Jaed immediately stands up, runs towards the door and opens it.
"What's going on? Lily, are you okay?"
He then tries to figure out what's going on and identify possible threats.
"They - they tried to grab me!" says Lily, clearly panicked and trying to get out of reach.
Marzela rushes to the door and opens it, her ranged weapon at the ready. Jaed does likewise, looking out. There looks to be a villager guard person next to Lily, and all the shouting seems to have gathered the attention of other villagers, who are all quickly approaching.
Carrakas takes advantage of the open door to blade rush out and smack the man assaulting Lily, immediately knocking him out.
The question as to friend or foe is quickly answered as the villagers rushing in dogpile on Lily and Carrakas.
"What the..." Jaed jumps from the hut and attacks the closest villager.
Marzela yells to Bala that the villagers are enemies, hoping that he can hear her, and that he and the elephants are okay. She moves quickly down the ladder
and then shoots the villager between herself and Lily.
Jaed flips down from the hut, bringing his blade down on his foe as he descends, killing him. Marzela takes a more careful way down before aiming at her own target. The man grunts in pain as it hits, but remains standing.
Lily struggles helplessly.
Not bothering to break the grapple, Carrakas lashes out at two more villagers, killing them both. Meanwhile Finnrick carefully climbs down the ladder while pulling out his sling. Millsy leaps down from the hut and attempt to bite another villager. Her teeth sink in deeply, managing to knock the man down.
The tripped villager attempts to stand but is immediately killed by Carrakas in his attempt.
The villagers near Lily attempt to pin her, those near Carrakas attempting likewise.
Meanwhile more villagers approach Jaed and Marzela, attempting to grapple them.
Marzela drops her bow, and tries to wriggle out of the grapple.
Failing.
"Hey, no touching!" Jaed tries to escape from the grapple.
If Marzela can detect that Lily is on the edge of death in any way, then
Marzela channels, excluding the people actually doing the grappling.
If Lily looks okay, or there is no way for Marzela to know, then
Marzela swings awkwardly at the person grappling her.
... Unfortunately, she can't get a good position to swing with the grapple, and just barely escapes burning herself with Sarenrae's fire.
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Carrakas grows angry at the villager trying to hold him down. "Geddoff me!" He wrenches his body side to side, and throws the villager off him.
Unwilling to leave Lily, though, he does not move away. He instead growls menacingly at the villagers and sets himself for other attempts.
Carrakas manages to break free as Jaed moves around into a better position. Lily struggles helplessly as she's pinned as Marzela swings and misses with her blade.
Millsy moves up to one of the villagers Jaed ran past and bites and claws at the man, however only the first claw hits.
Finnrick begins casting Summon Nature's Ally 4.
Marzela continues to slash at her assailants even as they manage to pin her beneath them. To her south, two more villagers manage to tie Lily up while the third waits and begins dragging the now helpless woman away. Even as Carrakas breaks free, the villagers continue to pile on him and manage to succeed in grappling him once again. Meanwhile the lone wounded villager next to Millsy is too cowed by her claws raking him to get a proper hold on the cat.
Marzela successfully escapes the pin.
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"Lily!" Looking around for options the rogue decides to try to help Carrakas break free by killing the villager grappling him.
"Big guy, go get Lily," Jaed says as he attacks the villager grappling Carrakas.
Carrakas gives a curt nod to Jaed, and then rushes forward through the crowd of villagers to bring his hammer down on the one dragging Lily.
As Jaed nimbly dodges around more villagers and slays the man grappling Carrakas, the tiefling rushes forward, similarly slaying the man dragging Lily along. Finnrick finishes casting his summoning spell and a giant ape suddenly appears and begins swinging around with its mighty fists and fangs, felling another villager.
Millsy continues to harass the man next to her, finally killing him and moving on to a new target.
Finnrick moves into a better position, aiming his sling at the villager Marzela hit earlier with her bow, managing to take him down as well.
Escaping, Marzela steps southeast to avoid being ganged up on again, and then moves straight east, trying to get room to shoot, but then realizes that she dropped her bow as she was struggling to get away. She grips her scimitar more tightly, and says a quick prayer to Sarenrae that her friends will be okay.
As Marzela moves out of the reach of the two villagers, they both take the opportunity to lash out at her.
The few remaining villagers then head away from the group to the north and you hear a scream from that direction. One of the villagers has pulled a knife and is holding it to Shreya's neck as his companions hold her in place. He yells out in Vudrani that Marzela translates.
"Surrender infidels or I will kill the woman!"
Lily starts struggling to get out of the ropes.
Marzela doesn't like the idea of Shreya being killed, but it could also be another trick. Obviously Shreya had been complicit in the attack in some way, even if it were just by withholding information.
She walks over and picks up her bow, planning to shoot the villagers and save Shreya if they hung around, but she wasn't about to surrender.
Carrakas frowns, and then briefly smiles. He utters a command word, causing his armor to fold back into it's brooch, and he turns off his shield. Unarmored, he walks around toward the villagers, hands held out wide. He calls out to Marzela "Hold position and translate for me. Tell them there is no need to be hasty about this, that we can work this out calmly. Keep your bow in hand, though."
Jaed sees Lily struggling with the ropes so he moves next to her and cuts them with his sword.
"Lily, what happened before the fight? Are these people from the village? If they are, this is most probably a trap."
"I'm not sure," says Lily. "Thanks Jaed... they tried to get me to come with them by gesturing, since I don't really understand the language, and then they suddenly grabbed me and tried to drag me off when I went to wake someone else up!"
As soon as Carrakas takes one step forward, the man yells again. "Come any closer and she dies, demon!"
Marzela translates for Carrakas, and adds
You know he is not a demon. He came here in my company yesterday. Let the woman go. We won't harm you.
Lily peels away the last of the ropes with a nod to Jaed and slowly, cautiously, gets to her feet.
Leaning next to Jaed, she says quietly, "I recognize a couple of them from around the village when we first arrived. Not all, though."
The man with the knife seems to completely ignore Marzela and instead gives a wicked grin to Carrakas. "You think I am dumb. But I am not." He then slashes the blade across Shreya's throat. She gives a gurgling gasp and falls to the ground, blood pumping out in great gouts. He holds out his hands wide and invitingly even as his companions take off at a run in various north and northeasterly directions.
As Marzela sees Shreya's throat cut, she casts Stabilize, hoping to save her.
Kill him, Carrakas.
Marzela's voice shakes as she speaks to Carrakas, completely baffled about what is going on.
Shreya must have known what would happen, but they tried to kill her for *helping* them?
Although what she says sounds like a command on the surface, Carrakas knows her well enough to hear the pleading in her voice, to right the wrong that she cannot right, and to offer justice to this woman.
She walks forward, staying out of reach of the man, to see if her spell has left the woman alive or not. She hopes that they can talk to Shreya and maybe figure out the insanity all around them.
Carrakas shakes his head slightly, disappointed his ploy didn't work out, but not overly concerned. He did take the offered opening, though; pausing only to reactivate his force shield, he moves forward a few steps and then rushes across the remaining open distance to the man.
Carrakas rushes forward, slamming his hammer into the man. The villager spits out blood, still smiling. There's a fanatical gleam in his eyes as he says, "You will never defeat the masters." He then falls over, dead.
Marzela rushes towards Shreya, praying that the woman is still alive. She places her hands over the grisly wound, trying to both staunch the blood and find a pulse. After what seems like forever, she finds it. The woman's pulse is faint, but there.
In the distance, the dark shapes of the last few attackers continue to flee off into the night.
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"Did I say before that I hate crazy cultists? If this poor woman survives, she may be able to give us some valuable information."
We should probably search the huts and make sure no one else is waiting to kill us... and check on Bala and the elephants.
Marzela motions Carrakas over and anyone else who looks wounded, and channels a couple of times, making sure everyone is healed, including Shreya.
"Thank you SO MUCH for saving me," says Lily. "I'm sorry about that. I feel like I keep causing more problems than I solve." She ducks her head and blushes slightly.
Thank *you* for waking us up. I am sure they would have gotten us all if you hadn't screamed.
Marzela vastly overdoes the healing given that the only people who were injured were Shreya and some non-lethal damage on herself. The woman comes too and gurgles in a panic. It appears the knife cut her vocal cords, which were not restored in the process of the healing magic.