I followed this strange spirit for quite some time. Finally, at the edge of the forest, it stopped and pointed me forward, towards some hill. I followed its directions.
I noticed a heap of things and a pocket secretary. I knew these were our stuff, mostly mine. I poked the pocket secretary, and it flashed a message. It was meant for me. It said that they had gone inside the cave to investigate, and I should follow them. I transformed, dressed up and entered the cave. It seemed like a bad idea, when I noticed how small it was. I felt anxious, but went anyway. But the cave was blocked. I tried my radio, and Bobby, Nerdy and Jinx replied. Apparently Shrew had gone missing (fell to a river and disappeared), Morgan and Lina were unconscious, Nerdy was keeping watch, Bobby had fallen in a hole, and Jinx was stuck at the other side of the river. And they were sealed in.
I pushed with all my strength and managed to move the huge boulder. It moved enough so that I could push myself through it. I still decided to explode the shit out of the boulder. I figured whoever had put this boulder there would most probably put it back, and because the boulder was so heavy I had to push with all my strength, the person was stronger than me. So I put two kilos of my explosives there, informed others that I was going to make an explosion and they should take cover, and I took cover.
When I got back there was a lot of rubble and small stones. I pushed them aside and crawled to others. Now whoever had put the boulder there would have harder time to seal us in again.
I walked to the river. It was a huge crack, too wide to jump over, and far below there was running water. Jinx was at the other side of the crack, and apparently Shrew had broken down the bridge that used to go over the crack. I found Bobby in his hole. He was stuck. I figured he was too stuck to get out quickly, so I left him there. Nerdy was gone. Bobby told me when I told them to take cover, Nerdy took cover, and Bobby closed his eyes. When he opened them, Nerdy was gone.
It seemed impossible to me to jump over, and the only other passage on my side of the cave was a dead end. So we decided that I tried to find another way in, and Jinx would try and fin the way from his side of the cave. Others had told me that there were these astral forms that kept attacking them. Those forms were the reason why Morgan and Lina were unconscious.
I went back outside, climbed on top of the hill and found the same crack I tried to get over. I crawled to the edge of the crack on my stomach, so that it wouldn't crumble. I threw a rock there. It bounced off the walls, but it didn't hit the water. I tried the radio, and Bobby replied. He hadn't noticed anything.
I informed him that I planned to transform, because shotgun did nothing to the astral forms, and I was quicker as a cat. Then I undressed, packed all my belongings to my backpack, switched the flashlight I had on, and threw it off the ledge. It bounced a bit and splashed. Yay. I had taken my collar and my radio and strapped them on my neck so that I could use my radio if necessary.
Bobby told me he saw a light somewhere. So this was the crack, and I was close to Bobby. Good.
Then I transformed and stretched, trying to descend slowly. I was trying to get myself to the other side of the crack in the cave. I lost my grip and fell. I bounced off the walls and lost my consciousness. When I woke up I was underwater. My lungs were filling up with water, and I was hurting. I managed to swim to the surface and found myself in a small cave. I found a small ledge I managed to anchor myself to, and noticed a weak light coming from the bottom of the small lake. I figured it was my backpack. I transformed and dove. I grabbed my backpack and pushed it to the ledge. Then I climbed there on the ledge, as a leopard because it was really cold, and started figuring out what to do next.
I was on a small ledge above the water. The river went on, and I had apparently ended up there from underwater. There seemed to be some holes above me, but the climbing-part seemed difficult. It was the only thing I could do though, so I tried. I climbed up and fell down countless of times. I took the thermal blanket from my backpack and wrapped myself in it after a few fall so that I wouldn't go into hypothermia. It was quite interesting. When I transformed and managed to get most of the water out from my skin, my fur as a leopard was quite dry too. Cool!
I tried and failed many times more. Then I managed to climb up. Only to find out I had to climb sideways to reach the hole. I fell again. Then I knew where to go, and I managed to get away from the stupid lake. I had folded the blanket and strapped it to my collar as well. It could prove useful.
I followed the cave. Some places were so narrow they made me anxious, and after wandering around a bit I ended up in another ledge. The most probably same river ran far below, and I didn't know what to do. So I decided maybe I should turn back, when I noticed an astral being going fast along the crack. Then I noticed another one. I knew these were scouts, and I decided to stand my ground and kill those idiots if they came closer. I waited.
I didn't have to wait long. They attacked me from the behind. I scratched the first one, the second one hit me, the third one hit me, and then the fourth one got me unconscious.
I woke up. I noticed I was being wrapped in some sticky stuff. I was wrapped from head to toe, I didn't know what the hell was wrapping me up, but I didn't care. It was a bit scary, and the bastard bit me every once in a while, and I lost my consciousness every once in a while. I tried to scratch my way out and kill the thing, but it was no use.
I had been hung from the ceiling, upside down. I wiggled and struggled, but it was no use. Sometimes the thing came, bit me and put some more sticky stuff around me. Then I heard Shrew talking. She was actually talking to someone. But no one replied. It still seemed like she was having a conversation. I decided to try to transform, get my hands on a better position, and quickly transform back, scratch the stupid sticky stuff and kill whatever was biting me.
Half of my plan worked. I managed to transform into human, and then the thing was there, putting some more sticky stuff and making it tighter. I had managed to position my hands better, but it seemed to be doomed to transform back. I would be choking if I tried. But the thing took away the sticky stuff from my head. And took me closer to others. Apparently all but Bobby and Jinx were hanging upside down in the lair of a ... giant spider? It seemed to be some kind of awakened spider. Dual-being like me. And then I saw why Shrew was the only one doing the talking. The spider wrote its part of the conversation to the sand. I threatened to kill it and rip it to pieces and kill it again if it didn't let me go. It didn't. It asked for my name and reason being there. It told it to fuck off, because I was there to save my friends from it.
I calmed down after a while. I tried to convince the spider, who's name was Reaper, to free me. Or show some goodwill by getting me my backpack. It promised to get me my backpack.
Apparently this spider had been living in these caves, and it had been attacking the fairies. Apparently the fairies wanted us to make this cave safe for them. So we were supposed to enter the cursed cave and find out why it was cursed. This Reaper-guy was the reason. It was trying to protect its home. It used to have a friend, named Jules, but Jules had gone away and now Reaper was alone, hungry and scared. I read its aura, and I saw it was scared. And also lonely. We managed to make Reaper understand that we didn't attack it, we just defended ourselves, and I came to save my friends.
Shrew told me she had found a cat. A small house-cat. And she wanted to keep it. It had been hungry and scared, and I told her she should've put it out of its misery. Shrew wanted to take the cat home, but I told her it would get eaten by the rats or me. Well, I don't really eat cats, but she doesn't know it... And when I demanded to know where my backpack was, but Reaper didn't know. It told that the spirits were stupid, slow and lazy. Shrew suggested she could get her spirit to find my backpack, but then the summoned spirit brought my backpack.
We told Reaper it could come and live with us in Seattle and be our guard when we were out. We told it there were plenty of food and shelter. It wanted to see pictures, but apparently it had lived its entire life in the cave so it was scared to leave the cave. I felt angry at myself for starting to feel bad for this spider. It was trapped, unable to leave. Even though its prison was something it had built itself, it was still a prison. It was alone and scared. I felt like I should at least try to help it, even though it had bitten me several times.
Reaper was willing to negotiate with the fairies. If the fairies wouldn't attack it, it wouldn't attack the fairies. But it wanted food (living, and the kind that didn't have friends, preferably pigs or cows) and company. It apparently thought my name was Fuckoff. Well, it was not bad name for me. But I still prefer Bitch. It finally let us down. Me first. It had some problems uncovering me from the sticky stuff, because it had added to the package many times. Finally I was free. And naked. Reaper released Shrew and packaged Morgan, Nerdy and Lina better and covered their heads. Morgan had agreed to negotiate with the fairies, and Nerdy and Lina went with her. Reaper didn't want us to know where it lived.
Reaper made a spirit to watch us, and took Morgan, Lina and Nerdy with it. It disappeared in the caves. I took my thermal blanket from my collar and wrapped myself in it.
Soon Reaper came back. I grabbed my backpack, and it put its claw on my shotgun and wrote on the other claw that it didn't allow guns. I told it to keep my gun, it didn't work anyway. Then I took my wet heap of clothes and asked to make a fire. Reaper told it would show a better place for fire.
Shrew came with us. We stopped and I took a gas-lighter and started to dry my clothes. We tried to talk with Reaper, asking yes and no -questions. It lifted its claws, but we didn't understand what it meant, so I told it nodding was yes and shaking head was no. It understood. Nodding was when it moved its entire body up and down, and shaking head was when it shook itself very quickly from side to side.
I left my clothes alone to dry, and we went back to the lair. I dropped my blanket and informed others I would transform. Then I did it. I was warmer and more comfortable like that. Shrew asked something really stupid from me, expecting me to nod or shake my head, and I tried my best to show her my middle finger. Then I spent some time trying to learn to do that.
The fairies had agreed to bring food to Reaper, and Reaper agreed not to eat the fairies. Reaper lead us out from the lair, but we were blindfolded. I had dressed up, my clothes were at least almost dry. Shrew wanted to have the cat that Reaper had returned to the original place Shrew had found it, so we went there and Reaper gave Shrew the cat. It looked like it was starving and almost scared to death. I suggested I could put it out of its misery, but Shrew told me not to touch it. It pains me to see an animal suffer.
Reaper picked up two pigs that had been lead inside, and we told Reaper it should come and live with us if this cave started to seem boring. It wanted a map, and we gave it coordinates. I think someone gave it the pocket secretary so it could look at maps. I'm not sure.
We visited some fairy-castle that was really just some clearing in the middle of some trees. Stupid forest.
We met the queen of the fairies. She told us we were heroes to them, and she gave us a "tear". It was some kind of blood inside an amber. Then we left.
We managed to return to Seattle without problems during the same night.
I brought my shotgun to some weapon smith Juggler had recommended, and asked him to fix my gun. And I ordered another one from Juggler, just to be safe. I had my backup-shotgun, but I wanted to have two similar good shotguns.
Shrew took the cat to a vet. I once again suggested she should just kill it, but she refused. What the hell has gotten into her. Maybe she's pregnant or something.
The next day Rose called to Shrew. We were about to call her anyway, to ask about the spider, and she beat us to it. She told Shrew to get in her shop sooner rather than later. There was something in her shop that made her really nervous, and apparently that something was looking for us. We left immediately. I armed myself to the teeth, because I thought maybe it was something we should kill.
It wasn't. It was an elf that introduced himself as Harlequin. He sure looked weird. I had heard about him. He was the one to name the Cup of Troubles. He was one of the oldest living metahumans. And he told us he considered anyone younger than writing young.
Apparently Shrew had sent a message to the dragon Mifzuna, who currently owned the Cup. Well, at least the common knowledge was Mifzuna had it. And Harlequin told us how splendid it was, we sent a message to a dragon, and we got him.
Harlequin was a weird elf. He wanted us to steal the Cup from Elias (one of the princes of Tir) and either return it to Mifzuna or keep it or sell it or whatever. The most important thing was not to let Elias bring the Cup to Tir. And Harlequin expected us to do this without him paying us. He said it was for the common good, and we could get help from lots of people who knew who Elias was. He told us we knew people who wanted to get some payback. When I asked who did we knew, he refused to tell, because it would be embarrassing if he guessed wrong.
Shrew wanted to do it just for kicks, but I had better things to do than steal Cups from princes, even though Elias was an idiot. I had a bone to pick with some other Tir elf, Elias hadn't insulted me and been an ass to me that much.
Harlequin managed to assure Shrew that this was perfectly doable. He promised to tell us Elias's weak points and everything. Soon enough I found myself planning with Shrew. When we met Morgan and Jinx, Morgan told at first she didn't want this job, but later on she found herself planning as well. Jinx announced he didn't want anything to do with this job and he left.
Morgan started making calls to her contacts asking for help. Apparently Elias had managed to get himself loads of enemies. We sent a message to Tracy, and she contacted us telling she needed to meet us immediately. Even Juggler had a bone to pick with Elias.
Rose came with us to meet Tracy, and when we got Tracy up to speed she told we had her help. Later she told us her "employer" Gautzelok promised to help us from the astral space.
So we were going to do this. I have no idea why I agreed to do this. Maybe just for the fun of it. Nobody never fucks with Tir elves enough. I just hope I don't get myself killed before my revenge mission.
Morgan has a friend who can help us by getting the swamp spirit to our side. All we need is its true name, and Morgans friend promised to get that for us. Apparently that friend needs someone who has read its aura, and unfortunately I have read it. I'm hoping it's enough if I just tell Morgans friend what it looks like.
