:)
By the time Aly's and crew grab all the crates, make their way to the landing, and then stop after being attacked, about a minute or two will have passed, and the McIntyre people will have recovered, mostly. Anyone who threw up is sickened until they can get out of the smell for 15 minutes or so, but they're no longer throwing up.
Connor spent several seconds, or what felt like more than a minute, throwing up into the potted plant in the corner. He heard Alister and Reaghar suffering the same as he was. Connor also saw the half-elf, female elfavian, and male elfavian coming out of Kol's room with middle-sized wood crates with painted runes.
Good. Now to- Connor's train of thought was derailed by his psicrystal's antics. Me and my adolescent fantasies. Don't get chipped. Connor sent. The report from Hero about the crowd outside meant it wasn't a rival gang. It was the locals. Connor wondered what kind of people would willingly let themselves be ruled by a bully. "Get fresh air. People outside are locals." he sputtered out to Alister.
Still coughing, Connor moved away from the smell, into the hallway inside the building. Seeing one of the hall guards the other team had taken out, Connor wondered if it had been checked for a tattoo on the skin, inside the clothing. They might need the emergency healing, since they were mostly still all wounded. He knelt beside the body and searched the corpse.
Knowing what to look for helps, the guard did have a tattoo on his belly.
There is a steady murmering in Elven in the hallway, but Connor can't make out what is being said from his current position.
Alister nods to Connor as he leaves the room, still rather green in the face, and steps out, following the Mintakian party. Turning back to the McIntyre group, he says "Hurry up, fellas, or we won't make it before they crowd in too much. It's gonna be tight as it is." Almost as an afterthought, he adds, "Connor, you got any more healing? I don't think I can take another hit."
"On it. Come back here." Connor called out. When the big man walked over, Connor grabbed Alister's hand, willing the psionic tattoo from Kol from his skin onto Alister. "This is Body Adjustment." He told the larger man. "Much stronger than Natural Healing, if you're lucky. Tap it if you think we've got to fight our way out. I think this other tattoo is Natural Healing," Connor said, coughing heavily, "but I'm not sure."
Connor pointed at the left door, saying "But if there's a mob outside, let's find another way outta here. The other side of this building might be less crowded. I'm going to search this last body first." Connor quickly walked over to the other guard, the last one, , and finding no gear, searched under the man's shirt for a tattoo.
Last two bodies had a Natural Healing. Looks like they were all done by the same person.
Standing in the open doorway while searching the body, Connor can make out what sounds like a slightly quavery voice recittating the following, over and over again. This is in a very stilted Elvish that doesn't sound like any accent Connor has heard before.
"...before thee, Alcinea. I commend my soul and the souls of my enemies unto thee, judge us as thou shalt, and send those on to the rewards they earned through their actions, oh wise goddess. I, Volkragga of the Family Myntassa, of the line of Sincala Horandris, Preceptor of the Order of the Scythe, Annointed Knight of the Scythe, do hereby commend my whole being unto thy service Pale Reaper. I come before thee, Alcinea. I commend my soul and the souls of my enemies unto thee, judge us as thou shalt...
You hear an elderly voice softly chanting in a language you don't speak, you think it might be Elven, but it's got an odd accent.
Well the poop deck just became "free range". As in the @#$% is everywhere. Connor cursed in his head. He finished getting the tattoo off of the last body and cautiously sneaked away from the doorway. Walking as quietly back to Alister as he could, Connor put one hand over his mouth, signaling "be quiet" to the other man. He motioned for Alister to follow him back into Kol's main room. Hey Hero. Connor sent to his psicrystal. It might be a good idea for you to stay with those other guys. Try to not lose them. I can find you and them later. Right now I just heard the back way being cut off by a knight who's suicidal.
Connor found Reaghar and Elrohir still inside, recuperating from the noxious gas. A fresh whiff made Connor put up an arm to breathe through his shirt sleeve. "We've got a problem going out the back way too." he quietly told the others. "I just heard what sounded like an retired knight getting ready for her last battle. Somebody's ticked. I think we'd better scoop up whatever we can and go for open air. We're about to be trapped between a mob and a 'final glory' here."
"You see anyone that looks leaderish?" Sam asks Alys, "I could set them on fire; fire is very distracting."
Quickly glancing out the ledge, and ducking back as everything from rocks to bolts to rotten fruit hits the place his head was, Sammark sees what can only be described as a mob. The only thing missing is pitchforks, torches, and a monster inside the house.
Inside, Connor moved from the half-orc's body to the human guard and then the dwarf's fallen form.
We need a distraction. the humavian thought to himself. Kol had done some real damage with that alchemists' fire. He stuffed, or hung, really, the scatterguns in his backpack, then looked at the pre-measured tissue packets of black powder, an idea forming in his head. He went to the dwarf's room and grabbed the small cask of black powder. Connor grunted, as he was now weighted down.
"Hey new guys." Connor offered, stepping out into the ledge hallway and holding up the casks and two handfuls of black powder packets. "If you need a flash-bang, I might have a big one here. I've got some twine and oil and tindertwigs and there's a retired knight in the back muttering battle prayers. I think it's time to go, and I like my chances better in the air."
Connor saw all three holding the boxes with runes. The male elfavian looked like he was about to set his box down on the ledge.
Flick coughs and hacks soem from the gas, but eventually he's fine. As talk turns to mobs, distractions and knights, he offers "If possible, I can use my bow to launch a minor explosive or something from a nice safe distance"
"Or we could f***ing level this place by setting off those magic items, at this point I don't care. If we do that, it'll illustrate to those in charge that magic isn't being taken care of the right way."
Connor knelt down and began making the improvised explosive device as a huge flash-bang.
"This goes off - scatter as quick as you can." Connor told everyone. He looked up. "Anybody here good at throwing heavy things? Or should I just throw it like a flower vase?"
The air suddenly, as people are talking and planning, becomes strained. There is a sound like a piano wire being tightened, tightened, tightened, ever tighter...
Bits of blood begin running up the walls, and bits of dust and plaster begin to float off the ground, gently drifting toward the ceiling.
The wire finally snaps with an audible TANG and the air fills with ozone.
Deeper in the house, an old voice suddenly says something in a language that hasn't been heard on the island in a very very very long time.
The whole building vibrates, wood groans, and everyone's teeth feel furry. The air is filled with motes of light that flash angrily red.
Order : Sammark, Scythe Knight, Reaghar, Elrohir, Alys, Selvan, Alister, Connor
"I've got a trump card to use but I can only manage it once," Sam says to the others, "It'll take a few moments to kick in too, so I'll need some warm bodies between me an the target."
"Now is the time to get the hell out. That was magic if I've ever experienced it and any mad woman willing to use it here is nowhere near where I want to be." Selvan says gripping his polearm quite tightly fighting very hard an instinct to take his chances with flying obkects from the mob.
The most horrific sounds are coming from the hallway now, howling winds, the sound of wood squealing and shattering, the wail of what sounds like babies screaming in agony.
Alister, being at the northern doorway, see's what looks like a wall of racing screaming energy make it's way through the open doorway from the hallway. Air whips around like a tornado, tugging things, bits of debris float up off the ground and whip in random directions as it get's close to them. As it passes between the door, wood peels off the frame in long strands that are either whipped into a dust or begin to grow leaves as they whip around in the air.
An ancient elf crone wearing plate and wielding a shield and sword steps into the doorway, the obvious center of the 10 ft wall of insanity. Inside that wall, all but the air is calm, as if nothing were happening. The ancient elf locks eyes with Alister, and she speaks a single word that makes the air scream in agony around the wall.
The wall of energy pulses a sickly angry green for a moment, as if something catastrophic had been stopped... or delayed. The ancient crone's face begins to melt, or at least the wrinkles do, the years pour off her frame, and her body straightens. She still seems to be having trouble moving, being stiff, but the armor no longer hangs loose on her gaunt aged frame. Her white hair is now gold.
She looks through Alister as if he were nothing more than dust that got uppity, and with an absolute surity, Alister knows if he comes into conflict with this person he will die instantly.
Oops, sorry!
I forgot to do the 'Up now' message.
Up Now : Everyone but Sammark.
"Throw it in the fireplace! We need an exit now!"
Selvan will move to the fireplace door to open it or otherwise assist in tossing it in.
"We need to get gone, and an hour or so ago. We've way overstayed our welcome, and we're dead if we stay much longer," Alister says, backing up from the apparently terrifying sights and sounds coming from the hallway.
"Agreed, it's time to fly. I think I changed my mind about taking our chances with the mob. And I'm not sure I want to help these people anymore...", Alys looks at Selvan, then at Connor: "Hurry, now!"
Connor heard the strange music-like, dirge-like sound coming from inside the building. He heard the male half-elf saying he wanted to be elsewhere. He also heard various consent from Alister and the others. "Oh, this is not good. I'm lighting the match and flying for it guys - NOW!" he shouted as he struck the tindertwig and lit the fuse before throwing the cask with all of his might. Connor turned and ran for the ledge and the open air, not looking back.
Connor moves to the doorway, and with Selvan's help, the duo throw the large cask of gunpowder into the fireplace. They duck back around the corner of the doors just as there is a massive explosion. The floor of the fireplace room collapses, taking out the back wall and the stone chimney which falls, taking large chunks of the roof with it. The reinforced internal walls absorb a lot of the blast, but bits of debris still slam through the wall and blast through the open doorway around Connor and Selvan.
Connor takes 2 pts of damage, while Selvan takes 4 points from the back blast.
Once things stop flying, and before things even clear out, those with held actions begin fleeing from the dusty smokey hallway.
Alister, blinded by the smoke and light, moves into the room and leaps but slams into a beam that is partially blocking the opening and fails to take off.
He manages to keep the grip on the box, and not fall into the pit that was created.
Alys, also blinded, has a similar problem.
However, like Alister, she keeps her hold on her crate, and manages to stumble out of the way of the door.
Elrohir, on the other hand, notices the beam, and adjusts for it. He also notices the Scythe Knight in the hallway is still standing, her shield held up over her face to block the smoke and debris. He buzzes through the door, and loops up through the smoking hole in the roof zooming up and over the top of the roof.
Following along after Elrohir, Reaghar ducks under the beam, takes in the vision of the Scythe Knight, and flies up and out of the opening just behind Elrohir.
Order : Sammark, Connor , Reaghar, Alys, Scythe Knight, Alister, Selven, Elrohir.
Sammark runs over to Selvan, so he can fly him out of the room. As he does so, he get's a glimpse of the Scythe Knight and her shield.
Connor then heads out through the doorway.
Making it look good, Connor ducks the beam and flies up and out of the hole, pumping his wings hard to avoid running into the others already up top.
Reaghar continues to fly off at maximum speed.
Alys is having trouble with the crate, navigating the 45 degree angle flight profile required plus the crate. She simply can't get up and off the ground successfully though this time, she doesn't slam into anything.
The Scythe Knight steps through the doorway now, Sammark getting his
Alister manages to get a good start on wing beats, and he kicks off a wall and up and out of the opening, with his crate. He puffs hard and flies further away from the smoking ruin of the roof.
Selvan grabs Sammark, and tries to navigate the difficult opening with a much more ungainly object. However, he manages it, pushing up and through the opening.
Elrohir continues to zoom away like a hummingbird being chased by a vulture.
Alys finally get's the right angle, and gets up and through the roof.
Alys get's a good look at an oddly calm Scythe Knight, her sword out thrust as she pushes it toward Alys, but the sword tip only snips off a feather tip or two as Alys clears the opening. The Scythe Knight was easily 9 feet tall though when Alys finally got a good look at her!
The mob, being congregated at the south end of the building, isn't in position to attack when the two groups go up and fly north instead.
The 7 fly off to the north for about a minute, and then there is a sudden detonation behind them.
The roof of the building they were in surges upward as lightning strikes up and out of it, bloody red lightning and green fire explode out of the walls, blowing huge chunks out them. A secondary explosion detonates as well, leaving half the building collapsed in on itself.
After another minute, the two groups are mixed in with other fliers either fleeing the area, or struggling to make it toward the area.
"Holy.... Glad we made it out of there in one piece," Alister says, sighing as he looks back.
Alister then proceeds to look around, trying to find any familiar faces in the crowd.
Leaving up to his nickname, Flick is a flickering blur as he flies up and out of the hideout, not slowing for anything. Thus, he is quite a ways away when the building explodes. He scouts the area near him, looking for a solid, safe rooftop or something to land on and recover.
Elrohir notices a tavern he's seen before, and lands on the roof (where there's a set of stairs leading down and a couple of tables, one of the few places that caters to fliers in the South Quarter).
Alright,
You couldn't get a lot of the loot you found. I went through and picked out stuff you could have easily stuffed into a backpack as you were searching. Most of it blew up.
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Reaghar
1 Powder/Fire flask bomb, belt pouch containing lead balls, packets of buckshot, percussion caps, and a powder horn. Damage large double barrel shotgun. A half-full bottle of scotch
Connor
small case of lead bullets (20), A small sack of coins (25 gold, 18 silver, 48 copper). A gun cleaning kit. A thumb sized ruby (about 50 gp). 1 double barreled shotgun (breach load) 1 belt pouch with 10 packets of pre-measured buckshot and 10 lead balls, and 20 pre-measured tissue packets of black powder. 1 knife with sheath
Selvan
2 revolver. 2 belt pouches with 6 cylinders, all fully loaded and ready to be put into a gun. A dagger and sheath. 1 coin purse (10gp, 14sp, 21cp), 1 Dagger and Sheath
Alys (And Sammark, when it comes to the gold and damaged jewelry)
1 silver comb, 2 healing kits, 1 small crystal dorje, 1 MW buckler
2 Bottles of Scotch (unopened), 1 MW Firearm's Kit, 187 gold, 12gp in damaged jewelry, and 6 cracked and flawed gems (5gp per now)
Elrohir
1 damaged revolver, 3 cylinders (loaded), 1 coin purse (8 gold, 12 silver, 18 copper), 1 dagger, 1 deck of cards (blood stained), 3 flasks of oil, 2 flasks of alchemist's fire