THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX
(I/C)
Seeing no one was answering him, Lannis shrugged and rubbed the top of the Crystal ball again. "Well, you guys figure it out. I'll get working in this, see what that wily wizard girl is up to.” He frowned, sucking in his bottom lip. “Wait...did I say wily?” he chuckled a bit creepily, “I meant slutty."
Meanwhile Abraxas was scooping out the coins from the bag of holding, stacking them crudely in the corner of the vault. "Donde to ahora, amigos? Quien are we getting after next? Que are our plans? Anyone want a put something en el Bag de Helding por mi a carry? Es mucho light y empty mucho. Anything extra we should carry? Armor extra? Weapons? Que else? Soy listo cuando vosotros estais listo."
“Hey, Hilo, I need a bit of quiet here, ok? Doing magic magic stuff.”
Abraxas arched an eye brow at the Wizard and then went back to loudly jingling the coins and allowing them to spill about. “Oops! Clumsy me!”
Giving a soft chuckle, Wyn addressed the rest of the group. “H'okay. We need two groups. Both quite perilous. Group 1 goes to check de chimney in de garden to see iffin we cen unclog it, or if we need to fight anyting to do so. Group 2 needs to stay here to babysit Offop while he scrys.”
Brendon stood up and dusted off his ass. “I’d be happy to do something then to sit around,” he offered.
“If no one else wants to stay wit Offop, Wyn will stay.” The elf shrugged, “Moi patience is probably de best at dis point.” He looked around and added, “I cen also go help wit de chimney scoutin'. Full health en all dat. Whatever dat be.”
Abraxas was still emptying the bag and Lannis was hunched over the Crystal ball, muttering, “seabiscuit, seabiscuit,” and giggling to himself. Wyn looked over the party and added, “I have some toughts dat de dwarf en du Lac be de best for going to de garden. Dwarf be good at unclogging a stony shaft. Du Lac needed for 'is 'earing en trap checkin. All odders are back up.
“I, for one, am feeling great,” Kovid thumped his chest. “Like healthier and stronger than ever. Point me in a direction and I’ll take anyone one. Mirabellis? She has it coming right?!”
“We only need one odder to stay with Offop. Dough two could stay if we want to keep de garden group quieter. What do y'all want to do?”
“You stay, Wyn,” Lyra said, cinching her shield tighter. “In case things go wrong, I’ll go with the group to the chimney. I’m not in the best of shape but someone needs to be around if someone needs an emergency heal or ghouls happen.”
"Señor Linbus can wait aqui alone, no?” Abraxas asked, “El es mas safe aqui. Muy safe. Aqui es el place safe mejor en el Bastille. No where else is safer. Por que do necessitamos mas de uno person aqui?”
“You just don’t want to stay with me,” Lannis muttered, still concentrating. “And here I thought we were friends.”
“Si, we are amigos.”
“Then as a good friend, stay here with Stabbity McBoogieelf and keep me company while the Hat Trick goes and make believe they’re the useful part of this party.”
“If it wasn’t going to screw up your scrying,” Lyra said, “I’d give you such a shot.”
“Great, Princess! Have fun on your field trip. Wyn, could you let the garbage out, the flies are getting noxious and I don’t have a tail to swish them away.” Lannis reconcentrated on the Crystal ball (<Int check, Pink 4) and waited, watching the colors shift within.
Wyn went to the secret door and once sure it was still quiet, opened it up and let Brendon, Kovid, and Lyra out. “Knock trios times when you want to come back,” he said.
As they crossed the summoning room, relying on Brendon’s continual light coin for illumination, the elf reshut the secret door and went back to the secret room where Kovid’s battered lantern still was. “Dey be gone. It’s better dis way.”
Abraxas shook his head. “I don’t agree with this. Tambien, si we didn’t leave 10 mins ago, ahora doesnt matter in stopping Smullpacks swelling ranks. We needed todos el tiempo to make it work. We could potentially go after Mirrorballs, ella seems like she may be alone, o at very least con menos amigos que CreamTruth, o Smellpesh, o Optimus Furry, o Raging Zeppelin. Even los Harpies y Poddles have amigos. Mirrorballs may be our best option to attack next. Then we should have the Lab to ourselves."
“Let’s ‘ope dat Monsieur Offop can let us know.”
“I’ll stand by the door to let them in when they come back,” Abraxas took his Scythe and moved south, Wyn placed the lantern in the hall to illuminate both areas, and stood there watching over the magic user as he did his thing.
Brendon let the smaller group to the opposite door and then through that one to the short hall. Once there he listened (<Hear Noise, +20% quiet, Red 39) and strained (WMC: Red/Black 6 – no), but heard nothing. “Clear,” he whispered, and Kovid nodded, opening the door quietly, the dwarf looking both ways. The hall was empty, and we could hear nothing anymore coming down the east hall.
“Goblins moved on?” he guessed.
“Quiet,” Lyra pointed to the other door to the Garden. “Who knows for how long.”
We crossed the hall and Brendon listened again, hearing still nothing. With exaggerated care he opened the door and shone his light in to look around. It still looked the same as before, dirt, wild plants, over grown, 4’ tall thorny bushes, obscured pathways under the foliage, and plants and vines growing everywhere including up to parts of the ceiling. The Cleric motioned the group to go ahead, Her Lolthian Flail out, closing the door most of the way but keeping it open a crack. “I’ll listen here. Check out the fireplace and chimney and then get the fuck back here.”
“This place gives me the creeps,” Kovid noted, the dwarf and Scout stuck to the north side of the room, staying off the dirt. They made their way to the corner and turned south, Lyra being left in gloomy darkness at this point, watching and waiting.
It was shy of the fireplace that they stopped, the smell of wet earth and mud getting stronger. There were about a half dozen immature and spindly looking 8” tall mushrooms here, and two others, much larger and more mature, obvious Shriekers. Those had been placed in clay pots and had been put just outside the Fireplace on the flagstones.
“Look,” Kovid frowned. The fireplace was filled with at least 3 courses of cobbled stones, each one set with thick mud acting like a mortar. It was crude work, but the goblins and hobgoblins had bricked up the Chimney and flue going down by three layers of heavy block. “That’s…pretty fucking smart,” he groused. “It’ll take us at least an hour to clear it. And will make some noise.”
“To say nothing of the Shriekers.”
“Two grown ones, and 6 immature ones for now,” Kovid laid his hand on Brendon Shoulder and pulled him back. “We saw what we need to see. Let’s go back, this was just to get information.”
Meanwhile, Lyra (<Wis Check, -4 penalty, White 10), was quiet, watching the shadowy garden and its thick plant life. Her eyes were hyper focused and the taller thick bushes seemed to sway now and again. It was after a few minutes that the sight of it and why it bugged her for some reason came to her mind.
They were swaying in unison.
The dwarf and scout rejoined her and the three of them left the Garden, making sure the door was closed tight, and then crossed the hall and shit all the doors behind them until they were once again back in the Summoning Room and Brendon raised his hand to knock on the wall three times…
Meanwhile, after about 10 minutes, Lannis muttered, “Oooo, yeah. We’re getting something.”
“What you see?” Wyn asked.
“Ok. Mirabellis. And…I got her. She is in her room, the one that was half nice, half abattoir? I can see her. She’s on the floor not too far from her bad. Has a book or two open, and she’s sewing.”
“Sewing?” Abraxas asked. “Like a dress?”
“Let me check, spread the image out a bit…and we just crossed over to creepity shit. She’s sewing bodies together. Like dead salamanders. She has cut them, stripped off some flesh, and is SEWING the bodies together. Like side to side and back to back.”
“Dat don’t sound good.”
“Is she alone?”
“Pulling back a bit. I can see the big assed panther with her.”
“Piddles.”
“Christmasbells an o Poodles isn’t too hard,” Abraxas noted.
“And we would want to stop her afore she makes de dead beast wit 2 backs.” Wyn looked up, “Anyting else?”
“Yeah. Her hat is real nice. I like the style of it. I’m more of a broad brim sort of guy, but she really is working that blue and the longer conical shape.”
“Focus, Offop!”
“Sorry. Ok, there are 3…and 3…goblins. Sort of. Guarding the room for her.”
“What you mean? Sort of guarding?”
“No, sort of Goblins. Three at the north area that lead to the Dead Duchess and 3 at the door that lead to heal outside the Sanctuary. I mean sort of goblins, as in, they have no flesh on them. Just goblin skeletons.”
“Shit.”
“Dat sounds not good.”
“No. And she is yelling at something right now.”
“Can you hear who it is?”
“Is it Paddles?”
“No. It’s small and at her side.”
“Like an imp?”
Lannis squinted. “No…It’s small, like a doll. She is yelling at it and pointing at her bed. She seems real…mad. Like frothing at the mouth mad. Like she is hitting it with the book mad. Like she just picked up a knife and is stabbing it mad.”
“What is it?”
“She’s really beating it up now, smacking it against the ground, picture is all blurry here she’s pretty frantic. Ok, she just threw it to the floor and picked her needle again to sew so I can see what it was…Ugh! Ugh!!”
“Wot! Wot is it!?"
“It’s…it’s…it’s a small doll! Dressed in pink! And it has a pink hat! And she is REAL mad at it!”
“Pink, huh?” Wyn smirked. “Like a robe?”
“I can’t tell! It’s could be a dress. It’s not pants and a shirt, that’s for sure!” The image went dark and he looked up. “I can’t imagine who it is supposed to be, but she was definitely not happy with whoever that figure was a representation of, I can tell you!”
At that point we heard a knocking at the secret wall, three times. Abraxas opened it and let the 3 party members back in. Once the door was shut again, we all gathered around and shared what we had learned so far.
Time now is Day 9, 11:20 AM
(OOC)
Ok! Crystal ball is done until tomorrow. Some info learned. What would the group like to do.
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