There's a small pause. "Why are you uncomfortable?"
"Oh." "We see." "We could wait for the others." "Do you think there are traps?" "If so, we could wait out of sight." "That we could!" "And watch for them." "Yes, keep our eyes open."
The rest of the party comes upon a clearing, where there is a booth guarding the entry to a cave. The booth has the slumped form a man whose face has been torn open by a blade. He is not moving, and fresh blood is still dribbling down, though it no longer pumps from his veins.
Xane scrunches her face. "Eewww..." She saunters over and gently pokes the fellow.
Xane sighs, "I feel a tad sorry for not getting a move on." She does lament, indicating the passed fellow.
"We might have been able to stop this." She looks intently into the cave.
"It seems our scouts have been busy after all." Comments Sir Rhaym as he dismounts.
He cases his lance and leads Valinor to a place of convenient concealment, like the underbrush or behind the guards booth and commands him to 'Stay' and 'Guard'.
Then he draws his warhammer and leads the way into the cave.
Xane gives horsey Valinor a 'smirk' from over her shoulder before she too turns and walks into the cave after Sir Rhaym.
"Um...how do you know our scouts were here?" She asks as they head into the darkness.
Nianju sighs as the Paladin and the other pass on into the cave without thought. He lowers himself until he's hanging from his branch and then simply drops, not bothering to muffle his fall, though he does make sure not to risk harming himself. The noise should be suitable to attract Rhaym and Xane's attention, the pair able to turn and spot Nianju a couple dozen feet behind them. "Did bring my blade?"
"Want to know something interesting.." A voice in the darkness, as suddenly, lights spring into existence over the group, then down in a line, illuminating the entire room. It is about 100 feet long and forty feet wide, but there are display cases 40 feet by 10 placed 5 feet away from the walls at each corner.
Sagittarius is visible on the other side of the room, his hands are up, his bow upon his waist behind him. He smiles. "It's about monkeys."
Xane slows as Nianju calls out from behind her. Though as the light come on she freezes into stillness and waits and watches.
"I think some one needs to have a talk to some one else........."
"Told you didn't like this." he mutters, towards Niulamayu specifically if he has made his presence known, or else where he last glimpsed the cloud person. He draws his blade as he looks down into the suddenly illuminated cave, ready to move...
The cloud moves out from behind a tree where it had somehow managed to hide. "Not good, not good." "They don't look around!" "They don't pause." "They don't go cautiously." "We'd better go find out if Opiuchwhatsit is inside." "That's what we'd better do!"
The cloud suits action to words. Upon seeing Sagittarius, it pauses. "You are not nice." "No, not nice at all." "Hurting people isn't nice." "We don't want to hurt you." "No, we don't." "We want to talk to Opiuchus!" "It doesn't seem like it should be hard." "We don't want to hurt him either, unless..." "Well, right now we don't want to hurt him either." "Right."
"For the not nice one, I've murdered in cold blood at least one less of your number than you have of mine. And for just wanting to talk and not hurting anyone, you have an interesting way of going about it. Most people define "dead" as pretty hurt."
"Monkeys? I'm pretty sure we don't need any monkeys."
Mr. Big will position himself behind Can-Man.
Xane looks at Sagittarius,
"I've got two questions. Who've we supposed to have killed.....And I don't see any 'Monkeys'..."
"Monkeys." Stated Sir Rhaym flatly. He started striding deliberately across the cavern towards the one called Sagittarius.
"At least you HAVE a reason for doing the things that you do. A refreshing change in this accursed place; but I appreciate it, I really do."
"SERIOUSLY? Our door guards blood is DRIPPING from him. Are you all selectively blind?" Sagittarius points at the group's resident assassin. "No "hey, we'd like to parley", just slaughtered before he even knew you guys were here."
"As for monkeys.. They don't have to be here for me to talk about them, yes? I didn't say I was going to SHOW you a monkey."
"ARE you asking for Parlay? You are said to be an honorless cur by honorable people; why should we believe anything you say?"
He narrows his eyes looking at Sagittarius, then he slows and glances back, looking for his scouts.
Sir Rhaym uses his Detect Evil at a Glance on Sagittarius.
Frowning at the suggestion that his little team was guilty of simple murder, he also looks over his shoulder at the two scouty persons; Niulamayu and Nianju (if visible) and also Detect Evil at a glance on them as well.
"Last time we approach was 'misunderstanding', you caused!" Nianju spits back at the so called knight, still lurking out by the cave entrance, not keen to proceed into the place itself.
"Oh, no monkeys." Mr. Big seems a little sad.
"However it seems that we may have gotten off on the wrong wing. Perhaps we should start again... Hello! I am Mr. Big, it is very good to meet your acquaintance. Now you were going to tell us about monkeys, do you have some tea and biscuits as well?"
Oh snap!
"I sent an arrow that said "Don't come closer" and you guys ignored it. You're a rolling squad of dysfunctional people who are very good at destroying things."
Sagittarius then draws his hands to his chin, "Ah yes, the monkeys, where was I.. Ah yes, one of the best things about monkeys, is to make people people pay attention to the monkey while his allies buff the crap out of themselves."
Xane glances over a shoulder and looks back towards the cave mouth where the voice of Nianju has emanated from,
"Yeah.....we are definitely going to be having a big group talk later...maybe even a big group hug to go along with it..." Xane says before turning back to Sagittarius.
"Right, like Mr Big said. We've obviously met the wrong way. I'm sure we don't want to be killing you any more than you be wanting to kill us." She remains standing where she is, hand upon her hips as she watches the scene to continue to develop.
Glancing back, he does a double take at his sight of Nianju, and his eyes narrow with anger. Turning back to Sagittarius, he comments.
"What? No parlay after all your sweet talk?"
Sagittarius' response is to put his weight down on his rear foot, and a resounding crash can be heard as thunderstones crash and glass shatters.
Bursting through the shattering glass, an immensely heavily armored figure charges into Mr. Big from the side, having been hidden in the display case by the fast that, still, this person appeared no more than a suit of armor. Wielding a great axe, this figure unleashed an incredibly mighty and accurate blow. This is no mere warrior or thug.
And Mr. Big is down. At -12.
Another fight to miss out on as Can-Man vanishes back to his realm.
Nianju withdraws further from the fray, seeking out a new hiding spot to observe his foes. Seeing Mr. Big go down in an explosion of gore only reinforces his perception that a. it was a trap, and b. his companions were idiots for walking straight into the place. He also attempts to spot any exits from the room in front of him and if it would even be possible to try and reach one by stealth.
"Some one try and fix up Mr Bird!" Xane calls over the fading echoes/ring of the thunder stone even as she moves towards the armored figure swinging the axe, she drawing her two handed sword.
"Are you sure you want to keep going?" She asks the other warrior sternly.
"When you spill our blood, do not be surprised when yours is spilled in kind." Is the response from the warrior.
"Hey, both sides have been leaking now. What say we call it quits?" She suggests.
"Or y'know. I put down my sword. You put down your axe and we maybe we could go at each other 'Civilized' like?" Xane offers.
"You have slain none of ours, I will permit you to stand aside and flee your compatriots." The warrior nods slightly in assent to the side, before continuing. "But my axe will not rest till victory or death. This will end in surrender or death, no more parley."
Xane frowns. "Now that is just a plain stupid way to think..." She rolls a shoulder, showing her intent of not lowering her sword. Then she grins.
"So...if we all agree that you've won. We can call it quits and stuff?" (^_^)
Nianju will take what distractions he can, starting to move slowly into the room, focusing all his energy on that task, using what cover he can to avoid detection.
Looking back in agony (forward or back?), Sir Rhaym turns and charges the big armored axe-man.
for a possible bludgeoning, sliver and magic damage.
He then looks directly at .Xane. and says flatly; "There will be no surrender to such as these."
Sagitarius knocks his arrows, swiftly drawing his bow and letting loose his own volley at Sir Rhaym before he can aid his companions.
These arrows harmlessly ping off of Sir Rhaym's armor, which elicits a surprised eyebrow from Sagitarius' remaining eyebrow.
There are gasps from the direction of the cloud as it moves forward and engulfs the prone bird. Again.
Mr. Big stops oozing bird juice all over the floor. Sitting at -7hp.
As Sir Rhaym's blow comes down, it is deflected at the last momment by a shimmering field of energy, yet the impact of the blow nonetheless forces Taurus back for a moment, spoiling his attack.
Xane frowns as things get underway. She begins to walk inexorably towards Sagittarius.
"Well...my Mother always said, 'Be nice....Until it's time to not be nice'." She watches/looks at Sagitarius.
"Things have definitely turned 'not nice'."
".... WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU?"
Xane continues to advance upon Sagittarius.