Arc 2 - Heart of a Monster (Completed)

[PupSage]

Kuori shook her head and said, "I'm not comfortable with this. I am even less comfortable leaving you alone with this guy while he does whatever he wants to you."  

[Kowsauni]

Abby would respond, "I-I have my concerns as well, but I doubt he has anything nefarious planned. In the end it is my decision to make. I will do my part to ensure we save those people and keep Petra safe. Master Kail said he would make a wand to cure the petrification, but that we would need some help gathering the materials. This is where I will need everyone's help."

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Selma pauses in her notes to look up at Valac. "Uh, it shouldn't have any negative side effects on its own. I'm currently calculating if there should be any adverse reactions by mixing those two potion elements together, but I think you should be in the clear." Selma gives him a smile. "Thanks for your help. I'm going to try to incorporate this research into my work!"

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Once Shayne and Revenge check in their weapons at the gate, they are allowed onto the property. Sprawling gardens lay before them, ending with a a large ornate mansion on a hill. Shayne would notice the large willow tree next to the house Hiya had mentioned last night. Petra chooses to stay in the garden area near to the gate, leaving Revenge and Shayne to make the fifteen minute walk to the manor house on their lonesome. Once they arrive at the high-arched marbled entrance, they are greeted by a servant. "Welcome, you must be the rest of the adventuring party! How may I assist you?"

Violin music can be heard drifting though the air, originating somewhere from behind the Manor. The tune is quite beautiful, yet haunting.  

[Mongooseh]

Satisfied with the answer Valac would continue attempting to devour breakfast until he was to the point of bursting or there was nothing left and the servants stop bringing more out.  

[Rain Yupa]

Revenge needs to fill Shayne in! And has fifteen minutes to do so, apparently. So, long before they arrive at the door...

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Revenge would walk for about half a minute in silence, and checking over his shoulder once before speaking up. "So, I think it's time to bring you up to speed, Shayne. Have you heard of the Kingdom of Aria?"

(I'll let the DM work with NoName to figure out how much he knows.)  

[Noname 51]

Shayne would nod, "Ruled by magi, peacefulish, boosts advances in the arcane, and supposed to be expert cheese makers... Miss anything?"  

[Rain Yupa]

Revenge would quirk a brow. "I... I'm not entirely positive that you're joking..."

Shaking his head, he would bring his eyes forward. "I've not been there myself, personally. Anyways, Kuori and I were traveling with some other adventurers a few weeks ago. We had journeyed to a hamlet called Lupa, where they had this... pact, with the woodland spirits of the area. They were descended from refugees from a war, and the spirits permitted them to live as long as it was harmoniously with the land."

"We had gone because livestock had begun disappearing. Originally, we thought some beast in the woods were taking them for food. Since the villagers weren't allowed to take aggressive action against the area, we were brought in. We met these two girls, Corsica and Ying, who knew the monster that was killing the animals, and were able to lead us to its den."

Revenge would make a bit of a disgruntled frown. "I thought it peculiar that these two girls were just living off the land there, especially when such a creature that posed such danger was nearby. We did kill the monster though, only to find out that we had been deceived."

Looking back to Shayne, he would elaborate. "Aria has been kidnapping people - I think primarily women - and... I don't know how to describe it." A pause. "Fusing them with... creatures."

He would close his eyes, and exhale through his nose. "The two girls were Arian experiments who had escaped. They look normal, but it is some sort of... illusory spell or something. I'm not entirely sure. They can drop the façade and resume their new forms as needed. They're... powerful. Dangerous. They seem to retain rational thought, but... I just worry about what they may be capable of..."

Quote:

Abby moves over to AA20 and casts her gaze at the second Archer. The archer's posture slacks and his eyes lose focus.

Abby follows the archer into the woods and disappears from sight.

"The two girls tricked us into thinking the monster was the threat, when they were the ones raiding the village, bringing them closer and closer to being unable to sustain themselves. But before we could confront them, Arian soldiers showed up. They were able to use a combination of magic and training to track the girls and attempt to subdue them. Kuori strongly believed that the girls had done no wrong. I was on the fence, personally."

He would sigh.

"Let's just say that the Arians were killed to a man and leave it at that. I tried to prevent..." Another pause. "It was after the battle that I had learned the true nature of the menace that stood before me. Also... many years ago, my wife had been taken from me. She was also one of their... their..."

He couldn't bring himself to describe Halima as an 'experiment'.

"She had escaped with the other two, but apparently had sought me out rather than travel with them. Learning the truth, I tracked her down in the very town she was abducted from. Her memory was damaged and she doesn't truly remember me, and I've been... gods, what's that expression you humans use? Dancing on turtle shells?... about it. I mean, I'm grateful she accepts that I am the husband she sought, I can't tell what's an actual connection and what's merely blind faith sometimes. It's not easy, Shayne." Revenge would shoot him a damaged smile. "Not nearly as easy as a psychology course at the academy, at any rate."

He would half-turn his head to look back. "Petra's one too, but you puzzled that one out, I suspect." He would bring his gaze back forward. "Abby feels responsible for her, and there was an... 'accident'... back at Gladesdale. Some people were turned to stone, and we didn't have easily accessible means to restoring them. We're trying to request aid from Archmage Kail to undo the spell on them, before Aria catches whiff and tracks us down. I get the sense that we were lucky the first time, and I'd prefer not to trust in mere luck to keep us alive in future encounters."

Revenge would make an open-handed gesture with his free hand towards Shayne. "That's why I wanted your help. Whatever any of us can do to better increase the odds Kail will help us is extremely invaluable. Kail apparently wants to... study... Abby, and I really think that's a bad idea. There's more to it than that, and I don't think it would be right to share that particular info with you because it doesn't relate to me directly. I had intended to fill Kuori in on the reason why last night so she could talk Abby out of it, but... I guess I couldn't count on her in the end." Glancing down at the flowers clenched in his right gauntlet, he would elaborate a bit further. "The reason she and I were at odds last night is because of Kail's treatment of her. I was infuriated at him for his inexcusable treatment towards her, and she was mad at me for diminishing our chances of success."

He would look up towards the manor they were approaching. "Some lines shouldn't be crossed though, and I felt that man had crossed one. It frankly turns my stomach that we'll have to deal with him a second time, but Abby seems dead set on this being the path we must walk. I'm deeply concerned about how much their arrangement will truly cost her. I personally find myself on a fine line between my wife's right to choose for herself, and helping preserve her dignity. I wish there was a greater margin of error to work with here..."

He would frown for a few moments, before it vanished in neutrality. "Sorry that this was a bit to take in. That's the nitty gritty of our situation, excluding a couple superfluous details. Thoughts?"  

[PupSage]

Kuori would get a bit frusterated, the whispering becoming a bit less of a whisper. "Letting him use you like an animal is no better than what they did to you. Forget about everyone else for a minute, think about you, what this means for you and the sense of dignity that you just got back. Think about people like me, ready to go to war and die to make sure what was done to you doesn't happen to anyone else ..." She caught herself speaking at normal volume again. "You are free again. You have rights. You don't need to yield yourself to the will of anyone if it means giving away those rights. That man isn't the king of this land, only this manor, and you don't need to do what he says if it means giving up the bits and pieces of life that you have left." She stood, pressed her forehead to Abby's and said, "What happened to those men in Gladesdale was unfortunate, but if Aria comes after any of you I will kill every soldier between me and their laboratories, regardless of hohassell hassel I get from your husband."
She would turn and say, "Sorry for my outburst, and head over to the corner of the room."  

[Noname 51]

This was a lot of information to shift though, but he found himself standing still pinching the bridge of his nose. "How much of a hatchet can be replaced, before the original cease to be?" He muttered to himself a parable.

Looking up at the Teifling, Shayne felt a little pity for the group. "Tell me, take as much time as you need to be truthful and you don't need to give details. Would Mrs. Naeem be as stubborn as Abby in simular scenes?"  

[Rain Yupa]

"Please, can you stop using that name? It's offensive to me. I know for a fact that humans will change their names when they marry, sharing the surname of one spouse. Wouldn't you be offended if people refused to acknowledge such a life event?" Revenge would say with a huff.

"But to answer your question, Abby isn't an exact replica of who she was as I remember her, back when she was Halima. She's changed as much as one might expect someone they know to, if separated by years with no contact. The core personality of who she was is still there."  

[AlphabetFish]

Twyla turned, no longer able to tune out the women talking nearby. "Hey! Shh! Someone's performing!" she hissed, then caught herself as she heard what Kuori was saying. "Hey now, hey now, if you're so worried about what he'll do to investigate her, why dontcha just ask him yourself? I'm sure he's heard you by now!"

Twyla would frown at her enjoyment of the music being interrupted, but she composed herself as quickly as she could. Bowing low to Odessa and Kail, she would say, "Please excuse the interruption, miss, mister," then turn towards where Kuori had retreated to, calling out to her. "I know you weren't there when he told us this, but Mr. Araethos wants to learn about Miss Abby so he can help a girl he has working for him--a girl that's got... um... non-human features to her, just like Miss Abby does. That girl seemed fine! If he hasn't done anything bad to the girl working for him, then what makes you think he'd do something like that to Miss Abby?"

She turned now to Kail, looking embarrassed. "I'm so sorry, sir, to be talking about you like you weren't there. I know Miss Abby has agreed to help you, but we're all just a little concerned for her. Some of our group have dealt with the people who did this to her, and no one's in any hurry to let her get subjected to anything so terrible again. Am I right in thinking that your own research would be, uh... non-invasive? I guess it might help us all feel better if we knew."  

[Noname 51]

"I don't know, never planned to be married. And, I never put more stock into name changes. If she loved me and I her, change or stay the same it wouldn't matter..." Shayne admitted with a shrug. "But, I meant it as pre-seperation Abby vs present Abby. I am sorry if you took offense to it. I didn't mean such, just trying to process your info before meeting the Archmage, or Abby." Taking a pause before he continued. "She would sacrifice herself for others, even back then?"  

[Kowsauni]

At the sound of Kuori's slightly raised voice, Odessa would quit playing her violin and stare placidly at the adventures. Kail would let out a sigh and set down what remained of his breakfast and stand up from his rather comfy looking chair.

"I will be casting a spell on her similar to what mages use to identify magic items, except I will be using it to analyze the magic used in Mrs. Abby's creation. Magic of this kind is a bit like a tapestry; you can look at the overall picture, but I need to study the weave of it to truly understand it. Mrs. Abby might feel a slight tingling sensation from the spell as I channel it, but will be otherwise unharmed. I don't know what you all were thinking I had planned, and yes, I hope to use what I learn to help Basidia, the girl that some of you met last night in my arboretum. She suffers from a terminal illness, but I am keeping her alive through a symbiotic relationship with a beneficial magical fungus. At this point the fungus has become fully part of her being, yet her body continues to fight the relationship and this causes her to remain sickly and need constant care. If I could perhaps grasp some of magical concepts used to create Mrs. Abby, I might be able to give Basidia a more normal life."

Abby was surprised by this sudden outpouring of information from the wizard. "I-I see. I did not know all this before..." Abby trailed off and suddenly looked quite sheepish.

"It's fine. Of course you wouldn't know, as I hadn't told you. I was going to discuss this all in more detail after listening to my daughter play, but I see patience is not one of your party's virtues." Kail would sigh and motion towards the door where a servant stood ready to assist them. "Please wait for me in the Banquet Hall. Once the rest of your party arrives, I will discuss what your task will be if you wish me to create this magic item for you."  

[Rain Yupa]

"If you just wanted to know the house we had decided to marry under, it's under the house of clan Apophis," Revenge would explain. "Not that either of us are affiliated with them anymore, due to her being missing and me being disowned. But that's the closest equivalent to a 'surname' as I can give you." His eyes would momentarily gaze skyward. "We are neither Naeem nor Halima of Apophis any longer. We are simply Revenge and Abby now. Don't listen to Kuori if she tries to convince you otherwise." A forced smirk.

"Back to the point... you're asking difficult questions to answer. She hasn't exactly been in a situation to make a sacrifice of this magnitude before. I can't make a justified comparison." But after a few seconds, he would reach up and rub the side of his face with his gauntlet. "Wait... no, that's not right. I guess, technically, once before. But that was a joint sacrifice. The two of us had threatened to disown ourselves from our families if they would not grant their blessing for our union. Almost came to it, too. Five minutes later and the documentation would have been signed and notarized." Revenge would seem to smile, perhaps at a reawakened memory of something.

"Does that count?" he would then ask. "I'm not sure I know what you're getting at - or rather, I think I know what you're getting at and you haven't done a good job of proving me wrong yet."  

[Noname 51]

"I am not trying to prove anyone wrong." Shayne would sigh "If I said, the truth is how one perceives it. Would you understand, my meaning?"

Continuing down the path, Shayne would stop at the tree in the story and sit on the ground under it.  

[Rain Yupa]

"Well, if you were going to insinuate things about her identity, you should erase such thoughts from your mind. Just in case that's what you were about to suggest."

He too would stop walking, waiting for Shayne. "What's important to me is getting this resolved so I can be with her again. To pick up the pieces together and see which ones still fit. I've only been reunited with her for days, but things have been nonstop, with one issue after another. I'm not expecting to just go back to our old lives like nothing happened at all; that's just a fantasy, and one that hasn't even crossed my mind. But I don't want this life for her either, not one so rife with danger."

A moment's pause. "It's the little things, Shayne. The way she turns her head, the look in her eyes, the particular way she moves her fingers when she reaches for something. Things like that, that define a person but only a lover would ever notice."

Revenge would exhale, his tail beginning to lash back and forth as they idled. "A doctor friend of mine that I met back at the church gave me advice to help me through a tough time, and it applies to Abby as well. He told me, 'We all change, when you think about it. We are all different people all through our lives. And that's okay, that's good; You've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.' It's why... I need to help her, Shayne. I need to help her remember, and not just accept. She can't move on until she does."

He would then shrug, and exhale. "Otherwise, no, I don't see your message of perceived truth, I'm afraid. I was trained to follow my heart, and that's how I will proceed."