Stepping around the corner Külə rears back, kicking at the nightmare before gouging it with his still-growing horn.
Variska, Ehren, Xanderghul, and Ayavah are up!!
Seeing all three hags gathered in one spot, Ehren decides that this is an opportunity he cannot afford to pass up. As the glow in his eyes and the shimmer in his wings starts to die down, he is suddenly struck by another tendril of light, filling him with even more of the ley's energy. Flapping his wings and muttering a Druidic incantation, he weaves his mythic power into another spell.
A deluge of water suddenly pours over the hags' heads from out of nowhere, drenching them to the bone before abruptly wrapping around them unnaturally, forming a roiling orb. The current within the orb moves far more violently than usual, making it all the more difficult to escape. With a pointed flap of his wings, he then sends the orb rolling forward, running it right over the last hag.
Variska, Xanderghul, and Ayavah are up!
Variska prepares to join Ary against the "mouse" in front of her. She had certainly never had a fight like this, but in a way, it was exciting just as much as it was scary! With no desire to fight with a broken sword, she drops it on the ground at her feet, then spends a moment wriggling out of her shield. With that completed, she pulls the adamantine hammer off of Ary's back, grinning.
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Without the ability to actually see anything (and thus cast spells on it), Xanderghul calls upon the divine nature within him. He cries out, "By the power of me, I bless you!" and lays a simple blessing on his allies, filling them with bravery and competence.
Ayavah clenches her fist and focuses her magic. "I need something new," she grumbles. "Fighting in this isn't my style." Wild magic flares around her and greyish light flickers around her hands, jumping from her to Val then to Xanderghul and finally to Variska.
The roiling orb of water barrels through the hags, sending them flying each and every way. One hag is rolled over, but manages to squirm free, falling out next to Hinagiku. Another hag, the one that is already wounded, dodges fully out of the way... but into the thick smoke left behind by the cauchemar. She coughs and hacks as the vile smoke fills her lungs. And the final hag is slurped up into the water completely, flailing helplessly as she tries to fight her way free.
Meanwhile, Külə's kicks barely register with the enormous hell-horse, so he ducks beneath the demonic creature and aims his horn straight into its belly. The wounded hag then shifts its focus to Hinagiku, tilting its head back and forth rapidly before swinging at her... Ary, despite the pain of her multiple wounds, lurches forwards to get in-between them with Faith. She pushes the night hag out of the way, deeper into the fog. But with their focus on that one hag, they inadvertently create an opening for the other. Channeling the unholy power of her foreign god, she lashes out, rending her with her claws. Hinagiku tries to dodge out of the way, but her claws rake down her face, ripping her flesh open down her neck and exposing her bony clavicle.
Round 7!
Isilme, Valaria, Ary, and Anevia are up!
As she does her outmost to coordinate herself with Ary to avoid the blows from the hag she had just wounded, Hinagiku feels a strange tug at her psyche. Like something trying to remind her to enter a meditative state. And, without fully realizing it, the monk closes her eyes. For a split second, everything becomes clear, she sees her surrounding perfectly, not through her eyes, but as if she were touching everything, feeling her surroundings. And there it is, claws coming at her back. Turning on her heels, hands and arms describing a wide protective arc, Hinagiku drags strings of the ley to form a shield which just barely saves her from the worst of the blows.
The hag antipaladin cackles evilly, thinking she had Hinagiku down and and at her mercy... but to her surprise, the shield of ley appears in the nick of time, shielding her from her claws.
Isilme, Valaria, Ary, and Anevia are up!
Val takes a step forward to get a better angle on the battlefield and twirls her starknife. Then she sends it flying through the air, hammering into the already wounded hag again and trying to finally put her down.
Isilme, Ary and Anevia are up!
It was a terrifying prospect that things had gone so badly so very, very quickly. Ary was learning rapidly that while allowing people to go off and do their own thing was a perfectly acceptable thing to do, having half the party show up in the middle of that thing and the other half not was a very sizable detriment to people's ability to be not dead. Committing forces to actions at the same time and not spreading her forces thin was something she'd managed to do previously... but now it simply wasn't working at all. They'd been lucky to bring down one target thus far... and things were still dangerous.
Ary lashes out at the nearest horse, seeing how wounded it was from such minor attacks, and then slips behind Hinagiku, keeping the fox-monk and the orb between herself and her foe, holding her breath.
Anevia, meanwhile, slips sideways out of the ethereal. Like peaking through a window. She didn't have to leave the house to see what was on the other side. Or to shoot an arrow out of it! Handy! With a few cautious steps forward, she draws back her invisible bow, nocking nothing, and conjuring up lines of pure ethereal force into a longsword, aiming it at the back of the hag that had nearly crippled Daisy, but the Tricksy Kitsune had that covered! Lucky! Looking over at the tiny owl for a split second, Anevia invisibly grins, and adds a little flair to the longsword - a spiral of energy circles around it as Ehren's ley-laser had done previously.
Isilme is up!
Isilme looks at the pillar before her, so near, yet so far away. Were she able to fly... perhaps. But that would not even begin to solve the problem. She needed to both free the children and mother, and keep them safe from the fire below until she could figure out how to escape.
Meaning and desire...
The words are like the low rumble of a thundercloud in the distance. So faint it was hard to tell if she had heard it at all. Moments pass as she looks at the challenge before her, her heart beating in her chest, pounding as she strains to hear those far off words.
You have given them form before...
She wasn't sure what it meant... If only she could mold stone the same way Ehren could. That would solve the problem so neatly, freeing them and providing a platform simultaneously.
निराकार शिला
Another whisper--richer, like music, or the wind storms in Elysium--fills her ears, and she understands. She knew runes that defined what she had been, but they extended to so much more... to everything, if you understood what you meant to write.
The fire would be hot, but she could manage, there would be time to heal later. She takes off running, briefly blessing herself with her Lady Starsong's speed to get there as quickly as possible.
Isilme sprints across the fiery hellscape, ignoring the sweltering heat. The babaus are now out of sight... but she didn't know how long she had before those winged demons would return. She stops at the ring of fire, gazing up. The children are tied to the pillar at its center, about 20' up, bound in chains, with a large lock fastening it in place. The ring of fire itself is 20' in diameter. They sob and cry out for help in Hallit as they can manage, though angry hot burns already cover their feet and legs.
Valaria's shot flies true, hammering through even the thick hag-flesh across her chest. She stares stupidly down at the wound, before collapsing to the ground in a heap. Her flesh and body slowly dissolves away, leaving just an empty dirty smock, a necklace, and a mask on the ground. Meanwhile, Faith is a red blur on Ary's arm as she thrusts it into the cauchemar's chest with an audible crunch, before taking a step back. Then, an arcing ethereal longsword fires across the battlefield, entrenching itself deep in the hag's back. Startled, she cries out, "いちの！市野を殺した！あなたはその代金を払うでしょう..."
The wounded cauchemar rears up once, then turns and attempts to stamp down on
Külə. But the unicorn rears up himself, shoving the much larger creature away from himself with his neck, then backing away into the entry hallway.
And finally, the hag in the aqueous orb struggles to escape the roiling current to no avail..
Hinagiku is up!
Still in sync with Ary’s actions, Hinagiku ducks down, and while the commander strikes at the creature’s head and neck, she pummels its legs and lower body with quick punches. As she does, she feels her mind once more pull her away, calling for her to listen more closely to the world. Eyes half closed, the monk lets this sense control her and kind her actions. Her strikes, already graceful seem to enter in perfect harmony with the motions of her surroundings. Following subtle ley lines, they strike again and again through the unholy defenses of the cauchemar.
And, as Ary withdraws, Hinagiku straightens up and adopts a defensive position in front of the commander.
Hinagiku deflects the cauchemar's desperate counter attack with her free hand, shoving its hoof away and then smashing it in the face with her other, again and again. She ducks beneath it, striking it in its vulnerable belly. It whinnies and dissolves into smoke and vapor around her.
The other cauchemar steps upwards, not knowing it is stepping directly into Anevia's ethereal, invisible form. It bites and strikes at Hinagiku with its hooves, but its strikes simply bounce off the near-invisible shield of ley wreathing her form.
Variska, Ehren, Kule, Xanderghul, and Ayavah are up!
Ayavah quickly keeps moving through the cloud of magical smoke, her spell allowing her to get closer without harm. She lays a hand on Hinagiku's back and casts another defensive spell, adding a haze around the monk to try to divert a hit or two again her.
With a few hard flaps of his wings, Ehren gains just enough lift to reach the roof of the nearby building, where he finds a place to land. Finally having a good view of the entire battle, he cocks his head to the side, searching for the "cauchemar" Ary spoke of. Spotting the suspicious-looking mice standing out in the open, Ehren focuses his gaze on them intently... only for one of them to balloon into the biggest damn horse he has ever seen.
Unable to widen his eyes any more than they already are in their current state, Ehren settles for a rather human-sounding, "Ah."
He looks down some more, seeing that one of the hags is currently engaged in melee with Hinagiku, with the other still trapped in his orb. He briefly considers trying to entangle her in the aqueous orb as well but realizes that doing so could potentially leave Ary wide open for attack. Clucking his beak, the druid huffs out a cold vapor that quickly condenses into a tightly-packed ball of supernatural snow. Then, with a flap of his wings, he sends it hurtling at the giant horse.
Xanderghul summons ever more of his mythic power, enhancing his time magic with it and then casting it over the whole group - except for Ehren, who is too far. Like in the Citadel, Kule, Hinagiku, Ayavah, Ary, Variska, Valaria, and Xanderghul feel their relationship between themselves and the normal flow of time change dramatically, giving everyone a few extra moments where before they had none.
Seeing Xanderghul cast a spell, Variska waits a few moments for him to finish what he was doing and then steps up into combat against one of the 'mice', knowing that they're dangerous creatures that need to be destroyed.
She raises her borrowed adamantine hammer high and brings it down into the cauchemar's hide, and then sweeps it up into the creature again.
Külə delays briefly after the first of the nightmares falls, noticing that Xanderghul was preparing to cast a spell. As soon as the wizard finishes casting, he presses forward into the room. With the hag trapped between the aqueous orb, Hinagiku and himself, there was little chance of her escaping. Still, he focuses on bringing down the next of the cauchemars.
Ehren's spell effectively smashes into the towering equine's neck, while Variska takes it on with her borrowed lucerne hammer. At first it looks as though her swing will miss, but instead it clips her target with what appears to be a very painful strike! Across from them,
Külə rips and tears into the other cauchemar with his hooves with surprising force.
Xanderghul's blessing of enhanced speed and Ayavah's blessing of comes just in time, for the hag antipaladin reaches deep inside of her own ki and musters up a quick, flurry of attacks. Hinagiku deftly dodges each one, and the hag snarls, confused and flustered at Ayavah's illusion magic shrouding her true location. She slips forwards and she flails clumsily for balance.
Round 9!
Isilme, Valaria, Ary and Anevia are up!
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No time to hesitate, no time to worry, no time to do anything but act. As Isilme approaches the edge, she leaps across the pit of flames in one bound, reaching for as high up the pillar as she can reach. The azata flies through the air, focusing on the air ahead of her, and begins to scribe the rune 'निराकार शिला'. The instant her hand reaches the pillar she channels a portion of her self into the rune, igniting it and causing it to be emblazoned upon the stone.
In that instant the stone begins to shift, the very position where her hand had touched turning into a handhold for her. Small crevasses radiate outward from the hold, working their way around the pillar and striking upwards towards the anchors for the chains. Before she has even come to a stop the outer layers of the pillar peel back and unfold like a flower, creating a platform for the children and their mother. Only moments later, the stone anchoring the chains gives way, flowing back into the pillar itself, causing the family to slide down the pillar into the stone petals Isilme had created.
"Are you alright?" Isilme asks in Hallit, trying to calm them down. There would be time to deal with the chains later. First she just needed to make sure they weren't injured, and calm them down. Then she would figure out where to go to hide from the Babaus. "I promise I will protect you this time," she says placing her hands reassuringly on two of the childrens heads.
And now Anevia was back to the boring part. The waiting part. Huh. It had only taken her around 30 seconds to get bored of this 60 foot space, beyond which the curtains fell. How did these hags even live like this. She could understand the coven thing pretty well, now. If it let them run around being evil monsters that looked like people, then it made sense they'd rather be out there than in here. She could drop the in-here problem, of course. But then she'd be Out-there, and in-here would become the problem, because she could only go in-here if she stole from a hag that was in-here while she was out-there if she was properly prepared. And it'd take so much effort to just switch to out-there instead of in-here. So, instead she focuses on what she'll do with one of the hags from out-there comes in-here. She moves a little bit closer to the hag in the bubble... and waits.
Ary, however, as the smoke begins to clear from the Cauchemar's emissions, is much more animated, despite the fact she is rooted in her spot. Xanderghul's magic would allow her to move into position to enable her enemies, but it would also be just as capable of allowing her to hazardously overextend. And she had to remember that her allies needed her protection. So rather than hastening the death of the hag, she waits, for now. "Val, Daisy, watch for openings in her movements. When she lashes out, she does so with recklace abandon. Take advantage of it. Kule, the Cauchemar nearest to you can't properly maneuver in the space it's in. Take advantage of its flank and use the column to limit its mobility further. Remember what you're fighting for, everyone! Not only the young lovers but all of the people these hags have turned their ill intent upon."
The kellid family slides down the stone petals and to Isilme, still safe and sound above the raging flames. The children grab onto Isilme with trembling hands, crying with relief, when the mother starts laughing hysterically. She kneels on the stone platform, her head tilted back to stare at the swirling Abyssal sky.
"Rydych chi'n rhy hwyr. Allwch chi ddim fy achub! Mae'n rhy hwyr! Ni allaf gael fy achub!" she says between gasps of laughter.
She trembles and shakes, falling to the ground. Her body slowly transforms into that of an enormous, human-sized maggot, with her face still protruding. Her children likewise fall to the ground as their legs give in, their forms transformed into that of Abyssal larvae...
And then... Isilme wakes up! He bolts upright in the bed. A faint sheen of sweat is covering his body from the nightmare... and he can see the form of an enormous, fiery steed blocking the door in front of him.
Isilme and Valaria are up!
The first instant after waking up is not one meant to be taken in the middle of a crisis or urgent situation. For the first few moments Isilme struggles to try to figure out exactly where he is, and why there is a giant horse blocking the door. Clearly he must still be asleep! As the sounds of battle start to fade into hearing though, Ary's call to arms against the hags snaps him out of the confused state.
Rolling off the bed to his feet, he focuses long enough to restore himself to his original elven form, the features of the young Sarenrite fading away to reveal the azata in her starred cloak. Reaching up, she scribes the divine rune for courage in the air before her, causing a soft tinkling of Elysian chimes immediately audible to all her allies and filling them with a sense of hope.
Reaching down to her hip just inside her cloak, her hand falls to rest on Eternal Night. She unclasps it from its sheath and then focuses inward, channeling arcane energy into the blade to empower it. This will be the first time she has had a chance to fight with it in earnest, having only trained on her own and with Valaria on learning to wield it after receiving a dream about reforging the hilt into a new weapon.
Valaria is up!
Val smiles as she hears Isilme's voice call out and the aasimar finally wakes up. "Glad they didn't get you yet." She twirls her knife and sends it flying at the hag in front of Hinagiku. "Watch you head Daisy! This thing is joining her sister!"
A perfectly straight, gore filled slash is the result of Valaria's deadly toss, but the other two strikes fail to even penetrate her rugged, hide-like skin.
Meanwhile, the hag in the orb stops struggling and simply phases out of this reality into another.
The hag seems to simply swim out of the orb and into position amongst the heroes, though she is intangible and impossible for any of them to see or interact with...
"’’Thanks… Mrs. … Ayavah.’’ says Hinagiku between dodging each of the three hag’s swing.
And then, it is the monk’s turn. Thanks to Ayavah and Ary, she can now direct the flow of battle rather than respond to it. So, like a wave that had been building up, Hinagiku comes crashing down upon her foe fist first. Yet, as a glowing hand of blue and white lands on her opponent’s sternum, the wave’s momentum suddenly sublimes itself into a torrent of wind. Guided by Xanderghul’s blessing, made possible by the unnatural speed of a spell, Hinagiku envelops her foe by her presence, striking with fists, knees and foot at the hag’s shoulder, hip, and knee. A fierce blow with her knee smacks into the night hag, but still unused to the raw power given to her strikes by her sensei's gift, she overextends and strains her leg muscles in the process.
Then, one of the cauchemars slams its teeth into Külə, but with the supernatural speed imbued by Xanderghul's spell, he shoves the other horse off of him and into the pillar with a drumming bang. Dust falls from the unfinished supports onto the floor.
Variska, Ehren, Kule, Xanderghul, and Ayavah are up!
Unwilling to allow himself to be bested by such a vile creature, and somewhat pleased to hear that Isilme had awoken finally, the unicorn sets himself to finishing things. Külə smashes into the Cauchemar horn first, taking advantage of its inability to move. He then slashes at it with the horn a second time as he swings around and kicks at the creature with both rear legs simultaneously.
Variska, Ehren, Xanderghul and Ayavah are up!
Xanderghul, using the supernatural speed imbued by his magic, snatches the crossbow from his pack, loads it, points it at one of the nightmare-creatures that they face, and lets loose with a bolt of bane-infused cold iron.
Variska continues to try and smash apart the second remaining cauchemar with her borrowed hammer, straining her body to keep up with the other, much more powerful adventurers that she finds herself fighting alongside. She swings her hammer side to side in an attempt to bludgeon the creature into one of the pillars and then off of its balance.
Using the building he is standing on as a conduit, Ehren siphons the ley's power yet again, enveloping his body with its effulgence. The owl takes flight, a ley tendril clinging to his feet for a second before breaking off and vanishing. Ordinarily, he would not be so quick to use so much of his power, but this was a battle that he wanted to end as soon as possible. Ley energy gathers at the tip of his beak, another devastating blast ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice: but first, he had to be certain that he would not hit accidentally hit someone else.
Ehren flies overhead and waits until he is directly above the hag antipaladin, before pointing his beak downwards and unleashing another sparkling bolt of energy. The stream of ley strikes the temple's ground and then dissipates, its power given back to the earth as quickly as it was borrowed.
Ayavah backs away from the hag as best she can and fires a stream of force missiles at her, attempting to help end her for good.
The hag manages to dodge most of the second blast, but her movements are noticeably slower at this point. There is of course no dodging Ayavah's magic missiles... but they simply fizzle away into nothingness upon impact with her body.
Meanwhile, Variska works on the more wounded of the two cauchemar. Having anticipated the monster's over-extension, she deftly sidesteps, delivering a smooth and fluid strike. The sheer force of the blow sends it barreling back into the pillar, creating an opening for anyone who take advantage of it...
At the same time, Xanderghul fires on the other remaining cauchemar. His incredible speed at handling his crossbow dumbfounds the hell-horse's defenses as his shot lands… at the same time, Külə drives his horn into the creature's collarbone, then kicks it square in chest, feeling the force of his blow reverberate satisfyingly down his rear legs.
The masked woman clutches her side where the ley energy bolt had hit her... takes a step back towards Ayavah and vanishes into thin air.
Both Anevia and Xanderghul can still see the hags, lurking on the ethereal plane... Anevia can even hear them barking to each other in Tien, but she has no idea what they could be saying.
Round 10!
Isilme is up!
Isilme steps forward towards the nightmare, drawing the pitch-black starknife at her side. "Foolish hags on their mares, // our trap came into, unawares. // Now lets see whose the final scare 's," she calls out mocking the hags for their inability to avoid their trap.
The cauchemar comes bearing down hard on Variska, but she steps back in the nick of time, her speed supernaturally augmented by Xanderghul's magic. The hooves come crashing down onto the marble floor just a few inches short of impact. Variska grins, enjoying the fight, and the chance to test her new skills. "Ha! Nice try!"
Valaria, Ary, and Anevia are up!
Enhanced and rebuffed by so many different magics... and seeing that the hags are either on the run, or moving into a position that she can neither see, nor do anything about, Ary focuses on what she can do, moving quickly across the battlefield. With Isilme up and Variska already actively fighting the other Cauchemar, Ary focuses her attentions on helping Kule, leaving a clear open space for Valaria's starknives to rain through. A swift and violent series of blows cascade towards the cauchemar's form, ending in a harsh backhand with Faith. Even as she cleaves into the horse, her motes are fluttering into her wounds, mending them as best they can.
Anevia, meanwhile, immediately fires upon the antipaladin-hag the moment she appears in the ethereal plane, her silver energies spiraling and congealing into a longsword that cleaves the space between them in two. She then maneuvers quickly and near-silently to the other hag's flank, allowing her short sword to fall into her hand, ready to cut into her tendons should she try to flee at any real pace. There would be no escape.
Val scowls as the hags both vanish. "I don't know if they're trying to run or if we're about to get sneak attacked. Either way, I don't like it." She glances at the two remaining 'mice', sizing them up. However, she's only able to see through the illusion to target one of them. She aims at the monstrous horse and hurls her knife again, the cold iron blade whirling through the air.
Valaria's cold iron blade whirls through the air and across the cauchemar's neck, causing a stream of blood to fall to the floor. The horse crashes to the ground in a heap, then vanishes into fire and smoke. Ary moves in to kill the other, but in doing so makes herself vulnerable... the cauchemar swings its mighty head down and sinks its teeth into her shoulder. As if butted by a great ram, Ary recoils awkwardly from the pain of its bite, but forces herself forwards despite it. Her shot whittles down the beast's defenses, slowly opening them to further attack... before finishing it off with a mighty blow with Faith With one last withering strike, the nightmare is whittled down to size and succumbs to its wounds.
The hags are not aware that there is yet another on the material plane with them. The sight of the silvery longsword confounds her so much that she does not even offer a defense against the attack that finishes her off.
Anevia isn't read up enough on hags or their magik to recognize the tell-tale signs one is trying to go invisible... not that it mattered, thanks to her special sight. Thinking herself safe, the hag tries to run past Anevia, only to have the wily rogue bite deep into her tendons with her shortsword, leaving a gushing wound. The hag is reduced to an ungainly hobble as she tries to run for safety on the ethereal plane...
One of the doors in the hallway creaks open. Klarah tiptoes out into the hallway from the bedroom the Sarenrites had been hiding in, Yanai shortly behind her. "Is it over?" asks Klarah, awestruck by the sight in front of her. The temple was simply a mess - several of the pews had been reduced to splintered and burnt timbers by the cauchemere, and scorch marks litter the floor from their hooves... and that's not the mention the blood. Gore covers the ground, and even runs down some of the pillars. But, as is usual for outsiders, there are no bodies. Just random armaments on the ground.
The Heroes Are up!
I... I don't know, but Mrs. Anevia is not back. So, stay on your guard Mrs. Klarah, Yanai-san. Hinagiku calmly says, looking around for sign of the two witches. And as she does, she slowly moves in position next to Ary, ready to protect the wounded commander if the need comes.
While Variska revels in their victory against the Material foes, Xanderghul focuses on the one remaining hag. She would shortly be attacked by Anevia once again, but they needed to make sure to do as much to her as possible so that she could not escape. Even if she did, they had successfully broken a coven!
Xanderghul evokes four force missiles and sends them hurtling through the air towards the ethereal foe. "There's still one there," he says calmly.
Ehren cringes slightly when the wizard's missiles fly right at Hinagiku, but as expected, they unerringly strike something unseen instead. The night hag, obviously. Unable to do anything to her while she is on the Ethereal Plane, the druid simply circles overhead, relying on Anevia and Xanderghul to keep them apprised of her actions. Only they could harm her, in any case.
"I see you all have this well under control," Isilme says as she walks out of the room she'd been in. The two nightmares that had been visible were dead, and there was no sign of the hags at this point except for the gear of what she suspected were two on the floor. "Are any of them left?" she asks, looking around the courtyard.
Taking stock of the situation, she notes quite a few of the group are wounded and focuses addressing that first. At least with outsiders she needn't worry about accidentally reviving them once they had been taken care of, she thinks before healing her companions. The holy symbol on her hand gleams softly for a moment and a torrent of silvery energy suffuses the room, closing everyone's wounds slightly.
Külə for his part chooses to follow Isilme's lead, raising his horn perpendicular to the ground. Moments after Isilme's energy closes some of their wounds, a second wave of energy--this one white-gold in color--washes over the group, further augmenting the healing.
Klarah nods mutely, motioning for Yanai to go back into their dorm.
As soon as Xanderghul pelts the remaining woman with magic missiles, Anevia abruptly reappears in the room, right next to her!
Valaria, Ayavah, Ary, and Anevia are up!
When Ary sees Xanderghul's Magic Missiles fly across the room and into her team's midst, she frowns visibly. The hag was right next to her apparently. So, Hinagiku was right in the right place to guard her. Focusing on the task at hand, Ary ensures that she has all of the tricks she needs ready for when Anevia dumps her out of the ethereal... if she can.
Anevia, meanwhile leans meticulously forward, dropping her sword onto the toe of her boot, and eyeing the prize of the hag - the necklace around her neck, which would spell the Hag's eventual doom lest she could get her hands on another necklace... with a smooth flick of her wrist, and a couple of deft movements that a rogue never truly forgets - like riding a horse - she goes through the arduous-made-rote motions of taking the hag's safety from her. Just after, she kicks the sword back up to her hand, catching it lightly as she can, as she sneaks past the witless victim.
Ayavah and Valaria are up!