After asking around and checking with several people the two parties tracked the sightings to an abandoned city in the middle of nowhere in Ran. Once there the party started searching on foot and talking casually as they looked for clues. The bard kept trying to hit on Ariagoria who was having none of it, the crow wasn't much of a talker, and Davy actually seemed to get along somewhat well with the pink skinned Demon-blood wizard. The bear smiled at how comfortable the demon-blood was getting. “He's normally not that open of a talker. Your Wizard must be some pro at conversation.”
Racknar sighed. “He's a nerdy pervert, if your demon-blood was female we'd be having a different conversation.” The bear chuckled. “Well still. Anyway, I don't really see anything of note here.” Racknar let out a low growl. “It's what I'm not seeing that worries me.” The bear raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” Racknar sighed. “It's difficult to explain but… the streets are completely empty. I don't just mean abandoned. There are no buckets laying around, no suits of armor on stands like guards, not even so much as a tumbleweed.”
The bear hummed as the two parties continued looking. When the bear suggested splitting up to cover ground faster this time Racknar shot it down quickly. “Never split the party when combat is on the table. I know we're actually two parties but you already established you don't want us out of your sites for some reason.” The bear nodded and things continued until they saw a warehouse for storage. “Really big storage building for just one person, and I doubt a town would share a building like this. Also… this building looks like it was built more recently than the rest. Though it still looks like the outside hasn't been touched in a while.”
Racknar slowly went to the door and opened it, dust rolling out. He coughed and waved his hand in front of his face until the dust cleared. “Let's check it out, then we can search the other buildings. This might be a dead end.” The bear let out a big sigh. “Yeah, dead end.” There was clear regret in his voice. Racknar came up to an inner door inside the warehouse and stopped in front of it, touching what looked like plastic draping down from the ceiling. “This material is out of place. This might not be where the dolls are but there's definitely something fucky going on.”
The two parties slide into the area only for the small room they entered to light up. Air followed by a moist mist hit the party followed by a second burst of air. Racknar immediately started freaking out internally. Davy vocalized his thoughts. “Why do I feel like I've been sterilized for a quarantine area?” The two groups then walked into a well lit all white room with what looked like surgical beds and tables with tools on them. One of the tables had a mostly dissected corpse, Racknar went pale when he saw it. “That's a lesser Nephilim.”
There was clapping from deeper inside when a man with wild hair, goggles, and a scientist robes walked out looking like something from a sci-fi horror movie that came out in the days of the black and white Frankenstein movie. “It's rare for someone to know about Nephilim, let alone be able to identify one from sight. Yes, yes, hello. Sorry for the state of my lab, I don't get many guests.” Racknar's head shot around, looking at everything, then back to the bear who had slowly backed away with the rest of his team. “Crap.”
The man in the lab coat tossed a bag at the bear who caught it as he adjusted his glasses. “Not one, but two unique specimens. A Black Iron Spider Beast-kin and a discolored Illithid. I can't do anything with the doll or the Splinterkin though. The demon-blood isn't worth much either considering how many I've dissected.” Racknar growled. “Why? This goes against the adventurer's guild code of conduct, if the guild ever finds out-” The bear put the coin bag away. “Who's going to tell them, you? You won't even leave here alive. When that guy from the church offered money to get rid of you I couldn't pass up the opportunity to double dip because this mad-man offered to pay for unique people.”
Racknar raised his voice slightly. “So you baited us with a story of living dolls?” The bear grumbled. “Those sightings were real, but I lied about having a lead that led here. Once I learned none of you were human and saw that you had not just a living doll of your own but an Illithid… that's when I knew that church guy was right about you. I may not like the church but I won't have this world end because an adventure party has sold its soul to demons of the nine hells and things from the far realms.”
The bear and the party put on magic items as the scientist put on what looked like a gas mask. “Don't worry my little man spider, you're in good hands. What I learn from your body will further humanity's progress in this world by leaps and bounds. Thanks to you humanity's superiority will be guaranteed.” The scientist does a salute as the room is filled with gas. “For the glory of Longinus. Long live the Empire, long live humanity.” Racknar let out a growl but for some reason couldn't access his rage mode. He tried calling on the ice power from when he was betrayed before but knew that wouldn't work because he never truly trusted the bear man and his party.
Racknar tried his best to activate his ability through other means. “(There has to be some emotion that'll give me access to the Nine Hells that I can tap into. Or something to tap into Purgatory, I'll take Celestia even. But the only thing I can think of is… it's late fall.)” Ariagoria cast a spell to protect the party from the sleep gas, hitting everyone except Racknar hoping he had his own way to avoid the effects since his abilities often grant him at least resistance to many status effects. Then her eyes and the eyes of the pink skinned Demon-blood widened as purple smoke started coming off Racknar.
Racknar started snapping his finger in rhythm as his leg moved and he started moving like a snapping greaser from a movie that took place in the fifties. He started bobbing his head back and forth and singing. Music started to play as if someone cast prestidigitation as he slowly sang. “I can't seem to hold back this feeling~ Can't take these shackles no more.~ Been holding myself back for too long now baby~ There's one thing that I know for sure.~” Racknar starts gyrating his hips as he continues.
“I just wanna love you love you love you baby, get down on the floor. I just wanna love you love you love you baby, till we're both really sore.” Everyone on both sides looked extremely confused with Ariagoria commenting. “I'm more lost than usual, what's going on.” Purple lightning began to arch off Racknar as he clenched his fists. “I'm drawing on the power of Tempest, because for some reason I just can't get angry.” Ariagoria and the other demon-blood give a deadpan “oh.” As Racknar starts humming before turning around, drawing out his weapons, and going after the bear man.
Each Monster Mash member goes after their counterpart in the party. Ariagoria didn't hold back on the human bard as she slammed her white flaming mace with great force down on him knocking him to the floor in a single mighty blow as unlike Ariagoria who could serve as a front like tank the bard was exclusively support. Marionette and the crow seemed more evenly matched as did Krys'tal and the Ork. Davy and the demon-blood however simply stared at one another not fighting.b
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Racknar and the bear exchanged mighty blows, the bear’s arms covered in thorny vines that whipped at Racknar as he attacked but Racknar had an upper hand enhancing his weapon with extra lightning damage as he attacked recklessly. Racknar took several heavy blows but after twelve attacks the extremely durable bear man was brought down. Krys'tal used ice arrows to freeze out the Ork while Marionette eventually paralyzed the crow with a knife to the back. Davy shrugged as the demon-blood simply sat down. “I surrender, you're the better mage.”
Racknar continued to have purple smoke and lightning lick off his body as he turned around slowly to face the scientist. “Now now my oversized arachnid friend. No need to act rashly here. We can talk this out like calm and reasonable people.” Racknar had stopped humming and started humming a different song. The magical music playing changed as well. Racknar slowly approached the scientist, taking a deep death metal growling voice. “Hate sex hate sex is the best, put your enemies to the test~” He then grips around the scientist’s throat with two of his hands. “Wrap your hands around their neck, hit it from behind with no regrets.”
Racknar started to lightly shake his arms as he choked the scientist. “Hate sex hate sex, make them scream. Love so rough you'll make them bleed~ Fuck them like an animal, no holding back as you give your all. They'll gasp for breath as you fill your primal needs, and draw their last as you loose your seeds~” Racknar squeezed tighter as he started to outright throttle the scientist as the purple smoke turned to dark purple flames and the lightning went from purple to red. With one extra violent shake there's a loud snapping sound as the scientist goes limp.
Racknar lets the corpse drop to the floor. “Oops, I lost my cool there. I'm… not exactly sure what happened there.” Ariagoria looked at the corpse. “It looked like you started drawing from both Tempest and Stigia. I wasn't aware you could draw from two circles of hell at once.” Racknar looked at his own hands. “I shouldn't be able to. I only used the fact I'm technically in heat to access Tempest because I couldn't get angry for some reason.” Davy makes sure everyone in the other party is still alive so they can be questioned.
Ariagoria tilted her head at Racknar. “You've never had problems before.” Racknar nodded. “It was easy to draw on the anger and hate I felt for myself. I don't… feel that anymore. After that angel statue I guess that washed away. Maybe doing that trial helped me work through it somehow.” Racknar walked over to Davy and the demon-blood wizard. “Alright, before we turn you over to the guild. What the heck man, why would you sell us out like this? We didn't do Jack shit to you.”
The demon-blood eyed the floor. “Some priest from the church of Longinus offered us money if we could take out and kill your party. During a job a while back we ran into that nut job who offered to pay for monster corpses of monsters he's never encountered before or has had little experience with. Since you're one of a kind and that wizard is an Illithid, that's two unique specimens. So he thought we could get paid twice. The priest told us you and your party were under the influence of evil otherworldly entities. He saw you having artifacts from the Nine Hells and an Illithid in your party as proof.”
Davy let out an exasperated sigh. “I'm a human soul in a squid faced body. I'm not trying to eat anyone's brains or infect them with a tadpole. We actually destroyed the mother brain of the pod I originally came from that had attached itself to a dragon. It was a rough fight even with us bombing it first.” The demon-blood blinked a few times while looking at Davy. Racknar cracked his knuckles. “Do you recall the name of the priest?” The pink skinned Demon-blood nodded. “Father Frederick I think it was.” Racknar sighed. “What the heck did I even do to piss Archbishop Frederick off so bad?”
The sleep gas finally cleared and the party checked the room for any valuables they could take before restraining the other party and loading them in the cart to turn over to the guild for breaking guild codes. Once that was done the Monster Mashers took seats in the guildhall of Flowers to relax before getting ready to search for the living dolls again, this time without someone getting in the way. The party decided to sleep and try again the next day.
Once rested the Monster Mashers started checking sightings of the living dolls again in order to track them down. Having to start basically from scratch and this time without a second group helping or hindering their progress. Ariagoria’s mind kept wandering to the moment when Racknar first started drawing power from Tempest then combined it with the power of Stigia. “(He said himself drawing from two at the same time wasn't normal. Did his powers change more than him becoming a sort of Nephilim?)” Racknar noticed Ariagoria looking at him. “Do I have something on my face?”
Ariagoria jumped slightly. “Sorry, I didn't mean to stare. It's just ever since we hit level ten your powers have been a bit finicky and it got worse after the trial.” Racknar hummed. “So you're just worried. Well since my power is now closer to that of a Nephilim I'm surprised I can even draw from the Nine Hells still. I was drawing from Purgatory for a while. I'm guessing I can draw from Celestia too if I worked at it. So I can tap into all three Celestial realms. It's definitely not in the books but whatever. I'm more versatile now.”
Ariagoria put her hand on her chin. “How exactly would you tap into Celestia?” Racknar thought for a moment. “Well the easiest way would be to channel one of the seven virtues somehow. But since the only one of those that's emotional to some extent is patience that might be tricky. Tapping into Stigia was always so easy for me before because I was secretly always angry at myself. I was using my own self loathing to tap into the circle. I actually should have been tapping into the swamp specifically but that's not how that works. You get all the circle or none of it when you tap into its power as a barbarian.”
Ariagoria nodded, understanding the power a bit better. The party eventually got a good and solid lead that would take them east to the edges of the Empire’s eastern reaches before the land gave way to what would be Russia on the map on our earth. The party had to travel the long way to the small nation of Walakia, this world's equivalent to medieval Romania. The entire place had an oppressive magic darkness and gave the party the vibes of something from a Dracula movie.
Despite this the party pressed on to find the location that served as the base of operations for these three living dolls who, like Marionette, seemed to have full souls. Although the atmosphere was spooky, the people seemed nice enough. They weren't any different than other imperial citizens when it came to how they reacted to the party members. Some clearly felt uneasy around the party members but eased up when they saw the guild I.D.
“Have you ever given any thoughts to how much people in the Empire seem to trust adventurers and the guild despite the guild often employing non-humans and the Empire being intrinsically xenophobic?” Davy asked almost unprompted. Racknar shrugged. “You know I never gave it much thought. The guild helps boost the economy and provide jobs so I always assumed it was out of some sort of respect for the guild’s reputation. But now that you mention it they do have a lot of power and sway for an independent entity.”
The party decided to rest at the city they arrived at before exploring and asking around to narrow down the exact building the living dolls have as a base. When it came time to arrange the rooms Racknar proposed the usual divide. “Alright, two rooms. Davy and I in one and the ladies plus Krys’tal in the other.” Davy shifted back and forth. “Actually… could I share a room with Krys instead and you can have your own room? I think I'm finally ready to have the big talk with them about who I want to go steady with.”
Racknar grumbled a bit and tapped a finger on his arm for a while. “Alright, but this place isn't fancy and the walls are thin so please try to keep your voices down and not get into an argument.” Davy clapped as the party paid for their rooms. Ariagoria pointed out. “You know we'd probably save a lot of money if we just camped outside.” Racknar couldn't help but chuckle. “You've never played Creatures and Catacombs and yet you just suggested a classic thing players often fall into. I suppose since Davy can use the magic hut spell and you have sanctuary we could just do that.”
Davy sighed. “Please let me sleep in a real bed. No magic homes until I can use seventh tier magic. Then I can conjure up an entire mansion with food and shit.” Ariagoria’s eyes widened. “You can do that?! Now we definitely need to level up fast. I want a bed like I have at the castle available at all times. Screw these cheap hotel beds.” Racknar chuckled. “The hut beds are actually worse since they're straw beds.” Ariagoria stretched. “Fair enough, I'll take the hotel unless we're between cities and need to rest.
The party then split up into three rooms with Ariagoria and Marionette sharing one room and Davy sharing his with Krys’tal. Racknar sat alone in his own room and let out a long sigh as he sat on the bed. “What am I even doing? What's the end goal here? Liberate Bramble from the Empire, make this world a better place… revive Arachne… then what? Do I just wonder about helping people then? Retire? I guess I don't have to think about that now.” He laid down to relax. The party would get back to it in the morning.
