( I did it! I killed him! Father, mother, Launa, I avenged your death! )

Kaluma falls on her knees, puffing and panting. White smoke rising from her body as if she is burning from inside.

But did you? The whispers were soft, a sweet crooning sound that reminded Kaluma of the voice and the power. Is this really the murderer of your parents? What color was that masked strangers robes? Was he human? Was it a man? The questions gnaw at Kaluma, dig deep in Kaluma, until she's back there in the manor, seeing mother and father and Launa--seeing the blood and the masked stranger stands over them. There are others in the shadows, raiders--but they don't hold the attention the masked face does. The head tilts, and there is a smile to those lips, a blade in hand the drips blood down. Drip....
Drip....
Drip....
Did you really kill them?

To everyone else Kaluma appears to just still, staring at the corpse of the masked cultists with eyes wide and almost blank. She's tense, her tail is thrashing from beneath her cloak, but she isn't moving. She just stares.

Galdrum raises a brow but says nothing as he hefts his crossbow, keeping a tight grip on it with his finger resting on the trigger carefully. "Lass quit staring off into oblivion. We need to get these people to the keep."

Gavoi walks toward the two with the masked cultist down on the ground.  Standing before Karen and eyeing her up-and-down, he can clearly see she is going through some sort of trauma given his own past experiences.

Gripping his own staff for his own safety, he'd kneel down and bend forward so that his right shoulder was against her torso and wrap his right arm around her.   Slowly and carefully he'd stand back up with Karen upon his shoulder.   "Impressive, but this is no time for panic.  We must move."  He says monotone as he walks back toward the others with Karen in tow.

Vitre ushers the family ahead and approaches Karen and checks her condition to see whether it's some magical effect or just internal strife.

Vitre attention turns to the dead masked man.  He quickly searches the body and pulls the mask off his face.  "Let's see if anyone at the keep can identify this."

Angered that both of his swings missed Baredin turns to Kaluma looking to yell but with the look on her face he walks up a deep sadness crossing over his face saying “Come others need yer help.” Putting his hand out to help her up. He’s seen that look before. 

From their hiding place in the building, Pardot looks out, and sees the danger seems to have passed. He looks to the family and says “Safe now. We should go.” Before heading outside and looking around ((22)). Assuming he thinks the way is safe, he’ll lead towards the keep.

Approximately 30 feet away from the main group, Kaluma is following them toward the keep. She decided to take up the rear to make sure no one can ambush the family from behind. Or just couldn't see the face of Linan and her children.

She has messed things up. Kaluma had been traveling weeks to find the clue of her enemy. And when she finally got a thin thread, Kaluma jumped to the wrong conclusion and cut it by herself. To make things worse, she frightened a innocent family who just had the worst day of their life. Devastated by her failure, the Tiefling girl cannot do anything but dragging her foot and keeping up with others.

Galdrum will continue to stay with the family, his crossbow at the ready as usual.

(Have to head in to work a bit earlier today so I will add more asap.)

Gavoi had his staff slung over his shoulder as he walked 2nd from last in line toward the keep, he'd continue to be alert.

In the air he could probably get a good smell of the sulfur in the air from the dragon attack.  Who should he contact if they all happen to survive this?  

Baerdin head forward with the group keeping a wary eye on the alleys and streets ahead. 

Vitre continues with the group, using Pixal's keen senses to scout for danger.  He grows anxious to get off the road.

Linan and the family gather roughly in the middle of your gathered group of adventuring travelers as the path down the road leads you through a small gathering of trees, thick enough to obscure the view of the sky for a minute or two. For the brief travel down the road, as you near the river bank that cuts through Greenest, all is quiet. None of the party sees anything out of the ordinary at first, although moving as cautiously as you are eventually, just over the bridge of the river, there is movement. Three tall humanoids, dressed in robes and dragon-shaped masks are crouched over something. A little shape, another kobold, stands off to the side with a sling clutched tightly in its hand. For the moment they have not seemed to have caught sight of the party just yet.

Gavoi, meanwhile thinking about the situation with these raiders and the dragon ahead, remembers a faction known as the Harpers. As a secretive society not much tends to be known about them, but Gavoi has read in books and histories of how these people work, often within the shadows, in dealing of information and equality. There is a vague, throw-away comment in one of the last texts that he'd read that discussed the current incarnation of the Harpers as a group that desires to keep the balance of power balanced throughout Faerûn, and something like this could potentially tip those scales if they weren't already aware of it.

Masked man again! And now there's three of them!

Kaluma feels the mist of hatred starts to fill her vision. The blood song rings in her head and the hilt of the rapier attracting her left hand like a strong magnet. But Kaluma doesn't make same mistake. This time she use her right hand to stop the other hand before it draws the black blade. By sheer force of will, she push the eldritch weapon back into its sheath. The sweet song becomes angry hiss of snake. Kaluma ignores it. 

( I am the wielder! NOT YOU! )

Kaluma wipes the sweat off her brow. Taking a deep breath, she walks up to Vitre. 

"Lord Vitre, can you use the sleep spell again? "

She looks at other party members.

"Everyone, did you find any other masked man or Kobold around?"

Pardot shakes his head in response to the frantic tiefling’s questions, and starts to look for ways off to the side to where he could direct the family and group to safely pass the danger. ((Perception 23)). But knowing how things went last time, he again refreshes the glow on some bullets from his pouch.

“I will gladly deal with this threat.  A human prisoner may prove more useful.  The question is should we sneak up on them or draw them to us?”

Vitre conjures an llusionary bush to hide (13) behind before they are spotted.

(So a dragon is attacking, the kobold are allied with the dragon attacking the town and civilians, and the masked figures are with the kobold...   guess they are the enemy after all.)

Gavoi ducks low as he eyes the three cultists.  "Let us at least try to keep them alive for questioning, hm?  Also, I know how to put them to sleep as well."    He mutters Kaluma

Baerdin whispers to the other “Alrighty guess were taken em on” as he readies his weapons.

Galdrum readies his crossbow once again, muttering curses in dwarvish as he does so. "If we're figuring then pick a target and be ready."

Initiative: 22