Pan Flute's Song Report

As the party travels further into the woods, Rickee takes a moment to shyly ask if anyone within the group has ever met an aasimar. This confuses Marianne, who turns to Rishaa and asks, "aren't you an aasimar?" Rishaa denies it vehemently.   The talk of children of the divine pricks the guilty conscience of Rickee, a child of the unholy, and he admits that he made a deal with something dark to come back to life. Though the others are sympathetic, Marianne removes herself from the conversation immediately. In her own words, she doesn't fuck with magic. For now, the deal is dismissed, but not forgotten.   Dimitri grips tightly to his symbol of Zheenkeef as they walk, silently praying to her as he attempts to make sense of his new place in the world. When Rishaa falls into step beside him, Dimitri quietly confesses that he's worried that he's unwanted - not even the goddess of chaos wants his prayers. Marianne overhears and aggressively denies that claim. She will beat up anyone who says Dimitri is unwanted.   For her part, Rishaa puts a hand on his shoulder, looks deep into his eyes, and says solemnly, "even if your god has abandoned you, I'm still here."   Suddenly, a dagger whips out of the woods in front of them and Rishaa reacts instantly, her hands coming up to catch the dagger between her hands. She moves with the blade, using its own momentum to throw it back at the creature who attacked them: a small, dark-skinned creature with fanged teeth and a cackling laugh. A darkling.   It grabs ahold of the tree that it sits in, and pulls at the branches with all its might. As it does so, the tree's branches bend, the bark cracks and breaks, forming a ghoulish yawning maw in the center of the trunk with dark eyes that stare at the party with nothing but the frenzied urge to crush the adventurers in them.   Rishaa runs forward, her long chain-dagger extending to try and pull the darkling down from the tree, but unfortunately she catches nothing but air.   Dimitri, for his part, steps forward and attempts to ring a spectral gong, shattering the darkling's thoughts with toll the dead. But the fey's thoughts are firm, and it stands unruffled by the wizard's magic.    The darkling takes out another dagger and throws it out, this time hitting Marianne in the leg. She stumbles, going down to one knee. Her skin begins to ripple, fur replacing peachy skin. Her teeth grown long and fanged as she transforms and dashes up to the base of the tree, growling and swiping at her attacker.   The tree now has two people within it's reach, and two branches sweep down to try and knock over Rishaa and Marianne. Rishaa dodges nimbly to the side, while Marianne grabs ahold of the limb and holds it tight as her clawed feet skid on the dirt road.   Rickee backs up, and strums on his instrument a little ditty. The notes manifest into a glowing white dust that flows out on the wind, sticking to the darkling and tree and illuminating them in the Vespmar gloom with faerie fire.   Rishaa sees her chance and begins to punch wildly at the darkling. She hits it once, twice, three, four times, with blood misting all around her! The final blow is when she takes the dagger from her belt and plunges it deep into the stomach of the darkling. The darkling's death throes and kicks slowly cease as the fey is unable to hold up under the monk's assault.   Seeing an opening, Dimitri raises his hand and the snow of his homeland  coalesces like frost on the outside of a glass on his hand. It roils and swirls, then shoots out in a ray of frost that hits the tree right in the trunk, nearly knocking its now-dead rider out of its branches.   Marianne howls, entering into her blood rage and swipes at the tree, hitting it once before it gets two hits on her and Rishaa - though both are fast enough to avoid its attacks.   Rickee stumbles to his feet, voice trembling as he yells out, "y-you should leaf!" The tree, unable to speak Common, is unaffected by the tiefling's attempt at vicious mockery.   The next few moments of combat are much like the former: Rishaa hits the plant over and over again with her fists, Dimitri's rime-y magic coats the tree with more and more ice, Marianne uses her axe and teeth to tear the tree apart, and Rickee barely causes any pain to the tree with his insults. The only moments of danger are when both Marianne and Rishaa are about to be hit with the tree's thrashing roots and the two arcanists - Rickee and Dimitri - stretch out their hands and save the girls with their silvery barbs spells.   Rishaa swings again, hitting the tree right in its "dumb eyes," in Rishaa's words, over and over again. She nearly kills the thing, but Marianne has the honor of the final blow: her axe sinks into the wood, biting deeper and deeper until with a groan, the tree keels over onto the ground.   With the fight over, Dimitri ashamedly drags the body of the darkling behind a tree and cracks open his brain like a coconut to get some sustenance. Even more ashamedly, the flesh tastes like black licorice. Rifling through the fey creature's pockets, Dimitri finds some silver, which he stores away in his pockets.   After he returns, as the group builds their campsite for the night, Marianne sits next to Dimitri and shyly asks if he would mind braiding her hair. Surprised, he agrees. Rishaa sits nearby, whittling the wood from the awakened tree into javelins for later use.   As they sit and talk, Rishaa teases Marianne about reading smut in her library - she denies it, and manages to fool Rickee, but everyone else knows the truth....   After dinner, Dimitri and Marianne work together to make an igloo in the thick snow banks, while Rishaa and Rickee attempt to meditate. It doesn't go very well, and Marianne throws a snowball at Rishaa in an attempt to distract her. Rishaa, however, is well prepared, and snatches the snowball out of thin air and sends it flying back at Marianne, hitting the barbarian in the face and sending her to the ground with one hit.   "You terrify me." Rickee announces to Rishaa with wide eyes.   Eventually, everyone settles down for bed. Rishaa watches quietly as a many-pointed stag wanders through the woods, grazing quietly.   However, it is during Rickee's watch that things take a turn for the worse: another fey creature, with a hideous beastial face and horns like an elk and legs like a goat's, wanders into the campsite, playing a haunting tune on it's pan pipes. The sound is enchanting, calling out for any who hears it to act out their deepest, darkest desires. Rickee is entranced by the song, giving into it's sweet call. He reaches out and grabs something from the pouch at the faun's (for that is what this creature is), but doesn't recognize the object at this point. Then, as if in a dream, he wanders into Marianne and Rishaa's tent, where he looks down at their sleeping forms.    Then, the tune still echoing in his ears, Rickee unsheathes his sword and stabs it down, directly into Marianne's chest, as she wakes up screaming.