Rescuing Friends

Act 2

As they entered the massive library in the Viggak manor, Ashlyn noted that all the books were more so just literature than anything for spellcasting. Sighing, Ashlyn sat down at a chair and took out a sheet of paper.

Damn Brad... you have some good paper.

Knowing the encounter with Wick was fairly difficult, Ashlyn started to devise a plan to take on the boat rescue mission. As time passed, Brad came over and started to exchange information that he had gathered earlier that day with Ashlyn.
In the corner of their eye, Ashlyn noticed that Razzi had also entered the room, sitting down in a corner with Cog. Ashlyn gave Razzi a little wave and went back to their conversation with brad when they heard Lumine say a quite perculiar line.

"Those star druids will pay for everything they have done. So if that price is their lives, then so be it."

Ashlyn turned their head towards Lumine to see absolute resolve and that honestly got Ashlyn thinking about what this might mean.

Technically speaking, Lumine was pissed off about his boat but other than that, the star druids have done little to nothing. But in terms of value... those druids have little value compared to the other people that the party had to rescue, such as Ett, Mitsi, Brad's parents, and the trio that they had befriended.

With out thinking, Ashlyn propped their legs on the table, took out their spellbook, and stared Lumine dead in the eyes.

"I'll help you if you pay me 5 gold for each one I kill."

Lumine smirked at that offer and looked at Brad. "How about you? Are you going to join us or try to stop us."

"What the actual fuck. No, of course not. That's fucking stupid and I don't know why either of you think that's a good idea."

As soon as Brad finished saying that, Lumine began to object, stopping as he heard the door open. Ashlyn and Lumine looked towards the door to see Stirner enter the room, armour cleaned from the blood that had previously stained it.

"Thank fucking god! Stirner, these 2 idiots," Brad said as he gestured to Ashlyn and Lumine, "are claiming to be able to massacre all of the star druids that stole Lumine's boat. Please talk some fucking sense into them."

As the room started to grow loud with arguments from both Lumine and Brad, Ashlyn noticed Stirner standing in front of the table. Quickly sitting properly, Ashlyn sat quiet as Stirner slammed his palm down on the table.
"Is this actually necessary?"

Ashlyn heard the disappointment in Stirner's voice and, just like a timid child asking a disappointed parent, Ashlyn asked in a quiet voice "W-what do you mean Stirny?"

"Both of you are grown adults well aware of the threat that 1 is posing. And going on a senseless massacre of druids? That is not only unwise but also one of dumbest things you can do with whatever 1's plan is being put into action."

Stirner turned to Lumine and continued to speak. Ashlyn, however, was tuned out at this point, reevaluating the decision that they had made. Those druids were may not be of much importance or value to the party, but they were still people. Plus, they might have some helpful information for dealing with 1.

Ashlyn faintly could hear Razzi chip in a comment but at this point they started scribbling down a plan onto the sheet of paper that laid in front of them. They heard Lumine cursing as he stormed away, noting the mild defeat the resonated within his tone as Lumine's curses grew fainter.

As Ashlyn finished writing down their plan, they looked up and saw Stirner, Razzi, and Brad all looking at them.

"Logically speaking, we can't really save all of them. Stirner, you, Razzi, and Gik said you guys expended an incredible amount of magic just to remove the device from Wick. And we might have to do that for at least 7 or 8 druids."

Brad huffed at what Ashlyn just said and asked "So what? Are you saying we kill them to preserve some of your magic? That's fucking bullshit."

"Unless you have a secret dungeon in this house, I don't think there's anything else we can do to make sure we are at our best to fight 1 and save our friends."

"About that..."

-linebreak-

The Viggak dungeon, or as Brad put it, the Viggak detainment center, was fairly large. Ashlyn theorized it could hold a huge amount of people in it, making a good area for them to have the druids in for when they would have to interogate them.

With that out of the way, the party borrowed one of Grimbo's cargo ships and headed to the oil rig. Sure, none of the party had a clue on how to pilot such a large vessel, but they did manage to get to oil rig in one piece.

As most of the party silently entered, Lumine barged into the rig, with the clanking of Stirner's armour giving away that the party had arrived. The fizzing of magic revealed all the druids, some random dogs, and Cupid as he tried to take a flyby attack on Lumine only to fail and turn the corner to get away.

Immediately Ashlyn tried to warp to Cupid, a fresh dimension door opening. Ashlyn stepped through and narrowly dodged the corner, but that led to them winding up in a room close to Cupid, a very disturbing looking dog and a druid turning to face them.

The druid started to attack with their staff, the swings sloppy and missing Ashlyn. Ashlyn chuckled, and the druid, expressionless, gestured towards the wolf dog thing and it lunged at Ashlyn, grazing them with its claws. As this happened, 3 more hideous wolves ran into the room and leaped at Ashlyn.

The first one straight up jumped over Ashlyn, landing outside. The second one almost did the same as the first, landing behind Ashlyn instead of outside. The final one scratched at Ashlyn, its paw nearly hitting them as they swiftly dodged.

Slightly miffed about being attacked by 4 wolves, Ashlyn activated their vampiric touch, damaging one and syphoning some health back to themselves.

The druid attacked again, missing all their swings yet again. As Ashlyn smirked, 2 more druids barged into the room, ordering the wolves to attack.

"Hey 1, you should go to the bar next time! At least those guys might be able to hit me!" Ashlyn shouted, dodging attacks from the 2 other druids that entered the room.

But Ashlyn soon realized that they shouldn't have shouted that, the smirk on their face vanishing. Several of the wolves started hitting Ashlyn with devestating blows. They tried to lash out their whip, the sound of it hitting another wolf seemed to aggravate the wolves and druids even more.

As they were taking such a beating, they noticed one of the druids collapsing, revealing Brad had come to their rescue. The wolves and druids stopped their brutal assault to turn to Brad, allowing Ashlyn to grip their whip and finally try out a move they wanted to do for a while.

"You know what... fuck it! STEEL WIND STRIKE!" Ashlyn said, blood dripping down their sides as they began to swiftly deal heavy blows, killing all the wolves and knocking the druid unconscious.

They landed on the ground behind the last conscious druid, a huge gash dripping with blood from the druids side. Ashlyn turned to see Brad look shocked.

"Ashlyn... what the actual fuck was that." Brad said before swiftly taking out the final druid.

Before Ashlyn could answer, Cupid, appearing a bit beaten, swooped down next to Ashlyn.

Mockingly, Ashlyn spoke. "Oh, you here to stab me 1?"

To their surprise, 1's voice crackled from Cupid's mouth.

"Why yes!" Following those words, Cupid swiftly making several attacks with his rapier. Ashlyn, despite their battered state, managed to evade each strike with relative ease. Ashlyn stared to chuckle when Cupid suddenly flew into another room in the oil rig at high speeds.

Instead of tending to their wounds, they chased after Cupid, casting a very potent magic missile, bolts hitting Cupid and causing him to start to fall apart. Ashlyn stopped at the door of the room, and with the huge number of wounds, passed out.