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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2047875" data-attributes="member: 1210">Oven StuffinIt’s a peaceful little scene at first glance.  The scent of baked goods wafts upon the air; a pretty little herb garden is along the side of the cheerful-looking cottage.  Just the kind of thing to put a band of halflings at ease.  Especially the smell- mmmm, it’s delicious.  How could you turn that down, if you had a grumbling belly?  No, not if you’re a halfling you couldn’t.  But alas, alas, they really should have.  Lita’s head falls forward.  She groans, unable to even move.  There was poison in the pie, realizes with a shock.  What a terrible thing to do to a halfling!  Her eyes fluttering, she grimaces as Timothy topples forward as well.  She feels herself fading... fading... then oblivion.  Sandy struggles weakly to his feet and lifts Lita up.  “What’s going on?” he croaks. The elf opens the oven, humming merrily.  “Oh, nothing.  We’re just going to do a little cooking.”  She grins wickedly and starts to drag Timothy over to the oven.“What are you doing?” Sandy exclaims.  “Hey, hold on a minute!”  The elf stuffs Timothy into the oven and turns to face Sandy, hands on her hips.  She purses her lips and looks the group over.  “Surely you understand,” she says.  “You’re halflings.  You have to eat.  Here, why don’t you have some more pie?”  She smiles kindly as she moves over to Beau’s unconscious form.“Wait a minute!”  Sandy steps between the oven and the witch.  Uh, I mean elf woman.  “Come now, lad, there’s no need to be difficult.  Have a little of my wine,” she gestures at a bottle.  “No thanks!” Sandy retorts sharply.  “Don’t make us kill you!”“I doubt whether you could,” the witch says frankly.  Er, elf.  “You can barely stand, and half of your friends are asleep.”  She smiles.  “But there’s no reason to get all cranky.  You and your awake friends can leave.”  She nods towards the door.“We aren’t leaving our friends behind,” Sandy snaps.“Well, how about this,” the elf says after a moment’s cogitation.  “Why don’t you just give me the fat one and we’ll call it even?”  She points at Naomi.“Hey!” Naomi cries.  “Forget it!” “Well, let me get the oven started while we think about it-““No, I don’t think so!”  Sandy stands firm, though he can help glancing yearningly at the pie.  But it was poisoned! he reminds himself.  “Lita!” he calls, reaching over and shaking her.The elf matron puts her hand upon his shoulder.  “She’s just sleeping.  Come on, now, just lie down for a minute, it’s nap time,” she murmurs, but he jerks as he feels his life energy being leached from him and sucked into her.  He groans and drops Lita from nerveless fingers.  He staggers forward and wheels around, whipping out his bow and firing a shot.  But it sails past the elf woman and buries itself in a cabinet behind her.Naomi, stomach churning, cries out, “You poisoned us, you witch!”  Her mind strikes, a quick rapier of pure thought- but the elf just smiles, turning the mental blow off her formidable will.  Then she vanishes.“Oh crap,” Sandy moans, swaying on his feet.  Naomi hurries to the oven and extracts Timothy’s limp form from it.  He’s still breathing, she notes with a combination of relief and disappointment.  Swiftly, she drags the crazy boy to the cabin’s door.  Sandy grabs up Lita and drags her to the door as well.Locked.Beau’s body jerks into the air. “She’s got him!” Sandy cries.  He fires his bow, hoping to hit an invisible elf-witch, but to his dismay, his arrow sinks into Beau instead!  With a cry, the halfling awakens.  Cursing, Sandy fires again, and this time his arrow hits.  The hag hisses in anger as Beau squirms free of her grasp, and another arrow hits!  The witch snarls and its hand glows green.  It swipes at Naomi, who ducks and weaves; but it only needs to touch her, and in only a few seconds it has done so.  She feels her life energy leaching away, just as Sandy did.Cursing and spitting, Naomi blasts the elf witch with a recall agony.  She flinches back, but then strikes with her bare claws.  Her image seems to be wavering as she does so- she is not as she appears!  As her terrible claws rip Naomi to the ground, the elf witch is revealed as a terrible, twisted woman, with iron-tough grey-green skin and long matted hair.  Her rotten teeth stink terribly, and suddenly our heroes catch their first whiff of it.  “Caught you, fat one!” she cackles.Beau groans and pulls out his lock picks.  “We have to get out of here!”  He sets to work on the door.  “Hold her off!”“Uh...” Sandy glances around.  Yep, that’s him all right.  The elf-hag rushes in, clawing at Sandy, even as he fires his bow, continuing to land arrows.  But the terrible claws rend and tear at him, forcing him to tumble away, and the giggling hag advances.  It glares at Beau.  “Stop that, boy!  I like my door locked!”  She strides towards him.  He squeaks and tries to bolt, but she grabs him by the head and slams him into the very door he was trying to unlock!  With a groan, Beau falls unconscious.“Uh, maybe the fat chick isn’t such a bad trade after all,” Sandy tries.  The hag laughs.  “Fool, you had your chance!  Now it’s the oven for all of you!!”  With a gleeful shriek, she lunges for him, and he backpedals, sinking another arrow into her.  Her claw rips at his shoulder, and Sandy’s starting to be more than a little worried- he’s becoming downright terrified.He’s it.  He’s all that’s left.  He’s the last one, do or die.  If he fails, the entire clan is dinner.Oh, man.Sandy redoubles his efforts.  Back and forth the battle carries them through the house; and, unnoticed by either of them, Lita’s eyes are fluttering again.  Slowly, dreamily, she’s waking up.  She groans, barely able to move.  But she doesn’t need to move to use her psionic powers.  A swarm of crystals blasts out from her trembling fingertips.  The hag shrieks in surprise and Sandy laughs in joy.  Maybe... maybe! The hag whirls and rushes towards Lita.  She blasts it with another swarm of crystals, and it screams and staggers, but its claws catch her at the same moment- digging across her forehead- and Lita slams down to the ground with a crack!The hag takes a single, faltering step, staggers around to face Sandy, and falls over.  “Oh thank the gods,” he groans, collapsing to his knees.  Then, seeing his friends bleeding out, he moves quickly to do what he can to aid them. Around him, the fabulous cottage changes appearance.  It is suddenly a dilapidated, worn-out shack.  The fabulous baked goods are pie shells full of bugs and worms, and Sandy doesn’t even look to see what the other food and drink might have been.  He vomits briefly, then watches mournfully over his friends in the witch’s house.Next Time: Our heroes continue to be lost in faerieland!</blockquote>

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