There are several moments of silence before the voices start up again.
While this happens, Hinagiku can see a fourth one in the distance. They circle around from afar, climbing the closest highest dune to get a good vantage point of this location. ” دنباله اینجا سرد می شود.” they call out.
The woman gives Hinagiku a suspicious look, but she leaves her with the young man who recognized her. She squats down next to the trapdoor next to the other man and studies it intently.
” جادوی شادی به نوعی. من آن را تشخیص نمی دهم. هر چند تله ای روی در نمی بینم.”
The Pure Legionnaire woman stands back up and draws her scimitar, pointing down at the trapdoor. The Legionnaire next to Hinagiku also draws his weapon.
The man remains squatted, but he also draws his scimitar. He puts his hand on the door-handle of the trap-door, and looks up at the woman. The woman stands back, her scimitar drawn, glancing between Hinagiku and her troop-mate. ” در صف من آن را باز کنید. یک دو...” she continues.
The heroes below can hear a woman’s voice this time. ” جادوی شادی به نوعی. من آن را تشخیص نمی دهم. هر چند تله ای روی در نمی بینم.”
” در صف من آن را باز کنید. یک دو...” she continues.
Unafe waits, tense, looking primarily at the Archdruid and Ary for cues.
I don't like this waiting...but they know Hinagiku best, and longest. If they are confident she's OK then they are likely right...but WHY don't we hear her? Has she gone into hiding? Did they ambush her??
Hinagiku emits a strange cry devoid of words to attract the guard’s attention, she knew from her years at the temple that people who had sworn a vow of silence would sometimes use such calls when truly needed.
The heroes can hear Hinagiku cry out, ”Aaaaahhhh!”
The man squatted down next to the trapdoor hesitates for a moment. The other man, standing next to Hinagiku, puts up both hands. "What is wrong?" he asks, frustrated.
The woman turns, scimitar still drawn, and watches for Hinagiku's answer. "او باید معلول ذهنی باشد. هنگام ترک باید او را با خود برگردانیم," she says.
Unafe can hear a man say, "What is wrong?" in Taldane.
A woman's voice then speaks, calmly. "او باید معلول ذهنی باشد. هنگام ترک باید او را با خود برگردانیم."
Hinagiku gesticulates to try to convey that there is danger down there, making the motion of lifting the trapdoor and shaking her head multiple times. Throughout all this, Hinagiku remains relatively calm, with a most a hint a concern in her eyes, making the whole situation quite strange.
Unafe hisses, "Hinagiku screamed, and a man asked 'What's wrong?' Shouldn't we go help her??"
Her muscles tense and she looks about ready to leap.
Ary huffs lightly and stands up. "We either need to get out, or we need to go out. We don't really have other options." the Crusader whispers, looking to Ehren and Xanderghul.
Xander turns from the door and mutters to his friends. "I could spend a portion of my power to get four of us -- including me -- out of here, but I have no idea where we would go. That and I don't feel good about leaving Hinagiku behind. Who knows what could happen to her?" He hesitates for a moment, considering how many moves it would take to leave behind everything important. "I could also just... go out there by myself. I could appear behind them and run away, draw them away from here, and get arrested."
"It seems that I'm a liability now, anyway."
"If we need to look like we're gone... I also might be able to do that. Might fail, though."
Burrowing animals in Rahadoum include lizards, mongooses, gerbils, fennec foxes, sand cats and porcupines.
Ehren looks up at the sealed door with a frown, his concern for Hinagiku wrestling with his common sense. He has never heard her shout out like that before, which begged the question of just what was going on up there. At the same time, they are not exactly in the Worldwound - if she is in trouble and isn't asking for help, then she can likely take care of herself. Even so...
"I am going to head up and try to see what is going on," Ehren says in a hushed voice, hoping that it is low enough to go unheard in the absence of Isilme's message spell. "The door should hold for quite some time if they try to force their way in. If they do, you all need to hide or get out somehow. Getting caught in a fight is more trouble than it is worth."
With that, Ehren assumes the form of a small earth elemental. Like that of his larger forms, his disproportional yet humanoid body looks as though it were hewn from solid marble. Glittering emeralds sit in his eye sockets, and veins of silver run across his body, before meeting atop his head in the shape of a familiar crown. The druid melds into the hideaway's sand wall, transitioning into the underground space.
Using his ability to sense vibrations in the ground, he attempts to discern the general locations of the people up above. Once he has that information, he puts some distance between himself and the hideaway before emerging just enough to look in their direction.
"I don't want to fight them. We need out." Ary whispers, looking to Xanderghul as Ehren takes his own way out.
Hearing Ary's admonition not to fight, Unafe frowns. "Out? You mean leave Hinagiku here with Ehren? If you're confident that they can fend for themselves, I'll go along with your plan.
"Xander, you said you can transport four people. If you take Ary, Lann, and Valais, I am confident I can outrun whatever's out there...and presumably meet back up later this evening. Perhaps I can get them all to run after me, and then Hinagiku can escape with Ehren? If you wish to avoid conflict that might be the best we can do."
"I could also just... go out there by myself. I could appear behind them and run away, draw them away from here, and get arrested."
"It seems that I'm a liability now, anyway."
Unafe chuckles. "It's not the first time you've been a liability, that's for sure!
"That said, I don't see a reason for you to go getting captured. If these Adepts are powerful witches bent on destruction...well then we may well need your witchery to fight them. We have to think like a clan."
"I don't want to fight them. We need out." Ary whispers, looking to Xanderghul as Ehren takes his own way out.
Hearing Ary's admonition not to fight, Unafe frowns. "Out? You mean leave Hinagiku here with Ehren? If you're confident that they can fend for themselves, I'll go along with your plan.
"Xander, you said you can transport four people. If you take Ary, Lann, and Valais, I am confident I can outrun whatever's out there...and then we can regroup to tackle our true foes. Perhaps I can get whoever's troubling Hinagiku to run after me, and then she can escape with Ehren? If you wish to avoid conflict that might be the best we can do."
Xander hems and haws. He did not like the situation, and did not like the idea of wasting an entire day combing through the desert trying to find one another. Neither he nor Isilme had access to unlimited sendings, nor even enough to contact as many groups as would be created by this maneuver, and that was assuming Isilme would be able to find and meet up with them.
He bites his lip and hesitates before responding. "How are we going to find one another again, if we separate like this? We'll have four separate groups if we teleport this way, with no reliable way to communicate between everyone. We're in a hurry. I don't want to waste an entire day trying to find one another again."
He points back to the back corner of the hideaway. "If we all cram into that corner and leave the door unlocked, I can fill the hideaway with an illusion of my selection and turn us all invisible. That could hopefully keep us from separating, but it still keeps Hinagiku in danger."
He shakes his head. "I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to leave before telling Ehren what's going on, though."
” ما باید او را با خود بیاوریم. او در اینجا تنها خواهد ماند” says the woman to the other soldiers. She then turns to Hinagiku and says loudly and clearly, enunciating each syllable. ”Do you know anything about this door?”
The man kneeling next to the trapdoor tries to open it, but the door does not budge. ” قفل شده است!” he says.
” سپس سعی خواهیم کرد که آن را تجزیه کنیم.” the woman says, her attention focused again on the man and the trapdoor.
Below, the heroes can hear the woman continue, ” ما باید او را با خود بیاوریم. او در اینجا تنها خواهد ماند”
Then, a woman’s voice in Common – loud and clear, enunciating each syllable. ”Do you know anything about this door?”
The heroes hear the trapdoor jostle – someone was trying to get in! ” قفل شده است!” says the man’s voice.
” سپس سعی خواهیم کرد که آن را تجزیه کنیم.” responds the woman.
Ary pauses for a moment and concentrates. She had learned months ago that she could hear prayers that were directed to her... and had since come to realize that it could be a two-way street. She couldn't do it from a large distance, but she could certainly do it across this distance. After the brief bit of concentration, a subtle link flows from herself to Xander, Unafe, herself, and Valais.
"The corner it is, then. Once we see if Hinagiku is safe, and if we're at risk, we can still leave via teleportation, right?" Ary thinks into the link she's created as she crosses the short distance to Lann, placing a hand over her lips in easy view of him, making a shushing motion before shaking him awake.
Turning back to the woman, she points to the trap door before butting both of her hands together, all finger bent and spread out and opening and closing her hands, as if mimicking a giant maw, she then moves her hand to her head, places both on her hears, and then on her eyes, trying the difficult task of conveying the idea of illusions.
Looking between all of his friends, Xander finally comes to a decision. They were right -- if the guards were outside and suspicious, it was only a matter of time before they would enter and discover everyone. Unafe's thought that they just attack the guards had merit, perhaps. She could do that on her own in order to rescue Hinagiku.
He goes to the middle of the group, and then says, "I'm going to get us out of here. Gather around." He holds out his hands for Valais, Ary, and Lann. They needed to leave, but they also needed to be in a hurry. Ary could carry them over the walls, and Xander could establish a hideaway within the city for them to use. He casts a spell to turn them all invisible (but still able to see one another) and then grasps onto their hands.
Xander's disembodied voice emanates from the center of the room "Sorry, Unafe, I have to leave you here. I figure you can take care of yourself. Ary, when we get there, we'll need to fly into the city. If we stay together, we can stay invisible. At that point we'll have about ten minutes to find somewhere to place a haven." Then he summons his mythic power, tears open a rift through the Astral Plane, and hurls himself and his allies across the distance between their hideaway and the city of Azir. Hopefully they would land somewhere he had been able to view near the gates and would be able to fly inside quickly.
Unafe smiles. "I can handle myself. But if one of you would be so good as to open the door right before you leave..."
As soon as the door is open, Unafe transforms into a massive deinonychus that (thanks to Ehren's enchanted belt) improbably fits within the hideout.
The huge dinosaur (surrounded, as always with a buzzing cloud of saurian spirits) leaps out and attempts to grab Hinagiku in its mouth.
The female Legionnaire turns to Hinagiku and puts up a hand. ”Do not worry, if there is a monster down there we will protect you from it.”
Meanwhile, the man next to the trapdoor brings his foot up and then brings it down with a powerful stomp on the door, attempting to break through it.
” درب محکمی است. جیهان ، بیا کمک کن” he says
.
In the Hideaway, the heroes move from their various locations to be closer to Xanderghul’s invisibility spell. They again hear the woman’s voice. ”Do not worry, if there is a monster down there we will protect you from it.”
There is a loud slam as something is rammed into the door from the other side.
” درب محکمی است. جیهان ، بیا کمک کن” says a male voice.
Hinagiku stops her strange motions, gently smiles at the woman for being considerate. She continues by laying a hand on her own chest and shaking her head. She then points at everyone around them and furrows her brow.
During this time, Ehren transforms into a small earth elemental and glides up to the surface, moving away from the two presences he feels above him. Once he is far enough away, he pops his head up. He notices that it is now completely dark out - the sun has fully set, but stars and moon in the sky make it easy enough to see. He sees Hinagiku, along with four men and women wearing white and gold uniforms made out of a loose fabric.
He sees one female Legionnaire standing next to the trapdoor, her scimitar drawn. A male Legionnaire is standing across from him, attempting to kick open the trapdoor with his boot. 30 feet away from them, Hinagiku stands next to another male Legionnaire, whom also has his weapon drawn. Behind them, on top of a large dune, is the fourth Legionnaire, their back turned to the others. She is wielding a scimitar as well.
The woman turns away from Hinagiku, so that the only person who is still paying attention to her is the man still standing next to her. He turns to her, watching her gestures and shakes his head. "Stay calm, everything will be alright. Do you know how to read and write?" he asks.
Meanwhile, the woman, having turned away from Hinagiku, catches a glimpse of Ehren appearing through the sand. She points in his general direction. "سلام ، فکر کردم دیدم چیزی حرکت می کند!" she calls out.
The woman up on the dunes turns so she is facing the others once more. She peers down. "؟ من چیزی نمی بینم!" she calls back. Likewise, the man who was in the process of kicking the door stands at attention, turning.
Below, in the hideaway, they hear the woman yell out, "سلام ، فکر کردم دیدم چیزی حرکت می کند!"
"You can respond and everyone but Lann and those outside can hear you this way." Ary thinks at the others. "I'll unlock it, but not open it. If I open it, it's going to seem very strange to the guards. The next kick should 'force' it open, though." Ary says, moving over to the entrance, ready to unlock the trap door after the next kick attempt, allowing her to return to the others before the door ever opens.
Below, Ary flies over to the trapdoor, and waits. She can hear the Rahadoumi woman calling out loudly above. She is yelling more loudly than she was before.
Unafe nods to Ary. 'That works.'
Realizing that he has been spotted, Ehren sinks down, disappearing beneath the sand's surface. Imperceptible to those above, he glides through the ground with only his tremorsense to guide him, making his way to where he saw Hinagiku standing.
Ary unlocks the door, flies back to Xanderghul, and then they vanish together. Unafe waits for the people above to barge their entrance into the Sylvan Hideaway.
The Legionnaires stare out into the desert, alert, for several more moments, before the woman breaks the silence. "احتمالاً نوعی حیوان است. بیایید ببینیم آیا می توانیم این در را بشکنیم؟"
She turns, along with the man next to her, facing the trapdoor once more. "با یکدیگر! یک دو سه!" They both stomp down, hard, on the door in unison. It shudders and shakes but it does not break - it is magically tougher than a normal trapdoor!
Ehren can feel through his tremorsense that the two Legionnaires are trying to break down the trapdoor. Another Legionnaire still stands next to Hinagiku, however.
The others vanish, and Unafe 'reappears', no longer invisible. She can hear the trapdoor tremble and shake, as it is struck hard from outside - harder this time.
Meanwhile, Ary, Lann, Valais, and Xander appear 300' away from the gates that Xander had visited. At this point it is very late at night, and there is no one entering the main gates, though the Legion's night-watch remains ever vigilant.
The walls of Azir are brilliant white, 300 feet tall, and made of desert stone. The tops of the walls, which are hard to glimpse at their base, like Ary, Lann and Xanderghul are, are well lit.
When the heroes appear in the desert, there is a sudden, violent gush of wind, centered around Ary. It catches the sands in its wake. One of the guards at the gates turns - this has caught their attention!
They can glimpse the shadows as they flicker back and forth, showing that there are people moving back and forth on the walls.
"Outside the city. What now?" Ary thinks into the link to her allies as she focuses on simply staying still and quiet.
Lann has no choice but to take Xander's word for it that the group is invisible - he can still see himself and the others, after all. When they abruptly appear at their destination, he quickly regains his footing and looks to Ary for instruction. When she does not say anything, he opts to follow her body language instead, picking up on the fact that stealth is still very much their prerogative. Crouching down somewhat, he stays very still and very quiet, trusting that Xander's magic will keep them hidden.
Unafe continues to wait, hopeful that the door will open soon, and wondering what's going on above.
While she waits, she lets herself grow into her full saurian form. Though the space is tight, she finds it easy to fit into its crannies.
When she 'hears' Ary in her head, she replies, "Are you OK? They're still pounding on the door. Hopefully I don't have to wait too long..."
Hinagiku bends down and starts writing in the sand in an untidy, Taldane script: "THERE MIGHT BE..." while the man next to her stands and watches.
Meanwhile, the other two Legionnaires stare down at the door in confusion. The woman squats down and grabs the trapdoor handle. She jerks it upwards, and the door opens, as it is now unlocked. She turns to the man and says, "شما اینقدر مروتید قفل نشده بود ، شما فقط می کشید تا باز شود ، نه فشار-" but she is cut off as Unafe, below sees the trapdoor open. She immediately leaps through the opening.
The two Legionnaires next to the trapdoors scream as an enormous feathered dinosaur surrounded in a wreath of agitated ghosts gushes forth from the trapdoor as if she were made of liquid, before reforming as her normal form on the desert sands just 15' away from Hinagiku.
Ehren, still below the sands, can feel a huge presence leap out from the trapdoor and land 15' away from Hinagiku.
Xander appears with the others still clutching onto everyone. Tentatively, he lets go. He thinks back to Ary and Unafe, knowing that silent communication was going to be key. 'We must all stay within ten feet of each other. Ary, lift us and fly us over the wall. Quietly, if possible. I'd like to find a shady wall out of sight within ten minutes. Be careful though -- the wall has watchmen.'
'Unafe, we are at our destination. Get to a meeting location. Bring Ehren and Daisy with you. Later we will communicate about how to get you into the city as well. Let me know if anything goes awry.'
The Legionnaires at the wall chat amongst themselves in Osiriani. They are well-lit, and easy to see even at a distance, thanks to the many magical torches that are around. The heroes can see twelve in total to their left, but none to their right. One of them straightens up from his position of leaning against the wall, and starts walking out into the sands in the direction of the four heroes. He is now 240' away.
Behind them, away from the city, are large fields of wheat. The plants grow 4 ft high.
As she writes, Hinagiku notices too late that the legionnaire is about to open the trap door, and her warning cry dies on her lips as Unafe bursts out of the hideaway and lands next to the man who had been guarding her. Despite the pace of it all, Hinagiku sees only one solution, do her best to protect the guards until she knows what her allies plan is. Stepping forward arms spread out in a protective manner, Hinagiku places herself in between Unafe and the closest guard and prepares herself to call a truce in Taldan as soon as any of her allies makes a threatening move toward the Rahadoumites.
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Unafe lands with a thump near Hinagiku. Enjoying the look of horror on the faces of the guards, Unafe gives a savage "HOOOONK!" and then snatches up the monk in her mouth.
Then she looks away from the city, and attempts to run off that way as fast as she can with her 'meal' in her mouth.
The man behind of Hinagiku steps forward so that he is next to her. He holds up a hand. "Come now, we don't have to fight." He scowls when Unafe scoops Hinagiku up in her jaws. "برگرد شیطان! ولش کن" he cries out.
Unafe sprints away with Hinagiku in her jaws, over a dune and out of sight, though the man swings out with his scimitar at her flank as she turns and flees. The woman who opened the trapdoor doesn't hesitate: she immediately starts sprinting after Unafe, giving chase.
Ehren can sense both Hinagiku suddenly vanish from his senses and the very large presence run out of the range of his tremorsense. One of the Legionnaires who was at the trapdoor (the same one that spotted him), sprints off in the same direction after them.
Ehren is up!
Not exactly our best plan, Ehren thinks as he glides through the sand, moving in the direction of what he suspects to be Unafe as quickly as he can. He tries to keep the Legionnaires giving chase within the range of his tremorsense, so that he can determine whether they will give up - he very much doubts that they could hope to catch her on foot.
Ehren starts to move after them, and can detect another Legionnaire - the man who was standing beside of Hinagiku - sprinting off after them as well. However very soon there is nothing within the range of his tremorsense for him to detect.
At this point, Unafe and Hinagiku are out of sight of the Legionnaires. What will they do now?
Even with the sand blowing in her saurian eyes, Unafe's sense of direction doesn't fail her.
Unafe runs in a straight line for about two minutes and then (once she's confident that she's out of sight range) abruptly stops and leaps one hundred feet to the left, hoping to throw off her pursuers.
As they flee she whispers in Hallit, "Gobeithio nad ydych chi'n anghyfforddus. A fyddai'n well gennych chi reidio ar fy nghefn. Ydych chi'n meddwl bod Ehren yn ein dilyn?"
She also pictures Ary and Xander and thinks to them, "I have Hinagiku and we're fleeing. No guards harmed. Any idea of where to go, or how to meet up?"
Ary looks from Lann to Xanderghul, the inclines her head towards the fields behind them, before tilting her head.
"Xander, I think we should go into the fields for now, but I'll stick by you. Unafe, good, that was dangerous for a bit. I'd suggest heading to the river and waiting for Ehren, then move west if he agrees. If there are outdoor entrances to the sewer, they're likely to be near the coast... but also likely to be guarded, I'd think. If there isn't disagreement, we can probably move to the river through these fields. I'd hazard that the river is less guarded than the sea as well."
Ehren slows to a halt and then changes course, returning from whence he came. If the sylvan hideaway was left unguarded, then he would be able to determine whether Ary and the others are still present. In any case, it is the place Isilme would return to once she is finished scouting - someone would have to break the bad news to her.
Unafe proceeds to leave her pursuers in her dust (literally - at the speed she runs on sand she kicks up a trail of lingering dust clouds). A few minutes of later of running out into the desert, endless sandy dunes are all that she can see. It is cold at night, and the immense dunes obscure sight too far in any one direction.
The river is southeast of you, which is the opposite of the direction that you are currently running.
Ehren heads back to the Sylvan Hideaway. He can sense that there is still someone standing outside of the trapdoor.
Ehren pokes his head through the sand. He sees that the Hideaway is apparently empty. There is another Legionnaire here, a woman, wearing a blue turban. She is staring intently into the room. Ehren remembers that she was the one who was standing on the dune previously.
The sharp spikes on his little crown stands out from the smooth walls, so the Legionnaire turns immediately as he pokes his head out. She is across the room, and her surprise at the sudden motion causes her to hesitate...
Lann, Valais, and Xander follow Ary into the fields of wheat. Valais is the shortest among them, so they come up to her neck, but the immature plants barely broach Ary's tall shoulders. They follow each other closely because of the illusion spell that is granted by Xander. They move forwards 60 feet.
Behind them, the Legionnaire moves closer.
Lann looks back at the Legionnaire, then back to Ary, watching her for the order on what to do next.
They follow each other closely because of the illusion spell that is granted by Xander. They move forwards 60 feet. The wheat rustles around their invisible bodies displacing the plants, and the approaching Legionnaire looks up. He stops dead in his tracks, and points, and then calls out, "چیزی آنجاست. یعقوب ، تو آنجا ، با طلسم پیشگویی ، بیا ببین چیزی می بینی یا نه."
Before the heroes can react, another Legionnaire jogs out from the gate, another man, this one with a large bushy beard. He points out in the direction of the heroes and calls out loudly, "آنجا شخصی نامرئی وجود دارد!"
Ary's head droops as the people continue to act with scrutiny towards wind, not certain of how paranoid they must be to do so so reliably. She reaches out for Valais and Lann, "The guards are incredibly paranoid, I don't know what's alerted them exactly, but they seem to be calling for reinforcements I think. I'm going to fly us away as quickly as I can manage. Xander and Valais, hold on, I'll grab Lann then let him get his own grip before shifting my focus to you two, since he can't hear us. We'll head towards the river, if need be we can cross it to make it harder to follow us."