Still watching from the shadows, Ciervo sets his jaw. As though their mission was not perilous enough with the Silent Shroud involved, an enforcer of the Umbral Court had to arrive. It was not an entirely unexpected development. If anything, it suggested that the individual sheltered in the church truly is of importance.
The dhampir looks over at Salla and nudges his head in the direction of the entrance to the church. He then creeps closer, continuing to use the darkness as his cover.
Unafe sees the pale cloaked man creep slowly towards the group, warping shadows around himself in order to remain unseen.
As Ciervo stealthes close Salla raises her crossbow and sights on the Enforcer in case of trouble.
"I suppose it will be, won't it?" Nicholas cocks his head. "Thgil yb dednilb eb." He raises his hand and steps forward in the same motion, sending a blinding spray of multicolored light over all three of the men standing in front of the church. "This one's going to be too stubborn for the ruse to work. Hit them with everything you have!" he calls to Unafe as he draws his dagger in his other hand.
The Umbral Agent looks quite surprised as Nicholas attacks him and the Silent Shroud with a burst of magical color, but he and the Silent Shroud as as unaffected by the spell as they would have been had it been merely a fireworks display. "A glory-hogging infidel, I see." drawls the Agent. "You'll meet your end with the rest of them."
Just as all of this begins to happen, Osborne and Cai'nan arrive on-scene. Having just snuck across the whole city to reach this spot to talk to Nicholas and his congregation, the pair find a fight already underway between two dark cowled individuals and an Umbral Agent with his two Silent Shroud guards.
Seeing a strange scene unfolding before him, Cai'nan considers holding back to see what shakes out, but then notices the obvious Mwangi lady behind the man using magic. Deciding that this must be the person of interest, he dashes forward, and once near the shadow agents, he goes into a flurry of motion, twirling his glaive around him as he flips into the air, bringing the cutting edge down towards an unprotected part of the Umbral Agent.
He then takes up a nimble fighting stance before looking the group's over, saying "Good evening, everyone. How are we tonight?"
___________
Cai'nan charges into battle, stopping right near Unafe and Nicholas, whirling his glaive and cutting into the Umbral Agent's thigh. He gasps at having been injured, and looks up at Cai'nan. "An accomplice?" he hisses, "Death will come to all."
Cai'nan smiles, "Yeah, eventually. But for some of us, it'll get here much sooner."
As the two set out, Osborne reaches down to touch the golden signet ring on his finger, incanting words in gnomish. "Ensimmäistä holvissa päällikön ja harmaa useitakromi, anna minulle voimaa hakea sitä, mikä on kadonnut."
"For the First Vault's master and by the will of the Grey Polychrome, grant me the power to retrieve that which is lost."
The ring's Abadar-inspired signet morphs into a ruby-red die and a flash of red light fills the room. When it finishes, Osborne stands clad in garrish gold and silver finery, a silver-embroidered crimson cloak and hood, and a golden mask covering his face. Slate, who had run up next to him transforms into what appears to be a felinoid earth-elemental composed of native gold with two cubic-cut rubies for eyes. It growls in a gravelly voice before sinking down into the ground and disappearing from sight. "From here on, please call me The Procurer."
Following Cai'nan, The Procurer draws a small silver shield and a short sword, rushing towards his foe, one of the Silent Shroud guards. As he begins to swing, he stomps the ground hard and a rumbling comes from the ground beneath where he'd started running. Moments later, Aurus, now significantly larger rises up from the ground, bounding towards the same guard. Hoping the sight of the massive golden beast will throw off the guard's concentration, The Procurer strikes low, aiming for the guard's gut with his gnome-sized blade.
The Procurer, a flash of red and gold accompanied by a cat made of gold and rubies, charges into battle. The Umbral Agent's eyes bulge out, surprised at all of the people coming out of the woodwork. The Procurer nicks the guard in the lower belly with his sword when he closes in, and the Umbral Agent and his guard leap to action right after.
The Agent points at Osborne, shouting, "You, kill him!" and then at Cai'nan, indicating the other guard. "And you, kill him!" Then, he pulls his spiked chain from its sheath. Channeling power into it, the spiked chain ripples with an unholy fire, "And you, traitor - you get this," he growls, stepping forward and swinging the weapon gracefully at Nicholas.
In tandem, the guard that The Procurer attacked retaliates, lashing out with fist and foot.
The Umbral Agent's spiked chain ripples with black and hostile energy as it rips through Nicholas' flesh, rotting the wound as it slashes him, and the unholy fire, though not too hot, burns the wound somewhat as well.
The guard that attacked the Procurer finds no purchase with either strike, the Procurer able to rebuff his attacks with his shield and the flat of his blade.
This got out of hand rather quickly. For a moment, Ciervo considers retreating. The site had clearly been compromised, and as far he could tell, he had not yet been detected. With the commotion it would be easy enough for him to slip into the temple and recover the asset on his own. If one ignored the fact that the place was crawling with Silent Shroud, anyway. Evidently, his definition of the word "easy" was unconventional.
Ciervo remains where he is for a while longer, not out of hesitation, but out of patience. He has already come to a decision.
The assassin waits until the agent has sent his guards after the other arriving targets before making his move. Just like that, the dhampir slides out of the shadows and sidles up to the man's back with unnatural grace, a pair of wicked-looking daggers in hand. He looks over the agent's shoulder at Nicholas, giving him a silent nod, before stabbing into one of the man's vitals.
Ciervo appears out of nowhere, the shadows that cloak him sliding away smoothly. With an easy motion he inserts a dagger into the agent's back, and the man gasps with pain.
Unafe gasps as the situation explodes. These Avistani are as violent as velociraptors. What to do?
Seeing allies appear out of the shadows, the shaman calls on the spirits to quicken them. She throws her head back, opens her mouth wide, and chants in deep loud tones "Nui tupuna, tēnā tere te wahi o koutou tamariki."
As she does, her hood falls back revealing her nearly black skin, grey-white facepaint, and short, tight curls. Ghostly wisps emanate from her mouth and swirl around those she knows or suspects are allies, lending them speed.
Meanwhile, Tuturutanga sticks her head out from under Unafe's cloak, keeping an eye out for danger.
_______________
Tuturutanga uses Bodyguard to attempt to protect Unafe from the first three attacks that come her way.
Also, she will use Shield Master to take 1/2 the damage that Unafe takes.
As Ciervo moves on the agent Salla takes her shot
1.
2.
Salla fires off two quick shots at the Umbral Agent with her crossbow from across the courtyard. One strikes the shoulder of his breastplate, shattering and splintering without causing harm. The second, he steps aside after seeing her, and it sails past him without making contact. The Umbral Agent smiles.
At his order, the second Silent Shroud leaps on CAi'nan, who reactively brings his glaive around to strike as the monk closes on him.
He strikes the monk, drawing a thin line of blood across the man's lightly-clothed chest. Still, he moves relentlessly forward, striking at Cai'nan with a heavy blow. He stumbles as he approaches, throwing his balance and aim way off.
"Kill me?" Cai'nan taunts as he nimbly sidesteps the attack thrown his way, "You have got to be kidding. I'm too good looking to die to a bunch of uninteresting mooks like you!"
Feeling himself move faster, Cai'nan chuckles. "Oh, I like when this sort of magic is on me. Like that time back in Nirmathas when we hit that Molthunite war band!" Cai'nan says as he spins his pole arm with lightning speed, lashing out at the enemies around him as he adjusts his position to reach as many as he can.
__________
Nicholas feels the painful bite of the chain on his flesh. On one hand, the watchers did get involved. That's good. On the other, he seems to be bleeding quite a lot. That's bad. "thgis morf em edih!" He waves his hands and vanishes in to thin air before the other Agent can react and then retreats to his left a good ten feet to get away from the heart of the melee.
Nicholas vanishes from sight and withdraws. The Agent hisses with anger, at the traitorous unknown Umbral Agent withdrawing. Meanwhile, Cai'nan cuts down the monk that assailed him, stepping back and laying a pair of vicious glaive slices into the already-injured man.
The Procurer turns to the Umbral Agent, taunting him. "Why don'tcha pick on someone your own size..." he says, "Like Aurus here for instance!"
Pointing his blade towards Aurus, the cat reacts, moving forward with a rush and slamming its massive body into the agent. It follows up the first attack with a second, rearing up and bringing its head down onto the agent's with a sharp crack, and trying to dig its sharp, metallic claws into his shoulders.
Moving quickly underneath Aurus, the gaudily clad gnome slices at the distracted foe's belly with his short sword twice, following up the initial attack with a quick slap of his shield.
Aurus and The Procurer crowd in around the Umbral Agent, forcing him to dip, weave, and aggressively use his gauntlets and spiked chain to force attacks aside. Unfortunately, overconfidence gets the better of him, and he gets blindsided by Aurus, who delivers a powerful blow right into his midsection, denting his breastplate and probably breaking a rib. The Procurer follows it up with a quick sword-swipe through the man's compromised defenses. A bit of blood comes out of his mouth, but he just smiles. "Thank you." he gasps.
He steps away from them, but is still near to Ciervo and Cai'nan enough that he must focus on the spell that he attempts to cast:
But his wounds are far too distracting for him to reliably use his magic. He curses.
Meanwhile, the remaining guard continues to pummel at The Procurer, his mouth a thin line of concentration and his fists as hard as iron.
With a deep breath, the man's movements increase in precision, allowing him to slip a third blow in before The Procurer has a chance to retaliate. The Procurer comes away from the assault bruised, but not awfully wounded.
Unafe smiles as she sees the ancestors of her new allies answering her call to hasten their actions.
She turns her attention to the silent monk assaulting the colorful gnome. She draws in a deep breath and then blows a shimmering cloud of malaise and ill fortune toward the warrior.
As the cloud surrounds him, she begins a low chant that feels almost like the ground trembling. "Wairua o nga saurians, wairua o te whenua, te arata'i ahau, homai ki ahau te kaha, homai ki ahau tino...'
Salla tries again to remove the Agent.
Nicholas steps back a bit further from the fighting. Seeing the Shroud guard delivering some punishing blows, he calls up his power and shimmers in to visibility. "Deduolc si dnim ruoy!" The monk immediately feels pressure on his mind as it becomes hard to think, let along act.
The Shroud guard manages to resist both Nicholas and Unafe's attempts to hamper his murdering ability, through either strength of will or just pure regular strength.
Even as badly-wounded as he is, the Umbral Agent manages to barely move aside enough for Salla's crossbow bolt to cause no harm. It goes in through a loop in his breastplate and comes out of the shoulder hole without actually piercing his skin.
Bestowed by Unafe with preternatural speed, Ciervo smoothly repositions himself, putting the agent in between himself and Cai'nan, before releasing a flurry of dagger thrusts, aiming for more of the man's vital organs.
His reflexes amped up by the battle, the Agent puts up a good fight against Ciervo's assault. Ciervo's first dagger goes into a shoulder pauldron, sliding off of the metal, while the Agent slaps at Ciervo's other incoming dagger hand. However, he gets too close, and allows Ciervo to slide his dagger into the man's back through a gap in his neck armor. He gasps at the sudden injury before collapsing onto the ground.
The remaining Shroud guard takes one look at his dead superior, at the enemies surrounding him, and he presses his lips into a line, resolved to kill them all himself.
With an acrobatic spin and twirl of his glaive, Cai'nan repositions himself to try and finish the fight, placing the remaining threat to the Mwangi between himself and another if able.
__________
Three swift and merciless blows put an end to the last Silent Shroud. Silence falls with his body, and the stresses of combat fade away.
Salla scans the area, looking and listening for any sign reinforcements are coming?
Nicholas groans and grabs his wound. "Well... that went significantly better than it could have." He bows his head to the various strangers. "I thank you for your help. If you simply helped out of dislike for the Shroud, then I'll wish you farewell. If you have business here, I suggest you join me inside while I liberate the captives."
"Very bold of you, attacking an agent of the Umbral Court like that," Ciervo replies curtly, as though he had not just stabbed the man to death. He wipes the blood off his daggers, but does not return them to their sheathes just yet. "You are very fortunate indeed."
The dhampir (still posing as a human, at the moment) glances about at all of the people that had shown up to assist. An awfully convenient turn of events, but then again, given the unusual activity at the temple, it only made sense that others would pick up on it. He decides that introductions, if they were to be given at all, could wait.
"There are bound to be more Silent Shroud around. Be on your guard," he warns as he slinks toward the door.
Behind the chapel door, you can hear muffled activity. Several individuals (at least a half-dozen, but fewer than twenty) are moving through the room just beyond the door.
The chapel door is not locked, but it does appear to be barred from the other side if anybody tries to open it. In fact, the chapel door has no lock. It is made of thick, roughly-cut wood, though the hinges are iron.
There is no other entrance on the ground level, but the second-floor windows are not so far off of the ground that they are impossible to reach... They do appear to be latched from the inside, though none of the second-floor windows are lit.
Nicholas scoffs. "Please, call it what it was. Desperate and a bit foolish." He pulls his hood a little tighter around his head. "But we can talk later." He hurries over to the door to checks inside. He frowns as he nears the door. "Ah, more guests inside..."
The chapel door is not locked, but it does appear to be barred from the other side if anybody tries to open it.
Unafe takes a deep breath as the last assailant is knocked out and Nicholas reappears, harmed but not critically so.
Glancing between Nicholas and the others, she says, "So, you do not know each other?"
Unafe quiets herself and puts an ear to the door. She looks faraway for a moment, and then frowns. "Yes, and presumably not friendly. It sounds like about ten people ransacking the place, perhaps looking for something."
She pauses, "Also...do you hear those cries? They're further off, but I fear someone in there is being tortured as we speak."
"If this is your ally we should make haste...but first--"Unafe glances at Nicholas and the wounded gnome"--step back from the door and let me call on the spirits to heal you two."
"I fear that you're right." He sighs, seeing that the door isn't going to budge. "Unless someone wants to try to break the door down, I suggest we look for a window or another door that's unbarred and hurry inside. The sooner we find Simon and get him out of here, the better."
Ciervo frowns ever so slightly when Unafe channels, making a mental note of her ability to do so. It was harmless to him now, but under the right circumstances it would do more than just inconvenience him - it could kill him outright. Playing it off, he looks up at the windows for a favorable point of entry.
"It looks like we could enter through the second floor... unless the rest of you would prefer announcing yourselves. Not that breaking a window open would be much less subtle."