Marceline Kant

The wind brushed through her hair as the party skittered across the stone spires. Molly’s puppet could move surprisingly fast while stepping upon the narrow peaks. She had overheard the witch mumbling about being able to maintain some of the beetle’s instincts while claiming it. A necessary step for the puppet to be able to act without the caster’s constant directions.

Which made sense to Marceline, staying atop the smooth chitin was hard enough without having to coordinate each step manually at the same time. Purple strings in theory held them secure, but she wasn’t willing to trust herself to them.

“Yaaaaahoooooo!” cried her Sister Evelyn from the necro beetle’s head. She had taken a wild position upon the creature’s head, riding it like a bucking bull. It bobbed about with every movement.

She smiled at the fun being had while wanting nothing to do with it. Falling off the beetle wasn’t worth the risk in her estimation. Frankly being atop a huge bug was alarming enough, even if their leader had complete control.

Insects and any ilk like them were disgusting.

Marceline had fought the Kor Crabs with scouring hatred. Their removal had only been a necessary and justified act in her eyes. Chitinous horrors that lingered in her nightmares. She couldn’t stand the look of them. Not an ounce or second. Standing atop one was a whole new level of self-control as no one would appreciate her torching their ride.

Just a little more… just a little more. One more key thing and then… only a few steps left to ride this disgusting monster for

Molly’s party had headed directly across the floor once the ride had been constructed. Finding nothing of note on the wall opposite the entrance, they had gone right to explore the branches of spire-filled canyons in that direction. The actual investigation of those had luckily been done on foot. Most were too narrow for the necro creature to easily enter.

This was mourned by some fools, the branches weren’t that deep.

At the end of one had been a stone circle and a hollow tower filled with baby beetles. Ravenous baby beetles. Climbing up would have been a gauntlet of skittering bugs and slipping past burrow ambushes. Marceline snapped at the sight of the infestation.

Evelyn and Amelia had been singed ushering everyone who had taken a look as she had gone a little mad. Scream laughing as green flames roared not only from her flailing sword, but directly from her aura. The stone glowed red as the cursed fire incinerated the inside of the tower. Completely and utterly clean.

When she was finished, ash floated down like fresh snow.

They allowed time for everything to cool down and the ash to form into cores. After that, it was an easy effort to claim the yellow key.

The necro beetle was now taking them to the left corner to look for another ring of stones. Like what Vincent’s party had reported, their party also came across riddles etched into the spires ringing the hollow tower. Marceline hadn’t been interested in them herself, though most of the party had made an effort to solve them while waiting for the cooling.

She heard enough from the discussions to get a gist of them. The difficulty varied from easy to abstractly difficult. Answers were agreed upon by the guessers for most of them, but the last few were harder to grasp. The debate continued as the beetle rushed across the floor.

Their purpose was completely unknown so far. Even sure answers didn’t cause any effect to the etched riddles or the stone they were written on.

Almost seemed like decorations.

Probably isn't, Marceline thought. Another layer to the puzzle is much more likely.

From their elevated position, the unnatural formation of spires was more easily detected. The concurrent rings of stone were clear to the eye as they were before, though there was no tower this time. In the center was a beehive-shaped hut of stone.

And goats, lots of goats. Bleating and carousing about. There was almost something sacrilegious about the scene. Those ornery beasts wandering around and being oblivious to the carvings around them. Molly brought the necro beetle to a slow stop just outside of the outer ring, but still within the range of the goat herd’s spread.

Marceline pulled her sword free as she dropped down beside the party. The goats looked like the breed from earlier. Suspicious, but not alright hostile to their proximity. A few did try to bait them into a fight. Screaming as they charged before diverting to the side when no one reacted.

There was a huffy reaction to the party ignoring their provocations.

It was a hassle of twists and turns to get deeper into the rings. The goats constantly moved about, paths forward closing almost as quickly as they opened up. They were forced to scatter to find their own ways forward. Marceline easily passed through the obstacles due to her diminutive size. She was the first to see the odd goats waiting inside.

They had blended from a distance, but these new goats were decidedly different. Six of them took position around the stone hut. Twice as large, five horns instead of two, and muscular in a strangely human sense. Most disturbing of all were those strange eyes watching, very carefully, the other goats.

A gaze somewhere between predator and protective.

When her steps brought her into the center, the six odd goats froze. Their scanning was abandoned to stare at Marceline. Surprise gave way to suspicious, then growling hatred. The illusion of being just odd goats shattered as they stood up. A shaggy mane had hidden the humanoid shape of their bodies. It draped now like robes of strings.

“Baaa Baba baaa!” bleated one, waving its hands at the regular goats. They all gave the goatman a stubborn look, lower jaws pushed out. Then finally it chased them off with one great shriek of “BAAAAAA!”

The goats fled as if slapped.

Green flames erupted along her blade as Marceline checked the progress of the others. The sudden flood of goats has delayed and even forced back a few. For a few precious moments more she’d be alone against these monsters.

“Oook, I got this,” whispered the sword Sister. “Delay… delay… delay.”

Five shifted forward to form a line across from her while the last leaped to the top of the beehive. Crouching like a gargoyle over the others. She did nothing to agonize them further, allowing the seconds to slip by. Only returned their stare and held the sword low but pointed at the menacing monsters.

That might have worked, but then from behind her came a chorus of angry bleating. Someone had touched one of the goats. The goatmen didn’t like this.

All six monsters screamed and five shaggy forms stormed at Marceline. Her sword flashed up, eager flames flaring. One great sweep at the goatmen to begin. A wave of green roared causing them to flinch. Fur ignited, withering the hairs and threatening skin.

She took a step forward, sweeping the blade again. Another wave, panicked shrieking. A goatman burst through fire. It was entirely inflamed, but hesitated not a second to stab at her with ugly hoof-like claws. Her blade deflected one hand away and took the other. The monster gave a whimpering scream as the arm and hand withered as they parted.

Marceline pierced the chest of the goatman, a cursed inferno consuming the vitality of the beast. A husk dropped to the ground with failing flickers of green flames. The other monster had moved to encircle her, coming at once in four directions. She danced.

Fire swirled around her as the sword Sister dodged among the goatmen. Blade deflecting, flames shielding. These four weren’t as reckless as the dead one. They worked together and never tried to tank the withering curse. Marceline was left stuck on the defensive as the monsters found a stable rhythm, a sign of her impending doom. Even blasting the cursed flames with her offhand only bought space and more time.

The calvary came with a sudden storm of spells and crackling energy.

Red and purple flames cut off two goatmen while another one was blitzed with pure Mana projectiles. The final was grappled from behind the withered one, Molly’s dark purple power having raised it to her command. Over all the monsters descended a buzzing pink cloud that sapped vitality and weighed down upon them.

Under the sudden avalanche of support, the goatmen were overwhelmed.

The full might of Molly’s party had arrived and Marceline was no longer in any danger. Evelyn and Amelia arrived on either side of her, and the three of them struck out together. The rising carnage forced the sixth goatman to act as two more of its kind fell in the onslaught. It wailed with rising rage.

The ground shook as the goatman crashed to the ground in the center of the melee, a shockwave stunned friend and foe. It swelled in size, almost like a trick of perspective made real. Red veins grew visible like radiated death. Wrathful swings changed the landscape of the battle. Great sweeping swings that tossed the party out of position. Two raised monsters broke against the stone in the defense of the party and a third flew out of sight.

Menacing as this sudden turning of the battle was, the party didn’t hesitate at all. Curses rained down on the huge goatmen and his two remaining henchmen. Five sources to reduce and restrain them. Hellish flames burning more than flesh and words that broke reality against them.

As the goatmen hollered in their torment, the ranger Adrienne Rowe fired twice. Great spear-like projectiles hammered through the hearts of the smaller monsters. Their death was swift and quick while the bigger one was impaled several times without even a jerk.

It charged, but the Sisters struck. Spear to the knee, dagger to an eye, and her sword cut across the gut. Flames surged from each word, digging into the wounds like an inserted forge. The huge goatman stumbled back and dropped to its knees. A baleful look from the remaining eye. A scream as the monster swelled further in size. The massive arms struck at them like spears over an insurmountable gap.

“I see how it works now!” cheered Molly behind them. Wrapped in a cloaking aura of purple, their leader’s eyes whirled with strange colors. She sounded half mad. “An adjustment of scale, literally forcing an alteration in the perspective of the infinite. Simply a pinch of reality to create an effect. Manipulation without breaking, but I can break this!”

“I See, I See, Your Will,

Twisting, Making, Realizing,

My Mind Breaks, Smashes,

Destructive Rejection!”

Purple Mana spilled outwards in every direction, dyeing the world for a brief moment. In that second, Marceline felt her Mana flicker. It was as if she was being rejected by the air outside her body. The goatman bleated in fear as the wave overcame it and the monster rapidly shrank. Body distorting, ripping apart at times, due to the forced speed of reduction.

When the Sisters closed in for the kill, it was an act of mercy. The sundering of the goatman’s spell left the monster in shambles.

The party was quick to shift their attention to the stone beehive. Walking around showed there were no openings, but being set precisely in the middle of the rings still meant this was the same as the hollow tower. There was another key here.

Yet, the surface was completely smooth.

“How the fuck are we supposed to get the doohicky from this?” cursed Eveyln. “Maybe we gotta smash it.”

Marceline crouched down to look at where the hut met the pedestal it stood upon. There was a clear edge. Like a cup set upside down on a table. She reached out and knocked on the stone. Maybe the faintest echo.

“I think… it is a covering. Like… remove the stone and… the key will be there.”

“There are four risen goatman at our disposal, they could try lifting it,” suggested Molly. “Maybe all of us together could tilt it, at least.”

“No… I have this.”

Her free hand raised, consumed in flame.

The green flashed and drained to her fingertip. A curse star that stung the eye. She pressed against the surface, making a circling motion as the stone crumbled with each passing. Withering to dust. Before long a circle of stone fell loose and left a hole into the hollow within. Marceline moved out of the way for someone with longer arms to reach in.

String bean Amelia knelt down, purple flames enveloping her arm as she reached in. A precaution and for lighting. Some shifting about to feel around and then the spear Sister pulled free another odd key, this one with a red gem.

Leaving the stone circles was easy this time, the necro goatmen acted as the perfect escort through the milling goat herd. They could move the beasts aside without triggering their ornery assaults. From there the party climbed aboard the waiting beetle and headed for the center of the flour.

While waiting on Vincent’s party, Molly tested the range of the protective effect of the middle rings. There was nothing else to do as it turned out the keys did not give immunity. Starting from the earlier makers, they were able to trace the entire radius of the effect. Rather than let someone do a full zoned-out way, Molly would pull them back with her strings the moment they tuned out. Made the process much faster.

Vincent and his party arrived at the meet-up with damp clothes.

Molly looked them up and down before asking, “What was protecting the blue key?”

The swordsman grinned with satisfaction, “A good fight. It was this floor’s watering hole and the place was quite packed. The monsters ignored each other, but found our presence … enraging, that’s a good word for it. Plus a little water puzzle meant we got a little wet clearing the place.”

“Particularly because of the big fish that kept spitting water bullets at us,” groused Vihaan Tavade.

“Yes, those were quite insistent about protecting their territory.” Vincent’s cheer unbothered.

A quick test showed that even holding all four keys also didn’t allow you to enter the center of the floor.

Both parties began to discuss what to do next. The keys clearly needed to be used somewhere before the protective magic would allow them through. Marceline picked out a stone spire to take a nap against. Solving the floor in a day was fine with her, but not terribly important to her in the end. She’d play her part when the plan was figured out.

She was brushing aside some stones for a better seat when something caught her eye on the spire’s surface. Writing. Etched faintly, but undeniably there.

“Shadow,” read Marceline. Reflecting on where they were and on riddles. a theory came to mind. “Hey, Eveyln, wait no… Amelia do remember if there was a riddle with the answer being “shadow?” From the goat one, I mean.”

“Hey, you think I have a bad memory or something?” scowled the dagger Sister.

“No… I just know you don’t care about riddles…”

“Fuck, fair…”

Amelia leaned in, her dreamy face flicking between the two of them. She waited to speak until they were done. “Yes, there was a riddle like that. “This will follow you for one thousand miles but not miss home. It desires neither food nor flowers. It never fears water, fire, knives, nor even soldiers. But it disappears when the sun sets beyond the western sky.” We all agreed that shadow was the most likely answer.”

“This spire… it has that answer inscribed here.”

The Sisters looked together at the almost camouflaged words. From a distance, it would be hard to notice at all. Gravel covering part of it would make finding them close to impossible.

Both of them agreed with Marceline’s theory and supported her bringing it up to the rest of the party. The concept being that the other answers might pinpoint where a keyhole was in correlation to the riddles found around its original resting place.

“Vincent, does your party remember the riddles found at your collections sights,” asked Molly in a careful tone. Accepting the idea quickly and jumping into initializing it.

The swordsman immediately turned to Annabell, “Hey, you wrote those down, right?” His tank nodded and pulled a notebook from her pack.

Molly sighed and shook her head while he rolled his eyes at her.

All together the two parties went over every riddle from all four locations and settled on the most likely answers for each. For back up the cool-eyed woman insisted that there be multiple possible answers for each riddle, especially the difficult ones.

Once there was a solid list, they split up again.

Finding the right spires turned out to be as difficult as Molly suggested. Once everyone knew what to look for, discovering the carvings was easy. Knowing which ones mattered wasn’t, some had false answers. Matching became very important as the space correlating to the riddles was rather large and could be anywhere within that range.

To their luck, it wasn’t necessary to confirm every answer to get the location of the keyhole. A few scattered just right gave them a location. The words faced a direction that would cross with the lines given by the other answers.

Each led to a tower of stone that didn’t seem out of the ordinary at all. Only looking down from above allowed you to see the socket atop the peak.

One turn of the key and a hum rose as energy passed through the stone into the ground.

Triangulating the second spot went faster due to familiarity. Soon the other key was used and they met up with Vincent’s party again after they used their keys.

The protective field was done and they were finally able to enter the center. Three rings surrounded a ring made of four small stones that went waist high. Each had a socket on top. The keys came out again, four people took their positions to turn them at the same time. This time the keys sunk into the stone, out of sight.

The space in the very middle disappeared and a tower rose to the ceiling of the floor.

“Hah! Got it in one day too!” grinned Molly. “Let’s go!”