3.3 - Transition (Patreon)

3.3 - Transition

Taylor

I practically sent the whole ecosystem of this fucking swamp down chasing after the Hag. My bugs mapped out the interior of the cavern, its winding narrow corridors opening into cavities before shrinking down into barely passable tunnels again. 

I felt the warmth of fires as my bugs flew over them, felt them touch random items dangling from the twisted, gnarled roots along the ceiling. Deeper in, my bugs landed on people , each one looking curiously at the swarm but not reacting. If they didn’t breathe I’d almost think they were statues.

Then, I felt water, a waterfall somewhere deeper in, and I made my bugs rush past it. I still hadn’t found Ethel.

But there past the waterfall, that’s where my bugs died.

It was like they hit a wall they couldn’t get past, each one lingering for just a moment before they winked out of my awareness like candle flames guttering out in a storm.

Shadowheart’s healing magic eased the pain along my burnt back like a balm. Karlach was still hovering over me, looking for all the world like she’d just stepped on a puppy or something. I felt the air on freshly patched skin through the opening burnt into the back of my shirt and the only reason I didn’t shiver is because I felt the anger in my chest like a pulsing furnace.

“What-”

“Emma!”

Madison and Emma’s voices made me snap my eyes over to look at the two, Emma’s dazed and confused expression sitting atop the Ox  seemed fixed there as she took in her surroundings.

Her voice was a rasp and her hands grasping at the rope that tied her to the beast began snapping them apart like she was tearing plastic wrap.

“Miss Barnes-” Gale approached like he was making contact with an easily spooked animal “-how do you feel?”

Emma looked at him, blinking as though she couldn’t quite understand or recognize who she was looking at before looking past him to the others.

When her eyes settled on Sophia, recognition passed behind her eyes. 

Then, she looked at me and I saw something… shift, something clicking in the back of her mind. 

Her breathing quickly started to become erratic, she was staring at me like someone stares at an oncoming train, and I saw her eyes dart around, looking for something  just before she flinched, the tadpole pulsing.

But it didn’t connect to me, or even Durge, instead it was Shadowheart that winced.  “Someone grab her!” The healer demanded, Gale and Durge moving forward quickly to comply and grab hold of the redhead. 

“What is it?” Durge demanded.

Now it was Shadowheart’s turn to wince. “The curse still has a hold. Opening the connection lets me calm her down but once I drop it she will try, and I don’t know about you, but I’m not comfortable spending any magic I don’t need to when we’re about to delve into a Hag lair. Healing her from an attempted suicide is something I’d rather avoid.”

Emma was crying now, tears quietly leaking from her eyes as she hiccuped. I could hear the rope under her grasp craking and straining

“Would more connections help?” Wyll asked, frowning with concern

“Possibly-” Shadowheart shrugged. “I’m hardly an expert on this. But it feels like Ethel’s curse loses some potency when the weight of it is shared so to speak.”

“Are you feeling suicidal?” Durge asked.

“Nothing I can’t overcome.” the Half-elf answered. I wasn’t sure how truthful she was but Durge seemed to accept it with a simple nod.

Wyll’s tadpole pulsed, the connection opening up between him, Emma and Shadowheart. I saw him wince, sorrow and then a determined sort of anger in his expression.

I thought about opening my own connection, then almost immediately decided against it. 

Maybe I didn’t want her to die, but I would be damned before I let her anywhere near my mind. She wasn’t an Emma that was worth that anymore.

Durge slowly, almost gingerly let go of Emma, easing away from her before he turned to look at me. “Your bugs have gone through, have you found her?”

I shook my head. “No. She’s deeper in, there’s a place my bugs can’t get past; I assume she’s there. Also, I sense people.”

“Charmed thralls most like.” Gale nodded. “Its common for Hags to have such to help defend them in their lairs.”

Durge frowned. “How many?”

“Seven.” I said “They didn’t react to my bugs though, so I’ve got a few spiders and bees on them to sting if we need it.”

“Hrm. That should make things simpler.” He looked around. “Karlach, are you willing to open your connection with Barnes, Take Shadowheart’s place?”

“I can handle it.” Shadowheart contested.

“I’m sure you can, that’s not the point.” Durge shrugged. “We’re dealing with a Hag. Meaning magic is key. I’d rather have both you and Gale as focused as possible along with myself to counteract any spell or trap we’re put up against.”

Shadowheart’s lips pursed, clearly irritated she hadn’t thought of such before Durge looked to Karlach. “Well?” He pressed. “Can you?”

Karlach shrugged. “Sure.” She got a strange almost perplexed look on her face. “How do you-” A pulse, the link established.  “Hah! Got it!” She looked immensely proud of herself just for a moment before she winced and hissed. “Ohh, fuck this is messed up.”

“What exactly is it that you’re seeing?” Astarion asked, seemingly more out of curiosity than concern.”

“Little Red is thinking about if she can gore herself on the horns.” Karlach answered.

I pushed my reaction, whatever it might have been into my swarm, listening as Madison gasped. 

Durge sighed. “Right. Get her off that Ox. Clements, stay by her side, Lae’zel, with me up front, the rest of you, be on alert. Let's go kill ourselves a Hag.”

—

We descended, down down into the depths of the earth. Gnarled, thick roots held the dirt and rock of the walls together like a net. Poison green fires lit up the interior as the group passed what looked almost like an art gallery of macabre horrors. A woman, with roots growing through her body, clutching at eyes that seemed to have melted out of her skull, the statue of a petrified dwarf, whispering masks that floated overhead. The only person we found still alive in the ‘gallery’ was an elf. His skin was ashen grey, he was practically naked, covered in filth and grime as he screamed and wailed incoherently in a corner.

Then, we came upon a dead end. Except it wasn’t.

“It’s not real.” I said. 

“Illusion?” Gale asked, marching slightly past me. “Yes, I sense it now.”

“There’s a Hex tied into it-” Shadowheart cut in. “-if we pass through, we’ll all likely be cursed in some way.” Her brow furrowed eyes shutting in concentration before she nodded. “I believe I can protect us, all of us. But so many- it will take up a great deal of both my magic and focus.”

“I’m no Cleric but I can probably assist. The Protection from Evil spell is one of the entry level spells for abduration magecraft -my, personal specialty.” Gale chuckled.

Shadowheart nodded 

“Past here is where the Thralls are.” I reminded each of them

“Seven of them, and you have them tagged with insects.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t really sure if Durge was asking or just keeping a mental tally. 

“Karlach, Wyll, Lae’zel, we go first once Gale and Shadowheart cast their spell. Astarion, Hess, right behind us, Hebert, you Clements and Barnes directly behind them and our protectors last.” The White Dragonborn looked at Shadowheart and Gale. “Do it.”

The two casters began their incantations, Gale with hand gestures and what sounded to my ear like mumbled gibberish vaguely sounding like latin and Shadowheart with much more whispered prayers before her hands passed over all of us.

There was a pale gold glow from both, I felt a tingle at the back of my teeth, almost like static.

“Done.” Shadowheart declared.

I didn’t feel much different, let alone ‘Protected from Evil’ as Gale declared.

But, the others seemed to take him at his word, and so, they stepped through the illusory wall.

Immediately, the seven people I had tagged with bugs came charging at them, I had so many bugs that I could feel them drawing weapons, and could almost hear their screams through the bugs own senses as they howled and yelled in frenzy.

All at once, every spider, every bee, every beetle and centipede I had crawling over them bit and stung and clawed at their bare flesh. I pumped them full of venom. I wasn’t sure which ones were deadly and which were just painful but I was… pretty sure that afterwards we could come through and use Shadowhearts healing magic to fix them, given the lack of Epi-pens.

Practically as one each one dropped, writhing and contorting on the ground.

Madison, holding onto Emma like a first responder holds onto a rescue victim stepped up next to me, and I tried not to make it too obvious as I stepped away before the three of us made our own way through the illusory wall.

Immediately I knew something was trying to attack. My every sense screamed at me that something was wrong, the magic tied into the illusion swarming over me like my bugs swarmed the thralls just seconds ago before something pushed away the magic. Like magnets pushing eachother away, or oil and water. That static at the back of my teeth returned and I could almost feel Shadowheart and Gale’s hands on my shoulder as their essence pushed away the foreign one. 

We stepped through and just ahead at the end of the room, I could see the waterfall that marked the limit of what my Bugs could explore.

Gale bumped into me as he came through, his hand on my shoulder.

“Apologies.” The Wizard said quickly, eyes closed and features scrunched up in obvious concentration. “The Hag’s spell is much stronger than I anticipated.”

“You can say that again.” Shadowheart cringed, as though she was in genuine physical pain. “Gods-”

“Can you hold it!?” Durge asked.

“For now, but the sooner we get through this and kill her, the better.” The woman stressed, and that was all Durge needed to hear apparently. 

“Let’s move.”

We walked quickly through the still whimpering, groaning ‘bodyguards’ Ethel had, making our way to the waterfall where, as we drew closer I could see the space beyond it held a noxious green hue.

Durge sniffed the air. “Poison” He said. “A natural deposit of some kind. That’s likely what killed your insects.” 

“Urgh. This is becoming far more trouble than its worth.” I heard Astarion mutter under his breath, too low for the others to hear, but I did hear it.

“Alright so how do we get past it?” Karlach asked, her hand reaching out towards the waterfall and touching it, letting out a steamy hiss as white clouds burst from the water’s contact against her skin. 

Durge stepped back away from the waterfall. “Brute force.”

I’m… fairly sure that caught us all a little off guard, at least judging by Astarion’s bemused “Pardon?”

Durge bent his knees, going low like he was bracing for an impact and with a roar he threw both hands forward and the only way I could describe what happened next was someone trapping a hurricane in a bottle.

Gale force winds burst out of the man, nearly knocking me off my feet even though most of the force of the wind was thrown directly infront of him, the wave of air practically blowing the waterfall clear before barreling through the poison and blasting it out of our way and scattering it through the chamber beyond. 

“Go!”

Wyll and Karlach were the first ones to fo as demanded, their jump, went farther than either of them intended because of the wind at their backs, Lae’zel followed right behind and soon enough each of us were running into the opening. 

As we ran, I felt the itch at the back of my throat, like I was breathing in black pepper dust or something, but the worst of the gas had been blown out to the sides of the cavern, or its towering ceiling above us.

More than that, sightlines were clear, and down below I could see one more chamber in the cave, a cavern that had a wooden cage hanging above a chasm where I could just see the Green of that Mayrina woman’s dress trapped inside.

“That must be it!” Gale declared. “The heart of the Hag’s lair!”

We ran quickly, the wind from Durge’s storm still howling behind us. Karlach’s claws crunched and scraped along wooden roots, Wyll and Lae’zel right behind her moved like they did parkour in their free time. Gale grabbed hold of Madison and Emma, leaping with all his might before he began slowly falling like he had a parachute or something. Sophia faded into her shadow state to keep up.

Shadowheart, Astarion and I trailed behind and when I heard the howling of the wind fade away behind me I felt Durge sprinting through the opening to follow us, his massive stride covering ground quickly. 

We kept descending, the poison gases beginning to creep back into the chamber as I took a deep breath and held it, running as fast as I could, the insects that were hiding in the main chamber beginning to converge to map out the space infront of me so I could step more surefootedly from spot to spot.

Then, I felt Durge rushing up to shoot past Shadowheart, only to coil one arm around the healer’s waist, picking her up with a startled scream.

I sensed him coming, and so all I had to do was turn around, holding out my arm.

He snatched it, clawed hand practically swallowing my whole forearm as he leapt off of the heights and began descending just as Gale had with Madison and Emma, slowly, depositing the both of us onto the basin of the cavern.

“Oh no, by all means.” Astarion complained as he navigated his way down. “Just. Leave me here to die!”

“Aren’t elves supposed to be graceful?” Karlach teased, even though I saw her moving forward as though she were either contemplating catching or running up to go get him.

“I’m wearing Figaro Penygood clothing my dear. In this setting this is about as graceful as you’re going to get.” Astarion growled, leaping the remaining distance as the noxious gases once more returned to their place through the primary chamber. 

It had to be held there by magic. Gases didn’t normally act that way as far as I knew.

“Quiet.” Durge growled, looking towards the cavernous maw that was the heart of the Hag’s lair. “She’s likely watching us.”

There were insects inside of the chamber, plenty of them. It looks like the Hag never expected-

I sensed her.

It was quick. Subtle. Barely a whisper of her breathing as she hid. Just a hundred feet away, to our left.

I kept my eyes fixed on the cage where Mayrina was locked, watching as the woman struggled against the bars and screamed out curses against the Hag. My mind was racked with indecision. We were still far, she could run, or do something with magic if I hinted at the fact that I could sense her.

“Spread out.” Durge said. “On your guard.”

Spread out. Was that good or bad? She could teleport so that meant she could find us individually if we did but if we stayed together she could just run and play keep away… what was best.

I didn’t know, so I thought fast, grabbing hold of a spider with a fly I made it land on Durge’s shoulder and scuttled it down to the back of his hand.

It bit, hard, but it didn’t pump any venom. Durge winced looking down and seemingly ready to swat the thing away when he paused, watching it.

I made one of the spider’s limbs stretch out as far as it would go, tapping in Ethel’s direction, like a compass pointing northwards.

He didn’t look at me, he just kept staring for just a moment. 

“Karlach.” Durge called. “With me.”

The large Tiefling woman fell in next to him. By now, Mayrina had caught sight of Wyll, who was doing his best to reassure her as I moved, following after Durge, trying to look… non-suspicious I guess…

I felt my heart hammering under my ribs. Anticipation, nervousness, sheer dread. They all mixed in a heady cocktail that made me feel lightheaded and my palms sweaty, the static at the back of my teeth now made me feel nauseous even as I kept my senses fixed on Ethel’s softly breathing form. 

Ten seconds passed, then twenty. Durge and Karlach inching ever closer, I kept tapping with my spider’s legs, trying to alert him.

He was right ontop of her.

I felt Ethel move, felt her shoulders shake in a low laugh, that clawed hand rising to peel Durge or Karlach open with their wicked edge.

And that’s when Durge rounded on her, a crackling fistfull of lightning slashing at Ethel’s face.

“MORADIN’S FUCKIN BALLSACK!” Karlach yelped, startled, completely off guard. But she recovered quickly, roaring and swinging with that axe.

The axe bit deep, the heat rolling off of Karlach practically making the metal sizzle against flesh as Ethel screamed in pain. A blast of point blank Magic from the Hag seemingly shunted aside by a shield of translucent magic as Gale’s voice echoed through the halls.

Durge rushed forward, moving to press the attack, dodging under the first claw swipe before the second one caught him, his own lightning infused hand grabbing hold of Ethel’s wrist with a discharge that left the flesh there smoking, the blackened meat charred off enough to reveal bone.

“Dolor” Wyll shouted, twin beams of energy lancing out of his hands to shriek across the room, they went wide as Ethel dodged, only for Astarion and Sophia’s arrows to catch her in the back.

The Hag vanished into noxious smoke, the side of her face a blackened, burnt handmark, bleeding from her shoulder and arrows jutting out of her like quills. By all accounts, we had her on the ropes. 

“Clever Petal.” I heard her voice bouncing around the chamber, coming from everywhere. “But lets see how ya fare without this one!”

She appeared just behind Shadowheart and Madison the young girl screamed, and Shadowheart, thinking fast, bashed Madison aside with her shield, throwing her to the floor before a wave of force burst out of Ethel.

It caught Shadowheart full on, launching her back like a doll, her body sailing clear and beginning to fall into the chasm.

I heard the others scream, I heard Shadowheart scream, her tadpole pulsed, genuine fear running through every connected member of our group, in a feedback loop as we watched the half elf beginning to plummet to her death.

I felt something shatter, the static at the back of my teeth vanishing as though it had never been there just as Lae’zel lunged across the room, seemingly trying to catch the Healer herself.

And then, my whole world became shrouded in blackness. 

—

I can practically feel their eyes burning into the back of my skull. The sniggering, the barely hidden whispers. 

‘Look at her clothes- so cheap. You’d think her pimp would get her nicer ones so he could charge more.’

‘Pimp? As if anyone would pay to touch her. She’d probably have to pay them. 

Winslow’s halls stretch on endlessly grey and dull and lifeless. I’m back here again and I’m never getting out of this fucking hellhole.

That’s not true Petal. You can get out. A nice quick permanent way to do that. Auntie isn’t so cruel. Not like them.

I feel Madison’s spitball at the back of my head, sticking to my hair, the wad of paper and saliva feels disgusting as I pull it free and Madison just laughs as Gladly ignores her, continuing on with the Lesson as though he doesn’t notice, as if I don’t see him smiling out of the corner of his mouth right along with them.

They don’t care. They’ll never care, not any of them. Not unless its them trapped in that filth and rotting, diseased blood. Not unless it affects them.

The sky is cold and grey, the rain falls, pelting me. 

I’m shivering, freezing. 

“It should’ve been you.”

The voice makes my heart twist and I turn, looking at my father as he stares at the grave.

“You think I wanted this?” I can’t even recognize his voice “Think I wanted to be here, stuck with some useless kid while she’s gone!?”

I shut my eyes, shaking my head. It’s not real… It’s not real It’s not real!

“What’s the matter Taylor?” My eyes snap open. Emma’s voice is sweet, so sickeningly sweet as she stands infront of me, smiling that cruel smile. The only smile she ever has anymore. “Gonna cry yourself to sleep for a week?”

I feel something. Something quiet and unnamable fracture.

Emma’s face twists, and warps, it vanishes to be replaced by…

“Mom?”

My voice is a horrified whisper, and the cruel smile that Mom looks at me with makes me sick to my stomach. Because it’s not her smile. It’s Emma’s smile and the voice that comes out is just as hateful, just as spiteful as hers. Only now wearing my mother’s face.

“What’s wrong little Owl?” She laughs. “My little mista-”

I cant say that the sound that comes out of me is a scream. I’m not even sure if the sound that comes out of me is human.

My hands lash out, grabbing hold of my mother’s face. My fingers are like talons, my grip is a vice and with all the rage, all the anger instinct takes over. A primal, raw need to hurt this thing. This malformed disgusting perversion of the one good memory I have left!

I grab hold of any energy any power that I might have only begun to grasp these last few days and I pour it all into her. 

The bug I’d placed near her temple dies. Because my eyes had lied to me. 

My bugs didn’t.

I scream as poison green fire wreathes my fingers and hands in necrotic energies, Ethel’s flesh starts peeling away, revealing bone as meat and muscle and eyes and nose slough off like dripping wax. I barely notice as my fingers do the same. 

The tadpole clenches in my head.

Ethel screams, trying to fight now, trying to throw me off but I’m not letting go, even as her claws carve trenches into my back and sides I just push the energy into mending my body, regenerating almost as fast as she can do damage before the Hag falls to the ground.

I let go, my hands bracing against the stone wall, not even feeling the moss and roots wither and die at my touch as my foot rises and stomps down on Ethel’s face, hearing the crunch of bone, Ethel’s body jerking and twitching, her flailing attempts at defending herself becoming more and more desperate but I don’t stop, I don’t even know what stopping means. 

My foot crunches down over and over again, there’s a pain in my chest I barely notice, I don’t even see when the body stops moving. The spatter of blood and brain matter across my front doesn’t even register.  I don’t even feel when my foot is no longer hitting bone and is instead hitting dirt.

By the time I stop the pain in my chest is agony. I can't suck down enough air, tears burn down my cheeks even though I’m pushing everything I can into my swarm. Red pulses at the edges of my sight. 

I turn, passing my eyes over indistinct shadows and splotches that are barely shapes before they fixate on her.  Emma.

“What’s the matter Taylor? Gonna cry yourself to sleep for a week?”

I start stalking forward and whatever expression I’m wearing made the bitch go white as a sheet, and as the insects begin to buzz all around us and the legs and claws and mandibles begin to crawl out of the dark, the others begin to look worried too.

“Hey! Hey!” There’s heat  infront of me, a wall of red skinned muscle as Karlach suddenly interposes herself between us, shielding Emma from view. “It’s alright, it’s ok. Just breathe with me ok, do what I do-”

I can barely hear her words, its more the tone that makes me stop, gentle and kind, the tone I should have heard when I saw her face again, only now even that memory isn’t left to me. Even that has to get fucking ruined! 

I cry. Even as I push everything I can into my swarm, even as I try to grasp at the fraying tethers of whatever sense I had left, I fall to my knees and cry, Karlach kneeling right along with me even as she doesn’t touch me. 

My screams move through the whole cavern like the dreadful vestige of an echoing wail.

(X)(X)(X)

So. I may be overstating things.

But Taylor had a bit of a crashout... A small one.

In other news, you eagle eyed DnD players can probably tell what her subclass will be.

Way of Mercy.

The Way of Mercy Monk subclass is a Monk that basically does 2 things.It does damage via "Hands of harm" AKA "My fist is coated in necrotic energy and I will be delivering this Necrotic energy to your skull"And it heals though "Hands of healing" quite literally bitch slapping the damage away from whoever is hurt."

She can also, as noticed, heal herself.

This is the 'foundation' of what she will be going forward.

I say 'foundation' because Way of Mercy's higher level skills (lvl 17) are kind of useless in a story format so I will be swapping it out with another ability and do some cheeky "shenanigans" along the way to make things a bit more of a "custom fit" for our girl.Either way this has been a great deal of fun and next chapter will be entirely from Sophia's POV and we get to see just what Taylor's ahem very mild crashout, looked like, from an outside perspective.

It should mark the end of this side adventure with Ethel and our next stop... blighted village. Where there is absolutely nothing of note to find. Especially not something with eight legs.