On the Trail of the Puppetmaster

[DeepShadow of FoS]

(I'm going to try and copy and paste portions of my play by post campaign for everyone's enjoyment. I'm still ironing out tenses and other stuff. Let's just see how this goes.)

The walled city of Karg was just rising into view when the trail Moira indicated appeared on the opposite side of the road. The first set of sentries was only visible once they were out of sight of the King's Highway. At that distance, these motionless humanoid figures with gray-green hides could be mistaken for stone statues, especially with the generous covering of moss and vines. Even this far away, it was clear they towered head and shoulders above the riders and horses together, poised to strike with oversized mouths agape and massive spears brandished over their heads. If ever there was a warning to turn away, this was it, and while Correre was unfazed, the other two horses were getting that message quite clearly. 

"Hold on Sinae, we're walking this part." Kira slid off and seized the reins.

Blind Xasha noticed the silence and nervousness. "I gather we are near the landmarks of the Puppetmaster's domain?" Her refined senses couldn't reach the sentries at this range, but she caught a whiff of rotten flesh on the wind, like a midden heap.

Sinae swiveled in the Gnome battlepack as Kira dismounted, and scanned the outlines of the mossy sentinels in mute terror. She stared up at their distorted expressions and colossal stature, face blanching and smile wilting like a flower in a sudden frost. She eased her sling into her hand, pressing herself against Kira for a sense of protection. With her free hand, she tugged nervously at her pigtail in time with her quickening heartbeat.

In testament to the message of these sentries, the trail diminished here by more than half. It was easy to imagine how many residents of Karg had trodden this trail this far and no further, whether to test their bravery or reassure themselves that the golems hadn't moved. Darkonese folklore was all about the dead coming back to take the land from the living, and it was easy to see how the people of Karg feared the dead were massing an army in this forest in preparation for that reckoning.

And dead they were, though it was only apparent within about fifty feet. Fine stitching separated the broad shoulders of ogres from the long warty limbs of trolls, and the cheeks had been slashed open so that the elongated mouths gaped wider, like serpents with their jaws unhinged. As monstrous as they appeared at a distant statues, close up they were so far beyond monsters, masterworks of cunning and cruelty in every stitch. While the forest had partially covered them with moss and vines as if to blot out the offense against nature, time had done nothing to the spears, which glinted keenly in the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees. Nor had death closed those dead eyes, which followed the four travelers as they drew close.

The remainder of the trail ran right between these first two gargoyles, and as they drew near they could see a second pair of sentries just barely in sight of the first. These were identical to the first pair in features, but couldn't be more opposite in attitude, with bowed heads, lowered spears, and hands nearest the trail drawn behind them to indicate invitation to proceed. Like the distance from the road, the fact that these could only be seen after approaching the first two seemed part of the message: if someone was brave or stupid enough to approach these monstrosities, they were welcome to continue.

Sinae's vantage point put her in the lead for lookout, with others quick to assist. So far, it wasn't that hard to stick to the trail as it ran in a nearly straight line due west of Karg, heading toward what sounded like a swift-flowing river. The number of smaller game trails in this area suggested the animals had become accustomed to the golems and didn't avoid them. Despite the animals being comfortable, there were signs all was not well among the plants. A few wildflowers appeared to have wilted and shriveled with no clear reason.

Xasha sniffed. "Necrotic blight: energy draining undead have walked this path before us."

The trail led to an overgrown clearing, where a humanoid figure sat on a rock facing the trail. It looked like some kind of ape, but as they drew closer they could see the hunchbacked body and bare head of a troll, complete with a big bulbous nose that it was in the middle of picking. It's limbs were thick: hams like hands, fingers like sausages, all of which had made it look like an ape on first glance.

Kira gave a start and made a gagging noise. "I-It's made out of the…leftovers...from the others."

It was true: the creature's limbs appeared to have come from an ogre, so that it appeared short and squat compared to the others, almost comically so. The hand that was unoccupied in picking its nose was crossed casually across the body, a single index finger uncurled to point at one of the trails leading out. The path beyond it continued along the edge of a cliff, with river rapids barely twenty feet below. The land here bore the still-healing scars of a huge tree being torn up and dragged over sixty feet to serve as a bridge into the woods on the other side.

As if there had been any doubt this was the way, a trio of figures were posed along the bridge. More or less identical to the nose-picking troll, two were spaced close in the middle of the bridge, one stuck in a perpetual snarling lecture as the other cowered before him. The third crouched in the torn-up roots at the near side of the bridge, peeking out as if spying on unwary travelers.

Sinae voted to leave the horses at the bridge; she’d rather not put them in harms way in case they need a quick getaway. The sentinels deeply unnerved her, and a pit was forming in her stomach imagining confronting these things' creator. She clambered awkwardly out of the gnome backpack and crossed the bridge first. She avoided contact with the golems whenever possible, touching them only if absolutely necessary, and moved as quickly and safely as she could.

Once someone described the scene at hand, Xasha dismounted. "Would one of you be kind enough to anchor a rope just past those things so that I can tie on before making that attempt. I am sure someone wants to help me pass, but that only risks one of us bumping the other and both of us going off."

Belbun gave Xasha the rope, got off his horse and approached a golem, looking it over from a small distance. "I can't get a good viewpoint for any details without getting closer, but the 'lecturing' troll is pointing at the far bank. The last one was pointing this way, so this is as good an indicator of our direction as any, if it wasn't already obvious."

There was something slightly off about the troll-golems, but it wasn’t apparent from Belbun’s point of view. Sinae saw it first, when she was forced to brace herself against the lecturing one and abruptly came face-to-face with…herself. There was a hand mirror tucked into the creature’s belt, facing out in just such a way so that it would only be visible to someone who used it as a handhold. The other one had mirrors, too: tiny ones on a string around its neck like jewels, but dangling low so they could not be seen unless you were directly in front of them. But why? The mirrors had all the clever positioning of some kind of trap, but there was nothing else remarkable about them in any way.

Whatever the reasoning, the mirrors were harmless, and Kira and Xasha were able to cross easily by the use of the rope. On the far bank, Kira noted an assortment of hardy white and purple flowers among the grass at the edge of the forest.

“That’s garlic,” she murmured. “Not wild, someone planted it here.” She looked back at the bridge. “I hate the feeling of being left out of a joke, but in this case, I probably don’t want to know.”

The lecturing troll was pointing right through the thickest parts of the garlic and grass, and then between two hawthorn trees. There was hardly any trail left to speak of now, especially no sign of the necrotic blight of energy drainers. With the foliage more dense and lots of boulders and stumps and fallen trees in the way, it would be difficult to keep in a straight line.

"Oh, I get it. It's a trap." Xasha explained. "Planted and maintained garlic, mirrors, and a precarious climb across moving water. This is a trap for the undead, to keep them out." A moment more of listening. "And that answers one of my fears. It seems most probable to me that the Puppetmaster is still among the living if he has to be this wary of the undead."

After five minutes or so of walking without seeing another guide, it was a relief to see the cleft starting just to the left of their path. It was clearly not a natural formation, with its sheer sides and having just enough space for a man to walk, but the floor was so covered with mud and fallen leaves that it otherwise could have been mistaken for a natural streambed. It sloped down toward the river, cutting right into the rock up to the height of a man, until it turned and opened into a riverside grotto, cleverly concealed from path above despite so much of it being open to the air.

The stone sides became friezes and bas reliefs as the grotto opened, and in the center stood a male figure posed in agony, naked except for a wolf pelt about his loins, his features contorted midway into transformation into a wolf. He stood in a circle carved into the stone floor, with a pentagram and other magical symbols inscribed within. A stone plaque on a nearby wall was inscribed in Darkonese, Vaasi and Mordentish, reading “The Hubris of Gregor Zolnik.”

Muttering to the voices in her head, the blind seer said, "no, no. I'll tell them.... Shut up for once." Ironically wincing as the sounds bother her. "Give that some room, there is more to it than the stench." then back to being irritated. "not ever, I'd rather be naked in the company or goblins."

Once they reached the Grotto, Sinae’s agitation increases even further. She paused and drifted away from Kira to study the carven walls more closely. Sinae tries to delay interacting with the warped figure in the stone circle as much as possible, reading the stone plaque aloud to her companions in a strained, wavering voice. At the last second, she abandons the image of Gregor Zolnik entirely, and instead begins searching for a way forward.

"My friends, on the other side of this river someone has planted an herb garden, and many of them would be useful in preserving and curing hide or flesh." wrinkles her nose some "not to mention what else might be cooked up with it".

Sinae’s tugging at her pigtails grows more intense as she studies the unpleasant surroundings, and before long she’s pulling hard enough to drag a few hairs free with each stroke. In a voice tinged with fear and frustration, the halfling remarks,

“Nice observation, Xasha. Plants for preserving tissue would be appropriate, given the... macabre decor. We need to get out of here, or I’m going to be sick. I can imagine two ways forward; we either have to interact with Gregor Zolnik over there or backtrack and see if we missed a turn or something. The only other possibility, at least as far as I can see, would be crossing the river and trying to find this ‘garden’. What do you all think?”

Xasha cocks her ear to survey the area as one might squint while looking. "If the unpleasantness of this place is consistent, then I am going to assume we have to do something either with or indicated by that monstrosity. I'll be buggered if I would know where to begin. Good folks, do any of you know about this particular abomination and what his malady and hubris might have to do with this?"

@Galatea/Sinae Heartspark recalled a story from Vorostokov, about a hunter who turned himself into a wolf using a wolf skin belt and a magic ritual. Apparently became addicted to hunting in the form of a wolf, and it destroyed his life.

Sinae stares hard at the plaque, musing on the best path forward while trying to avoid catching a glance of the cobbled wolf-man. Gesturing to the carven images on the wall, the halfling hisses,

“I don’t suppose any of us are shapeshifters, huh? Belbun, check the bas-reliefs for an image of a wolf. It could be a piece of the puzzle. Gregor Zolnik used an enchanted pelt to change shape, so I wonder...”

Sinae approaches the wolfman, nose crinkled in disgust and mouth dry as she undoes the wolf pelt about his waist. She is fully expecting something terrible or distressing to happen in response, but she can’t bear to stay in the Grotto much longer.

Kira shook her head. “Jeez, you’re looking at everything other than the…statue...but all the other places just have someone pointing the way we need to go. This guy must be the key….”

She watched Sinae dive into the circle to disrobe the corpse of its wolf-pelt.

“What are you...he better not be pointing anywhere with THAT!”

Thankfully, there was nothing to speak of underneath the pelt but thick fur. Kira looked over “Gregor” with rueful admiration. Only a few of the stitches were visible where the wolf hair was the thinnest.

Xasha called upon the spirits to guide her, and found the magic circle on the floor was magical, as was the belt. The Gregor-golem itself had a faint aura, which appeared to be ebbing now that the belt had been removed. In addition, an animal bone at the far end of the grotto also detected as having a separate aura, which extended to cover the entire area.

Xasha moves across grotto toward the bone. "The belt has power to protect the wearer from lycanthropes. The bone creates an area of protection from them. So this part of the trail continues with the theme of warding off the nasty creatures. This would indicate to me that we are on the right path, but tells me nothing of how to go forward."

Sinae’s fear and disgust gradually gives way to frustration and bitterness at the groups inability to advance. She listens to Xasha’s explanation and notes drily,

“So, the first set of golems protected against Vampires, and this one protects against Werewolves? This Puppetmaster must have a lot of enemies.”

Sinae paces back and forth, muttering to herself and breathing through her mouth to avoid the smell of the garden. By now, her hands have nearly undone her pigtails, and the leather cords barely manage to stay in place. Wracking her brain, the halfling mumbles,

“So, where does that leave us? Do we stab the bone into the pelt? Or the wolf man? Maybe we break the stone circle, or scratch out all of the symbols? Do we go back for one of the mirrors to show this thing his own reflection? Do we need plants from the garden? Or perhaps we just tear the man wolf apart and look through his innards? Hells, while we’re at it, maybe we should sacrifice Izon or try to get infected with lycanthropy?”

Xasha turns towards the rushing water that must be crossed. "That is not the worst idea I have heard all day. Izon, my I look at your intestines for a moment?" To which whe wolf is not but uncomfortable. "I fear that the one simple way is that, unlike the vampires, we have to cross the water. We know, or at least I am certain he is somewhere over there." Xasha gestures in the direction of the preserving garden.

Sinae, breathing heavily and nails digging into the flesh of her arm now that her hands have abandoned her pig tails. She marches up to the wolf man and stares at every scar and patch of fur on his body. She wracks her brain and begins rambling every observation and thought she has. The stream of consciousness spans every category and possibility, from natural to magical to physical.

the creature's biology is impossible (crit fail on heal) but there are a few things that stand out that weren't obvious at first.

For starters, the hand held up for him to gaze at in horror had six fingers--no taxidermy this, it's a natural feature of the donor hand. These lupine features didn't come from a lycanthrope, but from a skin thief--a horrid humanoid with fur and muzzle like a wolf and six fingered hands. She could remember stories about them from her false memories of growing up in Darkon.

Upon reflection, it makes sense: lycanthropes turn back into humans when they die, so their corpses wouldn't have fur like this. The Puppetmaster had improvised to get around that limitation...but then why didn't he remove the sixth finger. All the craftsmanship that went into this, it doesn't make any sense...unless...

The hands of the sculpture are unusually hairy. There's tufts of fur around the upraised hand like a cuff. On the lower hand dangling at his side, the fur likewise hangs down, so that only the fingertips are visible.

Five fingertips.

Sinae finds the tiny sixth finger hidden in the fur cuff, bent almost perpendicular to the other five. It's deliberately pointing out towards the river, angling across the garden Xasha found.

Sinae leans back, satisfied that they knew the way forward and vindicated in finding it herself. She starts to set off immediately, but first recommends they use her 50 ft of rope to tie themselves in a line. This way, they can’t be separated even if they get lost.

Xasha listens to the discoveries and advice. "With all we have seen from this taxidermist, I wonder if he could not have some concoction to give a lycanthrope to stop the change upon death. It may not have any serious implications to the world, but it would certainly be helpful in his craft.
"As for the water, I see no reason we cannot cross it with caution. But is there anything we might gather or use to cross this. The invitations are as blatant as the warnings, so somehow he must be wanting someone to come this way." Some thinking and some listening.
"Then again, if this is they way he wants us to go, why are we so ready to agree to it?"

The rope made plotting a straight line easier, which was good because the garden alone wasn’t the best of reference points, extending as it did over two hundred feet of the opposite bank. Among the many flowers there, the most important had no discernable scent: wolfsbane grew between the poppies, foxglove, juniper and fennel, and wild under the reeking camphor bushes. The scent remained thick in the air for almost a mile before they crested a hill to find a wooden sign that announced “The Capture of Jaqueline Montarri.” They had reached the next scene.

By the bottom of the hill, Kira was praising the camphor as a blessing. Whereas the previous locations smelled like tanneries or old burial grounds, the stench of fresh rot was thick in this area. There was more scenery, but with less effort, like a large sketch rather than the small cameo of the previous scene. Thin wooden structures had been nailed to trees like the flimsy backdrop of a play, cut and painted to resemble a stone castle. The bedraggled figures clustered in the center of the scene were either deliberately made to decay, or this was where the Puppetmaster put his rejects. There were clouds of flies, even maggots among the armored men with their grey-green flesh peeking through holes in their helmets or gashes in their breastplates.

They weren’t posed with any less drama, however, frozen as they were in pursuit of another figure. A woman fled from the armored men, posed looking back over her shoulder with a crooked smile and a pack full of bright gleaming treasure. She was far better quality than the others, with no rot or decay at all; she was even beautiful, with a curtain of long blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale creamy skin, all quite lifelike. Despite what the sign said, she had a good lead, and it looked like she was going to dash through the archway ahead of her and make good on her escape.

A number of the rotting guards in armor have their hands or arms outstretched towards the woman, which also means they point generally in the direction of the archway. Kira favors going that way, if only to get away from the stench, and keep Sinae away from the bag of loot.

Xasha casually finds her way among a some of the Juniper and Fennel, taking a few handfulls for herself. "Everyone, take one sprig of each, rub and crush them slightly in your hands, keep it close to your face to keep out the smell. If we had dry grass and string we could make a smudge that would chase off the flies at least."

Sinae considers Xasha’s advice for a moment, and then with a shrug stoops and gathers a handful of nearby herbs. Sinae motions to the smiling woman with the bulging backpack, noting aloud,

“The sign called this the Capture, and this Puppetmaster has shown a talent for misdirection. Either the archway is trapped or that backpack is, I’d wager. I don’t trust this nasty creep one bit; he likes to hide the truth and really make you study his ‘art’ to Progress.”

Emboldened and now partially protected from the smell, Sinae rushes forward towards the charnel scene. She only stops once she’s close enough to determine if the gold in Jacqueline’s pack is authentic, and will get as close as she needs to confirm her suspicions. She won’t physically interact with any of the sentinels, at least not yet, and will return to the group if there’s no loot to be had.

The bag was brimming with gold and silver coins, but Sinae could also see bracelets, chains and precious stones and something that was either a candlestick or the hilt of a sword. Whatever these were, they were real and all of the highest quality as far as she could tell.

She could also see that the woman wore some of this herself. She had rings on both hands, a large gold bracelet, and a decorative ribbon around her neck, like a choker, with a clasp on the back.

Sinae’s eyes glitter with an almost Draconic greed, and she carefully closes the distance between her and the blonde woman. Once she’s within arms reach, she’ll produce her dagger and cut the straps of the pack. She’ll pick it up of the ground and scuttle back to the group (assuming all goes well), and flash Kira a wink before emptying it into her Handy Haversack.

Sinae dodged to the side as coins splashed out when the pack hit the ground...and nothing happened. More coins and gems spilled out as it slumped to the side. There was indeed a short sword in there, and bracers and a necklace.

sniff sniff "Well, that sounded lucrative. I do not think we are going to enjoy the results though."

Sinae gathers up all of the spilled treasure and places it in her Handy Haversack, pausing to examine the short sword, bracers, and necklace more closely. Once she finishes, she’ll rejoin her companions and laugh airily while motioning towards the Stone archway,

“Well, at least now we can stave off some of our money troubles for a while. Anyway, shall we continue?”

@Belbun/Conny/Leah's sixth sense led him to the archway leading out. If those guards represented rotting zombies, they were never going to catch this woman. If someone was going to capture her, they weren't chasing her, they were waiting ahead while she looked behind.

Sure enough, there was a barely-open panel tucked to one side under the archway where a lone figure waited in secret--someone following all the other pointing figures through this archway could miss him easily. He was well dressed, from his polished leather shoes to his high necked black cape held by a clasp with a huge ruby. His flesh was preserved almost as well as the woman's, and his lips pulled back in a snarl to reveal prominent fangs as he watched the fleeing woman approach.

Whoever Jacqueline Montarri was, she had angered--and been caught by--a powerful vampire lord.

And the golem representing that vampire was pointing through the secret panel, in the opposite direction from all his guards.

In examining the short sword, Sinae found that it had a dull grey blade that didn’t reflect in the light--perfect for sneak attacks. The bracer and necklace were high quality, possibly magical, but she couldn’t see any obvious indication of their powers.

"Pardon, companions. Either the characters named in the scene or the monsters they are plagued by, are they part of a common theme? And, no, not just supernatural powers, the creature here in specific."

@Galatea/Sinae Heartspark answering that question may depend a lot on who that vampire lord was. He was probably Duke Gundar or Strahd von Zarovich, both of whom are suspected of being among this realms Dread Lords. So was Gregor Zolnik. Perhaps these all have to do with Dread Lords. The Puppetmaster could be showing off what he knows about them.

Sinae considers Xasha’s question carefully before answering,

“Now, I don’t know too much about the specifics, but it seems like the common theme is Dark Lords. Gregor Zolnik was the ruler of Vorovostok, so maybe the vampire is supposed to be either Duke Gundar from Borca or Strahd Von Zarovich, the king of Barovia. Maybe he’s trying to show off for his, like a portrait artist, or maybe... what if he made them out of Flesh because he was afraid? Maybe recreating them helped remind him they were just flesh and blood?”

As they trudged onward for the next scene, Kira started to pant and shake the harness.

“Sinae, your pack doesn’t get any heavier when you add stuff to it, does it?”

She took a few more steps, grunting with the effort.

“I...wait...no, it’s me, there’s something--”

She reached into a pocket and pulled out a fist-sized emerald.

“Sinae, this thing weighs a ton! Why did you give it to me, just put it in your pack with all the rest!”

Upon realizing that Sinae didn’t give it to her, Kira screamed and threw the emerald into the woods...only to pull it out of the same pocket again.

“What did you do!?! These...things..they make everything heavy!”

Sinae motions for Kira to stop walking, and explains while dismounting,

“Yeah, that’s my bad. You reap what you sow, so the saying goes, and I guess I got what I deserved. I mean, why wouldn’t it be cursed, right? I shouldn’t have expected any different! Only someone disgustingly naive and ridiculously foolish could forget how unredeemably evil this place is for the chance at a pack full of coins!!”

The halfling’s voice and tone reach a fever pitch as her agitation increases, and she falls silent as she takes a few steps to test her newest curse. Her steps are are slow and deliberate, and her face betrays the strain of moving. Blinking furiously to keep tears from rolling down her beet red cheeks, Sinae turns to face the group and hisses,

“Yeah, Kira, you really hit the nail on the head; the gem makes everything heavy. At this rate, it’ll take us FOREVER to meet this creep and get back, with me bringing up the rear. I, personally, don’t think it’s worth it. All these corpses and curses, and for what? So maybe this freak will answer some questions!?!”
Sinae pauses to wipe her eyes and adjust her haversack, grinding her teeth and digging her nails into the flesh of her forearm. Once her voice returns to her, the Halfling continues, voice dripping with frustration and embarrassment,

“How about this? How about I start heading back to the horses, and you guys go ahead and finish this house call? Don’t worry about me; I’ll be waiting for you when you get back, and then I can use all of the money I just stole to pay Abblin to un-Curse me. Or maybe I won’t? Maybe I’ll get cursed again, or those Sentinels will kill me and play theater with my corpse, or I’ll be crushed to death by this emerald. We’ll just have to wait to see, won’t we?! Just another wonderful treat from this thrice-damned hellhole!!”

Without waiting for a reply, Sinae starts trudging back the way they came, head bowed and tears flowing freely. She mutters curses and lamentations under her breath in six different languages, her volume and obvious regret growing with each step.

"Sinae, perhaps you should just put down the loot? Judging by how your strain has gone up in 2 minutes it is likely that you will be dead from stress and the crushing weight before you even make it to the log."
"As for this mad marionette manipulator, the signs show that if we complete this 'favor' we will, in fact, get the information we need. And defeating any machinations of this trippled damned pit is worth the danger."

Sinae turns to face Xasha, rolling her eyes and grimacing to herself. She dumps her haversack on the ground, tossing anything else of substantial weight along with it, and takes a few steps in each direction to see if moving is any easier.

Kira’s eyes bulged, and she hurled the huge emerald crashing into the underbrush again, and then again. “What are you talking about?! Go back alone? There’s someone in every scene pointing the way forward, but no one’s pointing the way back. The distance between some scenes ranged over a mile! We barely found each scene with all of us working together, you’d never make it back alone, even following our tracks. You can’t go back, we can’t go forward...maybe you can wait here for us to return, after we...wait...where’s Belbun?!”

She wheeled around in frantic circles. Their friend, their guide, their employer...was gone.

There was no sign of Belbun anywhere. It appeared he had vanished into thin air while standing still.

Kira was beside herself. “Great, just great! Why do you have to be so greedy! You’ve ruined everything!”

A young male voice sounded from only a few feet away. “If I had hands, I’d be applauding. Such grief, such self-loathing, such bitter, bitter regret!”

Kira swore. “A ghost!” She pulled out the holy symbol of Torm around her neck and brandished it in the direction of the disembodied voice. The voice ignored her.

“That part earlier about this place being ‘irredeemably evil’ was a nice touch. Sent shivers right up my tail.”

Kira pulled back a fern to reveal a cat with midnight blue fur, who approached Sinae and rolled onto his back. The cat’s breath was visible in small grey puffs, as if during the winter, despite it being early May.

“Please, keep going. Start at the beginning, and talk slow. I want to savor this. I’ve sucked the lives out of many individuals, but never out of a relationship. It’s exquisite.”

Xasha brushes down her robes and happily sits right where she is, legs folded before her and her staff leaning against her shoulder. "Izon, here, down."
"Now, I do not know what this small sniff sniff thing is or what it wants, but if we will use some patience, I believe that I can stop the problems this wealth has brought us."

At the mention of stopping the curses, the cat's ears swivel in consternation.

“What?! Oh no, please don’t stop their flagellation. Let them go separate ways, carrying the tatters of their friendship. I can just see her going back, getting lost, having to backtrack, all while carrying half a dozen loadstones, then it would get dark, and the real fun would begin!”

He paused to reflect on this, and turned back to Sinae. “By all means, carry on with that plan. That will work out just fine.”

Sinae bristled at Kira’s exclamation, but her reply is cut short by the phantom voice. Instantly, she has the die-headed club in her hand and brandishes it towards the unknown speaker. Once Kira pulls back the fern to reveal the talking cat, Sinae lowered the club and regarded the feline with disdainful suspicion. Pausing to wipe her eyes again, she points at the cat and snarls,

“Shut up, fleabag, and get out of here. There’s already enough horrible, magical nonsense in these woods without you narrating our misery back to us. I’m not interested in you eating me, my relationship, or anything else.”

The halfling goes out of her way to ignore the talking cat, and motions for Kira and Xasha to do the same. Sinae pauses to heed Xasha’s words, and her eyes light up when she mentions she might have a way to correct her curses. Sinae picks up her haversack and the other things she tossed to the ground and cuts herself an ample length of rope, chuckling darkly,

“C’mon, lets walk while we talk. We need to keep moving if you guys want me to come with you. Kira, sorry for snapping at you; the curse is my fault and my problem, so I won’t make you waste all your energy hauling me around. I’m going to add myself to the back of the line, and hopefully the next scene isn’t too away.”

"Caution, my friends. In fact..." Xasha pauses and strokes Izon's fur. I think I can solve both our mysteries together. Tell me, what was Bellbun wearing when we came into this macabre menagerie?"

"Let me see if I can discern where he went."
After several moments of casting and then searching...
"It seems he is nowhere to be found. I was laying a bet that he silently teleported back, either for resources or out of cowardice. But he is definitely GONE from this place. No matter. We are here.and we must survive it. And with that spell spent I can now replace it with a more useful one to the situation at hand when I commune with my powers, which will also provide.me further vision." Pets the wolf further.
"The divination did say there would be consequences to this undertaking."

Kira ignored Sinae’s intention to go on foot and plunked her into the battlepack.

“I still have longer legs than you, and I'm just as cursed as you are either way--we’re in this together, like it or not. Besides, I suddenly feel a need to nurture our relationship. There's nothing that makes me want to be friends better than someone drooling over our fights.”

The cat gave a tentative hop after them as Kira moved to leave him behind.

“Sorry, too much? I mean, I just want you to know what kind of creature you’re dealing with. You do seem kinda thick, what with the backpack and all. That was a test to weed out the greedy--the master’s goods pose a temptation to treasure hunters. Normally we leave those ones to die alone, with me sucking the last of their life out and him adding their corpses to his raw materials….”

Despite Sinae’s admonition to ignore the cat, Kira turned to regard him with revulsion.

“BUT...I’ve never had anyone steal the entire backpack! That suicidal cleverness in the name of avarice inspired me to come offer my services. With my help, you’ll definitely make it to the Puppetmaster alive. I can even take you straight there, after lifting your curses and returning your friend to you.”

He crept forward, teasing his way around Izon and Xasha and Kira to try and get their attention.

“C’mon, you really think you’re going to get him back, AND finish this trek, AND get back to Karg…all before it gets dark?”

Xasha is still sitting right where she posted herself, keeping the wolf close. "I am sure the not-cat can do as it says. I very much doubt you wish to pay the price for what he offers. Patience gives us time to think and recover. Moving forward is far more dangerous."

Sinae smiles warmly when Kira returns her to the gnome backpack, and she nuzzles the barbarian affectionately while looking down the black cat. She considers Xasha’s words carefully before replying,

“Thanks got trying, Xasha. While I wouldn’t put a stunt like this past him, what little I know about him suggests he places great value in loyalty and trust. I don’t think he intended to leave, and he might even be in danger. Trouble is, he could be anywhere, and we can’t really afford to leave and go look for him. I think I agree with you, Xasha; our only option is to keep moving forward. We should try to find the next scene before we lose light; we can set up camp afterwards as needed.”

Although she initially tries to ignore the feline’s words, something about his offer piques her interest. Sinae cranes her neck back to address their four-legged tag along, voice harsh but expression curious,

“While your honesty is refreshing, I’ve learned the hard way that magic is not to be trusted. You serve a master who plays with corpses, remember. First off, what would you ask in return for your ‘services’? I know you can’t get something for nothing, and if you want us to even consider your offer, you need to fill us in. And secondly, what happens when the sun goes down? Why is nightfall such a big deal to you; do the sentinels animate? Is there a monster in the woods, or do werewolves and vampires come visit?”

Xasha concludes the focus of the spell. "Oh, I see what you did with him. Very clever...." She 'listens' around a moment. "Sinae, fear not, Belbun is sitting in the aether. He should be relatively safe, for the moment. Are you certain that you can make it to the next post with this problem? I am certain I can fix it, I just need to rest."

The cat’s ears flattened against his head as Xasha spoke about removing the curses, but he said nothing in reply to that.

“As far as nightfall is concerned, we are still in Darkon, where the night belongs to the dead. We do what we can to reduce the packs of restless dead in the area, but they remain a damnable nuisance. No souls for me, and my master says the flesh is just ruined by the necrotizing processes. Nothing to make there but zombie golems or maggot golems, and you can only have so many of those around, y’know? But there’s the rub: unlike my master, I get bored with people after they die. I prefer to play with them while they're still alive and kicking, so you can trust me to avoid you being dead, and me being bored, okay? ”

After a moment’s reflection on that, he suddenly recalled the first question, and sat back on his haunches to rub his tiny blue forepaws together.

“Ah yes, the price. Did you know, by tradition and contract, I must require you to do something truly wicked, BUT I won’t have a reluctant bargain, so we need to find true wickedness that you’re willing to do….“

He turned to Izon at this point as if making a conspiratorial aside, “That said, it’s funny what people will agree to. She would never agree to mutilating an innocent child to the brink of death, but in the near future, she’s going to do that regardless!”

Returning to Sinae, he stretched one forepaw out in front of him like a hand, claws extended as if examining his manicure.

“Let’s see...you need me many times over. Two curses on you, one on your friend there," he nodded in Kira's direction, "restoring your other friend from the ether, and then leading you to my master. That’s five services I can offer, five favors I’ll need in return. These are separate transactions, so you can reject some and agree to others, or make counter offers or whatever. For the first, I can see you’ve been to the Midnight Market. To lift the loadstone curse on you, I’ll need a promise not to return there for at least a month. Yes, that will serve the forces of darkness quite nicely. Is that agreeable to you?”

Sinae perks up when Xasha tells her Belbun is safe, and confirms that, by her estimation, moving forward is the smartest thing they can do right now. As they walk, she asks,

“How confident are you that you’ll be able to remove the curses? I’d much rather put my chips on you than this four-legged creep, but I don’t know if we have the magic or time to spare.”

Sinae leans back to listen to the Cat’s monologue, rolling her eyes at his theatricalities and glowering at his vague, prophetic threat, but once he finishes she replies curtly,

“I might be amenable, although that doesn’t confirm my agreement; I want to hear all your demands first before I agree to anything. To be honest, I didn’t get too much out of the Midnight Market the last time I went, and Conny got sold into slavery. Besides, I can’t imagine it ‘furthering the cause of evil’ very much, right?”

Sinae leans forward to address Xasha again, voice a conspiratorial whisper and hand blocking her lips from the cat’s gaze,

“What are you thinking? If you can take care of the curses and me and Kira, then the cat could only offer us two services. I’m willing to give up the gold if I have to, but I think it’d really stick it to this Puppetmaster if I managed to keep it!”

Xasha heaves a sigh that would normally be accompanied by an eye roll. "I can definitely get the curse off of one of you,provided you do not do anything else to compound it. Belbin, he will know how to get himself out of this little distraction. Lastly, I feel we can find our way to the Puppetmaster. There is already a deal on the table: we recover what he wants from the dread lord, he tells us about the claiming. If that is a bargain he wants of us, we will not have to make a diabolic bargain to find him. And lastly, that gold is of no consequence to the Puppetmaster. It is just for a trap. Not only living humans lust for gold. Keeping it is much more harm to you than detriment to him."

"Sinae, Kira, you can take this creatures deal if you want. With any luck we can get to cover before the daylight is gone."

Kira shook her head. "Cover, Xasha...you mean spend the night? Here? I don't…I mean, we've all done it, when you can't make the next town during a black market run of…wait, what am I talking about, that never happened! I didn't grow up here, I just remember…we don't know how safe it would really be! The fact that we remember living through it…we don't...we only know what people say, that it's really dangerous outside of towns at night."

"Oh, I can vouch for that," the cat said. "Packs of cannibal zombies, ghouls and ghasts and worse. At least let me guide you to the Puppetmaster's lair, he'd let you stay the night, and in the morning if you don't want to bargain with me about your curses, well then your friend here can just lift them the old-fashioned way."

His ears flattened against his head whenever he spoke about Xasha lifting curses.

"You must have everything up front, but I can hardly do that with so much left to be negotiated. Please understand, I'm trying to make these bargains you'll accept. You need your friend released from the ether, safe passage to the Puppetmaster, and an assortment of curses lifted. I want someone to slay a dozen corvus regin ravens, destroy a certain vampire in one of the nearby cities, deliver a small package to an acquaintance in the city of Karg, stay out of the Midnight Market for a month, and cut down a certain oak tree--really a quickwood--growing just south of Viaki. If you don't want all five of my services, well then just leave off whichever of my terms seems most odious, and mix and match the rest, or propose your alternatives. You'll have a year and a day to perform them all, and a coin will enforce each contract until that condition is met."

Kira glowered. "Cut down a tree, kill some ravens...stake a vampire? These are all ways to serve the forces of darkness?"

The cat spread his paws in a conciliatory gesture.

"I figure heroes such as yourselves might agree to help us in our war against other evils, wouldn’t you? Help one faction of the forces of darkness strike a blow at another such faction?"

Xasha chuckles. "It seems your greed has now brought you to the exact crux of choosing the lesser of two evils. Or perhaps as many as 5."

"Indeed," nods the cat. "Lesser evils, merely trifles. Of course, if all you want is passage to the Puppetmaster, any of those five should suffice, or you could propose your own alternatives. We're just discussing the possibility, as you pointed out. Nothing set yet."

Sinae listens to Xasha’s warnings, Kira’s worries, and the black cats shrewd platitudes as attentively as she can, and then falls silent to consider all of the disparate factors. For minutes, her face shifts from concern to puzzlement and finally exasperation as she weighs the rewards against the risks ad nauseam. Finally, she swivels in the Gnome backpack and fixes the cat with an accusatory look,

“Y’know, it feels like every time I make sone declaration about hating magic and not trusting it at all, fate conspires to make me rely on some sinister black magic not long after. This place is just one Nightmare after another- - and it brings out the worst in all of us. I couldn’t care less about pitting evil creatures at each other’s throats or the fragile politics of this hellscape, which probably explains the trouble I keep getting into...”

Heaving a sigh as one hand moves to play with a dangling pig tail, Sinae continues,

“But, as the saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers, right? I’m willing to make one deal right now- if you lead all of us to the Puppetmaster safely, then I’ll promise not to return to the Midnight Market for a month. I’m considering agreeing to two more- - Xasha can eliminate the curse on Kira, and I trust Belbun to take care of himself. However, I’ll make those if and when we’re safe, and not a moment before. What say you to that, Padfoot?”

Xasha's grimace is one of understanding and shared frustration. "I and the wolf will follow you, Sinae. I will aid you as soon as possible and help you through whichever agreement you are forced into. Let us see this macabre marionette maker."

His fur glinted in the afternoon light, further revealing the strange midnight blue tinge that marked him as an unnatural creature, and not just an ominously black cat.

“Yes, we often find ourselves in the same situations, don’t we? I could curse you to not be greedy, if you think that would help. It might be interesting to see what other ways you would find to complicate your life.”

He said the last part with such earnestness, it’s possible he's oblivious to the insult. Kira chuckled in spite of herself.

“Padfoot, padfoot, I like the sound of that, but we can’t have a contract with nicknames. My name’s Pishtim, and you’re Sinae. Those are far more suitable names for a contract. Now if your porter will forgive me, I need to get close enough to breathe on you.”

Pishtim hopped up onto Kira’s shoulder and looked Sinae in the eyes, his tiny white fangs flashing.

“In exchange for you staying out of the Midnight Market for one month, I agree to lead you directly to the Puppetmaster, for the purposes of living through the night. One of these coins stuck to you will ensure our bargain. It will remain fastened to your person on a location you choose, to drop off harmlessly after the month is over.”

With that, he breathed gently at Sinae, and his inexplicably cloudy breath settled over her like a sudden chill. His eyes glittered.

“Choose a coin, and let’s go meet the Puppetmaster. I can’t completely guarantee your safety, but he shouldn’t be angry once I explain to him how helpless and pathetic you all are. He understands I need my toys.”

Sinae chuckles at the cat’s wry sense of humor, and stifles a giggle once she hears its name. She selects one of the coins at random, tugging it free to hold out to the cat. She mutters her reply while sticking the coin on her back, on the bone at the base of her neck, arms akimbo,

“Pishtim, really? More like ‘pish tosh’, if I were to hazard a guess. And I accept your terms, Pishtim, so let’s go already. This coin is our magic bargain chip, and I’ll stick it... right... here...”

As Sinae placed the coin in position, it sprouted tiny legs and dug painlessly but firmly into her skin.

“Yes, the others will come off when the curse is lifted, but that one will last the month. Unless of course, you break your word and enter the Market while wearing it, in which case the little bugger will burrow straight to your heart in under three seconds, leaving you dead and me deeply, deeply disappointed.”

Pishtim stayed perched on Kira’s shoulder next to Sinae most of the trip, ostensibly to get a better view of the path, though he used Kira’s head as a stepstool a little more than it seemed necessary. As they traveled, he advised them on how to behave when they met the Puppetmaster.

“Remember, those traps were supposed to weed out his enemies. Admit you were thoroughly defeated by his cleverness, throw yourself at his mercy, but don’t be melodramatic, he hates being upstaged. Just think of it as, by all rights, you ought to be dead, and it’s only by my beneficence that you continue to draw breath. Stick to that, you’ll be fun...I mean fine, fine.”

After an agonizing few miles with Kira limping along, they crested a hill to where the river curved back upon itself, plunging forty feet into a pool. As they drew closer, they could see there was a woman bathing in the pool, posed parting the water with one hand while the other covered her breasts. She started when she saw them coming, and flopped into the water to swim for a closer look.

“Pishtim, what are you doing?!”
She edged as close to land as she dared, until it became apparent why she could go no further: she was a fish from the waist down.

The dark blue cat trembled with delight. “Hello Oryzka. I’ve brought guests!”

“I wasn’t...warned...by the hags. I’m supposed to sing to lead them here!”

“Change of plans. This one fell for my curses--all of them at once!” he patted Sinae on the cheek as if batting a mouse.

The mermaid stared at the halfling woman, then the others, then back at the cat. “Doesn’t that make her...greedy?!”

The cat’s ears flattened against the side of his head. “That makes her mine,” he hissed. “That’s all you need to worry about!”

“Well, are you just going to go blundering in there?! He won’t like that. He wants to, you know, set the scene...make an entrance.”

“Ah, good point. Why don’t you go let him know? Oh, right.”

She glared daggers at him. “Fine, leave them here with me, and go tell him of your ‘change of plans.’ See if he doesn’t skin you for your meddling.”

Pishtim stuck his tongue out at her. “You know he won’t. I can’t help it that I’m his favorite.”
Hopping down from his perch atop Kira, he turned to the party before dashing off.

“Sit. Stay. She has to...do a thing...to make sure you’re safe to come in. Just let her do it, or she’ll whine, and he’ll get mad, and you’ll be dead and I’ll be bored.”

The mermaid’s auguring stare followed him as he dashed into the thicket ahead, and then she turned to regard the party.

“Well, let’s hear what the cat dragged in. Wait, let’s do this rightI don’t get to break protocol like some folks around here.”

She flopped back into the depths of the pool and swam back up to the rock, not bothering at all about modesty until she resumed her pose.

“Brave travelers!” she intoned melodramatically. “I am the Lady of the Lake. My song has led you here, and I can lead you further. Each of you, tell me your names, what you seek, and why you seek it.”

Sinae squeaks in surprise when the coin anchors itself into place, and she pokes and prods at it until Pishtim mentions its ability to kill her. She stays pretty quiet as the cat leads them through the woods. She rolls her eyes at Pishtim’s little jabs, but does heed his warnings and advice. Sinae also feels guilty about working Kira so hard, and the halfling whispers that she owes the barbarian a favor or two when they get back.

Once they reach the pool and the woman posing within, Sinae flashes Kira and Xasha an exhilarated smile, hoping for approval or confirmation of her decision from one or the other. She listens to Pishtim bicker with Oryzka the mermaid, chuckling at the cats precocious manner and demeanor. Sinae waves to the mermaid once she acknowledges them, and once she’s done reciting her lines, the halfling replies with a jovial lilt,

“Well, good evening to you, Lady of the Lake! We are but three weary travelers, hoping to beg for your diabolical master’s wisdom. My name is Sinae Heartspark, and I seek a way home for me and my closest friends. This whole plane, top to bottom and corner to corner, is a dismal and grotesque affront compared to the place I came from, and I am eager to put all this doom and gloom behind me.”

Sinae motions for Kira and Xasha to reply in kind, adding in a whisper:

“Play along. These monsters are no joke- Hags and Mermaids and magic cats? We just need to get to the Puppetmaster, and then we can conclude our business and get the hell out of here.”

Xasha listens to the interchange between the two creatures. The manners of the servants speaks volumes of the person we are looking to meet. The nature of them says even more. She passes her attention over her companions. "Kira, are you alright, that was an uncomfortable walk to say the least?"
She listens to the voices and arguments in her head for a moment, then listens to the wolf. More than a moment after Sinae finishes "My name is Xasha Fenn, I come on this journey to serve my Goddess. One of the prophesies from Alex Trusk invites me into this maelstrom to find a way to stop the wicked lands of Darkon from claiming the memories of the people, and perhaps to stop the mists from even taking them. And I come here to seek a bargain with the Puppetmaster, for rumor has it he knows who is behind these dark forces."

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Sensing the need for formality, Kira mustered the effort to shrug. “I’m Kira, I’m here for the Puppetmaster’s advice, because we think he tells the truth about the Claiming.”

The mermaid nodded sagely, and turned to Sinae.

“You seek a way home for you and your two friends...but...only one of those friends you speak of is present.”

She turned to Xasha.

“You only just met these two, but you trust them because others vouched for them. You are more closely connected with another, who was lost from your party.”

She looked as if she might say more, but only bit her lip and clutched at her long hair, brushing it with her fingers as she looked to each of them for a reply.


15: She seems perfectly lifelike, but there's tiny puckered stitches connecting her torso to her fish half--she's no natural mermaid, but another example of the Puppetmaster's creative taxidermy.

20: her right hand has a reddish-purple scar across the palm. You've seen such a scar before, on the hand of Marcu Vasilis. The Vistani mentioned it was a token of their esteem.

25: Her Balok name, and her theatrical use of her powers, also remind you of Marcu, especially when he was with the Vistani. It was common in his family to travel among the Vistani, and those who did were sometimes called "Dreamspoken."

You'd bet your eyeteeth that's what she is--or was when she was alive. One of Marcu's Dreamspoken relatives, now reanimated to use her psionic powers to interview people coming to see the Puppetmaster.

Sinae will motion for Kira and Xasha to lean in, and she warns them that the ersatz mermaid is most likely a psionicist of some kind, and to be wary of mental manipulation. Her bright and earnest smile returns easily, and she pantomimes doffing a cap to Oryzka.

Xasha makes no move to lean inward to Sinae, for she saw no signal. It is well more than likely she heard the warning all the same.
"We have been separated from another member of our group. He is someone I trust as based on his knowledge and aptitude. I sensed where he went. As to the why, I have no clue. I had not bothered to dwell on it. What do you really want to know about our venture?"

The "Lady of the Lake" puckered for a moment. She had already broken character with Pishtim. Did she really need to beat around the bush? Finally she sighed and crossed her arms over her bare breasts.

"Your companion's kleptomania has already led to a serious breach in protocol. I'm merely curious as to whether your lost associate will be making a surprise appearance later, having used you to bypass the rest of our security measures."

Xasha was genuinely surprised by this concern. "Oh, I don't know. I am sure he will get himself out of where he is, but I have no idea where or when he will re-appear. However, it was Pishtim that pup Belbun there, so however Belbun might come back, it is no fault of mine."
For my own curiosity, what language are we conversing in and can I tell anything by her voice? Fumbled words, pure native speaker, slight lisp? I am sure I can smell the water, algea and decomposition on her, I was wondering if I would detect where she might be from. Then it also occurred to me that as a constructed creature, the "mind" of her might not be native to that body, so the implications of the scar may not even apply to her. Not discounting it, just the way my thinking rolled out.

@Baraku / Xasha Fenn (Giroro) You are conversing in Darkonese--she has a thick Balok accent. There's a subtly odd pattern to her breath; based on how she uses her diaphragm, you suspect the fish body takes up most of the space where her internal organs ought to be. You can't smell any recent decomposition from her, but she's also lacking the briny smell of a living fish: she's not alive, but she's by far the most lifelike creation you've encountered yet.

Oryzka flipped her tail absently and pulled a face. "Oh, Pishtim put him there? I doubt that. He might be able to get your friend back, but he takes credit for all sorts of things he doesn't do, especially bad luck. He's a midnight cat, after all. He may have rescued you, but only because he prefers you to have a long slow agonizing death over a quick one. He still hasn't forgiven me for being in such a hurry to die as I was. Says I cheated him of his sport."

She looked over the group again.

"Well, you aren't lying, and you don't have any major magical auras, so there's no problem skipping the third scene. Skipping the fourth, though, that's a problem. The Puppetmaster is at his friendliest when he's in complete control, and you all aren't quite as tractable as he would like, despite the curses. Pishtim says you fell for all his curses, but you can only have one of them at a time."

Kira held up a weary hand, imploring Oryzka to hold up.

"Only one...at a time? But Sinae has the loadstones and the sticky coins."

Oryzka shook her head. "You swapped them back and forth for a bit, with her picking them up again after you started carrying her, but now you have the loadstones, and she just has the coins. I'd advise you to swap that out with a few practice swings with the cursed sword. Then you'd be forced to tell the truth…much more trustworthy to the Puppetmaster."
Kira unleashed a string of curses to blister the air.

"Are you...telling me…that I've endured those blasted stones for the past seven miles when I could have just traded them for a little honesty!?"

The mermaid nodded. "Or the bracer," she added offhandedly. "It attracts arrows. That would have been inconvenient, having to endure that long trek as a magnet for all those arrows that no one was shooting."

Kira practically ripped open Sinae's pack and pulled out the sword, waving it around to punctuate her anger. "I'm going to skin that cat for stew and boot lining!!"

The mermaid's eyes danced with glee, but she shook her head. "Nothing would please me more, but midnight cats literally breathe curses. I'm not sure they can lay curses that are completely unjustified, but he manages to be offended at the mildest inconveniences. The worst I did was deprive him of a little entertainment, but attacking him would certainly earn you worse than anything I ever got. Not to mention the Puppetmaster would be put out to lose his familiar."

Kira sighed and leaned against a tree, panting with rage as she sank down eye level with her halfling friend.

"Sinae, I'm sorry I got mad at you for being greedy. You can be the greedy one, as long as I get to be the angry one. There, we each get one vice that we always have to bail each other out of, right? You said you owed me, well I'm about to collect as soon as I see that thrice damned cat again."

"Someone mention me?" Pishtim poked his head over the hill where he had gone to explain things to his master. "We're all ready, just over this rise and up the next."

Sinae listens to the back and forth with minimal interest, watching and waiting for Pishtim to return. Once Oryzka explains how the curses work and their limitations, the halfling can’t help but chuckle darkly as she digs the bracer out of her pack and places it around her wrist. She opens her mouth to ask the ‘mermaid’ a question, but Kira’s lamentations and declaration of violence cut her off.

Sinae begins to console Kira, urging her too keep it together for now so then they can done with these cursed woods forever, but the look in Kira’s eyes when Pishtim’s voice reappears tells her everything she needs to know. She throws her arms around her weapon arm and snarls desperately,

“Kira, listen to me! Think about everything you’ve suffered, all the ridiculous crap this place has put us through just to try to get a straight answer? Are you telling me want to do it again twice over just so you can Skin a Cat? Do you really think it’s going to make a difference?”

Scrambling to place herself between Kira and the midnight cat, Sinae adds in a voice dripping with bitterness,

“But if you wont see reason, you stupid lummox, then I’ll take you at your word. Only blood pays for blood, right? C’mon, take your rage out of my Hide instead! You can spill as much blood as you like, but you won’t harm a hair on that cat’s head! Hells, kill me and be done with it, if you have to, but don’t ruin this chance for everyone just because you can’t think that far ahead!!”

Gleefully musing at the idea of the Puppetmaster taking the recoil of loosing such a powerful familiar. Might even weaken him to the point of vulnerability.
"Oh, that is all, we are back onto the trek? And here I thought we would be offered tea. Izon, take me, friends."
Xasha turns to the direction of the mermaid creation. Xasha switches to Balok "And good day to you, Civeche. Perhaps when next we meet you will offer me a drink and a dance." And let's Izon move her over to the other two ladies.

"Well well, someone’s looking violent! Let me guess: I was so cute that you forgot I was evil, and Oryzka reminded you?"

The sword leaped into Kira's hand, and compelled by its magic, her mouth spewed a tirade of forced honesty.

"I'm going to kill you, because you let me walk all those miles with those stupid rocks and you standing...on...my...head!"

The cat scampered to one side, backing away from her with ears cocked forward as Sinae tried unsuccessful to talk Kira out of killing him.

"I’ve been nothing if not consistent about my nature, from the first words I spoke," he reminded them. "If Oryzka told you the truth, it was only because that hurt you more than lying to you. I never tell lies. It’s too much work to remember them."

Kira bit the edge of the cursed sword, trying to summon her barbarian rage, but she was too exhausted. She tried unsuccessfully to shake Sinae off her arm.

"Violence is the only way I fix things!" she wailed, then clapped her free hand over her mouth.

"Ah, of course." While Sinae offered herself as a target, Pishtim backed away slowly, then darted to the side again to put more distance between them. "But can you command that sword while it seeks to command you? Tell me truly, who or what do you love most of all?"

Mustering her resolve, Kira clamped her mouth shut. Arching an eyebrow at the barbarian's willpower, Pishtim spoke again.

"Oryzka, what’s her weakness?"

Transfixed by the scene, the mermaid creature suddenly recoiled as if slapped, and her eyes popped wide. Pishtim's eyes continued to bore into Kira while he waited.

"Oryzka, I asked politely. Don’t make me say please."

As the sword had forced honesty from Kira, words came from Oryzka as if dragged by a harpoon.

“There’s...a holy man...back in Maykle. She’s in love with him.”

"Excellent." He turned to Kira. "Well Kira, what's his name? What deity does he serve? What are his weaknesses?"

Kira kept her mouth clamped shut, but the effort distracted her.

"Nevermind. I appreciate your suffering and limitations. It's exquisite. Those throbbing veins, the bulging eyes, and was that just a hint of white foam at the edge of your mouth? That face of pure, unadulterated rage was so perfect, so precious, you really ought to share it with your beloved the next time you see him."

Kira faltered and stood trembling, her sword raised over her head.

"Think about it. A curse on a person can't be traded away as easily as a curse on an object. If you take another swing, the next time you see him you'll chop him to pieces in a rage, and then plant a big loving kiss on whatever's left. It'll be glorious."

He sauntered up and planted himself directly in the path of her swing, tail wrapped neatly around his legs.

"I'll even hold still for it. You might kill me…but I’ll die laughing."
Kira's trembling became frenetic, almost like a seizure, and she choked out, "You're a monster. You deserve to die more than anything I've ever met!"

"So true, and so sweet of you to notice! On the other hand, you could lower the sword and avoid that horrible curse right now! Such a bargain, you don't even need to kill any corvus regins or chop down a quickwood or delivery the teensy weensiest little parcel. And now that you know how the cursed loot works, you have one less curse to lift! Hey, that sounds like you're getting the better of me." He clutched his heart with one paw in mock horror.

With a final cry of anguish, Kira lost her grip on her rage, and then the sword itself slipped from her nerveless fingers as she sank to the ground in a heap of physical and emotional exhaustion. Pishtim nuzzled the sobbing heap, then clambered up her back to strike a pose as if conquering a mountain.

"Congratulations, you beat the bad guy! Because of you, there's one fewer curse in the world, one fewer service owed to the forces of darkness, and your beloved is safe to continue his holy mission. Savor your win, for this is what it means to do the right thing, and be a hero!"

He gave a good stretch, slunk down from her back languidly, and turned to the rest as if seeing them for the first time.

“So, it’s about time I finalized my part of the bargain. If everyone’s ready?”

Sinae continues to try to deter Kira from her warpath while Pishtim taunts her, but once she switches to covering her mouth the halfling pauses and waits. She watches in silent horror as the callous Pishtim toyed with and broke Kira down, biting her lip when Ozyrka mentions Thio to keep from gasping. She waits with bated breath as Pishtim calls Kira’s bluff, and heaves a sigh of relief when Kira drops the sword. Sinae waits for Pishtim to slink off before rushing to Kira, throwing her arms around her prone form and cradling her head against her small shoulder. Blinking through tears, Sinae whispers in Kira’s ear,

“Oh, Kira, I’m so proud of you. I know it feels just awful and everything’s all wrong, but you made the right choice. Don’t worry, we’ll make him pay someday; we’ll get even, I promise. But for now, the best thing we can do is get information, get these curses removed, and get back to our friends. In the meantime, you take it easy and stick with me. I’ll carry you this time, how about that?”

Sinae will flash a crooked smile, and (attempt to) help Kira to her feet. Once she’s able, she’ll lead the barbarian over the hill after Pishtim by the hand.


After hearing the interchange between the Cat From Hell and the Lady of Rage, Xasha has the audacity to feel a little twinge of sorrow for her own self. "What the bloody hell did you get me into? I was perfectly happy being mad in the streets last week, now I am here? She taps her staff on the ground and follows her wolf behind the barbarian and halfling. "He may be a sadistic little friken, but most of this still has to do with us, or you, specifically. If breathing curses is the natural form of this creature, we can hold him accountable for only so much of his schadenfreude."

Pishtim led them through the trees, up a hill and into a clearing where a circle of colored wagons waited in the setting sun. On either side of the clearing, a few uprooted trees stood in mute testimony to the fact that the area had recently been cleared for the wagons to fit. The Puppetmaster must have to change locations regularly...and had no problems ripping up trees by the roots to do it.

As they got closer, they could see a faded banner stretched between two wagons proclaiming this to be “The Puppet Show,” and the wagons were old and faded, too. What first appeared to be a pastel color scheme with pink and cyan and beige was actually the sun-bleached version of gaudy primary colors like you’d find in a children’s nursery.

Once inside the ring of wagons, they could see an elevated platform in the center, covered in sawdust. With a sudden cloud of sulfurous smoke, a giant man in derby and candy striped vest appeared in the center of the platform, towering on tree trunk legs well over twenty feet tall, backed by the blazing sunset and flanked by flaming braziers that had not been there moments before.

The giant's voice rang out: “Come one, come all, to the great and secret show, here in the land of ballyhoo and blarney! We've got drama and daring, shocks and scares, thrills and chills and all the frills."

Clouds of thick smoke billowed out of the braziers, and a menagerie of figures emerged one at a time as the giant barker announced the Illuminated Woman, the Impossible Imp, the exotic Ronin Thunder and Pharoah Rottentop. A woman juggling flaming knives, a man with legs made of ladders, a bat-winged vampiress and many more proceeded past to wave at the party before vanishing back into the smoke.

"But wait! I sense that someone here wants more than just plaster and paste. Someone knows the greatest show on earth…is the one going on out there in Darkon. You aren’t here for a show. You’re here because you know a show is already afoot….”

The barker froze midway into reaching into his derby hat, and a door opened on a wagon nearby, revealing a young man in his mid-twenties with sallow skin and thick wavy black hair. The end of the giant’s sentence emanated from him in the same ringing voice.

“...and you want a look behind the curtain.”

The clouds of smoke disappeared, and the giant likewise, as the young man hopped over the wrought iron stair rail and nailed Pishtim to the ground with a glance. When he spoke again, he no longer boomed like the giant, but still emanated authority.

"Let me guess," he said acidly. "They followed you home, and you want to keep them."

The cat said nothing, but flopped on the ground and rolled playfully, pawing the air in a crescent of midnight blue fur.

The man--barely more than a boy--was far too young to be the Puppetmaster...except...he radiated far too much power, spoke to Pishtim with too much authority to be anyone else. As he drew closer, the temperature dropped, a dim red glow emanated from his eyes that couldn’t be a reflection from the sunset or the braziers, and a faint scent of magically embalmed flesh like Oryzka, stirred in the breeze.

He wasn’t a young man. He had only died young, decades ago.

“It’s getting late," he said, "so I’ll skip the squeeze. You're free to stay the night, no obligation, and I'll arrange an escort in the morning to get you to Karg. My servants say you called me their ‘diabolical master'--" the corners of his mouth played at a smile at this, "and I suppose I am. I care nothing for the laws of men or nature; laws only matter when enforced, so I concern myself with power, and I have enough to do as I please. At the moment, it pleases me to entertain visitors who come to me...on my terms. It’s my hope that those who pass my tests might share the same enemies, and we might trade favors. When you're ready, let's hear what you have to trade, and if no arrangement can be made you'll still have the escort to Karg in the morning with no further harm done."

Sinae regards the wagon train and fallen trees with a nervous suspicion, expecting stitched corpses or sinister curses to pop out from each one. When the Giant appears in a puff of smoke, she makes a show of scrambling for cover behind Kira, peering out from behind the barbarian. She watches the parade of ‘exhibits’ with a growing smile, amused and delighted by the theatrical drama of the Puppetmaster even as her fear and disgust fester within. Sinae gasps in surprise when the Giant disappears and the young man emerges, but she steels her nerve once she notices Pishtim’s deference to the man. The halfling pays close attention to the Puppetmaster’s words, dropping into a low curtsy before exclaiming,

“Your hospitality is graciously accepted, and may I just add that’s it’s such a pleasure having a host who really knows how to put on a show! We... we found the journey here far more perilous than we first thought, and I could do with a little levity and... culture, after the struggles we went through. We entered your woods because we wished to beg of your considerable wisdom, and hopefully reach a- - a mutually beneficial exchange regarding that matter. I’ll confer with my friends, and we’ll be ready to trade shortly.”

Sinae flashes a confident smile to Kira and Xasha, only the quivering of her pupils letting on how on edge she really is.

Xasha bows, using her staff for support rather than a grand sweeping motion that would risk smacking someone. "Sir, we are glad for your hospitality."

The Puppetmaster gave a deferential nod at Sinae's talk about levity and culture, and his glowing red eyes flashed.

"The harrowing trip here was a matter of necessity, but you're safe now. Take your time to regroup. Oh, but you skipped some scenes that would have ensured honesty, so I'd like a word with whoever is holding the sword, so we can get the last of that unpleasantness out of the way before we discuss trade."

Kira huffed. "I hate your cat and want to kill him. Oryzka's nice. You look way too young. Everything Sinae said is true. That enough honesty for you?"

The Puppetmaster raised a thin black eyebrow. "And you come here with no support or alliances from anyone who would wish me harm?"

Kira thought for a moment. "No, I don't think so. We know lots of people who would want you destroyed just because you're evil, but none of them asked us to come."

The barbarian woman's eyes went wide as she heard what came out of her mouth, and she gave a panicked look to Sinae, but the Puppetmaster waved a hand.

"That's fine." He shrugged. "I don't have any food or drink to offer, but that wagon there--" he pointed at a pink and green monstrosity on the end of the curve, "is available as your lodging for the night. Let me know if you need anything else."