CW: Blood, Slight Gore, Death, Torture
Slip and Slide
Session six begins with Eman (See:
Shalis Kerny Laurence Emanuel),
Cadence Loch, and
Azriel Presch descending into the basement. Kharli (see:
Jhertalli) has not returned from exploring the forest around the cottage. The trio make their way stealthily down the stairs to see a 6'7" human man wearing a butcher's apron and holding a meat cleaver standing with his back turned away from the stairs. He is facing an unconscious changeling person who is hanging from the ceiling of the basement by their wrists.
They get the drop on the man, Azriel and Eman both shooting him with their longbow and crossbow respectively. Cadence takes her suprise round turn to get closer to the man and uses her crossbow to shoot him as well. Each time, the man curses at them and rips a new arrow out of his body.
Azriel takes another chance to shoot him again, and at this point, it's the man's turn. He goes into a rage and transforms into a wolf-like beast, stepping up to Cadence to bite at her. Eman moves forward, throws water at the man's feet, and uses shape water to make the ground underneath him slippery. The man slips and falls prone. Cadence uses the produce flame cantrip again to hit him.
On Azriel's turn, he moves forward to the man and slashes at him with his glaive. On the man's turn he tries to get up, fails, and takes two claw attacks: one at Cadence and one at Azriel, but they both miss. On Eman's turn, he uses Magehand to knock one of the hanging weapons from the ceiling and it comes down and chops off the tip of the man's finger. Cadence uses the produce flame cantrip again to cause some damage. There's a few rounds of damage being dealt to this man as he flounders on the ice unable to get up.
Eman moves away from the man and towards where the changeling is, investigates the room, and finds a backpack underneath the "torture table" that looks a little bit more like a butcher's table than a torture table upon closer inspection. The bag underneath the table has a dagger and a broken lyre falling out of it. The changeling appears to have been hit in the head bluntly and has an arrow-like shoulder wound. They're about the same height as Eman, or at least would be if they were not tied up.
The group hears a door closing and footsteps upstairs, that for a round doesn't result in anything. The man begins to yell for Verran, but it doesn't seem like she hears him initially. Soon they hear the footsteps come towards the basement stairs and stop. They don't hear anything else after that, but on the next round, Azriel is shot with an arrow that came from the top of the steps.
Eman casts Sleep and puts the man to sleep, and there's a slight thump from the top of the stairs as Verran almost falls asleep but doesn't, falling slightly down the first few stairs before catching herself. She has revealed her position this time, and Cadence begins to talk to her, asking her if she's really going to do this again. Verran says that they're in
her house, and Cadence asks if the man they've been fighting is "hers" and she says, "Something like that." Cadence casts Ice Knife and misses, and Verran is able to dodge out of the way of the shattered ice.
Eman, not entirely himself (or perhaps even moreso himself) in this moment, says he needs to get out of here because it's not good for him. He's done quite a bit of damage during this encounter, but he doesn't seem pleased by it. He uses Magehand to deadleg Verran at the top of the stairs, and she falls down them, cracking her head on each stair and landing at the bottom looking near dead but still conscious. He goes to finish her off, but Azriel stops him, and it seems like Eman is finally coming out of the "not-Eman" version of himself. He is freaking out a little bit, and during that time Verran bleeds out at the bottom of the staircase. Eman runs up the stairs and out of the cottage and begins to "cry" out in the front of it (because skeletons cannot cry, he's just doing something that looks like crying).
The Changeling, Vex
Azriel decides to tie up the sleeping man while Cadence goes to check on the changeling. She casts cure wounds on herself and the changeling, and the changeling begins to awaken. As Cadence is asking questions, the changeling introduces themself as Vex and asks questions to Cadence about the Valley and "how far east are we?" It seems that the changeling is in their late teens and is incredibly nervous. They say that the last thing they remember is being shot with an arrow and dragged through the woods.
Meanwhile, Azriel is talking to the man who's slowly awakening. Cadence approaches as Azriel is asking questions. The man is being condescending, asking the two of them if they "really" want to know what they did with the people they captured. The duo asks the man if the butcher in town knew what kind of meat they were selling him, and the man starts laughing before realizing that they were being serious. When it's clear that the man doesn't care for the lives of others, Cadence tells Azriel that she will be killing this man and asks for his last words. He says "Fuck you," and Cadence cuts his head off with her scimitar.
Cadence heads upstairs to see where Eman went, and Azriel goes to the changeling who is very decidedly choosing not to look the other way in the room where the corpses of their captors are. They're picking up their things and lamenting over their broken lyre. Azriel offers to lead them upstairs so they don't have to see the corpses that they're actively trying to avoid and they accept. They head upstairs, and Cadence mentions that they had a companion who was also a changeling that would likely like to speak with them.
They have a brief conversation with one another about a changeling community back west in the forest that Vex is from, and they say to send their companion that way. The forest will guide them where needed, and Vex leaves the group through a path opened up by the forest that closes back behind them.
The Path Taken
Azriel and Cadence comfort Eman who is struggling to understand who he is, why he is the way that he is, and desperately wanting to get out of the forest because he doesn't like who he is when he's there. Azriel says that Eman can start by just being a friend, that he doesn't need to know who he is in this moment. They leave the forest, hearing whispers from the revitalized trees around the cottage about Kharli making it back to town as they begin the path back to the village of
Fletcher.
Epilogue
The path took all three of them quickly back to where it began at The Butcher Shop. They find that the village official Amie Boroughan (see:
Whispers of Redwillow NPCs) has arrived back to
Fletcher with more guards to begin their search of their forest near the Butcher Shop. When they hear that they have dealt with the situation, they are given gold and thanked profusely by the guards who did not want to enter in the forest at all, including Geo Rowan and Finn Arcaid. Word travels fast, and they are also welcomed back into The Swirly Snail by Harlowe and Uuowouu who both have heard the rumors of what has been done. Kharli meets them once again in the village, just to say curt goodbyes, and they exchange information about the changeling village in the far west of
The Redwillow Forest and the changeling Vex who they had met.
After the arc, Azriel settles down in Fletcher for a while, spending a lot of time with Uuowouu and Harlowe before continuing on his wandering. Eman begins simply walking east, as far away from
The Redwillow Forest as he can go. Azriel picks up his path too, heading far east after his stay in Fletcher. Cadence returns back home to
Rockshire, where she takes up learning the family trade of logging from her father. Kharli, upon hearing the information about the changeling village, begins their travels back into the forest in an effort to seek out a community with them.
Comments