That singing, though." Rey pointed up. "It's coming from above us." She winced and held her ribs, waiting for the others to decide their next move.
Marius stage whispers, "Well, I've been on those stairs... they won't hold more than one of us."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid,Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions! I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
Ignoring the door Orel is standing at, Rey starts making her way up the rickety staircase leading to the attic. Keeping her steps light, she managed to make her way up without destroying the whole thing. At the top, she's face to face with the facade of the house. Upon closer inspection, it looks like a mirror image of the front of the house, complete with a little door, the perfect size for a child's playhouse. Unlike the rest of the house, this looks well maintained. Not shiny and new like her dagger, but like someone has been taking care of it. Something told her that the singing was coming from in there. Taking a breath, and ignoring the pain, Rey leaned forward and knocked on the door.
Orel takes a deep breath as Rey begins her ascent. He knew the stairs would buckle and break under his weight, so all he could do was hope for the best. Looking down at his wounds, he decides now might be a good time to bandage them. He pulls a few scraps of cloth from his pack and makes himself a few makeshift bandages.
"Do you mind?" The half elf approached Orel, pointing at the particularly nasty gash on her side. The healer obliged, and patched her up a little. "By the gods, that feels better. Thank you."
"I suppose we'll all follow to the next room of horror," Elaine sighed before standing up and following Rey up. The bard only managed to get halfway up the stairs before the whole thing came crashing down. She fell with a dull thud, in a pile of rubble and wrought iron, the impact causing her to lose consciousness.
After bandaging the half-elf, he hears the commotion from the stairs and looks over. Seeing the half-elf crumpled to the ground, he rushes over in a few long steps and kneels down next to her. He checks her pulse and pauses for a moment before standing back up and raising his arms above her body. Skeletal hands materialize around her as if they're trying to pull her downward. He gives a flicking motion and the hands begin to retract and return to the floor below.
"Not yet," he says, "Or... again." She falls into a deep slumber, the slow rise and fall of her chest an indicator that death is no longer trying to take her. Picking her up, he takes her to the only room they cleared.
To the others he says, "She'll wake eventually. She needs to rest for now."
With the knock on the playhouse door, high in the house's central tower, the singing stops and the door creeks open. Inside, the playhouse is crowded with furnishings, including a large spinning wheel at which a small girl, probably 11 years old, sits in a neat and clean dress of red silk with white ruffles.
"I often sing when I'm spinning thread," the girl says as she looks up at Rey.
One eye milky and blind and the other a burning, fiery green, she lifts her left hand slowly. On that hand, Rey sees a silk hand-puppet dressed in motley. As the girl speaks again, Rey can see it is the puppet's mouth moving rather than the girl's - hers has long since been sewn shut.
"Daddy says I have a stupid voice," she says with a broad smile. "But daddy's been sleeping a long, long time."
"Your daddy is wrong," Rey said, sitting on the floor. "I think you have a lovely voice." Keeping an eye, so to speak, on the girl, Rey reached around to her pack and started digging around for something. "Eleanor, that's your name, isn't it?" Finding what she was looking for, she pulled out the hand mirror and hairbrush. "Are these yours? I found them downstairs. I thought maybe you'd like them back." She held out the matching set for the girl.
She nods and brushes back her hair with her right hand, on which much of the flesh has worn away to the bone. She glances at the mirror and brush briefly, but looks away from them with a grimace.
"Eleanor, yes," she says. "It's been a long time since I've heard anyone say my name. The children here don't speak anymore. Papa took them to the special rooms in the basement. They screamed for awhile, but then they never made a sound again. I never went to the special rooms, but Papa hated my voice, so he made sure he didn't have to hear it anymore."
She smiles at the puppet and it smiles back at her.
"That's before I met Giacomo, though. He gave me my voice back."
She rings one of the bells on the puppet's jester hat with her bony hand and she giggles, but then, for the first time, her smile fades and she looks at Rey with deadly seriousness.
"I tried to count them once, but I couldn't. The pieces are everywhere and I couldn't find them all. I'd rest better if I knew how many of them papa silenced. But I probably never will..."
Rey, seeing the look the girl gave the mirror and hairbrush, quickly put them back into her pack. She smiled at the puppet. "Nice to meet you." Turning back to Eleanor, she said, "My friends and I have taken care of..." she trailed off, counting in her head. "Nine of those children. If there are more, we'll take care of those, as well. But some of us are injured. I've hurt my ribs and can hardly breath. We need to rest a little bit before we finish. Do you know of somewhere safe we can do that? Oh, and do you know anything about the room with the symbol and the scythe?"
"Yes, I know you did. I watched and sang the song that Mama taught me. I made up new words to it, though."
She giggles, which looks strange and disturbing as her face strains against the stitches in her mouth.
"It's sad you had to hurt them, but they were being very naughty so I understand. They bothered me once, too, when I tried to go check on Papa, but I ran up here and they wouldn't follow. Those were just his favorites, though, the ones he kept aside and cuddled with now and then. There were many more, but I can't find them all. He told me the number once. He was very proud of it. But I can't remember."
She casts her gaze downward.
"Mama always tried to protect them until Papa hurt her with his silver knife. I'm afraid no one's getting any rest in this house while Mama's upset. The way she wails when she's angry - it makes my skin crawl."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PBP "Beregost Blues" - Dungeon Master of Gnome Slaying +5
Marius groans softly and waves Stone and Orel close so they can converse. "If there are 38 more little biters in the place... We'd better come up with something good. Thoughts?"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid,Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions! I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
"Eleanor, can you tell me where Mama is? I can try to make her stop. Then she won't bother you anymore." Rey smiled at the child and puppet. "Is there anything else you need? Anything I can do? My friends and I will try our best to help."
Stone's personal meditation remains unbroken as all conversations and actions transpire. Even in response to Marius, he gives his namesake great credit, "Fire is the great cleanser. Life from Death, hope in darkness. Clear what we can, but have plenty of torches and oil ready."
Stone at least removes the small pack from his back and throws it out onto the floor, "There's rope there. You'll need it to bring down our Shadowwalker unless she can fall with more grace than she fights."
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
Elaine held the large gash on her side, taking a moment to actually take a breath. The shaking that had taken over her entire body had subsided, and she was finally able hold steady. She removed her rapier from the zombie child's chest and held it tightly. The bard could see in Orel's eyes that he thought he knew her, she could see the judgement in his eyes.
"You're making a great many assumptions, Orel," she replied softly. "I wish we had time to take a moment to patch up our, or at the very least my, wounds, but creepy children singing is never a good sign. Do you know where 'mama' is?"
PBP: DM of Titans of Tomorrow
PBP: Lera Zahuv in Whispers of Dissent
PBP: Evaine Brae in Innistrad: Dark Ascension
PBP: Cor'avin in Tomb of Annihilation
"Marius, was it? You can stay in the back and keep flinging your magic. How's that for tactics?" He finally takes a look around at the group. His own wounds ached and he could feel the blood oozing out from his bites, but it wasn't safe to rest in the house yet. They could exit and return later, but they had just began to progress. He sighs deeply, "What do you suggest, kid? From what I remember, I was the only one calling out commands at all during that battle. You didn't expect this place to be flowers and fancy welcomes, did you? I expected everyone here to know how to handle themselves. If not, they wouldn't be here. If you failed to find your place on the battlefield, that's on you."
He points to the door in answer to Elaine, "My guess is she's in there, waiting for us."
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"Do you have any idea what she is?" Elaine asked, grabbing her viol bow and straightening up. "I'm with you, we need to get in there and deal with her now, before it's too late. I am just not a big fan of dying today, I hope you understand."
The bard walked over and gave Marius a pat on the cheek. "How's this for a plan: kill anything that's not us."
PBP: DM of Titans of Tomorrow
PBP: Lera Zahuv in Whispers of Dissent
PBP: Evaine Brae in Innistrad: Dark Ascension
PBP: Cor'avin in Tomb of Annihilation
"The two battles we've had started before the rest of us were ready, because you decided to open doors before anyone else even knew what you were doing!"
He pivots on his heel and nearly collided with the approaching bard. He takes a deep breath, trying to get his racing heartbeat and emotions under control.
"Look - I'm not trying to sound like some Watch Commander. I take bounties for a living. I know that you don't live long in my line of work kicking down doors before you have ANY idea of what's behind them. There - I've said my piece. Let's find Mama before she finds us.... Oh. And there's still that room up there." He points up to the top of the rickety staircase.
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid, Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck
Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions!
I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
Stone had sank to squatting against the wall, resting his hands in his lap and eyes closed to the scene around him. As the others debated, the monk imagined them through different forms. Orel stood as a spiral pillar of Water and Fire; always driving and moving in reaction to circumstance, but somehow built of contradicting emotions. Elaine was a swirling fog, free as the driving wind, but retaining a substance of sorts. Rey seemed to be a lurking shadow trying to mask a secret, like an adult version of a child with a pilfered toy. Then there was Marius, an enigma. He seemed flexible, yet driven by something greater.
Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser
Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale
Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
Rey leaned against the wall, struggling to breathe, favoring the leg with a chuck missing. When the child started singing again, she noticed how the sound... lingered and bounced. It was a trick of the house, the shape of the rooms. But she couldn't pinpoint it when everyone was bickering among themselves. "Shut up! Everyone just shut up a moment!"
Then the silence set in. Rey cocked her head toward the closed door Orel was so intent on opening. "It's quiet in there. If there's something in there, it's not moving or breathing. Just... nothing. That singing, though." Rey pointed up. "It's coming from above us." She winced and held her ribs, waiting for the others to decide their next move.
(Perception 22 - nat 20)
A dwarf with a canoe on his back? What could go wrong?
Marius stage whispers, "Well, I've been on those stairs... they won't hold more than one of us."
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid, Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck
Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions!
I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
Ignoring the door Orel is standing at, Rey starts making her way up the rickety staircase leading to the attic. Keeping her steps light, she managed to make her way up without destroying the whole thing. At the top, she's face to face with the facade of the house. Upon closer inspection, it looks like a mirror image of the front of the house, complete with a little door, the perfect size for a child's playhouse. Unlike the rest of the house, this looks well maintained. Not shiny and new like her dagger, but like someone has been taking care of it. Something told her that the singing was coming from in there. Taking a breath, and ignoring the pain, Rey leaned forward and knocked on the door.
A dwarf with a canoe on his back? What could go wrong?
Orel takes a deep breath as Rey begins her ascent. He knew the stairs would buckle and break under his weight, so all he could do was hope for the best. Looking down at his wounds, he decides now might be a good time to bandage them. He pulls a few scraps of cloth from his pack and makes himself a few makeshift bandages.
Site Rules & Guidelines --- Focused Feedback Mega Threads --- Staff Quotes --- Homebrew Tutorial --- Pricing FAQ
Please feel free to message either Sorce or another moderator if you have any concerns.
"Do you mind?" The half elf approached Orel, pointing at the particularly nasty gash on her side. The healer obliged, and patched her up a little. "By the gods, that feels better. Thank you."
"I suppose we'll all follow to the next room of horror," Elaine sighed before standing up and following Rey up. The bard only managed to get halfway up the stairs before the whole thing came crashing down. She fell with a dull thud, in a pile of rubble and wrought iron, the impact causing her to lose consciousness.
PBP: DM of Titans of Tomorrow
PBP: Lera Zahuv in Whispers of Dissent
PBP: Evaine Brae in Innistrad: Dark Ascension
PBP: Cor'avin in Tomb of Annihilation
After bandaging the half-elf, he hears the commotion from the stairs and looks over. Seeing the half-elf crumpled to the ground, he rushes over in a few long steps and kneels down next to her. He checks her pulse and pauses for a moment before standing back up and raising his arms above her body. Skeletal hands materialize around her as if they're trying to pull her downward. He gives a flicking motion and the hands begin to retract and return to the floor below.
"Not yet," he says, "Or... again." She falls into a deep slumber, the slow rise and fall of her chest an indicator that death is no longer trying to take her. Picking her up, he takes her to the only room they cleared.
To the others he says, "She'll wake eventually. She needs to rest for now."
Site Rules & Guidelines --- Focused Feedback Mega Threads --- Staff Quotes --- Homebrew Tutorial --- Pricing FAQ
Please feel free to message either Sorce or another moderator if you have any concerns.
With the knock on the playhouse door, high in the house's central tower, the singing stops and the door creeks open. Inside, the playhouse is crowded with furnishings, including a large spinning wheel at which a small girl, probably 11 years old, sits in a neat and clean dress of red silk with white ruffles.
"I often sing when I'm spinning thread," the girl says as she looks up at Rey.
One eye milky and blind and the other a burning, fiery green, she lifts her left hand slowly. On that hand, Rey sees a silk hand-puppet dressed in motley. As the girl speaks again, Rey can see it is the puppet's mouth moving rather than the girl's - hers has long since been sewn shut.
"Daddy says I have a stupid voice," she says with a broad smile. "But daddy's been sleeping a long, long time."
"Your daddy is wrong," Rey said, sitting on the floor. "I think you have a lovely voice." Keeping an eye, so to speak, on the girl, Rey reached around to her pack and started digging around for something. "Eleanor, that's your name, isn't it?" Finding what she was looking for, she pulled out the hand mirror and hairbrush. "Are these yours? I found them downstairs. I thought maybe you'd like them back." She held out the matching set for the girl.
A dwarf with a canoe on his back? What could go wrong?
She nods and brushes back her hair with her right hand, on which much of the flesh has worn away to the bone. She glances at the mirror and brush briefly, but looks away from them with a grimace.
"Eleanor, yes," she says. "It's been a long time since I've heard anyone say my name. The children here don't speak anymore. Papa took them to the special rooms in the basement. They screamed for awhile, but then they never made a sound again. I never went to the special rooms, but Papa hated my voice, so he made sure he didn't have to hear it anymore."
She smiles at the puppet and it smiles back at her.
"That's before I met Giacomo, though. He gave me my voice back."
She rings one of the bells on the puppet's jester hat with her bony hand and she giggles, but then, for the first time, her smile fades and she looks at Rey with deadly seriousness.
"I tried to count them once, but I couldn't. The pieces are everywhere and I couldn't find them all. I'd rest better if I knew how many of them papa silenced. But I probably never will..."
Rey, seeing the look the girl gave the mirror and hairbrush, quickly put them back into her pack. She smiled at the puppet. "Nice to meet you." Turning back to Eleanor, she said, "My friends and I have taken care of..." she trailed off, counting in her head. "Nine of those children. If there are more, we'll take care of those, as well. But some of us are injured. I've hurt my ribs and can hardly breath. We need to rest a little bit before we finish. Do you know of somewhere safe we can do that? Oh, and do you know anything about the room with the symbol and the scythe?"
A dwarf with a canoe on his back? What could go wrong?
"Yes, I know you did. I watched and sang the song that Mama taught me. I made up new words to it, though."
She giggles, which looks strange and disturbing as her face strains against the stitches in her mouth.
"It's sad you had to hurt them, but they were being very naughty so I understand. They bothered me once, too, when I tried to go check on Papa, but I ran up here and they wouldn't follow. Those were just his favorites, though, the ones he kept aside and cuddled with now and then. There were many more, but I can't find them all. He told me the number once. He was very proud of it. But I can't remember."
She casts her gaze downward.
"Mama always tried to protect them until Papa hurt her with his silver knife. I'm afraid no one's getting any rest in this house while Mama's upset. The way she wails when she's angry - it makes my skin crawl."
Marius groans softly and waves Stone and Orel close so they can converse. "If there are 38 more little biters in the place... We'd better come up with something good. Thoughts?"
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid, Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck
Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions!
I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
"Eleanor, can you tell me where Mama is? I can try to make her stop. Then she won't bother you anymore." Rey smiled at the child and puppet. "Is there anything else you need? Anything I can do? My friends and I will try our best to help."
A dwarf with a canoe on his back? What could go wrong?
Stone's personal meditation remains unbroken as all conversations and actions transpire. Even in response to Marius, he gives his namesake great credit, "Fire is the great cleanser. Life from Death, hope in darkness. Clear what we can, but have plenty of torches and oil ready."
Stone at least removes the small pack from his back and throws it out onto the floor, "There's rope there. You'll need it to bring down our Shadowwalker unless she can fall with more grace than she fights."
Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser
Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale
Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
Eleanor's face turns dark.
"No, no one can calm Mama when she's angry, except maybe me. If you even try... She'll kill you."
Her ill humor is short-lived however, and she breaks into a smile again.
"But I'm all right, thank you. You've got enough to do, keeping yourselves safe!"