Morning dawns on the glorious day. The streets are bustling with various merchants out peddling their wares, and you can barely move through the crowds of visitors in town for the festival. You are able to mill about for most of the morning, but as noon approaches the crowd naturally moves in the direction of the palace. At the stroke of 12, every temple bell begins ringing out. The excitement in the air is palpable as King Darren steps out onto the balcony above Royal Square. Cheers and hollers erupt from the crowds gathered below. The king raises his hands in a polite waving gesture and smiles broadly. He is a middle aged man, with brown hair giving way to grey at the temples. He wears several rings on his hands and deep blue robes with silver trimmings on them. The crown resting on his head is clearly a ceremonial one, as it has far more gems than most have seen in a lifetime. As the crowd calms down he speaks loudly, ” My loyal subjects! Welcome one and all to our glorious gala! It brings me much honor to come before you today. This is a momentous occasion, today we celebrate a new age of peace and prosperity in our lands. As a token of good faith I have here with me King Ared of the Dwarves, come to visit all the way from his home in Kel Mar.” He gestures behind him and a sturdy looking dwarf steps up beside him. The dwarf’s beard is a deep rich black, he is dressed in his own set of formal robes, a deep grey/silver that seems to shift as he moves. He raises a hand and nods to the crowds, who yell out in approval again.
King Darren steps forward again, ”It is because of this alliance and because of the peace that has been forged in all our lands that I welcome you to the first annual Festival of Unity!” He raises his hands above his head and smiles again. The crowd lets out another yell, and you almost don’t hear it but a loud crack pierces the air. The sky seems to dim despite the lack of clouds overhead. People begin looking back and forth and another cracking sound echoes through the sky and suddenly a woman screams, “The king… the king is gone!” You look around and see that where King Darren once stood is a pile of robes and a crown…
Narciso stares around at the crowd as people begin to mill and panic. Not good, this is not good. I've seen what people do when their order is disrupted...this city is about to go crazy, and I still haven't found Kieyanna!
He sets off, headed away from the square, looking for an inn or tavern, somewhere safe to hole up out of the way...
What the...? No, it must be some sort of trick. Perhaps I can get a better view from the rooftops of one of these buildings...
Rodger looks for a good building to climb up from (perception check) and then pushes his way through the crowd (strength check to push) toward the building and climbs to the roof (climb check) to see if he can get a better view of the situation to figure out what is happening.
Where is King Ared, and what are the soldiers doing? Where did that noise come from?
What's going on?
Walk toward stage
As you direct your attention to the balcony, the guards seem to be gathering things up and rushing inside. They close a set of double doors behind them. Almost simultaneously there is another cracking sound and several large humanoid bird creatures stand up from small smoldering craters around the square.
Oh, no! WHAT'S GOING ON?!?
Kiernan looks very agitated..glancing back and forth...
Rodger's sense of duty urges him to defend the city from these new threats, and he makes his way off of the building as quick as possible without hurting himself and pulls his great sword out from the sheathe on his back.
Cmon, let's do this.
Those are definitely NOT good creatures, I must defend the helpless!
On Rodger's turn he will take a 5 foot step diagonal towards Narciso and power attack the bird creature, and will try a knowledge (nature) check to determine what type of creature this is.
Natalie will roll some know nature as well.
The two bird creatures on the left side of the courtyard squawk angrily and dart at Rodger. There is a fury in their eyes and their normally black feathers seem to be dyed various shades of red and the markings on their faces glow dimly as they strike.
"Gah!" Narciso yelps as the bird creatures burst into being in front of him. As he watches two of them pounce on the man with the greatsword, he scowls. "Oh, no, you don't. C'mere, you feathered freaks."
Narciso leaps forward, his rapier flashing, into a flanking position with the human. "Don't worry, buddy, I've got your back!" he calls as he thrusts at the bird.
Narciso's rapier swishes at air as the birdman steps around it and tries to hit Rodger, but both it and it's companion clank off the Rangers armor.
Natalie steps around the fountain to get a clear shot at the birds.
I will not allow you to hurt these people!
She lifts her finger and utters words of magic, her pink eye glows with power. A purple beam extends from her finger to the tengu behind the fountain.
Ray of Enfeeblement!
Rodger turns to look at the other bird who attacked him. "You're next!" He yells, face dripping with blood.
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Cassius looks around the square in alarm. There's a few familiar faces from the tavern the night before-- he sees the red-headed lad, and the lass with her pet raccoon-- as well as the chap who'd been looking for his lost love. Still, there's little time to tarry, as the vicious bird-creatures are attacking people all around.
"Young man!" Cassius calls out to the red-headed fellow. "Get back, those beasts are about to come your way!"
He gestures a quick spiral with one hand, and murmurs a word, aimed at the nearest of the birds. An almost invisible ripple tears through the air towards the bird.
Sadly, the twisting ripple of pure magical force misses widely. Frowning, Cassius snatches up his walking stick from where he'd rested it against the wall and takes a long-legged step closer to the knot of sort-of familiar faces.
If there's a cluster of them nearby, in a panic, Kiernan takes a 5' step closer to safety and casts sleep...dc 18 save.
Natalie's ray flies toward the birdman, but it doesn't seem to react and just squawks and glares in her direction.
Rodger's slice cuts straight through bird creature and the body falls to the ground in heap of feathers and gore.
As if enraged by their fallen comrade, two other creatures let out screams of rage and run in talons flashing at the Narciso.
Cassius' bolt flies but ricochets off the bird's beak bouncing away harmlessly.
And Kiernan's hex goes off toward the bird on the far end.
The bird creature seems to shrug off the spell. And looks furiously at Kiernan. It charges forward raking its talons.
The other bird attacking Rodger swings in at him again.
Narciso grunts in pain as the birds' talons rip into him. Shifting to engage the one to the south, he sticks out a leg to trip him up...
But the birdman maintains his feet, and Narciso curses under his breath, clutching a bleeding gash in his arm and drawing a dagger with his left hand.
Natalie will move next to the fountain and use the aid another with Narisco
Rodger easily evades the Bird's attack, stepping out of its path.
Rodger turns to the other bird, inspects it and shouts:" They are some manner of Tengu, though a different species than I have ever encountered."
Then Rodger swings with all his power, trying to decapitate this attacking bird.
The bird Narciso tries to trip slides out of the way and brings its slashing talons down at his head.
Rodger's blade barely misses the birds neck as it dodges out of the way.
The crazed creatures let out a frenzied cry, and one lunges toward Rodger, while the other swings at Narciso.
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"This is.... not ideal," the half-orc mutters, seeing the enemies crowding on them with little damage done to them. He swears in Orc (it's a marvelous language to swear in) and quickly looks around plaza for where he might do the most good. Hmmm, mathematics favor an approach that can incapacitate as many of these dangerous beasts as quickly as possible...
He takes a few strides towards the others and raises his free hand to gesture, his fingers mimicking a flower's bloom in a thrust out towards two of the birds. A rainbow pattern of lights erupts from his fingers, washing over two of the enemy.
Kiernan's eyes go wide, and he gasps, then, shaking, attempts to daze the bird-man...dc 17.
Lights burst forth from Cassius' hand springing at the bird being attacking Rodger. The creature clutches at its eyes and staggers back slipping and falling onto the ground and with out loud crack sound of its head hitting it falls unconscious.
OK...looks better...*whew*...looking around... I'll still daze the closest one.
"FOR CHELIAX!"
The bird shakes its head with a lound raucous squawk and looks perturbed at Natalie. Then before it has a chance to react, Rodger's blade slices through it's neck and its body falls to the ground.
Panting, Natalie says
Is everyone alright? Those were Tangy right? Like the one at the bar the other day?
Ummm... not quite the same, I don't think...like...maybe crows to a robin, I guess? Bird guys...
Kiernan is shaky...and twitchy...looking around...
"But still, how did they just appear out of the sky like that?"
Rodger looks over the battlefield again, wipes off the bird guts from his face and arms, then slowly walks over to the unconscious bird next to Narciso.
"Should we tie it up and question it?" Rodger looks around at the adventurers and asks.
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Cassius isn't an adventurer. He's an innocent bystander who just happened to be able to help out, thank you.
"Do we have that authority?" he says with a blink at Rodger. The tall half-orc looks around for the kings' guardsmen. Surely they should be the ones to interrogate prisoners associated with the king's abrupt disappearance.
"As for how... well, by magical means, naturally. One moment."
Cassius murmurs a spell to detect the presence of magic, and looks over the spot the king vanished from, where his crown yet sits.
You notice as you turn around that besides the few creatures that fought you there are several corpses littering the streets around the square. Various citizens are crying and holding injured limbs and several guards are cleaning up their weapons of blood and feathers.
One of the guards looks up and notices your group standing over the birds, "Are you alright, do you need any help citizens?" He then notices that they are unconscious or dead and sighs. "Ahh good, these are taken care of. Did any of you see what happened?" he looks clearly distraught and glances warily about.
"Didn't see a thing, officer," Narciso calls back, sheathing his rapier. "'Sides, isn't that your bloody job?" he mutters, too softly for the officer to hear. Striding over to Cassius and Natilie, he comments, "Looks like you'll get your wish for 'authority,' impotent though it may well be. Have either of you been able to figure anything out?"
Speaks with the raccoon on her shoulder.
Ricky and I believe it's a summoning spell, but it augmented by something powerful and... malicious. I'll talk to Cassius in a bit but first I must tend to the wounded, you should get some guards and take care of those bird creatures.
Natalie will go around the plaza giving a healing hex to all that need it and when that's done, condolences to those o lost loved ones.