"Owweee!" Bridget says with squinting eyes and tears streaming. "It hurts!"

The demon takes advantage to make one last massive spite attack on Mittens. Bridget moves over and shifts from fist to palm before moving to strike just as she opens her eyes and squeaks! Bridget's palm stops short of Mittens, but Bridget says, "Lookout!" anyway. Not in time. Mittens gets blasted with some aftershock ki blast before Bridget's leg involuntarily roundhouses Mittens to the face!

Just as Mittens falls to the ground, however, C-cleric says, "RISE!" as if this was Altered Beast and Mittens gains consciousness again. He then once again fails to hit Bridget with an attack.

Aquarius barely manages to soak Bridget again, doing only 5 dmg this time since stage 2 isn't vulnerable to radiant.

(OOC: Stunning Palm followed by Fallen Needle.)
(healing word on KO Mitts. Miss Bridget)
(Waterblast hit! It wasn't very effective.)

  Joe is so very glad that Mittens got to bounce back so fast.  Which gives him time to not dig for potions, and instead uses the most manly of attacks upon their possessed enemy.  "Thanks for helping out Mittens."

  He kicks them in the shins with zero psychic powers backed martial artistry.  So of course this works.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:10, Thu 20 July 2017.

Mits stands back up.  "Owee is right.  Gunna have to find out how much of that was Bridget is awesome and how much was demon induced overdrive.  Think you're in control enough for us to tie you up now, Bridget?"

The two Mittenszes are ready to attack if not.

Bridget says, "I'm so sorry! I wasn't in control! This is so embarrassing! And yes, you should be able to tie me up, but the demon can teleport, so I don't see the point. Though knocking me unconscious... do whatever you need to banish the demon."

The cleric says, "We need to know why you got possessed in the first place."

Bridget says, "I overheard what he said to you about being a demon of despair. I think he took advantage of my feelings and entered in. I was just in a very bad downward spiral this past week."

The cleric does what he did to Bridget's mom and makes her fall asleep. Then begins some divine ritual on her.

  Okay, so quilting was just SO boring that it was too much to handle… Right, probably not the actual lesson here, let alone sequence of events.

  "Right, I know it's going to be super tempting Mittens. But no saying 'I told you so' over not killing civilians to Bridget's mother."  He turns back to Aquarius, and says "Thank you for coming to help us, you really did make a difference."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:25, Thu 20 July 2017.

Mits notes the cleric doing a ritual.  "Insert nerd bit here about non-eladrin mages needing to do magical gestures in order to teleport here.

"Joe, you're athletic and all.  Would you be so kind as to retrieve said boastful mage's body to this premises.  I get the feeling that it would make the holy ritual go smoother."

She continues her search for something useful in this mage's room once again.  Emo returns to her normal non-combat form.  "Mittens makes no promises.  But we thank Aquarious and cleric face as well."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:32, Thu 20 July 2017.

Fast Forwarding!

Aquarius bids the heroes farewell and returns to the water. The mage's body is brought, his soul returned, and the demon is permanently sealed away. Bridget is safe and thanks the heroes repeatedly. The cleric returns to his church, letting the heroes know they are welcome to sleep (and eat) for free at the church if they wish.

  "We do appreciate it, the average tavern Inn can still be fairly loud if you want to sleep past the breakfast rush."  And all the musical numbers.  No one flips flapjacks like Gaston, undercooks eggs like Gaston.  Sunny side up or I'll cut you Gaston.

  As they assumedly return towards Bridget's home, "Not gonna lie. I probably upset your mom with my lack of social skills."

Mits is sure to brag about the amazing, BRAVE cleric to anyone she has a chance to.

"You'd think saving the town from the obvious doomsday spell would be enough to get a pass on less-than-perfect social graces.  Let alone directly saving the life of a family member."

Emo adds, "For the Human in the team, at the very least."

Bridget says, "You and me both, Joe. I upset her when you met me."

When the group gets to Bridget's house, the mom glomps Bridget and kisses her all over the face, going on about how worried she was. Then thanks the heroes profusely, apologizing for yelling at them. "My marriage was ruined by adventurers. My other child was taken from me by adventurers. Half of my belongings were stolen from me by adventurers. And because they had saved the town, people told me I should be grateful to them. Even now, my own emotions force me to have a deep hatred and distrust of you even though I know better now. I guess the only way I can try to help you in return is to leave you this warning; If you want your heart broken worse than any divorce, keep adventuring. It will come. Either your heart will be broken... or you will become jaded enough to destroy others' hopes and dreams while thinking you are heroes for doing so. Of course, reason tells me the latter won't happen to you. But that still leaves you being hurt."

   "I really wish I could say asshole adventures are the exception, but the murder hobo stereotype is one for a reason.  But then, being able to bounce back from becoming an emo wreck is how you last long enough to matter."  Somewhere, a Gith soul in a jar sighs.

  "That and adventuring is delightfully optimistic compared to what I was doing before that, but that's probably more to do with my questionable upbringing."

"Apology accepted!"

Emo gets all nerdy, "'Murderhobo' is a case of misnomer.  To quote a scholarly adventurer, 'the proper term would be "manslaughter nomad".  Manslaughter because you don't have the intention to murder, but you do kill a lot of things, usually in self defense or as part of your breaking and entering with intention of robbing and possibly desecration of villain lairs.  Nomad because while you travel around you are not lacking in material goods, in fact a high level adventurer is usually richer than some small countries, and you might have a home base to come back to.'

"But it just doesn't roll off the tongue like murderhobo.  Murderhobo is a funny word to say.  Manslaughter nomad is too long, too clunky.  Hence the popularity of the former."

Mits further clarifies, "Someone who incidentally does some good in the process of being evil is still evil.  Not heroes.  Not even noble enough to deserve the title, 'adventurer.'  So please call them what they are:  Villains.

"I appreciate your concern for my well-being.  I understand that being a hero will cost me.  Already has.  I choose to pay the price anyway.  Because honestly, not being a hero would cost me way more."

The mother explains that was one of the reasons she and Bridget were arguing when Joe and Mittens first met Bridget. "But if heroes are still real... I knew my Bridget wouldn't wind up like that. I just didn't want her to get herself killed by other adventurers by being 'too good' for their liking."

  Somewhere, Kyle sympathizes with the mother's worries about being 'too good' getting people killed from the entirely opposite direction.

  "Well, right now our biggest threat to your daughter is wanting to get her a ride on a giant puppet."
This message was last updated by the player at 03:44, Fri 21 July 2017.

"Now that we have that all cleared up, we may as well get a detailed description of these villains and the child they took.  On the remote chance that we encounter them."

Emo shrugs.  "Not quite so remote with our adventure sense."

Briget looks hopeful for a second, then dejected. "Please don't get my hopes up. My twin was taken from us when I was little. If he's alive, he has years of travel between us and him."

The mother says, "Thanks for the offer. If you happen to find my son... bring him home, please. In the meantime, you may as well stay in town to complete the tasks you set out to do..... like... riding a puppet?"

  "Between the boring stuff like my helping out with the tavern during the festival, arrangements were being made for an outlandish puppet show." Before Bridget got possessed, at least.

Mits grins.  "Mayzilla vs Draketaur!"

She poofs some normal-sized puppets and has them battle.

"Mittens got her start watching puppet shows as a kid," Emo explains.

Fanfare music plays with txt saying "Bridget has joined the party"

Fast Forward!

The puppet show is a hit. The town loves it. Vade has fun (and provides fireworks). Bridget makes for a great Mayzilla rider. The half of the town that isn't extremely racist has a little bit of an "I told you so" moment to the other half of the town, but even the racist half is unable to bring themselves to not enjoy such an epic puppet show. They compromise with "Mittens is OK, but humans are still superior" and site the fact the puppet show would not have been so grand without the aid of the very human Vade.

The festival does have some neat things besides the puppet show, though. They light lantern balloons that float off into the night sky, making it look magical. Everyone in town has glow sticks of varying colors that they eventually wave in rythm with a hymn they sing to an ancient hero who rescued the region from a magical darkness by having the people unite and light up every candle and lantern they could to scare the darkness away. The buildings then light up with strands of glowy material they had been decorated with.

After the festival, Bridget says her goodbyes to her mom as she prepares to set off with Mitts and Joe with the escort job.

  While obviously watching a slightly taller than usual May use wagon sized weaponry certainly improved matters, Joe is glad to find that the usual parts of the festival were also quite pleasant.

  "Don't worry, even the worst of wagon rides is made up primarily of a boring road trip."  Even ones with an interruption of a horrible cross between a bear and a drake still had a boring ride leading up to them.

During the festival, Mittens was sure to address the people and tell them the truth about Groggy.  She doesn't lecture them about racism directly since it looks like progress is being made.

The following day, Mittens rolls her eyes.  "Wagon trips are fun!  And 'boring' is not a good thing."

Emo goes with a Mittens twin look since there's no longer any need to be broody.  "We still have yet to determine how much of Bridget's clobbering was super-charged by the demon, and how much of it was Bridget is way stronger than a common villager should be."

Bridget says, "Oh... everything I did on top of the tower were things I can do normally. But I took a lot more punishment than I normally could... probably because that was the demon's health you were tearing through before getting to me. I've been training hard so I can go adventure, find my brother, and teach those evil adventurers a lesson."

Don't piss off villagers too badly. The chances one of them will spend a lifetime training just to crush you are inevitable by sheer numbers.

Bridget looks at Joe and Mittens with a smile and says, "With you and Mittens around, I'm not worried about anything!"

  "My biggest worry is being incredibly self conscious about how much I'm essentially hiding behind you all.  Given shooting things with arrows is best done from past where I can get my own face punched"

Mits stares at Bridget, amazed.  "Jeez.  Well dang, then.  You're plenty prepared to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Joe and I, then.  Unless you can't take it nearly as well as you can dish it.  Gotta be a tad tougher than that.  As you saw, I could even survive your strongest attack.  Took the help of a cleric to get up from it, but still."

She shrugs to Joe.  "I dispensed with the silly trappings of culture-imposed gender roles by the time I could walk.  Don't let society make you feel bad for being 10,000 times braver than the vast majority of the population just because you have the sense to combat evil with what you're talented in."

Mittens 2 smiles and gives Joe an arm-hug.  Then floats over to give Bridget a smiley hug as well.

Bridget answers Joe immediately, "Says the guy who walked up and kicked me in the shin." and sticks her tongue out at him. "You don't fool me, Joe. If you decided to walk up to me and kick me in the shin after I took out Mittens with one kick, then when we need you to, you won't be afraid to come in close."

Bridget nods to what Mittens says to Joe. Then smiles brightly at the hug and hugs back. "We all have our self-doubts. I'm glad you're secure enough to share yours, Joe... but I'm not that secure. It may be a while before I share mine."