Nicholas considers his options for a moment. With the element of surprise lost, he really doesn't have a lot of options. Many of his direct attack spells strike the mind, which is rather useless against undead. As the others rush forward to do battle, Nicholas waves his hands and vanishes into thin air. Then he runs down the street, trying to get into position to do something useful.
Unafe weaves speed-magic over her allies, enhancing them with the powers of haste.
Utilizing this magic, both Cai'nan and Ciervo rush forward, their weapons outstretched to slash and stab at their opponent. Unfortunately, their opponent seems to have some uncanny speed, reacting in time to shield his vital spots from Ciervo's assault, and his skin is tough enough to repel both Ciervo's dagger and Cai'nan's glaive. The only harm that befalls him is a layer of rime that exudes itself from Ciervo's dagger.
Meanwhile, Nicholas disappears from sight.
The ghul smiles broadly at his opponents' failure to injure him, and he turns. His scimitar glows white-hot with the heat from his body, which is palpable even from several feet away, and he growls, "Fool." before slashing twice at Ciervo, the only person able to harm him so far.
He frowns as Ciervo dodges both of his blows, smoothly, and he steps out from in between Ciervo and Cai'nan, back inside of the building he was standing in.
Salla aims carefully at the thing.
Salla gives the ghul a critical eye, searching for vulnerable points before firing a cold iron bolt at the ghul. Her bolt isn't holy, so it doesn't penetrate to the feather, but it does harm the ghul.
Unafe steps forward and twists her dagger in the air, attempting to sever the strings of fortune surrounding the twisted ghul.
As she does she begins a low chant that seems to hang in the air. "Wairua o nga saurians, wairua o te whenua, te arata'i ahau, homai ki ahau te kaha, homai ki ahau tino..."
Cai'nan's glaive slashes to and fro three times, though the genie-kin creature he faces is both nimble and well-armored, and Cai'nan only manages to deliver one shallow blow, the genie-kin's skin only registering a small injury from Cai'nan's powerful blow.
The ghul manages to resist Unafe's hex through force of will and luck, grinning ever wider at the party's difficulty in harming him.... though the grin is tempered as his gaze flits between the myriad of enemies that face him.
Unafe's life link saps some of the injuries that Cai'nan had already endured at the hands of the leucrottas, spreading the misery between herself and her spirit animal, Tuturutanga.
Though vexed by his failure to strike the genie's vitals, Ciervo shows no signs of relenting. With a quick step he closes the gap and then strikes out with multiple stabs, left with little choice but to forsake quality for quantity. The great ghul's superb defenses neuter his otherwise deadly blows, but the dhampir tries his best to hide his disappointment and frustration - as an assassin, he was not fond of drawn-out encounters.
Ciervo slashes at the ghul three times, and he connects three times, but the ghul's skin is far too tough to be penetrated by simple knife-blades. Ciervo leaves a pair of painful white-looking ice burns on the ghul's skin, though.
Nicholas raises his hands and quickly begins chanting while he backs away. For a few moments nothing happens, then someone who looks remarkably like the man the ghul was chasing appears around the corner of the burning building. He's panting like he's been running and he looks at the undead with panic before he tries to flee down the street out of town.
The ghul sees Nicholas' illusion, though he does not recognize it as such immediately. He crows, "Hah! There you are! You shall not keep that key from me for long!" He steps back and away from Cai'nan and Ciervo, out of the reach of their deadly weapons. As he does so, his form begins to shift. His face looks uncomfortable as his bones creak and his skin slides, begins to grow fur, and over the course of a few seconds he shifts into the form of a hyena, though the hyena's fur is a dull gray with streaks of fire-red. As he shifts, he fades from sight, becoming totally invisible by the time his form has completely shifted.
Salla will shoot at the square the Ghul stepped to for his shifting.
Salla fires three bolts into the space that the ghul disappeared from, and all three strike the back wall of the dilapidated cottage that the fight happens within, sinking up to the feather.
Darian tries his best to determine where the fiend is, before slashing there with three fluid but powerful attacks.
__________
With keen vision beyond the abilities of normal human ken, Cai'nan locates a disturbance in the dust of the cottage inside. Paw-print shaped disturbances, that is. Rushing inside, he gets far enough that he is able to make one attack at where he believes the ghul to be, but his strike hits nothing but air.
Spirits of my foremothers, help me! Unafe prays, and begins a sacred chant to open her eyes to the movements of the undead.
Meanwhile, more wounds bloom on Unafe and Tuturutanga as they fade on Cai'nan.
Unafe walks toward the cottage where the ghul was last seen and casts an incantation designed to allow her to track the undead. Her spiritual sense allows her to sense that... yes, the undead genie must still be there, in front of them all, but she must concentrate for longer in order to determine more information, such as his exact location.
Ciervo's eyes narrow when the imposing genie shrinks down into a beast and then vanishes. Suspecting that their quarry has not left the cottage, but having nothing to guide him but Cai'nan's own wild attacks, he fluidly slips past him and stabs at the air blindly, feeling quite foolish doing so.
Ciervo stabs at nothing, and his blade finds purchase in nothing.
Nicholas finds that his repertoire of spells isn't going to be very useful against an undead. "I must expand my abilities, and soon." He steps back and waits for the beast to reappear so he can at least fire of a few magic missiles.
Without the ability to predict where the creature might be, Nicholas' illusion is unable to react to the attack that comes, and is disrupted by some attack from the unseen ghul genie. It vanishes from sight. Unafe's undead-detection spell loses track of the presence of undead.
Meanwhile, the group can see a man, handaxes hanging from hoops at his belt, wearing leather armor and covered in a mixture of blood and mud, bolt from a hiding place in a building across the way and run across the small boulevard towards the marsh.
Salla stands about, not knowing where to fire or what to do... she looks carefully just in case the ghul should re-appear, however.
"We should disengage," Ciervo says, no longer seeing the value in pursuing their powerful quarry. "I am no coward, but we could barely harm this creature before. Now we cannot even see it."
"I find myself agreeing with you," Nicholas's voice says from thin air. "This isn't a battle that we're going to win. Let's just run while we have the chance. If it comes after us later, we can at least be prepared for it better."
"I agree, this is not our fight. We should have remained on task in the first place. Let's get back on the road and hope this...thing...doesn't feel the need to follow," Cai'nan agrees.
The group breaks off from combat, getting out of the abandoned village off of the road and mucking back through the bog to the road. When they arrive, nothing's changed - it's only been a few minutes. The horses whinny with relief at the return of their owners.
As the group gets a bit of distance on the abandoned village, the screams of the caravan's survivor can be heard. They are silenced quickly, and the ghul that killed him does not pursue.
The road beckons, and the ride to the group's apparent final destination is fairly short. The caravan that the group came upon came from the same direction that the group rides in now. One of the horses even escaped the attack of the leucrottas and ran back in that direction.
After about an hour of light riding, the group comes within sight of a settlement. Tucked in some un-trimmed thick foliage, a group of a half-dozen houses rests in a small natural harbor. Docks extend out into the gentle crescent, a small sailing ship equipped for twenty people anchored at one of them. A low wall, about five feet but topped with loops of razor wire, encircles the town.
If the source of all of the local troubles did not pass through here, at least they might have seen him here, or know where he might be. And perhaps the other five of those mysterious teeth are as well.
Nicholas sighs as they end up leaving the man to his fate. It's a bit harsh, but he's long since acknowledged that practicality must take precedence over idealism, especially in Nidal. He just hopes that whatever the ghul was after doesn't come back to bite them in the future. Re-gathering their horses, they set off toward the Bay again. "Let's see if anyone is around. Perhaps they can tell us if our 'friend' was here. Though they don't seem like the kind who like to have many visitors. I suggest we approach carefully." He taps his heels against his horse's flanks and heads down toward the houses carefully. No need to make a scene if they're just passing by.
"Agreed. And if not, I suggest putting as much distance between ourselves and that creature as we can. Undead don't need to sleep, we do. And it being able to hide from sight makes it all the more a threat..."
A couple of men emerge from the undergrowth as Nicholas approaches. They appear armed to the teeth, but their weapons are not drawn. They wear studded leathers. Each carries a crossbow especially designed to function underwater, and a boarding axe hangs from a loop at each of their belts. Clearly, these men are pirates.
They are also quite small, about three feet in height each. One of them has his hair in strange loops about his ears, and the other one's hair is a bright red mo-hawk. The one with a mohawk speaks, his open mouth revealing rotten and golden teeth, asking, "You here for tradin', for restin', or for something more specific?"
"Passing through looking for someone," Nicholas says. "A man by the name of Grey. We believe he passed through here not long ago and we're interested in catching up."
The gnomish pirate eyes Nicholas for a second, sizing him up with an elevator stare. "Ain't seen no travelers by the name of Grey. Sure you don't mean Greg?" The other one nods, saying, "Yeah, a Greg came in the other day. Couple days ago we had a few traders meet us also, but none by the name of Grey."
"Course, s' not like we get a lot of folks usin' their real names when they come to see us," says the mohawked gnome. "C'mon, you wanna talk about the traders, you talk to the quartermaster. You want to see Greg, he's in the public house."
The gnome with a mohawk turns, quickly removes a kukri from a sheath across his chest, and points it at Nicholas. "You make any trouble, we kill you. We find out you're from the government, we kill you. You understand? No trials, no second chances. This ain't Andoran."
"Tell me about it. Andoran is much more agreeable," Cai'nan says in jest. "Trust me, chap, we aren't here lookin' for any kind of trouble, and we aren't planning on starting any fights, but," he taps his hand on the haft of his glaive as he tightens his grip on his horses reigns, "we will defend ourselves if trouble comes lookin'."
"Good to know," Nicholas says dryly. "Hopefully we won't be around long enough to get into any trouble. We'll just ask around with the traders and be on our way."
The gnomes nod and lead the party back into the little settlement. There is no stable, but the group's horses are merely tied up near the front gate.
There are only a few buildings inside the low wall, and they don't look particularly well-maintained or lived in. In fact, they're overgrown by the very foliage that obstructs them.
The two gnomes who greeted the group turn and head back outside the walls, going back to lookout duty. Before leaving, they point out one building as being the quartermaster's office, and the other as being the public house. There are a few more than a dozen people inside the walls, all gnomes save for two. A few gnomes tarry on the deck of the small ship docked here, playing with the ropes or just chatting. A few gnomes rest or play games inside a few of the buildings, apparently built for storage or for residence.
Inside the public house, a small open-concept building with a bar and a few barrels of ale scattered around, sits a human man. Dressed like a wanderer, a staff resting up against the table he sits at, he quietly reads a book.
Inside of the quartermaster's office, stacks of goods rest behind a desk. Behind the desk, her feet up on the surface, sits a gnome woman with a shaved head, cleaning her nails with a dagger.
The last person is apparently a human, but with skin like burnished bronze, sits on the edge of the boat, her feet hanging off. She looks impatient, and plays coin tricks with prestidigitation while tapping her feet on the side of the boat.
Nicholas takes a moment to look around. It certainly doesn't seem like a terribly busy place. "I suppose there's nothing to do but ask around and see if anyone has heard anything useful." He heads toward the quartermaster first. Though she looks a bit fierce, she's also likely to have seen anyone passing through, especially if they needed supplies. "Good afternoon," he says, trying to be polite. "If I could have a moment of your time. We're looking for a man who may have passed through earlier today." He gives a rough description of Grey.
Cai'nan follows along, allowing Nicholas to take the lead in asking around as he focuses his attentions on anyone that could pose a threat.
Ciervo ignored the scream, having had no qualms about leaving the man to his fate. As far as he could tell, the man had somehow provoked the ghul of his own volition. Their brief if not sincere attempt to rescue him might have well gotten them all killed. If there was anything that did bother the dhampir, it was the questions that would go unanswered because of the man's death. He did not like loose ends. Even so, he redoubles his focus on the matter at hand.
In the public house, Ciervo keeps his guard up, well aware that the wrong questions could sometimes spark unwanted conflict.
Salla drifts along in Ciervo's wake. Not saying anything as always.
The gnomish pirate merchant lofts an eyebrow but doesn't look up from her extremely dirty nails. "Had several people pass through, obviously. Buyin' our goods, you see. Don't normally volunteer info about the people who come to us, though. Bad practice, you see. What do you want 'em for?"
As the group enters the camp, a few of the idle gnomes jump up and wander over to watch the group. Vaguely making menacing movements like sharpening a knife, staring unsettlingly, or ripping meat from a drumstick savagely, the gnomes murmur among themselves and circle the group. The young bronze-skinned woman stays on the lip of the ship, watching with vague interest.
"The government wants to ask him some questions and we'd very much like that not to happen, so we're trying to get a warning to him before it's too late." He reaches into his belt pouch and pulls out a small handful of gold coins. "And I'm perfectly capable of providing a reward to anyone who can help us protect our friend from the Court." He smiles at the woman. "You're a business woman. Surely we can come to a peaceful agreement."
The gnome's brows crease and she looks up at Nicholas finally. "Hm," she says. "Haven't heard something like that in awhile."
"Alright." she says, and leans forward. She jams her dagger into the wood of the table in front of her and sweeps some dirt and mold off of it. "Earlier today, we had some merchants come in. We sold 'em some contraband - relatively benign stuff, see. Spices, I think. Bloody stupid country outlaws flavor. And we gave 'em some mail to deliver." He points out the front gate. "They left by the main road up there, headed out to Nisroch."
"Yesterday, we had a few folk come in. They bought some of the goods we brought with us. And some potions that we brewed for 'em. They left by the east road, but who knows where they've got to if they've been going for a day and a half now. And we've got Greg over there," he says, pointing over to the rudimentary little tavern over on the other side. "Says he's looking for something in the area."
"We sailed in the day before, so I wouldn't know about anything before that."
"The laws do get ridiculously draconian, don't they?" Nicholas comments absently. "But thank you for the information. I suppose we'll have to chat with Greg and see if he's seen anything useful while he was in the area." He counts out five gold pieces onto the table. "Much appreciated." Before he goes, he looks over at the odd woman. "One more question, if you wouldn't mind. Who's the bronze woman by the water?"
She nods at the bronze-skinned woman. "She's called Seraphin Al-Ddaw," she says. "A mercenary we picked up for a recent job. An ifrit from Katapesh."
"Ah, good to know." Not all that helpful right now, but maybe it will be of some use later. He nods to the gnome. "Well then, I won't take up any more of your time."
He nods to the rest of the group and heads over toward the makeshift tavern. "Good day," he says as he approaches the traveler. "Would you mind chatting for a bit? I'm hoping that you can help us with something. We're looking for a man who was traveling this way." He gives his description again.
Though he's trying hard to hide it, the man is surprised to hear the description you provide, and is eyeing you warily as a result. One of his hands has crept onto his quarterstaff underneath the table.
The man pulls his hood down when Nicholas approaches, revealing a somewhat plain and rugged face underneath. Tufts of thick brown hair stick out of a bandana that he wears over his head. He otherwise wears just thick traveling cloaks. He looks up at Nicholas, takes a gulp from his ale tankard, and shakes his head regretfully. "Could be one of the traders who came by, one of the last couple of days. Sorry, I don't pay too much attention to the people. Just here to hunt and to stay out of sight of civilization. And to make some money off of these pirates."
His simplicity is an act. He seems keenly aware of each person in the room with him, and it seems he's lying about his purpose here as well.
Nicholas's friendly smile doesn't waver. "My friend, I've dealt with spies, liars, and various other extremely unfriendly people for a long time. You're going to have to try significantly harder than that to fool me. We're looking to find this man before the Umbral Court does, preferably to save his life. And from the look on your face you recognized my description, so let's try this again. Have you seen him?" He prepares to cast a spell under the table, just in case the 'traveler' is one of their enemies.