With a furious curse, Xanesha furiously mutters a spell and vanishes.
Isme nods back to Bartimaeus's wave, recognizing him and the situation but makes no overt remark of their communication.
The instant Xanesha vanishes, Isme flies up. "No," she says, and chants an arcane string of syllables, the ring on her talon glowing darkly with the casting of the spell.
Isme lets out a burst- but it fails to catch the cunning lamia.
Glimmer, where is the Lamia? Stay out of sight and tell us where she is until she's visible again.
Um, she's right... over...
Glimmer cannot determine where the Lamia is.
...she's gone! I can't find her.
Circle. Stay out of sight and find her.
The little dragon winked out of sight and started circling the clock tower.
"She's invisible," Isme reports, hovering outside. "I didn't manage to catch her in my spell before she moved, but she's likely still somewhere around here."
"What was that other thing that was with her!?" Wyam asked as he climbed the outer wall.
Circling around trying to spot if the creature had flown off, Glimmer's senses tingle and he spots a presence clinging to the wall on the far side of the tower, which he loudly announces.
The 'other thing' waves a shaking hand as he grits his teeth from atop the statue.
The Lamia is over here! Glimmer said in a telepathic shout to the others. The side of the tower! Right on the other side from Spectrum!
The creature is disguised in the form of a small boy with dark brown skin; Spectrum concludes that it is some form of outsider.
"Ally," Isme answers Wyam's question. "I'll explain later. He's bound to the lamia but he's on our side."
Noticing she's been spotted, she lets out a furious cry. "BARTIMAEUS! DESTROY THEM, OR BE DESTROYED, YOU BLITHERING TRAITOR!" Gritting his teeth in pain, the dark-skinned boy nods. "Right, right... hang on a moment." Taking a breath, he waves a hand and a large crack in the sky rips open, fresh from a plane orange and flowing with hellfire. Dropping from it onto the roof lands a figure with the body of a man, the wings of a hawk and the head of a jackal, twenty feet tall and holding a crude mace made out of elephant tusk the size of Wyam's entire body. "I AM JABOR THE MIGHTY- FLEE OR FALL!"
"Illusion," Isme whispers at Array behind him, telling him to telepathically pass the message on to the others. "Pretend to be wary while pinpointing the lamia and then strike once everyone is here."
Kejal crosses her wrists as her fists glow with golden light.
Ducking between the giant's legs, clinging onto the wall like a spider, she descends down next to the invisible Lamia as the pseudodragon directs. "Spectrum, I need to see her!"
The lamia looks confusedly up at the giant. "What... WHAT!" She casts a spell, then moves herself again.
Spectrum moved around the side of the tower, triangulating the Lamia's rough location through Glimmer's directions and casting the same spell Isme had cast earlier.
The creature is outlined in glittering gold.
Wyam drew his bow and knocked an arrow. He briefly considered firing a shot at the illusory Jabor, as well as several other ideas popping into his head, but ultimately he remembered his training from the church on dealing with spellcasters.
If you can afford to, be ready for them to cast first. If you're successful they'll be in a world of trouble.
... and if we're not?
Then you'll likely be a pile of ashes. Ah ha ha...
Wyam had never cared much for Sir Lasder, but he did have solid advice.
Isme first attempts to identify the spell Xanesha cast before acting.
Isme moves closer to Xanesha and causes doubt to creep into her mind, giving her the slightest bit of unease of her actions and chances of winning and making her more liable to make a mistake.
Xanesha shrugs off Isme's power, though a little of it remains to bother her.
Atop the roof, 'Jabor the Mighty' makes a few large threatening gestures and swings; none hurt anyone.
With a target finally in sight, Kejal swings her way around the tower and aims a golden punch. "You've plagued this city for too long, witch-creature!" The blow connects, landing a hefty bruise.
Xanesha lets out a shriek. "I am SURROUNDED by TRAITORS, FOOLS and FAILURES! Well, NO MORE!" Raising a golden spear entwined with ornamental thorns, she launches a flurry of thrusts.
The third proves enough to drop Kejal unconscious. Without her focus to remain clinging on to the side of the building, she slips off the side of the building.
"...oh bugger." Atop the tower, the outsider-boy takes a breath, stands, and leaps off the side of the building, wind building around him to forcibly carry him down faster. Grabbing Kejal mid-flight, he slams into the cobblestones with a sickening crunch; cushioned by him and the winds, she barely survives the fall.
The ghostly chain binding him to Xanesha hardens and sends another spasm of pain through him as he jumps and the illusory giant dispels. Screaming, he barely fails to pass out.
Isme feels her abilities begin to fade.
Isme staggers from the sudden weakening of her occult abilities. Xanesha's was stronger than the raven had thought and far more dangerous when cornered. With the lamia's invisibility broken from her offense, Isme found it easier to aim.
With a deep breath she flied down the tower and adjusted her position before casting a spell, cawing loudly at the same time in hope of breaking the lamia's concentration as she fired a ray of sickly green light from one of her talons.
"Spectrum!" Isme immediately yells, hoping to communicate through a pseudodragon. "Can one of the pseudodragons assist Kejal or can I leave you for the moment to heal her?"
Isme's ray fizzles against the lamia's magical protection
Wyam watched in abject horror as Kejal fell from the tower. Realizing that it had been hubris to think they could have even taken this foe lightly for a minute, he reached into his bag and pulled out a peculiar potion.
Downing it in a few seconds, Wyam found himself immediately growing more self assured.
Go. Spectrum sent to Glimmer.
He could see the creature now. That was enough.
Still, what it had just done to Kejal was daunting. He did not want to be on the receiving end of that kind of attack.
So he decided to play things safely. He cast a spell, and lifted off the side of the tower, hovering well outside the reach of the snake-woman's weapons.
Down on the ground atop the shattered flagstone, the boy groans and fights back the pain of the binding chain. Kjell, with a force of unconscious will, stops dying.
"No, no, no no no..." gripping onto the edge of the tower, Xanesha slips her way around the far side of the tower and you hear the quiet muttering of a spell.
Glimmer jetted down to where Kejal lay crumpled on the ground, more falling than flying, landing on the woman's chest and drawing two vials.
Wyam grasped his holy symbol of Iomadae and willed the power of his goddess to fuel his inner light.
"What's this? I spend weeks worrying about the infamious Xanesha and her organization after defeating Aldern... and THIS is what I find?! Nothing but an opportunistic coward, hiding behind the image of a boy!"
With a start Kejal jumps back to consciousness; she presses healing light to her stomach and climbs up the tower partially.
Isme twitters a song, using music to manipulate the magic around her to shield her from sight.
She flies after Xanesha, staying quiet as she observes what the lamia is doing, waiting for an opportunity.