It's been quiet along the clearly marked path, the dirt and flagstones and markers set here with what the lore assures you was the grudging support of the local Good Neighbors. And quiet should be good.
But.
There should be birdsong, and strange beasts. Willowisps and cries to divert followers off the paths. A stupid sliding block puzzle or five.
"I don't understand," Sio says. "This has been going too well. Don't step off the path now, but -"
"No, you're right. This is creepy as hell," Ace says, the rings of her mail clinking under her breastplate as she advances, slowly, on the flagstones and dirt through the woods.
"Keep close," Alesha says, right behind you. She hasn't yet drawn her sword, but she does have her shield, a legionnaire's scutum more than half as tall as she is, decorated with red and gold solar designs.
You take a deep breath to clear your head - and that's when you realize. The air here feels and smells strange in a way that you're not sure why is uncanny.
Well. Uncanny for the Nevernever.
"Do you smell something metallic in the air?" you ask. "Maybe?"
Then you hear animal cries - hooting and growling from the same throat. Chittering and growls. The chiming of bells in 4/12 rhythm.
"Oh thank fuck, finally," Sekhmet says, flipping her shortswords into reverse grip and crouching on the side of the wagon.
You turn a corner, and see them. A pair of owl-bear chimera the size of SUVs, with talons the length of chopsticks. Darting figures of red and green, with roses for manes around their vulpine heads - the infamous Seedlings you've heard so much about. Chiming wisps, beings of energy wrapped around a levitating seed crystal on wings of light - the least faeries called sprites. And monstrous creatures on two legs, green save for their red faces; redcaps.
Charging at you.
No. Running. From a strange patch of rain and fog further up the road, out of place for the lush and luminous sylvan glade this is supposed to be.
"Hey, smart people." Ace stops to put one foot back, settling into her battle stance. "Does the ocean feed into anything nearby?"
"The closest one is at the port city we came from," Alesha says, drawing her sword. "200 kilometers behind us."
"But that's definitely seawater we smell," Hikaru says.
"And rotten fish," Tayeb adds, gesturing to Shadi - with no small amount of concern - to get into the back of the wagon. His horses champ in nervous dismay.
Hikaru grimaces. "Fae aren't fond of salt."
Ace unshoulders her hammer. "I want to be very clear on one thing here," she says. "If we end up fighting sharks in the middle of the magical fairy forest, I am going to find whoever designed this level, and I am going to shove my entire armored boot up their ass."
"No, definitely not designed this way," Hikaru mutters, almost to himself. "Unless the woods are more lost than we are?"
The lead owlbear sees us and the cart on a road barely wide enough for the cart and someone alongside it - in the way of it's clearest path away from the rain of saltwater - and rises to it's feet and roars, demanding we step aside. On either side, a redcap tries to find room, running to trample you all before they're trampled.
"Uh," you say, intelligently.
"This is fucked," Sekhmet says, leaping down from the cart and blurring.
There's a pop and a hiss - billowing purple smoke from a smashed oversize eggshell - roars and squeals of pain - the creak of a tree branch -
You look up and Sekhmet is on a branch over the road, looking down into a cloud of thick alchemical smoke that's enveloped the owlbear and it's tiny cohort; her eyes are slitted, tracking movement in the cloud, and her nostrils flare. They flick the blood off their blades, and glance at their cloak.
She pokes her hand through a large slash through it. "Asshole gremlin," she mutters. "I liked that cloak."
"Knock them off the path," Alesha says. The lead owlbear leaps out of the smoke cloud and lands - heavily - on Alesha's shield; with a grunt, she shoves it off, shield raised. "And see if they take the chance to escape."
"Good plan in theory," Ace growls. "In practice why should we get nice things?"
One of the redcaps lunges at her feet, only to be thrown back by the force of an arrow through its shoulder.
Sio draws another arrow but doesn't notch it yet, flitting over a fallen tree-trunk with her wings as she advances past the owlbear, eyes scanning the forest for targets of opportunity.
"Step off the path if you need room to maneuver but do not leave sight of it," she barks.
Alesha whips her head back. "But you said -"
Sio laughs, more crazed and tense than mirthful. "- stepping out's how you the fae notice us, how we draw aggro. We have aggro already. The only way out is through the road."
You glance at Ace - still sleeping badly from the last fight. You take a deep breath, and exhale it, shaping it through sacred gestures into healing winds around the frontline of Ace, Alesha, and yourself.
Ace stiffens for a second before loosening up again. "Thanks," she mutters, in no particular direction.
Your heart skips a beat.
But there's no time for distractions.
"Okay," you say. "To push through most efficiently, we should..."
You look at the redcap that assailed Alesha.
And grin.
Sometimes the obvious move is the right one.
"GRYPHON!" You push off; your legs fold up under you. "TALON!" You extend them, your sash and your tails streaming behind you as you fly through the air. "KIIIIIIICK!"
For a moment, you think you've landed squarely on it's arm... but it rolls it's back, unnaturally fluid, and you land in a crouch next to it. At least it's distracted.
Ace blinks at you for a half second before shaking her head and launching herself towards your furry, feathered foe. She swings the hammer low, and raises it up, putting all of her strength into one massive blow.
The hammer slams under the monster's chest, lifting it up and throwing it, bodily, heavily, onto one of the sprites fleeing in our direction and the tail of a seedling. There's a horrible squelching noise, and the sound of breaking glass, as the sprite is flattened underneath the bulk of the owlbear; the wounded seedling screams pain and squirms out, dripping sap and rosewater from it's crushed tail, darting into the woods and out of the fight.
"AND STAY DOWN," she ki-ai's at the owlbear.
The ursine beast responds in kind. The noise from its throat is a warbling growl that could not be produced by either a bear or owl alone, and it blows your tails and hair back, and Ace's too.
Ace keeps yelling. "BITCH, GREMLIN MADE WORSE NOISES WHEN HIS DINNER WAS LATE-"
A deceptively quick claw slams into Aces back, and she drops to the ground heavily, chin hitting a flagstone and her back cracking in a way that definitely isn't therapeutic. Adding further injury to the insult, a sprite flits past, points a glowing limb, and singes her tail with a hurled ember.
As she groans her pain you hiss in sympathy, and hope her armor protected her from the worst.
There's a flash and a crack, in that order, as a bolt of lightning flies from a sprite in the backline taking a potshot at Sio. It tumbles, twists in midair towards Ace.
She grits her teeth and sets the metal pommel of her hammer into the earth, the metal head straight up.
Lightning flows down the hammer, and through her hand - and out, through the grounding.
Ace hisses "I hate this game, I hate this game, I hate this game..." and you wince.
Hikaru steps forward, takes a deep breath, closes his eyes - and opens his third, his normal pair black flecked with stars. "Some kind of magical interference where the salt rain drips in, roughly hemispherical..." he mutters. "The seawater's eroding the wards on the road, but they're still live for now. We need to move quickly."
"Getting away good. Okay," Ace grunts into the ground.
"Got it. We'll be pushing forward," Alesha says, striking her shield with her sword.
You nod. "Which means pushing the monsters off the road."
"Naturally. Levin-pilum!"
Hikaru steps forward and sweeps his staff at the monsters, and fires a lightning bolt of his own, the golden current twisting to avoid us and seek the foe. The redcap next to you ducks and covers, the bolt sailing a foot above his face. The owlbear is not so lucky and gets hammered, and you see bits of it's skeleton illuminated from the inside and smell burnt fur and feathers. It screams.
Two seedlings leap between the trees, one trying to whip Sio in the face with it's tail - as a distraction from it chucking an enchanted seed into the tree behind her. She's buffeted by the tail and backpedals, but manages to twist around and avoid an erupting pillar of thorny vines just in time. The other lands on the owlbear Ace used as a croquet ball, dropping golden glowing pollen into it's fur, before bounding off it to sling something sharp into your cheek.
You hiss, but it's more painful than harmful.
Alesha rushes forward shield first, trying to scoop up and throw the redcap next to you into a tree. It jumps off the shield, crouching against the tree, brandishing scythe-like arm blades.
Positioning her between the owlbear, and Ace.
And you.
"Ace, Deedee," she says softly. "I've got you both."
She points her sword to the owlbear, then draws it's eyes from the point up to her own eyes by raising the blade, then slams her shield twice.
The owlbear turns to face her.
And then, crackling purple energy swirls on the ground near your party, describing a circle about as wide as you could leap under the owlbear, one sprite, and Ace. Three invisible hands filled the magic circle in with geometric shapes and a cursive script you couldn't understand.
It didn't do anything, yet, but it was lying there. Humming. Gathering power.
Hikaru looks at it, then up, past it - and shudders. "Thank you for buying us time," he says to us. "I think... I think I know what caused this, and we might need it."
"Fuck me running," Ace says, struggling to rise.
Our first battle that will take more than one update.
You can earn our allies Tension with your theories, which Hikaru will confirm with the next update, this weekend. Say that it's pleasing to Gnomon that you should think, and understand.
Vote for the next God Updates are still open.
