Caravaggio intensely stared down the creature that had bound him. It's dark beady eyes stared back at him with silent menace. He found himself restrained in what, to his best guess, was a thick strand of the devil's hair made into a lasso. A second devil stepped forward from behind a nearby stalk just past the first devil. It grinned displaying it's sharpened teeth. The air was electric as the silence from the stand off began to stretch on.
"You made the wrong choice." uttered Car under his breath in a sharp menacing tone.
Caravaggio then flexed his biceps to try and break the rope, releasing a guttural battle cry. The rest of the group jumped into action at this cue.
Flewid clapped his hands together and his form instantly started to bulge. The muscles beneath his skin rippled from head to toe as they grew. His tiny form swelled as his proportions shifted with his arms elongating and his legs staying relatively small while still enlarging. Flewid's soft and smooth greenish blue skin started sprouting brown hairs which rapidly grew into a full coat of fur covering almost his entire body. His face became leathery as it morphed into that of an ape's. The transformation was completed in a matter of moments. Flewid was now in the form of a roughly 15ft tall ape. Standing up on his haunches, Flewid pounded on his chest and let out a bellowing roar.
Flewid's ape roar quickly drew the attention of the devils. There was a momentary look of concern that flashed across their faces. As they looked over at the now towering ape in their presence, Caravaggio tried to reach his rapier. He struggled against the hair cord that kept his hands bound tightly to his sides. Unable to grab it's hilt, he let out his own below of rage.
Darting into action, Rachel did a quick tuck and roll, taking cover behind one of the stalks bursting from the ground. Focusing on her censer, she incanted a quick prayer to Selune. Upon the prayer's conclusion, a vapor began to release from somewhere inside the censer's sphere. The vapor poured out of the holes, covering and enveloping the area around her. As it reached it's maximum dispersion, the vapor coalesced into a dimly lit bubble. It resembled a late evening sky, with hues of violet and dark blue. Scattered throughout the cloud, sparkling points flickered and winked in and out. They resembled twinkling stars in the night sky. The censer itself began to glow like the moon, completing the night sky effect.
The first devil, still gripping the lasso that ensnared Car, reached up to the neckless around it's neck with it's free hand. While holding the neckless, it pointed a finger towards Flewid. Muttering something infernal, which Car was able to make out the word dance, it locked it's gaze on the giant ape. Flewid's ape eyes met with the small creature's and they began a staring contest. After a moment, it became apparent that what ever spell the devil was trying to cast had not had any effect. Flewid let out a snort as it turned to stare down the other devil.
As the first one had attempted, the second one also grabbed at it's neckless and began to mutter a spell. This time however, there was a change. Flewid started to hauler and hop around on his feet. It was a strange dance, but Flewid seemed to be putting a lot of energy into it.
The commotion drew the attention of the party, but Rachel caught a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye. Raising her shield just in time, she was able to rebuke the tossed lasso of the second devil as it attempted to ensnare her.
Letting out his own battle cry, Tidal stomped his right foot before launching into a full speed dash. Keeping his head low, he leveled his two horns towards the nearest devil, which held Car in it's hair lasso. The creature, alerted to the charge by Tidal's battle cry, leapt out of his path dodging the horns. Tidal, with surprising speed, halted his dash and spun on his heel. Using the momentum of his spin, he brought his warhammer around into a downward swooping arc. The weapon connected with the devils shoulder, staggering him a few paces back. Tidal then brought his hammer up in a counter swing connecting under the devils jaw, slightly dazing him.
Taking the opportunity caused by Tidal's distraction, Dido let loose with two quick shots from her bow. The two arrows landed cleanly in the second devil's chest, causing it to leer and hiss back at Dido. As she slipped back into cover behind a stalk to reload, Dido noticed the twinkling stars from Rachel's night bubble sparkled a little brighter around her form. A calming wave of energy washed over her. She felt herself becoming more invigorated while remaining near the stars. Her attention to the fight was snapped to Flewid as he bellowed again and began to clamber towards the two devils.
Flewid stormed up on the two devils, swinging his fists down towards them as he drew closer. The two devils easily leapt out of the way, each hissing back at him in protest. Caravaggio continued to wiggle in his confinement, but he could feel the rope loosening as he continued to squirm. His rapier's hilt was still out of reach. Car was too intently focusing on getting his rapier to notice the bright bolt of light that sailed past him. The rest of the party watched as the bolt almost clipped the devil restraining Car.
Suddenly, Rachel felt constrained. Looking down, she saw that a tight cord had wrapped around her torso. The second devil had taken advantage of the group's attention on it's comrade to flank to the side and make a second attempt to restrain her. She looked up to see the devil hiss as it took a swing at Tidal, causing the minotaur to dodge out of the way to avoid the blow. Tidal swung back, but the devil parried both of his strikes.
Rachel's attention was then drawn to a muffled flash of light out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head to get a look, she noticed Dido was no longer taking cover behind the tree stalk. She had vanished. A moment later, she heard the yelp from the devil that was restraining her and turned to see Dido standing behind it with her sword cleaved into it's shoulder. Dark ichor splashed back spraying everything around it.
The first creature still had it's lasso on Car as it swung it's club twice at Flewid, trying to fend him off. Landing two hits across his leathery ape face, this prompted Flewid to bellowed back in rage. Flewid in turn, brought his two large hairy fists up and then sent them plummeting down to the ground on the devil. The creature could not move in time and was struck by the fists, dazing it for a moment. Seizing upon the opportunity, Car finally wrestle free of his binds and gripped his rapper. With a quick upward swing, he severed the cord. Before the first devil had a chance to react, Car had begun to sprint towards the second devil near Tidal and Dido.
There was a wet gurgling noise coming from the devil as Car's blade sliced it's throat. More black ichor poured out and began to run down it's neck from the cut to the ground. Carrying through with his momentum, Car rounded the pair of his comrades and began to make his way back to the devil that had be binding him. The creature's eyes widened in fear as Car came charging towards it. Car could see the fear and hoped it could see the seething rage in his. No creature should dare bind him!
A bright streak of light suddenly shot out from the newly freed Rachel and struck the last remaining devil in the shoulder. The force of the hit knocked it off it's feet and sent it spiraling to the ground. It also knocked it out of Car's charging path and gave it the few precious moments it needed to begin it's retreat.
The small devil's form rippled as a dark shadowy ichor seeped out from it's own shadow and enveloped it. The creature began to sink into the ground which elicited a bellow from Tidal as he began to change towards it, hoping to stop it from melting into the ground. Tidal's charge was a little to late as the creature sank beneath the surface just as Tidal's horns would have struck it. Tidal took his hammer and struck the ground repeatedly, trying to knock chunks of it away in a vain attempt to reach his quarry. After a moment, he calmed down and realized the creature had made good on it's escape.
Taking stock of their surroundings, the group was confident they were alone once again. Tidal stomped over to the remaining devil's corps and bent down to examine the remains. Spotting the necklace that he had seen them use earlier to make Flewid dance, Tidal griped it with his gauntleted hand and ripped it off from around it's neck and tucked it in his war-gear.
Having regained some composure, Caravaggio strode over to the corpse as well. There was a scowl on his face. He then grabbed the corpse and dragged it over to the nearest tree. Pinning it to the tree with his sword, he produced a smaller dagger from his belt and began his gruesome practice of mutilating the corpse and turning it into one of his "work of art". After a moment, he stepped back from his new painting, sheathing his weapons and set about preparing to head out.
Dido walked up to the base of the tree where Car had made his display and knelt down to place a small piece of parchment. She pulled an arrow out of her quiver and snapped it's shaft off. Using the arrow head, she pinned it to the ground at the base of the tree. In a very stylized elven cursive, the note read Dread has arrived. Satisfied that her warning would carry the appropriate weight, she rejoined her companions as they began to resume their previous path through the woods.
***
A little under an hour or so of silent and uneventful travel, the party started to hear a low hum. The hum was soft and seemed as though it was coming from a short distance ahead of them. The undergrowth was too dense to make out what the source was from where the were, so they decided to proceed cautiously. As they drew closer, the humming grew louder and louder. Soon it became almost deafening. Dido halted the group and waved Caravaggio up to the front. She indicated with some hand movements and gestures to scout ahead and find out the source of the noise.
Caravaggio carefully pushed past some of the stalks as he made his way as the source of the hum. Carefully parting some of the stalks, he revealed the source of the noise. Before him was a large clearing in the forest. About 100ft in front of him rested a large golden egg. As Car examined it closer, it wasn't an egg, but rather some sort of bug hive. The few beams of light coming in from above the canopy of the clearing glistened of the hive's surface. There was also movement on it's exterior. Four giant wasp like creatures were scurrying across it's golden surface. Each insect was massive in size. They were almost the same size as Flewid's giant ape form, which conveniently he was still in. And they looked metallic. It was as if someone had made a giant suit of armor for a wasp, then animated the suit itself.
Car gestured to the group to show them the hive and it's guards. Tidal grinned and gripped the hilt of his hammer tighter. The rest of the group silently looked at him and shook their heads. Car indicated a path to the right that would run along the perimeter of the clearing. The path would let them give the hive a wide berth, though it would take some time to traverse. Begrudgingly, Tidal nodded in understanding and the party began to circumnavigate around the hive, putting as much distance as possible to avoid a confrontation. As they began to head out, Flewid revert back to his natural form, which made it easier to stealth their way from the hive.
It took some time to travel the winding path that skirted around the hive. Soon the humming of the wasp-like creatures began to fade into the distance, before fading altogether. The party resumed travelling towards the far side of the forest, trying to make their way to the skull fortress where they hoped to make some allies.
Their trek came to a halt after a few more hours of travel. Dido raised a hand to halt them. She was focused one something that lay in their path. The group watched her gazing at the ground in front of them, then up towards the tops of the trees. Rachel moved forward and taped her shoulder pauldron.
"What is it?" Rachel inquired in a hushed tone.
"Hm. There is a weird shadow being cast on the ground." replied Dido as she looked up again to the tree tops. "I think there is something up there."
Tidal strode up to Dido from further back in the marching order.
"Let me take a look." grumbled Tidal, not being terribly stealthy.
The large minotaur turned and strutted over to the nearest upwards tree stalk and began to walk along it's side using his magical slippers. The stalk was pretty wide. It was almost double the size of the other nearby stalks in this area. After a short jaunt, Tidal arrived at the top of the tree.
Standing on top of the tall tree, Tidal had an impressive view of the forest and surrounding area. They were much closer to the domed structure and had passed several hoodoos. Resting on the top of the tree with him was a large iron chest. It was easily the size of a coffin. Much like the weapons he and some other party members carried, there were what looked like mini lava flows coursing across the chest's surface. The chest itself seemed to be secured to the tree by some iron chains that were bolted into the tree top.
"I've got something here!" Tidal called down to the group excitedly.
Taking out his own hellfire greataxe, Tidal brought the weapon above his head, then swung down onto the chest. The clang of the two hellfire metals colliding send flaming sparks out in all directions. Tidal performed a few more swings before the chest cracked open. Kicking the top back with his foot, it's treasures were laid bare. The bulk of the chest was filled with coins and gems, which all glittered from the light in the sky. They only formed a sort of cushion for the large pieces in the chest. Rested along the top of them was a suit of armor. Tidal's many years of battle experience recognized it straight away as a set of plate armor. The arms of the armor had been folded across it's chest plate. Around the neck of the armor, an emerald pendant was gently placed. Tidal quickly took the pendant from the armor and pocketed it with his gear.
"What did you find?" Dido called up, somewhat impatiently.
"Treasure!" Tidal replied with a boisterous and gravely tone. "Sending it your way!" he continued giddily.
He could hear some of the party members below yelling "No" repeatedly as he then moved to flip the chest over. In doing so, he sent the suit of armor tumbling to the ground and landing unceremoniously with a thud. Following that, the coins and gems then spilled out and rained down towards the ground. The party began to scatter, diving for cover as the suit hit the ground and a hail of gems and coins rained down on them from above.
After a moment, all the contents of the chest had been emptied and Tidal began to walk down from the tree top. The other party members emerged from their cover and while grumbling about and cursing Tidal's rash actions, began to take stalk of the treasure scattered around the forest floor. The various parts of the suit had landed pretty close together. The gems and coins on the other hand had landed over a much larger area.
As Tidal reached the ground, he noticed that Caravaggio had gathered up the different parts of the suit of armor. The rest of the group had made various piles of the different types of coins and gems. There were piles of gold and silver, some copper and platinum. Rachel had gathered many of the gems, which included quantities of jade, jet, tourmaline, spinel, and pearls.
Over the next hour, the party sorted and gathered the treasure. Flewid noticed Tidal's new pendant hanging form his gear and recognized it. Sprinting over to him, he informed Tidal that it was pendant that protected against poison. Tidal grinned at hearing the news. Clamping his big red gauntleted hand on it, he untucked it and placed it around his neck, content to have some more defence against the unknown of Baator.
A moment later, Car parted from a conversation he was having with Dido, and informed the group that they'd break up the suit of armor and that everyone would carry a part. None of them needed plate armor, but it could come in handy later if they needed to barter or sell it.
Rachel then enlisted Flewid's help breaking up the coins into even portions for the group. They ignored the copper, as it would be too weighty to carry around. After Flewid gave each member their allotted amount, he then went back and filled a small leather pouch with some of the copper.
"Why are you packing up the copper? It's just dead weight compared to the rest of the haul." huffed Tidal.
"I'm going to use them as trackers and leave a trail. It might come in handy if we get lost of have to retrace our steps." replied Flewid as he finished shoving the coins into the small pouch.
Tidal grunted in understanding and continued to stow his portion of the treasure. Once they had all secured their gear, Dido marshalled them and began to lead the marching order as they progressed deeper into the woods. This time, Flewid began to drop a copper coin every couple of paces.
Noticing what Flewid was doing, Rachel decided to leave markers to help as well. Reciting an incantation, a green glow began to emanate from her right hand. Reaching out to the stalks as she walked by, she touched them and where she made contact, small white and yellow flowers would spring up. The two of them continued doing this for a few more hours. Over time, their marching pace began to slow and each step began to feel heavy. Dido brought the group to a halt. She turned to address the group.
"We may need to consider setting up camp." Dido stated with an even tone. "By my account, we've been traveling for almost a full day's time."
"I'm not the most keen to setup a camp in a forest that rearranges itself every day." Caravaggio muttered.
"Are we getting any closer to the fort?" inquired Flewid as he took a seat on the ground.
"We should be, but there might still be some distance to go." offered Dido.
"Then let's find out." Caravaggio said as he took the rope of climbing out from his gear and walked over to a nearby tree stalk.
Activating the rope, Car looked at Tidal and nodded upwards. Tidal grunted in agreement and walked the rope up to the top of the tree stalk. After a moment, their accent was complete and Car could look out over the forest.
Tidal could tell they were much closer to the Ossiea than the last time he looked out over the forest. The top of it's domed roof was much larger now. He could make out the upper half of the red stained glass windows that covered up the eye sockets of the skull that made up the outside of the building.
Caravaggio squinted as he oriented himself. Doing some mental estimation, he figured they were at most a two hour trek to the edge of the clearing. Satisfied with his calculations, he turned and grunted at Tidal to begin their decent.
The moment Car's feet touched the ground, he deactivated the rope and secured it to his gear. He then strode over to the rest of the group and informed them of his estimations.
"We should be able to close the distance to Ossiea in two hours." Caravaggio stated, pointing in the direction they would march. "And I'd rather be there before this forest rearranges itself."
Everyone looked at each other to see if any amongst them would offer an alternative. After trading glances, it was apparent to each that this was the best course of action. They each nodded in agreement and began their final trek towards Ossiea.
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