Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

Emil spoke up. "That's good thinking. The more we know, the better we can prepare."

Shuffle tilted her head. "What if he doesn't tell us what he knows?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I am trained to interrogate, he will speak." Joanne left it at that as the group came up on the next area.

 

[Fangs9090]

The next was another fairly large room. There were two doors on opposite sides of the room, though seemed more accessible than the other at the moment due to a large beast prowling at one end of the room. At first glance, it was a lion, but the goat head sprouting from its neck was hard to miss, as was the snake that was in place of its tail. It didn't seem to have noticed the group just yet.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Even Joanne realized that a chimera was a dangerous creature, even by her standards. they weren't as large as the dragons, but infinitely more dangerous. A dragon is singleminded, determined. A chimera is chaotic and three times the brainpower. Adran also freaked a little bit, and between the two of them the group was ushered back behind the door they'd come through. Jerry was already there, trying to think of a plan.

"Any ideas, Jeri?", Adran asked.

"It's a chimera!", Jerry snapped, "My thing is humanoids, not animals! That's your thing, elf! You tamed a leopard, how do you tame this?" Then it looked like Jerry had an idea. 'Tame... remember that love potion?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil looked at her. "Would that effect all three heads at once, or would you have to dose each one?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I... I don't know," Jerry fished out the heart-shaped bottle. "Maybe?"

"The lion controls the body," Joanne said, "The goat and the snake are subservient to it, and it cannot hurt itself with it's own venom."

"That still leaves how to get the potion into the lion's mouth," Adran pointed out, "We don't know how much we'd need for it to work, either."

Jerry pulled out her map book and started scribbling some numbers. "I don't know how a chimera's digestion works, but it's the size of twenty men. Half an ounce diluted in a pint of water will tame a wolf, and there's sixteen ounces, here..." She looked very confused for a second. "It can't be diluted, if this is going to work. We'd need a four gallon container in order to just tame it, there's no way we could force that down his throat." Jerry looked at the bottle. "We're gonna have to do it directly, feed it the full effect."

"What does that- oh. Are you certain?", Beri's face was a rough approximation of a confused frown as he spoke.

"I'll worry about that," Jerry replied, putting it away. "If you guys can keep him looking in one direction, I can take care of the lion."

"I will need a spell shield," Joanne said, "The goat has magic."

"Fia and I can take out the snake," Adran volunteered, "I've got no spells left, but I've got Amdis and some cantrips left."

"That'll probably work," Jerry agreed, "Anyone else have something to contribute to the plan?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil spoke up again. "I can provide magic resistance. It won't be an actual shield, but it'll reduce how much effect its magic has on us."

Shuffle raised her hand. "I can distract it!"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I was referring to the shields taken from the magick knights," Joanne said, "But that will be useful."

"You and I can keep the lion busy, then," Beri said to Shuffle, "Which leaves-"

"Me to chuck a bottle down it's throat," Jerry said, "Sounds like a horrible, horrible plan. Let's do it." She stood up and took off the bow and quiver, handing it to Adran. "Here, I'm gonna be spending most of the fight running, anyway."

"Don't get killed," Adran replied, strapping up.

"If this works out, we're not gonna have to worry about that at all," Jerry replied as the group took positions. Joanne opened the magic bag and retrieved the two magical shields, before handing it back. "On three. One, two..."

Joanne kicked the door open just as "THREE!" left Jerry's mouth.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle slipped past Joanne to charge in first as Emil started playing his song. She breathed flames at the chimera as she ran past, grabbing its attention. The beast shook its head before it looked at her an roared. The goat began casting as the lion turned towards Shuffle.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Amdis leapt to life, her warlock leaping into the saddle with bow in hand like a Mongol from hell, putting an arrow in the base of the tail as Amdis pranced around to dodge any attack by the snake. Beri surged forward after Shuffle, scrabbling up the size of the chimera towards the goat head as Joanne rolled up with the golden tower shield on her arm and the silver one on her back, sword in hand. Jerry hung back, looking for the opportune moment. She knew that the chimera would probably need to be weakened for the philter to work, so she made it her mission at the moment to keep from getting hit and to occasionally throw pointy things at the chimera's other heads.

 

[Fangs9090]

The snake lashed out at Adran and his mount, doing what it could to bite whatever was in reach. Fia spat a fireball at it, but the snake moved so much it was a hard target for her, and the fireball just flew past. The goat took note of Beri climbing towards it and chose him as the primary target, firing a lightning bolt at him from its mouth. Feeling the others fighting the rest of its heads, the lion started turning its attention to them, but the moment its eyes were off of Shuffle, she charged. She jumped at the lion's head, planting both feet on the side of its face before jumping away as it lashed out at her.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran leaned back to dodge the Snake, before one bite landed on Amdis, but the nightmare's fiery form burned the inside of the serpent's mouth forcing it to let go or bake just in time for fia's fireball to... miss. New plan, Adran nocked an arrow which glowed green with some magic as he again took aim at the base of the tail, and fired, a magical explosion accompanying the penetration as the Lion was busy elsewhere.

Lightning clapped through the air as the bolt hit Beri full force. The leopard's muscles spasmed as electricity crackles through his body, embedding his claws in the lion's hide and preventing him from letting go. When he finally regained control, Beri was not happy. With a roar and a flash of glowing eyes, he leapt from the side of the lion and up towards the throat of the goat, clawing, shredding, chewing and roaring. At this range, anything the goat did to the smoking leopard, would also happen to itself. At the same time, Joanne finally made got there. The goat was outside of sword range, but not smite range, as her own little thunderclap slammed into the side of the beast, leaving a winged mark burned into the goat's neck.

 

[Fangs9090]

The snake hissed and flailed from the attack before lunging again, though it could only reach so far with the rest of the body preoccupied. Fia seemed to realize where the easy target was and aimed another fireball for the base of the tail. The goat was took more than a few hits from Beri and Joanne before it managed to cast again, this time using a shockwave to try and get the leopard off. Shuffle kept on pestering the lion, staying just out of reach and hitting every time it tried to look elsewhere. Every time she hit it, the beast roared in response, it’s mouth opened wide to show its teeth.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Further arrows sank into the snake's base before one went directly into it's mouth as it attempted to strike at Adran again. Amdis did her job well, keeping Adran just close enough that he looked to be within striking distance, and just far enough away that it was literally a matter of leaning away to avoid being bitten. The shockwave loosened Beri, dropping him down on the opposite side from Joanne as the magic shield absorbed the force and kept Joanne from getting sent back. The enraged cat scrabbled back up the side of the creature as Joanne planted another thunderclap. Jerry braced herself against the goat's shockwave before flinging a glowing purple knife at it's eye. That goat was going to be the main issue, here. Half the party couldn't get to it, and it could cast.

 

[Fangs9090]

The snake recoiled as the arrow hit its mouth. Seeing it was unable to bite now, Fia dove in and grabbed it near the head with her talons, flapping her wings to pull it tight. The goat flailed from Joanne and Jerry’s attacks, missing its chance to cast before Beri was back on it. It was more than preoccupied now, and half blind to boot. All it was trying to do now was shake the cat off.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Seeing an opportunity as Fia pulled the snake tight, Adran nocked three arrows, all glowing magical green. With the snake immobile, the soft joint at the base of the skull and where the belly became the throat was completely vulnerable. Magical explosions accompanied the penetration of the arrows as all three were fired at once. "Sorry!" he called to Fia, thinking she was within the blast radius.

Beri was not so easy to shake off, not while angry and especially not with such gloriously thick and knotted fur to sink his claws into. He hauled his way up to the goat's throat, clawing through the fur to find the throat and biting into it once he could clearly see a path.

Seeing the other two heads approaching their ends, or at least a weakened state, and the lion being too focused on Shuffle, Jerry made her move. "Shuffle, duck!", she barked as she pulled the top off of the heart-shaped bottle and throwing it cleanly down the Lion's gullet, accomanied by a stone bouncing off it's nose to make sure the lion was looking at the approaching rogue while the bottle of love potion poured every drop it's contents, undiluted and unaltered, into the chimera's belly.

 

[Fangs9090]

Fia flew up as the arrows hit, ending up with the snake head still in her grip. She glanced at the head before looking at Adran. “I’m fine!”

The goat couldn’t do anything but yell as Beri dug into its neck.

Shuffle dropped low to the ground as the bottle sailed over her head, catching the lion mid roar and flying right down its throat. Shuffle quickly ran off to the side, well aware of what would happen next. The lion shook its head after unintentionally swallowing something before looking for whoever threw it.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran gave Fia a thumbs up and dismounted as he saw Jerry successfully forcefeed the potion and saw Beri ripping and tearing into the goat's throat, goat blood spilling out as the leopard occasionally pulled his head out to spit away a piece of flesh he'd ripped out, only stopping when finally the goat stopped moving and he himself was tired from the effort, and just fell off, landing on Joanne and putting them both on the ground.

"Over here, kitty!", Jerry called, now within pounce distance of the lion if it chose so. "Easy, calm down." That love potion hadn't been diluted, what was going through that lion's gullet was a concentrated alchemical solution at a much higher dosage than was reccomended by the black market, which was the only source on the subject since such potions were generally outlawed for obvious reasons. If it had been diluted properly, the effect would have been a rapid taming, but undiluted, that was not the case, and Jerry knew it, so she was trying to calm the lion down before it did something that made a bad time for everyone involved.

 

[Fangs9090]

The lion blinked a few times as it focused on Jerry before it crouched down. It wiggled its hindquarters before pouncing at her. There was plenty of warning given, so dodging shouldn’t be hard.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

There was indeed plenty of warning. To attempt a dodge. Due to their proximity in size and Jerry trying to calm it down, by the time Jerry realized what was happening it was airborn and she could not run fast enough to get out the splash zone. The lion was easily able to catch Jerry very easily.

 

[Fangs9090]

Once the chimera had Jerry pinned down, it started nuzzling her and rubbing its face on her. Poli spoke up. "This is getting weird, can I bail?"

Emil glanced at the others before looking at Jerry again. "Do you need help or is this according to plan?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Ow, you're heavy!", Jerry grunted as the lion put her on the ground. "Yeah, fine, sure," she grunted in between getting her face tangled in the lion's mane, answering both Poli and Emil at the same time.

"Are you sure?", Adran asked.

"This was Jerry's idea," Joanne said, pulling herself out from under the smoking leopard. "Let us figure out where to go from here while it is engaged." She put her hands on Beri's side and channeled some mana into the cat, healing the lightning injuries to a certain extent. It didn't fully heal him, but he wasn't smoking and his fur wasn't blackened anymore.

 

[Fangs9090]

Poli's form melted away as they slipped off, squeezing out from between Jerry and the chimera before just sitting as a lump. The chimera soon laid down on top of Jerry, purring as it licked her face.

Emil gave a nod. "Right..." He glanced between the two doors they could go to before heading to the closest one. Fia walked after him before glancing back at Shuffle, who was currently just sitting and watching Jerry.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry grunted as the chimera's weight sat on top of her, or rather the head and neck of the chimera. "Ow, hey, your tongue is rough!", she protested, trying to worm her way out from under the bloodied beast. "How are you not in pain right now?"

Joanne took a look at the situation with the doors. "There are two doors, and five of us able to continue," she said, pointing at the unconscious leopard, "We should split up."

"Bad idea," Adran replied, "Remember what happened last time we split the party? We'll get shanked!" Joanne pointed at the chimera.

"Chimeras are extremely territorial. If this one has been able to survive here, then it has secured a sizeable area to hunt in, and we smell of its blood. We ought to be fine. I can take the left with Shuffle, you the right with Emil and Fia." That seemed like it would cover the bases. "If anything dangerous happens, simply return here."

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil nodded. "That should work well enough." Fia nodded in agreement. Shuffle flicked an ear.