Dragon's Egg - Act II

[Ireth]

The blow to Matthew's jaw slows him down, but does not stop him as I had hoped. I bite back a groan of frustration, wondering whether it would be worthwhile, or even wise, to hit him again. No sooner do I think it than a scream echoes down the hallway, from the same direction as the continuing music.

Keitsumah is frightened, her face buried in Algernon's shoulder. I reach carefully out to touch my stump to her shoulder, managing a smile and speaking soothingly. "Don't worry, child. Whatever happens, we'll keep each other safe."

((CHA is prime.))

 

[Ravana]

Only seconds after Cadell strikes Matthew, a new sound is heard from the corridor. The singing continues in all its haunting beauty, but a second voice is added to the mix - a high-pitched, angry-sounding scream.

"Huh! Sounds like someone fergot the words!"

 

[Nihal]

Baldhart's POV

I move down the hall as quickly as I can. I try not to meet their eyes. Aliron. Mauve. Back to Aliron. Mauve again. Glassy eyes filled with child-like desire. I'm an obstacle to them.

And what goes on behind me? No time to even look. The stone door. It doesn't keep an enemy out. It keeps out sound. The lizard skull--a warning to lizards as the dwarven and elven skulls were a warning to us. The lizards warned their own:

Keep out. Death awaits.

The enemy cannot move. It draws its prey toward the sound. Once I shut the door, there is no sound for Aliron or Mauve. Maybe that will snap them out of it.

I feel the wetness on my cheek as I meet Mauve's eyes. My teary vision blurs Alirons moon pandant, giving it the soft glow of the real moon. "Don't mind me," I tell them. "The music is so beautiful. beautiful..."

Keep it together, Baldy.

I make a futile effort to hasten my steps, but I'm already moving as fast as I can. Seconds feel like hours. The small corridor seems endless. But finally--the door!

Shut the door. Shut the door!

Bodily, I push it back as I hold my friends in my arms.

"Friends," I say aloud. "That's what you two are to me. Please say something! Tell me you're in your right minds!" I hold them tight and listen. Did the door block out the sound? Is that enough to bring my friends back? Or am I just wasting time crying into the arms of two oblivious music lovers?

 

[SeverinR]

"What ...Why are you holding me?"
"Damn it Baldy, you carried us into a lizard ambush!"
"Where's my bow?" Where's our group?
Wait, did Ankari attack us? You had to carry us to safety?
Safety...Wait the singing, you carried us to safety.
Put me down! Watch the lizards!"

 

[SeverinR]

Baldhart releases me, charging towards them.
I draw my sword and follow after Baldhart.
Fear, confuson, and disorientation turns to anger,



[[I was holding my bow when the music started, sword was in my sheathe.]]

 

[Keitsumah]

"Don't worry, child. Whatever happens, we'll keep each other safe."

Cadell touches my shoulder with his stump and I sniff, looking at him with wide eyes, "Y-yeah . . ." looking back towards the direction Algernon is heading, i shudder as the light from my necklace fades and loses its strength.

A bark several feet behind makes my head snap around again. Batos gallops towards us, his bright blue gaze locked onto my face.

"Batos! Come!" I gasp, reaching down towards him, and the wolf whimpers, grabbing onto my sleeve and pulling at me fruitlessly. The wolf becomes fearful but dares not try to attack just yet. The song wreathes around our ears, and his tail pulls between his legs. Batos stands up on his hind-legs, bracing his forepaws against Algernon's back so I can wrap my arms around his neck, and my face is soon covered by a rapidly licking tongue.

"I know." i mumble quietly when he finally stops. Then i look over at Cadell and back at Batos. The wolf's head follows my motion and he glances at the elf for a moment.

"Trust. Friend." i say, and the wolf's eyes gleam as the knowledge fills his mind.

 

[Ireth]

I hide a shudder of instinctive trepidation as the wolf rears up, its face coming uncomfortably close to mine. Mentally I reassure myself that the wolf will not attack; Keitsumah's words confirm this, as she urges the animal to trust me as a friend. I manage to smile again. No doubt having a wolf as an ally will come in quite handy, perhaps sooner than we might want.

 

[Keitsumah]

I notice the identical looks of trepidation on both Cadell's and Batos's part when the wolf looks at the knight again, and they are so similar in that moment I can't help but laugh. The sound rings like bells through the hall, and it takes me a few seconds to regain my composure.

Batos is now looking at me with an eyebrow raised, and i end up giggling helplessly.

 

[Ireth]

Keitsumah's laughter echoes through the hallway, and I look at her in confusion. "Just what is so amusing, if I might ask?" I certainly can't see anything worth laughing about here, or indeed in the near future.

((Do dogs/wolves even have eyebrows?))

 

[Keitsumah]

((doubt they do but let's just say Batos' face is a bit more mobile than the usual wolf :3))

I clap my hand over my mouth, stifling my rebellious lungs until i finally manage to stop laughing. "You . . . you both had the same expression!"

Batos snorted and landed on all fours, darting ahead of Algernon to see what we were coming to. Another scream grates across my ears and my face immediately pales despite the soothing melody that accompanies it.

"Uh . . . maybe we should focus on getting out of here . . ." I whisper.

 

[SeverinR]

Shaking my head, rubbing my ears, I turn to Baldhart.
"Where's the rest of the group? Are they dead?" I say louder than I realize. "How long was I entranced?"

Looking at the door, "Thanks for getting me out of there. I hope I didn't hurt you or say anything bad."

 

[Steerpike]

As the party members, some charmed and some carried by Algernon, move down the corridor, they see that it opens into a large natural cavern with high ceilings and a floor covered with water. Cadell and Keitsumah have to crane their necks around to see, as they are facing the wrong way. Batos follows just behind Algernon, eyes fixed on Keitsumah and waiting for instructions. Rydh follows a few feet behind Batos, bringing up the rear of the group.

As you left the main room, the stone door that Baldhart carried Mauve and Aliron through shook softly, as though someone were beating on the thick stone. What occurred beyond it, you cannot say.

As the group enters the cavern area, they see Ankari, bow in hand, facing down a dark shape that is swooping through the air at him. The thing is human in shape, with tangles of black hair running down her back. Her naked torso is exposed, though covered in grime. She is unclothed from the waist down as well, though her legs end in the taloned legs of a large bird. Black wings are unfurled behind her as she sweeps toward Ankari, screeching. When she reaches him, she pulls her torso back, leading with her legs, talons coming in for a dual attack:

Creature Attack [1d20+3] = 2+3 = 5


Creature Attack [1d20+3] = 4+3 = 7

Ankari is too nimble for the creature, ducking and dodging the claws and turning his body to maintain a stance that faces the thing, which turns itself in the tight space between Ankari and the cavern wall to make another attack.

The singing continues, coming from deeper within the cavern, along a ledge some thirty feet high. Darin is closest, and stomps ahead through the water, which comes up no higher than his knees. As he moves forward, a creature on the ledge takes flight. It is similar to the one that attacked Ankari, though larger. Its face is twisted into a grotesque parody as it continues its song, gliding down toward Darin with a long dagger in its hand.

Only a few feet behind Darin, Matthew follows in his footsteps, entering the cold water.

To those charmed, she is a vision of beauty that somehow exceeds even the beauty of her voice, though you would not have believed that possible only a short while ago.

Mauve, Aliron, and Baldhart

By the time you open the door, the round room where Keitsumah was caged is empty. You see a vaguely Rydh-shaped shadow disappear down the darkened corridor that leads out of the room. The song is still going, but while Mauve and Aliron both feel a sense of loss and longing in that beautiful voice, the ringing in their ears that resulted from Mauve's aural detonation seems to prevent the charm effect. At least from here.

 

[Ireth]

I crane my neck to see what lies ahead of Algernon and the others who are enthralled by the song, and my mouth falls open in horror. I don't know what the thing is that Ankari is facing, but I do NOT want to get any closer! I writhe and thrash in Algernon's grip, trying to wriggle free of his massive, muscular arm. If I can get my feet on the ground, I can help fight.

((If that should be a DEX check instead, add +1 for a modifier. DEX is prime, while STR is not.))

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Full sprint, I run. "Cadell! Keit! Our weapons! I need my sword!"

A plant? A worm? A cannibal tribe? A wrinkled old witch? Am I muscle or is my sword needed? The others are gone! Did I waste precious seconds?

Unarmed, I charge toward the unknown.

"MY SWORD!" Where the hell is it?!

 

[Steerpike]

((STR is fine. Algernon can make a STR check to try to hold you if he wants, though his only compulsion if to get to the singing creature)).

 

[Nihal]

It's back, I'm not deaf enough. How close can I get to the singer before falling for it again?

"Baldhart! Wait! DRAT!" She ran ahead of me, she won't hear me. I have no choice now but running too, without anyone to pull me back when I fall.

I inhale—my muffled ears enabling me to hear the sound my lungs do—and sprint while singing loudly an old, odd song, the first one I think of to oppose the cursed melody. Ringing, enchantment, my song, my heartbeats, the thumps my feet do when touching the ground. I'll run out of breath quickly... It's bad as fighting as a fish in dry land, but in a weaker body and using a damn dagger!

 

[SeverinR]

If hear the sound a little, to much, but must fight it.
I adjust the wet pieces of cloth in my ears, to try to block out the enticing music.
Yelling will do little, unless the others are close by.
I quickly run past Baldhart, looking for my bow, wolf girl has it. (I am equipt for speed, Baldhart for protection.)

(Will wait to see what I see, I think we are slightly ahead.)
{{{Come on people, we killed three monsters by ourselves, must we kill them all? Ok, we did blow out our eardrums in the process }}}

 

[Ravana]

((STR is fine. Algernon can make a STR check to try to hold you if he wants, though his only compulsion if to get to the singing creature)).

((Precisely. He has no reason to restrain companions who aren't trying to stop him from getting where he wants to go, so.…))

Upon noticing that Sir Cadell is no longer interested in a free ride, Algernon relaxes his D U C K arm, allowing the knight to slide gently down to his feet.

Then he relaxes his L O V E arm, allowing Keitsumah to do the same, because that's the arm he usually waves with.

Which he now proceeds to do, enthusiastically.

"HELLO!" he bellows, grinning up at the pretty flying woman and moving as best he can in her direction.

 

[Ireth]

Baldhart's voice echoes down the corridor, asking where her sword is; I yell back at the top of my lungs, wincing at the volume of my own voice. "I HAVE IT!"

Algernon releases me, and I drop from his grasp to land in a crouch in front of him. I spin around to face my foe, Baldhart's sword weighing down my arm. I hope she reaches us soon so I can hand it off to her and unsheathe my own weapon.

 

[Keitsumah]

I scream when the monster swoops down at us, and batos roars, launching himself high into the air-

[1d20+3]= 10 (too lazy to type in code as my computer is glitching out and im on a time limit)

-and misses it, splashing into the water and rising up in a quick burst. It's song echoes in my ears, and i clap my hand over them, shaking violently as my knees threaten to buckle.

Fight it.

My whole body freezes, and i look up, my eyes going blank as i look at someone across the room. Him.

Fight it. Fight your fear. he whispered again, and the light in my necklace glows brighter, increasing until it burns my skin. Light floods my eyes as well, and my body trembles as my hands slide to my back and draw out the spear.

Come on Keit. Live . . . for us . . . my brother's ghost fades out and vanishes, and my vision snaps into focus. I lift the spear high as the monster with the dagger stoops towards us, point upwards, gleaming in the light that ricochets off of my necklace.

[1d20+0]= 16 (stab)

[1d8+0]=4 (damage)

The spearhead stabs the creature's leg, scoring a hit, and I duck, bracing myself for the impact.