Faedrin falls back to his silver kukri but, instead of picking it back up, he decides to renew his spell so the weaker eyed members of the group aren't plunged into darkness.
HP: 12/12
AC: 19 (15 T / 14 FF) (+2 more vs AoOs provoked from movement)
CMD: 17
F/R/W: +3/+4/+4 (+2 vs enchantment, immune sleep)
Arcane Pool used: 2/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - jump [ ], obscuring mist [ ], silent image [ ]
Ongoing Effects
spell dance: 10/10 rounds
dancing lights: 1/10 rounds
Uriah steps up and jabs his spear right into the meaty part of the Terisha's chest, finishing her off for certain.
Tanjvats was about to step up and help her, but is left wondering what to do now.
Seeing that, Dareon has no problems switching out the right weapon for the job as he makes a move toward that last enemy that could still pose a threat if left unattended.
Oz decides to use the heavy weighted sap to try and make Karisa's being out cold last beyond the limit of the spell he cast. He turns the body to its side and lays a hard smack on her spine just above the collar. He does it a little too hard, as he hears a loud crack, and she jerks once spasmodically before her neck rests limply at an odd angle.
Faedrin simply moves casually back to his dropped blade, and reinforces the duration of his floating light source.
Uriah, considering the job done heads back to where he left his crossbow.
Tanjvats nodded grimly as the combat ended. Perhaps there would be others to question. He moved back with Uriah to gather up gear and dropped weapons.
Faedrin slips his bow back over his shoulder and kneels down to recover his kukri as he sees the tension evaporate in the postures of Tanjvats, Dareon, and Uriah. His lips tighten into a thin frown and he turns his head as the latter drives his spear into one of the slumped forms at his feet. Shaking his head at the regrettable bloodshed, he cleans the blade before setting it back into its wrist sheath with a click.
The elf then rises and looks back toward the crumpled girl with the lantern and begins to walk over to her.
"Hm." says Dareon, holding his silver shortsword at the ready. "A lot of girls. You think there's a Tower Girls gang anymore?" He begins investigating the downed bodies of their opponents, rolling them over and checking their pulses to see if they're dead, and rifling through their pockets to see if there's anything cool on them. "We've still at least got the leader left, so folks, don't let your guards down."
As Dareon checks each of the women, he finds that they all still live, except of course for Terisha and Karisa. They also all seem to have matching gear and equipment. Except Terisha, who has a bunch of much nicer things.
Dareon pulls the liquid off of Terisha's corpse and tries to figure out what they are, turning them around in their vials and shaking them a bit, as well as uncorking and smelling them.
Dareon, with the aid of his studies, manages to easily recognize the contents of the vials. In fact, it was one of the first recipes that was used as an example in the mixing of potions. He can tell they are both magical elixirs that when drank restore a lesser amount of the functionality of either physical or mental faculties damaged by things like poisons or diseases.
Aside from the gold and platinum, I would be interested in a couple of the tanglefoot bags and smoke sticks. Assuming there are no objections he can hear, Uriah will take two of each.
Time to clean up, eh Tanj.
On the way to retrieve his crossbow, Uriah stops at TG4/F18 and CGD's. Gripping his short spear in both hands, Uriah thrusts the tip up under the girl's sternum.
It's always best to rupture the heart in one clean move. Plus, by placing your blade under the sternum, you're not likely to get it caught in the rib cage.
After finishing off TG4, Uriah moves onto TG3/F26 and dispatches her in the same fashion.
After finishing off TG3/F26, Uriah moves onto R1/F29 and thrusts his spear through the neck of the rat.
Rat hearts are a little harder to get at. Easier just to go for the jugular.
After finishing off Rat1/F29, Uriah moves onto R2/E29 and thrusts his spear through the neck of the rat.
After finishing off Rat2/E29, Uriah moves onto TG1/G30 and thrusts his spear through up underneath the sternum.
After finishing off TG1/G30, Uriah moves onto TG2/G32 and thrusts his spear through up underneath the sternum.
Faedrin kneels down beside the girl he shot and checks for a pulse or for her breath. If it seems like she might yet live, he does his able best to try and stabilize her.
Rising from the girl's side, he moves over to the nearby corridor and braces his back against the wall, leaning around the corner to glance into the room the nearby girl had fled into to fetch a lantern. Holding his breath, he steadies himself and forces his body to calm down as he tries to also listen for any sounds of further reinforcements.
As Tanjvats reached the spot where he'd dropped his crossbow, he realized that Uriah was methodically killing all the remaining Tower Girls.
He felt faint, and put a hand up against the wall to steady himself. It didn't help much and a gout of vomit splashed onto the stone floor and walls, with bits covering his weapon.
He thought of the open sewers where they'd fought Natalya, and how it had jammed with filth.
"I should probably get a new crossbow", he said out loud.
He started to giggle, and then to cry.
Breakfast not sitting well with you Tanj? I've got some trail cake in my bag. It should help to steady your stomach. Let me just finish up here and I'll dig some out. Hope you're not coming down with something. You didn't get bit by that wereb&$&% did ya?
As Dareon looks the girls over for anything of note, and Uriah systematically finishes them off, Faedrin decides to check out the room the girl ran into and back out of. From the light of the dropped lantern he can make out the large room's contents. The expansive chamber is about fifty feet to a side, except for an extra ten foot deep, by thirty foot wide, alcove in the west wall. Two tables of planks and trestles have been set up in here, and the large alcove holds the ashes and soot stains of many recent fires, along with a stone statue of a beautiful woman wielding a ranseur. A tattered harrow deck lies scattered atop one of the tables, along with a few bowls and whiskey glasses.
Still fishing through the girl's pockets, Dareon calls out to his elven ally, "Lantherion, you find anything interesting? Any wererats or little slivers of cursed power?"
Faedrin glances into the room long enough to confirm no other Tower Girls were waiting before returning to the group to answer Dareon's shout. "Looks like they'd been doing work in there at the least. There's a big statue, but whomever it's depicting isn't someone I recognize."
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Oz felt the thunk. He felt it to the very core of his body. Needless to say he panicked, but he couldn't bring himself to freak out. He'd never wanted to kill anyone and he'd most assuredly not intended to do so, and yet these people? They killed no problem. The new person was impaling people left and right. The rats? Sure, they were animals but these people?
He dropped the sap to the ground and recoiled in pure terror at what he'd done. His mask fell to the ground, to boot as he grasped at his head, drinking in the feeling. Babbling beneath his robes he hit his knees, upset. All he wanted to do was get information from her. He'd hardly even hurt her. Crawling up to the woman he grabbed at her, turning her over.
Burning the image of her face in his eyes he would remember it for some time. A long, long time. His imagination ran wild, the thought of just seeing lights, and then that was the end of it. He couldn't comprehend what that was like. Life just stopped. he thought to himself. She'd been defenseless.
The fact that the woman had held enmity toward them never crossed his mind. She would fight them, and they wanted to kill them, but he didn't really see it like that. One thing that people forgot was that Oz was only 17. He was young, even by human standards. He'd seen his share of deaths, sure, but he'd never killed anyone. Wound? Sure, but never, ever killed. He thought he could do it through self defense, but the fact that he murdered this poor woman in his arms on accident shook him to his core.
He let her go and sort of scooted back into a corner without his mask on, curling into a small dark ball of robes. His face was still not visible, but all the same, it didn't take much to see he was very, very bothered.
As Faedrin approaches Dareon, the elf's features fall as he sees the large pools of blood spreading across the floor. His expression shifts from sadness to anger, his ears flattening and his brow wrinkling as he growls loudly, "They weren't a threat any longer! What good was this besides killing just for the sake of killing? It's one thing if you're in a fight for your life, but when they're unconscious on the ground?" The elf brings his hands up over his face in frustration, pressing and kneading his cheeks and forehead as he tries to see his companions as anything other than bloodthirsty, murderous mad men.
Dareon stands up from the girl that he'd been searching and puts his hands in the air, looking to Faedrin. "Hey, it wasn't me this time...and what were we supposed to do? Expend our healing supplies on them?"
Recovering himself and wiping his eyes a bit, he looked around apologetically. He felt sorry for Oz, sympathy for Faedrin and (for not being tough enough) ashamed towards Dareon and Uriah.
He offered meekly, "Well, I can save them if they're unconscious. Not wake them up, but keep them from dying. Defeating them is enough. When they're already down, killing them feels like defeating...I don't know...like defeating us. Like we're just hurting ourselves somehow."
Dareon furrows just one brow and looks to Tanjvats. "How are we supposed to know that unless you say that, though? Even I think that Uriah's actions were a bit...premature" he makes sure that his back is to Uriah while he speaks to Fade and Tanjvats "but if it helps at all...they would have killed us if given the chance. If someone tries to kill you, you try to kill them right back."
Tanjvats nodded assent.
"Only if there's no other choice, Dareon! Gods, make an effort for pity's sake!" Faedrin runs his hands back through his hair in growing frustration. Unable to articulate his views through his growing anger, he rakes his hands through his hair and growls as he stomps over to Oz, shouldering past Uriah with a glare in the process. His face softens somewhat as he extends his hand to his masked teammate, "Come on, Oz. There's no changing what's been done but maybe if we're quick about it we can get what we came for and get out of here before any more lives are needlessly lost."
Dareon turns to Fade, his face growing more irate and his eyes developing a familiar spark. "What would you do? I know, we can magically stabilize them, but what are we going to do after that? Just leave them here? They'll still bleed to death without treatment, just slower. Would you stick around here for a day or two, coddle them, make sure their injuries are uninfected and that they can walk around just fine? We can't waste our time like that. We have important tasks to get done." Dareon rakes his own hand through his own hair after sheathing his shortsword beneath his longsword and the new shortsword from the Girl. "I understand mercy, but what I don't understand is trying extra hard to make sure that those who tried to kill us make it away just fine."
"Gods and men won't change how things are. The world is merciless and cruel, and no one is looking out for you but yourself and your teammates. Faedrin, I will watch your back, but don't expect me to coddle our opponents or enemies."
While talking, Dareon walks into the next room, past Faedrin, to examine his findings. "Dirty thieves don't clean up after themselves..." he mumbles, but then his gaze falls upon the statue.
"What is this.." Dareon mumbles, scratching his scratchy chin with an index finger. "I swear I've seen it before, but... I can't quite remember... Can somebody jog my memory?"
What's up guys? That was some scrape, eh? Could just as easily have gone the other way. After Fade shoulders past, Uriah is perplexed. Seeing that half the team is upset and unsure as to why, Uriah, pointing at Fade asks Dareon... Is he always like that after a dance?
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Oz grabs his mask shortly after taking Faedrin's hand. "Not again. Not people." he says as he walks off. He makes his way to the statue, looking at Uriah. The man can't see Oz's face, or read his lips... he knew this much. He was an Enigma to the deaf man, something which he savored for a moment. Oz just shakes his head in regards to the oracle, however, and goes to check the room where the woman had originaly emerged from as carefully as possible.
As Oz looks over the room that the wererat had emerged from, the most obvious thing is the odor. The room smells strongly of rats—a mix of spoiled food, dander, and the pungent sting of rat feces, all under an incongruous scent of lavender. A blanket has been spread on the floor, and a recovered antique brass platter holds a few bits of rat-gnawed food. There is also a pottery basin on the floor filled with warm, dirty, lavender-scented water.
Faedrin swallows his frustrations and brings his cantrip into the room with Oz. As the younger man focuses his attention on the refuse in the room, Faedrin begins pouring over the walls, drawing Natalya's explanation of the previous shard's hiding place to the forefront of his mind.
"Ugh. This room smells horrible."
Oz looks at the platter and pottery, evaluating the platter to be about a hundred gold, and the pottery basin to actually range closer to two-hundred fifty.
As he looks them over, Fade's examination of the room turns up nothing of note in the room or it's walls.
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"Yes, indeed. Riches, however. Antiques. Valuable." he says as he points to the pottery basin. "Two hundred fifty gold." he says, astutely before pointing to the platter. "One hundred gold." before he looks around. "Smell source?" he asks, looking around for the source of the strange lavender overhang. "Incense, perhaps?" he wonders.
Faedrin shakes his head as he hurries from the room and the foul smell, "No, I think it's from that basin. The water, if that's what you'd even call that muck at this stage, has lavender in it I think. Ugh, this is almost as bad at that offal house Natalya was holed up in a few days ago."
Faedrin starts to make for the section of hall the tower girls had been where their light still burns, but he stops after a few steps. "Where'd Dareon get to? Gah, probably looking at that statue I'd mentioned." Shaking his head at the thought of keeping the party split, he taps Uriah on the shoulder and tilts his head to indicate 'We're going this way, come on.' The lithe elf nods to Tanjvats in greeting as he passes, "Hey, Tanj."
Tanjvats waved back. "Ok", and began to follow along.
Uriah acknowledges Fade with a warm smile, hoping to right whatever slight he'd given the elf previously. Okay. Tanj... you feeling better? The offer for the trail cakes still stands.
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As Oz walks out of the room, he doesn't grab the items, making a mental note of them. He didn't have any way to hold onto them, after all, though he most certainly wish he did. Who knew? These people were thieves, so they might have something to carry it all in.
Turning around, he made eye-view with Uriah, but didn't look directly at him, though he did train his eyes on the man. What kind of conscience could he have? He just killed a person every 2 steps... and he was all smiles?
Looking at him and realizing his deafness, Oz smirked. "I really don't like this person." he said audibly, walking past.
Fade urges the others to follow him as he leads them past the two girls still barely clinging to life, and the eastern hallway, to find Dareon in a large room examining a statue that he can't seem to place.
Faedrin catches Tanjvat's attention and gestures to each of the wounded women with a nod as he as the others continue on to join Dareon. He begins searching the room in earnest, "Maybe if they bothered to put a big statue here, they might have secreted the other shard here as well?"
Despite his obvious attempts to move past the conflict from earlier, it's plainly apparent that Faedrin remains terribly distracted and unfocused as he looks around the chamber.
Tanjvats took Faedrin's nod and bent to deal with the girls. He signed to Uriah that he'd handle these.
He made sure each was stabilized, and then tried to estimate how long each might be unconscious.
While he waits for his compatriots to catch up with him, Dareon plops his armored butt on the ground with a huff. He pulls out a vial, as well as a couple dropper-containers of various liquids and a small bag of dry alchemical ingredients. After a moment of examining them, he begins to mix them together in the vial, creating a small red container of fizzing liquid. Once he's done, he stoppers it and shoves it into his beltloop and stands back up, ready once again for exploring and combat.