Nimt climbs the ladder to stand next to both Mach and Petronicus, and takes a tentative swing with her cestus at the blood-sucking monstrosity. She misses spectacularly, but hopes to draw its attention long enough for the tiefling to make something happen. ]
Left with few other options, Um'Bala targets the creature with a minor electrical attack, but the spell bounces harmlessly off the wall.
The creature meanwhile attempts to dig its hook-like claws deeper into Mach's flesh, but loses its grip of the tiefling's skin, slick from sewer muck.
PARTY IS UP!
With Mach freed, Petronicus takes a stab at the creature with his new dagger, but it is too maddeningly small.
Mach eyes the creature with disgust as it slides off his muddy skin. Taking advantage of Nimt's flanking, his knife lashes out...
Mach stabs his dagger deep into the creature's abdomen, spilling its guts all aver the poorly constructed landing. Breathing a deep sigh of relief ...
Mach glares at the dead creature before kicking its corpse into the muck below.
"Stupid bat-thing..." He grumbles before turning back to Nimt and Petronicus. "Thanks for the help."
He steps past them, moving towards the burlap sacks in Natalya's lair with the intent of searching them. He briefly sways unsteadily as he moves.
"Uh... guys, I don't feel so good. What the hell was that thing, anyway?"
"Uh... guys, I don't feel so good. What the hell was that thing, anyway?"
Among Natalya's belongings is her personal equipment (a climber's kit and a second-story harness*), along with the meager earnings of her new "gang": well-gnawed rat bones, a couple of old wine mugs, a brass comb that could probably be sold for 2 gp, assorted buttons and semi precious stones worth 30 gp, a faded handbill declaring its possessor the rightful owner of the Grand Mastaba in Korvosa, along with some loose coins (45 gp, 86 sp, 192 cp).
"Sorry about the stirges. One of the goblins loved those things like children, but I couldn't ever stand them," comments Natalya from below. "Now can we go? My arms are starting to cramp in these ropes."
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"I'm pretty sure that was a stirge, Mach," Um'bala says, extending a hand to Mach help him back to ground. "Just think of the largest mosquito you've ever seen, and then stop, because you just fought it. Which reminds me, we should probably get you looked over - stirge proboscises are usually filthy. We don't want you getting super-malaria."
He gives Natalya's remaining loot a once-over with his arcane sight before turning his attention to her. "You know, our orders are return you to Venture-Captain Heidmarch alive. They said nothing about your comfort. Besides, you were conspiring with goblins to do...well, something. What exactly was your plan, Natalya?"
He gives Natalya's remaining loot a once-over with his arcane sight before turning his attention to her. "You know, our orders are return you to Venture-Captain Heidmarch alive. They said nothing about your comfort. Besides, you were conspiring with goblins to do...well, something. What exactly was your plan, Natalya?"
Natalya gives the wizard her most charming smile: "Nothing but good old-fashioned fortune and glory. But now that I look back at it, I think that perhaps I over-estimated my own leadership abilities. In fact, I'm not sure what got into me."
Mach tosses down the valuables Natalya had in her lair and lets Um'bala help him down. At the mention of the possibility of catching something from the monster's (it's a stirge? That's what those things are called?) proboscis, he shudders.
"Eugh... yep. Definitely need a bath. Or two. Or... hells, I think I'll just take the day off tomorrow."
He moves to the exit of the room. "Well, shall we get going then?"
Quintus spends a few moments casting prestidigitation on himself multiple times to clean himself off.
"I'm ready now, so let's go."
Petronicus unceremoniously grabs Natalya and slings her over his shoulder like a bag of flour. "Careful there, bucko," she hisses under her breath as the group makes his way of the the dilapidated building.
As you step out of the door into the darkened street (it late evening, around 8 PM), you hear a female voice call out from down the street. "Halt! Hands where we can see them. We've got a half-dozen crossbows pointed at you. Hand over the shard and Natalya, and you can be on your way." The voice is coming from somewhere off in the darkness, but ...
Natatalya breathes in sharply as she hears the woman's voice and whispers: "That's Terisha. If you had me over I'm as good as dead." After a few moments she adds, "Untie me, and I'll help you take care of this lot."
Quintus holds his hands up.
"Hey, can't we talk about this? There's obviously no way we can comply with all of that request especially since we need Natalya. How about you just come on out and we can talk about this."
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"Hold onto her, Petronicus," the wizard whispers. "They want her alive, so we've got the bargaining chip." He approaches Quintus, leaning heavily on his staff. He addresses the darkness where the woman's voice came.
"Terisha, is it? I assume that means you're one of the Tower Girls. Good, that means you've got masters to answer to as well. Maybe we can come to some sort of arrangement that involves us both going home with something for our leadership. Come on out, and let's talk this through."
Mach sighs. "And we know you don't have a half-dozen crossbows on us--you've only got half that. I don't think either of us wants any more bloodshed today."
The blond woman identified by Natalya as Terisha shifts uncomfortably as she realizes she and the others can be seen. "Weapons down, gents" she calls out to the thugs, who respond by lowering (but not holstering) their crossbows; she does the same, and moves farther behind the corner of a building to increase her cover.
"We're listening. What kind of arrangement are you proposing? You know what we want, what do you want from us?"
In desperation, Natalya blurts out in a barely muffled whisper: "This woman wants me dead. If you're gonna hand me over, have the decency of please slitting my throat first. At least I won't have to worry about being tortured then."
"What we want is just a little time. We need to know why Natalya betrayed us. Just wait a little bit longer and then we won't have to have any needless bloodshed."
"And... I'm kinda curious, to be honest--may I ask what's so special about the shard you're looking for, anyway?" Mach quirks an eyebrow in confusion.
Terisha responds to your inquiries. "Why Natalya betrayed you? She betrayed us as well. Seems that betrayal is in her blood, which is not surprising considering her background. And the shard is important because it is quite magically potent, and therefore undoubtedly valuable. I'm sure your wizard has already scanned it and detected its considerable magical aura, and it is ours because we found it."
"That's a lie!" shouts Natalya, "You know that I found it! Me alone!"
Terisha quickly responds, "That may be the case, but you found it in our territory while you were a member of our gang; all loot gathered must be shared with the sisterhood, you know the rules. Now hand the shard and the turncoat over. I'm getting tired of this discussion."
Quintus shrugs, and whispers to his allies.
"Mach go into the darkness and pick them off, and Nimt help him. Krupt you and me and Um'Bala will guard Natalya back in the building so they can only come at us one at a time, or else get stabbed in the darkness."
Quintus then drops into a defensive stance.
"So it has come to violence after all. A shame really."
INITIATIVE
Sensing that a fight is about to break out, Terisha brings up her hand crossbow and fires a small quarrel at Natalya on Petronicus' back, but misses.
"See!" screams Natalya, "she's trying to kill me! Untie me and I'll help!"
Petronicus with Natalya on his back ducks back into the hideout and drops her unceremoniously on the flood, slashing the rops confining her with his polearm. ()
Mach snorts and eyes the thug in the alley near him. His dagger glints briefly in Um'bala's light before he takes off running toward the man.
He throws his knife at him, hoping he'll catch it with his face...
That was one of the perks of having darkvision--he could see in the dark, but as far as he knew, the thugs after them didn't have that advantage.
Mach dodges around the dilapidated buildings of the Underbridge neighborhood toward the nearest thug, throwing a dagger at him, and even though he aims for the face, his throw is slightly off the mark and strikes the flat-footed man's heavy chainmail armor and is easily deflected.
Quintus retreats into the building, and pulls out his club.
"Kill Natalya first! She must not survive!" yells Terisha as the goons closest to the front door drop their crossbows and advance on the hovel, drawing their morningstars. The one that Mach attacked does the same, but looks around in the darkness for the tiefling. As he steps closer to the light, he sees the outline of Mach in the shadows. "There you are!" he hisses. "Now stand still so I can kill you!" ( ) In the darkness, his swing goes quite wide, barely necessitating a sidestep from the tiefling.
In the building Natalya stands up and quickly looks out of the building, moving her hands in arcane formations. Immediately, the area around the two thugs nearest Um'Bala becomes slick. ( , ) Despite the spell, the thugs remain on their feet.
Nimt's attack goes a bit wide as she ducks around the corner.
Freed of her restraints, Natalya stands up and briefly touches Petronicus next to her. He is immediately filled with a sense of confidence about his future actions. She then steps back into the corner of the room. "Give 'em hell, Cheliax." she whispers at him.
Outside, Um'Bala concentrates for a split second as his light spell winks out. Now in total darkness under the overhang of the massive Irespan bridge hundreds of feet above you, the Garundi man quickly walks back into the building to get out of the way of the thugs.
Now in total darkness, the Tower Girl boss Terisha curses loudly in Varisian as she drops her hand crossbow and moves forward, drawing a short sword with one hand and a whip with the other. Even though she can barely see her hands in front of her face, she moves forward with great agility, abruptly stopping as she sees the outline of Nimt's body as she passes right by her. "Thought you'd get away, eh?" she hisses as she cuts a minor slice in the aasimar's arm.
Even though he can barely see a thing, Petronicus remembers the thug's general position. He creeps forward toward the building's entrance and tries to trip the closest, but is thwarted by the darkness.
A quick glance to the side shows that Nimt isn't doing well against Tenisha. Mach takes a quick step, drawing another dagger as he goes.
"Enough of this." He growls as his knife lashes out at the thug in the darkness...
Mach catches the thug unawares and takes a deep slice out of his left leg. The man clutches it in pain as blood begins to well under his armor.
Quintus moves over to guard Natalya.
The thug facing Mach throws down his morningstar and holds up his hands, quickly backing away from the tiefling. "The Girls are not paying me enough to be knifed in the dark. Go in peace, friend," he mumbles, quickly turning tail and running down the matt-black streets of Underbridge.
The two other thugs haven't lost their courage and advance on the barely-seen Petronicus in the doorway. The first one can't see well enough to connect, but the second thug scores a solid hit on Krupt's midsection, knocking the wind out of him.
Natalya speaks more words of arcane power, and the area in front of the hovel becomes slick with grease. This time, the thugs aren't as lucky, and both fall hard down on the packed dirt street. ,
Nimt moves back into the shadows of the building, hoping to use the darkness to her advantage and bring town the infuriated Tower Girl. She brings her bow up, and the arrow finds its mark and digs deep into her arm, causing Terisha to shriek in pain.
Even though he can barely see the outline of the standing thug, Um'Bala fires off one of his telekinetic fists at him, striking him full in the face.
Not wishing to be turned into a pincushion by a foe she cannot see, Terisha decides to follow the sound of combat around the building. She winces as she breaks the shaft of the arrow still sticking into her arm. When she reaches the door of the hovel, she slashes at Petronicus, but misjudges the distance, and nearly gets her blade stuck in the door lintel.
Now with foes so close, and not wanting to give up his position in the door, Petronicus drops his polearm, and quickly pulls out a massive, wicked-looking flail from his belt.
Mach lets the injured thug run away. "Pfft. Get the hell outta my face."
Tenisha's shriek of pain draws his attention and he turns, spying the arrow sticking out of her arm. He also sees that Nimt is bleeding.
Oh, you're going to regret that. I promise.
He twirls his knife and moves to engage her, slipping behind her...
...and stabs her.
"Did you forget about me, darling?"
Mach's knife cuts a deep slash across Terisha's back, as the woman cries out in pain again.
Quintus attempts to aid another to give Petronicus a +2 to AC.
But he fails to distract the thug at all.
The two remaining thugs stand up and try to once again bring down the Chelaxian blocking their way to Natalya. Although they seem to be well-versed with clubbing people in the dark with heavy weapons, neither can see enough to connect with anything.
Having been stripped of her weapons, Natalya has to rely on her spellcasting abilities, and those have mostly been spent. She conjures up a minor acidic bolt, and fires it at the nearest thug, but easily misses him in the dark.
Realizing that Terisha can't effectively target her in the dark, Nimt plucks up her courage and moves around the building to get a clear shot at the Tower Girl. The arrow hits the woman in the middle of her back, tearing her chain shirt and eliciting a muffled, painful sob. It looks as if she can't take much more of this.
Terisha, barely able to stay on her feet and now with two arrows sticking out of her, coughs up blood onto the street and calls out: "Nevermind, the girl isn't worth it, boys. Save yourself!" Looking around her, she takes off down the darkened street, but does not see the effects of Natalya's grease spell still in place in front of her former hideout. She nearly stumbles on the slippery surface, but is then able to regain her feet and run off farther down the alley.
Faced with their leader (and employer) turning tail and running does not fill the thugs with confidence, and Nimt and Mach can see that they are about to flee as well.
Still in the dark and unaware of the spell Um'Bala is casting, Petronicus continues trying to take down the thug in front of him. Unlike their previous exchange, the Chelaxian's spiked flail finds its mark and hits him in the side.
She's running. She's running. Don't let her get away!
Mach glances back at the building where the rest of the team is holed up. "Let the hired muscle go. She's MINE." He says, twirling his knife and taking off after her.
He spins his knife as he moves, catching up to her and lashing out once more...
Mach charges up from behind and stabs Terisha in the back between her third and fourth rib. She spits out more blood, then crashes to the ground without uttering another word.
Quintus will not pursue the thugs.