The Kinder-Catch

Day 7 (continued) - Gods, that was a fantastic quest! Sorry, I’ll start where I last left off. So we were waiting for the kinder catches to arrive. We had a bit of small talk, but most of us were on edge, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. I found out the woman was an aasimar by the name of Zedaythe. With her lightly glowing eyes and the way light softly reflects from her skin, it made infinitely more sense that she was an aasimar, never seen a human that looked half as fantastic  as she does. The others…well, I didn’t care quite as much about them. For the purpose of naming them for the time being the dragonborn shall be Fisty, the vishkanya Hissy, and the short gnoll Hairy. After a short while, three kinder catches appeared a few houses away and stole two children, a boy and a girl. Our trap didn’t work, but we still had them and could follow. I gave chase immediately, maneuvering through the darkness with ease thanks to my ifrit vision, along with my magical sense of detection homing in on the arcane things. Zedaythe and Hairy took to the trees and pursued in the safe shadows of the forest. Smart move. Meanwhile, I ran alongside Fisty and Hissy. Hissy tried to send a daze spell at them to at the very least slow them down, but somehow tripped and dazed himself. Smooth. Still, this alerted them to our presence and they stopped momentarily, allowing  Fisty to leap forward and deliver  a couple swift attacks on the center kinder, the one not holding a child. It turned its attention toward us, and the other two were starting to run again. Without any hesitation, I rushed to slash at the lead kinder and launched a magic missile at a runner, crippling it slightly. Hissy had composed himself and launched acid towards the problematic kinder. Fisty of course threw a few more punches, and I decided to keep tailing the other kinders, launching a quick stream of lava as I passed the creature. I’m almost certain I heard it squeal like a child. In the trees, I could just barely see my other two companions following the kinders closely, their eyes of darkvision glinting from behind the leaves. I continued to focus my senses, and picked up something unusual. Something much stronger than these things was up ahead. A haunt perhaps? Something manipulating these obscene beasts? Soon we reached a tower, three stories high and guarded by kinder catches. The kidnappers were easily allowed in, with a chorus of “welcome back brothers” from the other kinders. Made my skin crawl. Zedaythe and Hairy were already on the move, scaling the tower unseen and silent. Another smart tactic on their part. While I was standing out in the open, facing three kinder catches wielding fearsome heavy weapons. I took a moment to think things through, only to find Fisty rushing past me (and the shocked kinders), bursting through the front door. Hissy appeared next to me and we both sort of stared at each other…dumbfounded. From the sounds of it, he found even more trouble inside the building. Hissy sent a blast of acid at the kinders, catching them off guard as they squeal like children. I followed up with a splash of lava at one, but it easily dodged it. Conveniently, it shifted right into the path of my scimitar. It fell, dead, with the glass panel covering its face smashed. From this position, I could see Fisty being severely beaten by two more kinders inside, but he still held his own. A weaker man would have been dead twice over. Hissy threw another spell towards a kinder, while the other creature tried to swing at me with a massive claymore. He only succeeded in smacking me with the flat of the blade. Fortunately, I enjoy being spanked and his action invigorated me enough to slice him clean in half. The vishkanya delivered a final blow to his opponent with a conjured ice dagger, making it chill and crack apart from the inside out. The beast issued a final cry “Mother….” We finally entered the building, finding the dragonborn beaten and bloodied yet still standing victorious. The place had an eerie feeling…I felt my will slipping and my head thumping inside my skull. The sound of an explosion and a bright flash came from upstairs. I feared for Zedaythe, and ran the stairwell. Two kinder catches hunched over her dazed self. I immediately launched lava, but missed. I ended up slipping in my own spell, landing face first into the floor. Fisty came charging in after me, fists flashing through the air. I managed to get up before the kinders could assault me and launched a few arrows into one of the homunculi. Before I knew it, Fisty had charged up to the third floor. There were sounds of a struggle and Hairy slid down the stairs, unconscious. “Tie him!” the scaled monk shouted down. I wasn’t about to take any chances, so I took out some rope and secured the short gnoll to a support beam. Hissy somehow managed to control one of the kinder catches and joined Fisty upstairs. I helped Zedaythe get to her feet and she showed me a journal, presumably belonging to the master of this tower. The woman the kinder catches calls “Mother” has been taking the souls of children and placing them in strong, resilient homunculi to serve her as “children.” We ran up the stairs, finding the kinder catches dead but Hissy warns us that Mother has become invisible. His eyes flicked to his left and pointed, to which Fisty launched a series of vicious punches. Mother fell, and I could sense life energy flying from her to the back of the room. Remarkably, the dragonborn was able to dispel the spirit haunting this place. Zedaythe found the kidnapped girl and soothed her. We found a bundle of glowing green orbs, clearly the captured souls of children. It’s too late to bring them back now, but perhaps they could still be allowed the blessed sleep. Upon further investigation, we scavenged a small fortune in gold, flash grenades, a magically enhanced bow, and Mother’s invisibility amulet. On the ground level, we found the other kidnapped child. Unfortunately, he was already bereft of his soul. I used my magical sense to scry for his soul among the orbs, successfully finding him. Michael. Somehow, I managed to reconnect his soul, but he still wasn’t looking close to death. Zedaythe quickly used her magic to stabilize him and resuscitated the boy. He was fully back with us, filled with pure life again. We’re now on our way back to Corona. This has been a tiring excursion, but it was fantastic all the same. And looking at these flash grenades intrigued me. I am familiar with explosives, most of my career in the desert was spent smuggling weapons away from the Legion. But I had never seen a device like this before. Its method of explosion was too…safe. Too smart and tactical for Dythan’s tastes. I could use these. Maybe pack them with a bit more black powder for a more lethal blast….I’ll work on it the next chance I get.