Monster Party Book Six: Only mortal trust or faerie dust…
Chapter Nine: I steal from the rich, and give to the needy! He takes a wee percentage, but I'm not greedy!
"Then we have wolfsbane, dark green leaves lacking stipules. They are palmate or deeply palmately lobed with five, six or seven segments. Each segment again is three lobed, with coarse sharp teeth. The leaves have a spiral arrangement. The lower leaves have long petioles.
The tall, erect stem is crowned by racemes of large blue, purple, white, yellow or pink flowers with numerousstamens. They are distinguishable by having one of the five petaloid sepals, called the galea, in the form of a cylindrical helmet; hence why some call it monkshood.
Beautiful to look at, but that doesn't make it any less poisonous." Florence continued to explain to their Arak guide.
Leilani in turn was was quite entranced with the Dryad's words (even the other five couldn't always follow along). In fact, the alven was so taken with the conversation that every so often the others needed to remind her that she was supposed to be guiding them to the Malachite Palace.
Still, thanks to Leilani's insight they had managed to avoid a huge patch of carnivorous "hungry grass" and also keep from earning the ire of a bushel of lashweeds that the alven used to protect some of their more cherished floral creations.
"Some people claim that it also has magical properties for driving off wolves, be they spiritual or physical. While smearing it against your blade will work against most physical wolves, its powers against spiritual ones are highly overrated…." Alexander interjected, adding one of the few bits of botanical knowledge he possessed.
Florence abruptly stopped walking, bracing herself against her staff as she was overcome by a debilitating fit of laughter.
"What's so funny?" Demanded Leilani, her wings flapping back and forth, irritated by her companions sudden mirth, and clearly concerned that it might be at her expense.
"He only knows that last bit because once upon a time he couldn't go a single day without seasoning his meals with the stuff! Honestly, that wolf spirit he was so busy trying to drive off was probably the only reason he survived the experience!" Florence chuckled, wiping an amber colored tear from her eyes.
Now that she knew the context Leilani eagerly in joined in the laughter, being so stricken by it that she would have fallen from her perch on Florence's shoulder if the dryad hadn't reached out a hand to hold her tight.
"Yeah, I used to be quite the asshole." Alexander admitted.
"Don't say that Sir." Mirri insisted.
"Yeah Boss, there's nothing 'used to' about it!" Cal snickered.
"In reality, to deal with 'spiritual' wolves, you need to use the 'Moonflower' that grows only in Verbrek. Though to be perfectly honest the stuff can really only hold them at bay rather than fully driving them off. Its flowers are a delicate silver color and will blossom only under the light of the full moon..." Florence began.
"How much of that did he eat?" The alven demanded to know, not quite done finding amusement in Alexander's suffering.
"Only a single petal, and only because of a dare. He'd made a lot of progress by then." Florence admitted, though she still couldn't help but chuckle slightly,.
"I can tell, he's much better behaved than most teg, I bet he doesn't even scent marks his territory!" The alven giggled, using the proper Arak name for the "bogies" of whom Alexander had spoken previously.
"He's not a teg, he's a muryan. He's fine company most of the time, so long you can make sure that he's pointed at the right person, said person being someone you want cut to pieces." Florence insisted, using terminology that would make sense to Leilani.
"Ah of course, I should have been able to tell by his hair." The alven quickly agreed.
Before the conversation could go any further, Alexander squinted slightly and then pointed in the distance.
"I can see the Malachite Palace now. Unless you have some particular bits of strategic advice on the mater I don't think we need your help anymore." The silver haired man insisted.
Leilani squinted herself, but her eyes were nowhere near as keen as Alexander's. Then she sniffed slightly, taking in the scent of all the nearby plant life. A moment later her wings began to beat more forcefully and she slowly rose into the air.
"I suppose you're right. It was a pleasure to talk of flowers with you Florence Bastien. It is a shame I didn't get a chance to tell you all the wonderful we ones we grow down here! You need to come back to my grove once you're done with the Princess's' business!" She insisted.
"What she's doing at the moment is unlikely to be her only errand for the Princess. Maeve would be most displeased with you if something happened to one of her servants." Alexander pointed out, figuring the alven would be able to figure out for herself just what a bad idea it would be to try and "overly prolong" her companionship with the dryad at the moment.
The tiny Arak gave him a quick nod and then flapped off.
Only once she'd flown far enough away not to hear did Florence speak up.
"I still know not to eat or drink anything she offers me." The dryad bristled.
"Just protecting my mate." Alexander insisted.
XXX XXX XXX
The closer the group got to the Malachite Palace, the more a subtle air of awkwardness began to press in upon them. Looking up at its magnificent facade, it was almost as if the castle itself was looking back at them.
With every step they took the feeling got stronger, it was like the building was alive, aware of their very presence in a way that stone piled upon stone unquestionably should not be. It was as if stepping inside the palace would be just like entering into the mouth of some great beast, left with no protection other than hoping it would not close its jaws and swallow.
As ominous as the Malachite Palace looked though, it was somewhat lacking in traditional defenses. There was no moat, no curtain wall, no massive gatehouse, not even a group of muryan patrolling the perimeter. The huge doors were closed and quite likely barred, but there was no one in sight to keep them from just walking up and knocking.
Not that this was Alexander's first plan of attack.
"So, now what?" Devi asked, crossing her arms as if to ward off a chill.
"Well, now all we need to do is get in there." Alexander reflected.
"Front door?" Mirri asked, eager for another fight.
"I can see two huge open windows, if you can get us up to them, that should do the trick." He decided.
The two windows in question had been designed to look like a pair of glowering eyes, but at least they weren't barred.
"I'll be able to get to them." Mirri insisted, still a little upset by her failure back at Maeve's first barrier.
"Give her the rope Devi." The silver haired man insisted.
The blue haired elf began to extract an extremely long coil of rope form her bag of holding and handed it over to Mirri.
The vampire walked right up to the Malachite Palace holding the rope in one hand as she prepared to do the impossible.
The Malachite Palace was exquisitely crafted, in the light of Devi's lantern its walls gleamed like onyx.
Mirri pressed her one free hand against it, and then a wicked look of triumph filled her face.
The black haired woman ascended up the side of the Malachite Palace with complete and utter contempt for its slick surface. The rope trailed back behind her as she moved upward with a graceful ease which suggested gravity had suddenly decided to pull her at a ninety degree tilt to everyone else.
In short order she made her way up to one of the windows and vanished through it. A few moments later the rope she'd carried gave a quick shake. suggesting that she'd found something to anchor it against. The other five members of the group started to climb up the rope, Cal (who went last) took a moment to give it several tugs once he started climbing. Having been given the correct signal, Mirri began to pull up the rope to help ease their journey. Soon enough they managed to one and all climb in through the window, once the rope was fully retracted there was next to no trace of their entrance.
"So where are we?" Cal pondered as he looked around the room.
Its walls were a polished gleaming black, set with tiny flecks of glowing crystal. These multicolored pinpricks of light made it look as if they were surrounded by an empty void, broken up by a few shining prismatic stars. Scattered around the room, literally floating in this sea of darkness were countless spheres of luminescent glass.
"Magical?" Alexander asked, giving the balls a very careful examination.
Florence cast a quick spell and nodded.
"They don't quite look like they're some sort of bizarre security system, still..." Alexander pondered as he motioned for the others to stay where they were.
So far the orbs hadn't launched any kind of attack upon the intruders, but who knew how long that would last for. Very slowly, Alexander twisted his eye patch around so that it would cover his left eye rather than his right.
That done, he focused his attention on the room's one obvious exit, a door on the far wall. The silver haired man began to slowly stroll towards it, giving the glowing orbs as wide a berth as possible, hoping he could avoid angering any spirits that dwelled within them.
It seemed to work, the strange spheres were content to simply float there and sparkle. Perhaps they were nothing more than some sort of bizarre form of Arak artistry, existing for no other reason than to look pretty, not that he was going to test that particular theory.
When he made it to the door without being assaulted by bolts of lighting, balls of flame, shards of ice or any other sort of mystical danger he motioned for the others to follow.
"Give the balls as much space as possible and they don't seem to care. Understand my meaning Omega?" He called out, not wanting a certain saying about cats and curiosity end up proving itself to be no simple turn of phrase.
James nodded in understanding and he kept his hands to himself along with staying a safe distance from the spheres while he crossing the room. The others did likewise, and soon all six of them had made it to the door, Alexander still leading the way.
They next found themselves entering into a long hall with walls of polished black stone. Two parallel rows of white marble statues and figurines stood in the center of this room. Every single one of one them was a masterpiece, so exquisitely crafted that they looked more alive than any adult they'd met in Briggdarrow.
The walls of this gallery were hung with a great many portraits. At first the paintings appeared to be lit in some unusual fashion, but then it became clear that they were "simply" framed mosaics of stained glass. Some property of the glass made it glow warmly, causing the portraits to resemble living beings, almost as if they were people translated into stained glass and trapped in unchanging perfection.
He saw a door leading out of this room on the far wall.
"Whatever you do don't touch the paintings!" Alexander instantly warned, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck go up.
None of the people in those paintings seemed to be actively suffering or crying out for help, but that did little to reassure him. Just like back at Maeve's third barrier, you either respected fairytale magic or you suffered for your hubris.
"Want me to check to see if they're actually magic? The paintings and statues could be nothing more than a distraction, and we'd end up walking right into some sort of a mystical portal on the floor." Florence offered.
I don't see the harm in it." Alexander nodded in agreement, best to let the dryad sort out the difference between the simply exquisitely crafted and the actively mystical.
Florence repeated the same spell that she had used before.
"All the statues are completely mundane, as for the paintings nearly all of them are unremarkable..."
"Except for that one?" Cal guessed pointing towards one particular painting.
Despite the fact that the alchemist had no mystical aptitude of any kind (in fact if there was such a thing as a negative amount of ambient magical talent, that was how much Callan Wright had) he was right.
On the other hand, just about anyone with a functioning pair of eyes probably could have come to that conclusion.
It wasn't hard to guess when the painting in question suddenly seemed to be overflowing its own frame. The glass that it was made of oozed off of the wall and onto the floor, more and more of it emerging with every passing moment.
Shining like bright crystal it twisted and writhed, reshaping itself from a prismatic puddle into a humanoid figure. It held out its hands and still more of the strange glass flowed and twisted around its limbs, arming the construct with a two handed bastard sword made from the same material as its body.
"I guess that would be the harm..." Devi pointed out dryly as it began to advance towards them.
Cal brought up Phoenix, but Alexander jerked his head with such speed that some of his flowing silver hair temporarily got between the rifle and its target.
"This guardian is probably tasked with protecting this room, and just this room. The fact that we don't hear any singing suggests whatever dancing men are around don't know we're here yet, lets try not to make it too obvious. Get behind me, and I'll handle this thing!" He promised them, wary of how much noise firing Phoenix would make.
The glass golem thrust out its sword at Alexander even though they they were still over ten feet apart form one another. A bright shining rainbow of seven intertwined beams of light sprayed from the blade. A bright shining indigo light washed over Alexander Diamondclaw as he stood his ground.
"After all I've been through it'll take more than that..." He huffed dismissively.
As the last traces of the mystical assault died away, Alexander raced forward to deal with the glass golem before it could launch another one.
The creature was all too ready to settle for martial combat, and its sparkling sword crafted miniature rainbows in the wake of every swing.
Wolf Claw came up to meet it at every turn though. Alexander's sword seemed to be noticeably less mystical, but it was equally strong and firm. Its owner whistled a few quite notes as his feet became a blur of speed.
"Charming quip, biting witticism, mocking declaration! Lupine themed pun!" Alexander cried out as he launched his own attacks upon the glass golem, though they were stymied at every turn.
"I don't think this thing is likely to get distracted any time soon!" He warned to the others, as indeed there wasn't much point in trying to outwit a creature that didn't even think in the first place.
Florence waved her hands and spoke in Sylvan. A moment later, the stone underneath the glass golem's feet suddenly parted as a gigantic fist rose up out of the floor and grabbed hold of the creature by its waist.
The rocky hand began to squeeze and cracks started to appear on the glass golem's body, forcing it to divert its attention. It struggled mightily, trying to cut the rocky limb holding it to pieces.
That distraction was all the opportunity Alexander needed.
He raced forward toward the captured monster, and carefully darted to the side of another rock hand which tried to seize him. Wolf Claw lashed out and as the golem tried to raise up its blade to counter him, the hand still gripping it squeezed tight and pinned its arms tight against its side.
Alexander's blade sliced clean through the glass golem. Its bisected body collapsed to the ground and the silver haired man jumped backwards just in time to avoid being grabbed by a third rock hand.
"Appropriate concluding statement!" He declared, sounding quite proud of himself.
As Florence dismissed her somewhat uncontrollable spell, he slowly began to examine the area around them, wondering if any more of the artwork was suddenly going to attack them. For the moment however, all was quiet and still.
"So, nothing else in the room is magical at all, right?" Cal brought up, as he examined an exquisite painting of an Arak of some sort busy with many bubbling beakers.
"It should all be mundane now." Florence confirmed.
"So, how much of it are we taking?" Mirri asked, her own eyes being drawn to another painting, this one showing a mighty stallion of some sort with flaming hooves.
"You do realize that these paintings are treasures of the Arak that could date back twice as long as you've been undead. Who are we to..." Alexander began before his serious words dissolved into a derisive snickering.
"We'll limit ourselves to stealing one for every shadow they took from the people of Briggdarrow." The silver haired man declared.
"About time, remember we didn't make any money at all during the last job..." Cal reflected as she picked the painting up off the wall and handed it over to Devi.
The blue haired elf slid the painting easily into her bag of holding. It wasn't the last one either, many other paintings and statues soon followed it.
"The last job was about reuniting a pair of young lovers, well that and then a father's love for his daughter. What I'm saying is we can't always get make out like bandits." The group's leader reminded the alchemist as he dropped a small statue of a muryan into Devi's bag.
"So how much do you think this stuff will be worth?" James pondered, grabbing a picture of a splendid black cat, perched on a woman's shoulders.
"Given some of the stories I've heard, probably about one human soul or horrific twist of fate each. If you mean actual money, platinum easily to the right art dealer." Alexander answered.
"We aren't actually going to get horribly cursed, and neither are the people we sell them to, right?" The werecat asked, a slight tremor in his voice.
"Nobody ever gets cursed in a story because they bought something fey in origin from a perfectly ordinary person. Okay, we're not exactly 'perfectly ordinary', but we're close enough in this particular case. As for if we're gonna get cursed, Florence checked, no magic is protecting them at the moment, so no curses." Alexander explained calmly.
That was all the reassurance James needed to grab another painting off the walls.
The group looted their way down the hallway, and eventually came to a pair of doors alongside a staircase leading up. Both of the doors had great big locks on them, but despite their size and strength the locks were elegant, almost as beautiful in their way.
"Lets see what is behind door number one..." The silver haired man suggested, figuring that anything worth locking was worth looking into, especially when an Arak did the locking.
James pulled out his lock-picking tools and got to work. About twenty seconds later he heaved a heavy sigh.
"I think these locks are magic Alex." He huffed in disappointment.
"What makes you say that?" Devi pressed.
James withdrew what was left of his lock-pick, it looked as if the lock had somehow bit down, broken, and eaten at least half of the small metal bar.
"Florence, demagicafy the locks." Alexander ordered.
The dryad did, and then James had another go (with a fresh lock pick) at them. This time around after a bit more fiddling about he managed to defeat the now exquisitely crafted but entirely mundane lock.
One soft push later the door slid open to reveal an entirely empty room. A tick layer of dust covered the floor, and large, intricate spider webs filled every corner. The breeze kicked up by the group's entrance was visible in tiny swirls of dust that rose up from the floor.
Judging from the stale taste of the air that rushed out to great them, it had been a very long time since anyone had entered this room.
"Well that's a let down." The werecat huffed.
"No it isn't, there's just magic in your way." Alexander half whispered, his right eye continuing to see right through every illusion it met.
Florence let loose with another spell to remove mystical enchantments.
A moment later the room began to shimmer, and then it wasn't empty anymore. No, now it was very, very full.
Of treasure.
Piles of coins, covered the floor and chests filled with all manner of trinkets stood along the walls. The place had goblets, rings, crowns, medals, whistles and just about anything else someone might want, all of it solid gold.
Callan Wright took off his glasses, breathed on them, gently wiped them clean with a sleeve of his jacket and put them back on before he spoke, his voice hushed and reverent.
"So, this is what people mean when they talk about having a religious experience." The alchemist admitted.
"Finally found something you're willing to fall down on your knees and worship?" Devi teased, though she didn't take her eyes off the tremendous pile of treasure either.
"Before we take any of this, we should have Florence check it for curses." Alexander pointed out, surreptitiously keeping a firm hand on Cal's shoulder lest his greed get the better of him, something which never ever ended well when dealing with fey of any sort.
More Sylvan chanting.
"It isn't cursed." She dryad answered.
"James start checking it for traps." Alexander ordered equally briskly.
The werecat did what he could, but eventually he couldn't help but shrug, there was too much treasure laying around for any one being to inspect all of it at once.
"How much of it do we take?" Cal whimpered in delight.
Alexander extended his index fingers and spun them around.
"All of it." The silver haired man answered with a predatory grin.
A moment later Callan Wright attached himself to the taller man in much the same way that a barnacle attaches itself to a sea going vessel.
"Boss, you really are the best. I hate all the weird shit you get me into, but you really are the best…." The Lamordian insisted, his voice almost choked with emotion.
After about half a minute or so he was finally able to pry himself loose and set about shoveling treasure into Devi's bag of holding with a maniacal light in his blue eyes.
End Chapter
AN: In normal D&D/most D&D related lands, if you eat some Wolfsbane shortly after being infected by lycanthropy, you have a chance of shaking it off. In Ravenloft however, you need to do a whole bunch of other stuff to possibly be able to shake off lycanthropy, and Alex isn't a lycanthrope anyway, so his eating wolfsbane isn't going accomplish anything other than giving him a chance to role D&D.
The special flower that Florence mentions from Verbrek on the other hand, grants a +10 bonus to your control shape skill rolls, and thus can be very useful for afflicted werewolves hoping to try and at least gain some measure of control over their transformations.
The golem in this section has the power to use prismatic spray, which it does. The indigo light is supposed to drive people insane but Alex made his will save.
I really had to dig deep to find a good spell for this situation and decided on "Stonehold" which doesn't differentiate between friends and foes, which is why Alex needs to keep avoiding becoming victim to it also.
Oh and expect this chapter to be revised and reposted tomorrow and I may be doing posts every other week for a while till I get everything in my life lined up properly, dealing with some minor stuff but still busy all the same.