While Eddy and Lionel take in the scene, Jupiter walks right past the weird old guy, mindful that she doesn't disturb the fairy ring (bad luck!), and up to the line of cultists.
Oh, these are those masks from the poetry club, she wants to point out, but perhaps now isn't the time. Instead, knowing that this isn't a linchpin, but curious regardless, she tries to lift one to see what's beneath.
The ghostly octopus bloops a lap around the clearing, filling the air with silver mist that illuminates the surroundings with spectral light. The air here seems less heavy for its presence, but that in and of itself is not so reassuring, because now the gathered students notice that something was wrong before.
Before this realization comes, however, Jupiter is checking masks, and Eddy lights his fingers upon the heart. It glitters gold. It is the linchpin.
Beneath the mask, Jupiter finds the face of an ordinary woman, unfamiliar.
Armani ooohs and claps excitedly for Eddy. "Good job! We found that super fast!" He may be approaching this whole Save-The-Town thing from a speedrunning angle. If he could find a way to clip through the maple to skip to the final confrontation, he would.
He slinks on over to Jupiter's side, also curious about what's beneath the mask. "She hasn't been corrupted yet," he observes, curiously feeling her face. "I ripped the mask off a cultist, in another memory. There were those purple flowers beneath it, covering their face."
Eddy flinches at the applause and wraps his fingers around this small precious thing. It needs returned, even though it's likely a poor replacement for the one that was lost. "Yeah," he confirms for Lionel as he slips it into his hoodie pocket for safekeeping. One heart for many doesn't bode well for Pocket.
That heavy feeling when the octopus finishes its lap is more than just the usual anxiety Eddy feels, and he takes a wary step backwards. There's a lot of people here looking not unlike the one who'd blocked the path to the third floor. "Let's find the portal," he says uneasily, hands resting on his backpack straps as he does a half turn to observe the room.
He takes tentative steps toward the frozen Burton Bland. The person who tricked Pouch, who was always talking to El and his friends, who made Mr. Qualls uneasy. This might be a memory and they can't stop the past from happening, but maybe they can still learn more about their foe. Should they meet again.
With his wand still out in front of him, Lionel begins patting down the tweed jacket, looking for any items that might be Mr. Bland's person, clues about who he is.
Lionel finds very little on Mr. Burton Bland, save his wallet. An old West Virginia driver's license sits front and center, about seventy-five muggle dollars in cash in the bill fold. A ticket stub for Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, a little faded, but not quite. A visa credit card, still shiny and new. There are old photos of a young girl: aged 12 months, aged 2 years, aged five. Family photo kind of stuff. Holding a teddy bear. It's sweet.
Past him, as Jupiter turns to comment on Armani's bravery, the cultist immediately to her left starts to move. At three o'clock on the face of the clearing, another cultist steps forward. The air fills with their whispers, muffled behind the mask.
Their neoprene robes sweep out like smoke as they leave their spots, and it's immediately clear that they hadn't belonged there at all. The one on Jupiter's left strikes at her (ROLLED 6) but she ducks right out of the way.
The one at three o'clock moves for Eddy, hellbent on getting that linchpin. (ROLLED 4) A blast of purple hits Eddy's knees, flipping him right up off his feet, both legs burning.
Jupiter reels, but catches herself, moves her body to put a wall between Armani and the Cultist. "Hey—fuckin'—we're talkin' here." She swings Wybie's axe straight up at the shadowy figure shouting, "Cut that shit out!"
Family photos flutter to the ground as Lionel drops the wallet. The mystery of the past is dwarfed suddenly by the danger of the present. Lionel stumbles backward in shock and manages an "Impedimenta" before he falls on his butt near Eddy. It's a simple spell, but Lionel's greatest strength is his mind and he needs to buy himself a moment to think.
Oh, Jupiter, so cool and gallant and brave!! At this point in the night, Armani has killed his fair share of creatures and been hit quite a few times but he appreciates the gesture, nonetheless.
He ooohs again, this time for Jupiter, and leans to the side to point his wand at one of the cultists, aiming for their mask. "Reducto!" he calls, hoping to blast its mask to pieces. Maybe it'll do the pretty flower thing again!!
Jupiter's ax slices through smoke (ROLLED 7) cleaving the Cultist right up through the middle and catching on the mask. Even with Armani flinging a Reducto (ROLLED 7) it's not quite enough to finish the thing off. It ripples, form distorted by spell and swinging ax, but reforms just as quick and pushes forward. (ROLLED 2 & 2) A burst of purple light sends Armani and Jupiter flying back. Jupiter gets the brunt of the burning ray, singing her clothes and her hair (even more than it had gotten in her last foray with magical fire), while Armani catches all of her weight when he smacks against a tree.
Lionel's Impedimenta can't quite find its swirling target (ROLLED 5), but thankfully, it's enough to throw the other Cultist's aim off (ROLLED 8). The purple ray strikes the frozen Burton Bland, instead.
Though the shock of being upended passes quickly, the pain in Eddy's legs does not. Through gritted teeth and a wave of adrenaline, he rolls to his knees and springs forward, reaching for the cultist's ankles and giving a strong yank. His fists are ready if he manages to take the cultist down with him.
(ROLLED 10) Eddy pulls the Cultist down on top of him, and it's like being doused in acrid mist, hot burning, (ROLLED 6) but it only lasts a second. Eddy swings a fist at the falling Cultist, but it never connects, because a bright gold light erupts from the pocket of his hoodie — Pouch's heart reacting to the awful thing — and blasts the creature up into the air.
It disperses as mist, just a moment, but reforms again immediately, now floating overhead.
Much of what is going on doesn't make sense to Lionel. But it seems the Cultist is after Pouch's heart, and it's clear they can't let that happen. Lionel scrambles back to his feet. Eddy's maneuver bought him time, but he's still not sure what to do -- he's not much of a dueler. He flips through the Rolodex of spells in his mind, trying to pick one that makes sense. Ventus? Bombarda? Then-- a thought. These Cultists clearly are using magic but... they're muggles right? Wasn't that the thing? And if they're muggles...
"Repello Muggletum," he says, brandishing his wand in a circle around himself and Eddy (and Pouch's heart).
A faint shimmer in the air is all that can be seen when Lionel puts up a muggle repelling charm (ROLLED 8). The Cultist descends, a dark cloud ready to settle over the two boys once more, but the moment it touches the magical barrier, it stops and begins to slide off, like they're protected by a solid dome. The Cultist can't reach them.
Shoved up on her feet, Jupiter spares not a second. She takes several great lumbering steps forward, ax high, and tries to bring her weapon down on the Cultist sliding across Lionel's protective barrier.
Jupiter's ax (ROLLED 9) finds its mark, neatly cutting through the back of the shadowy figure and splitting its mask in twain. Utterly destroyed, the creature explodes in sunlight, but before Jupiter can celebrate (ROLLED 1) she catches a shadow right to the gut.
ONE CULTIST HAS BEEN DEFEATED.
The other Cultist is still up and it's angry, charging Jupiter and knocking her hard to the ground. Thorntrail's quidditch captain is looking a little worse for wear, burnt and scraped and dazed. [For her next three tags, Jupiter will be weakened and unable to perform any great acrobatic or strength feats.]
Still slumped against the tree but still hungry for another peep at the horrors that lie beneath, Armani holds up his wand and keeps repeating, "Accio Mask, Accio Mask, Accio Mask!"
Armani (ROLLED 8, ROLLED 10, ROLLED 7) demands the mask from the last remaining Cultist. It twists and turns, scrapes at its porcelain face as the mask starts to slip away, but it just can't fight the Thorntrailer's will.
The mask goes flying into Armani's hands. The Cultist reels as the purple flowers crowding its face are exposed. The air seems to wilt them, turning them black and then gray, and they fall delicately to the ground.
Beneath is the face of a man, unfamiliar, who stares up at the sky and lets out a triumphant cry as sunlight bursts from his mouth. He is gone.
The dust has hardly settled to the ground when the memory begins again. Burton Bland finishes the transaction, takes the seed from Pouch's palm. He smiles sweet, and hardly notices the way the color seems to fade from the trees and grass around him.
Power fades from the clearing.
The chill in the air disperses.
Pouch loves humans just a little bit less.
"Thank you so much. You won't regret this, Peter Pan," says the man in the tweed jacket, taking one large step back.
Pouch smiles a crooked grin, already starting to swirl away like snow blown by a strong wind. It's done. "Sure do hope not," he says, though it seems he already does.
When Pouch disappears, the memory freezes once more. The grass within the fairy ring changes, revealing a portal back to Peckenpaugh.
[MEMORY COMPLETE! NPCs Defeated and linchpin located! You can stay here and scene, but I bet Pouch wants that back!]
Jupiter coughs a puff of smoke, mutters some curses and takes Lionel's hand. She's rises slowly, and though she tries to stand on her own, she finds she has to lean a little on Lionel for support.
"Sounded happy, right?" she wheezes, rubbing an eye.
Armani's breathing heavily, staring at the mask in his hand. What a rush.
"It kills the parasite controlling them. Lets them know one last moment of freedom. Of joy. It's a kinder death."
He looks up at Jupiter. "I have a healing salve," he tells her, reaching into his garter pouch for just that. He grunts as he stands and moves to meet her. "It'll help."
As the cultists are destroyed, Eddy reaches inside his hoodie and encloses the maple key in his fingers. Tactile confirmation that it's still safe. Even if it was more than capable of protecting itself. He lets out a heavy sigh.
That feeling of color being drained away is one he's experienced before firsthand. It felt invasive then, and it does again now. Still, knowing everything that came after, it's odd to see how peacefully this memory ends. Everyone makes mistakes, but when you're a what? A whole damn forest? Those mistakes can become cataclysmic fast.
"Better. Whatever it did," he agrees, as he pushes himself to his feet gingerly. His legs no longer burn, having settled into a dull ache—irritating, but not debilitating. Jupiter seems to have all the help she needs, but he offers his captain a slight nod. She'd wrecked it good. The cultist and herself.
He waits at the edge of the fairy ring, small precious thing still enclosed in his hand.
"Thanks," Jupiter says with a wink and a click of the tongue as she accepts Armani's offered salve. Still in good spirits, despite getting tossed around. "You sure you don't need some?"
She's hobbling after Eddy, though. Ready to get back to it. Find her brother, find Kermit, get this whole thing squared away. "Ya ready?"
Armani, Eddy, Jupiter and Lionel completed the memory "Have A Heart"!
By completing the memory, two Infinity Cultist spirits were freed. You have found Pouch's Heart!
Upon emerging from the memory, the portal snaps shut behind them. Outside, Pouch is waiting, eager, anxious, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Izzat...?" he asks, eyes wide as he thrusts out his hands. "I can tell. I can feel it. It is!"
Pouch holds his linchpin gentle and reverent, the mischievous smile he wears growing wider and brighter. The malignant maple begins to shake, creak and groan, furious at what's been taken. The magimagicicada looks up at the four gathered students, beaming with pride, utterly disinterested in the protests of the tree.
"Got my heart back," he chirrups, taunting the awful thing surrounding them, closing his hands around the little seed. The burst of silver that issues forth nearly knocks the four students off of their feet.
It blasts away vines and hidden birds and bugs in the branches. The leaves of the nightmare tree curl away from its light. As it dims, the hot, rank air of the upper levels chills, crisp and clean as a February morning. Pouch is bigger, somehow, not physically, but in presence. So much more than he had been a moment before. Frost creeps across his face, his fingertips. His one wing glitters like fresh fallen snow in the sun. Steam wafts from his mouth when he exhales a laugh, and that laugh climbs right up to a triumphant crow.
The tree answers with a roar, begins to shake and shift, but still finds itself stuck fast in place. But for how much longer?
"Can't thank you enough—mainly 'cuz we don't have time," Pouch says, his warm voice carried on a cold winter breeze. He starts to disappear, falling apart like snow, passing through the branches back down to the base of the tree. "C'mon! Gotta pull up the roots if you wanna kill weeds."
Armani, Eddy, Jupiter and Lionel each earned 5 Tokens for completing the memory.
They earned an additional 5 Tokens for defeating a difficult memory encounter.
They earned 2 Tokens for finding Pouch's Heart before the memory completed.
You can check your token totals in Pouch's shop here, and maybe see if there's anything worth grabbing while you're there!
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peckenpaugh2020-06-01 11:18 am
MEMORY: Have A Heart
Oh, these are those masks from the poetry club, she wants to point out, but perhaps now isn't the time. Instead, knowing that this isn't a linchpin, but curious regardless, she tries to lift one to see what's beneath.
MEMORY: Have A Heart
Before this realization comes, however, Jupiter is checking masks, and Eddy lights his fingers upon the heart. It glitters gold. It is the linchpin.
Beneath the mask, Jupiter finds the face of an ordinary woman, unfamiliar.
The air fills with tension, again.
MEMORY: Have A Heart
He slinks on over to Jupiter's side, also curious about what's beneath the mask. "She hasn't been corrupted yet," he observes, curiously feeling her face. "I ripped the mask off a cultist, in another memory. There were those purple flowers beneath it, covering their face."
MEMORY: Have A Heart
That heavy feeling when the octopus finishes its lap is more than just the usual anxiety Eddy feels, and he takes a wary step backwards. There's a lot of people here looking not unlike the one who'd blocked the path to the third floor. "Let's find the portal," he says uneasily, hands resting on his backpack straps as he does a half turn to observe the room.
MEMORY: Have A Heart
He takes tentative steps toward the frozen Burton Bland. The person who tricked Pouch, who was always talking to El and his friends, who made Mr. Qualls uneasy. This might be a memory and they can't stop the past from happening, but maybe they can still learn more about their foe. Should they meet again.
With his wand still out in front of him, Lionel begins patting down the tweed jacket, looking for any items that might be Mr. Bland's person, clues about who he is.
MEMORY: Have A Heart
Past him, as Jupiter turns to comment on Armani's bravery, the cultist immediately to her left starts to move. At three o'clock on the face of the clearing, another cultist steps forward. The air fills with their whispers, muffled behind the mask.
Their neoprene robes sweep out like smoke as they leave their spots, and it's immediately clear that they hadn't belonged there at all. The one on Jupiter's left strikes at her (ROLLED 6) but she ducks right out of the way.
The one at three o'clock moves for Eddy, hellbent on getting that linchpin. (ROLLED 4) A blast of purple hits Eddy's knees, flipping him right up off his feet, both legs burning.
MEMORY: Have A Heart
MEMORY: Have A Heart
MEMORY: Have A Heart
He ooohs again, this time for Jupiter, and leans to the side to point his wand at one of the cultists, aiming for their mask. "Reducto!" he calls, hoping to blast its mask to pieces. Maybe it'll do the pretty flower thing again!!
MEMORY: Have A Heart
Lionel's Impedimenta can't quite find its swirling target (ROLLED 5), but thankfully, it's enough to throw the other Cultist's aim off (ROLLED 8). The purple ray strikes the frozen Burton Bland, instead.
MEMORY: Have A Heart
MEMORY: Have A Heart
It disperses as mist, just a moment, but reforms again immediately, now floating overhead.
MEMORY: Have A Heart
He tries to help her up by pushing from behind. Hhyyyup you go!
MEMORY: Have A Heart
"Repello Muggletum," he says, brandishing his wand in a circle around himself and Eddy (and Pouch's heart).
MEMORY: Have A Heart
MEMORY: Have A Heart
MEMORY: Have A Heart
ONE CULTIST HAS BEEN DEFEATED.
The other Cultist is still up and it's angry, charging Jupiter and knocking her hard to the ground. Thorntrail's quidditch captain is looking a little worse for wear, burnt and scraped and dazed. [For her next three tags, Jupiter will be weakened and unable to perform any great acrobatic or strength feats.]
MEMORY: Have A Heart
MEMORY: Have A Heart
The mask goes flying into Armani's hands. The Cultist reels as the purple flowers crowding its face are exposed. The air seems to wilt them, turning them black and then gray, and they fall delicately to the ground.
Beneath is the face of a man, unfamiliar, who stares up at the sky and lets out a triumphant cry as sunlight bursts from his mouth. He is gone.
The dust has hardly settled to the ground when the memory begins again. Burton Bland finishes the transaction, takes the seed from Pouch's palm. He smiles sweet, and hardly notices the way the color seems to fade from the trees and grass around him.
Power fades from the clearing.
The chill in the air disperses.
Pouch loves humans just a little bit less.
"Thank you so much. You won't regret this, Peter Pan," says the man in the tweed jacket, taking one large step back.
Pouch smiles a crooked grin, already starting to swirl away like snow blown by a strong wind. It's done. "Sure do hope not," he says, though it seems he already does.
When Pouch disappears, the memory freezes once more. The grass within the fairy ring changes, revealing a portal back to Peckenpaugh.
[MEMORY COMPLETE! NPCs Defeated and linchpin located! You can stay here and scene, but I bet Pouch wants that back!]
MEMORY: Have A Heart
MEMORY: Have A Heart
"Sounded happy, right?" she wheezes, rubbing an eye.
MEMORY: Have A Heart
"It kills the parasite controlling them. Lets them know one last moment of freedom. Of joy. It's a kinder death."
He looks up at Jupiter. "I have a healing salve," he tells her, reaching into his garter pouch for just that. He grunts as he stands and moves to meet her. "It'll help."
MEMORY: Have A Heart
That feeling of color being drained away is one he's experienced before firsthand. It felt invasive then, and it does again now. Still, knowing everything that came after, it's odd to see how peacefully this memory ends. Everyone makes mistakes, but when you're a what? A whole damn forest? Those mistakes can become cataclysmic fast.
"Better. Whatever it did," he agrees, as he pushes himself to his feet gingerly. His legs no longer burn, having settled into a dull ache—irritating, but not debilitating. Jupiter seems to have all the help she needs, but he offers his captain a slight nod. She'd wrecked it good. The cultist and herself.
He waits at the edge of the fairy ring, small precious thing still enclosed in his hand.
MEMORY: Have A Heart
She's hobbling after Eddy, though. Ready to get back to it. Find her brother, find Kermit, get this whole thing squared away. "Ya ready?"
MEMORY: Have A Heart - TOKENS & A HEART!
By completing the memory, two Infinity Cultist spirits were freed. You have found Pouch's Heart!
Upon emerging from the memory, the portal snaps shut behind them. Outside, Pouch is waiting, eager, anxious, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Izzat...?" he asks, eyes wide as he thrusts out his hands. "I can tell. I can feel it. It is!"
Pouch holds his linchpin gentle and reverent, the mischievous smile he wears growing wider and brighter. The malignant maple begins to shake, creak and groan, furious at what's been taken. The magimagicicada looks up at the four gathered students, beaming with pride, utterly disinterested in the protests of the tree.
"Got my heart back," he chirrups, taunting the awful thing surrounding them, closing his hands around the little seed. The burst of silver that issues forth nearly knocks the four students off of their feet.
It blasts away vines and hidden birds and bugs in the branches. The leaves of the nightmare tree curl away from its light. As it dims, the hot, rank air of the upper levels chills, crisp and clean as a February morning. Pouch is bigger, somehow, not physically, but in presence. So much more than he had been a moment before. Frost creeps across his face, his fingertips. His one wing glitters like fresh fallen snow in the sun. Steam wafts from his mouth when he exhales a laugh, and that laugh climbs right up to a triumphant crow.
The tree answers with a roar, begins to shake and shift, but still finds itself stuck fast in place. But for how much longer?
"Can't thank you enough—mainly 'cuz we don't have time," Pouch says, his warm voice carried on a cold winter breeze. He starts to disappear, falling apart like snow, passing through the branches back down to the base of the tree. "C'mon! Gotta pull up the roots if you wanna kill weeds."
You can check your token totals in Pouch's shop here, and maybe see if there's anything worth grabbing while you're there!