Manor of Origin (REDUX)

Vostavya goes back to polishing her hammer, cleaning the corpse stitches from the grooves.

"Are you all right there, Inquisitor? You almost just jumped out of your skin."

She eyes him with an appraising stare.

"Earlier you asked if we could share stories. You told us a little about yourself, but I never spoke. It's time I do, there are things we should share."

She rubs her forehead. "My people, the free folk, gypsies you hatefully call us," she spits in disgust to the side, "have magic of our own. We're not wizards but something more innate. We have a story about two wolves ... well, another time. I was long interested in watching my banya, my grandmother, work her craft. I'd hide just outside the tent and listen, or peek through a rent. She'd conjure the spirits of the dearly departed to answer questions, or divine their fortune.

I learned the fortune telling craft, of course, but the magic of the dead was the true calling of my heart. I left home one morning before dawn and made my way to the Church.

I spent many years with them, mastering the basics of Death magic. When I was deemed ready, I joined the Burial Agency. We were dispatched to a vampire infestation in ... I don't think I can talk about that yet, but the horrors of that day drove any allegiance to the Church from my soul. I fled during the cleansing, when no one was watching me. "

She finishes the hammer and sets it aside.

"And somehow I'm here, in this madhouse.

"Yeah, it even looks like you saw a ghost or something" Luc says to Inquisitor after Vostavya's comment about him.

"Well... since we're telling our stories, I think it's fair to explain some things, oui?" Luc dusts his dark blue double-breasted vest, unfolds his purple cape and straightens his tall top hat on his head.

"Judging by my colorful and extravagant costume and my skills I demonstrated earlier, you must have been guessing, yes I am an Illusionist, so was my father before me." Luc cast Minor Illusion in front of him and creates a cute version of himself and his father in miniature to illustrate the story as a silent movie. "I perform in theaters and at galas across the country...", or at least one day I will, Luc thinks to himself, "...and I am also a student of the arcane arts." The little Luc of the illusion is shown performing on a stage and the audience applauding and throwing waves of roses and cheers, and then, the scene changes to Luc sleeping on top of a mountain of books about arcanism.

"I even joined the University of Mages when I was younger, I figured it would be a good way to hone my skills and become a better Illusionist, but, let's say they didn't like my ideas of handling magic", the illusion shows a young Luc showing teachers his abilities with illusions, but the teachers disapprove of Luc, yell at him and throw him out of the University. "Since then I've been going MY own way and doing things MY way!" Luc says slightly angry as he remembers the things he had to deal with at the University, then, he pulls himself together.

"As mesdames and messieurs saw, i'm great at creating illusions and distracting our ennemis but I'm not that good at close combat, but don't worry about me, I can handle myself. I'm also very good at pretending i'm someone else", Luc uses his Masks of Many Faces feat to look like a dwarf police officer, and then he changes to an old goblin woman, and then a beautiful elf woman in expensive clothes, and finally, a redcoat enemy with the same dead eyes, and in each transformation he makes an extremely convincing voice for each form.

"I don't know exactly what this entity wants with me, but here I am... Oh, I almost forgot! You can call me Faux since the voice stole my name."

Across the room, Archie is still tending to Lance. Currently he is doing his best to sew up the opening on the man's severed arm ( with limited success). The thread he's using looks oddly organic ( and green). A fierce scowl is painted across Archie's face, which only seems to get more intense as Lance squirms under the needle. To make matters worse for him, the child is still clinging to his chest, as if her life depended on it, which to say the least is making his hands just the tiniest bit unsteady.

Archie was not having a good time.

" Lance you dumb bastard! If you don't quite yer fidgeting you're gonna end up with less arm than what you already have left!

Lance grumbles something about tickling, which only seems to make Archie grouchier.
"Why am i stuck doing this shit? Ain't like i'm some kinda medic. Jackass'lll be lucky if this shit don't get infected."
At this moment the girl tugs on his cloak, which causes his hand ( currently mid stitch) to jerk, which causes Lance to squirm, which causes Archie start cursing again.

He turns his gaze toward the party. His eye twitching in anger/annoyance."Didn't yall already do story time? How about you get off yer asses and help me out.? At the very least take the goddamn kid so i can get this jackass sorted."

The child's only response is to tug once more on the man's cloak, much to his frustration.

She shakes her head. " I'm no medic either, although I have some magic. It isn't strong enough to reattach limbs. But it will heal some wounds."

She offers to cast Cure Wounds, assuming she has any spell slots remaining after the fight.

Archie glances at her. " With injuries like these its best to treat it normally first. Healing magic is potent , but its also kinda directionless. It'll heal most anything put that doesn't mean it'll heal it properly. Like with broken bones, it's best to set the shit first so the magic heals it properly, if left in its standard state it'll probably heal wrong and cripple whoever you were trying to heal. I'll take ya up on that healing spell but wait until i finish."

Archie once again scowls. " We'd be done already if you'd quit your squirming you jackass!"
Lance begins to pout.

"Hey little one, are you hurt? You can call me Faux! What is your name?" Luc tells the child in hopes of distracting her while the adults work.

"Want to see something cool?" He takes his Spellbook and shows it to her, the book is very colorful and full of harmless magic effects and little illusions that are dancing between the pages.

Seeing the girl's situation, Luc unties his cloak and covers her.

"Look, if you'll let me, I want to check your arm to see if you're hurt, okay? If you feel pain just say so, oui?"" Luc says to the child as he carefully picks her up and examines her arm.

"Hé, Archie! Where did your party find this girl?? She doesn't seem like the kind of person that the Voice would bring here to find keystones."

Vostavya, to whom she responds to as Banshee, comes close to the girl as well. She isn't comfortable around children but she is deceitfully charming when it suits her. "What can you tell us, little girl? Your name?"

As Faux starts fussing ( unsuccessfully) over the girl's arm, and Banshee tries to talk to her, the girl says absolutely nothing and continues to cling to Faux's pant leg.

Archie starts speaking, without looking away from his work.
She was with our group from the start. It doesn't look like there isn't a type of person this house wants, it apparently takes what it
can get .
We've been trying to take care of her the best we can but there's only so much we could do."

He sighs in an exhausted manner. " The first couple days she wouldn't even let us touch her, the majority of our group don't have the disposition or the patience to deal with children. That left me and Sabrina, However, my personality is... abrasive, and she was a big pushover so ultimately we got nowhere besides a bare minimum amount of trust and dependency. As for talking, she's never said a word, never screamed, never seen her open her mouth. Hell she won't eat if we're looking at her. I just don't know what to do, especially now that the rest of us are scattered to the wind."

"We simply cannot stand idle around here now, can we? We need to tend our wounded of course..." Gharn winches as a strong headache wave hits him.
"Ugh, we need to find a relatively safe spot as well. I do doubt if there is one in this bloody manor..."

As the headache subsides a bit once more, he looks around and tries to take the room in.

Banshee looks around, and says to Faux. "Why don't you show her some pretty magic, and I'll heal her."

The death priestess waits for an illusion to distract the girl then gently touches her forehead.

Taking the room in, Gharn's attention is caught by two things: the door across the one they came from and a cluster of red trees with something purple amidst them.

"Well well, what do we have here? Have a look at this one!"

He motioned to the others and approached carefully. He saw a purple robe - wearing corpse and begun searching it for any clues or useful stuff..

Luc lifts her off the ground and carries her in his arms so she can rest her legs. "Don't you worry, petit one. You are safe with us!" Luc casts Mage Armor on the child and himself.

From her new position in Faux’s arms, a series of emotions play across the girl’s face as the wave of magical energy washes over her body. The first and almost instant reaction is a potent combination of fear and panic. A moment later she begins to shift about, wiggle her fingers, and blink in very obvious confusion. As the warmth of the protective magical energy truly set in, the girl locks eyes with Faux, the tiniest shimmer of light returning as her eyelids grow heavy, the toll of the adrenaline and fear crashing down on her. She buries her head in the man’s chest, finally safe, for now.


At that moment Archie finishes his work on Lance and turns to regard the two with the kid. Upon seeing the kid a sleep in his arms, Archie places a hand on his hip and raises an eyebrow.
"Gotta admit, I’m impressed."
His eyes wander to where Gharn was standing.
"What was he yammering on about?"
Lance, looking a bit pale but all together okay, moved to stand at his side.

"Well, why don't you come and have a look for yourselves?"

Banshee looks around, her sombre features taking in the numerous dead once more. Call them. No! She moves to Gharn, taking his conversation with Archie to mean her, as well.

She leans down, pushes the hood of the woman away. "I confess to not remembering any faces, but is this one of ours?"