"Nice to meet you," says Pepper, chewing at the crust of bread. "Mmmm, and two elves. So cool. So what's the plan? Where's the treasure?" She picks up the map and looks at it. "Ohhh, the caves up north, huh? I know right where those are. I can show you the way." She picks up one of the attuned crystals. "What's with all the crystals?" Pepper puts the crystal back on the table. "Missing girl? Oh, no, I live here but I'm an adventurer through and through. No one is going to notice I'm off plundering with you guys." Lyssa smiles at you with amusement at the girl's apparent enthusiasm. The elf reaches a hand to your thigh under the table and gives your leg an affectionate squeeze. Those silver blue eyes speak volumes about the many intimate moments you shared the night before. "You should leave early," suggests Lyssa. "The less time you spent out in the dark the better so long as there are fiends on the prowl. Hurley and I will be waiting for you here at the tavern." (OOC: If you want to leave I am going to assume Reikan is with your group so Duskford can jump in when he is available)
(OOC: I'm going to work shortly so I don't mind if we soldier on if that's fine with everyone. Are we splitting up or going in as a group?)
(OOC: I think staying as a group would be best - a single person is an easy target, after all. And I'm fine with leaving right away.)
You gather your gear and say goodbye to Lyssa, Hurley, and Winona. Gert stays out of your way. The rain has stopped and the morning is bright and clear, with a hint of low mist that shrouds the trees of the blackwood forest. The ground is spongy, but not too muddy and the going is fairly easy, even if it is almost all uphill. Pepper seems confident in her reading of Hurley's map. She points out a spot just south of the "X" Hurley drew. "That's the Fenton farm. Yoshua and Calla. We can stop there and rest if you're tired." What strikes you is that the farm house, at least according to the map, is perilously close to the cave. Perhaps you should check on the Fentons just to make sure they haven't been turned into slime food...
(OOC: Sorry, I'm sick in bed and fell asleep.... Since everyone else seems ready for us to move forward I will pick up outside of town. Short edit. Hematoma beat me to the post.) The group is hardly out of town, And Silvan is looking curiously at the girl Reikan got. He wonders if "Kidnapped" would be a better term for her. She looks too young to be with their group. "Sure kid, why not. That gives us a good starting point. But... You really do seem young," he says as he pulls back his hood a bit for a better look. Suddenly the cat trailing at Silvan's feet gives a "Mrooow!" and suddenly shifts to her humanoid form. "M-master? when can I be useful? I want to earn more cream!" On second thought, Silvan might have grabbed the younger looking woman last night.... Note to self, invest in some enchanted clothing that can appear and disappear as Tila shifts forms. As much as he enjoyed her being nude there for him to see, it was probably quite the sight for the others... Silvan then looks to Andreas. "To answer your earlier question, while the rest of you were engaging in some .... relations, with the elf who hired us, I was looking for a hound to help track the slimes. Instead I came across this little kitty. I tamed her last night and now she belongs to me." He turned his attention back to Tila and pat her on the head. "I want you to keep watch. Trees, ground, anything that looks strange. We're hunting slime monsters and that could be dangerous." "Yes Master," Tila nods enthusiastically, ready to earn more cream.
Vi’lea reaches with her hand and affectionately squeezes Lyssa’s leg in return, barely stopping herself from doing something more. After one last look at the elf she gets up and follows the rest of the group. To her pleasant surprise the rain has stopped and the ground is not as muddy as she feared, making it rather easy to walk. She follows a couple of steps behind the others, allowing her to concentrate. She knows a few low-level spells that, once cast, need some time to fully charge and then can be used in an instant. Such spells are rarely used by experienced spellcasters since such people tend to have much better spells at their disposal, but for someone as inexperienced as Vi’lea they are invaluable. After thinking about it she chooses a few that seem like they will be most useful. Just as the dark elf finishes the first spell and leaves it to charge Pepper mentions the Fenton Farm. "Sure, let’s go there. We should warn the people there about the danger, and see if they know anything useful. Or, if the farm has already been attacked, we should look for survivors and for any slimegirls still there. She says at almost the same time as Silvan speaks. The dark elf is about to go back to her spells when Silvan’s new cat suddenly transforms into a naked catgirl. "First Pepper, and now a catgirl. This group sure is growing fast." She comments before resuming her casting. (OOC: I’m going to assume that each member of the group has at least one of the small crystals, and that the crystals would work even if the slimegirl is temporarily encased in a block of solid ice.)
(Everyone has one of the crystals. I'm going to say Vi'lea has the pink crystal.) You arrive at a large clearing in the forest and you can make out a small farmhouse and granary about 200 feet away on the edge of a field. It's early in the season, so the crops are still just green sprouts no higher than your boots. You do not see any sign of the farmer or his wife and you would think at least one would be out working the field at this hour on a clear day.
No sign of the farmer or his wife... That is odd. Silvan readies a throwing knife in one hand and his hunting dagger in the other. "Tila, keep your eyes open. Lets move forward slowly and see what we can find." He looks back at the others. "They have a house and a granary, so we could either split up and search both or take our time searching one each." He ran the numbers in his head really quick. Their party of four had grown to six. That would mean he and Tila could take either Vi'lea or Andreas for magical support while Reikan and Pepper could take the other. Since they were checking to make sure that these people were safe, he felt a quick insertion into both places at once was for the best and supplied this idea to the others. If they agreed, he would volunteer to take the house.
Riekan draws his sword. "Pepper, let's tread carefully." He tells the redheaded girl as he turns to Silvan. "Your idea seems to be the best, why don't we let Andreas and Vi'lea choose their party?"
Vi’lea narrows her eyes suspiciously. She has seen farms like this one in the past, and there was always someone working. So why was there no one here? Had the farmer and his wife merely gone inside for some reason, or did something happen to them? Having finished her spell preparations earlier she focuses all of her attention on the surroundings, looking for anything out of the ordinary. She also takes a dagger in one hand – even if there were enemies nearby there was no guarantee they would be slimegirls, so she wanted to be ready for anything. "Sounds like a plan. But before we go inside we should circle around the buildings and examine them from all sides – you never know what we might find." She suggests as she wonders which building to examine. Eventually she settles on the house.
Vi'lea, Silvan, and Tila approach the house. You circle around it and hear nothing. The house looks fairly normal, though most of the windows are shuttered because of the rainstorms so you cannot see inside. Entering the house you find a main room with a hearth where the fire is warm, but has gone out. Very unusual for a farm where hearths are rarely allowed to go out. Walking deeper into the house you find two closed doors. One is quiet and you hear a soft noise coming from behind the other of the closed doors. You cannot identify the sound. Riekan, Andreas, and Pepper approach the granary. The wagon door to the granary is open wide enough for you to slip inside. Outside the sliver of light from the exterior, it is very dark in the granary. The air smells strongly of fermented loose grains. In the musty darkness, you hear a soft moaning sound. It seems to be a man's voice. You will need to open the door all the way (very loud), light some sort of flame, or walk deeper into the darkness to find out what is making the sound.
(OOC: Edit, Hematoma beat me again....) Silvan takes position near the door that had noises coming from it, where he can open the knob with one hand. He has his throwing knife in the other and nods for Tila to get on the other side of the door. Looks for Vi'lea to give a signal and then he will start opening the door slowly.
Vi’lea turns toward the catgirl and whispers a request. "Since you have the best hearing among us press your ear against each door and see if you can hear something we can’t, or if you can recognize the sound coming from the second closed door."
A lantern hangs pendulously on the exterior, and Andreas lights the wick. He turns to Human Crew as it were. The moans are anything but quiet. "Knight and Runaway, our decision?"
Tila has to have Vi'lea's suggestion repeated by her master first, which Silvan does. She flicks her tail and presses her tufted ear to the door. After a moment she points at the door and whispers. "Something alive behind this one. I think it's bad." Silvan begins to slowly open the door, revealing a truly horrifying scene inside the room. Blue-green slime covers a bed and moves in rippling pulses, reaching up the canopy bed all the way to the ceiling, which it also covers. Pieces of clothing and scraps are scattered around the room. Tila gasps in shock and the slime suddenly divides into two parts and drop onto the floor in jiggling mounds. A moment later, it rises as two different translucent women of voluptuous proportions. They smile and coo and come towards you.
Riekan turns to Andreas. "Well, you have the light," He says. "Maybe we should walk a bit further and see what's going on." He puts himself between Pepper and the source of the moans, while still making way for her to fire her thunder gun if needed.
Silvan has no fire or magic and knows that getting too close will cause problems. So instead he whips his hand back and then launches his first throwing knife right for the first slime girl's head. He orders Tila to only attack if necessary and to use her speed to keep from getting caught in its clutches. His tactic was going to be to draw the slime girls' attention so that Vi'Lea could use her magic.
Lighting the lantern is sufficient to reveal the source of the sounds. A middle-aged man lies on the floor of the granary, completely nude, with his wet clothes scattered around him. He is covered with sweat and looks very ill. No wonder, as a slime girl is straddling him, or more accurately, swallowing up his groin in her translucent blue-green body. Wisps of white swirl throughout her fluid and you can see the shaded shape of the man suspended from his abdomen down to his knees in her bouncing body. Her jelly-like breasts heave up and down and she smiles at you. "Groooo?" she burbles. "H-help me," moans the man.
Your knife flies true, punching straight into the jiggling features of the slime girl's face, distorting them for a moment, and then falling out her back to clang upon the floorboards. "Grooo?" she burbles and comes towards you with surprising speed. The other slime girl is headed towards Tila who is backing away from the door.
