Hester pulled her hair back and tied it into a bun and then, with the merest touch to her sleeve, she seemed to be dressed just like her own grandmother.  She began moving and speaking like an old woman as she shuffled unsteadily to the fore and said in a quavering voice.  "Please Madame Wren.  For your sake and that of the city, I entreat you to allow us to help you."

"Why are you bringing my name into this?" She stated flatly. "I am not attacking a leaving foe, am I? No. They left so I did no further attacks, so do not bring my name up for what our companions were doing." She stated as she followed them to the door.

The two Whisper hosts fall to the ground, between bolts and a blow from Bristle. They are both smirking right up until they die.

Meanwhile, after a long moment, the door unlocks. And unlocks. And unlocks. There were a rather excessive number of locks, chains, and bars holding it closed, it seems. But eventually it finishes opening, revealing a dark-skinned woman who was distinctly unusual in her appearance. She had a white mask on that covered her face with only eye holes to show what was beneath, and her black hair was done in countless small braids. She had a drum on her belt, and a blade in hand, a short sword that was old and worn but clearly well-maintained.

She looked at Hester for a long moment, then nodded, stepping back enough for the sorceress to follow her inside. Her free hand flicked through a few quick gestures, too fast to follow without practice.

Once inside, Hester asked, "Why did you let me in, if I may ask?"

After confirming all of the bodies were truly dead by using her Deathwatch vision, Bristle rushed to tuck them out of obvious view before rejoining the main group. She made sure to have her basic cantrips active (Detect Magic, Guidance, and Enhanced Diplomacy) as she followed at the rear of the group. "I presume you are Wren?" she asked. Then promptly recalled that Caleb had said the woman liked to communicate in sign language. "One moment please. I have a spell that will let me comprehend your language." She had another spell to detect the woman's thoughts as well, to help ensure this wasn't actually another whisper agent, but Bristle felt it would be more appropriate to wait on that one...

---

Casting the spell Comprehend Languages on myself. (I would have offered it to another party member, but it had a range of "you.") It should last 70 minutes.

Wren nods appreciatively to Bristle, moving inside as she waves for the rest to join them in her home. Inside it is cluttered, every horizontal surface covered in books, papers, and knicknacks. Her hands fly through gestures as she walks through a sitting room, down a hall, and into the small kitchen to set on water for tea.

As Wren began talking in her language that consisted of various hand-signs (or sign-language, if you will), Bristle did her best to translate to the group. She started by telling Hester why Wren allowed her to enter. "Hester, she says she let you in because you "drove the god-killing nightmare away from my door." And because if you meant her harm, you could have sat back and watched the mob eventually get into her home." Bristle shrugged, then addressed the entire group. "She also wants to know if we would like some tea or a biscuit. I'll take some, I suppose." The last bit was directed to Wren herself.

As Bristle found a comfortable area to lean against a doorframe or wall, she asked Wren, "So, why is it that Whisper is going through so much trouble for you anyway?" She prepared to translate Wren's response for the entire group.

---

Bristle will try to translate everything Wren says, word for word, so everyone can understand her. (Unless it happens to be something secretive meant only for Bristle.)

Caleb followed everyone else inside after confirming the kills, and as everyone else filed into the kitchen he set up in a corner, taking aim at the doorway with his crossbow. Once Bristle translated the rapid signs, his eyes widened in surprise. "God-killing nightmare? Please tell me that's just some kind of made up title," he said, in a tone that conveyed he suspected what answer he was going to receive.

"She knows," said Hester, pointing to the papers on the table. She looks over any in languages that she can read.

"An exaggeration, but no, not made up. She killed a demon lord in the old times, so thoroughly that his name is long forgotten." Wren's signs are translated by Bristle smoothly.

"As for why she'd want me dead, I suspect it's because I made something of a study of her history at one point. She's a fascinating figure in local history. I can't say I expected her to return in my lifetime, though." She sips tea before continuing.

"Before I tell you anything more, you should know that this is knowledge that can be very dangerous. Not just in the normal sense. The more you know about Whisper, the more she has an avenue into your mind. It is quite literally a vulnerability that she can and will exploit."

Hester asked, "Does ignorance bring a converse power?  We know she wants to return to life.  We've all dreamed of her and she's driven my grandmother to take ship and flee.  Would we be safer if that's all we knew, given she seems to be tracking us?"

This time the response comes slower. "Would you be safer? In some ways...Whisper needs an inroad to start infiltrating a person's mind, but you're already exposed. And knowing more would help you fight back, at the same time that it gives her access. It's hard to be sure whether the gain outweighs the cost, and likely the optimal point is somewhere in between. I don't know personally - she's too smart to try and poach my mind away."

Hester smiles.  There!  "Why would she be unsmart if she tried to poach your mind and how does she know that?" She asks, hoping against hope that this is the clue to destroying the monster that is Whisper.

"Ooooo. Smart," Bristle complimented Hester during a momentary lapse in her translations. She had been so caught up in repeating what Wren was saying that Bristle was not quite as quick on her comprehension as Hester.

The cleric had been contemplating trying her thought detection spell to test whether Wren was truly free of Whisper-influence, but was now glad she had waited. It might be prudent to learn what Wren's mental defenses were before deciding to try and read her mind. Whether discretely or with permission.

She eagerly awaited Wren's answer and was ready to translate it to the group.

Firea nodded at the offer of tea, but beyond that would let the others do the talking and listened intently to what was being said.

"Well, I sold more than my voice to Shyka all those years ago. As far as they're concerned, I belong to them, and taking me would be poaching. Whisper isn't foolish enough to make an enemy of an Eldest fey lightly." Wren shrugs.

Bristle's excitement faded when she realized they probably wouldn't be able to duplicate Wren's protection against Whisper. At least not safely. Still, Wren still hadn't left answered all of Hester's question. She had left out an important tidbit.

"I have about a million questions I want to ask about your fey dealings, but I will do my best to not get sidetracked here. So I'll only ask these two questions. How does Whisper know she would be poaching if she tried to take your mind? And is there a way we might be able to duplicate such a... mark? Signal? Warning? Preferably without doing what you had to do..."

---

What does Bristle know (if anything) about Shyka or Eldest fey?
21:15, Today: Bristle Chonk rolled 10 using 1d20+7.  Knowledge: Nature, with Guidance - fey stuff.
Yeah... probably nothing worthwhile.

Caleb stood in the corner, trying to keep up with a conversation he had not the education to understand. When Bristle finished asking her questions, he piped up for himself. "I don't know what an Eldest is but I'm guessing it's something like Whisper, right? Can it kill her?"

Hester looked from Bristle to Caleb and then back again.  "An entity that Whisper fears," she said, "Is probably equally as dangerous and terrifying as she if not more so."  Her gaze returned to Wren and she asked, "Is that not so?"

"If knowledge of Whisper makes it easier for her to possess people, then what of the many she has already possessed?" Voh'ren asked.

"You're not going to convince it to kill her, not without something in return. That's how the Fey work." Firea said simply, and in thought as if she was thinking about something. She began pacing even. Something rare for the normally calm firefox.

"I imagine she knows because she looked and saw their mark. As to duplicating it...I haven't the faintest idea how. And I can't imagine that a battle between Shyka and Whisper would end well for us. 'When giants war, the grass is crushed,' as they say in the River Kingdoms. Shyka could certainly end her, they have the power of a true god, but the collateral damage, to say nothing of the price they would ask for it...."

"Power of a god." She suddenly stopped pacing, then looked towards Wren and said even as she was still considering for a moment. "Tell me Wren, what about someone blessed by a god? Would that mimic the same thing as you?"

As a devout cleric, Bristle was curious to see where Firea was going with her question. Because she assumed Firea was not referring to blessings from Death.

Still, it seemed they were getting a bit off-track, so Bristle added to Firea's words to try and help steer the conversation back on course. "Perhaps knowing what Whisper actually is would help us think of more possible protections as well. I, for one, am prepared to take on the risks of learning each and every one of Whisper's secrets. I am a cleric of knowledge and Death. And I feel knowledge will help us to bring Whisper to Death's door. Everyone stands at Death's door eventually."

"Perhaps, but you'd need your patron's personal attention and investment. How many, even among clerics, can say that their god would step in to strike someone down for killing them? Precious few." Wren pauses, and then begins to gesture again, a little slower, almost thoughtful if her body language is to be trusted.

"Whisper is...unique. At least, I assume so - the world is a big place, but they don't make minds like hers very often. Most of what I know is from sources of unclear validity, so take it with a grain of salt. But here goes.

"A very long time ago, Whisper was a half-elf in what is now Andoran, but which at the time was...who knows? Perhaps not even fully settled yet. She was a mage of rare power, one who made a lot of bargains and got a lot of power from them. She kept her word, they say, to the letter - and no further. Had more enemies in the lower planes than the upper, for all that she was a terribly evil person. She'd sold everyone down there down the river, at one point or another. Maybe that's what finally got her. No one I've found knows what finally got her killed.

Because that's the problem, miss. She did stand at death's door. And she walked away. Even as a memory, she had the power to turn back at the threshold, and she did. Found a pocket of another plane and tucked herself away, as a remnant. And she bided her time.

"She came back at least once. Or started to, same as this time, back in 2062. A dream, they said. It started as a dream. But the more you gave her roads in, the more you opened the door, the more she started to be able to do. You'd see her while you were awake. Then she'd start being able to use magic through you. Then you'd start losing control of your body, and in the end, you'd be gone. Just her left, another copy of her rather, running around in your body, but you weren't there anymore.

"I don't know how they stopped her, old Elias Halson and his friends. No one does. As far as I know, he went out into the woods alone, and never came back. His squire was the only one went with him. She came back, but she wasn't the same, she'd seen something that...she couldn't unsee. The people who talked to her say she told them that it was over, but she wasn't gone. Said to be afraid of dark places, not because of what was there, but because of what wasn't. Said all the witch needed was a vessel and she'd start it all over. And that's the last she ever spoke."