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Grolm 10, 578

Battle of the bands

by Zhang Sephia

My entangle spell has tied Mister Bad Guy stuck in place - and it also tied Jesse in place. I then fire one of my lightning arrows at him, but I miss. I know that there is a bottle at the back of the platform that is probably important and might even be the stormborn that Miro needs. I suggest to Xifeng that maybe he and Rowtag should take this opportunity to snatch it. I shoot another arrow at him while Xifeng heads over to Rowtag to talk bird talk and hopefully come up with a good plan. This time it hits. The big pouty baby runs to submerge himself into a tub at the back of the platform and he actually orders Jesse to stop us. Jesse blathers on about what to do next and the bird duo grabs the bottle and carries it back to Bart. He snatches it out of the air and then it is suddenly deathly quiet. No singing, no water sounds, nothing. Then the crystals start to throb and from somewhere around Bart comes a banshee wail that lasts for a full minute. Then everyone else starts scrambling for things and trying to put the stormborne into a second bottle and no one seems to be doing anything really. So, I shoot an arrow at the crystals to see if I can use the lightning to break them.
 
I don't believe we managed to take him out that easily. Something else is going on. Bart suggests that I go check to see if the waterfall is still flowing so I fly back to the main chamber. There is no waterfall and the chamber has more of a sunset red glow. I glance down to see if the humans are still there in the huts but instead, I see around twenty jacks staring back up at me - as if I was a monster on the top spire of their temple! I race back into the lab and holler out, "Twenty jack with no waiting!" and then rush back out and fire off a quick arrow at the closest one. It spits back at me, but I know I hit it! I fire another arrow and that one falls to the ground without reaching my target so I do a quick loop-de-loop in order to dodge whatever it might try to throw at me. Jesse walks out and orders all of the jacks to go rest and await the great battle tomorrow, but for some reason, the one that I set on fire is still flying after me. Which is laughable since I am a natural flyer. I shoot another arrow at it and it sizzles nicely. Pumpkin pie anyone? It attempts to send a pumpkin seed bomb after me, but I am able - barely - to stay out of the way. In retaliation, I fire another arrow and it falls to the ground lifeless.
 
Bart hollers at me to stop playing around and come help the team to take on some giant cactus that looks monstrous so I guess I should go help, but by the time I get there, Jesse seems to have it under control. I fly back into the laboratory and ask in general if anyone has seen Chef. No one has since the battle started and I go over and do a heal on the Padre and then sit with him while Bart goes to release some of the humans and help them down the stairs. He promises to look for Chef while he is out and about. Miro is playing around with the items on the tables and then decides that it would be a good idea to go and tell the humans he found earlier about the fact they are free and can leave the caveat.
 
I am sure it has been at least a year that I have been sitting here and the Padre has not moved. I feel a hint of a draft and glance around, but don't see anywhere where the air could be coming from. I search around and find a few dozen candles, light them, and set them around the area. Then I watch to see how they react and the smoke seems to be heading towards an area at the back of the platform. I investigate, but I can't seem to find any opening. Then all of the candles go out and the crystals stop glowing - except for the Padre's eyes which do glow with a hint of Angelfire. I walk over to see if he responds to my presence and he starts blinking and asks what is going on. I suggest that now might be a good time to go find the others.
 
As we start down the stairs, we see the others enter the cavern. We notice that something is a bit off about Brathzamus, but I also notice that more than the Padre's eyes are glowing. I suggest that we shouldn't rush into anything, but Padre is convinced that the cows will attack once the sun goes down - and he might have a point. The others ask about a back door and I tell them about my suspicions and what I noticed about the wall at the back of the cave upstairs. Jesse and Miro both head upstairs to see what they can discover. I turn back to the Padre to discuss the whole glowing thing and then Bart goes over and hugs two people. Let me say that again - BART HUGS two people and then spouts off in what I think is elvish to them. They look like they have had a rough month which just got worse. There is a long conversation about being able to release the stormborn from the bottle.
 
Then Bart / Elven priestess walks towards the entrance and starts singing. Entering are two pale riders with glowing eye and horns. Now what do we do?
 

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