Angrboda is able to slide in the reach of the trashing skeletal beast as it continues to concentrate on Viktor and his axe. Sadly, like most of the bladed weapons before it, Angrboda's dagger glances off of the thick bony hide of the oracle's mount. Moving along side the nonhuman sorceress, Justin Adds his own darting rapier for a duplicate success as he adds frustration to his stabbing thrust. Each of the attackers darts around the lumbering beast with a ferocity of a hundred ants swarming as Berta adds her own heavy fists to the fray. Bone chips fly as her own dented gauntlet continues to smash down on the beast.

Not-Khazim attempts to jab once more with the short boar spear with as much results as his/it's first thrust. Anger and frustration is matched with steam as droplets hit the spear which has taken on the bluish glow leaking from Not-Khazim's eyes. Ineffective swipes from the beast are easily dodged as water is sprayed across the area in the beasts obviously weakening attempts to hit the assembled attackers.

Viktor's axe is able to finally land a blow. He is able to once again bury his axe deep into the beasts hide. The final hit releases a wave of nasty fluid that washes over the Pan Tangian soldier covering the not submerged portions with a vile smelling fluid. The Beast thrashes for a moment and collapses into the foul water to lay still.

The oracle remains suspended in the air as if it were still on the beasts back.
"You are worthy enough to pass the first test. What is it you seek?" She slowly drifts down to the surface of the calming pool, her unseeing eyes slowly washing over those assembled in the pool.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:32, Fri 24 May 2019.

As the beast finally falls, Berta stands panting, struggling to master the rage that still burns within her breast.  And even as she does regain some semblance of control, the Oracle's words cause that anger to rise up again.

First test ? She purses her lips to keep the curses that want to spill from her tongue from gushing forth, turning her attention to her crushed hand.

Clumsily sheathing her blade with the other, the warrior-woman grits her teeth and sets about trying to prise off the damaged gauntlet without further damaging the hand within, leaving Angrboda and Justin to bandy words with the beautiful but eyeless Oracle.

Upset that the beast's head didn't go flying as he dumps out the wine sack and puts it in his pocket. Glad the beast was destroyed. First you spill my wine and then cover me with demon guts! Tries shaking off the nasty liquid covering him and starts to laugh.

Andrew and Justin wait a few moments till things are calmed down and everyone has taken an inventory of the damage. Both of them exchange glances and obviously unspoken words. Stealing a glance at Not-Khazim Justin steps forward and begins "We have traveled far to seek your knowledge. In this time we are seeking the answers to what has plagued one off our companions." He motions towards Not-Khazim "What we seek is a way to free our friend and return each entity to where they are supposed to be." His hand returns to his side. "That is my question to you Oracle."

Andrew nods and flashes a quick thumbs up with the intention that Not-Khazim is unable to see.

Keeps laughing hysterically as the blood starts to flow back to normal. B...eTrying to say Berta as his legs start to buckle. Looks at Berta as his eyes roll back to normal and faints straight backwards.

"Well, after that we can go with where are we?" says Angrboda wondering how many questions they get before another challenge is put forth, "Follow by how do we get out of here?"

The warrior-woman's struggle to remove her ruined gauntlet ceases abruptly as the demon heart within her grows quiescent, and the cold realisation strikes her of what has happened, forcing from her mind any consideration of what answers she might demand of the Oracle.

"By the Lords of Law and Enthropy and all that lies between !" she swears, biting down on the terror as she stares at her left hand, her jaw tightening as she struggles to open and close her fingers. "This Thrice-be-damned metal glove is now melded with my flesh ... part of me !"


Even preoccupied as she is, and most usually inclined to ignore Viktor's complaints, she can't ignore the big Pan Tangian falling back into the water, rousing her and sending her striding to his side, to haul him up so at least his head is out of the water, holding him protectively as she calls his name and shakes him, trying to rouse him.

"Viktor !  Viktor ! Wake, damn you ... Viktor !"

Rael gathers his bag and runs over to the edge of the scummy pool motioning to berta and the once again immobile form of Viktor. "I need him on the shore! I need to see all his wounds." He steps in towards Berta leaving his bag on the edge of the pool. Sloshing forward he moves to try and grab the iron shod boots of Viktor in an effort to help move the solid Pan Tangian to the shore.

Not-Khazim sits immobile his staring split between the oracle, Justin, and Andrew.

The Oracle floats just barely above the water. Her blind face impassive and emotionless, as if it does not notice the commotion surrounding Viktor. "That of which you seek can not be found here. It lies beyond which holds the shallow waters at bay. There, among the last vestiges of humanity, will you find the key to your answer." The Oracle tilts her head a bit upon hearing Angrboda's voice. "You stand upon the highest peaks of M'oor Talen. You stand on the land of the whispering sea. Do you not like it? Can you not hear your ancestors call to you from the past? Can you not hear them calling you to join them?" A small smile creeps on the Oracle's face that seems far more unnerving than comforting. "To leave, little one, You must find that which keeps the shallow waters at bay."

Andrew looks back towards Berta and Rael. He hastens a few steps to help the duo drag Viktor towards the shore.


OOC>> This next part is under the assumption that you ARE going to get Viktor to the shore.

With considerable effort the limp body of Viktor is unceremoniously dragged and set on the edge of the pool. Rael quickly digs into his rucksack and begins to hand vials to anyone with an open hand. Thanks to the fact that Viktor had removed his armor prior to the incident Rael has easy access to the multiple gashes and tears in his thick hide. Shards of masonry stick out of various wounds. After each shard is removed Rael instructs someone with a free hand to jab a poultice on and to begin wrapping with any free cloth.

OOC>> Viktor has been pelted with dozens of shards and is weeping blood. After several minuets Rael will get them patched and Vitor stable. However, due to the shock Viktor does not seem to be regaining consciousness.

The world goes black and visions appear of women, wine and puppies. Chuckles a little in his sleep as he drifts off to never never land...

Angrboda shakes her head, "Damn demons and their cryptic answers." she thinks as she listens to the riddles spewing forth from the oracles mouth, "Alright then, how do we find the thing that keeps the shallow waters at bay?"

Having given her blood that she might hear the Oracle, Berta now struggles to close her ears to the nonsense that the blind woman spouts, all her attention on the unconscious Pan Tangian.

Getting Viktor out of the pool was the easy part, for all that even she, strong and big as she is, needed the help of Rael and Andrew to move him, hampered as she was by a hand that is now more blade than flesh.

And her fallen friend needs no more cuts or tears, for the demon's demise has hurt him badly, she sees, tearing makeshift bandages and applying them as the pale man directs her, the battle to save Viktor one that swords and axes even razor sharp fists cannot win.

"Is it working ?" she questions Rael urgently, glaring at the Oracle over his shoulder.  "Why does he not awaken ?"

Rael looks to Berta and sighs. "Sometimes the body just needs to shutdown." He points to the prior nose and skin alterations of Viktor and then to Berta's own hand. "It may be that whatever has afflicted you two may simply stressed him to the point of simply needing to rest." Rael begins to gather his items away from the edge of the pool. "I've bound his wounds and done what I can. All we can do at this point is wait." Andrew looks at the wounds and then towards the other two attending Viktor. Pointing to Rael's own hand Andrew speaks up. "Kaa can attempt to revive him with the same power he used to mend your own hand. At least it can give it a shot if your willing." Rael absently scratches the scarred flesh on his own hand.

The sightless eyes of the Oracle fixate on Angrboda. "For now you are on the highest point of M'oor Talen yet here you are at your lowest." The Oracle's bare feet gracefully step forward across the surface stagnant pond towards her. Each step leaving a tiny ripple on the surface. She bends down reaching her pale skinned hand towards the side of Angrboda's face. Her cupped fingers extend softly towards the side of Angrboda's jaw. "I can tell you young one that you seek Straasha's Bane and that it is in a place that he could never reach."

Angrboda just sneers at the Oracles touch, "Very well demon, where do we need to go to acquire this Straasha's bane?" she asks looking around at the sea available to her sight.

That anything might push the big Pan Tangian beyond his endurance, Berta can scarcely credit ... yet still Viktor sleeps and shows no sign of wakening.  And the straits in which they find themselves are forgiving of no weakness ...

"Do what you can," the warrior-woman asks Andrew, looking to Rael for his approval, the Pale man knowing far more of the risks than she.

"I shall do what I can to prevent further bloodshed !"  Alerted by the tone of the Melnibonean's reponse to the Oracle, Berta stands.  She's no use at all for the Oracle-demon, of course, holding it fully responsible for Viktor's condition (and that of her own warped hand) save that they needs gain the answers it purportedly holds.

Stepping into the dank pool once more, Berta wades over to Angrboda's side, offering just a small nod to her companion to show she has the warrior-woman's support and no greeting at all to the Oracle as she waits for the blind woman's answer, trying to make what sense she can of what she's heard but partly and understood less.

'Straasha's Bane' is the thing that holds the waters at bay, it seems, and it can be found in a place the Lord of Water cannot reach ... such as the 'highest point of M'oor Talen' ?

Berta would be the first to declare herself no great thinker (though she'd challenge any other who dared say such) and takes the Oracle's words literally, where others might seek instead to glean hidden meanings.

And so her gaze strays to the top of the pillar as she chews over these thoughts, wondering if perhaps there is aught else up there from whence Angrboda plucked the book, and moreover ...

"What do we do with it, with 'Straasha's Bane' ?" she demands of the Oracle impatiently, "Do we destroy it ?"  The Lord of Water hates his rival, Lord Pyaray, so anything that would help the former would be to the detriment of the Chaos Fleet and therefore much to be desired.

Andrew nods and waves Rael away. He pulls out a small tube and slides along sinewy form out of the container. After whispering a few instructions to the item, hundreds of tiny cilia like feathers beat against the air to send the serpentine creature aloft. The tiny winged snake flits over to the comatose form of Viktor and lays on his chest. The creature begins to glow a soft rosy light. Soon the aura begins to envelope the Pan Tangian like water being slowly poured over his form.

Viktor's Eyes flit open.


The Oracle's other hand flits over to Berta. The fingers gently extended as if a mother were caressing the cheeks of two favored daughters. Focusing on the tall warrior with her sightless eyes, "Of course, that would return the shallow waters." The Oracle tilts her head slightly and returns her "gaze" to Angrboda. "Why, it rests where the shallow waters can not reach."

Slowly opens his eyes and makes an attempt at getting up. Very slow but steady as he rises. Feels his teeth and chuckles at his new tusks. Got any raw meat?

Unlike the Melnibonean, Berta is more angered by than contemptuous of the Oracle's touch upon her face, but betrays nothing of that save by the hardening of her eyes, doing her best to ignore the affront that she might gain thereby.

"The shallows ..." that would seem to confirm the path her thoughts have set her upon, though the answer which Angrboda is given could be interpreted to mean either the heights (of Mo'or Talen as she had surmised) or the depths of the ocean which might be beyond Lord Straasha, but equally beyond the reach of herself and her companions.

"I think 'Straasha's Bane' is here," the warrior-woman suggests to Angrboda, deciding, though she does not take her eyes off the Oracle, refusing (or not daring) to turn away from that blind gaze, though the sounds behind her of Viktor's awakening do bring a small smile to her face, all that she'll allow herself for the moment.

Andrew and Rael help Viktor to his feet. "Take it easy, you took a nasty hit" Rael begins to inspect the newly grown tusks barely protruding from Viktors mouth. Andrew slides his serpentine friend back into the tube like holster at his belt. "I'm sorry fella but Kaa is in no condition to get you something. The only raw meat is going to be down on the beach with those iguanas if there are any here."

Justin sits watching as the Oracle caresses the cheeks of the two. He addresses the three women while glancing back at Not-Khazim who has completely taken no interest in the talking going on and has started to wander around the plateau. "I'm not familiar with this Pyaray the fish man spoke of. It is obvious that it rules this realm and it is some sort of ocean god. Would Straasha be it's nemesis given the talks of shallow water? If that is true I doubt that the item that would bane it's nemesis would be out of it's own reach up here."

"Maybe we should have taken that fishman up on his offer to meet this lord. If only we knew what we were looking for in the first place." Andrew kicks a loose rock in the general direction of the closest edge to the plateau.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:27, Fri 05 July 2019.

Nods and gets his items and armor back on. He then goes on one knee and asks Donblas for strength. Finds a piece of jerky in his pocket and chews on it with his new teeth.

Justin's words do naught to improve Berta's humour, already tested by both the Oracle's touch and her riddles.

"Pyaray and Straasha are enemies certainly ... but you're right ... most like anything that would harm one would harm the other," the warrior-woman concedes reluctantly.

"'Where shallow waters cannot reach' ..." Berta repeats.  "In deep waters ?"

"What form does "Strassha's Bane take ?" she demands of the blind woman, "and how do we get from here to where it lies?"

The Oracle focuses her sightless face on Berta's own as it twists into a small look of motherly concern. "The Bane is a chalice and you are right dearest one, it is very deep. It is held in the embrace of the embodiment of the world itself. The trek is long and difficult but I know you can handle it." Her hand slowly withdraws from Angrboda and Berta's face. With a slight flip of her wrist she points to the sea beyond the edge of the plateau. "Why, you walk." She raises to her feet and begins to walk towards the path that brought each of you to the top off the plateau.

A mother's concern ... Berta has known, if perhaps not always been a deserving recipient, and her frustration, at least for the moment, turns towards confusion.

Though even that quickly passes as the Oracle finally provides a simple truth that the warrior-woman can latch on to.  A chalice.  And hidden deep, though seemingly within the earth not the sea.

Leaving but the conundrum of how to reach it.  With but a quick glance at Angrboda, Berta hurries after the blind woman with long strides, eager to see where the Oracle leads them.

The path that they climbed ... might that trail go down also ?

Finds all of his items and gets his weapons and armor ready. Waits as he half listens to the oracle. Not excited about having to walk a long distance. Rests and waits for the oracle to give them direction.

Justin, Andrew, and the rest of the crew watch as the Oracle begins the downward trek along the ruined path. Where the group had issues the Oracle has none as her feet barely touch the ground. After a long climb down you find yourselves at the beach were you woke up after the encounter with Pyaray's flagship.

The Oracle stops at the shore and waves her hand at the ocean whispering behind her as if she were showing off the newest treasure in a kings horde. Her pale white skin gleams like a pearl against the twilight sky and grey rolling waves.

"Below the waves and beyond the light. Since you are set upon this course for the Chalice that is where you can find it." She motions to Berta with that same sorrowful look on her face from earlier "Please come forth." She stretches both hands in front of her palms up waiting for Berta to take them.

The cold grey seas seem now no more enticing than when they fled Pyaray's ship, and the long climb down in the Oracle's wake has set her pulse a-racing.  Though that she must enter the whispering ocean once more seems now inevitable, much as she would prefer a hidden stair descending through the earth and setting aside the small matter that she'll be long drowned before her corpse reaches the ocean's floor ...

Jaw tightening, Berta yet bows to the necessity, squaring her shoulders as she looks briefly to her companions before crossing the sands to join the blind woman, offering up her hands (the one that is more weapon that flesh somewhat hesitantly and almost apologetically, for all the spider-demon was the cause of it) and her trust besides.