Bern
Something followed u-Heury and I up the stairs. I still cannot name it. It was a cloud with tentacles, and ominous crackles of lightning, like a storm cloud only smaller and much closer. Plus the tentacles.
Spooked by the number of enemies following him, u-Heury called for us to run and hide. We both climbed through the nearby window to take advantage of the natural terrain, and concealed ourselves nearby. We were waiting to see if the ominous cloud would follow beyond the stairs, or retreat below. When it eventually did follow us out the window, the cloud overlooked me in my hiding spot. It moved towards u-Heury instead and moved towards him. Seeing my chance, I struck with sword and shield. It seemed insubstantial, but the enchantments on both of my weapons did damage. Substantial damage. I could see it waver and flicker for a moment. But then it let out a bright flash of light. It felt as if I had been sunburned.
u-Heury swung at the cloud as the flash went off, and his blow went wide. I struck again, but it knew I was there and ducked out of the way of my sword. I followed up with another shield bash, driving it back and forcing it to take a blow from the barbarian’s blade as well.
But u-Heury’s blows had less effect. He could damage the creature, yes. But it was wary after my blows and avoided most of his. Still, working together, we struck it down in short order without being seriously hurt.
However, the flash of light had attracted the attention of the rag man. Before we could hide again, he swooped down and. Grasped my shoulders in his crow like towns. Towns. Talons. Wings flapping, he lifted me into the air, despite my chain mail and oversized heavy shield. The weight seemed to bother him a little, but much less that I was bothered by dangling from the talons of a rag crow. We spoke.
At first I pretended not to hear his voice. The flapping of his wings and the rush of the air was certainly distracting, but it was a ploy; I sought to convince him to take me to the ground where we could speak properly. He refused and flew higher.
The creature seemed concerned about several things. First on his list, the children, who he called his wards. He wanted assurances that neither I nor the rest of my group would seek to take them from him. He insisted on knowing why we were here at the abbey, and grew incensed when I explained we had been hired by the mother of one of his wards.
After the safety of his wards, the creature wanted teeth. He was very interested in the chattering skulls the rest of the party had previously encountered and which we were currently attempting to acquire. We were able to negotiate on this point. The creature set a price of 10 skulls per favor he provided; the primary favor he was able to offer was knowledge. He claimed to know how to close the portal. I don’t trust his honesty on that, but it’s the only lead we have at the moment since the Abbott misled us. The gold inside at least some of the skulls makes the effort potentially profitable. I promised to present this bargain to the rest of the group, and acquire at least 10 skulls if at all possible. Reluctantly. It’s better than being dropped.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group were examining the skulls that Warren had managed to extract. There appeared to be no easy way to remove coins. Places on an ordinary skull which would be openings, such as the eye sockets and neck, instead were solid bone. The only obvious way to extract the coins was be to smash the skulls, and the rag man had been very specific about wanting the skulls still chattering. Smashing them would presumably ruin whatever magic was animating them and reduce their worth.
On the plus side. He didn’t care whether the skulls had a cross on them or not, so we could extract both and simply pass on the unmarked skulls to the rag man and keep the ones with gold.
I eventually convinced the ragman to set me back on the ground and present the proposal to the party. They reluctantly accepted understanding that pretending to obtain skulls for the rag man would prevent him from seizing us at random and carrying us up into the air for a swift, sudden death. It seemed likely we would have to kill the creature eventually if we wanted to get the children back, but the abbey had its own set of problems and tackling both at once seemed unwise.
We planned our second raid into the Room of Skulls. u-Heury and I would lead, both carrying sacks to extract the skulls. Pish would use her ventriloquism spell to create a distraction, and Morin, who refused to re-enter the room under any circumstances, would stand guard and watch for interruptions.
The distraction was successful… eventually. It took several minutes of increasing the volume and varying the noises to attract sufficient attention. When there was an opening. I ran for the room and the barbarian followed. We both rushed inside. I began hurriedly stuffing my sacks with skulls. Some magic took effect and I felt as if my head was trying to tear itself off of my body. I gritted my teeth against the pain and persisted. I was determined to get all 10 skulls in a single run and leave the money to the rest. Unfortunately, the barbarian turned and fled as soon as he saw the contents of the room, horror coating his face. He collected no skulls at all. I’ve seen worse than this skinning game, I don’t see why he has an issue.
Despite the pain, and the admittedly disconcerting sight of the room, I managed to stuff 8 skulls into the sacks that I had brought, and two more into the hood of my cloak. Even as I grabbed them and put them away, they continued to chatter.
Giving these sinister skulls to the rag man was sure to have bad consequences in the future. But what choice did we have? Very difficult to fight a creature that can lift you off the ground and drag you into the air, then threaten to drop you to your death.
Once I had my 10 skulls in hand, I fled the room.
