Silly Plots 3: With government backing we can make it very silly

[5a Violista]

As the hero and the paladin run across, the paladin does do a quick wave at him.

Any more than that would slow them down, so she doesn't do more.
Thinking about other currently-irrelevant things would slow them down, too, so Zophiel doesn't think about those like where the moon-curls or whatever they are were, or why Ririn's eyes were a slightly different color, what gave her the injuries - and how she got away from it - when she was supposed to be sneaking instead of fighting, how it's all related to that woman with the walking house, or why the sword is broken, or...whatever, anything like that.

Her legs aren't quite as long as they were when she was a man, but they're still pretty long so that helps her run.

Getting to the damaged wall, Zophiel's voice takes a commanding tone for the hero: "You go up first, I'll help." Since she denied the help getting up on their way over it the first time, and now Ririn's holding a broken sword.
She gets in position to help her up - by putting her hands down and bending her knees, getting ready to lift - and even toss - the hero up higher to the top of the wall.

[Recaiden]

I'm sure those are all unimportant questions that Zophiel has no need to worry about.

The hero reaches the wall a little bit after Zophiel, and tosses the sword up, then steps onto the paladin's hands and scrambles up the wall, snatching the sword up again before heading down the other side.
Perfect, thanks to someone being there to nearly toss her up!

"Wait! You're in danger!" Shouts one of the pursuers. She seems to have hesitated.
"She's clearly with it! Where'd the sword go?!" another contests. This guy seems intent on just climbing over Zophiel on the way up the wall.

[Gullara]

[An Epic Journey]

Ambrosia continues to stay away from the fight. Simply observing what everyone is doing.

[An Epic Journey]

Corvus' awareness snaps around to the chain leading towards the other approaching monsters for a brief instant before he nods to himself just slightly as their spectral ally manages to strike the leader in the chest. He springs once more, at the leader again, aiming a powerful knife-hand strike towards the spot the spirit just hit, the center of the cracks that have appeared, his other hand drawn back, ready to jackhammer the same spot with another knife-hand strike should the first connect. If his theory is correct, the spirit just broke the man's defenses, and it will just take a bit more to shatter them completely. The monster can wait a few more moments while he tests his theory.

[An Epic Journey]

Willa is pretty much out of options here. A wooden stick with a little extra weight on one end isn’t going to do much against a scaled monster and a superhuman. She starts fishing for something else she can use, but it’s probably best if she leave this to the two warriors.

[An Epic Journey]

The dagger-wielding Charr will prove hard to strike. He's not actually there - he's just a memory pulled by Thariza from the Mists. Still, the snakes' assault will disperse him eventually. Thariza, meanwhile, realizes what Corvus is doing fairly quickly and decides what her part in it is. She unleashes a flurry of flaming arrows towards the monster, to keep its attention off Corvus while he strikes. She realizes they're more likely to irritate it than actually hurt it, but that might be all she needs.

[An Epic Journey]

The man makes for some weapon, but Corvus is quick. It's easy to get inside his guard, he doesn't move like a warrior, but even so he looks surprised when the blade scratches his sternum. His eyes go wide for a single moment before blade tears flesh and bone, with no more trouble than any other human.

At the same time the snake beast rushes toward Thariza, it's speed blinding, it's heads looking to close in on an arch that would be nearly impossible to cover alone. But before it can strike its master is dead and the whole party slips away without a moment to spare.

[5a Violista]

Because that one guy rudely passed by Zophiel and is currently blocking the way up the wall, the paladin decides she has little choice but to talk to the other pursuer.

She turns. "What's up with the sword?" she asks that one pursuer.

[Recaiden]

"It's cursed! Your friend, or whoever, you oughta keep away from them now." explains the one pursuer, looking between the wall above Zophiel and the gate.

It seems Ririn has luckily pushed the other pursuer away, and he is now falling down from the wall, right above the paladin.

[5a Violista]

Zophiel makes to catch the falling person.

And now that they're out of the way, Zophiel decides to then unceremoniously dump them onto the ground, because the paladin needs to catch up with the hero.

Well, it's good to know that it's a curse. When she both catches up and gets away, they can talk about it.

So, she starts climbing. But halfway up, she turns back to that one pursuer. Zophiel has a hint of disgust on her face: "If someone's cursed, avoiding them's the worst thing you can do."

Zophiel then continues, to catch up with the hero.

[Recaiden]

Poor confused Zophiel. You have to let curses run their course. Preferably far away. Trying to help the victims just makes things worse.
The one pursuer is helping up the other, who was unceremoniously dumped on the ground.
"What are we going to do now?" he asks, brushing himself off.

The hero is going to retrieve her pack from where it was left outside the fortress.
It should be easy enough for Zophiel to catch her.
"Hey, we made it! Now we just need to get back to the train station so you aren't late." But they still have plenty of time.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Felix's Tower]

Krayger raises a disapproving eyebrow.
"Felix, you should be letting me do that." he chides the very powerful but elderly mage. Isn't this one of the perks to taking an apprentice with seven feet of height and several hundred pounds of muscle?
But what's done is already done, so Krayger lets it go and gets back onto reading that fifth page.

[Felix's Tower]

Felix blinks and looks up at Krayger. "Oh. Well, yes, I suppose you're right. Sorry, I forget how large you are sometimes. And it feels a bit, ah-" he twirls a hand in the air, searching for the right phrase. "A bit sort of disrespectful, making you do silly little things like that? Helping out with the animals a bit is plenty of payment for me."

Page five dictates a means of laying out the golem and preparing it for the ritual. It is, as with much of the rest of the book, overly flowery and dramatic and once the nonsense has been stripped away, there's not a lot to it - a simple ritual circle is prepared around the golem's body, and the golem is carefully imbued in key locations with several oils. Nevertheless, Krayger would be aware that accuracy in the preparation of magic circles is essential to a successful casting. If there's anywhere he's likely to make a mistake, it's here.

[5a Violista]

Yeah, Zophiel probably has everything backwards.
Her mind is slowly deteriorating and getting replaced by an allegedly-evil goddess so I'm sure having things backwards can be forgiven.

She hops down the wall and runs off to the hero.

"Hey, yeah we did!" she says, catching up.

"I think we're safely away."

She looks back to confirm.

Now, how to bring this up? she wonders. "I overheard them talking and it seems they put a curse on the sword or on wherever the sword was or something like that," she says. Once Ririn is done grabbing her bag and everything, Zophiel starts walking back the path they came by.

She looks at Ririn, and notes her eyes, among other things.
"Looking at you, it does look like there's a curse hanging out with you." And she would know since she was recently affected by a curse, too. "Before we get back, we should get it checked to see if it'll go away on its own or if it's contagious or what."

Zophiel could do something to check for how cursey it is, but with half her barriers as fragile as they currently are, she'd prefer to not do it if she can avoid it. "You have something that can check for these sorts of things?"

[Recaiden]

The hero laughs nervously, looking at the sword.
"Oh, uh, I'm cursed all the time. Family thing. It almost never comes up."
There's obviously something weird going on with the sword.
"I feel fine, though."
She swishes the sword back and forth to demonstrate how fine everything seems to her.

[5a Violista]

"No, like..." Zophiel thinks about it. How can she put it? "Like, you're qualitatively different than earlier," she finally says.

Where is she trying to go with this, though? she wonders. "Just saying, mixing different kinds of curses can have adverse effects." Just like mixing different drugs or whatever.

She walks more.
Then, she offers, "I could probably even check myself, if you want." Super easy. You don't even need a license to check for curses.

[Recaiden]

"Well, yeah, I'm still wound up from that escape, and excited to have the sword."

"But I guess there's no harm in you checking, right? Go ahead." It's probably just a thing paladins can do, like summoning angels.

A curse check on Ririn will find a few weird things going on.

• The sword itself has a simple enchantment of indivisibility, letting it act on its shattered pieces as a cohesive whole. It already fulfilled its legendary destiny a few years ago, when it struck down the Rook, uniting the kingdoms of glass and rainbow.
• There's the curse she inherited from her father, which has something to do with the moon, and with bugs. Moderately contagious. Nigh-unbreakable. This is why her injuries weren't as bad as they should have been.
• There's the curse she picked up from the guy who used to have the sword a few minutes ago, which has something to do with the moon, and with obsession, and with losing control of your thoughts. Not contagious at all. Potentially breakable.
• There's the curse she got from ???, that ribbon of silver-white coiled around her soul like a snake, which has something to do with the moon, and with a particular group of people. Not exactly contagious, except that it's completely unbreakable save that there's a few ways to slip it onto someone else... This is the one making her eyes weird.

"Well? I'm fine, right?"

[5a Violista]

The white part of the paladin's eyes turn black, while the irises turn red, as she looks over at the hero.
...
It takes a while. Luckily, Zophiel can check for curses as they walk so there's no need to stop. She looks over the lifeline of the hero, the way the magic is integrating and tying into it and how it's affecting her spirit and everything, trying to tease out what all the inter-connectivity means. It's nowhere near as simple as just looking and getting a response...someone who had trained in understanding magic may have the ability to just look at it and see what it means - she assumes that's how it works, at least, for wizards and people who have trained in magic - but for her, she has to just look at it and based on what is where and why it's there, she has to logically figure out what it means.

...Zophiel is much better at sealing away curses than breaking them or understanding them at first glance.

"U-um, so...like...there's three separate curses on you," she says, ignoring the indivisibility of the sword since it seems to be benign. "They're all...they all...kind-of related, so it's a little hard to differentiate all of them, but I feel like I can follow them around you."

Disclaimer out of the way, she tries to come up with a way to explain what she's seeing.

It's really hard.

It's like a blind person trying to explain music to a deaf person, she feels like.

"S-so. All three of them are tied to the moon, so it looks like they have a much higher chance of affecting and amplifying each other than most unrelated curses do. The first one, I assume you already know about this one because it looks the oldest based on how...woven it is, looks to be so tied to your identity that I couldn't safely do anything about it."

Um. "And there's one that looks like a snake? Because it's all wrapped around your soul and...and your eyes. I've never seen anything like it, but maybe it's like..." She thinks. This sounds familiar. "Or maybe a ribbon? That woman we met earlier was talking about moon ribbons." You know, the one that tried to eat them.

Luckily the way they're taking isn't very intensive, because it's hard to look and concentrate on the magical weaves and walk through dangerous paths.

"The third one looks very fresh," she comments, "like a...like a bush or shrubbery or something, and it's affecting your mind. Curses that affect the mind are the worst, so I'd say you need to do something to it before it grows roots. It'll take a while, so when we get back on the train, I could probably do something to contain it. Like...you know, put it in a flowerpot or something. As an analogy." Stop it, Zophiel, your extended metaphors are overextending themselves. "...but, seriously, it looks like the worst one but also the easiest one to take care of."

Her eyes slowly start to return to normal, which will make it easier for her to see the way they're walking on. "...On the plus side, the sword looks really cool. I'm a little jealous."

[Recaiden]

The hero watches while the paladin looks at her with the creepy black eyes, getting increasingly nervous as it takes longer...and longer...

"Okay, yeah, I know the first thing. Like I said, almost never comes up." It actually come up pretty often.
Ririn scowls.
"Shouldn't I notice if something was affecting my mind?"
But the paladin did heal her earlier, so...she's probably reliable. Unless...

"Wait, what about my eyes? Is something the matter with them? The moon ribbon curse, that's the most mysterious one, then?"

And finally, she looks bashfully back at the sword.
"Yeah, but you must have some kinda cool weapon, right?"

[5a Violista]

Would you notice something if it was affecting your mind, your thought pattern, or your values?
"...they're only noticeable if it's a sudden difference but it's too weak to stop you from realizing you're being affected," the paladin says, in a tone that suggests she knows through experience all about the exact opposite problem of 'sudden but too weak'.

She adds, "I noticed something was up with your eyes back in the castle," she says, "but I just assumed it was some kind of magic you used. Don't worry, though, they look almost the same. No idea about the moon ribbons or what it really is. When you have time, you definitely should find out what it all is about."

Anyway.
Zophiel's eyes are now almost back to normal. No longer has red irises.
"Yeah! So, I actually have a pair of swords," she says. "I didn't bring them along...I believe I mentioned them last night? On the way to the library, I think." She doesn't exactly remember when she mentioned them, however, or what she said about them, so she just decides to talk about them and not care if she's repeating something.. "Two swords. Almost as large as I am," she explains. "One's red, one's blue. I've had them for a long time, for as long as I can remember. Haven't been able to lift both of them up recently, though, but I've been thinking and I believe I've come up with a way to do it again."

[Recaiden]

Really depends how it changed them. But probably not at first.

"Right. Those sound like they're probably pretty cool." the hero observes. "I mean, this isn't really even a whole sword." she continues. Purely to make Zophiel feel better; she thinks the revenant blade is very cool herself.

They make their way back to the train station without incident. By that time, Ririn's eyes have gone back to normal as well.

[5a Violista]

"Hey. Your eyes look like they're normal again," she comments as soon as she notices.
...
which is probably some time after they're back to normal.

Once they get back on the train, Zophiel works on trying to unravel and contain that one curse - the one that appears more breakable. As expected, it takes several hours but luckily most of that time is spent on deciding what to do and mentally working through the steps to avoid making a worse mess. Once she's done, the curse will be not gone but rather...contained. In a flowerpot, as Zophiel described it. Easier to deal with, simpler to remove, less likely to grow out of control, easier for Ririn to tell where the curse starts affecting her and when it stops. Or, in other words, in a figurative flower pot.

After that, she's exhausted.
But they're on a train, so it's fine.

[Recaiden]

There's a long wait and a longer ride for Zophiel to work during.
Ririn would otherwise spend most of that time irresponsibly playing with the sword, so having to wait and have the curse transplanted is probably good for her in more ways than one.
When it's finally contained in its spiritual flowerpot, she comments "Oh! There is something there. It's like, it's waiting, right now. And I wouldn't have noticed it otherwise...."
"Thanks." That's hardly the right thing to say, but she can't think of anything better.
The hero seems to be increasingly tired as well, now that the little adventure is properly over.

Unless something happens, the hero would see that the paladin gets to where she's going after leaving the train, and then set off down the road.

[5a Violista]

'Thanks' is completely the right thing to say. Much better than saying 'ugh why did you do that'.
"No problem," she replies, which is honestly just as appropriate as 'thanks'.

Zophiel mostly just waits.

They get back. The paladin smiles and waves off the hero...

...and only when she gets back to the tower, Zophiel realizes that she's still wearing the clothing she borrowed from Ririn.
Right.
At this point, it's too late to go back and return it to her. Sorry.

Before entering the tower, she takes a deep breath and makes a mental checklist of what she needs to do, making sure she hasn't forgotten any of it because all of the things were pretty important. She's got to take the ink back to her VIGIL room. She's going to then visit Leah the morning after tomorrow, so that leaves some time to test out the idea she had with her swords and maybe buy some slightly-better-fitting clothes. Clothes like she's wearing now, that Ririn lent her, seem nice so probably something in that style. Okay, after Leah, then there's that religious not-a-cult meeting, then back here to see what Cleo figured out with the body-solution. And then Hunter afterwards. That seems...okay. Reasonable. This adventure took much shorter than she was expecting, so...
She heads into the tower to go up to her room and grab the things and say 'goodbyes'.

((Should we skip ahead to Skullfort(?) or something?))

[Recaiden]

((That sounds good))

Goodbyes said! Cleo will ask all about the little adventure, seeming satisfied with herself and impressed with Zophiel.
Ink delivered! That should make Zophiel a bit safer in future seal-stressing situations.
Fitting season-appropriate clothes acquired!

In the opposite direction from the Dancing Fox Inn as the town that Cleo's map led to, one will find the village that lies at the foot of the Skullfort.
On the way here, you'll have traveled through woods that have grown up over the ruins of an ancient magiteknically advanced civilization, and then followed zigzagging roads between the fields of local farmers. Rising like hills in the distance are the impossibly tall treetops of the Wode.

This village may even have a name, technically, but everyone just refers to its most distinctive building. The Skull Fort is, well, a giant black stone skull, several stories high, resting atop an earthen rampart, looking out, away from the town. Beside it are organized fields and tin-walled workshops. On the hill to the west, a more traditional Stone Fortress is partially constructed, laying idle for the winter. On the final, southern hill, a gleaming white Observatory watches the sky. Somewhere around, out in the flower fields, is a Tower circled by peculiar pterosaurs. Near the center of the village is the many-pillared Temple to Message, Cloud, the power of Twilight, W, Keiko, and maybe some other miscellaneous gods that have been picked up. And scattered in-between are houses, halls, a store or three, the village's single pub, a traveling library that hasn't traveled recently, and so on.

A stranger like Zophiel arriving is sure to be interesting to all sorts of people. But she could always ignore them and head right for the skull.

[5a Violista]

Zophiel, now appropriately dressed for the weather, finally makes her way to Skullfort.

This time, while at Vigil, she picked up her swords. Both of them, even! On her back. Since apparently so many people think these swords are her 'thing'...it's probably best to lean into this.

Due to their weight, she's had to take a break or two on the way here. The benefit of taking breaks is that it gives you the chance to stop and talk with somebody. No getting lost by crossing a creek this time. And besides, she left early enough that Zophiel figures there's still a while before the optimal time to meet with her daughter.

Looking through the town, Zophiel assumes the Skull Fort is her destination. If someone's leading a town, that would be the likeliest place to find them, right?

However, recalling that river/creek/wolf thing, the obvious thing she needs to do is ask for directions. At this time of day, the pub will probably be empty so the bartender won't be busy, she figures. However, in a town this size, it's possible the pub will either be closed or something similar at this time, as well. Maybe the library, then? Same deal, but more likely to be open at this time.

She smiles and gives a quick wave to anybody staring out the windows at her, and then heads towards the previously-mobile library to ask around.

[Recaiden]

Zophiel guesses right on several counts.
The skull is where to go.
This early, the pub is so empty not even the publican is there.

The immobilized library is clearly bigger on the inside than it should be. There's no way one could possibly fit all these shelves in a wooden wagon. The air is warm and dry.
There's a pretty young man with a golden silk scarf and flight goggles up on his forehead browsing the stacks, and a librarian behind a tiny counter, just now looking up from their book. The librarian is covered head to toe in heavy clothes despite the warmth, and doesn't seem particularly human-shaped.
"Hello dear. Are you looking for something in particular?"

[5a Violista]

Zophiel walks up to the librarian.

"Yes? Maybe?" she responds, sounding uncertain - because if she just leaves it like that, then the librarian will assume she needs something specifically from the library. "But..." She tries to come up with a quick explanation to say what's up.

"So I'm from out of town," she says, stating the obvious. "Um." She looks around, to give more time to think of a good explanation. "I came here to visit my daughter because I haven't seen her in a while, but I heard she's usually busy and I figured it would be inappropriate to just wander around and break any local taboos," she says, before finally getting around to answering the question, "so I was really just hoping I could find someone who could explain things to me and know where I could find her."

[Deathkeeper]

[Felix's Tower]

Felix blinks and looks up at Krayger. "Oh. Well, yes, I suppose you're right. Sorry, I forget how large you are sometimes. And it feels a bit, ah-" he twirls a hand in the air, searching for the right phrase. "A bit sort of disrespectful, making you do silly little things like that? Helping out with the animals a bit is plenty of payment for me."

Page five dictates a means of laying out the golem and preparing it for the ritual. It is, as with much of the rest of the book, overly flowery and dramatic and once the nonsense has been stripped away, there's not a lot to it - a simple ritual circle is prepared around the golem's body, and the golem is carefully imbued in key locations with several oils. Nevertheless, Krayger would be aware that accuracy in the preparation of magic circles is essential to a successful casting. If there's anywhere he's likely to make a mistake, it's here.

[Felix's Tower]

Krayger smirks.
"If you'd like we can find a spell to make me even taller if it'll help you remember." he suggests. He looks like he'd wink, but the gesture doesn't really work with the position of his eyes.
The circle and anointing of the wood with oil goes well.
It also goes exceedingly slowly. Felix has likely already made note of his apprentice's patience, but it is on display here as he reads and re-reads the instructions at least five times per step as he slowly, carefully, gently gets the process done in what is likely a significantly longer time than it is supposed to. But then, he does do it correctly.

[Recaiden]

"We can tell that from the way you're dressed, little one." the librarian says with a deep but kindly laugh, starting to come around from behind the desk.
Then Zophiel gets to the point.

"Just give everyone a polite distance, a wing away, and don't bother the angels - except the little steward girl - and you'll get along just fine here." The librarian begins explaining how not to give offense.

"Well, how about you tell me your daughter's name? We have all sorts come through here." Some people would already know, but the librarian has no skill at telling human faces apart.

[5a Violista]

Zophiel nods. Good advice. Yup. Nice. Large personal space bubbles, however far the wings are, and don't bother angels. "Wide personal space, that's fair," she says. Got it. She smiles as thanks.

"Her name's Leah," she says. "It's been a long time since I last saw her," she adds...'last time I saw her was when she was one person' is probably considered 'a long time'. "So...I'm not sure I could give an accurate description of what she looks like now." She says this to preempt questions about what she looks like.

[Recaiden]

"Oh, really? You'll want to go right up to the skull then." The librarian advises.

She'll want to go around to the northwest side of the skull, past the rumbling workshops, up the ramp to the teeth.
Zophiel will probably have a strong (and accurate) feeling of being watched, and then, right as she arrives, the jaws of the fort grind open...
-revealing a fancily decorated entryway in cool muted colors.

A crackling, staticy voice says
-enter-
-you are welcome-
-proceed up the ramp to your left-

[5a Violista]

Zophiel nods.
"I appreciate your help," she says to the librarian.

And so, the paladin leaves the once-mobile library to go straight to the skull. No sense in dawdling: if she gets there early, she can wait but if she gets there late then there's nothing to do.
With the feeling of being watched, she glances around a couple times trying to discern the source of the watching, but quickly gives up.

She heads through the fort's mouth.
To the crackling voice, she says, "Okay. Thanks."
And goes up the indicated ramp.

[Recaiden]

She was being watched by the angels, as it happens.

Following directions will eventually lead Zophiel to a living room where all the furniture is a bit too far apart, containing one (1) Leah.
"Hello, uh, Zophiel. Welcome to my fortress."
Cleo said that Zophiel was here (but didn't have a lot of details), and then two people let her know that she was here here, in town, but she still manages to appear surprised.
Leah looks a lot more like Zophiel than Anchor did. Except for the ears, and legs, and tail, but if we ignore the obvious inhumanity, she's taller, more muscular, more heroic, and there's more of a family resemblance. Like Anchor, she's wearing sunglasses despite being indoors. Unlike Anchor, she's got on a crown and a shiny black ring, has a big bristly hairstyle with a streak of white in it, and doesn't have a cape.

She doesn't really know what to say or how to feel, so hopefully Zophiel provides some direction for that.

[5a Violista]

That was very sudden. Zophiel didn't even have time to begin to feel nervous or wonder what Leah's like or how she'd feel. Arguably, this makes Zophiel lucky compared to Leah who presumably had a bit more time to think and worry and wonder about how to feel.

"Oh," Zophiel says. She looks around at the room. "Thanks. It's a very nice fortress."

In spite of the different ears, legs, and tail, Zophiel can easily see the resemblance and feels like she doesn't need to verify that this is actually her.

She steps forward.

She bites her lower lip, and steps forward again. Then, she closes the distance so that she can pull Leah into a hug. "Hi. It's been a while, but I'm glad you're okay."