The graveyard remains still and quiet, although you get the feeling that something has been pleased by the burial on the grounds.
Aibek nodded towards the others at their words with a soft solemn small smile, taking one more glance around the graveyard before gesturing towards the entrance and walking out of the gates towards Azri.
"We should be heading in a moment..." Aibek commented to Azri. "We can swing through town to give Azerna a quick update before heading back to the pumps." Aibek thought outloud, swirling thinking passing before dark eyes, trying to consider what they would need to fix such things...the pumps and beyond...
"I suppose." Azri mused, not seeming terribly bothered by all the back-and-forth. Time was one thing she had plenty of, so she was rarely in a rush unless there was an immediate problem. Still, her preference for having things in working order meant that she was looking forward to fixing the pump and getting water flowing.
As you pass back through the ruined streets, you start to get the feeling someone, or something, is watching you. It is difficult to pin point what or where, but it feels malicious.
"Hold up a moment." Azri stopped, frowning slightly as she started to look around.
One hand rested on her new staff, but swinging it wildly would do nothing of value. For the moment, the best thing to do would be locating and identifying something. ...She may have taken threats to her family as a bit of a personal insult.
"What's wrong, Az?" Selena asks the lich-girl. Noticing her frowning, the half-succubus too looks around: thinking about it, she did feel a little creeped out in the last minutes. Moving a lock of hair in front of her eyes.
"" the half-fiend suddenly shouts. If someone turns to look at her, Selena is intent at staring at her hand "I chipped one of my nails! Must have happened with all the sword pulling and brass door breaking."
"What's going on? Do you see something?" Mihara says, tucking her hands away into her long sleeves.
|
Ayreth smiles at Mihara's spontaneous poem, feeling that it captures the moment well. Her smile is reinforced by the feeling that they did a good thing today and someone is pleased by it.
Her smile slowly fades as they walk through the town and a malevolence is felt in her mind. As she walks, she brushes against her new sisters, seeking the reassurance of physical contact. As the feeling grows, panic wells up inside her as she remembers her time in the mist, being hunted by her mother.
She begins looking around wildly, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it is, but hoping it's just her imagination. That hope is dashed when Emmitt hisses in her ear.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ayreth and Azri both spot...something...moving among the ruins of a building to the left. It is difficult to see, it's hide blending into the rock and sand, but it appears to be some kind of large lizard, nearly sixteen feet long, with a total of eight eyes. One pale, oddly luminous eyes watches you with reptilian menace. It's hard to say what it wants...but it is between you and the bridge you used to get there.
|
|
"There!," Ayreth says, indicating the giant lizard. She lets out an odd giggle as she realizes she is holding Selena's non-chipped-nail hand and Selena is involuntarily pointing at it. Some of Ayreth's tension actually eases with the threat identified. "Oops, sorry, Selena," she apologizes, clearly embarrassed, and releases Selena's hand.
"No problem, sis!" Selna giggles back to Ayreth. "What is that, on the other hand?" the half-succubus adds, peering in the direction of the creature "Should it have that many eyes?".
Azri blinked a few times as she looked at the creature, trying to figure out what it was.
"Well, we'll have to exterminate things sometime if they're not someone's pet." she mused, tapping her foot lightly as she considered her options. Blast it from a distance, perhaps? Or... hm. Maybe she could just scare it away.
Aibek was lost in turning and twisting thoughts until Ayreth's words brought the witchwolf's attention back to focus. After a moment of self annoyance flashed in Aibek's dark eyes, they then followed the gaze and points of the others to the unusual creature. 8 legs, Aibek had heard of rare though those ones were, but 8 eyes in a lizard - a rather unfriendly lizard of size at that. Aibek pulled shadows into hands while sizing the creature up, trying to pull any stories of such a creature to the forefront of the mind and debating whether claws or arrows would defeat or at least make it run away from them quicker...
"It could be someone's evil pet, Az. " Selena comments, warily looking at the creature. "Any idea of what it is? "
"That doesn't sound good. I'd probably make a very pretty statue, but I don't care to try," Mihara jokes uncomfortably.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Hm, so Basilisks can actually turn people to stone? I thought that was something people said useful to make innuendos." Selena comments, before stopping to think for a moment. "So, what do we do? It doesn't look like it has any intention of moving, and we have to pass from there. Any plan?"
"I suppose I could go distract it..." Azri mused thoughtfully. "But a creature like that would be far too dangerous to leave loose in the city. Best to get rid of it as quickly as possible." Lightning crackled around the edges of her fingertips as she considered their options. She wasn't terribly afraid of being turned into stone - being what she was had many perks - but the same couldn't be said for the others... and she considered their safety to be far more important than her own.
"No no no. Don't even think about it." Selena puts one of hands an her side, pointing with the chipped nail to Azri. "Stop with this 'I'm going to distract' it nonsense. Let me and Ginger handle that part: You're too frail to go around tossing rocks at giant lizards.". Before the lich-girl can reply, the half-succubus continues "-And don't say that it 'isn't a big deal for you'! No matter how many times you say that, I'm not letting you get mauled by anything as long as I'm around."
Selena stares sternly at Azri for a couple of moments, before smiling softly "Got it?"
Aibek chuckled slightly at Mihara's joke before the witchwolf's attentions were pulled up by Selena and Azri.
Aibek softly said "I agree, I don't think it should be let to get any closer to the town, a Basilisk that size could cause a lot of harm, more so with that many eyes..." while still trying to pull up any ideas on how to safely do so while once more forming solid shadows into a shadowblade light repeating crossbow.
"I think we should stay at range. Would blinding it prevent it from making us stone? My first thought was putting it in the dark but I haven't mastered producing shadows - yet - and blinding it would be better still..." Aibek said to the others, nervously watching the creature for signs it was going to attack while looking for a shadow to step into...
Magical energy crackled around Azri's hand, mixing negative energy and electricity as her will conjured up arcane power. "Blinding I can do." she said. It was one of the spells she typically focused on learning each day, and while it wasn't much use against other undead, it would have a certain value against more normal creatures.
She did, however, look slightly miffed at Selena's words. She didn't particularly like seeing any of her family hurt - especially when she could take the damage instead and protect them.
"Weeeeeelll..." Selena says, scratching her head " You can't, but I can do that. Do you think it will help?" she asks, before looking at the witchwolf: you can catch a glimpse of grimness in her expression. "I usually don't like to do it: it makes me feel dizzy, and sick, and strange. But if that's the safest thing to do..."
Nigrum draws his longbow, easily three times as big as anyone else in his group. Yet oddly not as massive compared to the abnormally tall tien native. He drew an arrow, notching it on the tight string. Bring it back with a slight creak.
"I see no reason not to keep a distance if it is dangerous to get near it."
The creature had no blade and a beast knew nothing of honor. He saw no point in giving it such.
"Please allow me to take the first shot; I should be able to take it by surprise and strike a fragile spot or two," Mihara whispers.
It seems to be aware of you, but is apparently happy to wait for you to make the first move.
Mihara took another quick peek at the creature's location and stature, averting her direct sight.
"I stand corrected. It is expecting us, I am sure of it."
Nigrum studied the creature as he kept his shot ready to fire.
"I see no reason why we do not all prepare to fire then loose a volley together. Regardless if the beast can understand the danger it will suffer greatly from a combined attack. If it flees we give chase until it is dead or breaks away from us. If it charges then we make it pay for each step taken. That is the short of it to me."
"So, we go? I'm not sure if I can help if I can't get close, but hopefully you'll pincushion it before it reaches us."
The huge creature shifted it's weight as it watched you all...and them seemed to merge into the background, it's skin tone altering to match the ruined stonework. Even knowing where it and what it's doing it's all but impossible to see the creature as it moves to the side.
"Oh no you don't!" Azri said, spinning around and throwing a bolt of magic through the air and towards the creature, intending to make it much more vulnerable to the rest of the group. It was the best she could do for now, and she wanted to make it stumble before it could cause any more trouble for them.
"Blast! I lost it!" Mihara says. However, seeing Azri's bolt fly out, Mihara has an idea.
"Ghostflames of Daikitsu, reveal the enemy to us!"
Nigrum scans the creature as it attempts to hide from him. The beast can not avoid his eyes and he fires at the creature.
"It's where my arrow is."
Stunned by the idea that it's dinner would attempt to fight back, the lizard was caught off guard as the attacks soared in against it. As it approached, it became easier to spot, aided by Azri and Nigrum's attack.
Of course, being suddenly engulfed in Faerie Fire didn't help it's confusion either.
Hissing in confusion and outrage the flickering form of the monsters span in circles, hissing in fear and terror as it found all four pairs of eyes suddenly useless.
Aibek blinked in surprise as the creature shifted into camouflage and struggled to spot at first.
Holding the shadowblade light repeating crossbow up, Aibek shifted towards a shadowed space near the ruins, stepping into it. It wasn't the smooth camoflage that the basilisk had, but it would hopefully hold up better in preventing the witchwolf from being attack or blinded.
As the others spotted and attacked, the creature came clearly into view, and Aibek quickly fired a shadowblade bolt towards it before the witchwolf could lose it again...
Aibek watched the creature, still wary though mixed feelings flicked across the witchwolf's small dark eyes...
"Finally!" Selena charges the blind basilisk with an owl, grinning widely. Once she's close to the creature, Selena pokes the beast in one of its blind eyes with the Dan-Bong, before climbing on top of it's neck and forcing it to the ground.
The arrows to it's hide driving it into a further frenzy, the massive lizard bucked and thrashed wildly, managing to dislodge Selena's usually unbreakable hold.
With a snarl the monster lurched away, moving surprisingly well for a creature that couldn't currently see, and began to attempt to flee.
"Don't you dare!"
Mihara draws her short swords and gives chase, hoping to cut the creature off.
Azri darted forward, closing the distance with the creature and focusing her eye on the blinded beast. "Stop moving around and let yourself get hit!" she cried, sending out a hex intended to trip up the thing's ability to avoid attacks.
" Were are you going? Come on, come back!" Selena giggles at the lizard, after a moment of disappointment at the creature getting away.
Helping herself with her wings, the half-succubus runs after the creature, effortlessly landing on his back and forcing its body to the ground once more.
Aibek darted though the shadows as the lizard slipped away. For a moment, the witchwolf was moving towards Selena, concerned, but then changed to chasing after the creature upon hearing her giggling and seeing her easily race after it. Moving into position, Aibek readies another shadowblade bolt, waiting a moment to see if it could miraculously slip out of a grapple again or for a clear shot before firing...