What to do, what to do… We discuss a number of options for capturing and defeating the cambium, not settling on anything in particular aside from using the imbalanced citizens as bait, but decide to go and chat with the Reeve anyways to coordinate his support. Speaking to him, we explain the situation and ask him to inform the guards so that they know what to do once the fighting starts. Tittlin also proposes himself as bait, funny enough, which might actually be a solid plan to avoid putting civilians in harm’s way. We end up settling on bringing them with us anyways to increase our chances of catching this thing and head back to the epicenter to collect them all.
I hoist the nauseous man and lethargic woman over both of my shoulders while Tittlin and Momen gather the others in addition to Merric for support, and we head just outside of town for safety. We park all of the imbalanced (including Tittlin) at a crossroads while Momen, Merric, and myself hide behind rocks and trees surrounding them. While we’re waiting, a couple lumberjacks come down the road and look a bit concerned, but I shoo them along and give a brief explanation. A bit later, a peddler walks down the road and directly approaches the group without noticing any of us in hiding. While it looks like a normal person at first, one of the eyes on my robe spots a spindly finger protruding from the pant leg. I wave frantically at Momen and Merric and point at it as it passes me and approaches the group.
Merric springs out of the tree, and suddenly the peddler begins to dance! Momen unsuccessfully sends Nyx in to grab the peddler, and Tittlin makes a break for it to reposition. The dancing provides quite the boon, allowing several of our attacks to connect that didn’t look like they would have otherwise, and it is seemingly unable to do much aside from dance and throw out a few minor attacks for a while. Suddenly it turns towards me and snaps its fingers, causing me to freeze in place as it skewers me with a couple spindly fingers. Struggling to break free from the paralysis, I watch as my allies wail on it… and then it stops dancing and moves towards Momen. He seems to be able to resist its paralysis, while I CLEARLY cannot. I watch as they continue doing battle, with Merric managing to throw a hypnotic pattern and Tittlin skewering it with a few arrows. I finally break free, just in time to watch the cambium down several potion vials, and it appears to become a little bit healthier.
Thoroughly pissed off, I charge at it and begin cutting with Shifty, letting it have everything I’ve got. My attacks just doesn’t seem to be enough, and it flies off to deal with Tittlin. Merric casts something that supposedly weakens it, and Momen bellows “CEASE” in dwarvish. It hangs there in mid-air and I launch a couple meteors at it from my diadem as Merric finally manages to insult it to death. It crashes to the ground and I continue stabbing it for a while before Momen finally gets me to stop.
Merric grabs a few vials from its robes and we roll the body into the portable hole to transport it. Momen and I walk over to the water near the trail and wash the blood off, and he gives me some advice on how to use my brain when monsters are fiddling with it…