"A pin'd be best, I think, cuz he knows we came 'ere with it.  He might take it just to be mean otherwise."

Dinkar slipped the eighth-staff from his belt and held it out for inspection. Then, on a sudden impulse, he took out that strange feather he'd found a couple of days ago, and been carrying ever since. He'd had a couple of strange incidents where he'd floated, and that was the only thing that he could think of that might be responsible for it. He he;d it out, too.

Sarah bashes a spider good! ...but she gets a little wild, and also accidentally bashes Tassa, the bat! Oops! Sorry, Tassa!!

Tassa stands there, reeling a little, looking a little dazed... Yikes! Another spider's about to pounce of Tassa! Stop him/her/it! Save Tassa!

---

Madame Bitterroot actually jumps back a foot. "Gahh!!" She squints. "That thing's cursed! Boy, is that thing accursed! We've got to get that thing away from you, right away! You kids are coming with me to th' north beach, I know a ritual that might straighten that thing out..."




"Huh? Oh, sure, whatever, I'll make you a duplicate pin-- after we cure this poor girl of this curse!"




"Eh? What's this? Oooh, interesting, a Staff of Capture. When someone casts a spell at you, you hold this staff up, and there's a good chance it'll grab the spell before it hits you! Then you can lob it back at the caster-- or save it for later! It can only hold one spell at a time, though."

Looking at the feather: "My, my, you kids have been busy... or lucky! This is a Feather of Feather Falling! No pit traps for you! No wonder you lot survived Smash sendin' you on a mission..."

"C-cursed?!" Jaffa'd been worried for a moment that Madame Bitterroot might notice Omar's lamp among their things with how good she was at figuring out magic stuff, but one of them being cursed?! That was way more important! Her first instinct was to shout out a question about what she could do to help--- but Madame Bitterroot had kinda already answered that question, so instead, she nodded. "Yeah! We'll do whatever we can to help uncurse each other!"

"Sorry! And oh no you don't!" Sarah quickly apologize and immediately stands between the spider and Tassa. Her shield raise to protect both her and Tassa, and also as a weapon as she bangs her shield right on its many eyes.

07:53, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 13 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,3,5.  Forceful defensive!

Anthielle laughed out aloud.

"A convincing bluff old woman... *I* almost believed it.  But I'll not be separated from this little wonder.  And we wouldn't have beaten the Dirt Elemental without it.  The only curse I've found... is that other people want it."

Sarah not only defends Tassa and herself, she knocks that spider into two others-- all three of whom are smashed good by a charge at that moment from the hedgehog. "Thanks!" says the hedgehog to Sarah as he runs past...

"S.. Sarah...?" calls Peromi. Her voice sounds stronger! Looking back for a second, Sarah sees Peromi looking better. "You come guard your friend while we finish this fight," says the Baj the squirrel cleric. "I'll take back over for you..."

---

"Yes, yes, that's fine. Just a little joke... No one wants to take your delightful chisel from you," Madame Bitterroot says to Anthielle in an almost-singsong. "Just all of you follow me to the north beach of this island where I'm going to do a magic ritual, won't that be interesting. And then I'll give you some nice candy..."

"Understood, good luck!" Sarah said, joining up with Peromi,"Hey, you okay? Did you find what you were looking for?"

Huh? So, was Anthi not actually cursed? That would certainly be a relief, but... why was Madame Bitterroot talking weird now? And what was that about people wanting the chalk? Anthi'd found that fair and square! Jaffa knew no one in their group would be so silly as to try and take it. Maybe one of the pirates had tried when she wasn't paying attention?! That was a scary thought...

"Uh... Erm... What sort of ritual then, if there's no curse to deal with? And what kinda candy?" Jaffa got the distinct sense that there was no candy at all, but at least having more info might give them something to go on? Or it might move them along and away from this conversation.

While it smelled like a trap, seeing a ritual was tempting.  She’d follow along if her friends were game, but Anthielle did NOT let go of her Precious chisel.

“Did we have anything else to show?”  She asked the others.

"Yes... the silver needle... it's the legendary weapon my people will respect as a symbol of times past... I hope it's enough to impress them, anyway..." Peromi definitely sounds stronger. She sounds a little shaken up, but not like she's in any danger of dying, like before.

---

Madame Bitterroot give Jaffa an ...Oh I see look. "Um... we're just going... to... um, activate the belaying pin! It's been lying around unused for a while, after all... we need to wake it up." She ends this with a look at Jaffa that Dinkar interprets as meaning You sweet summer child.




(Well? Do y'all?)

"Woah, nifty... I think I should carry it though. A weapon like that is fit for the strongest rat. Sides, we are dealing with giant spiders and all I got is a shield and a toothpick"

Uh huuuuuuuuuuuuh. Activating the pin... That sounded reasonable -- the house had needed something like that too, kinda -- and maybe she'd only just thought of it now, but after having mentioned that other ritual, Jaffa couldn't help but stay suspicious. Besides, she'd also phrased it as some optional fun magic to watch! Why do that if the ritual was needed to actually use the pin thingie? And those looks! At first it seemed like Madame Bitterroot had kinda gotten her concern, but she was maybe probably still hiding something. And Jaffa couldn't even begin to guess what the second look was supposed to mean.

Maybe Madame Bitterroot hadn't been wrong earlier and she just didn't trust Anthi to believe her about the curse? That was silly. Anthi may be a little stubborn, but she at least usually listened to good ideas. And if Anthi thought there wasn't any curse, then there wasn't any curse -- it wasn't like Jaffa knew anything about curses or magic to say otherwise, she was just a kid! But what if the curse had done something to her mind maybe? She'd said that thing about people wanting it, but not who had wanted it.

This was hard. Jaffa needed a thinking cap.

But at least she could kinda guess that, maybe, Madame Bitterroot thought there was a curse? And that this ritual would do something to help? Even if she was wrong, it wouldn't do any harm, right? But it wasn't like she knew Madame Bitterroot... She'd been really nice so far, but what if she had just been looking for the chance to do a ritual to do a bad thing instead?! Wait, no, that was silly, she'd've used this reactivating excuse much earlier then. What should she do?!



Again, she thought about Omar and his lamp. If she brought it up, that would give her more time to maybe figure this out. Maybe she could even ask Anthi a question or two! Or Omar!! Maybe he'd know what to do! But she still kinda didn't want to bring him up here? They knew what his lamp was already and she didn't want to show him off to everyone like a toy.

Jaffa winced as she resisted the urge to groan in frustration. She was out of time.

"Uh, no, I don't think we had anything else? Thank you very much, Madame Bitterroot! And wow, that sounds like a ritual we can't pass up on: literally!" Jaffa nodded exuberantly. She sure made it sound important, which was weird because, uh, because of all of the thoughts she'd just thunk. But maybe... Maybe this was the right thing to do? There was only one way to find out. And that was by asking the most important question of all.

"And what about the candy? What kind is it?"

"I understand. You go ahead and wield it until we are both away from this dangerous area, and until I am feeling a bit more recovered..." says Peromi. "You brought strong allies, I see..."

---

"Um... anise-seed. With a hint of tangelo. It's... it's good," says Madame Bitterroot. "So, ready to hit the north beach, everyone?" she adds brightly.

"Sarah Farwing always brings the best of the best! You should be proud of picking a friend like me." she said, dropping the toothpick in order to wield the silver needle,"Hehe, finally a weapon for me! Alright, you spiders better prepare for a beat down of your life!" she said, scanning which spider is a threat.

Not sure if Who's First applies since combat is still going. But if it doesn't, which spider was the original threat.

Well shoot, that sounded delicious. Also like it took her a little too long to come up with it to have been her initial plan... But tasty all the same.

"Uh huh!" Jaffa agreed, internally wincing at how that was a little too exuberant. As casually as she could (which was... not by much), the kobold tried to position herself such that, when they left with Madame Bitterroot, she would be the one closest to the woman. She wanted a chance to... make sure things would turn out okay?

How would she even do that though?! Threaten her with, like, substandard pain relief? Ask really really nicely? Gah, this would be so much easier if she were Din or Raga or Sarah or Anthi! They were so much better at getting people to do things...

Raga saunters over so she can stick close to Jaffa.

(I dunno either, so it must be up to me. This time, at least, I say: yeah, I'll play along.)

The fight isn't officially over yet, but Sarah's allies seem to be winning. The ally that seems like she could most use Sarah's help right now is the big spider Tassa, the bat, is up against.

---

Madame Bitterroot leads the kids through the trees on the north side of the house (they were coming from the south side originally). Jaffa's new wire friend comes too.

They see a couple more lumberdogs, but when they come running up, Madame Bitterroot just tells them "Hush! Sit! Stay!" and they immediately obey her, and everyone just keeps moving.

After less than 15 minutes, everyone arrives at a pretty section of beach. Madame Bitterroot starts drawing circles and other geometric shapes (triangles, squares, a few crescents) in the sand. "Be right with you...!" she says... "Don't wander off...!"

"Don't worry my flying rodent cousin, I'll save you!" Sarah said, emboldened now that she has a weapon to use. And with excited joy, she attacks the spider with great efficiency as the needle strikes upon the leg.

09:03, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 16 using 3d6 with rolls of 6,4,6.  Forceful.

Oh snap! Sarah's on the warpath.

Further staying close to Madame Bitterroot, Jaffa was only partially conscious of the fact that Raga had been sticking close to her as well, thinking little more than 'hey, a friend!' Still, once the circles started to get drawn, she took her chance, whispering to the Madame.

"Uh, hey, I'm sorry I've been kinda being weird an' stuff? Just... you're not gonna hurt Anthi, right? Cuz, like, if you do... I'll be really sad. She's weird sometimes, but she's a good friend an' I don't want her to get hurt. So, uh, please don't hurt her?"

Sarah starts using the momentum of one successful anti-spider attack to barrel into the next, and soon all of the spiders that aren't dead are retreating. The battle is definitely over.

---

"Don't worry. Hurting her is the last thing I have in mind."

The circles finished, Madame Bitterroot instructs each child to stand in the center of one (she points out which circles they should be standing in...) She does the same herself...

Sarah raises her silver needle up in the air in triumph,"Ahh, just what I needed. Alright, let's complete this quest and find my pig afterwards."

Anthielle watched the old lady at work, noting the ingredients and squiggles used.  She was still a bit suspicious and kept one hand on her ‘precious’.

When her circle was ready she stood inside it.

Dinkar shrugged, and took his place in the specified circle.

"What's the circle for?"