Honey Do

Another job for the guild, another day in the sun.

It's a beautiful day to be outdoors at least. The sort of day that most would be making a nice iced tea and perhaps a fruit salad to enjoy. Instead the group is on the road and nearly to the small village of Honeydew - so named for the melon which they grow in excess. A sleepy little village from which the last three merchants have not returned. Thus, with suspicions afoot the guild is called in to investigate.

Just in case.

Settling in has been... a task. Magpie's time spent 'elsewhere' has definitely left its mark, and while there's never any end of things to do in service of the Arcanist's Guild... It has been determined that customer-facing tasks... Well. Best left to others. And the ride out to Honeydew is an excellent descriptor for why;

Magpie has gained an *incredible* lack of ability to

Sit.

• Still.*

The ride is only a couple hours out of the city gates, and with as much twisting and turning and looking and digging in her pack and reading and making notes and chatting and making notes and trying and failing not to pick at her peeling ear-points and and and--

It's a really good thing that Magpie obviously likes people, and wants to cheer them up, or this would have been an obnoxious ride.

Tlanexhuani welcomes the warmer weather. These lands have been too cold for too long, at least compared to what the old bluescale prefers. The chance to help AND leave the city only make this opportunity even better. He is still getting acclimated to Alexandria, with its many buildings and even more people. And the fiends. And fey.

Yes, a nice, quiet little village would be a welcome change of pace. He doesn't mind the travel, either, as it's all the more time to soak up the sun.

Corey is his usual self. Which is to say he is smiling and radiant the moment that he's outdoors. The _entire_ time, on the way to the village, he's been admiring the plant life. He's actually rattled off about a book's worth of what can only be described as fun nature facts the entire time.

That's because he actually pulled out a book--_The Field Guide to the Flora and Fauna of Alexandros_--and has been identifying almost every plant that's unusual to him so far. And he's said some variation of, "The blessings of Gilead do not cease on this day!" with almost every discovery. In his defense, he's from Llyranost. Half of these things are new to him.

"Isn't this great!?" Corey exclaims to the group on a horse that is, somehow, not tired of his shenanigans yet. "I'm so glad I took this job. This is already proving to be such a wonderful experience. I'm glad to share in all of it with you."

GAME: Corey rolls Perception: (8)+15: 23
GAME: Tlanexhuani rolls perception: (12)+12: 24
GAME: Corey rolls Sense Motive: (17)+18: 35
GAME: Magpie rolls perception: (7)+13: 20

The village is quite industriously busy at the moment, but most of the fields outside of it seem oddly empty. Thus its not until you enter the edge of the village that you start to notice people and they certainly notice you. Though they seem largely busy with building some kind of structure... One that you are not immediately sure the purpose of. It seems at first glance like a massive maypole? Yet they are herding horses into alignment around it.

A low murmur of voices follows you into town, but no one seems like they want to approach you at all. So you're followed by a dull sound of conversation that seems likely to be about you without being approached at all. In fact, any attempt to approach an individual villager is met with them scurrying away quickly.

GAME: Tlanexhuani rolls knowledge/engineering: (9)+9: 18

Nature facts! And another riding partner who doesn't mind endless chatter! This is just the *best day* so far. And half of the identified plant-life is met with a brief, amusing story of research mishaps involving that very botanical, for the search for new reagents is truly never ending.

And it's with one such story on her lips that they come to the outskirts of the town.

"--so he tried to catalyze the stuff with wyvern tears, and while it wasn't a *spectacular* explosion, he spent weeks with mushrooms growing out of his--"

She trails off as they pass fallow field after fallow field, brows drawing together. "...Okay *that's* weird... I thought this town was supposed to be named Honeydew, not Honey-Jack-All-Growing-Today... Where's the melons! They're supposed to have big ol melons all over the place!"

...But some scrap of prudence seems to be left to the gnome, as she does *not* in fact accost wayward villagers demanding to see their melons. Thanks be to Gilead.

But the reaction to adventurers rolling up in town seems to be... troubling. Worse, it's hard to tell whether it's because of lingering ill will -- for some adventurers have not precisely been good neighbors -- or mind control! It could *only* be one of the two!

Right?

"Mushrooms growing out of his _where_?" Corey asks, wide-eyed with enthrallment, but then there's the melon interruption. He doesn't seem so interested in the melons as Magpie. In fact, he seems much more interested in the fact that none of the adventurers want to talk to them. Most people see a holy symbol of a god of the light and want to talk about all of their problems.

Corey concentrates then. A moment later, he sighs and murmurs, "They're not hostile. Nor are they evil. But... if we are hostile to them, we can expect to receive some kind of violence. Do you think it has to do with why the merchants haven't been coming back?"

Then he thinks a little more and looks deeply disturbed. "Do you think... The merchants _are_ the melons? Sometimes my mother would name the mice she'd feed to our ravens the names of her enemies." That's a real morbid thought, Corey.

"Ssa," Tlanexhuani agrees with Corey's opinion, "is good. Are many good thing in this land." He knows little of the flora and fauna unique to the area, so is pleased to listen to the information explanations. As they enter the village, he hunches a bit further and leans more upon his spear. Perhaps to make himself seems smaller and less imposing to strangers... or maybe he is just tired.

The construction catches his eye more than the empty fields; he knows more of crafting than farming. Not to mention nothing of melons; the Makari don't grow them.

After looking up at the pole and around at some of the other earthworks in progress, his tail flicks. "Are strong builders, too. Maybe grow village to... city?" A claw motions here and there. "This one think will be pond. For bathing? There could be stone fortress one day." A pause. "Small one. For small ones?"

As you get closer to the center of activity you notice that there seems a large group gathered in the center of the town square near where the horses are being patiently tied off. The horses are clearly unused to this activity, but they diligently obey the humans who are busily about their business.

At this point three individuals - two women and a man - step forward to offer up biscuits, honey, and some kind of drink that looks to be tea to you from trays that the other villagers are also taking refreshment from. These three seem somewhat less trepidatious about the presence of adventurers.

GAME: Corey rolls Perception: (20)+15: 35
GAME: Magpie rolls perception: (3)+13: 16
GAME: Magpie rolls will: (1)+10: 11 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Magpie rolls will: (9)+10: 19
GAME: Tlanexhuani rolls will: (13)+6: 19

Corey smiles benevolently at the people who approach them. "Oh! Hello! Oh, just a moment, please, I am just curious..."

There's something to be said about being raised in the proximity of Llyranesi nobility. Corey is somewhat used to dodging platters of food sent over by people in nice clothes, because that forms some unspoken manner of debt and oath that he has been instructed quite well on avoiding. Instead, Corey cranes that sildanyar neck of his. He spots something in the crowd.

"Excuse me," he asks of the three attendants, "what is the name of the lovely little girl that everyone's listening to?"

"No this is supposed to be, like, *perfect* weather for growing melons in. *If* you planted them months ago," Magpie natters on, craning her neck to help her look from side to side... then up at the construction at the center of the village. "Well isn't *that* something..."

As villagers approach with sweet treats and baked goods, Magpie's *entire being* perks up. Oh, *nice!* Thank you *so much!

It's a credit to her deft hands, that she can manage to break a muffin in half, dip it in honey, and then use the same hand to pinch the cup of tea. All so she can grin at the villager, and raise her free hand.

"So is there a festival on today? Cos if you need entertainment, the right gnome came to you! I could even show you entire plays if you wante--"

Pausing in her sales pitch, Magpie tilts her head, glancing off into the distance as though hearing a strange noise... then shrugs, and returns to her conversation. "Seriously I *love* stories, and if there's a kind you lot or the kiddies adore, I might have read it."

Tlanexhuani would guess that the refreshments are for the workers. Building is a community effort, and everyone can help in whatever ways they can. When they are offered, it is a courtesy. Like Magpie, he doesn't turn down the generous offering. "This one thanks you." He indulges in the food out of politeness rather than hunger. His head tilts and earfrills flick for a moment at something, but then he dismisses it.

"Build great things. Are for festival? Celebration? For little ones?" he asks of the servers of treats.

The three villagers look at Corey a bit suspiciously, but smile. "Debra, she prefers Debra." They say it in an odd sort of unison.

One of them turns their smile on Magpie warmly. "Stories? Debra loves stories. You should take this cup of tea and go share your stories with her. She would love that."

The other two nod eagerly, and the man with the tea tops off Magpie's glass helpfully. The food is really quite delicious. The honey very sweet and the tea slightly cool but also sweet. A perfect pairing with the biscuits really. "There's a cake being made and there's sure to be enough to go around."

The lady with the biscuits smiles at Tlan. "Oh yes, everything is for Her. A festival for our Debra. Our best little one." She offers Tlan another biscuit. "Here, have another."

GAME: Magpie rolls knowledge/arcana+-4: (16)+16++-4: 28

Corey stares back in the direction of Debra, as she's been identified. "May I go with my friend here to speak to Debra?" He asks at last, gesturing to Magpie.

Then he does something that he hopes Magpie catches. He signs, "Not picking up evil from the girl. She may be suppressing it. Proceed with caution, but I will protect you if we go." <Handspeech>

Tlanexhuani very much understands celebrating little ones. Encouraging them. Even spoiling them. An entire village doing so is not so unusual in his mind. Though the preparations do seem a bit... involved. "This one thanks you," as he accepts the other offered biscuit. "Little one always cause to celebrate. What is achievement of this Debra?" He looks towards were Debra is indicated as he nibbles on the biscuit.

'Debra.' 'Our best little one.' 'This festival is for her.'

Pausing with the half-eaten biscuit on its way back to her mouth, Magpie's eyes widen, then flick back and forth rapidly, as if searching the pages of memory.

Then, still not having set her teeth on the treats a third time, she slowly lowers her hand, looking up at Corey... just in time to catch his flickering fingers. With a nod, she starts to flex her free hand, as if doing warm-up exercises with more meaning than usual stuffed in.

<< Child? Unclear - Illusion? Fugitive? Possible. Caution -- Yes yes yes. >>

"I would *love* to meet Debra," she says to the villagers, with her most agreeable smile. "Sounds like she's truly something special!"

"Of course you can. Everyone should meet Debra at least once." Says the other woman with the honey and pushes a cup of tea into Corey's hand. "Take this with you. In case you get thirsty." Corey is given a biscuit with a dollop of honey on it as well for good measure.

The biscuit-carrier smiles at Tlan in a friendly manner. "You'll understand when you meet her. Go on." Tlan is shooed in the direction of the girl and her animated discussion with the enthralled adults around her. With the people with the food giving way its easier to see the girl who looks to be no more than five or six. She is sitting in the lap of whom seems to be her mother. This woman is diligently braiding her hair in a complicated manner as the girl talks to the other adults and they listen.

"Then the princess should bop the dragon on the snout! Like whack! And tell him to be a GOOD BOY. Good boys don't eat sheep! So the dragon listens to the princess and they become best friends! She flies on his back like the dragon knights, but HER dragon is the BESTEST dragon! And they live in a castle happily ever after FOREVER!"

"*Everyone* listens better after a boop on the snoot," Magpie agrees as the trio closes in on the child. "Did you make that story up? ‘Cos you have a *talent* for it."

The girl seems... nice. Maybe a bit *too* pampered, but, it's only the one day, and *she* didn't turn out the worse for being made much of, very occasionally, by her own adopted father. The gnome pauses, scratching at the back of one ear, and looks about. "Debra, right? What's the occasion?"

Something is definitely weird here, but they *are* right in that Debra is an adorable little munchkin. Maybe the merchants just went on their way?

If Tlanexhuani is fluent in finger-flexing, he does not return gestures to the others nor otherwise acknowledge them. Now that he is shuffled to be before the tale-telling youngling, he crouches down low, to be at her level or lower. While he doesn't smile in a soft-skin gesture, his tail does sway at a languid pace. "Ssa. Good story. This one think princess very wise. Is good make many friends. Dragon make best of friends." He encourages her tale and line of imagination. He is not at all be biased concerning friendly dragons.

The story is indeed the type of thing that a child of Debra's seeming age would come up with. Corey may have the tea and the biscuit, but he's not imbibing in either one, and instead he offers a little bow to Debra as they approach. She may be an odd little girl... But he is still an exceedingly polite llyranesi boy, and a paladin of Gilead to boot.

"Hello Debra, I am called Cor'ethil Cari'thana, Warden of Gilead," Corey says politely. "Do you know what happened to the three merchants who were at this village not long ago? They never came back. Are they still here?" He smiles politely. Even if he's expecting the worst as a result of asking The Question.

Debra smiles at everyone as they approach. "More people! Hello! Nice to meet you! I'm Debra! And this is my mommy!" She smiles back at the woman who's lap she's in and gets a hug for her smile. Everyone seems happy that she's happy (or maybe for their own sake).

"I'm glad you liked my story! It's going to be a play! This merchant came with a bunch of stuff for a play and now he's staying with all his friends so that he can tell the story for me! I told him what kind of story I like!" She waves a hand excitedly at the man nearby who does indeed look to be a merchant and he nods eagerly. "Everyone who comes likes to stay! You can stay too if you want!"

"Everything is great in Honeydew." Says everyone around her in unison and she giggles and claps her hands. This earns her a fond smile from all the adults.

Cor'ethil nods just a little to the proceedings, his silver eyes clearly growing more uncomfortable with the situation. Then he looks back at Debra.

There's gears turning in his eyes.

"Debra," he says, "I'd like to ask the gods for a little blessing for this gathering. Feel free to repeat after me, okay?" He offers her a smile, before he takes up his holy symbol and intones:

"O Gilead, o Master of Beasts, o Protector of the Wilds, o Hunter of Aberrations! My god and deity, I call upon you to shed your light upon this place and to unravel any spells that may shackle the spirits of those gathered here, so that all may be happy and well."

Oh! The merchant's right here. That's all right then, but he should write home...

Pause.

Blink blink.

...How *long* have the three merchants gone missing, again?

As Corey starts in on his blessing, Magpie nods. Something's weird. But *finding out* what that something is will take a closer look. So... Under the guise of following along, Magpie mumbles an incantation that *could* be an echo of the prayer... possibly. If they were speaking two entirely different languages, and Magpie was possibly stuttering in time with her syllables. But she *is* smaller, and much less Paladin-y, so there's every chance she will not be the focus.

And if a shimmering film covers her eyes, well... prayers are magic too, right?

GAME: Magpie casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 13 DC: 18

Oh! Right. They were here about the missing merchants. Tlanexhuani was distracted from that with the celebration. "Ah!" He looks to his companions and thumps his tail lightly. "Is good, ssa? Not missing, stayed to help." He then blinks slowly as the words of the prayer are processed. This is followed by a look to Magpie. Something is going on, but he isn't quite sure what. Though his snout is already turning back towards Debra.

The girl blinks at Cor'ethil and then quickly puts her hands together solemnly. Like many children her age she's not got much knowledge of the gods yet, but being polite when a paladin is praying is a thing! She closes her eyes and tries to keep up with him. "Oh Gilead! Master of beats, proc-tor of the wilds! Hunter of... a-bad things! We call upon you to shed your lights (the prettier the better) and unravel spells that shackle spirits, so that all can be happy and well!" This last line is echoed by the populace immediately. The whole village echoing the words of the little girl.

The whole village begins to glow lightly, then more brightly, and then so intensely that its hard to see. The glow centers around the little girl who laughs and claps her hands. "OKAY!" She says brightly and then the glow fades leaving some looking... confused?

The little girl looks up at the group of you and smiles. "I heard a nice voice and it said to tell you what happened yesterday! And I LOVE STORIES! SO! I found this cool bee hive! And I ate ALL the yummy honey! After I got sick for a few days, and nobody noticed? But I could make honey after! And everyone started to like me lots!-" The girl is interrupted when the woman behind her stands up abruptly with a shocked noise and pulls away. "Mommy?"

The woman frowns at her. "I'm NOT your mommy! Where's Sarah? Sarah!" She moves away to find someone and everyone seems to be distracted now with other things and the girl seems to shrink into herself a bit.

"Well... It was nice to have a mommy for a while I guess...."

Despite being a paladin, Corey is never used to when his god answers his prayers and those of other people. He stands for a moment in amazement, raptured by the glow he had witnessed, before he looks down at Debra. He kneels down to her level and offers her a gentle hand. "I'm sorry," he says softly. "I'm sure it was nice to have so many people paying attention to you. But you're in the middle of some very serious business that grown-ups should be handling."

Corey smiles gently at her. "Fortunately, we're here now. Can you take me to where you found the bee hive?" he asks. "It sounds like what you ate is something that gave you magic for a while, but it's a dangerous kind of magic. Evil people can do a lot of harm with that kind of thing. So we need to make sure other people don't get that kind of magic."

The bright light leaves Tlanexhuani blinking in the aftermatch. For multiple reasons. Debra's words take a moment to sink in. "Beehive? Ssa, where is?" He looks to Corey and Magpie, then back to Debra as something else clicks. "Story of princess and dragon... happen yesterday?"

Perhaps prayers aren't *like* magic, so much... Not if the look on Corey's face is any indicator. And as the enchantment fades, Magpie watches the villagers recoil in horror and leave... and the little girl shrink in on herself, after telling the story of the events prior.

And her heart does that thing where it seems to want to be anywhere but where it's supposed to be.

"Hey," the gnome says, gently. "I bet it *was* nice. I've only ever had a daddy, and I didn't find him until I was a *lot* older than you are. And are you still sick, d'you think?"

The girl sighs and nods. "No, I feel fine now." She watches the villagers wander off, beginning to deconstruct all the things they'd put together and go about their usual lives. She sighs again and starts toward the edge of the village. "It was over here. I ate all the honey though. There's no more."

At the edge of the village you find not one, but three active bee hives. Very, very active.

GAME: Magpie rolls spellcraft: (11)+19: 30

"Not need magic to make friend. Are like princess," Tlanexhuani assures Debra now that things are ... a bit less confusing(?). He rises and follows to the hives, looking at them a moment before asking his companions. "Know of magic bee? This one does not. What do?"

Corey trains his eyes on the bee hives as he's led to them. That familiar look of focus crosses his face, and finally he seems to find something where, before, he found nothing at all.

"Something evil is here," he says. "Not the hives, but something else." He draws his rapier, and then he murmurs familiar words of protection in the celestial tongue:

"Gilead, O Blessed Hunter, Grant me your divine aid in the hunt!" <Celestial>

It's a prayer heeded again. This time, Cor'ethil is the subject of his own prayer. He glows, an aura emanating from him as wings unfurl from his back. "Be wary! I will let nothing harm any of us!" he calls to his friends in the unmistakable tones of truespeech.

GAME: Corey casts Greater Angelic Aspect. Caster Level: 13 DC: 18

Eyes still glowing, Magpie sweeps her gaze of the hives... Then halts head, giving one a harder look, then the next, then the next.

"UUUUHHH-H-H-h-h," Magpie pontificates. "This is a *bunch* of weird... Conjured bees, strengthening spells, reinforcement... reduction? Um. Uh. Uh. Um. Back. Back. *Everybody back* this is gonna be a fight. Debra sweetie? Find something to hide behind *right now* it's gonna get dangerous in here."

As if to illustrate *how* dangerous, she starts to slap at her sleeves, throwing up bright yellow sparks, then rubs her hands together.

Lifting her hands over her head, she shouts something in rushed, upside-down Draconic, and hurls her arms forward.

Three bright, fat, sparking globes of electric energy fan out, each one sitting next to its own beehive.

"PREPARE FOR MEGABEES."

Even as Magpie says this, three huge bees erupt from the ground buzzing angrily and the swarms in the hives allow their buzzing to reach a fever pitch.

Debra? She runs.

GAME: Magpie rolls 3d6: (11): 11
GAME: Magpie rolls 3d6: (10): 10
GAME: Magpie rolls 3d6: (12): 12
GAME: Magpie casts Dragon's Breath. Caster Level: 13 DC: 22
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (11)+5: 16
GAME: Magpie rolls 12d6: (47): 47
GAME: Magpie rolls knowledge/arcana: (19)+16: 35
GAME: Aftershock rolls 3d6: (6): 6

Debra runs. Excellent. She's had enough trouble from these hives without adding 'possible death' to the mix.

Clapping her hands together, she passes them back over her face and through her hair, leaving a ghostly imprint of coppery scales, red-green horns, and a toothy maw. The ghost dragon face follows Magpie's movements as she rears back, sucks in a huuuuuge lungful of air, and says the magic word.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAARGARBL!"

A twisting geyser of toxically purple acid belches forth from the ghost dragon's jaws, drenching the central megabee... and the forest for sixty-odd feet behind it.

But Magpie doesn't have time to consider environmental impacts, because the eureka moment hits. "JIKELA!" she shouts! "She's a Druid, she escaped from wizard prison! Specializes in bee-based warfare!"

In her excitement at figuring out a thing, she's forgotten to hike herself to safety, and is standing *right there.*

Oops.

GAME: Magpie rolls fortitude: (19)+5: 24
GAME: Corey rolls Perception: (6)+15: 21
GAME: Corey rolls Perception: (15)+15: 30
GAME: Corey rolls weapon1: (11)+22: 33
GAME: Corey rolls damage1: aliased to 1d6+8: (1)+8: 9
GAME: Corey rolls 1d6: (6): 6
GAME: Tlanexhuani activates his Titan Armor, gaining: +4 Str
GAME: Tlanexhuani casts Haste. Caster Level: 7 DC: 14

"Magpie!" Corey calls out in concern for his fun-flora-fact-buddy, but he hears something--and detects something. "I think I know where she is! If you can get the little ones, I'll get the big ones!"

He kicks off and flies toward the three large bees. His keen silver eyes spot something: a queen bee hiding in the shadow of the middle-most large bee. "I am charged with protecting the world from _you_," he answers the voice in his head, before muttering, "Stay thy thirst!" to his rapier. He thrusts forward and targets the queen bee, but she's still, for the moment alive.

GAME: Magpie casts Shadow Evocation. Caster Level: 13 DC: 24

Tlanexhuani blinks. Again. A shaman who uses bee-based warfare? So many things are new and/or confusing in these lands. "This one will help!" He doesn't clarify whether he means with the bees or the keeper, but since he doesn't know where the keep is and he steps towards the bees...

A spark from his claws and the blood beneath flashes across his armor, causing it to wriggle and move as if animated: tightening in spots and bolstering himself like second scales. Then a second spark is formed, this one spiraling about and into the crystal tip of his spear. After a brief glow, faint lightning arcs from it to himself, Magpie, and Corey. It isn't harmful. On the contrary, it energizes and empowers them.

GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (11)+4: 15
GAME: Magpie rolls 10d6: (39): 39
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (19)+6: 25
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11+2: (20)+11+2: 33
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11+2: (10)+11+2: 23
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (2)+11: 13
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (9)+11: 20

Magpie is the sort of person one would assume is *already* under a Haste spell; as the magic takes hold of her, she very nearly vibrates out of existence. It makes it simple, then, to dash out of the unnaturally large swarm of bees, batting at her face and spitting out bugs the whole way. The moment she no longer ups her protein intake with every step, she skids to a halt, turns, and does a quick bit of applied geometry. Distance times radius divided by chance of harming allies...

There's an almost audible *click* as the numbers work out just right, and Magpie... pokes at the air, her finger *disappearing into nothing* and coming back wrapped in elemental shadow.

From there, it's the work of a moment to finger-paint a large ball of fire into being, of strangely muted blues, purples, and blacks, and rearing back she *swats* the construct toward her point of impact.

When it reaches the point, it explodes with a dull *WHUMP,* filling the area with wispy smoke and singed earth...

...And when the dust settles, the swarm is gone.

"Yesssssss."

GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d6+5: (3)+5: 8
GAME: Corey rolls Fortitude+4: (3)+18+4: 25
GAME: Corey rolls weapon1+1: (5)+22+1: 28
GAME: Corey rolls Perception: (4)+15: 19
GAME: Corey rolls Perception: (13)+15: 28

The bees defending their queen hound Corey relentlessly. Working together as a team to grab his attention and keep him from harming the smaller queen behind the largest of the bees. One of them manages to sink its stinger into his body around his armor, but Cor'ethil shrugs off both the poison and the attack alike. The queen moves away from him, shivering in the wind as she watches Magpie tear her swarm apart.

GAME: Corey rolls weapon1+1-5: (11)+22+1+-5: 29
GAME: Corey rolls weapon1+1-10: (11)+22+1+-10: 24
GAME: Corey rolls weapon1+1: (9)+22+1: 32
GAME: Corey rolls damage1+1d6: aliased to 1d6+8+1d6: (6)+8+(3): 17
GAME: Corey rolls damage1+1d6: aliased to 1d6+8+1d6: (3)+8+(4): 15
GAME: Corey rolls damage1+1d6: aliased to 1d6+8+1d6: (5)+8+(2): 15
GAME: Corey rolls damage1+1d6: aliased to 1d6+8+1d6: (1)+8+(3): 12
GAME: Tlanexhuani rolls weapon5+1: (1)+12+1: 14 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Tlanexhuani rolls weapon5+1: (4)+12+1: 17

Corey maintains the offensive as the quickening magic takes hold on him, and he smiles with a something like a half-remembered inside joke. "An, you wouldn't _believe_ what I'm doing now," he murmurs as he lunges back in for a series of quick thrusts. The blade finds its merciful purchase four times over, and the queen bee falls to the ground, unconscious.

"I think that's Jikela! Just shifted into a queen bee!" he says. "I made sure she's not dead, just knocked out!" He thanks the gods for enchantments that means that he doesn't have to shed blood if he doesn't want to. That time with the vampire was enough.

GAME: Tlanexhuani rolls damage5: aliased to 2d6+7: (6)+7: 13

The swarms are swatted by fire. Corey is swatting at the sneaky queen bee... which isn't really one? The BOUSes are still harassing Corey, though, so Tlanexhuani steps up, pulling his hammer from his belt as he closes. One large bee is swatted with said hammer, with a crunching of exoskeleton. "Will they stop if queen is quiet?" Not that he is a fan of giant insects (those he IS familiar with from the jungles), but that doesn't mean he wants them all smooshed.

GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (7)+6: 13
GAME: Magpie rolls 3d6: (14): 14
GAME: Magpie casts Enemy Hammer. Caster Level: 13 DC: 24
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+8: (8)+8: 16
GAME: Magpie rolls 1d20+13+8: (2)+13+8: 23
GAME: Magpie rolls 2d6: (7): 7

With the druid herself got, Magpie sucks in a deep breath. Time to put a bow on this bee-awful day trip.

Reaching out, she grasps hold of imaginary ropes, and hauls the balls of lightning she'd hurled toward the remaining extra-large insects; one drops, fried and smoking and smelling awful, while the other manages to stay aloft...

But that changes, when Magpie slaps her cheeks, dusts off her robes, are reaches out like she intended to strangle the creature... only for large, spectral white hands with black fingers (reminiscent, say, of a magpie's wings) lunge out to grab the bee in a crushing grip.

And Magpie completes the incantation with a single, loud word, culled from some nameless offshoot of Elven.

<< YEET! >>

And the spectral hands hurl the bee into the closest upright tree.

There is a crunch.

There is a mess.

Magpie is far too pleased with herself.

The aftermath of your fight is not pretty. Hundreds of dead bees. Sixty feet worth of forest melted to ruin. The bodies of three giant bees laying on the ground forever silenced. Debra is gone by the time you get back to the village. No one noticed her leave, but... the villagers are mostly happy to have her gone.

Halfway through your trip back to Alexandria your prisoner wakes up. She doesn't try to fly away, in fact she seems mostly in shock that her bees are all dead. She spends the remainder of the trip crying over their loss.

Still, you've captured one more of the mage escapees... and that's something.

Right?

-End