After settling a moment from the adrenaline of expecting a fight you take a look around. This is very obviously an abandoned tavern. Something aweful must have happened as taverns in this district, even of the lowest quality, generally don't have problems staying open. There are tables, chairs and other debris stren about. There is a second door to the north leading into another room, this is where the light is coming from.
Valai mutters a quick cantrip before following as quietly as she can.
Not having any magic of his own Dimral just stands on the ready for any unwanted surprises.
Judah just shook his head and followed along, staying close to Dimral. If Germain wanted to go poking around, that was fine with him.
Better him out front than me. he thought to himself.
Judah had never really liked closed doors. Locked things. He had always wanted to know what was behind every lock. Since the indecent with the puzzle that had increased a hundred fold.
Impulsively, he opened the door next to him and let it slowly swing wide.
As the group advances toward the room with the lights you start to hear a noise but not before you see a rush of various colors spray out into the room. At the same time a man appears, seemingly out of no where behind the group.
Rommin moves in and slices into the main who squeels in pain. Severly wounded he pulls out a potion from his belt and attempts to drink it.
Rommin tries taking the opportunity to whack the man as he pulls out the potion to drink it but narrowly misses. Instead he gulps down the potion and his wounds begin to heal almost to where they are barely noticeable.
The blast of lights seems to pick Valai up, whirl her around and slam her into the floor, all in one go. The Elf lies very still...
Oooooh....
Dimral's gigantic frame falls down on the floor, stunned
Rommin attempts to attack the man but has little luck as he easily avoids the swing. While the others are passed out, Germain walks up attempting to subdue the man, using the braod side of his greatsword to smack him.
He is also unable to score a blow as the man avoids the attack.
Judah hits the ground with a thud.
Rommin swings at the man once again, this time connecting, the blade slices between his left shoulder blade dropping him to the floor unmoving.
Bright mind-breaking colors gave way to thick darkness where the afterburn of the bright light left Judah's pupils feeling like the world was a tapestry with a hole burned out of the center.
Judah dreamed. It happened every time he slept these days, no matter how short the sleep. His dreams took over as soon as his mind caved to unconsciousness. It tapped into the blackness and showed him things he wished he could forget.
Dreams used to be so merciful. All trace of them gone once with waking. Now they followed him. The dark was the gate. Shadows were where his nightmares hid and sometimes slipped through into reality.
As he regained consciousness, he went from twitching to frenzied panic, swinging his arms back and forth blindly clutching his knife.
The pyramid shaped reliquary that hung from the chain on his waist twisted once on its own, the top half making a quarter turn with a click. Faint writing glowed on it's surface.
"Back!"
The dagger tore a rip in reality above his prone form. Through the tear was cold darkness and distant winking stars.
Dimral shakes his head as he regains consciouness:"Oooh... well... that certainly packed a punch! But you dealt with the fool anyway I see. Well done... although dead men answer no questions... Anyway maybe we can learn something from his corpse... not ideal but worth a try"
Slowly, Valai starts to lever herself back to her feet. Her expression is foul.
"Stand aside," she growls, "I want to stab the..."
The Elfmaid ends her angry tirade as her eyes snap to what is happening with Judah.
"What are you doing, you fool?!" Valai shouts as she swipes at Judah's dagger with her rapier. Even if she currently does not understand what kind of spell the furtive human is casting, she does not like the look of it one bit.
The dagger went sliding across the floor and the rift in space snapped shut like a mouth. Judah, still blinded by the effects of the spell that had knocked him out scooted backwards on his butt.
"What's going on? I can't see!"
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Ducking back just in time, then jumping off of Judah, "Hey! Watch where you swing that thing woman. It's no toy."
Standing up and dusting himself off, then extending a hand towards Judah, "So, I guess we are in luck. This here. . ." indicating the mage that attacked us, "is, or was Plutivarch Dremis. A criminal, wanted for some minor crimes. As I said, a waste, but there was a price on his head, and Kasadei might be particularly interested. It seems that Dremis had a knack for making the city guard look,. . .foolish."
Dimral grumbles:"Well his days as a criminal are over. Unfortunately dead men answer no questions... unless you ahppen to know someone who can speak with the dead... I suggest we get back to the Arvensoar and ask if they can provide that service for us"
Judah starts to open his mouth, but then shakes his head. "Ah, no."
What the hell is wrong with me? he thought to himself standing up and rubbing his eyes.
"Good idea. Before we settle in to wait, lets make sure there aren't any other surprises waiting for us here."
You check the rest of the building and find nothing of interst. Eventually the magical lights fade. Leaving you in darkness. As far as you can tell while looking about there are no signs of anyone else having been here except Plutivarch.
You take shifts watching the place while others get some rest. No one comes in the night and it is an uneventuful evening, aside from the earlier affairs.
"And third, we do not wish to be seen dragging a corpse through the streets," Valai says with a disdainful sniff for the dead man. "Even if the guard does not arrest us, we would be creating quite the wrong image.
All that said... Does the man carry a spellbook or other artefacts of arcane magic upon his body? I will at least grant him that he was an effective spellcaster. It would be a shame to let the fruits of his skills go to waste."
Checking the body you find three potions, a high quality dagger dagger, six darts, a pouch with 35 gp and an amethyst worth.
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"Normally, I might agree, but I think in this case we do. Let the people see that one of the threats they worry about has been put down for good. He is a wanted man, so people should know his face. But if you would like to stay here and watch him, Ill go and find her and bring the guards back."
Cocking an eye, "Do we have reason to think these slavers, if they even exist, are within the city's guard?
Valai very carefully uses the tip of her dagger to extract fine droplets of the potions, sniffs them, tastes them if they seem innocuous and gently, carefully swirls the bottles' contents, analyzing them to the best of her ability.
She follows this by muttering a quick cantrip over the other items.