"I knew it. Thrunish bastards," Adun mutters angrily as the agitators reveal themselves. He pushes through the crowd towards the developing scrum where mace-wielding thugs are attacking innocent citizens, hoping to head off any trouble before it gets to Agnes. He readies his gauntlets as he goes, pulling his arms out from beneath his cloak and taking a defensive stance.
As people all around struggle to move through the screaming havoc, several civilians attempt to stand their ground. Among them are six individuals in various forms of disguise that are slowly becoming more noticeable. Each of these masked rebels catch a brief glance of a civilian fleeing past them and there is a look in the Kintargian's eye of awe and surprise.
Still a bit aprehensive about potential repercussions, Agnes hesistates for a second. But she cant let Adun face the Thrunite thugs alone.
She spurs Laika forward, taking a swing at Thug2
"We wont let you get away with this!
With surprise and excitement, Carl recognizes the spell color spray cast in the crowd. Perhaps that is another member of my secret order! he thinks. He can't see Darius very well from here, but to him the caster looks like another tiefling wearing a mask.
Carl gestures with his hand and three of the gold coins in his pouch begin to glow with a silver-white aura. Drawing forth one of the coins, he moves forward and spins it through the air toward one of the thugs (#3) that is menacing Darius.
Seeing the group of thugs closing in on him, but also some members of the crowd making their way in and fighting back, Darius knew he just needed to buy time for a moment.
He keeps his guard up but lashes out at Thug #3 as he's distracted by the beast behind him.
I swear I've seen that creature around Redroof at night. Wonder what he's doing here?
Agnes closes in and the image of a halfling on a wolf immediately grabs the attention of the Chelish thug. He is able to sidestep her thrust before shifting out of flank with Brianna and Adun. A gold coin zips between Darius and Reynard. The Fiend then takes the opportunity of the distraction to pierce the thug in the side. He groans and falls back to reassess as well.
The three standing Chelish Citizen thugs hold a line now between those standing up to the atrocities and the opera house. They each lash out at the most threatening protesters near them with their maces. "Beat'em back! This is the disobedience Thrune needs us to purge!" the central thug shouts. Yet none of the three seem combat trained and appear to falter before their adversaries.
The Fiend takes a meager swing at the fleeing enemy, prioritizing his guard.
The Beast lashes out with a dagger at the nearby thug when he attempts to move away.
Laika? Agnes? What are they doing here? This was quickly becoming a mess. Violence from the Loyalists was now inciting violence from the rebels. It was time to grab Sark and get out of here.
She swung her shield at the Loyalist, trying to knock him out without drawing blood.
and misses wildly.
Adun ducks under the thugs clumsy swing and jabs a gauntleted fist at his midsection as the man tries to move away.
A fleeing citizen jostles Adun at the last second and his blow goes wide, but he follows up quickly with a brutal uppercut towards the thug's chin. "I'll show you disobedience, Thrune lapdog!" he growls as he attacks before using the cover of the crowd to attempt to circle around the Thrunish thug.
In the busy square combat is proving quite ineffective with the crowd itself offering both protection and hindrance. The Nightmare Beast is able to lash out and hit the thug soundly, but the remaining back and forth is reduced to a defensive dance of intimidation.
.
Carl moves closer and throws a second coin at the third thug.
The Beast wastes no time, slashing at the Chelish thug with both of his daggers and simultaneously snapping with his jaws.
Confirm?
Confirm?
Another coin flies off and smashes harmlessly into a wall. The Nightmare Beast unleashes a fury onto one of the thugs, easily taking him out of the fight.
The Fiend notices the group of protesters fighting back against the Thrune lackeys. He keeps his guard up, striking at #1
Striking deftly the thug, the Fiend pierces the guard in his shoulder.
Agnes guides Laika to the side, putter her next to Aidun again.
In the press of the crowd, Agnes feels safer next to the tall man.
The thug snorts as he is stabbed by the Fiend and bites back the pain has he retaliates.
Agnes' long sword is deflected by a mace parry. The Thug then follows through with an attack on the halfling woman. He hits her squarely in the head, causing a ringing to sustain in her ear.
Two dottari have now made their way into this portion of the crowd. The crowd is beginning to thin as protesters who did not wish to participate in the violence have begun to exit the park.
The two dottari press in and attack from the sides. The two guards shout as they swing in on Adun and Conrad, "DISPERSE! GO HOME!" The guard attacking The Shadow lands a forceful blow with his heavy mace.
Adun notices the arrival of the dottari, who he respects no more than he does these Thrunish thugs. He ducks the clumsy swing of a mace before aiming a punch at the midriff of the thug who refuses to go down.
Adun's gauntlet lands a solid blow, and turns to see the dottaro attacking Agnes. "Try that on someone your own size!" he calls.
Catching he Shadow's eye, the Beast speaks in a deep, rumbling voice "This way, friend." with that, he turns and slips through the crowd toward the others fighting Thrune's thugs. Reaching the nearest thug, he slashes at the man with one of his daggers.
"This guy has mint on his breath!" Brianna calls out to the dottari.
She attempts to indicate who she's talking about with another strike from her shield against Thug #1
Her swing again misses the thug.
Adun rocks the thug in the jaw, who stumbles holds his face with his off-hand as he looks back at the gauntleted man.
"She's lying! I swear it!" the thug yells. The dottari simply grunts and continues to yell at the mob in general, "ENOUGH! DISPERSE!"
Stepping around, the Beast is able to pin one of the thugs between him and Brianna, slashing him with a knife.
The blow defenitely hurt Agnes, but she wasnt ready to give up yet. She takes another swing at the thug.
With her attacks not connecting, Agnes gives Laika the command to attack.
Heavens! Carl thinks. That one almost killed me! Concentrating, he casts a spell defensively at the dotarri that came up behind him and hit him.
Curses! he thinks, These goons have me surrounded, and the crowd is penning us in. This spirit within me has made me overconfident. I must swallow my pride! "Help me, please, anybody!" he shouts, humbly. "My only crime is loving our fair city! Please do not strike me again!"
The Fiend hears a voice near him call out in panic. There is a Dottari patrolman looming over him.
Trying to draw the guard's attention, Darius dramatically creates a bolt of acid in his hand and strikes at the member of the Chelish Citizen's group next to him (#1).
Hitting the man with as strong a bolt as he could hope, he shouts to dottari #1, "Why not try and stop the real troublemakers, rather than beating on bystanders?"
Laika's bite gashes open the thug's leg. He squeals and flees from the darkening situation.
The Dottari looms over The Silver Shadow and grabs him by the cloak.
The Dottari's fist balls up the hooded figure's cloak, then drags him to the side. "Love the city from home! Get out of here, you'll only get killed!" The city guard then moves inward to further breakup the rukus. Approaching the Fiend the dottari responds to his question, "I don't want to hear it! You all look alike, and you're all part of a bloody riot!"
The other dottari smacks Adun with his heavy mace in the hip, "Scram! Stand down and leave the park!"
Sark appears out of some of the thinning crowd and finds Brianna, "This is maddness! They're really cracking down now." Blood stains his shirt and one side of his face, but there isn't an obvious gash to assert that it is his own.
More people can be seen fleeing now, the sounds of screaming and shouting are so prolific that they appear to have consumed the entire city.
Brianna let's the thug go. She nods silently to Sark and withdraws to the east.
Adun isn't one to let an opportunity slip, so he jabs out again at the retreating thug. "That's right, run devil-lover!" he yells as he strikes.
Suddenly pain flashes down Adun's leg and he bellows in frustration as he turns to see the dottaro ordering him to leave. With the thugs in flight, the crowd significantly smaller, and the dottari weighing, Adun thinks it might be time to beat a retreat. "It's getting dangerous here Agnes," he calls, "I think we'd better get going."
With the situation getting quite desperate, agnes takes the attack of opportunity.
Deciding that discretion is, in this case, the better part of valor, the Beast heads past the fountain, away from the thugs and watchmen.
As people begin to leave the riot, they find they are not attacked while escaping. Upon getting to the edge of the square, it is clear that the riot has somewhat spilt into the adjoining alleys.
Not feeling so good, Agnes follows Adun and withdraws too.
Seeing that the others who were fighting are falling back, The Fiend follows suit, making sure to stay behind those who are already injured.
Carl follows the Beast and looks desperately around to see if he can spot his contact among the thinning crowd.
Blast! he thinks. I lost him! Well, doubly important I keep near this creature who may or may not be Reynard the booklender.
"Agnes, we need to get somewhere safe. I doubt Thrune is going to let this little fracas go unpunished" Adun says, breathing heavily from the exertion and the fear of the fighting.
"Everything is in chaos. I hope we can loose them in the streets. Lay low for a bit, then backtrack to the stable."
As the protest succumbs to the heavy hand of martial law, citizens try to hide down side streets as fires erupt and property is damaged in vain. You all eventually find yourselves a few blocks away from the square after being unintentionally funneled towards the same street by paroling gangs of dottari.
With fate bringing you all together again on a quieter street, the sound of steel clashing against steel rings out from a nearby dark alley alongside a cry of pain.
Brianna grabs Sark by the shoulder as she hears the noises. ”Back to the War Cages for you," she tells the half-orc. "Get cleaned up, and I’ll be along.”
In her makeshift magicked disguise, Brianna pushes through the crowd toward the alley where she heard the noise.