The "Best" RPG Ever-112

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Before long, Mira pulled into view of the source of the distress signal. There were four people and no monsters present, which was immediately a bit worrying. She dove as steeply as seemed safe to get a clearer view and hopefully figure out what was going on.

A Vulpin woman in light armor was the only one of the four the witch was absolutely sure she didn't recognize. She was holding her arms out, seemingly generating a translucent green dome of magic stuff in front of her—a shield, in fact, which was busy absorbing a volley of bolts from a crossbow in the hands of a purple-feathered avian woman wearing a lighter version of the town guard's uniform. The other two people were Rast and his partner, Pirr, and he seemed to be on the defensive, backing away from her strikes while evidently restraining a trained reflex to counter them.

As they pulled up between the two pairs, Rast happened to catch sight of the broom. "Mira!" This got the attention of the Vulpin woman, who turned her head to see them and seemed immediately distressed by the witch—enough so to distract her from keeping the shield up. Nora raised one hand as she jumped in that direction off of the broom, raising some rock in the way of the avian's next few bolts.

"Oof—gods it's good to see you," Rast said. "Little help?" Mira moved in, blocking one of Pirr's strikes with her scythe, hooking the blade around her spear's shaft and yanking it to one side to send her stumbling off balance. Both she and the avian seemed extremely slow to acknowledge their presence at all.

"Why are you fighting?"

"Wish I knew! Kayriel 'ere saw somethin', went all silent and landed, then just stared around at everyone for a minute. Then she an' Pirr started rambling and shoutin' and then attacked."

Nora came closer, using the bracelet in her left hand to shock the avian—Kayriel—with enough electricity to stun her momentarily but hopefully not injure. "Are you hurt?" she asked the stranger.

"..No." The Vulpin was looking right past her at Mira. "Does Kyzerath employ witches and warlocks now?"

"Nope, just me!" Mira replied cheerfully. "D'you know what's going on here?" Once she had her balance, Pirr seemed to have paused her attack to stare at the witch.

"I don't, although it's...familiar," she half-mumbled the last word. "Their eyes are..wrong."
"Eyes?"

Mira glanced more closely at Rast's partner. There was indeed something unusual with her eyes. At first it was—sort of like TV static, or the visual effect that appeared in Aria's dreamspace before it got filled with other people's dreams. But it was more than that; there seemed to be something too deep inside for it to possibly fit inside her skull. It was a nauseatingly rapidly warping and twisting of colors that ultimately resulted in the TV snow-like appearance on the surface. "..Yep, thaat's pretty weird."

"EMPTY!" Pirr suddenly screeched, advancing on the witch spearheard-first. While she wasn't strictly expecting this, Mira still had enough time to move aside, grab the spear in both hands and several shadow-tentacles and yank it out of Pirr's hand. This didn't deter the guard, as she went for the witch's throat with her hands and had to be shoved away hard, onto her back, by her scythe's handle.

Kayriel had also recovered by now and advanced exclusively on the weaver, spewing a series of words too rapidly to fully parse. Some highlights included 'abomination incapable of receiving the gift' and 'purge from this world'. Nora just backed away, drawing more electricity and using it to knock the avian down again.

"How did just seeing something drive 'em mad?" Rast said.

The stranger was mumbling, "..seen it before, but.."

Pirr was getting back to her feet again, looking enraged and ranting about the same way Kayriel was. "Yeah okay, I know what we'll do," Mira said.

The witch planted the base of her scythe on the ground and rapidly chanted, focusing demonic energy through it. Then, as the elf started to come toward her again, she stuck out her hand toward her and a stream of shadowy black magic hit her, enveloping her body briefly before seeming to be absorbed, with the result that she collapsed onto the ground, eyes closed. She immediately began chanting the same spell again, tracking Kayriel's position as she shot some bolts Nora's way and had them blocked by more raised dirt, and sent a cloud of black magic into her to put her lights out, too.

"...Phew."

The Vulpin woman took a moment to look between the two unconscious guards, then to Mira. "Not that I don't appreciate the rescue, but—what was that, exactly?"
"Basic sleeping curse I just whipped up," the witch said, putting her weapon away, "I made it a bit stronger by giving it a keyword that'll wake them up right away if they hear it, but an average mage should still be able to dispel it. Oh, no need to worry about saying that word accidentally though—it's like over ten syllables long. And, possibly made up. Soo, who're you, now?"

"Uh, this's Hyacinth, a guard from one of our neighborin' towns," Rast said. "We were just escortin' her back. S'pposed to be an easy job, just take a safe route with me an' Pirr, and Kayriel to scout."

"I'm beginning to think whatever threat we are facing has a grudge against me personally," Hyacinth said. "So..you are a witch, then?"
"Never said I wasn't! Name's Mira, and this is Nora." She turned toward the sound of running. "Oh! Aaand that'll be the rest of our party, Aria and Lupa," she swept her arm out toward them.

---

After lunch, the caravan reassembled, the soldiers rotating out duties: Those who had driven the horses before now flanked the caravan with the prince and the adventurers, while others who'd been on their feet took over that task. Rayna stayed near the front of the group, and Zack remained on the opposite side from the prince.

An hour or so down the road, they came to a fork and paused. Peregrine came up next to the illusionist. "What do you 'see'?" he said.

"Hmmn. This way will take a bit longer, but there's a lower chance we'll get attacked on it," she said, pointing. "Buut..." She mentally communicated the time and probabilities through Katherine to some of the others, especially Lynn.

"Is the difference in the risk worth it?" the prince said, while the archer got back to Rayna with an answer to this very question.

The fox-girl crossed her arms, easily making it look like she was thinking about it for a moment herself. "The difference in probability isn't very big, and the time difference is a couple of hours. So, I don't think so. Also, they're both over fifty percent—I don't think we're getting through without dealing with something else either way."

He nodded. "On your advice, then, I propose we take the shorter road." Then he turned toward the rest of the caravan. "—Unless there are any objections to that?"
"Sooner we get to safety the better, sire," one of the soldiers spoke up.

Katherine nodded. "Our group agrees, too."

As they started off again, Lynn asked: You can't see exactly what will attack us, can you? I mean, a hundred percent chance of more weak goblins is way better than a fifty percent chance of another fire giant or something...

Sadly, I don't get that much detail. To put it in DND terms, though, the 'challenge rating' looks about the same either way.

There better not be a fire giant on our route, Clera said, in a rare interjection. We very much lack the tools to deal with one.

---

"Aww, we missed the whole fight? Waait.." The shifter looked around.

"No monsters to begin with," Mira said, coming closer. "Something made these two instantly crazy." She gestured toward Pirr and Kayriel.
"Oof, a high-level confusion spell or something?"

"Worse, it's infectious, maybe transferred by sight. But some people are immune, or at least resisted it, I guess?"

Hyacinth did not look reassured by this conversation. "Do you..deal with things of this nature often?"
"Oh, nah, we just..you know..." Aria predictably struggled to come up with a good excuse.
"Sometimes we'll think up theoretical types of spells or effects we might need to deal with," Mira said, "and make plans for, just in case. I mean, mental magic is rare but not unheard of, right?"

"...I, suppose so." She looked to the man Lupa was carrying. "Who's..?"

"Hi, this one's Lupa!" the wolf-girl answered helpfully.

"We don't actually know who that guy is," Aria said. "He's still unconscious from the spider venom."
"Spider—dire spiders?"

"I presume so," the witch replied. "We went into the forest looking for monstrous lizards, but the spiders already ate them all, so we killed those instead."

"With four people? How?"
"Well, we had the element of surprise, and Nora can throw fire around," Mira said; the weaver just sheepishly looked away.
"Yeah, and Lupa here could win a weight-lifting championship with her pinkie finger!" Aria said.

".....Including the queen."
"If that's the big one, sure! Aria killed it." The shifter waved cheerfully, giving the kind of innocent grin that can still be terrifying under the right circumstances.

Hyacinth stared at this for a second, and looked back and forth between the group again before continuing: "Did you get rid of the eggs?"
"We uh, didn't see any eggs," Aria admitted.

"They lay 'em in their prey, and hang 'em up on webs," Rast said.

"We...have no experience or knowledge fighting, sp-spiders," Nora spoke up. "So, we were..unaware of this detail."
"That sounds like a job for more than four people anyway," Mira said.
"Yep," the wolf-man agreed. "Guard oughta be able to take care of it if all the adults're dead."
"Soo anyway, do you still want an escort the rest of the way to your town?" the witch said. "I could prolly just fly you there on my broom or something..."

Hyacinth exhaled audibly, not seeming thrilled with this idea. "No, I believe it would be best to report this to Captain Ezra first, and send a message to my town explaining the change of situation. Depending on the strength of your...curse, and the nature of whatever magic is affecting them, they should be seen to as quickly as possible."
"Fair enough," the witch said. "Well, I can get one of these guys..I guess Pirr? Rast, can you take Kay for a while?" She figured that avians, having hollow bones, might be lighter to carry.
"Sure," he said.

---

If there was one bad thing about being instantly teleported to the caravan's position, it was that it gave the group of adventurers no opportunity to scout possible routes for the caravan to take to town on the way out to it. The direction they were approaching from was nowhere near the way any of them remembered using, with most of them having foregone wider, more vulnerable roads which carts like these could use in favor of smaller, shorter paths that were easier to find hiding places on, or else rough but open terrain that made it easy to spot trouble from far off. In short, none of them could've known that the shorter route Rayna suggested would cut through some fairly thick, low-visibility woods.

By the time the trees began to close around them, it had been long enough since the fork for turning around to feel absolutely foolish—besides which, the other route could be just as bad or worse. So instead, everyone tightened their formations and continued forward with as much haste as their caution would allow. Anyway, there was still enough light from the gap the wide path made between the trees for even the humans to see reasonably well.

Zack stopped, putting out a hand to signal a halt. Something's coming. Up in the trees, both sides of us. The psion passed this message to everyone, hearing the movement herself now that the noise of the caravan had stopped.

Just feels like 'animal' minds—some kind of beast-type monsters, I guess.

Senses? Rayna asked while everyone drew weapons and pulled back to the sides of the carts, facing outward.
...Sight, sound, smell...heat? Like how a snake 'feels' for things.

No experience fooling that one, I'm afraid. I'll try to put everyone off to one side a bit to at least try to throw off their aim.

The sound Zack had first picked up over the trees cut out just to either side of the caravan, and then there were a few seconds of complete, tense silence. After that, something bright green and taller than a man pounced downward in a blur toward the knight. He struck Enceladus up-forward and succeeded in impaling it through the glowing blade: a gigantic lizard with a narrow, almost snakelike head, big claws on its four feet, hind legs long enough to use for both bipedal and quadrupedal movement, and a pattern of green and brown to its scales that had made it impossible to pick out from the trees above.
At the same time, more such lizards came out on both sides, one of them narrowly missing its effort to bite through the prince's shoulder before quickly skittering back into the trees, easily avoiding his effort at a counter-swing. The one that came for Katherine was not so lucky, a telekinetically-thrown knife landing in its back and shocking it, stunning it enough for another to swoop around its head and catch it across the throat. Lynn also made a successful dodge, though the arrows she sent after her attacker missed.

One of the giant scaly monsters, however, did make its mark, biting down on the right arm of one of the soldiers—Karl, who had been standing right next to Clera. It stayed on him for a couple of seconds, long enough for the winged girl to cast a spell which wreathed it in flame when it tried to run away, hurting it badly enough for it to fall down dead halfway to the trees. Karl also collapsed, crying out, and the Empath was kneeling over him almost before he hit the ground.

Any idea of their numbers? Peregrine asked, trying his best to distinguish between the remaining lizards and the wind going through the treetops.

Four now, the psion reported. One didn't attack. Zack pointed his blade to the ground and kicked the lizard off of it, going over next to the Empath and raising his shield to protect her and her patient.

"GaaAAah..!" Karl writhed violently. Clera made a silent request for a knife, and raised her hand to take one Katherine sent over the caravan to her in response. She cut across the wound from the lizard's bite, trying to bleed out as much of the poison as possible, and then dropped the blade, keeping a firm grip with the other hand on his arm despite the rest of her shaking.

Fast-acting neurotoxin. I can pull off the effect to keep it from killing him, but I can't process the poison for him.

You should maybe get inside for this one, Katherine advised, coming next to the prince and raising several daggers out in front of them to deter an attack. He hesitated briefly, but complied—not necessarily knowing what a 'neurotoxin' was but understanding the danger of a fast-acting poison all the same. The rest of the soldiers—who her message had been equally directed toward—each turned and clambered into the nearest cart, not wanting to share Karl's fate.

Lynn used visual information from Rayna—showing the actual location of the monsters—to track one and shoot it with an electrified arrow when it tensed to pounce. The electricity arced across to another, dropping both of them to the ground and giving her and the catgirl easy targets to finish off. Zack met another pounce with his shield, bashing the lizard's face to stun it and slashing into its side before it could recover enough to attempt to flee.

That leaves the one that hasn't attacked, I guess? Lynn thought, looking around. Where is it?

Other side of us, the catgirl replied. And running away, but it doesn't read as 'scared'. Not a good sign.

---

Around half of the distance back to town, the three unconscious people were set down and everyone took a brief break. "You holding up okay?" Mira asked Rast, who seemed to be panting fairly hard.
"Oughta...ffh..make it fine, once I catch my breath."
"..I can carry her the rest of the way," Hyacinth said. "So long as she doesn't wake and start trying to kill me again."

"If she does, it'll be way tougher without this~," Aria said, waving Kayriel's crossbow before stowing it back in her inventory.

"Do you...need a break?" Nora asked the witch.
"Hmmn, I'd appreciate it, if you don't mind." The weaver nodded, switching to her stronger wolf form.

"Are you...both shifters?" Hyacinth asked—having already seen Aria change shape during their trip.

"Nah, Nora's an elf," Aria said, with a big, trolling grin.

"Haestra's g-gift allows me to t-take certain, b-beastfolk-like forms," the weaver said. "Each with c-certain advantages. Th-this one emphasizes strength."

"I've not heard of her power being able to do that before," Hyacinth said. "This must be a particularly advanced technique." She sounded impressed, not skeptical.

Nora nodded. "Its p-prerequisites are also..c-complicated."

The mage then looked at Lupa; in fact she'd been stealing glances the wolf-girl's way for a fair bit of the trip.

"Hii~! This one is fine," she said.
"Right. What...manner of magic are you using?" Hyacinth said. "That is—I can see that your physical capabilities are being enhanced, but I cannot make sense of the source of most of the energy. Your aura looks almost like some sort of inward spiral, but it isn't actually drawing anything in?"

"Lupa is a personified dire wolf," Mira said. "We were just as surprised that could happen as anyone else. An expert in chaos magic said she's somehow drawing it in—which is probably that 'funnel' you're seeing—and converting it into normal magic for her own use."

"I see...chaotic magic is notoriously difficult to detect. Perhaps I could meet this expert before I depart again."

"The important thing is that this one is super strong!" Lupa helpfully informed her, flexing an arm. "If anything attacks, this one can protect all!"

"...Yes....good to know."