Two's eyes start to go glassy, still looking through Vilus, and his body begins to convulse with shock. His final throes. It looks like he is suffocating from the obliteration of his lungs.
"The city is... your father's... now. Oh God... what is that? It's... " For a moment, Vilus feels himself seeing Two not just through his own eyes, but through the watcher as well. There is no recognition on Two's face. Just shock and horror.
He shudders and spasms one last time, and then goes limp.
Further in the alley, Joren and his echo harmonize their movements. They perform their symmetrical dance with their blades, ending two lives as one. As their swords pass through the assassin's spines, there is a trembling within Joren. A moment of resonance. Joren feels an expanding of his awareness of the echo. Those muscles are his muscles. Those breaths are his breaths. The distance between this possibility and the next does not feel so large as it did moments before. Then the move is complete, and the bodies hit the ground with a dusty thump.
Vilus lets out a long sigh, before raising the dagger from Two's eyes up to the man's forehead. Crude and gory work Vilus carves the image of an eye into the middle of the man's forehead, a message for his father...
Once that is done he lets the body go, retrieving Gavelin, he walks over to the group. (or as far as he can make it for this round)
Malachi pauses by the entrance to the sewers and focusing on what looks like the lone remaining assassin, he creates a ghostly tentacle that raises from the grease and wraps around the assassin's head. Turning back to the others he calls out, “Well, are we running or staying? Which is it?”
Attack: 14 Damage: 8 necrotic. Rolled in dice rolls channel.
With no immediate threats to inhibit his movements, Samir moves to Marion's side and begins affixing a faintly green colored adhesive paste to her wounds, ignoring the hiss of discomfort brought on by his ministrations. "I'm not certain we are in the best of shape to be running from anything right now. Whatever the choice, we need to get out of the city as quickly as possible."
"Running feels like we have done something wrong. I know that those coming could be in your father's pocket, but honestly I would rather know either way and not run like a fugitive in the bowels of this city."
Seeing that assassin 1 was deftly removed of his life by Joren's echo, Ashley moves her earthen hand into the grease and reaches for assassin 9
STR save 15, or be restrained with 2 whole bludgeoning damage. Apparently the grease makes the squeeze a little more difficult.
The final assassin struggles against the earthen grip while the tentacle wraps around his head. He squirms for a few moments, trying to take in a breathe, but goes still from the lack of blood and oxygen to his brain.
A moment later, a pair of city guardsmen round the corner. One immediately crouches down by the twitching elf while the other surveys the scene. Spotting some recognizable faces in the group, he says, “My Gods, what trouble is this now? More cultists?”
(sorry for the delay. My cruise was supposed to have a wifi package, but it’s been a mess getting it sorted. I will try to make posts when we are in port, but otherwise, feel free to take this as sort of a week off)
Joren stows his Dunamis Blade and echo-swaps to the mouth of the alley, then kneels, attempting to physically stabilize the wounded elf should the crouching guard or anyone else provide medical attention.
"Thinking a different kind of cultist. Home-grown Talmouth spy variety. Ambushing us in this misbegotten alley. Being good to see you friendly faces..."
Are they friendly faces? With all the cloak and dagger misdirection afoot, Joren has a moment of doubt. He studies the two guards for signs of duplicity.
Vilus listens to Ashley and the group's logic and resigns himself to staying, just as the guards turn up.
Dipping to the east side of the alley for a bit of cover from the guards virus disguises himself as the nervous male council member whom the group met out on the docks after the marigold fight.
He approaches them and in a conspiratorial tone asks them to summon their commanding officer immediately.
Bloodied, Ashley happily gives up her earthen hand, letting it crumble back into the ground and leans up against one of the buildings. She's happy to see the guards and they seem to have some sort of recognition when they see the group, that has to be good.
Joren seems to think they are friendly as well and that is good enough for her. Wiping some of the blood off her clothes, she starts slowly walking towards them. She watches for their reaction when they see Two though.
Joren registers surprised, but professional expressions on their faces as they take in the details of the scene. Ashley notices their eyes linger on Two's body a little longer than the others, but Joren chalks this up to the grizzly state of the charred and bent body left behind. The woman at his feet is no longer convulsing. Rather, she weakly trembles, eyes unfocussed. (Joren can give me a medicine check DC 14 to try to stabilize her. He senses she is fading. A lesser restoration spell could help, but not regular healing at this point)
The Khirian warrior's efforts to stabilize the dying elf on the ground prove clumsy and ineffective. His voice too is mostly professional, though urgent.
"The elf we had rescued from the cultists and that this thug was torturing for information on us. She is fading. Healing will not help. Is anyone having any... restoration spell? I remember some of the more powerful battlefield medics with divine magic sometimes were having such."
"Councilor Brahm?" The nearest guard looks up in surprise. He looks back to the other guard, who nods his head. "I'll be back soon, sir." With that, he runs off, metal greaves clanking with each step.
The guard kneeling by the poisoned woman is pushed aside by the elf who'd run off for help. "Hey, hey... You with me?" He holds her head in one hand and brushes her cheek with one thumb. Her eyes roll about, unfocused. "Mina? Mina!" He taps her cheek, lightly at first, and then more insistently, trying to rouse her. But Joren sees the moment the last breathe of life leaves her.
"Okay, okay, okay..." the man whimpers, brushing hair out her face frantically, then rubbing her cheek, her shoulder, giving her a little shake. "It's going to be okay. It's going to be- Mina. It's going to be okay. You hear me? Healer?! HEALER?!"
A crowd gathers out in the street, but no one steps forward.
Ashley is about to step forward and see what she can do for the woman, hating the fact that she was being used again. But she can tell from Joren's face, that it is too late. She sighs heavily and as she walks by Two, she gives him a solid kick in the side. Turning to Marion and Mal, "Are you two alright? Anyone need any healing?" She says that last part quietly so that the guard doesn't hear.
Marion fails to respond to Ashley at first, though she is clearly heavily injured. She is standing and staring at the falling elf, fists clenched and shaking with emotion. Finally Ashley's voice gets through to her, and she shakes her head. "No thank you," she says, voice low and raw.
The weeping elf clutches Mina's head to his shoulder, eyes wide as Joren's words finally help reality settle in for him.
"Why did the atmosphere here suddenly get kind of heavy?" the javelin with Vilus asks. The guard who stayed behind looks to Vilus, confused. "Sorry, councilor Brahm... did you say something?"
Brahms' eyebrows furrow as if worried and frustrated, as virus leans into the role of the man he had met on the docks, "merely muttering to myself, do not worry about it, shouldn't there be protocols to follow in the event of such a savage attack? Sweep the area for remaining criminals? Instead of standing here listening to me mumble? People have died and you still have a job to do." He keeps his voice worried with an underlying tone of irritated insistence, taking a short pause from wringing his hands Infront of him to tap the spear on his back into silence.
Vilus will wait for the commanding officer to arrive before attempting anything else, taking in the scene of the dead woman and attempting to keep a little distance from the guard as he begins to pace.
Samir remains quiet, standing next to Marion. His bag is held tight against his chest, and there is a weary tension in his shoulders as he watches the scene in front of him, doing his best not to look at Vilus at all. Though he knows it cannot all be laid at the feet of the goliath, there is a paranoid urge in his head to blame Vilus for the insanity that has befallen them all. The lies and the killing and the terror... how much of it has been instigated or connected with the man and his Watcher? With this shadow organization?
No. No, all the blame cannot be thrown there. Nothing more than easy scapegoat. Samir sighed with a small shake of his head. His thoughts were racing and lacking coherency and focus. Vilus and his people were no positive force in this world, but neither were they the rampant evil of Razmus and the cult. Two individual stains of darkness they were, though perhaps with tenuous threads connecting them.
"With all due respect, sir," the guard says, "can't leave civilians unattended in a potentially dangerous situation. Since my partner is off fetching our superior officer, I need to remain on the scene and do what I can here. When backup arrives, we can conduct a full investigation. Did you see any others? Anyone suspicious fleeing the scene?"
Malachi leans in toward Ashley, one hand still keeping pressure against his side. “It feels like my insides are leaking out, but I should be okay. I’m a lot better off than that poor soul. It is a shame to escape the cultists only to fall to these thugs.” He nods to the fallen elf, then turns where Vilus has taken the appearance of the council member. “Do you think there is a point to what he is doing, or do he just like to harass the poor guards?”
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Two's eyes start to go glassy, still looking through Vilus, and his body begins to convulse with shock. His final throes. It looks like he is suffocating from the obliteration of his lungs.
"The city is... your father's... now. Oh God... what is that? It's... " For a moment, Vilus feels himself seeing Two not just through his own eyes, but through the watcher as well. There is no recognition on Two's face. Just shock and horror.
He shudders and spasms one last time, and then goes limp.
Further in the alley, Joren and his echo harmonize their movements. They perform their symmetrical dance with their blades, ending two lives as one. As their swords pass through the assassin's spines, there is a trembling within Joren. A moment of resonance. Joren feels an expanding of his awareness of the echo. Those muscles are his muscles. Those breaths are his breaths. The distance between this possibility and the next does not feel so large as it did moments before. Then the move is complete, and the bodies hit the ground with a dusty thump.
Vilus lets out a long sigh, before raising the dagger from Two's eyes up to the man's forehead. Crude and gory work Vilus carves the image of an eye into the middle of the man's forehead, a message for his father...
Once that is done he lets the body go, retrieving Gavelin, he walks over to the group. (or as far as he can make it for this round)
Malachi pauses by the entrance to the sewers and focusing on what looks like the lone remaining assassin, he creates a ghostly tentacle that raises from the grease and wraps around the assassin's head. Turning back to the others he calls out, “Well, are we running or staying? Which is it?”
Attack: 14 Damage: 8 necrotic. Rolled in dice rolls channel.
With no immediate threats to inhibit his movements, Samir moves to Marion's side and begins affixing a faintly green colored adhesive paste to her wounds, ignoring the hiss of discomfort brought on by his ministrations. "I'm not certain we are in the best of shape to be running from anything right now. Whatever the choice, we need to get out of the city as quickly as possible."
"Running feels like we have done something wrong. I know that those coming could be in your father's pocket, but honestly I would rather know either way and not run like a fugitive in the bowels of this city."
Seeing that assassin 1 was deftly removed of his life by Joren's echo, Ashley moves her earthen hand into the grease and reaches for assassin 9
STR save 15, or be restrained with 2 whole bludgeoning damage. Apparently the grease makes the squeeze a little more difficult.
The final assassin struggles against the earthen grip while the tentacle wraps around his head. He squirms for a few moments, trying to take in a breathe, but goes still from the lack of blood and oxygen to his brain.
A moment later, a pair of city guardsmen round the corner. One immediately crouches down by the twitching elf while the other surveys the scene. Spotting some recognizable faces in the group, he says, “My Gods, what trouble is this now? More cultists?”
(sorry for the delay. My cruise was supposed to have a wifi package, but it’s been a mess getting it sorted. I will try to make posts when we are in port, but otherwise, feel free to take this as sort of a week off)
Joren stows his Dunamis Blade and echo-swaps to the mouth of the alley, then kneels, attempting to physically stabilize the wounded elf should the crouching guard or anyone else provide medical attention.
"Thinking a different kind of cultist. Home-grown Talmouth spy variety. Ambushing us in this misbegotten alley. Being good to see you friendly faces..."
Are they friendly faces? With all the cloak and dagger misdirection afoot, Joren has a moment of doubt. He studies the two guards for signs of duplicity.
Joren's Insight: 18
The Khirian warrior leaves it to the others in the party, more charismatic then he, to provide additional context to the situation.
Inge(Barbarian2): Krayveneer's After the Fall|Seri(Cleric1/Sorcerer1): Uhtred's Windward Isles|Xarian(Fighter1): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(Cleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil|Soren(Druid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft|Nivi(Rogue4): Raiketsu's CoS|Ophelia(Sorcerer3): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request|Toa(Barbarian6/Fighter4): MrWhisker's Dark Lord's Return|Sabetha(Monk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court
Vilus listens to Ashley and the group's logic and resigns himself to staying, just as the guards turn up.
Dipping to the east side of the alley for a bit of cover from the guards virus disguises himself as the nervous male council member whom the group met out on the docks after the marigold fight.
He approaches them and in a conspiratorial tone asks them to summon their commanding officer immediately.
Bloodied, Ashley happily gives up her earthen hand, letting it crumble back into the ground and leans up against one of the buildings. She's happy to see the guards and they seem to have some sort of recognition when they see the group, that has to be good.
Joren seems to think they are friendly as well and that is good enough for her. Wiping some of the blood off her clothes, she starts slowly walking towards them. She watches for their reaction when they see Two though.
Insight on that.. a whopping 7
Joren registers surprised, but professional expressions on their faces as they take in the details of the scene. Ashley notices their eyes linger on Two's body a little longer than the others, but Joren chalks this up to the grizzly state of the charred and bent body left behind. The woman at his feet is no longer convulsing. Rather, she weakly trembles, eyes unfocussed. (Joren can give me a medicine check DC 14 to try to stabilize her. He senses she is fading. A lesser restoration spell could help, but not regular healing at this point)
(Vilus give me deception or persuasion, DC 12)
Joren's Medicine: 5
The Khirian warrior's efforts to stabilize the dying elf on the ground prove clumsy and ineffective. His voice too is mostly professional, though urgent.
"The elf we had rescued from the cultists and that this thug was torturing for information on us. She is fading. Healing will not help. Is anyone having any... restoration spell? I remember some of the more powerful battlefield medics with divine magic sometimes were having such."
Inge(Barbarian2): Krayveneer's After the Fall|Seri(Cleric1/Sorcerer1): Uhtred's Windward Isles|Xarian(Fighter1): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(Cleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil|Soren(Druid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft|Nivi(Rogue4): Raiketsu's CoS|Ophelia(Sorcerer3): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request|Toa(Barbarian6/Fighter4): MrWhisker's Dark Lord's Return|Sabetha(Monk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court
"Councilor Brahm?" The nearest guard looks up in surprise. He looks back to the other guard, who nods his head. "I'll be back soon, sir." With that, he runs off, metal greaves clanking with each step.
The guard kneeling by the poisoned woman is pushed aside by the elf who'd run off for help. "Hey, hey... You with me?" He holds her head in one hand and brushes her cheek with one thumb. Her eyes roll about, unfocused. "Mina? Mina!" He taps her cheek, lightly at first, and then more insistently, trying to rouse her. But Joren sees the moment the last breathe of life leaves her.
"Okay, okay, okay..." the man whimpers, brushing hair out her face frantically, then rubbing her cheek, her shoulder, giving her a little shake. "It's going to be okay. It's going to be- Mina. It's going to be okay. You hear me? Healer?! HEALER?!"
A crowd gathers out in the street, but no one steps forward.
Ashley is about to step forward and see what she can do for the woman, hating the fact that she was being used again. But she can tell from Joren's face, that it is too late. She sighs heavily and as she walks by Two, she gives him a solid kick in the side. Turning to Marion and Mal, "Are you two alright? Anyone need any healing?" She says that last part quietly so that the guard doesn't hear.
Joren gently clasps the grieving elf upon his shoulder, eyes holding his gaze. Never getting easier, I know this. Watching close ones die horribly...
"Being too late, I could not save her," he whispers, with sadness borne of memory. "May the last embrace of Earth Mother be welcoming her home."
For now, he lets the rest of the party deal with the guards and the crowd, focusing all of his emotional energy on the bereaved one in front of him.
Inge(Barbarian2): Krayveneer's After the Fall|Seri(Cleric1/Sorcerer1): Uhtred's Windward Isles|Xarian(Fighter1): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(Cleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil|Soren(Druid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft|Nivi(Rogue4): Raiketsu's CoS|Ophelia(Sorcerer3): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request|Toa(Barbarian6/Fighter4): MrWhisker's Dark Lord's Return|Sabetha(Monk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court
Marion fails to respond to Ashley at first, though she is clearly heavily injured. She is standing and staring at the falling elf, fists clenched and shaking with emotion. Finally Ashley's voice gets through to her, and she shakes her head. "No thank you," she says, voice low and raw.
The weeping elf clutches Mina's head to his shoulder, eyes wide as Joren's words finally help reality settle in for him.
"Why did the atmosphere here suddenly get kind of heavy?" the javelin with Vilus asks. The guard who stayed behind looks to Vilus, confused. "Sorry, councilor Brahm... did you say something?"
Brahms' eyebrows furrow as if worried and frustrated, as virus leans into the role of the man he had met on the docks, "merely muttering to myself, do not worry about it, shouldn't there be protocols to follow in the event of such a savage attack? Sweep the area for remaining criminals? Instead of standing here listening to me mumble? People have died and you still have a job to do." He keeps his voice worried with an underlying tone of irritated insistence, taking a short pause from wringing his hands Infront of him to tap the spear on his back into silence.
Vilus will wait for the commanding officer to arrive before attempting anything else, taking in the scene of the dead woman and attempting to keep a little distance from the guard as he begins to pace.
Samir remains quiet, standing next to Marion. His bag is held tight against his chest, and there is a weary tension in his shoulders as he watches the scene in front of him, doing his best not to look at Vilus at all. Though he knows it cannot all be laid at the feet of the goliath, there is a paranoid urge in his head to blame Vilus for the insanity that has befallen them all. The lies and the killing and the terror... how much of it has been instigated or connected with the man and his Watcher? With this shadow organization?
No. No, all the blame cannot be thrown there. Nothing more than easy scapegoat. Samir sighed with a small shake of his head. His thoughts were racing and lacking coherency and focus. Vilus and his people were no positive force in this world, but neither were they the rampant evil of Razmus and the cult. Two individual stains of darkness they were, though perhaps with tenuous threads connecting them.
"With all due respect, sir," the guard says, "can't leave civilians unattended in a potentially dangerous situation. Since my partner is off fetching our superior officer, I need to remain on the scene and do what I can here. When backup arrives, we can conduct a full investigation. Did you see any others? Anyone suspicious fleeing the scene?"
"possibly escaping within the buildings, they were assaulting us from the balconies." Councilor Brahm states, keeping it short and vague.
Malachi leans in toward Ashley, one hand still keeping pressure against his side. “It feels like my insides are leaking out, but I should be okay. I’m a lot better off than that poor soul. It is a shame to escape the cultists only to fall to these thugs.” He nods to the fallen elf, then turns where Vilus has taken the appearance of the council member. “Do you think there is a point to what he is doing, or do he just like to harass the poor guards?”