Nonplussed by his utter lack of ranged utility, Shekebbet swears crudely in Draconic. The stunning energies wash over him, his slender form twisting to avoid their force as he mutters an invocation and attempts to scale the fence with unnatural skill and swiftness.
In common, he says angrily, "Fools like you should not play at magic."
More concerned with Keiva than the thug, Tzu just manages to avoid the blast.
Pendrick wanders in place, staggered from the explosion. After taking inventory of his body parts he nods wide-eyed and in a squeaky voice exclaims:
"yeah...shouldn't. play. with. urrgh. magic."
The thug heads the back of the alley, obviously with the intent of scaling the fence.
Her Litorian sense of justice rising, a hideous growl emerges from Tzu before she's even aware of it.
"Little man, drop your weapons and stand still. Justice cooommmmeeees"
The last word emerges as a kind of primal howl, sending cold shivers down her own spine.
Goodness! That was ... odd ...
The man turns with fear in his eyes and drops his weapon, frozen to the spot.
Tzu mentally preens herself at the happy results of her primal growling.
Shekebbet reaches into his pouch and produces a bulbous flask containing a bright orange liquid, which he then flings at the thug. Upon impact it bursts into flames.
Pendrick looks around. Hey, bats! Wait, focus...focus
"I'll try to cut this thug off" mutters Pendrick; slipping away from the group. "Fancy a jog through the city Keiva - might help clear up yer cough?"
yay! racing around this neighborhood at night with a giant sword, what could go wrong? Huh, now MY nose is running too
"What-?" Keiva looks surprised as Pendrick runs off. Rather than abandon him to his fate, however, she follows him. "I'll watch out for him!" she calls out to Tzu as she squirms out of the pile-up at the gate and runs after the impetuous warmain.
"What!"
Tzu risks taking her eyes off the terrified thug for a fleeting second,
"Don't you dare! I'll growl at you!"
Round 2
Shekebbet
Pendrick
Keiva
Thug
Tzu
Shekebbet's throw hits the man dead on and he recoils in pain. Keiva and Pendrick run down the street towards the corner of the building. The thug tries to climb the fence but in his flustered state, can't get a grip.
Furious that Keiva has managed to slip away from her, Tzu flings herself over the gate, allowing her frustrations to vent themselves in violent physical activity and a lot of growling.
"Move at your peril, little man."
Tzuchaleny's great speed allows her to climb over and down extremely quickly and she stands on the same side as the thug, with an unconscious man lying between them.
Round 3
Shekebbet to go
Pendrick
Keiva
Thug
Tzu
The oily concoction smolders for a moment longer, and then dies out. Shekebbet sees that the enraged lioness has cleared the fence without any supernatural assistance and is somewhat startled at her fierce tone. He moves out of her way and kneels to check on the condition of the wounded man.
4 damage if the Alchemist's Fire gets a second round of damage.
'You're coming! Fantastic! You can protect me - us - from that villain's awesome magic powers.'
Pendrick races through the night, enjoying the rush as he pushes his body to its limit. He has no thought for stealth...if there is an ambush waiting, they better know what they're doing!
Shekebbet's oil continues to burn and the man bats at it in anger. Checking the victim of the beating, the mojh finds that the man is unconscious but otherwise fine bar some nasty bruising.
Keiva and Pendrick run down the southern wall of the building and then round to the left, and they can see the fence on the other side!
The thug continues to try to climb the fence with no success, and looks more worried now.
Easing past the fallen man and Shekhebbet, Tzu launches herself at the thug.
"I told you. Stay put. Or this will get a lot worse..."
More growling and she attacks, aiming to disarm and immobilise rather than kill.
Tzu strides towards the man and with a well-place punch, knocks him cold.
Pausing to carefully thump the thug's head on the wall once more for good measure, Tzu returns to the gate and opens it, pounding after Keiva and Pendrick.
"He's out cold. Have either of you got any rope?"
Then she hurries back to the prisoner, ready to growl at him when he regains consciousness.
"Looks like we're too late," Keiv tells Pendrick. "The mighty lion beat us to the punch." The run didn't seem to do her any good, and she stands for a few moments wheezing, trying to ctach her breath.
When Tzu comes up, Keiva tries to breathe normally. She digs around in her pouches until she comes up with a handful of brightly colored string. "I have this, but I don't think it will work for what you want to do," she tells Tzu. "So just what did we stumble into here?"
"It's fine. I'll just put my foot on his face. You have to let me take proper care of you Keiva. Don't run off like that, it scares me."
Nagging and fussing, Tzu escorts her charge back to the alley.
"I don't know what we got ourselves into. Shekkebet was looking at the victim, I got a little carried away with hitting things." She looks a little ashamed.
Pendrick spends a few moments at the end of the alley; standing still and listening to the noises of the night. Wonder where he was going? Seems odd for a well equipped professional to box himself in like this. And no back-up?
Still puzzling, Pendrick sheathes his sword and walks back to the alley.
'No rope here, money's been tight since my change of career - why doesn't Tzu just sit on him, they seem to have developed a special bond'
Pendrick clears his throat: 'If it's really important, I could break his legs? Lemme know, I'll be right here, watching the entrance to our alley'
The victim groggily says to Shekebbet, "Help, thieves... inside..." nodding feebily at the door in the southern wall of the alleyway.
Tzu strides over to the prisoner and looks thoughtfully at him before turning to Pendrick. "Do you think breaking his legs is a good idea? He can still tell us who employed him."
Pendrick flushes.
'I was bluffing Tzu, a fair fight's one thing, but carving a blighter up like a roast...gotta draw the line somewhere, right?'
'Speaking of fair fights...' Pendrick draws his sword with an awkward flourish '...can you give us any more information mister? Like how many thieves, what they are wearing, what they are carrying, what they are here for?'
While talking, Pendrick watches the door, his hands worrying the grip of his sword. First through the door, first through the door!
Shekkebet stands to move up to Pendrick's back, leaving room, if possible, for more physically competent persons to stand at his side.
His voice is dry, but carries a hint of amusement as he quips, "It doesn't matter how many there are, it's not like we're going to back down anyway, Pen..."
"I'm not much good at putting people back together." Tzu sounds a little regretful as she looks at the wounded man.
"Keeping them unconscious, I can do."
"Likewise Tzu. Uh, if there is any healing available I could use some freshening up - maybe your prey has something tasty on him?"
"Oh yes, I think it's time to see what our little friend was up to."
Pendrick nods eagerly at Tzu's words and keeps nodding as the pause grows awkwardly long.
'a'right then!...' he sheathes his sword and gives the goon a thorough and unkind search 'let's see what's here eh?'
Keiva kneels next to the victim to see if she can do a anything to help his wounds, whispering a prayer to Hyathine, goddess of soothing words and tender ministrations. "There, there, you'll be all right," she tells the man distractedly, rummaging around in her pouches for some bandages or poultices. "If only I had a healer's kit," she mutters.
Keiva finds that Hyathine must be listening to someone other than her at this moment in time, as her ministrations do nothing to revive the man, who is out cold, but not bleeding badly.
Pendrick finds the following items on the thug:
longsword; medium shield; poor quality leather armour; dagger.
"Well, he's not getting those back. How's the victim looking?"
Tzu bounces gently, ready to spring towards the door, but reluctant (as ever) to leave Kieva unattended.
After comparing his own armour with that of the thug, Pendrick kindly leaves the thug's clothing alone. However he does remove the thugs weapons and shield - strapping them on as best he can while humming a happy tune.
"Shift a talon, there's a good Tzu. Perfect, never know when a nice shield like this'll come in handy!"
Pendrick readies his borrowed sword and shield and prepares to enter the building.
"Pen, I've told you before. They're not exactly talons. More like very tough nails."
Tzu demonstrates her very tough nails be clutching gently at the thug's thigh with her foot.
Tzu stops clenching her claws and opens the door.
The door opens into darkness. As far as she can tell, the room beyond is a large warehouse.