Chronicle: Session 3

Moira leaves Nothing and Faeleth downstairs with a sleeping Sally. They hear her bedroom door bolt slide shut. Given how little elves need to sleep, the plan is to let Nothing sleep till early morning and Faeleth can then take a quick nap until daybreak. Nothing cosies up among the blankets Moira gave her before she headed upstairs, and eventually relaxes enough to sleep. Faeleth sits by the fire, practicing a little dagger-twirling to pass the time and watching the firelight glint particularly prettily off the one silvered blade.

Late in the night, there's a crash of shattering glass from upstairs. Faeleth shakes Nothing awake, and she snaps to full alertness as Faeleth whispers the situation to her. She creeps up the staircase, remembering to skip the one notoriously creaky step, onto the landing... Faintly, she can hear Moira, who sounds distressed. Still cautious, Nuth slips closer to the door to try to get a proper listen, and as she does - the door unbolts, opens, and Moira exits and is quite startled to find Nothing already there.

Is Moira okay?? Yes, yes, she knocked her glass of water off of the nightstand and it smashed on the floor, go back downstairs, she's just going to fetch the broom. Nothing slinks sheepishly away, stealing a glance back into the room as she goes: the window is intact, there's water and shards of glass on the floor. False alarm.

Nothing explains to Faeleth, who encourages her to go back to sleep - she needs the rest. She does, and wakes up in the early hours feeling much better for it! She takes her own shift while Faeleth elf-naps, taking a lil' shuftie through Moira's bookcase to find something interesting to read. Has she got any fiction?

Yeah, she's got some fiction. A title something to the effect of "A Kobold's Romance", and it is fiiiiilthy. Nuth is both deeply entertained by this dirt she's just dug on Moira's reading habits, and morbidly curious about the content, so obviously she settles down to read it. She...ends up having to skip some parts, because ewww. She also ends up having to reread several paragraphs, because wait, what? how? what? how does that work even?

Morning breaks for real, and with Faeleth awake, the two decide to ask Sally a few questions before Moira comes down. Nothing gently shakes her awake, and brings her some (kinda stale, but oh well) bread and water for a pretty crappy breakfast, but what can you do? Sally is...confused. How did she get here? What happened? Nothing is taken aback, tries to jog her memory - surely she remembers the bear, right?

Nope. Sally remembers that yesterday we were all out catching rabbits. Nothing remembers this, too, from a fortnight ago.

-

The boys wake up in the dark. They're in some kind of wooden containers, rounded ones - Spindle's is pretty roomy for his tiny gnome self but Holgar is crammed right on in, scrunched awkwardly in this very tight....barrel? (Spindle, on top of being barrel-trapped, has a banger of a hangover. Yikes. He's never felt so rough. Holgar, meanwhile, is feeling actually pretty peachy apart from perhaps a crick in the neck from his confinement.) Neither of them have their equipment.

Spindle pushes at the walls to see if they'll give. Nah. Holgar starts to rock back and forth to tip the barrel, and yeah, it tips! The dwarven heft of big ol' Holgar hitting the floor shatters the wood to bits as it falls over, and he's free! Spindle hears the 'oof' of Holgar's landing and shouts out to him for assistance, and Holgar pretty easily undoes the clasps on the lid. Spindle tried to help by pushing up on the lid as he did this, and pops out like the cutest little gnome jack-in-the-box. He holds up his arms like a little kid and Holgar lifts him free of his barrel. N'aww.

Now the guys have a chance to look around, this seems to be...a storage room. There's casks that actually have beer in (Holgar knows the smell of beer when he smells it!). The lid of Spindle's barrel rolls away to the corner and bumps against a cloth bundle with a quiet twang that Spindle notices as probably his ukelele. While Holgar's still looking around, he scampers to the corner and confirms that the bundle is both of their stuff! He re-equips himself, then in an absolutely miraculous feat that surely can't be gnomishly possible, he hefts Holgar's axe (which probably weighs twice as much as this kid) above his head with both hands and goes "Holgar! I found your things!"

Holgar turns around to see a barely-two-foot-seven gnome child holding his axe up in the air like it's no thing. It's surreal to lift its weight off of his hands, he feels like it should be feather-light and hollow but nope, that's his axe. What the hell even.

Shaking off the abject weirdness of that, Holgar re-outfits himself and carries on scoping out the room. It's laid out in a familiar fashion, not unlike the fancy house from yesterday, but it's not the same place. There's a trapdoor on the floor, and he tries to open it. He pulls and pulls, and as he does a pale blue light emanates from the crack around it......and the handle comes off in his hand. Welp.

(Were they to listen, they might hear the voice of Mister Hand. "Ah, it seems our guests are awake.")

They head upstairs, to discover a locked door at the top. Spindle crouches down to look under it, and sees a little squirrelly face peering back. Awesome! Spindle starts talking in Squirrel-speak. "Hey buddy. Reckon you can help us out?"

The squirrel cocks its head. ".....Spindle?"

--

Sally doesn't remember anything. Nuth fails miserably at tactfully trying to go over what's happened, increasingly flustered at Sally's lack of recollection, telling the story in fractured bits and pieces. Sally, in return, gets just....super unnerved. Scared, a bit. Of Nothing. "Maybe you should get Moira to...check you...over?" Faeleth tries to take Nothing aside, but the damage is done, it seems. Nothing tries to switch track, to tell Sally to just...lay low, yeah? To look after herself. Something's not right and Nuth'll try to fix it and....yeah.

"How can I trust you?"

"Hey, wait, what? I look out for you! C'mon, how many times have I got myself put in jail for you?"

".....About as many times as you've got me put in jail for you?"

".......Fair. Fair point. Not gonna argue with, uh, that."

Faeleth and Nothing try to discuss what's going on. Faeleth suggests this might be Moira's doing...and damn, Nothing wants to not believe that but it's a convincing theory and...ugh. This isn't great. They should go, probably, it might not be safe.

Faeleth agrees, but first there's someone who might have a lot to answer for. Nothing reluctantly goes along with it - like, yeah, but what if they're wrong about her? - and Faeleth storms upstairs and hammers on Moira's bedroom door.

No answer.

She tries again. Nope. Shouts Moira's name. No response. Faeleth tries to kick down the door, succeeding only in breaking one hinge (at this, Nuth winces) but not opening the door. Nothing manifests her Mage Hand on the inside of the door and releases the bolt, and opens the door....which swings away from the doorframe at a sad awkward angle. Nothing winces again. Oh god, they've broken Moira's house.

There's no-one there. The bed is made. The window is open, a tree outside poised almost too perfectly as though magically encouraged to grow in such a direction that it's an ideal climbing-down method. There are gaps in the bedside drawer that seem like clothing was taken from.

Yeah, you know what? Nothing is no longer torn. Moira is sketch as hell, and basically screw this. Screw her. They go downstairs and rummage through the kitchen for supplies, no longer concerned with what Moira might think about it. Faeleth gets some fancy tea-leaves. Nothing, who is intimately acquainted with Moira's house (and who maaay have rolled a 20), filches three bottles of healing potion from a cupboard. Nice. Time to go, come on, Sally. Time to move to somewhere safer than this.

The squirrel prompts Spindle - it's him! Rory! Spindle remembers, yeah, he knows this lil dude! He asks Rory if he can get the key to the door.

".....what's a 'key'?"

"Ugh. It's...metal...a shiny?" Rory scampers away and back again, shuffles something shiny under the door...a silver piece. Squirrels do not have a great concept of 'keys'. Spindle tries something different: is there anything in the door? Yeah! says Rory. Two things! One round thing - "The handle...okay..." - and another skinny metal thing. Can Rory jump up and twist it?

They hear the patter of paws as Rory prepares for a run-up....claws skittering on the door...and....click!

Good job, Rory! (Now they get a better look at him, he's got a little red bandana and a makeshift cloth belt with a toothpick-sized sword in. He's like a little Redwall guy! It turns out Spindle outfitted him with this, a good while back.) Holgar wonders exactly what was in his drink, because Spindle is chittering at a squirrel and this is all a bit buck-wild.

The room they exit into is the now-empty Green Dragon tavern. They poke around a bit, Holgar fixes himself a bit of Basilisk Venom but without the funky-smelling herbs (he sniffed every component as he went). This time he feels fine! Spindle sniffs the herbs too, enjoys the bouquet, and shoves a bunch in his pocket. The open window makes for an easy exit, and they head out into Red Larch's early morning streets. Rory goes on his way, Spindle encouraging him to look after his little sword belt. They head to Moira's.

---

The girls leave Moira's. Sally looks antsy to go, unsettled. She says she's gonna just....head off, now. Nothing asks where to. Sally is reluctant to answer.

"Look, I just want to know you're going to be safe. Stuff's all messed up. Please tell me, I really just don't want to lose you again. I need to know you're safe, that's all."

Sally relents. "You know the old cabin?" Nuth knows the one, the old abandoned lodge off the edge of the woods that nobody's used in years. She says she's going there. Nuth nods, encourages her to go. A glance over her shoulder shows her that Sally started running once they turned away from her. God, could that have gone worse?

--

On the road, Holgar and Spindle reach Faeleth and Nothing. The group is all together again! They trade information, although Holgar and Spindle's story is woefully lacking in detail: they 'went out and had drinks and passed out'. There was a squirrel? Mid-conversation, everyone...stops hearing everything. They start hearing something else. They start hearing a very familar voice.

Mister Hand's disembodied speech is something about children going missing down a dragon, dangerous places, etc. (I forget. Also sometimes I'm not great at parsing Hand's thick accent.) Ah yes, smug magical engimatic hints, good times. Nothing is, at this point, quietly incensed because literally THIS DOUCHE is dropping SMUG HINTS like this is a fun puzzle game.

But yeah, okay, smug magic hints...a dragon? Holgar remembers the pub he woke up in, that was the...the...it had 'Dragon' in the name. Nuth squints at them. "The Green Dragon? That tavern is garbage, you went there?" (There are three taverns in town - The Bended Bough is high quality but cliquey, there's another one on the main road that's pretty alright, but The Green Dragon gets so little traffic it's a mystery why it's still open.)

Spindle starts hoofing it back to the tavern. Nothing calls after him - dude, does this not scream trap??? But also this is the equivalent of an eleven-year-old running away towards a trap and she can't bring herself to let him. She's not letting another one go. She gives chase, tries to catch him, he slips through her hands and keeps going and next thing you know, he's through the window and inside the Green Dragon.

Nothing follows, and Holgar and Faeleth eventually arrive too. They plot their next move as they head into the Obvious Trap. Spindle thinks it's a good idea to lay one of his hunting traps on the front door, but he lays it like absolute garbage. It's on the wrong side. It's not even set up right. He's so proud of himself for helping that everyone takes pity and tells him yeah, little guy, you did super great. Good job, Spindle. (Like, it's better than the last time he was near a trap, so....)

Spindle, unfortunately, senses the condescension! He looks at the rest of us, dissembles the trap and goes "Well, if I'm doing it wrong, you do it right then!"

Nothing, who is pretty used to the workings of a hunting trap, rigs it properly this time. Whoever comes in this door is getting their ankles shanked. Spindle thinks he did it better, but whatever. He writes something in Druidic on the wall.

They head downstairs (after Faeleth has a quick check behind the counter and actually snags a few platinum coins), to the basement. At this point is when one of the guys mentions waking up in barrels down here, and Nuth boggles. "Wait, you said you had a wild night drinking, you didn't say anything about being KIDNAPPED???" Well, if there was any doubt they're in the right place, it's gone. This must be it.

Holgar points out the trapdoor, also sheepishly holds up the broken-off handle. There's no other obvious points of entry or exit beyond the stairwell, so.... Holgar and Faeleth get out their crowbars. Time to jimmy this door! As they lever it open, the blue light glows again, and more, and the light grows ever brighter until it fills the room and dissipates into little blue dust-like sparkles as the trapdoor bursts open so hard it slams closed again.

Nothing opens the trapdoor. Below is a ladder, leading into a dark, dank cave, and there's the sound of running water. There is also the sound of Hand's voice saying something smug and ominous. Nuth is, as always, incensed. With Thaumaturgy booming her voice to three times as loud, she gets down on all fours, sticks her head down the trapdoor hole, and shouts thusly:

"YOU ABSOLUTE PRICK! I AM GOING TO COME DOWN HERE, AND I AM GOING TO FIND YOU, AND I AM GOING TO......UH....UUUGHHH!!! *long inhale* JUST, SERIOUSLY, FUCK YOU!"

It's not the most eloquent of threats, but there is a little taken-aback startle noise from Hand followed by a shaky chuckle.

"...YEAH, EXACTLY!"

Nothing hops onto the ladder and heads on down. Spindle literally just jumps the whole ten feet or so down into the tunnel and lands...almost like a cat. Almost. The floor is damp and his foot slips from under him and he sprawls ungracefully on the ground. (Nuth offers him a hand up, awkwardly.) The others follow.

It's a long, smooth, winding cave, a slow-running river meandering alongside the stone path. Holgar recognises this as what is probably a smuggler's tunnel. Makes sense. (The others don't have the same realisation.) They walk a while, Holgar heading up the group, Nothing not far behind with her dagger drawn, and Spindle hitching a piggy-back ride on Faeleth's shoulders.

Their journey into the tunnel goes on for a while uneventfully, but then they...encounter a dog. A tiny dog. A little Yorkshire terrier, sitting folornly on the ground. Spindle hops down from Faeleth's shoulders and approaches it, speaking dog.

"Hey, little guy. Hey buddy. You lost?"

It growls in response.

"You okay?"

It's snarling.

"Hey, can you...talk?" He holds out an orange he'd been gradually snacking on along the way. "Food?"

It is making just, like, the most vicious noise it's possible to imagine a yorkie making. And its eyes are growing red. And its teeth are just, like, growing. This does not appear to be a normal dog any more.

Holgar tries to just walk past it, and it latches onto his ankle! Faeleth, seeing this and recognising that this is Not A Normal Dog, goes for a stab, but it's a fast little thing and wriggles out of the way. Nothing thinks, eh, it's tiny, let's just....pick it up with Mage Hand.

This is a very dense dog. Mage Hand ain't budging, like it's something considerably larger. The thought occurs to her: shapeshifters.

Shapeshifters confirmed. With all kinds of gross noises as it does so, the dog stops being a dog and starts being a four-armed, insectoid demon-thing. (Nothing, who is pretty filled in on the arcane and the demonic, recognises this thing as a quasit.) It doesn't last long, though, lots of hits are dealt and soon it's floating away down the river.

Everyone reckons it's a good time to get out those silvered weapons.

The rest of the tunnel journey is uneventful. They reach the tunnel's end: the river continuing onwards but crossed through with metal bars. (Again, Holgar gets it - these are what stop crates or barrels as they're floated down, for the cargo to be collected here.) There is, however, a big ol' door. A huge door, set into the cave wall. There are numbers on the door, each a different colour. There is a workbench beside the door, with tiles, coloured on one side and with letters on the other.

"Solve the puzzle to pass through this door."

Nothing audibly groans in frustration at the presence of the inevitable Magic Puzzle Bullshit that Hand is pulling. (She's not pleased at being toyed with. At all. The quasit was fine, traps would be fine, but this is insulting - to be made to play along with Hand's smug arcane garbage is grating on her.)

But hey. The door is perfectly flush to the wall, handleless, it's painfully obvious it's Puzzle Or Bust. So whatever. Let's puzzle.

We're smart little cookies though! Sorting the tiles by colour, then flipping them and arranging them into words, we get....."So No One Told You Life-"

At this point in our word jumble solving, OOC, Wyrm laughs. "So no-one told you life was gonna be this waaaaay! *clapclapclapclap*" The moment she starts singing we do the same. The DM laughs - "At the four claps, the door swings open. The four claps were the password."

IT WAS LITERALLY THE ANSWER. We all crack up over this for several minutes.

Back to the game, once we've cooled down from the unexpected Friends Theme Puzzle Answer, the door has a thick deep-purple curtain concealing whatever's on the other side. Holgar thinks now would be a really fun time to zip behind the curtain, put on his bear mask, and burst out to spook Spindle. So he zips through the curtain.

Facing him are two hulking bipedal canid creatures, scimitars in hand. OOP. He's surprised them, though, so he gets to take a swipe. But his longsword's blow.....sure, it hits, but the cut heals before his eyes. Then he uncorks the blue phial his buddy gave him yesterday, and what pours out of it but a thick pea-soup fog. You can almost taste the dramatic irony. Nuth hears the commotion, barges through the curtain and yells at Holgar - "GET. BACK."

He's not gonna argue with this kid when she's got her Serious Voice on. He ducks behind the curtain, and hears horrible unearthly sounds and then the thick, heavy thwacks of Nothing's Arms of Hadar crossing the planes to beat up these werejackals reaaaaal good. (As she claps eyes on them, there's a moment of recognition - the patterns of their fur are too similar to the dogs she's seen in town to be coincidental.) Faeleth leans in through the curtain and looses one silver dagger directly into the head of one of the werejackals, where it froths and foams white at the wound as it tumbles to the ground.

"GUYS, SILVER'S GOOD FOR THESE TOO!" Nuth yells, in case anyone hadn't seen that. The other doesn't last long against a barrage of silver weapons and a red blast that lights up the fog like a flare. At some point during the fray, Spindle transforms into a gigantic bobcat.

A quick loot doesn't turn up much of value - our shiny silver goodies vs battered blunted old scimitars? Pff. A couple coins.

The newly-vacated path beyond the curtain has two paths, left and right. Everyone hangs a left and discovers an elevator shaft and associated lever on the wall. It's not a huge elevator, only room for three of us at a squeeze. Spindle's keen cat nose catches a familiar scent that fills him with hope and excitement - the farmer he knew once, who he saw as a father figure, he was here! He yowls and gestures into the lift, eager to go down.

Nothing, Faeleth, and the feline Spindle bundle in close on the lift, and Holgar sends them down.

The room they discover is dank, reeking, and...definitely some kind of dungeon. There's barred cages, empty, some doors open, all kinds of bodily fluids within. There's a figure slumped in the corner of one cage - for Spindle, the scent grows stronger, but there's another smell that's much less hope-inspiring as he draws near. It smells like something that's been dead for...a while.

Spindle claws frantically at the bars and the lock - Faeleth moves him aside to pick it, while Nothing looks on, moderately sure that the person in here is beyond saving. When they get in, Nuth crouches down to search the body...Spindle spits and hisses in fury and disgust and turns on his heel, returning to the lift and jostling it - Holgar pulls him up. Nothing retracts her hand, that action and response clicking together in her head. This is probably someone he knew. Maybe not.

Faeleth, however, takes that as her cue to step in where Nothing's lost her lootin' verve. She has a rootle and discovers a couple of things. First thing isn't an object, it's just the state of the body. There's a lot of bruises. There's a lot of pieces at angles there shouldn't be. This guy probably didn't just waste away in here, is the thing, this guy looks beaten to death. The second thing is an object: a small glassy bead, glowing faintly yellow. It doesn't look like one of our walkie-talkie stones. She pockets it.

Examining the rest of the room turns up nothing. They get Holgar to bring them up. Holgar actually brings them ALL the way up, pushing the lever to the totally opposite side - "Hey, wait, too far!" exclaims Nothing as the lift carries on up, and she and Faeleth find themselves in quite the opposite sort of room from before.

It's a cosy, round room, clearly someone's bedroom. There's two chests on the floor (Faeleth gets the Gotta Loot sparkle-eyes and beelines), a bookcase, a bed, a little table with some chairs...it's well-kept. Nothing, curious to learn anything about this room's owner, eyes the bookcase. You learn a lot about someone from their reading habits - this morning proved that!

Funny, actually. Half the bookcase is...arcane history. Demon lore. General history. The kind of books you'd expect of a well-read magic user. The other half, well. It's romance novels. You've got titles like "How to Please Your Dwarven Lover" - thankfully not an instructional manual, but another Mills-and-Boony smutfest. Wow.

Meanwhile, Faeleth is having a good time lootin'. Some coin, etc. The second chest has another, smaller chest inside. Locked. She picks it. Inside the smaller chest, a little lockbox. She tries to pick that, but her lockpick jams and snaps, leaving her bereft of the tools of her trade. No big, though - she smashes the lockbox.

Inside is a statuette of a woman, in light crystal, arcane colours and lights swirling within. It is gorgeous. Nothing, turning to make some crass joke about the books she's found, sees what Faeleth's holding. "Ooooh. What'cha found?" She moves closer, peering at the internal lightshow. Damn, it's pretty. It's like she can barely resist touching it. She reaches out a hand....

...As she makes contact, both Nothing and Faeleth find themselves unable to release the statuette. The lights shine brighter. A soft, feminine voice sounds in their ears.

"To preserve your sanity, you must relinquish your greed."

They both feel....strange. Faeleth's center of gravity is lower, her head feels oddly weighted, she feels the sway behind her of a....wait, what?

Nothing feels....lighter, differently balanced, a weirdness to her limbs. She looks up from the statuette and sees herself staring back. So does Faeleth.

"What."

Their hands, as one, release the statue, which clatters to the floor with a crack but doesn't break. At the crack, they feel a wrenching sensation, a kind of internal pull.

When Holgar comes up to check on them, he finds Faeleth staring intently at her own hands, Nothing staring up at Faeleth, abject bafflement writ large on their faces. Faeleth's posture and tone are far sloppier than he's used to as she turns to him and says, "Um. A thing...has happened."

A beat. "Huh?"

"I'm. Uh. I'm Nothing. Or now I'm Faeleth? I'm now Faeleth. Uh. We're. This is so weird."

Holgar nods, figuring this day has been weird enough that this really shouldn't be unexpected. Then he realises he might have trapped himself up here, because cats aren't known for their ability to move levers. He voices this.

Nothing, ganglier than she's used to, strides over to the lift shaft. "Don't sweat it." She reaches for the lever with her Mage Hand. She....tries....to reach for the lever with her Mage Hand. As it is, she's just standing, hand outstretched, her elven brow scrunched in concentration before it dawns.

"Uh, you might have to do this bit. Can you...I guess you're able to do it now?"

Faeleth, as it happens, can do that. She gets the novel experience of feeling arcane energy move through her, summoning a spectral hand to send Holgar (still in the lift) down again. "That's...interesting." She sounds like she's enjoying the new experience.

"I know, right? It's the best. I...would like it back, though?"

Faeleth, novel as having a warlock's abilities is to her, would like her body back too, because this is still weird. She reckons she knows how: if our greed was touching the statue, it's the statue we have to let go of. Nothing is hesitant - what if breaking it leaves us stuck like this forever?

Faeleth has no time for hesitation, grabbing the statue and fully smashing it on the floor. There's a bright burst of light, that weird sensation again, and the girls are back in their own bodies. Nothing jubilantly Mage Hand-grabs "How To Please Your Dwarven Lover" back off the shelf and waves it in the air, exultant with the relief of getting her magic back. (She also stows the book afterwards, because it's hilarious...and maybe some kind of evidence. She's got a hunch.)

They get themselves downstairs to meet up with Holgar and Spindle - Faeleth grabs a set of playing cards from the table before she goes - and go down the other corridor.

Meanwhile, Holgar and Spindle had discovered a couple of things. There's a door not far down this corridor that Spindle smells the ozone tang of arcane energy on. He positions himself looking at it, fixated, ready to attack anything that might come through. Holgar, discovering Spindle's not shifting from his lookout spot, carries on. There's another door round the bend, leading into what looks like a storage room, full of crates and barrels. In the center is a huge statue of a bearded man, arms folded, stern.

As Holgar steps inside, its eyes light up blue, and it fires off three rapid-fire bolts of magical energy. They hit him, staggering him against the wall, but he shakes it off and starts looking through the crates. There's no further action from the statue.

Nothing hears this, and sprints to the door, seeing Holgar looking a little dishevelled thinks - huh, that might have been a trap. Unfortunately, she also thinks - eh, Holgar set it off, it miiiiight be safe. She's, may I add, at about 7 HP.

She ever so tentatively steps across the threshold. The statue's eyes light up blue, and she's hurled into the door, hitting her head hard for 10 points of damage and falling immediately unconscious. She doesn't look good. Holgar has box-searching tunnel vision, and doesn't look round until Faeleth (who had been trying to discern what Spindlecat was doing) comes to the door and, being a smarter person than Nuth, sees the critically hurt tiefling on the floor and alerts Holgar (with a few ball-bearings to the head) instead of stepping inside.

"Help her! See if she's got anything that heals!" She definitely saw Nothing take something from Moira's cupboard, and she hopes it's something useful. Holgar finds the potions in Nothing's pocket, and pours one into her mouth. She revives, shaken, but at least she's still here. As Holgar continues around the room, she sticks to him like glue, watching the statue with great anxiety. Together, they find some pretty neat loot - some coins, some potions (of growth and of something else, I've done forgot) and a fancy-looking helm with wing-like designs on the side.

They make it to the door on the other side of the room, open it, and find another large square room. It looks like a sparring room - there's some old swords hung up, a few splashes of blood on the floor from perhaps when a swing hit a little too well. Nothing feels very strong arcane power radiating from a greatsword hanging on the wall. There's only one exit to the room, just past to the right of the sword.

They ignore it, for now, and open the door that happens to be the one Spindle's staring at. Luckily he smells them coming and knows not to pounce! Spindle and Faeleth filter in. They look around, and then start towards the exit - an arcane forcefield flickers to life, the sword floats forward, and a grand disembodied voice intones:

"Send forth your strongest."

Before anyone can respond or intervene, our giant bobcat leaps forward. A new forcefield takes shape in the center of the room, sealing him away behind a translucent glowing blue circular wall. Sword vs Cat!

As it happens, giant bobcats are tough stuff. Spindle ducks and weaves between swipes of this floating sword, barely taking scratches, and in return carves deep claw-marks in the metal of its blade and puts deep bite-marks into its hilt. In what seems like no time at all, Spindle's jaws latch tight around the hilt of this sword and crush down with such force the handle splinters to pieces. The sword falls to the ground. The forcefield dematerialises. The party can move on.

It was, in honesty, a really badass fight. Holgar gives Spindle a scratch behind the ears, Nothing pats his flank, offering genuinely impressed congratulations.

As the group enter the exit passageway, Spindle catches wind of...the smell of food! GOOD food! Proper, cooked, tasty food! He bounds away and the rest follow.

The room they open into is huge. There's a basic row of beds along the right-hand wall, a little table and chairs to the left, and beyond is a banquet table, gigantic, laden with food that looks as good as it smells.

There are four figures seated at the table. To either side, two scruffy-looking humans in unassuming clothing. In the center, of course, is Mister Hand, looking as smug as ever. Next to him, recognisable but ever so different, is a more youthful-looking, radiant Moira.

"Welcome. Come, sit." says Hand.

As if Nothing's doing that. She storms forward - "Where are they?"

"Who?" says Hand, as though he has no idea. Nuth fumes. "Oh, do you mean them?" Ever so briefly, a few bound halfling children are ushered into the room, then out again. "Now, sit." He outstretches a hand, and Spindle, who at this point was nearing the table, is forced down. Nothing sits, furiously, internally calculating her options. Holgar sits. Faeleth stands, but at the distance she's at it seems like Hand is less concerned.

Nothing persists. "Why are you doing this?"

"Oh, that's no fun."

She sneers. "I've had enough damn fun. I want my friends back."

He gives an unconcerned shrug. "Nobody will miss them."

"I will."

"Nobody real will miss them. They will be moved to their final home."

Nuth turns her gaze to Moira, shaking - "You, explain. Why?" Moira does nothing but smile wryly back. "Damn it, explain!" Just that smile.

Hand turns his attention to the whole group, now. Spindle has forced himself, against the spell, into a fully laid down position, out of nothing but sheer defiance.

"You," he says, to Faeleth, "Have no honor. Doing this, after the good work you've done for my master. You should be ashamed."

I literally cannot remotely remember what he said to Holgar. Just I guess roasted him for having better things to do than traipse around after Nuth??

He doesn't seem to know what to say to Spindle, and regards him coolly.

Then he stands and leaves, as does Moira, and as Nothing rushes towards the back of the room to pursue them they pass the exit door and it gates itself behind them. The two men at the table start to....change. Oop, more werejackals.

And an innocuous winged statue at the other end of the room animates with the sharp crack of stone: gargoyle.

What follows is...kind of chaos. Nothing rips the cork from a potion with her teeth, chugs it, smashes the bottle on the floor and stabs at the nearest werejackal. Faeleth vaults the table to stab at one of the werejackals, Holgar takes some swings and the bobcat Spindle turns his attention to the gargoyle, leaping at it to knock it from the air, first failing but then pinning it very effectively to the tiles.

As Faeleth moves away from one of the werejackals, it catches her with its scimitar and she falls, hitting her head on the table and falling unconscious. Nothing repays her life debt: she hurdles the table and uncorks her final stolen potion to pour it in Faeleth's mouth.

At one point, the gargoyle tries to throw a chair at the party, but it clatters ineffectually off of the table. The brawl goes on, and eventually the jackals fall as Nothing snipes with Eldritch Blast from on top of one of the beds and the others stab at them with silvered swords and daggers. The gargoyle is pinned again, and stays down as Spindle bites and claws at it, and eventually he gets purchase on its stony throat and crushes down until it crumbles to dust, an effect that carries on like shockwaves through its entire body until the whole creature is rubble.

It's done. The door's still gated. The party catches their breath, and Spindle takes the lull to turn to Nothing in accusation. "On the body. What did you find?"

Nothing didn't find anything. Nothing didn't - honestly! - even know there was anything. She says as much, but Spindle doesn't believe her. Faeleth tries to pass the blame to Holgar (who's willing to take it) by slipping him the bead.

(While Spindle's attention turns to Holgar, Nothing decides to finally slip on the fancy winged helm she found. Her mind is flooded with information - she understands Draconic! She knows Druidic! Elvish! Gnomish! She speaks....everything! Whooooaaaaaa....)

But for all Faeleth's subtlety she doesn't account for how unsubtle Holgar is - he reaches out very conspicuously. Spindle sees. Spindle demands the bead. Now that Nothing sees it, she can identify it: this tiny glass orb holds...a message. On the right trigger, it will display whatever image and sound someone recorded with it.

Spindle takes hold of it, and at his touch it illuminates and starts to play its message...