The group reacts to the news delivered by Gravy and interpreted by Doozey. Peabody wraps himself around Berry, and Utar shows that he is ready to advance. Between Neya and Graxx, the humans raise three different potion vials. Graxx drinks his, immediately doubling in size along all his belongings. While walking, Neya offers any takers a chance to either fly or enhance their inner sense of heroism.
Dornal shares his thoughts: "I am glad to see you came as prepared as you have, but if anyone should take those potions, it should be one of you. You are the ones who faced these crones before. Combine the potion with your knowledge to deliver us to victory."
Thokk likes what Dornal had to say, but he is willing to experiment a bit: "If no one is volunteering and you are really willing to part ways with one of those vials, I won't refuse it."
Rag seems uninterested, while Bigar confesses: "None of those seem well suited to my specific set of skills."
The group begins to walk up the path and, before too long, spots a humanoid silhouette cresting in the distance. As Gravy mentioned, this is the silhouette of a young girl dressed in a tattered and damp dress which has lost its color long ago. Black flowers adorn the girls arms, affixed by way of twisted thorny stems tightly pulled against the skin. She is barefoot, and her oily hair partially obscures her face. In one hand, she holds a decapitated goat's head which is missing its lower jaw and is dripping fresh blood. The goat's eyeballs are milky white, indicating it had been blind even before meeting its fate.
Elisande does not speak. She simply stares at the group. If you had to guess, her eyes communicate a mix of hopelessness and disappointment. Slowly, she places the goat's half-head on top of her own as if it were an ill-fitting helmet.
From an unseen spot in the distance, Gravy's sharp croak pierces the silent reunion. The party can't help but try to look in the direction the bird's call came from. Then, a second later, when trying to refocus their attention on Elisande, the party notices that the girl has vanished from the middle of the path. In her place, carried by the wind, a young girl's voice painfully sings a single verse: " 'appy birdday to me..."
After some hesitation, Boozey accepts the potion of heroism and imbibed it almost immediately on the spot. For something told him he'd need more than just a halflings resilience against fear within the next hour. "Sorry Thokk. Think I'll need the extra kick." He admits, looking up a touch remorseful along the way.
Boozy is quiet following the events that came next. Mute by all appearance to focus on keeping the barely contained rising anger, guilt, and frustration. But anyone looking deeply enough to see beneath it all were gears churning at max capacity with the aid of werebadger's headband turned scarf(following some off screen adjustments). Pip soon found its way in his hand, and with that... the Hunter carried on following along with his menagerie of bestial companions just behind him.
(@Lerus: Not sure if this would be an Arcane Check or some other knowledge roll and if Hunter's Bane would apply as well. So just rolling a general Int check to see if Doozey would know of the spoiler info.)
So basically, curious to see if Doozey might be aware of a method to reverse a hag transformation(even though OOC, I'm pretty sure that's impossible), or at least some Blood Hunter means undermining one still in progress/only recently completed, possibly turning Elisande into a Hexblood at the very least and maybe(?) severing her ties to the coven? I don't know! Just spit balling at this point.
Anyhow, here's his I guess history(?) check. Though if something like arcana or nature(?) could apply, treat the below roll as such.
21(and if Hunter's Bane would apply, adv. roll: 13.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
"No worries," Thokk replies to Doozey. "Dornal is right about boosting those who have some experience against our enemies."
Doozey drinks the offered Potion of Heroism and suggests that Neya herself should drink the Potion of Flying. The monk holds the vial up, wondering if now is the optimal time to chug it.
Following Graxx's words, the group moves forward. A few minutes later, they are close enough to see the ramshackle village they once worked hard to save. From their current distance, CRAP notices that much of the village looks the same. There are a few exceptions of note:
Many of the buildings are splattered with blood and have human body parts hanging from their entrances or roofs.
There are less villagers than before. Those who are visible seem to be going about their day.
The crones are nowhere to be seen for now.
Bigar comments: "What a sad place to live in!" Dornal follows that up with his own comment: "Hags will do that to you and have you thank them for it."
Neya keeps the potion and makes a mental note that, at the first sign of the hags, she will drink it.
She tries to recall where the hags originally were during their first visit, as well as try to figure out where they would likely be, based off of the information provided by Ekmong.
Over the course the remaining trip, Boozey's eventually widened at an epiphany. He felt around on his person, and upon eventually patting down on some inner pocket of his top, breathed a sigh of relief. "Good thing I still needed this for the full moons," He murmured, then frowned and turned his gaze skyward for a time. Or started to at least, searching for any signs of Gravy, only to be drawn to the village as it came into sight.
"Truth be told, it wasn't much better before. But I cannot say this is much of an improvement,"He mentions with a bit of a growl and frown deepening while scanning the village. "No sign of our hags... Could be they're at that cave we found last and its altar there. Which might not be a bad idea to circle around the village and head towards, least we draw those folk just wrapped up in this nonsense into whatever unneeded surprise those creatures had cooked up for us here." He suggests before finally looking up to the others. "Would take us some time though.. maybe.. twenty or so minutes to get there, at least. But /I/ could get us there, if that's the route we wish to take... I.... Don't get your hopes up, but I also might have something to help Elisandra."
If he senses any confusion or concern from the back up he expresses, "The girl from before. The one we.. failed to help. I'll explain along the way. But suffice to say, when we face her, she has to incapacitated for what I have in mind to work."
(OOC: DM can correct, but I assume as part of filling them in prior, the NPCs had been informed of everything we knew of the island during our many meetings. Perhaps not the gritty details about living condition or any minor stuff, but all the important stuff such as the cave etc..)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
The village certainly had changed, and not for the better. Content to pass the village by for now, he tries to spot the large metal cauldron which the hags were clustered around when they were last here. Presumably they might still need it, or perhaps their power had grown beyond that point. Utar hoped hard that his guess wasn't correct.
@Neya: You recall that the hags spent most of their time, when you were in the village, by the large cauldron in the back of the village (opposite side of the village to the one CRAP+ is now approaching from.) If they are not there, you'd guess they are either inside one of the hovels or in the woods somewhere.
@Doozey: You scan the sky and the trees. You are pretty sure Gravy is not here and yet, neither has he returned to you.
@Utar: You spot the cauldron all the way on the other end of the village, though you have to squint a bit and actively look for it. Something is brewing, but no one is tending the pot.
As Graxx begins to lead the group around the village, Doozey's keen eyes pick up on a few more pieces of information:
A few of the villagers have now noticed the group. CRAP+ is no small party and it is making no active effort to move quietly, so this does not come as a surprise.
There a few new statues placed around the village. They seem to depict fiendish figures.
Elisande's head, still adorning the dead goat's cranium, pokes out from behind a wall near the cauldron.
Doozey had been grumbling along the lines of "I swear, if they did something to me Birb-",before then abruptly pausing at a familiar sight. With teeth gritted behind tightly closed lips, the stoutling visibly seemed to strain for a moment, but eventually spoke up. "Wait.. Just wait. I... I see Elisande again. And new statues around village too. Fiendish ones. Could be part of a trap, but... maybe... maybe only chance to catch her alone?"He asks while keep his eyes more pointedly trained on the girl.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
As Doozey mentions he can see Elisande in the village, the girl steps out in the open. She is standing in the middle of the path that connects the "entrance" to the village (near where the party is) straight to the cauldron on the other end of the village. She is staring directly at the party now.
"Well... If it's a trap we might as well get a bit closer so I can get my hands on those attacking us quickly."
Graxx shudders at the thought of having to fight Elisande. He hopes it does not come to that.
"Why don't you try talking to her Doozey? Not alone of course. We all go together but maybe you can get something useful out of her atleast." asks Graxx.
"If they involve the villagers in the coming fight..." Neya says, obviously not liking that prospect. "Unless you have little choice in the matter, leave as many you can, alive."
"Let's try to not play into what they want us to do. It feels like we're being allowed to spot Elisande a little too easily. Don't forget those same villagers used traps on the Dragon Cultists last time we were here. Let's not make the same mistake."
While preaching caution, Utar knows that at some point the group will have to head into the village and perhaps should to force the question, but not without knowing what they're doing into. Peering into the village again, he focuses his vision on the fiendish figures, seeing if he recognises any of them from the research he and Neya carried out.
"Wait, Me?!"Boozey asks, taken aback by Graxx' suggestion. He then immediately looked to the others and grew more relieved to a degree in their reluctance to follow through on the suggestion. If he looked back and still saw Elisande awaiting the group though, his face scrunches up for a moment, before relaxing in a defeated sigh.
"My mentors... would council much the same. We need to get moving. Any further hemming and hawing only works to their advantage. And if they are allowing her this much freedom, it... it's probably torment her just as surely as us, no matter how split it. So let's go." With that and inklings of regret lingering in his heart, Boozey again tries to take point on leading the group well around the village and back on course to the cave at a clipped pace.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
@Utar: Even after Doozey points out a couple of the statues to you, you can't quite see enough of them to make a judgement. One is obscured by a dead tree. The other you simply can't see. Maybe Doozey pointed at a crumbling wall section and thought it was statue?
Graxx and Neya seem ready to walk into the village once Doozey reveals what he sees, but Utar and the halfling seem less eager. While Utar lingers just a second more to study the statues from a distance, Dornal expresses his confusion: "If we are here for the girl, either to rescue or put her out of her misery and save Phlan in the process, then I must agree with Graxx and Neya." He scratches his beard.
Thokk sides with Utar and Doozey: "It doesn't hurt to find out more information about our opponent ahead of a fight. If we might get an advantage from exploring the woods, the hags can wait."
Bigar almost doesn't speak but, once eyes turn to him, the young spellcaster points to Doozey, showing some affinity for the halfling since finding out he speaks the Goblin language: "I'll follow what Mr.... Boozey... is saying."
Rag doesn't say anything. In fact, he is no longer immediately behind the group.
With all votes now cast, the group continues to make their way through the woods. Strange carved figurines, twig fetishes, and rag dolls hang from many tree branches. Some of them seem to be frozen, while others appear to produce shadows that momentarily twitch into motion.
Memory serves the party well and Graxx and Doozey are able to lead CRAP+ to the entrance of the small cave they visited once before after several minutes of trekking through the woods. To their surprise, the group finds that the entrance has caved in, quite possibly on purpose.
"I'm surprised as well," Neya responds. "It seems they destroyed it after we accidentally broke its significance. But, I don't think they abandoned the area, entirely."
As she ponders it, she looks around, paying more attention to the effigies and dolls, trying to figure out their significance.
The group reacts to the news delivered by Gravy and interpreted by Doozey. Peabody wraps himself around Berry, and Utar shows that he is ready to advance. Between Neya and Graxx, the humans raise three different potion vials. Graxx drinks his, immediately doubling in size along all his belongings. While walking, Neya offers any takers a chance to either fly or enhance their inner sense of heroism.
Dornal shares his thoughts: "I am glad to see you came as prepared as you have, but if anyone should take those potions, it should be one of you. You are the ones who faced these crones before. Combine the potion with your knowledge to deliver us to victory."
Thokk likes what Dornal had to say, but he is willing to experiment a bit: "If no one is volunteering and you are really willing to part ways with one of those vials, I won't refuse it."
Rag seems uninterested, while Bigar confesses: "None of those seem well suited to my specific set of skills."
Gravy flies toward the village.
The group begins to walk up the path and, before too long, spots a humanoid silhouette cresting in the distance. As Gravy mentioned, this is the silhouette of a young girl dressed in a tattered and damp dress which has lost its color long ago. Black flowers adorn the girls arms, affixed by way of twisted thorny stems tightly pulled against the skin. She is barefoot, and her oily hair partially obscures her face. In one hand, she holds a decapitated goat's head which is missing its lower jaw and is dripping fresh blood. The goat's eyeballs are milky white, indicating it had been blind even before meeting its fate.
Elisande does not speak. She simply stares at the group. If you had to guess, her eyes communicate a mix of hopelessness and disappointment. Slowly, she places the goat's half-head on top of her own as if it were an ill-fitting helmet.
From an unseen spot in the distance, Gravy's sharp croak pierces the silent reunion. The party can't help but try to look in the direction the bird's call came from. Then, a second later, when trying to refocus their attention on Elisande, the party notices that the girl has vanished from the middle of the path. In her place, carried by the wind, a young girl's voice painfully sings a single verse: " 'appy birdday to me..."
“There’s still hope for the other islanders. We should get this done,” Neya says in an almost mournful tone.
Extended Signature
"Terrible... Just terrible.." Graxx growls.
Graxx lets out a sigh and nods to Neya.
"Let us press on.... Be ready."
Graxx will continue to lead the group along the path.
After some hesitation, Boozey accepts the potion of heroism and imbibed it almost immediately on the spot. For something told him he'd need more than just a halflings resilience against fear within the next hour. "Sorry Thokk. Think I'll need the extra kick." He admits, looking up a touch remorseful along the way.
Boozy is quiet following the events that came next. Mute by all appearance to focus on keeping the barely contained rising anger, guilt, and frustration. But anyone looking deeply enough to see beneath it all were gears churning at max capacity with the aid of werebadger's headband turned scarf(following some off screen adjustments). Pip soon found its way in his hand, and with that... the Hunter carried on following along with his menagerie of bestial companions just behind him.
(@Lerus: Not sure if this would be an Arcane Check or some other knowledge roll and if Hunter's Bane would apply as well. So just rolling a general Int check to see if Doozey would know of the spoiler info.)
So basically, curious to see if Doozey might be aware of a method to reverse a hag transformation(even though OOC, I'm pretty sure that's impossible), or at least some Blood Hunter means undermining one still in progress/only recently completed, possibly turning Elisande into a Hexblood at the very least and maybe(?) severing her ties to the coven? I don't know! Just spit balling at this point.
Anyhow, here's his I guess history(?) check. Though if something like arcana or nature(?) could apply, treat the below roll as such.
21(and if Hunter's Bane would apply, adv. roll: 13.
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
"No worries," Thokk replies to Doozey. "Dornal is right about boosting those who have some experience against our enemies."
Doozey drinks the offered Potion of Heroism and suggests that Neya herself should drink the Potion of Flying. The monk holds the vial up, wondering if now is the optimal time to chug it.
Following Graxx's words, the group moves forward. A few minutes later, they are close enough to see the ramshackle village they once worked hard to save. From their current distance, CRAP notices that much of the village looks the same. There are a few exceptions of note:
Bigar comments: "What a sad place to live in!" Dornal follows that up with his own comment: "Hags will do that to you and have you thank them for it."
(OOC: How does the group approach?)
Neya keeps the potion and makes a mental note that, at the first sign of the hags, she will drink it.
She tries to recall where the hags originally were during their first visit, as well as try to figure out where they would likely be, based off of the information provided by Ekmong.
History: 13
Religion: 10
Extended Signature
Boozy's Perception: 24.
Over the course the remaining trip, Boozey's eventually widened at an epiphany. He felt around on his person, and upon eventually patting down on some inner pocket of his top, breathed a sigh of relief. "Good thing I still needed this for the full moons," He murmured, then frowned and turned his gaze skyward for a time. Or started to at least, searching for any signs of Gravy, only to be drawn to the village as it came into sight.
"Truth be told, it wasn't much better before. But I cannot say this is much of an improvement," He mentions with a bit of a growl and frown deepening while scanning the village. "No sign of our hags... Could be they're at that cave we found last and its altar there. Which might not be a bad idea to circle around the village and head towards, least we draw those folk just wrapped up in this nonsense into whatever unneeded surprise those creatures had cooked up for us here." He suggests before finally looking up to the others. "Would take us some time though.. maybe.. twenty or so minutes to get there, at least. But /I/ could get us there, if that's the route we wish to take... I.... Don't get your hopes up, but I also might have something to help Elisandra."
If he senses any confusion or concern from the back up he expresses, "The girl from before. The one we.. failed to help. I'll explain along the way. But suffice to say, when we face her, she has to incapacitated for what I have in mind to work."
(OOC: DM can correct, but I assume as part of filling them in prior, the NPCs had been informed of everything we knew of the island during our many meetings. Perhaps not the gritty details about living condition or any minor stuff, but all the important stuff such as the cave etc..)
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Graxx shakes his head in agreement with Doozey.
"I hope you can help the girl... I truly hope... Let us go to the altar. I will lead us." says large Graxx.
Graxx will continue to lead the party toward the altar now.
Graxx will look back at the village before it is out of sight and shake his head. What happened here?
The village certainly had changed, and not for the better. Content to pass the village by for now, he tries to spot the large metal cauldron which the hags were clustered around when they were last here. Presumably they might still need it, or perhaps their power had grown beyond that point. Utar hoped hard that his guess wasn't correct.
Perception - 18
@Neya: You recall that the hags spent most of their time, when you were in the village, by the large cauldron in the back of the village (opposite side of the village to the one CRAP+ is now approaching from.) If they are not there, you'd guess they are either inside one of the hovels or in the woods somewhere.
@Doozey: You scan the sky and the trees. You are pretty sure Gravy is not here and yet, neither has he returned to you.
@Utar: You spot the cauldron all the way on the other end of the village, though you have to squint a bit and actively look for it. Something is brewing, but no one is tending the pot.
As Graxx begins to lead the group around the village, Doozey's keen eyes pick up on a few more pieces of information:
Doozey had been grumbling along the lines of "I swear, if they did something to me Birb-", before then abruptly pausing at a familiar sight. With teeth gritted behind tightly closed lips, the stoutling visibly seemed to strain for a moment, but eventually spoke up. "Wait.. Just wait. I... I see Elisande again. And new statues around village too. Fiendish ones. Could be part of a trap, but... maybe... maybe only chance to catch her alone?" He asks while keep his eyes more pointedly trained on the girl.
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
As Doozey mentions he can see Elisande in the village, the girl steps out in the open. She is standing in the middle of the path that connects the "entrance" to the village (near where the party is) straight to the cauldron on the other end of the village. She is staring directly at the party now.
Graxx shrugs his shoulder.
"Well... If it's a trap we might as well get a bit closer so I can get my hands on those attacking us quickly."
Graxx shudders at the thought of having to fight Elisande. He hopes it does not come to that.
"Why don't you try talking to her Doozey? Not alone of course. We all go together but maybe you can get something useful out of her atleast." asks Graxx.
"If they involve the villagers in the coming fight..." Neya says, obviously not liking that prospect. "Unless you have little choice in the matter, leave as many you can, alive."
Extended Signature
"Let's try to not play into what they want us to do. It feels like we're being allowed to spot Elisande a little too easily. Don't forget those same villagers used traps on the Dragon Cultists last time we were here. Let's not make the same mistake."
While preaching caution, Utar knows that at some point the group will have to head into the village and perhaps should to force the question, but not without knowing what they're doing into. Peering into the village again, he focuses his vision on the fiendish figures, seeing if he recognises any of them from the research he and Neya carried out.
Religion - 7
(OOC Utar is specifically worried about fiendish statues that might be loths that aren't actually statues...)
"Wait, Me?!" Boozey asks, taken aback by Graxx' suggestion. He then immediately looked to the others and grew more relieved to a degree in their reluctance to follow through on the suggestion. If he looked back and still saw Elisande awaiting the group though, his face scrunches up for a moment, before relaxing in a defeated sigh.
"My mentors... would council much the same. We need to get moving. Any further hemming and hawing only works to their advantage. And if they are allowing her this much freedom, it... it's probably torment her just as surely as us, no matter how split it. So let's go." With that and inklings of regret lingering in his heart, Boozey again tries to take point on leading the group well around the village and back on course to the cave at a clipped pace.
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
@Utar: Even after Doozey points out a couple of the statues to you, you can't quite see enough of them to make a judgement. One is obscured by a dead tree. The other you simply can't see. Maybe Doozey pointed at a crumbling wall section and thought it was statue?
Graxx and Neya seem ready to walk into the village once Doozey reveals what he sees, but Utar and the halfling seem less eager. While Utar lingers just a second more to study the statues from a distance, Dornal expresses his confusion: "If we are here for the girl, either to rescue or put her out of her misery and save Phlan in the process, then I must agree with Graxx and Neya." He scratches his beard.
Thokk sides with Utar and Doozey: "It doesn't hurt to find out more information about our opponent ahead of a fight. If we might get an advantage from exploring the woods, the hags can wait."
Bigar almost doesn't speak but, once eyes turn to him, the young spellcaster points to Doozey, showing some affinity for the halfling since finding out he speaks the Goblin language: "I'll follow what Mr.... Boozey... is saying."
Rag doesn't say anything. In fact, he is no longer immediately behind the group.
With all votes now cast, the group continues to make their way through the woods. Strange carved figurines, twig fetishes, and rag dolls hang from many tree branches. Some of them seem to be frozen, while others appear to produce shadows that momentarily twitch into motion.
Memory serves the party well and Graxx and Doozey are able to lead CRAP+ to the entrance of the small cave they visited once before after several minutes of trekking through the woods. To their surprise, the group finds that the entrance has caved in, quite possibly on purpose.
Looking at the cave in, Utar rubs hand over his forehead.
"Well... Shit."
"I'm surprised as well," Neya responds. "It seems they destroyed it after we accidentally broke its significance. But, I don't think they abandoned the area, entirely."
As she ponders it, she looks around, paying more attention to the effigies and dolls, trying to figure out their significance.
Religion: 16
Extended Signature