The Sisters' Chronicles Thread 3: Those Nerds

[Xihirli]

Boots looked fine for the moment, and Alifa seemed pretty happy.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Boots resists cold for the next ten minutes, Alifa just does.

"Oh yeah... I guess we didn't think much about it being 'the winterlands...'" Boots confessed. "We're looking for the land of the ice giants. Where are you headed?"

Alifa nodded to her FLAMING HORSE. "Anyone who's having trouble with the cold, stick close to Johnny." She wrapped an arm around Kat. "I'm Alifa, this is Kat. The rainbow one is Boots, and coming in on the pegasus is her wife Ethrindae. And who might you be?"

[Valmark]

Johnny looked at Alifa like someone who missed the punchline of a joke.

Spoiler: Ooc

Show

Nightmares would still have trouble with cold. Their riders/those close to them too.

"My name's Imris. And... I was headed here" the huntress presented herself "I've been tracking my daughter down, and her trail led me here. But... It does seem like I bit off more then I could chew"

[Xihirli]

"Perhaps we can help," Alifa suggested. "Did she have an object she kept with her at all times?"
She turned toward Boots. "You do have that prepared, right?"
Boots nodded. "Yeah, I haven't changed my spells up much since I prepared that."

[Valmark]

"I do not believe she carries anything any longer" Imris said monotone, looking down at her crossbow.

Ethrindae seemed to pick up something on that.
"I think it could still be helpful if you joined us" she said "Our group has access to special senses beyond simple tracking, if you can't find her traces" making eye contact with Alifa, Eth brought a finger to her head.

"Even if that wasn't true, I'd still appreciate not having to hide from the monsters around here"

[Xihirli]

"Starting tomorrow, I can prepare locate creature," Alifa confirmed. "And I have telekinesis, but it doesn't let me detect people I can't see," Alifa explained to Ethrindae.

"What do you know about where your kid went?" Boots asked. "Don't you have any clues? Why come to the mountains in the first place?"

[Valmark]

"She might have found a cave or something that let's her check on things from safety- we used to live underground, and she never got used to it. In addition her eyesight used to be bad- I... Don't know if that's still the case" hearing that, Ethrindae nodded to herself.

"And I don't know. We... Haven't spoken in a while. A lot of what she does is a mistery to me"

"Should we find a spot to camp in, then? What are we looking for by the way?" Eth asked.
"Phisically, I mean. Do we know what exactly should we find?"

[Xihirli]

"To find the Winterlands? No, so Locate Creature may be helpful to locate the giants as well," Alifa said. "To find the child... a child, right?"
"She's talking about her daughter like she's an adult. Alifa, you can make a warm place to camp, right?"
Alifa nodded. "I can, but Johnny and Tilly can't fit."
"Tilly, take a break." Boots dismissed her.
Johnny, can you avoid the cold by resting in the ethereal plane?

[Valmark]

"An adult, yes. She should be around your age" the ratfolk sat down, chuckling "I may be old, but I think I'd be able to track down a child'
"You aren't that old, right? Still got plenty of life ahead of you. We should have about the same age in proportion" Ethrindae stated, sitting by Imris' side.
"Right... In proportion. But..." Imris stared at her crossbow again "Who knows what might happen before the end of this hunt"

Tilly was dismissed, Johnny went ethereal after replying I'll come back if it doesn't help and seeing Kat dismiss Hootie Peter told Alifa I think I'd like to take a break as well.

[Xihirli]

Alifa nodded and shunted Peter off to another dimension.
Then she sat down and a circle of black feathers surrounded them, slowly building up a translucent black barrier around them that would give them a warm place to talk and rest.
"Tomorrow, Lif can cast Locate Creature. If you don't have another way of tracking her, it would be best to rest," Boots said. "Eth, can you do your hide-thing around the hut, so no one finds it?"

[Valmark]

Imris nodded- and without laying down a bedroll or taking off her equipment, she simply laid on the snow, hands crossed under her chest. Her sleeping position made her seem dead, really.

Ethrindae started making her shadow dome.
"I'm not super sure it'll hide Alifa's barrier, though" she mentioned "I wonder why the golems ran. Maybe they just needed to confirm our numbers, or tryto shoot us out of the sky"

[Xihirli]

"Or they saw a beautiful, powerful druid ride in on a pegasus and ran home crying." Boots kissed her.

Alifa, once the barrier was up, opened up her spellbook for Kat to look. "If you want to copy any more rituals, I know you only need to trance for four hours."

[Valmark]

"There's a couple of inaccuracies I would point out, but" Ethrindae pulled Boots into an hug "You're too charming for that"

---

In the middle of the night, Alifa was woken up by Ethrindae and Kat. Wordlessly, they pointed to a shivering, tiny demon-looking humanoid that was uselessly trying to break into the Hut. The imp held a furled up scroll in its hands.

Behind it, Johnny stood, hoof raised ready to crush the devil on command. By the looks of it, the imp hadn't noticed the giant nightmare behind it.

[Xihirli]

Alifa nodded. "I can't leave the hut," she said, then she frowned down at Clephesia. She shook her sister awake.
"Hm? Whazzit..." Boots reached for Ethrindae and pulled her closer.

"The devils have sent a representative to speak about the hiring of mercenaries by Serendipity's forces.I can't leave the hut, and I don't want to remove our safety and shelter. Could you go speak to them?"
"The devils want to talk to us about Serendipity? Why?"
"I... uh, I'm the one who opened up talks with them. We're trading in money, I promise."
"You didn't... tell me?"
Alifa looked at the ground. "I'm... telling you now. And nothing's been finalized yet. Boots, I was... afraid. That you would stop me."
"Well, maybe I should!" Boots shouted, lapsing into Sylvan. "You're consorting with fiends, Lif! This is... dangerous stuff. It could put your soul at risk. Why... why in mother's name would we do this?"
Alifa's tone became steel. "Because you made an oath, Boots. To wipe out the darkrot."
"That was part of my oath!" Boots insisted. "Another part was to preserve my own light. Because, Lif, what's the point of stopping the corruption of the darkrot if we give in to other corruption. Why the hell would we bother fighting off the darkness if we're going to coat our own souls in shadow?"
"This whole world is at risk, Boots! I'm going to keep my soul in mind, but this is so much bigger! This is a whole world! Eth's world. Kat's world. And you can bet whatever you like that I'm going to put that first, over whether or not I like myself at the end."
Boots let a few tears drop. "If you don't keep that first... I don't know if the world will be worth saving at the end. I don't know if Kat will want to live here if you let yourself succumb to darkness. We – all of us – have to be better than what we're fighting... or what's the point?" Boots challenged. "If the world ends up corrupted and evil at the end, we failed. Whether it's because of us or the darkrot."
"I won't lose," Alifa insisted.
"Why not? What are you trying to prove?"
"That I can do it! That I can make choices and make them work without my big sister swooping in to save me from danger, from death, and especially not from myself! That I don't need anyone else saving me! That I can save people my way!"
Boots looked stricken for a second, so Alifa continued. She coated herself in burning darkness and spread out her blackened wings.
"You're afraid of the dark? Of us succumbing to the shadows? Look at me, Boots. What do you see?"
Without even a second of thought, Boots stepped up and hugged her. "I see my sister. The smartest, kindest, strongest person I know. And it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that."
Alifa let the fire die, and sobbed, collapsing in Boots's hug.
"You're stronger than me, Alifa. In a lot of ways. Ever since we got here I haven't understood much of what happened. But I took this world's burdens as my own, and found family here. Because of you. I don't just save you, Alifa. You save me. Every day. I don't think you're weak, Alifa. I can't, not when I see you face such heavy problems and... actually think about them. I could never do that, you know. I'm not brave enough to think things through and make a bunch of complicated decisions... I hit things. And I listen to my heart to decide what's right, not my head. Ever since I got here my heart's been twisting and turning every which way, and I don't always know what's best. But Lif... if you say we need the devils, I trust you. Okay? Because maybe you don't see your soul shining so bright, but I do. You're the greatest person I know. Every day I see light and warmth and kindness coming off of you... and if you see me as a beacon of light... that's your reflection." Boots pulled back enough to put a tender kiss on Alifa's forehead.
"What do you say? From now on, we save each other?"
Alifa nodded. "Every day."
Boots helped Alifa sit down next to Kat. Lif pulled Kat in for a hug once her sister wasn't there anymore.

Boots took a breath, spread her wings, and lit herself up in beautiful polychromatic fire before she stepped out to face the devil.
"I represent the Abyss Scar. I understand you have something for us?"

[Valmark]

Ethrindae smiled at Alifa.
"Thank you"

Seeing somebody else address the issue, Johnny backed off into the Ethereal again.

The imp shrieked and backed off when Boots emerged from the Hut, but quickly recomposed itself- not used to it, but not its first time either, apparently.
"Yes" it spoke in Common, and offered Boots the furled up scroll "Here is the contract regulating the fees owed to us in order to make use of our soldiers and machines, and also all the rules for commanding them. If you wish to apply changes, note them on the paper and leave it next to a spot where this spell has been cast" the imp produced a second scroll for Boots, this time a spell scroll "Or just summon Beebozuh again"

[Xihirli]

Alifa snuggled up to Kat and smiled back at Eth, still pretty puffy from the talk with her sister.

Boots took the contract and walked back into the hut.
"I got the thing." She handed the paper to Alifa.

Alifa set about reading it to see if anything was different.

[Valmark]

Spoiler: Ooc

Show

Alright, first off I need you to describe how Alifa goes about examining the contract. She can get Guidance.

Also on a roll of 30 or less Kathleyîënis has managed to scribe Comprehend Languages in time for this and can give Advantage on any of Alifa's rolls to examine the contract (as long as it relies on simply being able to read it).

(1d100)[95]

[Xihirli]

Alifa started out with Comprehend Languages, to make sure no words were unchanged.
"Kat, can you Identify the contract? See if there are any spells active on it?" Alifa frowned and tried to remember what level magic aura was, and hit it with a Dispel Magic to be safe.

After reading it over with Comprehend Languages, Alifa did two final checks – one with Detect Magic and one with See Invisibility – to see if there was anything else going on with it.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Dispel Magic Level 5, since I get those back quick
Any checks needed?

[Valmark]

"On it"

There did not seem to be spells or invisible writing on the document of any kind- and given that Alifa had been very clear about her spells, perhaps that was the reason.

The contract detailed the prices and special offers to buy the devils' services, including a 3x overpricing if not provided with adequate protection against corruption. The immediate pitfall that could be a problem was that fee was for "any circumstance that caused a devil's inability to go back to their Ring in the same conditions they left in". With enough of a stretch the devils could ask for payment even if a devil came back stronger then before.

There was also nothing that guaranteed that the hired devils would be in healthy conditions as well- the only thing someone signing the contract would know for sure would be the devil's race they payed for.

Finally, the contract didn't seem to be addressed to anybody specifically. It seemed to be more of a convention multiple parties could sign up in order to make use of the same offer, though how much that could be an issue against darklings was debatable.

Interestingly, the contract was related to 'the conflict currently going on on Alandria'. If there was a second war somewhere else that didn't figure darklings the contract could very well be to hire mercenaries for that war.

[Xihirli]

Alifa penned in the changes on paper, as outlined by the devils.
'Provided adequate shielding against corruption' needs to be adequately defined. Either that or strike the clause entirely and raise your standard rates to compensate, with the understanding that we are hiring you for a WAR and that danger will occur.

There must be a clause guaranteeing that the hired devils will be in healthy conditions, able and willing to fight in a way typical of their respective races.

'The conflict going on on Alandria' must be more specific, we are dealing with a Darkling Threat here and I am uninterested in hiring you to go stop a random mugging and declare the contract fulfilled.

Alifa infernally called Beebozuh and showed him her required changes. "Take this back home, and stop trying to cheat the Abyss Scar."

[Valmark]

"Oh come on, you're killing me. First rodeo with devils, chief?" Beebozuh asked as he looked over the devil contract smiling to himself.

"Sounds reasonable- I'm sure we can clarify at least two of those. You sure you don't need any help stopping random muggings?" the devil asked as he looked around. His gaze dropped on Imris.
"Geez, that one looks already dead. What lame place have you picked now to summon me"

[Xihirli]

"You can address all three of my issues, or not bother bringing it back," Alifa said simply. "The more hoops you make me jump through and the more unnecessary steps you devils keep adding to the negotiation, the more I think I should have just gone to the demons. You are dismissed."
And without answering a single question, she sent him away.

"Devils."
"Why are our two choices devils and demons?"
"Well, we tried the gods, but you know how that went." Alifa rolled her eyes. "And it's not necessarily a choice, not completely. After the Frost Giant trip, I'll take us to the Fiendish Rings of the demons, where we can help a liberation front. Then we can recruit a strike force of Chaotic Good demons to help us go free the Emotion Primordials. We can fight back the darklings all we want, but without a way to close the rift we're only delaying the problem. To save this world we need to seal off the Zone forever. The emotion primordials can do that... and maybe we can cash in the favor to have them jump back to our world and close our own Far Realm rifts."
"What about the other realms?"
Alifa looked ahead. "I uh... I've thought about that. I was thinking... after all this, if I could learn from the Emotion Primordials how to do the sealing... well, maybe I could jump from realm to realm helping other worlds seal off their worlds."
"That could take... an eternity."
"Well, not necessarily. If those worlds have people as powerful and beneficent as, say, Serendipity, I could teach them how to do it and ask them to do a few realms and teach their powerful mages and so on and so forth. If we all just do two realms we could get it done crazy quickly. But... yeah, it could be a long time. I was... hoping Kat might come with me."
"You don't want me coming with you?"
"It's not that I don't want it, Boots. But... back home, you know that Titania has been making steps to let Verenestra take over. With mom... frankly uninterested in politics, the truce will probably keep going indefinitely. But with you as Queen, the Unseelie Court could finally rejoin theirs. We could unite Aurora again. Dual queens, you as queen, doesn't matter that much. Maybe... no Queen," Alifa shrugged. "Maybe for each meeting each population of feys sends a certain amount of representatives, and no representative can be chosen twice. I'm just throwing it out there. The point is... you can do such big things back home. Things I never could. But I can also do big things, just... away. And at the end of it, maybe I'll find a place back home, or maybe I'll stay here. This place... will need heroes. Even after the Darklings are stopped, it will need people with power making sure things don't get too horrible. Or maybe me and Kat will find some other place on our journeys. I don't know. It... Boots, I could save infinite lives from an eternity of insanity from Piscaethces. I can't... not try."
Boots pulled Alifa in to cuddle up.
"I know. Your heart is too big not to let everyone you meet into it." Boots cradled her and kissed her head. "From the beginning I've been playing hero... but your heart's always been in the right place."
"I love you, Boots."
"Love you, Lif."

[Valmark]

There was a collective ahwwwww from their respective lovers.

Well, actually only from Ethrindae. But Kat looked pretty happy about it.
"After Morkart... There's literally nobody who loves me or a place I can call home in this world" Kathleyîënis said "I don't have a reason to refuse"
Ethrindae raised an eyebrow.
"Pharasing"
"What? I said I want to go where she goes"
"That's better"

[Xihirli]

Alifa reached out and held Kat's hands, but the sisters remained cuddled up for the rest of the night.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Wholesome sisterly cuddling. Long rest finishes up fine?

[Valmark]

"Before we go to bed... There's something I'd like to point out" Ethrindae nodded at the ratfolk's sleeping form.

"I think she may be planning on killing her daughter and herself. And also that her daughter is an undead or a darkling" the elf lowered her eyes.
"That kind of empty stare... I'm familiar with. And there's not a lot of reasons her daughter wouldn't be 'carrying anything anymore'"

[Xihirli]

Boots put her hand on Ethrindae's arm. "If anyone's equipped to save her daughter, it's us. And if no one is... well, maybe we can keep her from falling into despair afterwards."
Boots quickly scanned their bubble for corruption to make sure the ratfolk mother didn't have any in her.

[Valmark]

There was no corruption that Boots could find.

The next morning, the two elves woke the group up- overnight a thin layer of snow had coated the Hut, making it look like the inside of an igloo without an exit.

[Xihirli]

Boots took a few minutes to summon out Tilly. Still as a Pegasus, the wings were just too good to pass up.
"Sorry for the cold, girl."
"Can you tell me what your daughter is like?" Alifa asked after preparing Locate Creature.

[Valmark]

It's fine. The love I'm made of keeps me warm Tilly replied.
That was a cool line right?

Imris rose from the ground like a vampire standing up from the coffin, and opened her bag. Inside, various tools and small mechanisms layed and she started working on what looked like brooches with spinning emblems.
"Thin. Long white hair, she took it from me. Red eyes- she's albino. Or was, anyway" the ratfolk recounted, almost malinconic "Fairly tall though, like most of us are. I... Am not sure how much of this will help you find her. She always had the smuggiest smile of this world"

[Xihirli]

Boots pet Tilly. The coolest.

Alifa took a breath, keeping the description in mind. Then she vomited violently at her feet, a viscous black bile that smelled quite unpleasant. She watched her bile cautiously.
"If it moves, we follow it."
"That is... gross."
Alifa half-smiled at Boots. "Hey. That's me." She cleaned out her mouth, though.

[Valmark]

The bile moved speedily until it still rested on the ground, but to the left.

Spoiler: Ooc

Show

Remember that Locate Creatures doesn't tell you the path but does tell you the direction.

Alifa could see into the bile's trembling that the described ratfolk found by the spell was moving around, but by the looks of it not enough to change her direction in a meaningful way. Looked like she was walking up and down or something like that.