Zorg's Lost Souls III

Greg swears loudly in gnomish as Rowan takes the hag out of his range, but then an idea pops into his mind. He doubles back and unceremoniously starts climbing onto Barria's shoulders "trust me! We need to both go off the balcony, try to land on the hag!" He tells her with a wide grin on his face. If Barria does indeed do as instructed. She will begin to grow in size as she makes her way to the balcony edge, her clothes and weapons grow with her as he casts Enlarge, making this dwarf a little less dwarf sized.

"Wait, what?  What are you doing!  Get off of me you!" Barria starts to exclaim, but then listens to Greg and turns back to the flying machine and back to the railing, obviously unsure of the best course of action.  

But when she notices that poor Rowan has been turned into a frog, she clambers over the railing as she grows, startled by the change in size!

Once they clear the railing and she is finished growing, she targets Endelyn and fires off a level 3 guiding bolt

But with the change in size.. altitude.. and carrying a disgruntled little gnome, her bolt goes wide (whether she is blinded or not).

Just like during the meeting with the leprechauns, Barria feels her body stretch and grow, her clothing and possessions growing likewise, until she towers over the top of the nearby ornithopter. Stepping over the balcony's banister is as easy as climbing a stair, but the chaos below feels so very far down. Barria is at first reluctant to follow Greg's mad instructions, afraid of striking the pixie-dust-floating Mulligan on the way down, or potentially squashing the freshly-toadified Rowan.

But then the toad leaps out of the way into a tumble of darklings. At the same time, Endelyn's multiple bony arms emerge from her dress, grasping the puppet strings as before... she lashes her hands outward toward Mulligan, and the puppet strings elongate and flail all around the shabby rogue, grasping his arms and legs, and manipulating him like a marionette, before finally flinging him sideways.

Mulligan: 25 to hit for 13 psychic damage, and moved 10 feet horizontally

With the drop zone now clear, and the gnome clinging firmly to her broad shoulders, the giant dwarf takes the leap out into the air. She falls past Charmay, who looks in wide-eyed wonder as Greginald whoops on his way past. For good measure, Barria shoots some divine energy at the hag on the way down, but it goes wide. She drops past Mulligan, still disoriented from being flung like a puppet. Only at the last moment does Endelyn look up and see the enormous dwarf blotting out the sky, and tries to scoot out of the way. Too late!

Not only is Barria twice as tall, but also twice as wide... and she was already quite wide. There is nowhere for the hag to flee, and although she manages to move away from the epicentre, still with a crunch Endelyn is squashed underneath the gnome-dwarf combo. The impact rocks the stage, leaving cracks in the stone floor. The two sprawled darklings (with Rowan still stuck to the face of one) shudder as they see how close they were to being squashed themselves. 

Greginald takes 3 bludgeoning damage from the fall
Barria takes 10 bludgeoning damage from the fall, and no other penalties

DOOM! DOOM ON YE ALL! CURSE YOU, FOOL MORTALS!

Endelyn's voice pierces the air, and thunder peals overhead. For a moment it feels to all as though everything terrible predicted by the hag might come true. Rowan's death at the hands of Barria and/or Greg... would they have jumped if the frog hadn't moved away...? Barria contemplates what might have occurred had a puppet string or ornithopter wire entangled her neck as she jumped... And then...

A huge dark shape swoops far overhead, blotting out even the lightning for a moment. There is a burbling noise, like that heard earlier in the mountains, and a huge serpentine form with broad, leathery wings circles around the amphitheater... The words "eaten alive by a dragon" pop back into Greginald's mind as he recalls the puppet show from earlier...

Greginald gets disadvantage on his next attack roll or ability check or saving throw as he contemplates his impending doom.

Everyone can see and hear the dragon.

Mulligan is up.

     Whose side is the dragon on?

     Mulligan sends these words out across the Group Chat panicked and worried, in his mind at least.  Across the group chat they are heard without tone or inflection or even cadence and thus come across as a general query.

     The dragon in many ways seems the fiercer of the foes but the dragon is not the one who rules this land... is not the one who have already cause Mulligan pain and anguish.  Mulligan keeps his eye and target on the hag.

Action: Attack w/Psychic Blade vs Endelyn - Nat 1...
Bonus Action: Attack w/Psychic Blade vs Endelyn -  21 to hit for 5 psychic damage
     Sneak Attack - Additional 15 damage is the BA attack hit...

Movement - If there is a place Mulligan to move to (flying or walking or combo) where he could gain cover from the hag, he does so.  He can't hide but cover helps whether it's known he is behind it or not.  

Rowan, unable to form words anymore, tries projecting an image of the hag changing her appearance to look like a dragon then a big question mark.

He then leaps from the face of the one Darkling to the face of the other, trying to shove him into the stage (DC5).

One of Mulligan's shimmering blades strikes Endelyn. It doesn't leave any visible mark, and still the hag screeches in agony, one hand going to her head. As if in answer to this pain, one of the many bolts of lightning flashing overhead arcs down toward those surrounding Endelyn...

Greginald and Barria: Please make a DC 14 DEX save, taking 14 lightning damage on a fail, or half on a pass.

Cursing her assailants once more, Endelyn wriggles out from underneath Barria's bulk to again draw multiple arms from the folds of her dress, each with puppet strings dangling from the bony fingers. She lashes them out at Barria and Greginald, grasping them by the arms and legs, tossing them about like rag dolls, and casting them away...

Barria: nat20(crit) for 36 psychic damage, and the oversized dwarf is moved 10 feet horizontally
Greginald: 18 to hit for 6 psychic damage, and the gnome is moved 10 feet horizontally

Finally able to fly within arm's reach, Charmay drops from the sky and slams her crackling staff down on Endelyn. There is a shock of electricity that makes everyone's hair stand on end, and the hag's spindly skeleton is fully visible within the voluminous folds of her dress, as though one can see right through the fabric. Endelyn shrieks in pain, but immediately afterwards starts cackling. Even as she lashes out with her puppet strings at Charmay, tossing the woman aside like the others, she taunts the group...

YOUR EFFORTS ARE FUTILE. I CANNOT BE SLAIN. THE SHOW MUST GO ON, AND NOTHING YOU CAN DO WILL...  NO!

The hag's monologue is cut short as she looks up at the stage. High on the beams, two figures appear, one at each end. Two elven acrobats, aglow from head to toe, one in the warm light of the sun and another in the cool light of the moon, with large theatrical headdresses to match their motif, stand high on either end of the stage rafters, each clutching a trapeze...

no, no, No, NO NO! This cannot be! murmurs Endelyn, suddenly fearful and shaking...

Meanwhile, Rowan leaps at the other darkling, who is still prone, but manages to barely roll out of the way. Both darklings seem rather intimidated by this ferocious frog, and look ready to flee.

At the far end of the amphitheater, in the flickering light, a huge shape lands, perching on the crenellations of the surrounding wall. A long, sinewy neck and broad, leathery wings are all anyone can see (or remember seeing), but the sound is heard and remembered by all: a loud burbling that rings in the brain and confuddles the mind. The sound seems to effect the dozens of creatures closest to it, and suddenly the battle changes... whereas before the korreds and brigganocks were keeping the darklings at bay, now all three armies seems to turn and fight each other indiscriminately... korreds fighting darklings and brigganocks and other korreds, and so on... with many seemingly standing stupidly and others running in random directions. The indistinct head at the end of the long, serpentine neck seems to be scanning the battlefield, searching for something... or someone.

Greginald and Barria are next.

Flying through the air, what a freeing experience!  Are how the thoughts start in Barria's mind, and even when she falls on the stage the damage isn't too bad.  But then, as she stares at the real life dragon.. is that seriously a dragon??  She is pelted with lightning and then Endelyn's attack... is enough for lights out.

Death save rolled.

Lightning cackles through G'Reg's bones and he has no recourse to prevent it. He immediately vomits blood, and fails to shield himself form the oncoming puppet strings. His mind is whipped at and he goes sprawling 10ft away. Death feels so near. The dragon above roars and lands looking for someone, him? Maybe... The thought chills his bones. There is no recourse. This must end.

Greg walks slowly toward the hag. Fire leaps from his finger onto her dress and he keeps walking arms outstretched as if to embrace her, but he stops just short. His arms not open for an embrace but for a bow, one arms swings over his chest as he bends at the waist and the woman explodes. The fireball consuming both her and everyone and everything in a 20ft sphere centered on Endelyn. He mentally guided the flame around his allies once more. Himself, Mulligan, Barria, and even Charmay, feel nothing but a warm breeze pass over them. (DC 15 Dex save for Endelyn. 19 fire damage on a fail, 8 on save.)

Endelyn barely registers the gnome's approach, her veiled face transfixed on the drama unfolding on the stage. The two elven acrobats leap from their high stages, each grasping a trapeze. Their flight through the air is impossibly slowly, like falling through honey, but as Greginald nears the hag, fire leaping from his fingertips, the two elves come together at the zenith of their trapeze arc, the female moon-elf crossing in front of her sun-elf brother, leaving an ominous black circle surrounded by a brilliant corona. Endelyn's gaze never leaves them, and as the ball of fire ignites, the dark eclipse seems to hang impossibly in the air above the centre of the stage.

There is no scream. No pleading. Only dark resignation at the futility of avoiding a prophecy whose fulfilment has come. The dark fabric burns away exposing the stark wooden frame, which likewise chars, leaving the emaciated, skeleton-like body of the hag with her multiple arms to drop to the ground. Without her voluminous covering, she is a tiny, pathetic thing, and in moments the fire consumes her to a small pile of ash, which merges with the paper-ash of burnt books drifting out through the library exit, where Burly the bugbear emerges still dressed in what remains of his costume.

The explosion of the fireball shakes the castle, and with the simultaneous appearance of the eclipse, the dragon-creature beats its wings in agitation. Unable to locate the target of its apparent search, the creature launches from the parapet, takes to the sky, and disappears, burbling, into the night.

The demise of the hag prompts the darkling horde to desist their battle against the korreds and brigganocks. Judging from the lack of bright death-flashes, none of the darklings were actually harmed during the encounter, and the fey opponents were in such sufficiently overwhelming numbers, that they were able to deflect and dodge the darkling attacks without loss of life themselves. The three armies, still mingling their numbers among each other, pause and turn as one to behold the aftermath of the fireball, and the burnt wreckage of their respective mistress or tyrant.

The elf twins continue to hang above the stage, and it becomes clear that they are held up by a clever contraption of ropes and pulleys, designed to suspend them at the meeting-point of their trapeze act. The 'face' of Amidor the dandelion appears from stage left, along with Golmo the brigganock, as they look up at the elf twins and then out at the ruin in the centre of the amphitheater, with Greginald the gnome standing in the middle of it. The oversized form of Barria lays motionless on the stage floor. Rowan the toad squats alone nearby with a small ferret having joined him, and Mulligan still floats in the air above, pixie dust falling softly from him, and Break-a-leg clinging on tightly. A dozen or so goblins peek their heads out from behind the downstage curtain, along with the remaining actors.

Without dropping a beat, the magically amplified voice of Charmay fills the amphiteater as she glides over toward the assembled armies:

Peoples of Yon! Endelyn Moongrave is gone. Her first and final prophecy is fulfilled. The age she bound this land to has ended, exactly as she foretold.

She pauses briefly before continuing:

Yon will not descend into chaos tonight. Motherhorn will stand. The stage-lights will remain lit. But the Rule of Three will be established once more: Ownership, Reciprocity, and Hospitality, pure and uncorrupted. Never again shall your tools, your craft, or your cleverness be taken from you by fear. You may give these as you choose, and be given in return: coin, safety, and respect. And you darklings and goblins, who were shaped by her shadow, will not be cast out with it. You will have a home here, not as servants, but as citizens of Motherhorn.

She pauses, letting the words settle.

I am Charmay. Until Yon chooses otherwise, I will see this land governed accordingly. The show will go on. The bargains will be fair. And no one will be forced to play a role written for them by another.

There is another pause, before one darkling kneels, then another, and another...

Greg slowly stands from his bow, surveying the scene and dropping concentration on the enlarge spell holding Barria, "we need a little healing over here!" He asks of Charmay, Hurley, anyone who will listen as he approaches the fallen dwarf. "Where the hell is Rowan!?" He asks, being entirely unaware of the situation "What use is a fighter if he up and buggers off after he takes a little fall!" 

G'Reg drops to his knees beside Barria, he is falters a little, he is also not doing so well, blood begins to crust in his chin and he still smells like an electrical fire, metallic and sour.

Rowan the Frog lets out a loud "Ribbit", turns his large eyes to the ferret and gives what amounts to a frog 'shrug before he hops over to where G'Reg is beside Barria. He moves to where Barria is wounded most but can't manage to do anything about the bleeding. Instead, he's left to keep any insects from landing on the injured and dying dwarf.

     Who put her in charge?

     That is Mulligan's first thought, transmitted across the Group Chat, and the "new Endelyn" gives her speech.  Mulligan's thoughts, and attention, quickly turn to Barria, however, once g'Reg points out her condition.  Mulligan drifts over and down towards her, patting his pockets and such looking for...  Anything that could help, though he knows he has nothing.  Landing beside her he looks around - to G'reG, to Rowan the Frog, to the replacement Endelyn, to everyone and everything just hoping to make eye contact with one who could possibly help.

     Will he be a frog long, do you think?  I was hoping the spell would end when she did.

     Mulligan sends this just to g'REg rather than the group chat, not wanting to offend or distress or worry Rowan if there was no need... Meanwhile he busies himself trying to make Barrier at least appear more comfortable, not having any healing skills or training himself. 

Suddenly, just as the frog with an attitude snags a fly away from Barria with his tongue, the frog grows and morphs into the familiar shape of Rowan. He chews on something in his mouth for a moment, frowns, but then chews again and swallows. He looks down at the ferret and shrugs. "It's okay. Wouldn't want to make a habit out of it but they'd do in a pinch."

Rowan then leans down to help Barria sit up after G'Reg stabilized the dwarf.

"So was that really a dragon up there?" Rowan says as he looks around, taking stock of all of his companions.

He waves up into the rafters at Amidor and Golmo then bows slightly to the twins.

"So Creepy Lyn is gone, we rescued the captured, just like I thought we would. But now what? Did anyone find anything they were missing?"

Barria coughs and looks around, seeing that Rowan is helping her up, she thanks him.  "What...what happened?  Is she gone?"  She looks around and takes in the situation, "Is everyone ok?"

Casting Healing Word on herself, she breathes a little easier with 4 hps.

The elf acrobat twins are still hanging above the stage from the rope that allowed them to remain suspending in eclipse form, although the light-dark glow from their faces has vanished. Golmo lets them down by a winch and proceeds to free them from their harnesses. Meanwhile, Amidor rushes to the group, ready to defend them from the darkling hordes. But the cloaked creatures seem to be placated, and are mingling with the korreds and the other brigganocks, so instead the dandelion helps revive Barria.

Mulligan continues to keep an eye on Charmay as she goes about establishing herself as the new woman in charge. Nothing about her seems particularly despotic though, and even the korreds and brigganocks seem to welcome the regime change, along with the darklings and goblins. Once the immediate chaos has settled, Charmay approaches the group. She inclines her head to each in turn, a performer’s bow rather than a noble’s.

Are you hurt? she asks, her voice unamplified now, and noticeably softer and less condescending than before. She waits, listening, watching. Only once she is satisfied does she straighten, her expression easing into something like genuine approval.

Well, she says, exhaling. That was... an extraordinary performance. You followed the script where it mattered, improvised where it didn’t, and struck the final note precisely on time. Endelyn could see every future except the one where her actors refused to play their parts. Her gaze lingers briefly on the scorched centre of the stage, then returns to the group. 

You freed the prisoner. You reunited the siblings. You drew the eclipse, held it, and brought the curtain down. Spectacular! Yon owes you. And I am not in the habit of letting debts linger. Name what you would have: rest, refuge, or reward. Motherhorn stands open to you. Stay as long as you wish. Or, if your path leads elsewhere, I will lend you aid: guidance, passage, or protection... where it is within my power to do so.

She pauses and smirks before adding: No stage tricks. Tonight, at least, the applause is earned.

"she's gone" G'Reg grumbles to Barria in relieved response, he is sat down beside her as she wakes and is leaning back on his arms exhausted. 

He listens to Charmay and her ruling, instating herself as ruler. There were likely worse applicants and the group likely wouldn't be around to see the consequences either way. But then she asks a fateful question. What on earth could she and the realm do for them? A greedy smile curls up Greg's face before he looks around to the group and the smile fades. He clears his throat and begrudgingly states. "We were stolen from, each of us who helped in this creation of your desired power vacuum. I've looked for my thing but it isn't here, Please find that which Endelyn stole from whichever of us it was, and have it returned. Could be Barria's recipe, could be Mulligan's voice, maybe even Rowan's ability to be quiet..." He lays down, looking to the sky and chuckling at his own joke at Rowan's expense, "Thinking on that Mulligan and Rowan have the opposite problem, could we give Rowan's voice over to Mulligan? Two birds with one stone, that would be efficient, hah!" 

When he eventually gets up off the floor and dust himself off, he will approach ash pile that was once a hag, and begin sifting through it, looking for a small stone he gave over not too long ago, as well as anything else that might be useful.

     Mulligan casts a scolding look at g'ReG when they joke about swapping Rowan's voice with Mulligan's lack thereof.

     Endelyn may be gone but remember we're still surrounded by fae and in their domain.  One should be careful what they joke about 'lest they be fulfilled out of spite or mirth.

     Even as he mentally scolds the g'NomE Mulligan shakes his head and makes a slashing gesture with his hand to make sure his negative stance on the idea is clear and apparent to all.

     Glad that everyone is more or less back to normal, Mulligan enjoys his taste of flight while he can, cautiously but joyfully swooping this way and that while he watches and listens to all the happenings below him.  When Charmay brings up the idea of a reward he finds himself at a bit of a loss...  He went to the Carnival to find his voice, after a fashion, but it was an idle quest - as much one of opportunity as of desire.  Having had forgotten his voice was stolen he had merely adapted and moved on.  It was only the return of the Carnival and the renewed knowledge of the loss that made him want it back.  Not that he doesn't not want it back, mind, but...  Isn't there more to want?  Or is there?  And of all the wants he could possibly ask for what could be fulfilled?

     I think my stolen voice's return has become a secondary concern to me.  Perhaps even lower.  But I am not sure what I would want more.  The change seems to be beneficial to the peoples I have met here so I don't know what I would ask for them.  The Carnival seems beyond your purview, no offense, and I think it's a trickier wicket than I understand anyway.  As such I guess my best use for any reward may be to pass it on...  Break-A-Leg here was as helpful to me as he could possibly be.  I promised him that I would bring him back to the Carnival with me when I get there, which I will of course do... But in the meantime, perhaps he has more he might ask for?

     As he's saying this, Mulligan pulls the sentient marionette up and out of his backpack and telepathically tells the skeleton what he had just mentally suggested to Charmay, that Break-A-Leg get Mulligan's reward, and the choice of what it is.

_____

I can't ask for the voice back as that would inherently change Mulligan so can't get that til the end, if then...
Not sure what else to ask for or what is on offer, but also don't particularly need anything so... The bones can decide!  lol... Maybe they want to be whoever they used to be if they were someone before they became a marionette?  Maybe they want their strings cut so they can act of their own accord?  *shrug*

Greginald nudges the small drift of ash with the toe of his boot. The blackened remains scatter like burnt paper, and beneath them he uncovers a single object untouched by flame: a pair of silver seamstress scissors. The blades are slender, precise, and cold to the touch. Whatever else Endelyn was, she had kept her tools close. If she notices, Charmay does not contest the gnome’s claim to them.

Break-a-leg wants nothing more than to travel to the Carnival, and is overjoyed when Charmay gives her leave for him to depart. Glister declares his intention to return at once... Gleam and Burly echo the sentiment, although they hope to have their shadows restored to them first... They offer to escort the animated skeleton marionette with them. Break-a-leg seems delighted by the notion... yet he turns his hollow gaze up toward Mulligan and adds, in his soft wooden rasp, that he will remain with the voiceless man for now... if his help is needed. The choice, it seems, is not entirely his own. Charmay watches the exchange without interruption, then turns to more practical matters.

Whatever Endelyn took, she says, if it held value, she would have kept it in her private chamber. I have never crossed that threshold, but I know the door.

She leads them from the amphitheater and through corridors now conspicuously unguarded. The castle feels altered already... quieter, as though it has finally relaxed and released a long-held breath. As they ascend, she speaks again, tone thoughtful rather than possessive.

The ornithopter will remain here. It serves only a single rider, and Motherhorn must not be without swift wings. But the storm balloon is another matter. If you have a destination in mind, the darklings will see you conveyed safely.  The storm balloon is a new revelation, but Charmay indicates the passage that leads to the balcony where the dirigible is tethered.

The private quarters of the late Lady of Motherhorn is on the highest level. Greginald recognises the door from his familiar's adventures through the castle, remembering that a giant hand tried to push the ferret over the balcony. The gnome searches the door and locates the small magic rune that activates the giant hand, and scratches it clear. The handle turns freely, without any magical guardians to prevent it, and as the door slowly opens, Charmay says: Let us see what she kept closest of all.

Scores of wooden marionettes hang from the ceiling of this oddly shaped room, the floor of which is strewn with old play scripts. Near the entrance are two alcoves, one containing a bare table, the other holding a wooden chest with tiny, clawed feet. Deeper in the room is a wicker basket surrounded by miniature toy birds. Scores of hourglasses are fixed to the walls. Whenever the sand of an hourglass runs out, the mechanism that attaches the hourglass to the wall causes it to flip over. The steady hiss of all those falling grains of sand can be heard throughout the room. A large, glass-doored wardrobe with a jade eye embedded in its cornice stands on the far side of the room in a wide alcove.

Barria:

Barria thanks Amidor profusely as he helps bring her back to full health.  She then stands up and faces Charmay as she well.. continues to perform even as she is thanking them.  She turns to G'Reg and scowls at the little gnome when he proposes switching voices with Rowan and Mulligan.

But then she adds to the gnomes request, "Yes, I would love to get my Grandmother's recipe back and for G'Reg to get his hoe.." she almost mentions Mulligan's voice, but his message to them.. it confused her, so she moves on, "and all the other things she has stolen throughout her time here, can they be returned to their rightful owner?  And if not, at least to the carnival's lost and found so that if the person was to return as we did... well, it would be waiting for them?"

     I appreciate it but I'll have these three around if I need help.  Go to the Carnival with the others.  Get the lay of the land there for when we return there, eh?

     Mulligan grins at Break-A-Bones and gives a little nod of his head in thanks for the help the marionette has already provided.

     When Charmay is leading them to Endelyn's room and mentioned the Ornithopter, Mulligan pauses ever so momentarily and starts as if to say something... But almost audibly snaps his mind shut instead and "speaks" not a word about his attempts at sabotage.  Best to move on elsewhere before it is discovered that he potentially ruined a national treasure, so to speak.

     Upon entering Endelyn's bedroom Mujlligan's eyes dart around from item to item with curiosity a bit of greed.  He is a bit of a thief after all so his eyes are accustomed to searching out small precious items which could be easily disappeared into palm or pocket or such.  So Mulligan slowly wanders around the room and takes in the oddities and peculiarities, and keeps one eye on Charmay and where her attention is...

     This is all very interesting but why are we here?  This does not seem like a likely stockpile of the various bric-a-brac of items that would have been stolen from guests at the Carnival over the years...

     Mulligan asks this first to Charmay and then relays it to the others over Group Chat so that they know what he is asking.  

_____

Investigation to see if Mulligan eyes anything in the room that looks particularly valuable or magical which may be easily acquired through Sleight of Hand?  25

     Not saying he necessarily will steal any such he sees, but he does keep an eye out for such.  Part of the reason he asks why they're here is to see if Charmay is offering any and all of this up to the group... Or if it's just to see if they can find what they had stolen from them.