Thurrios looks the creature in the eyes and states, "I judge you as being unwilling to turn towards the light and away from your evil ways. The penalty for this, as it is for most things is death."
Flanking with Anapa:
18-20/x2
As Thurrios attacks the demon, so does Anapa, his blade ripping into the unholy flesh of the demon
For an instant you could swear that there is a look of satisfaction on Kezurkian's face as you move in to attack. Thurrios and Anapa's blades slice through Kezurkian's neck simultaneously, decapitating the demon. His halberd, body, and head all hit the ground, in that order. A pool of demonic ichor expands from his corpse, as his motionless head stares up at the sky, its eyes blank and his tongue lolling out from his open mouth.
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Sarala just gives a bit of a wave to Kezurkian to bid him a good decapitation, and then says to Julius, "Alright, now that he's not listening in anymore. Julius, please retrieve my list of excellent life goals, and check off 'roundhouse kicked a terrifying goat demon right in his smug ugly mug'." There is, of course, no such a list in Julius's possession.
"We burn the body. And all of its possessions" he states as he watches the scene unfold
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"Suppose that one way to keep warm." Ruika replies to Anapa's proclamation looking to the sun beating down from the sky. She cautiously puts away the athame, but keeping it near - whilst she remembers Thurrious' earlier threat.
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Julius chuckles and pulls a journal, inkpot, and inkpen out of his pack. Flipping past several pages of blank space with "Reserved for stories of Thurrios the Furious" written across the top, he smooths down the binding a bit on a new fresh page. Then he writes "Sarala's Life Goals" and then pens "roundhouse kicked a terrifying goat demon right in his smug ugly mug" under this heading. He places a check mark next to the single solitary entry on the brand new list.
Julius looks thoughtful for a moment and then begins to add some others. "Give a martial combat maneuver a neato name," "Survive a giant snake attack," and "Save a Felliped" all appear in the new list.
When Anapa announces complete destruction of everything the demon possesses, he holds up a hand.
"Whoa, whoa, hang on a minute. Just because he owned things, doesn't make them evil. Surely we could separate them out, and you can use your sight of god thing to determine which of his stuff is actually tainted. We shouldn't rule out that maybe he may have been carrying around things we can use. Maybe even things that are effective against his kind of demon he didn't want anyone else getting. We can at last take a look."
"I do not trust anything this creature held. But i will have a look at the items. I recommend that even if items do not seem tainted, we refrain from using them till we can have them cleansed properly. I do not wish any of my comrades to fall to its taint"
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Kezurkian is for all intents and purposes naked, though the thick whitish fur hanging down from his waist preserves his modesty - not that demons particularly care for such things. There is however, a small metal band around the middle finger of its left hand.
His halberd has a rather wicked-looking head, befitting a creature of the Abyss. The blade is smeared with rather foul-smelling blood and saliva, but despite the demon's gnawing, the metal is unmarred. In fact, the weapon as a whole appears to be of rather fine craftsmanship.
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Julius reaches out for the energy binding all of nature and which allows him to divert the natural order of things. Tapping into it, he examines the ring and the halberd for any shift in the eddies of the very energy he uses.
See Magic (Su): The arcanist can see magical auras. If she expends 1 point from her arcane reservoir, for 1 minute she instantly recognizes magic item auras and spell effects (as detect magic). During this time, she is treated as if she had studied each aura for 3 rounds and she treats her Knowledge (arcana) skill check as if she had rolled a 15 on the d20. In addition, if she touches a magic item during this time, she can immediately identify its properties using Spellcraft without needing to spend 3 rounds examining the object. If an enemy possesses the object, the arcanist must first succeed at a melee touch attack to identify the item.
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Scrunching up his nose against whatever stink the demon was emitting, Julius moves closer. Putting on a pair of gloves, he works the ring off and kicks the halberd away from the demon's body so Anapa or Thurrios can evaluate their alignment aura's separate from whatever the demon would give. Setting them on the sand, side-by-side he examines them carefully with his enhanced arcanist power.
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"I can clearly see the ring and halberd are magical, so chances are a little fire bath won't hurt them. In fact, I would probably recommend that anyway given that should hopefully clean off the scent and fluids of one late demon owner."
Holding up the ring, Julius says, "This little guy is a ring of jumping. Chances are it should greatly improve the wearer's ability to jump both high and long. I would imagine that explains why Kezurkian was able to leap to this position in the first place."
Gesturing towards the halberd, Julius frowns. "This thing's powers, however, currently elude me. If I can examine it further, maybe until tomorrow, I should be able to solve it. Unless you have some insight, Thurrios? You have shown some aptitude for understanding magical items unless I'm mistaken." Julius' eyes stray to the scimitar clutched in the inquisitor's hand.
"Hold it up where I can see it would you."
detect magic and...
Thurrios looks at Julius, "It is no different than Tempest here," he says as he pats the scimitar on his side.
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"Oh, man, a ring of jumping? I mean, I have a ring of falling, if I had a ring of jumping, I would be able to jump up and down," says Sarala, jumping up and down a few times, "What I'm saying is, I need that thing so that I can get really really good at jumping. Unless anyone else has really strong feelings about jumping?"
Taking a step away from the group, she touches the edge of her cowl in respect as she addresses Narkû; "Добро да се види еден од крв во земјата. Јас сум Ruika Бела Орк на Grumnash клан. Тоа беше еден прекрасен задолжен, да ја води вашата мажите во битка." Her voice deep but low, as they are still hostile territory.
From around a small pile of rubble looks a small furry creature, then ascertaining all is clear with a snuffle of her dark nose. A small pale fox, the colour of dunes during sunset moves into the clearing. Her stride, holding the majesty and sway of a feline takes her towards Julius - whereby the small fox head-butts his legs awaiting her rightful petting.
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"Hello, beautiful," the arcanist says with only a twinge of surprise. Kneeling, he begins to scratch behind the fox's ears. "Were you hiding from the nasty demon as well?"
Julius recognizes the animal as a desert fox. Looking at Sarala, Julius asks, "What should we call her? Assuming Thurrios lets us keep her, of course."
"Fox. Do we have time for this? " he asks after he made sure nothing radiates evil from the remains
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"Uh, we should name her... Captain... no, Colonel Biteyface," decides Sarala.
"And... I thought you were going to set this guy on fire, Napper? I think we're waiting for you to set him on fire. At least, that's what I'm waiting for. Also, the upjumping ring. Unless the good Colonel or someone else wants to hold onto it?"
The small foxes responds to Julius by butting her head against him, with a little yip.
Hearing the slight commotion Ruika looks around from Narkû. "LYSSA!" she hisses. Before she moves over to Julius and the fox, her eyes glint emotionally. Bending down next to the fox she whispers to it; "Care, you don't know where he been."
She then looks up at Julius, he can see beneath the cowl is a gauzy veil and a pale face beyond. "She my friend." Ruika adds.
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"Ah, my—our mistake," Julius says looks around at Anapa and Sarala to include them in his apology. "I suppose 'Fox' and 'Colonel Biteyface' won't be needed as names after all. Eh, Lyssa?"
Julius grins at the pale colored fox and waggles his fingers.
"As for where I've been, the desert between the temple and Kelmarane most recently. Nothing too unusual in these parts, wouldn't you agree miss?" he says to the hooded figure.
"I'm Julius Pa'jer, glad to make your acquaintance mysterious pale person. Are you another soul left to fend for yourself after an ill-conceived sortie into gnoll controlled territory? We seem to run into a rather unexpectedly high number of those these days," he says dryly while offering his hand to shake if the hooded one is so inclined.
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"Yeah, Colonel Biteyface has potential," says Sarala, bobbing her head a couple of times, "With her can-do attitude, she rose up through the ranks of the Kelmarane army, despite both being a wild animal and- there not actually being a Kelmarane army. I'd say... loads of potential."
She pauses and narrows her eyes a bit when told that Colonel Biteyface already has a name, but still introduces herself. "My name is Sarala. I don't feel the need to give my tribal name, since you're not gonna run across another Sarala today. Do you know a guy named Oxvard? Or at least someone who looks like he could be named Oxvard?"
Lyssa yips with a breathy laughter of approval at the name; 'Colonel Biteyface' but looks around as Ruika approaches with a roll of the head, as a chastised teenager.
Rising to her feet, whilst Lyssa still enjoys the attention, Ruika responds; "As I told your leader I, Ruika. Never be ill-conceived, find village of gnolls to kill. You no enemy?"
In reply to Sarala's query she responds with her thick accent; "No know Oxvard, stay in village, not explore too much. Prepare instead." Carefully she hefts a thick knapsack on her back.
Anapa looks at the fox, then to the rest of the group
"I may be born of fire, but it does not mean i command or control it, perhaps my kin has those abilities?" he turns to look at Thurrios
Narkû turns to the cloaked figure and nods before, "Јас сум Narkû без клан."
"How were you able to escape with a pack of gear and an animal? The last we found barely had the rags on his back and was in no condition to fight," he says with a look of suspicion still in his eyes.
He gets out his whet stone and begins to dutifully hon his weapons once more.
With a nod to Narkû, as he replies in the true language, a slight inclination of understanding or perhaps pity.
Her stance changes to a more proud bearing; "I twice last-of-tribe sought village, found battle-market, prepared to kill gnoll. I always condition to fight, I no weakling pauper." She holds out a pale hand and lightning arcs between her fingertips.
"Isn't a bit presumptuous to start the creature any higher than Private?"
"You leader, ahhhhh....." Ruika nods her head trying to understand. "Mighty Warrior Narkû not need burden of leadership, it slow weapon arm?" That's the only rationale she can think of, however she nods in appreciation to Sarala.
"Who here is actually in the military?" now that the conversation was heading that way. Even if it was just in jest
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With Kezurkian's incessant screaming brought to an end, Kelmarane becomes considerably quieter. The geiers up above occasionally shriek, perhaps taking interest in your kill. The buildings in the area are somehow in even worse condition than those in the lower tier of the village.
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"So yeah...as fascinating as all this military talk is, do you recall when Anapa asked if we have time for this? Turns out we don't. Pretty sure the current and real Kelmarane Army is about to get here. So burning a demon in the streets is probably going to kind of be a signal of 'Hey, we're over here!'" Julius then points to the sky. "Assuming the circling geiers haven't already given away our position."
Looking around at the various buildings. "I'm pretty sure we need to get out of here. Now."
Her head spins back and forth like a hawk; "So we move? Not fight?" Ruika queries, ready to take on the army. Then she glances at Sarala where she's been gored & Narkû's injuries, and focuses.
"Yep, time to get moving," Narkû says as he starts to move to one of the building walls for cover. He will flip his whet stone to Sarala so she can prepare her weapons if needed.
"Not military here. How many Julius?"
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"I literally grew up in a jungle and I literally lived in a tree. I was part of a military, as a protector of my tribe, but the way I understand the phrase 'in the military' is probably different than the way you might understand the phrase," says Sarala, shrugging at the question and catching the whetstone.
She leans up as if trying to hear better, cupping a hand around an ear, "Oh, yeah, a bunch. Like a bunch a bunch. Animals and gnolls. Let's go opposite way and hide."
She gestures in the opposite direction of where the sound is coming from and starts to get hustling to maybe find a suitable hiding spot.
Thurrios follows Sarala, doing his best to be quiet.
Hiding was not his strong suit, but he does follow them. A tactical retreat was indeed the best option
"I have small hut, maybe not best place to hide." Ruika suggests, slightly reluctantly as she moves with the others trying to be as quiet as possible. "Know of anywhere safer?"
"A small hut? Like for a doll or something? Can't imagine what use that would be."