Take You Away
You're standing in the Temple of Eluna. There's a heavy mist outside, and the humidity lingers inside as well. Making the air slightly thick. Some of you were requested from the adventurer's guild, to act as guards for the witch brought back from the mountain. Others are here out of curiosity about the witch who is rumored to have knowledge about the nightmares plaguing the city of late as well as the werewolf attacks.
So you're in the temple, but not the main hall. You're actually well into the secret depths of the temple. Past the ancient relics of magic kept under guard here, past several paladins standing guard, and into a small room where the witch of the mountain is being kept.
It might be surprising to find her little more than a child with too-wise pink eyes. Her brown hair is ordinary enough, and her bearing seems like that of any child of about ten you've met. But those eyes... They're the eyes of someone who's seen the world and lived a long life. She's already standing as the group of you enter the room. It seems you were expected. Very seriously she offers each of you her hand. "Greetings."
Dolan had not hesitated when requested, and in truth, had been planning to ask anyway. He had had a good many more questions than answers after helping to retrieve the child off of the mountain, from where the werewolves had been hunting her and her companion. That had taken some days while the wounds he'd taken on that trip healed.
Now, though, he is all business. He would not ordinarily have gone for sword and armor, but today he does, and callused hands meet the child as he shakes gravely. "Glad to see you're all right," he tells her gruffly.
New to the city and the guild, Lauriel steps forward. Her tree-branched helm under her left arm and offering her right hand to the child witch. "Greetings. I am told we are here to assist you? Guard you? And that you've been through much already." Her smile tugs at the scar on her face but it's a kindly smile. She steps back to allow others room to move forward if they wish.
The Sunguard that accompanies Dolan is also dressed fully in armor, although her longsword and shield are sheathed to her back where they usually belong unless things are getting hairy. Her steel-grey eyes are filled with a warmth as she approaches the child and gently takes her hand. "Hi, kiddo. Don't mind my partner here, he's kind of all gruff and growly like a bear when he wants to be. My name's Andelena."
She offers this 'witch of the mountain' a smile more at home on the face of a beloved schoolteacher or a 'cool aunt' than one might expect.
Carver was hungover and still sore from a brawl. The last thing she expected when she stopped by the temple for some very minor care that she was swept up in something a lot bigger. A lot bigger for her, at least, with the moment demanding enough gravitas that the dirty ranger has removed her hat and twists it nervously in her hands. In old leathers and with her dirty face sporting a nasty shiner on her right eye, she looks dreadfully out of place. She's so nervous that she misinterprets oracle's gesture and hands her the hat instead. "Sorry..."
"I am glad that you are not a werewolf." Says the child. At least she has a child's voice, it would be disconcerting indeed to hear something else from her lips. "And that you have the use of your left arm again." She nods politely to Dolan and then shakes hands with Lauriel.
"Yes, they have been keeping me under guard by several people at a time ever since my arrival. They do not trust any one person with my care." There's a tightness in her eyes there, and she offers a small smile to Andelena. "He is one who came to my aid when I was in dire need. He can be as grumpy as he likes to be."
Lastly she goes to shake Carver's hand and ends up with a hat in hand. She blinks at it and then at Carver. "Ah... Is this for me?" She asks gently, offering it back uncertainly.
"Grumpy, eh?" Suddenly, a flash of a cheeky grin sprouts across the unscarred half of Dolan's features, a look that is more than just good-natured teasing, and says that there's something else that he didn't say. Whatever it was, though, is left to mystery, and he drops the hand, rubbing at the mentioned shoulder.
"Thanks. Yeah, Andie here was a big help. There's a good reason why they don't trust any one person here, though - look, what's your name anyway?" speaks as one suddenly realizing that he is missing that information.
Lauriel stays quiet and listens to the conversation, noting that she's missed out on details of what went on before. She starts putting things together as more and more come out and nods slowly to herself. "Werewolves? Mmm.. This could be dangerous, indeed. Perhaps she could grace us with her name and also what we shall be doing more specifically?"
"Yeah, you heard me, you grumpy a--alligator," Andelena says, catching herself right before she finds herself cussing in front of a child. She gives him a playful nudge on his good shoulder.
She looks back to the child-witch. "So... Here's the deal. We have to ask you a bunch of questions. Just to make sure that the werewolves don't try and turn my man into one of them again, since he says you know things about them. Is that okay, kiddo? Maybe we could do something to make you more comfortable?"
"No, no, sorry. I'm a righ' berk." Carver hastily explains as she takes the hat back. "I though' - well, it looked like a place where you can't wear hats so I thought..." She swallows, tense as any drawn bowstring, looking back to the paladins. "No. Sorry. Real nice to meetcha. Uh, Little Lady." She transitions to the shadows of the others, still holding the hat to her chest.
"My name is Phyrelia." She bows her head politely as she offers the words, then looks at Lauriel very seriously. "You are here, more or less, in case one of the paladins in the hall turns into a werewolf and tries to eat me."
It's a very serious thing for a child to know or say. Her pink eyes turn on Andelena and she half-smiles to herself in a secretive sort of way. "I am comfortable enough, you may ask me what you will. I will do my best to be of aid." Everything she says is perhaps a little more grown-up than it has a right to be, and she outright smiles at Carver's words, offering the woman a kindly expression. "It is a pleasure to meet you all as well."
Dolan turns his head fully towards the others, unsmiling, ignoring for the moment Andie's crass-ish teasing. "You think she's joking. I assure you she's not. They hit the Temple the night of the eclipse and got more than a few of the Silver Guard, I doubt they've found them all. A d..." He quickly corrects himself. "A good many more didn't make it at all. Ugly business."
He turns his attention back towards the pink-eyed child, and leans back against the austere stone wall, gently in deference to the sword on his back. "So it's pretty obvious that they want you, and want you bad. Any idea why?"
Andelena looks a little... well, confused. Maybe even put out that her usual 'cool aunt' routine isn't making the pink-eyed child automatically her best friend and already volunteering up information like kids tend to do when they're at ease. But mostly, it's the way that the child so freely addresses the possibility of a werewolf eating her that's a bit disconcerting.
"Have you had to deal with werewolves before?" she asks, frowning.
Carver twists her face at the mention of the one thing that could be worse than paladins. Werewolf Paladins. She looks behind her, forehead breaking out with sweat as her fingertips brush the feathers of her arrows.
Lauriel has to then turn and look at where the nearest of the guards is and then shrug and grin. The tidbit of knowledge that there are likely infected folk in the ranks of the guards not setting her mind at ease. "I've never met one myself. Not that I know of. Hopefully this will be a quiet watch over you, Phyrelia. Though I am curious too as to why they want you enough to chase you here."
Phyrelia tilts her head at Dolan, then smiles softly. "They're after me because I talked to Seer Galvin. He had a prophetic dream the night before he was killed by a werewolf." Her smile is gone by the time she's finished her words, her eyes more serious. Andelena asks her question, and there's a long silence in the wake of it. Her nose scrunching up and her eyes going distant as though she needs to really think abou the answer. "No? I do not think that I have ever had to deal with werewolves before I talked to Seer Galvin. It is possible I simply do not remember, but I doubt it very much."
She sighs then; shrugging at Lauriel. "They seem afraid of the prophecy... Though I know not why."
GAME: Carver rolls sense motive: (15)+3: 18 GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive: (11)+10: 21 GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (15)+9: 24 GAME: Lauriel rolls sense motive: (8)+3: 11
"After he died, it sounds like." Dolan's arms remain crossed, but he looks over towards the paladins ringing them, and his eyes narrow on one in particular. He straightens up, and turns his head fully towards Andelena. "Think you might write down what he said? We got ink and paper here?" Another glance towards their guards. He's suddenly cagey, his voice dropping into low tones.
Andelena squints for a hard moment at the paladins, catching her partner's look at them, too. She walks over to the door and says, "Hey, girl's gotta have some privacy. F--"
Another bite of the lips. /Smooth,/ Andie. "Find a short pier and take a long hike off it." She shuts the door and turns back to the group. "Cool. Now we can talk. Yeah, I got some paper and ink." The Sunguard produces the materials from a satchel--necessary for taking reports, after all.
Carver gives a sigh of relief when the door is closed on the paladins, out of sight and out of mind. Bless all the heavens above. With her long exhale, she looks back to the witch as they get paper and a scratcher for secret messages. “If’n I may, Little Lady? What almost had you at a giggle?”
Dolan doesn't get an immediate answer from the girl, but once Andelena closes the door she answers uncertainly. "I can write it down, but are you sure that is safe? It might be a danger to whoever carries it.
Meanwhile there's the sound of muffled conversation outside the room followed by a knock. When the door isn't opened to the knock the door is gently tried and it bumps into Lauriel. Meanwhile the girl smiles winsomely at Carver. "The fact that everyone here thinks that I am a child."
This relevation comes with a harder push from the other side of the door. "Hey! We can't allow you to be in there alone with her! What if one of you is a werewolf? Hey! Let me in!" It's a woman's voice.
The girl looks at the door and brings a hand to her lips. "Perhaps a bit more privacy is in order?"
"Give it to Andie, quietly," Dolan abruptly pushes to his feet as he tells the child this, his grin positively wicked. "I'm going to make sure she doesn't hear a thing." The grin he wears says he's got an idea. He strides over to the door, shouting, "Why? If you didn't already know that nobody here was a werewolf, why did you hire us? You'd think you'd be smart enough to check first!"
He rattles the door, then, hard, an impact into it as if one trying to open it. "Damn it! It's stuck! Give us a minute!"
Andelena gives Dolan a grin in return, quickly going over to Phyrelia. "Okay, Phy." The nickname is new and clearly off-the-cuff. After all, it's been heavily implied that 'kiddo' and 'little lady' are inaccurate, but that doesn't stop the Sunguard from trying to befriend the little witch. "Whisper it into my ear and I'll write. Don't worry about me, I'm tough as they come."
Lauriel places her feet on the floor and digs in her heels, "Damn. It's stuck fast. What the heck! Was just open a second ago." She gets ready to move the chair should things get too crazy too fast. "One.. two.. three, pull!" She braces the door all the harder rather then pull the door open.
"That's way better tha' my idea," Carver admits under her breath. She turns to the door and joins in the racket. She never gets the chance to yell at the Upright Shiny Brigade. "Berks! Stop, like, yankin onnit like it's your child not goin' to prayer school! Hav' a lil' bloody patience ya gits." If everyone is a dirty liar she can dirty lie too. She shrugs uncomfortably, once more taking inventory of her arrows. A nervous twitch.
The girl - or rather Phyrelia, looks toward the door then shrugs and leans in to whisper into Andelena's ear so that the woman can write down the prophecy.
GAME: Dolan rolls strength: (1)+3: 4 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Lauriel rolls strength: (18)+2: 20 GAME: Carver rolls strength: (19)+2: 21
More rattling from Dolan, as he struggles to hold the door, and then a louder rattle when he slips, the noise audible from outside. "_Fuck_! Ow!" There's nothing fake or dirty lies about his cry of pain as he goes down to the stone floor hard and awkwardly, twisting his arm backwards in the process.
Andelena quickly writes down Phyrelia's words, focused primarily on writing it down. "Keep going," she urges the little witch, although she absolutely winces in pain as she hears her partner's cry of pain.
"Another thing for me to fix," she murmurs.
Behind her visor Lauriel winces as Dolan goes down. But she manages to assist in holding the door closed for now. "Yes.. Wait! Wait! Lets take a look on this side and make sure we're not missing anything before someone else gets hurt. Right now all is well, right?"
"Stop tryin' to open the bloody door!" Carver yells back through, "We're tryin' to--" She's under enough stress that she could just let slip the actual truth that they're actively trying to hold it shut which includes her having propped a whole foot against the frame of the portal to aid in leverage. Then Dolan is slipping and sliding and breaking whatever it is that made that deep crack. "Aw, ye bollocks you busted *his* bollocks."
GAME: Dolan rolls strength: (7)+3: 10 GAME: Lauriel rolls strength: (15)+2: 17 GAME: Carver rolls strength: (2)+2: 4
Grimacing, Dolan manages to get to his feet, shaking his head and shouting, "I don't think anything's broken," he grits out, but loud enough so the other side can probably hear it. "Just ... tweaked it. Here, stop pulling and let's see if we can shake it free." So say, he leans his good shoulder into the door.
Lauriel bangs her armored elbow into the door a couple times as she talks. "It's really stuck. Give us a moment out there!" She looks over towards the whisperer and the writer in the hopes that all has been taken care of. Motioning to them with a hand to hurry up.
The girl whispers urgently in Andelena's ear but the last of her words are cut off with a frightened little sound as the door suddenly bursts in and two of the paladins of Eluna stand there huffing at the doorway. One of them looks solidly irritated. The woman. "What were you doing?"
"We're guarding her. You know, like you wanted us to?" Andelena says, just as irritated. She snaps her writing pad back into her satchel. "Now, do you want to heal my man, whose arm you just twisted like it's a shitty doll from pushing in on the door, or are you gonna stand there with a face like a skunk just farted in it?"
"What are 'we' doin'?" Carver asks as she stumbles to try to get her balance at the arrival of the pair. She stamps forward, gesticulating wildly, like a street cat over its meal trying to show a bigger predator that they're not the bigger predator at all with a cacophony of spitting and hissing. "'We doin'? You kickin' down doors an' we the suspicious lot? Bugger you, ya shiny git, bugger your Ma too for not whappin' your arse for the lack of patience and the even more lackin' bit of brains. You goose saddlin' two-step medal dancer. I'm gonna speak to, like, your boss and lettum know what an absolute jerk of a doorknob they got here. What's your name, what's your like- whatever, paladin codename. Where's your gods-damned supervisor?!"
"The better question is, what were _you_ doing?" Dolan's right hand goes to his left shoulder as he stares daggers at the woman. "It's a funny thing, how your church seems to trust us more than they trust you. We wouldn't be here if they trusted you. it sure looks like there's a damned good reason for that," he tells her with a growl, moving so that he is between the paladin and the child.
The door bursts and Lauriel finds herself on the floor with chair pushed over to the side somewhere. She doesn't have to feign being out of breath. She /is/ out of breath from the shock of the fall. Still she's trying to get to her feet, moving a section of the poor door off to one side. "Ouch."
Phyrelia half-hides behind Andelena. The female paladin shakes her head, but her eyes are narrow. "He could have been shifting for all we knew. For all _you_ knew. Edmond, heal the man. Jaan!" Another paladin down the hall hastens to comes forward. "These folks would like to talk to Balram, go get her? As for me. I am Mahin. And I can hardly wait to tell Balram that you thought it'd be a good idea to lock yourselves in with the witch." She seems... smug.
GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive+1: (6)+10+1: 17
Lauriel's eyes narrow behind her mask as she dusts herself off. She freezes mid-motion and stares hard through her helm at Mahin. "The 'witch' has a name. She has a name and there's something about the way you speak of her and call her witch that I dislike a great deal. Like it's a dirty word. Like you would call her a thing if you could rather then a person. And as if your place as a paladin somehow allows you to do so without fear of reprisal or remark." She too puts herself between the paladin and Phyrelia.
"Really. Are you sure your supervisor isn't going to be pretty damn pissed you're causing an incident? Dolan and I are Daeusites, you daft cow," Andelena replies, more than irritated. "You injured someone representing another temple. I don't think you /get/ how serious this is."
"Righ', now we talk to ye boss..." Carver's windblows out of her sails, so riled up in the moment that she didn't remember that talking to important people with shiny armor might be the thing she hates the most. Her eyes quickly dart about, checking exits, her anger replaced by rising apprehension.
"I don't think she's a paladin at all," Dolan drawls slowly, still massaging his shoulder. "No. I don't think I want your help. I've never met a Sunblade who wouldn't see to the injured first, and do it themselves. I can't imagine Eluna's paladins are any different. Not to mention that our archer here is right," he nods to Carver. "I don't like the way you spoke of Phyrelia, either. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that you haven't got the welfare of anyone in this room in mind. How much do you want to bet she asked someone else to do it because Eluna's turned away from her, and she _can't_?" There's a definite challenge in the snarled words, and the hand slips away from that shoulder.
"She _is_ a werewolf." Says Phyrelia with certainty, her pink eyes narrow on the paladin who in turn narrows her gaze at the 'child'.
"How dare you call into question my loyalties!" The woman strides toward the girl, and stops at the first person between herself and Phyrelia. She glares and waves her arm for the other paladin's to do her bidding. It seems she's in charge and they hasten to obey her. Including Edmond who she actually waves off. "Wait in the hall. I'll tend his wound."
Edmond nods hastily, but hesitates looking at Phyrelia. Then moves to the doorway. Mahin herself strides to where Dolan stands, ignoring Phyrelia now and glaring into Dolan's eyes. "You don't know how to leave well enough alone do you? Give me your damn arm and I'll _prove_ to you that I stand in Eluna's grace."
GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (19)+9: 28 GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive+1: (7)+10+1: 18 GAME: Lauriel rolls sense motive: (17)+3: 20 GAME: Carver rolls sense motive: (10)+3: 13
Two things happen then at once, Mahin pushes the door shut again, slamming it closed, and starts to... well go furry.
GAME: Andelena rolls weapon5-1: (9)+6+-1: 14 GAME: Dolan casts Magic Weapon. Caster Level: 2 DC: 14
"Get your filthy fucking hands off my man, you bitch!" Andelena roars. Her longsword is out and she swings at the werewolf, only for the blade to go wide.
GAME: Lauriel rolls cmb+2: (18)+3+2: 23
"Called it!" Dolan jerks his arm away and takes a step backwards, the harness holding his greatsword slithering silently to the the floor in a whisper of leather, only to be kicked aside. "SOMEONE GET THE DOOR OPEN!" he bellows at the top of his lungs. "Holy Knight, strengthen my blade that I may defend a child," he murmurs, lifting the blade in one hand and the sunburst in the other. The blade begins to glow softly with a sunlit aura, and he pulls it into a ready stance with a hiss and a grimace at its weight.
Rather then step back, Lauriel does the unpredictable.. and frankly stupid thing of moving forward without a weapon to hand. She calls up the link with her armor and sends magics flowing through wood, sap and gears. Small branches moving and wood cracking as it swells and heats, giving her strength. With that she grabs hold of the beastly woman and gets ready for the fight of her life. Or perhaps death.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (4)+4: 8 GAME: Carver rolls strength: (8)+2: 10
Carver trusts the safety of the Little Lady to her excellent team, instead seeking help where she cannot provide any. She slides beneath a lunging bite, coming up scrambling to grip the door, eyes dilating with battle terror. "Oi, Moon Knighties, we got a bloody moonhowler in 'ere!" Please open you busted piece of crap. She yanks and turns and rattles, but nothing. "Come ooooonnnnnn~"
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (13)+4: 17 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d6+1: (2)+1: 3
The witch of the mountain lets out another terrified noise as the paladin goes furry and rushes for the mirror. "She will kill or turn us all! Quickly! We must escape!" She touches the mirror and says something in a language that's too quiet to be understood before stepping _through_ the mirror and disappearing.
Meanwhile the furry paladin bites Lauriel, sinking teeth into the other woman and bleeding her.
GAME: Lauriel rolls fort: (11)+5: 16 GAME: Andelena rolls weapon5-1: (9)+6+-1: 14
"Follow Phy! Go! I'll hold the line!" Andelena commands of the rest of the people in her group, gritting her teeth as she tries to swing at the werewolf again, but her longsword once again goes wide as she tries to avoid the swirl of bites and scratches from the werewolf.
GAME: Lauriel rolls cmb+3: (10)+3+3: 16
"Forget it! We can't lose Phy! Go after her! I'll cover you! Andie, you better follow!" Dolan takes two steps backwards, then turns and flat out _bolts_ for the mirror, as if to go after her.
"The Moon Knights are gonna hang me, I bloody know it." Carver wails, as she gives up the impassable barrier for the portal to safety she least expected. A mirror. She's not playing sacrificial rearguard against no bloody moonhowler. She leaps through without a look back.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (3)+6: 9
The wood armorer woman is bit. Her armor where helm meets neck and a natural gap. She yells as teeth sink in and begins to growl at the wolfish one biting her. Strength floods her limbs and she pushes and then twists. Lifting the furry palidin from her feet and then forcing her legs to curl inward. Her shoulders now on the ground and at least one furry knee pinned up against her own neck. "BITCH! I should KILL YOU!" Lauriel says angrily.
The wolf-hybrid whimpers at Lauriel's words, pinned under the other woman's weight quite effectively in spite of some wiggling. She growls at Andelena, after those departing, but there's nothing she can do for the moment but wiggle ineffectually.
Those going through the mirror will find themselves in an empty plain near a pool of reflective water where the girl is knelt near the pool looking into it semi-frantically. "Hurry!" Her words do not traverse the void however, between the two places. Andelena's smart enough to figure out this is easily going to be a war of attrition. She turns around (turns tail?) and runs through to the mirror. She's just following orders, after all--
And ends up in a field. "/Shit,/" is the very first word out of her mouth. "I think the elf was starting to turn."
"Shit," Dolan echoes, breathing a sigh of relief as Andelena and Carver pop through. He'd just brought his blade up into a guard pose and appears to be watching the pool and standing guard as well. "Anyone else hurt?" He's still gritting his teeth, but he's holding well enough.
GAME: Lauriel rolls cmb+8: (8)+3+8: 19 GAME: Lauriel rolls 1d8+4: (4)+4: 8
Carver draws her bow finally, feeling more comfortable with her old yew weapon in hand. Not that it would be very effective against these particular foes. She still turns to face from where they came though. "We're alive righ' now, ent we? No nibbles on me bum. Oi, Little Lady, what you doin' with that water?"
Lauriel's vision is turning red at the edges. She can feel things moving that aren't suposed to move. And the ANGER! So angry. So so angry. She puts more wieght on the werewolf under her and strikes out with her armor's fist across the paladin's noggin. And then she calls out to the others in the mirror. "LEAVE! SHUT THE MIRROR! LEAVE ME!" She screams with voice changing as much as her body is. Hair starting to sprout from joints in the armor.Another scream as the pain of the change starts to take over, her limbs shaking.
Phyrelia sticks her head through the pool of water, her hands skimming it's surface like it's more solid than it is, and her face sticks out of the mirror on the other side. "Come through you fool! I can cure you, but not her!"
The wolf-woman laughs at Phyrelia. "She doesn't want to be cured! She wants the power! Don't you? You hear it in your veins. The call of the Nightmare. Join us. I will acknowledge you as dominant and you will have power beyond what you have ever known. Join us." The wolf's eyes glow yellow.
Pain.. anger. It's hard to tell which is greater. The words of both seem far away. All she wants is to rip out the throat of the woman in front of her. Yet both offers sink in finally and the elf growls in the 'paladins' face. "My mother would call you abomination. I will not choose your way!" She shoves the woman away and uses the motion to propel herself back and dashes through the mirror with a restrained howl.
GAME: Dolan rolls weapon1+1: (14)+6+1: 21 GAME: Dolan rolls 2d6+4+1: (11)+4+1: 16
Ready for trouble, ready for anything - and something furry comes through the portal. Dolan is quick to strike, his aim true. Too true.
It all happens so fast.
_SHIT!_ He tries desperately to pull the blow, but it's too late - and worse still, he strikes the very one he'd intended to protect.
Andelena watches /a/ werewolf go through the mirror--
And then there's two horrible revelations on her face as she realizes the awful mistakes that have been made. The werewolf isn't the 'Elunan paladin'. And her partner's blade has gone into the little girl.
"PHY!" the Sunguard yells, starting over to the girl. "Out of the way, let me heal her!"
Carver pulls the shot a little, twitch muscles activating when everything happens at once, overcompensating and it sails wide of the melee. As her brain catches up to her body, she lifts a hand to cover her own mouth her in shock at the gruesome sight of the child murderin'. Her dark eyes caked with a deep mascara of dirt and sweat makes them appear even wider than they already are.
Phy falls to the ground, blood bubbling up from the wound that struck her down. She's not dead - somehow she's still alive, but she's shocked by the damage. Still, she wiggles closer to the werewolf. Ignoring her grievous injuries until she can touch one paw and murmur soft words she should not speak. Blood bubbles up from her lips, but the fur starts immediately to recede from Laruiel's body. Nothing else comes through the pool. You're all safe, but the witch...
She falls against Laruiel's frame and seems to be looking at something that isn't really any of you at all. Something... far away.
GAME: Andelena casts Cure Light Wounds. Caster Level: 3 DC: 14 GAME: Andelena rolls 1d8+3: (6)+3: 9
The furry and yet wood covered woman that comes out of the pool arrives just in time to see Dolan's blade coming in for her head and then the witch-girl is there taking the blow for her. She howls out loud and then she is cured. The howl becoming an drawn out no of shock.
She falls to her knees and cradles the small witch. Trying to hold her like a babe. The exhaustion of her armors magics fading leaving her body shaking as well as the pain and anger leaving her body along with the fur. "Noo.. No!"
Andelena immediately gets to work, putting a hand gently onto Phy. A fervent prayer to Daeus is answered--the healing magic closing up some of the injury that the little witch sustained, but the look in her eyes doesn't abate.
The Sunguard growls in frustration. "Anyone good at identifying... whatever the fuck's going on? She's not dead or dying, but..."
GAME: Dolan rolls heal: (1)+3: 4 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Carver rolls heal: (11)+8: 19
"Son of a bitch! No!" The bloodied greatsword thumps forgotten to the grass of the plain, and Dolan lunges forward, ignoring the sharp needle of pain lancing through his shoulder at the sudden movement. He bolts for the child, dropping down to his knees next to her. "Damn it, I thought it was her! I'm so sorry." He sounds almost frantic, the growl traded for a baritone that near-trembles in fear. "Don't tell me I just killed her." He reaches out, but slumps down. "Damn it. DAMN IT!" He slams his right fist into the ground.
Carver cautiously approaches, "Oi, listen... we have to start tryin' to figure out where we are. Shelter, clean water for wounds..." She tries to refocus the group, reaching up to remove her hat again. "Who can carry her?"
Phy stares off for a long moment, her eyes captured by something that none of you can see and then she takes a small easy breath thanks to Andelena's healing. She's still wounded, but she's alive. Gloriously, thankfully, alive. She turns her pink eyes on Dolan. "Sorry. I did not mean to worry you." She has the grace to look embarrassed. "Galvin was just saying that we are safe here. I am safe here. I bid you all welcome to the fae lands. The lands of magic."
She reaches out and touches Dolan. "Do not worry. Your blade could not have killed me here. I had to protect your companion though. They do not have the same protections as I." Phy leaves it unsaid that such a blow might have killed Lauriel.
Lauriel was in the process of setting down Phy with her shaking hands. Mentally running though a checklist of emergency gear she has in her pack. Wondering if any of it will help. When the 'child' speaks and seems to be alright she lets out a shaky sigh and hugs the girl as carefully as she can. "Thank the gods. You scared me almost to death. Thank you. But please don't do that again." The last bit whispered.
Dolan doesn't answer, slumped as he is on his knees by the pool, fist driven into the grass at its edge. He does not look up at once, nor does he speak, and when he does look up, he just nods and gets to his feet, and will not look at anyone present. Instead, he wordlessly rescues and cleans the blade in the grass in which it lay, then with a cloth from his belt pouch.
"The... The what now?" Andelena's expression looks blank as this all slowly, /slowly/ comes to rest in her head. She even finds herself scratching her copper-blonde waves for a moment.
"I, uhh..."
She looks between Phy and Dolan. Finally, something seems to dawn on the Sunguard (ironically so) as her steel-grey eyes widen.
"Oh shit, you mean to tell me you're one of those little fairy creatures? I... kind of thought you guys were smaller?"
Andelena takes a glance over at Dolan. She sighs. "Hold that thought. Let me go make sure he's okay. Us, uhh, mortal people spook easy."
The tall woman walks over to Dolan and just wraps her arm around him, whispering words into his ear. There's always a moment needed for the wisdom of compassion.
"Never. Ever. Taking another job from no bloody temple gits." Carver grumbles, though she too seems relieved that this strange girl who briefly crossed into her life and teleported her across plains is still alive and well. Even if she is possibly some capricious fey playing a really elaborate trick, she's earnestly adorable. Carver wipes her brow with the back of a hand, streaking dirt and sweat and the tiniest bit of blood from some minor scratches. Dolan's dejected exterior only draws a concerned glance before she hastens to volunteer for busy work. "I'll get us somethin' to wash with. Oi, tree elfy, come help me out." She doesn't want to point out that Tough Guy and Sunlight need a little privacy to collect themselves.
You'll find yourselves spending a short time as a guest of Phy's in the fae lands. You meet no other fae creatures, and there's an abundance of food that Phy warns you not to eat. So you don't stay long. Just long enough for the paladins of Eluna to deal with the wolf-paladin and then you leave her alone there. You have now the prophecy she promised, and that will have to be answer enough.
-End