Cedron and Raven - In the Lair of the Lady

08 Newkolt 349 AC

“Well if I’ve learned anything in my brief travels, it’s been that we’re definitely on the correct path. Nothing good leads this way.”

Cedron searches his vicinity, listening and looking for anything that may pose a threat. The cloud of gnats, mosquitoes, and biting flies buzz around his ears, dart toward his eyes, and keep landing on his lips. Cedron waves his hand to drive them away, a futile effort that only gives his tormentors another place to land. The bard sees that Raven suffers just as badly, his eyes narrowed. The elf looks his way, "The next time I have to go to a swamp, I'm asking Grotto for some kind of salve to keep the damn bugs off of me." Raven points up the hill, "I guess this is the place."

“Indeed” says Cedron. “Let us see if my prayers are answered in this realm.” he says as he begins to prepare himself for what is to come.

He invokes a blessing upon himself and Raven and is immediately rewarded with a sense of connection, of completeness, that he hasn't felt in months. Warmth encapsulates him, the divine love of his god coursing through his soul as power envelopes his body. For a moment, Cedron falls speechless, overcome with relief.

He then casts True Seeing upon himself. Mystical energy infuses his sight, stripping illusion from reality.

He quickly summons a crossbow from the extra-dimensional storage space inside of his glove. He loads a bolt and draws back the string, locking it in place. A second command returns the weapon to its hiding place.

"I’m ready when you are Master Sugar Plum. What’s your strategy?”

"We should circle around and check for other exits, make sure that nobody is going to circle around to %#$@ us from behind," Raven stares up the hill. "But, I don't think our quarry is smart enough to plan a surprise attack. She will likely wait for us to enter, gloat, and then try to overwhelm us with whatever followers she has managed to gather to her banner." He pats the recently repaired bracer covering his left forearm. "We have options she is not aware of. I say we go straight in and hit her hard and fast. Every second that she holds our companions hostage is another second too long."

“Do you want to approach stealthily? I can make us invisible until combat.” asks Cedron.

"Let us take every advantage that we can," Raven says as he claps Cedron on the shoulder. "Once we are inside, we will locate Eilra and the others. I will engage the enemy and you will seek to release them from whatever cage or on bond holds them." The swordsman draws Nightwatcher and wills the hilt's power to see invisible objects to life.

“May progress favor us.” says Cedron as he invokes the words of musical verses rendering Raven invisible. “I’ll follow your lead Master Sugar Plum.” says Cedron as he flips up the hood of his cloak, disappearing from sight.

Raven approaches the nearest door and pushes it open. A grating squeal erupts as the rusty hinges protest being forced open. Beyond the door is a 10'×10 vestibule with a second set of blackened double doors. The stench of rot hangs heavily in the air and the flagstones shift beneath the feet of the two adventurers.

Raven breathes through gritted teeth in an attempt to avoid breathing in the foul stink.

"So much for the element of surprise," the Sugar Plum Fairy mutters. He places his shoulder against the second set of doors and heaves, pushing against the inside doors. These doors swing open with a little less effort, revealing a room five times the size of the vestibule. Sixteen stone pillars support a ceiling hung with thick cobwebs and hanging moss. More dusty webs fill the room, absent only at the far right where the altar once stood.

Three women wait within. The first and farthest to the right is the small fairy from the River King's Court, the one he called "Wickerbell". She sits astride a bumblebee the size of a large hound which clings to a moss-covered column. Straight across the chamber, leaning back against the opposite door is a twisted hag with green skin and hair like twisted roots. She wears a filthy shift that does little to preserve her modesty. A wide grin that shows razored teeth slowly spreads across her face.

Between the two stands an eight-foot tall hunched woman with blue skin. Stringy black hair tumbles around her shoulders and a mithral crown adorns her brow.

The blue woman speaks, "Oh, come now, Raven. We know you're there. You and your mortal morsel. Reveal yourself and we can... negotiate ... for the release of my guests".

Cedron speaks, using a prestidigitation cantrip to throw his voice across the room. He keeps his blue hood down to remain invisible and positions himself to the left flank of Raven. Before he moves he says to the  women “To negotiate would be grand, but sadly futile.” Cedron sighs dramatically. “How can we possibly be expected to negotiate with you?” He pauses briefly to his rhetorical question. “If we do not know what you desire in exchange?”

The blue woman screams, "RAVEN KNOWS WHAT I WANT! HE TOOK THE LIFE OF MY SON!" The thunder in her voice causes unseen things to skitter in the rafters. She takes a breath, collecting herself and runs her palms across the fabric of her tattered gown to smooth it. "I have four lives that matter to him. I am willing to return them, in exchange for one. A simple bargain."

Raven steps into the room, still cloaked in Cedron’s spell of Invisibility. "I surrender myself and you let them go?" His voice echoes off of the bare walls.

"I told you, four lives for one."

The bee-rider shifts in her saddle, a frown spreading across her face while across the room, the green-skinned hag grins savagely, a thin line of drool escaping from her bottom lip.

“Four lives?” Cedron asks wondering if she’s including himself. “Master Sugar Plum does not simply go around stabbing things to death without cause. Did your son perhaps attack Master Sugar Plum in armed combat? And if he did, should I expect you would owe me a life or four if Master Sugar Plum had been defeated by your son? Come on now…. We are not children.  I think we all understand that if someone swings a blade, then they can expect to eventually die by the same thing.. be reasonable, simply let us leave with our friends peacefully. There is no need for further loss of life or harm. Taking Master Sugar Plum will not return your son.”

"I DON'T CARE! It was my SON!" Ellessandra screams. Wickerbell continues to shift uncomfortably while the hag on the far end of the room cackles gleefully. "Either Raven surrenders to me or I will end each one of his friends," the blue fey reaches into a shadowed area behind her and drags Cassidy into view, lifting him by the collar of his jacket, "starting with the one he tried so hard to save."

“I THINK YOU DO CARE!” Cedron raises his voice in response and then lowers it back to a calm normal cadence highlighting the irrational blue fey’s tone. “You seem to believe that this would end with Master Sugar Plum. OH, BUT YOU’D BE MISTAKEN! He too has family, a very special family. A very powerful family. A family that would not only destroy every single eye and appendage you are tasked with ruling, but whose retribution would spill over to every kingdom and corner of this realm! Answer me this…is your son’s life worth the destruction of all that you know, or would a wise ruler worthy of a crown simply end this game and let us leave peacefully without ultimate destruction of all you survey? What advice would you give her, Wickerbell, what would the court of the River King advise?”

The blue fey stares into the distance, her eyes becoming unfocused as a tear slips down one cheek. Her voice rasps softly as she replies, "If you had ever had a child, you would know that the destruction of a kingdom is but a fraction of the pain that he inflicted on me."

"Ellessandra..." Wickerbell begins, "perhaps..."

"NO! I will NOT reconsider. I will NOT turn from this path. I thought of you as a friend but if you do not have the stomach for revenge, then you can count yourself among my enemies!"

The Green Hag's cackling laughter fills the room as she takes a rusty sickle from her rope belt and cuts through a vine dangling beside her. A tapestry falls away, revealing a trio of misshapen giants, hunchbacked with eyes that sit too far apart or too close together or mismatched sizes with bulbous noses and uneven, broken teeth. Each is armed with a large, spiked flail.

Cedron notices movement through the grime-covered windows of several hulking shapes moving around outside.

The minstrel-priest takes a quick breath and rattles off the words to a spell, shifting his outline while creating an identical image of himself a few feet to his left.

As soon as the twisted giants are revealed, Raven’s hand flies to Nightwatcher's hilt. The blade slides from its sheath. "Cedron, rescue Cassidy. I'll deal with them."

Cedron remains invisible, drawing his harmonic blade and moving across the room, making his way to Cassidy from where the blue fey had pulled him.

Raven breaks into a run, racing across the room directly at the nearest of the giants.

Wickerbell raises a bulbous rod, a wooden handle capped with a ball with concentric grooves and cries out, "Krzzwx koluz!"

Spiders, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of spiders begin emerging from the grooves on the rod and swarm into the chamber. They crawl and skitter across the floor, over shattered pews, rotted furniture, and everything in their path, forming a carpet that Cedron has to detour around.

The fairy's bee takes flight, launching itself from its pillar to hover near the ceiling.

The brute's eyes open in shock as the Sugar Plum Fairy closes rapidly on him. It starts to swing its flail in defense but the elf is on the giant in a flash, slicing a deep gouge into one thigh before the weapon's chain can make its first revolution. An agonized roar rips from the behemoth's lips as the leg nearly gives way under the assault.

Chaos erupts.

Spiders the size of hunting hounds begin dropping on webs from the ceiling or climbing down the pillars.

The Green Hag makes a horrifying noise, as if she is sucking phlegm up from her throat and vomits forth a torrent of foul-smelling swamp water at Raven. The elf twists aside, avoiding the stream, which spatters all over the floor. Tiny leeches wiggle around in the puddle left behind. She backs toward the door and pushes it open, revealing at least three Ogres outside.

The wounded giant roars, grasping its flail with both hands and swings it up and over its head before it crashes down to splinter the flagstones of the ruined church. Raven leaps aside but is peppered with razor-sharp shards of rock. The spiked ball is yanked free of the floor and the Fomorian spins the weapon around at its waist level. Raven manages to dodge the first rotation but the second clips his shoulder and sends him flying into a nearby pillar. The stone column cracks on impact, blasting the elf's breath from his body as the two uninjured giants try to get around their comrade.

Ellessandra snarls and points the hand that isn't holding Cassidy aloft at the Sugar Plum Fairy. "In the name of my son, I strike at thee!" A blast of purple and black swirling energy lances from her hand at Raven. He ducks and the the eldritch blast expends its power against the pillar, causing dust to fall from the ceiling.

As Cedron begins to close on the blue fey, he notes shadows gathering at the southern door while six-foot long millipedes begin slithering out of the corners on hundreds of tiny legs.