As they walk past the odd scene, Razif briefly pauses and glances at the blood tracks. "Um, Undrella, is there some beast of sorts beyond the corner that the blood tracks come from?"
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Undrella barely breaks her pace as she tosses a response to Razif.
”Is probably coward gnoll who ran from me. It is likely mewling in fear in guard station. We will kill soon on our way to Kardswann, yes.”
With that comforting reply, Undrella makes for an open doorway to the west.
Layaali follows close to Drael and Razif, with the gnomes right behind her.
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"Hm. I'd rather not give him the opportunity to call for reinforcements. One bunch of arrow-raining cowards was more than enough."
Razif starts edging towards the turn in the hallway. "I'll take care of it and get back to you all. It'll be but a moment."
Drael nods, Call for help if you need it.
He turns away from Razif, following Undrella towards the doorway.
Razif pulls out his thieves' tools and tries to pick the lock.
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Razif thinks he has the lock picked, but just can’t get the tumblers you align.
Meanwhile, the harpy smiles warmly at Drael from just inside the sole occupied storefront on the second level. ”Behold, the Infusium!” she pronounces, fanning her arm out to gesture at the strange alchemical apparatus against the west wall. It appears to be a maze of glass beakers connected by rubber tubes, seven of which extend from the wall, ending in syringe-like needles.
”Was here before Kelmarane fell. I learned to use it. I can use it on YOU.” she leers at Drael with a semi-maniacal smile. ”A gift from your lover so you may kill Kardswann all the faster.”
Undrella moves to a large alembic and lights a candle underneath it. ”I can gift the others as well, if you wish. Say the word. But, it will sting. Just a little.” The grin remains.
Drael seems completely unfocused on the machinery around them, as he looks around the second floor. Where do you think he is? How far is that?
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”He is upstairs with Urgruk,” Undrella purrs. ”You must climb the stairs through the guard station; it is likely guarded and trapped.”
Meanwhile, Razif attempts and attempts again at the locked door. After what feels like forever (but amounts to ten minutes), the ranger feels satisfaction as the lock mechanism clicks and the door loosens on its frame. Cautiously opening the door, Razif gets a brief glimpse of a guard station room and a large table tipped on end in front of an internal set of stairs going up at one end before the flash powder under the door responds to the friction and goes off.
The ranger yells out, blinded, barely noticing the lithe form moving past him into the room.
”Coming through!” a sweet female voice sing-songs in his ear. A bow twangs somewhere in front of the blurry glare that is the ranger’s vision and something metallic clinks, followed by the thunk of an arrow into wood. A yipping growl and a throaty squeal sound out, followed immediately by a slash, a yelp of pain, and a heavy thump onto a wooden floor.
”No no no no no NO!!!” crescendoes what Razif thinks is a goblin’s cry before a short sharp gurgle ends the chorus. The ranger’s eyes fade back into a normal spectrum of light in time to see Jank the goblin slide off the end of one of the rapiers wielded by a beautiful half-elven woman who he has never met. A face-down gnoll quivers in its death throes at the edge of the overturned table. The woman hops down off the chair from which she had high ground and looks Razif up and down.
”Going my way?” she says, gesturing a blade up the stairs.
Drael nods, Make me harder to hit. I'll need all the help I can get staying alive until this is over.
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"Come, love. Sit here next to the infusium." Undrella directs Drael to a seat along the west wall. "I will need your arm, my love." Once bared, she brings one of the needle-topped tubes close to Drael's well-muscled arms.
"You will feel a pinch; it is nothing."
A searing pain lances briefly into the suli's forearm as the needle enters. Before Drael can react, Undrella chirps "DON'T move! It needs a few minutes to mix with your blood. Who else would like a gift?"
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The mysterious half-elven female wipes the blood of one blade clean on the tunic of the jester-capped dead goblin and sheathes it. She then vainly pulls a silk scarf up to the top of her head, veiling her slightly-pointed ears, all the while staring serenely at the gaping mouth of Razif.
"I'll wait."
Completely confused by the chain of events after finally opening the door, Razif struggles to find the words for a bit. "I, uh, Kardswann." After tripping over his words for a bit, he manages to explain the situation.
"I certainly won't stop you, but before I head anywhere I'll need to regroup with my friends."
He extends his hand to her. "Judging from your choice of opponent, we're on the same side here. I'm Razif al-Akkuya, gnoll hunter. Pleased to make your acquaintance, but if you don't mind me asking, what's your story?"
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Slide 16 (what she looks like)
The swordswoman's eyebrows fly up and her eyes go wide at Razif's words. She breaks into a raucous laugh. "'You, uh, Kardswann?' That's the worst Kardswann impersonation I've ever heard!"
She shakes her head with chuckles and reaches into her belt pouch. She flips the ranger an object from the pouch in one fluid motion and closes it again. "Razif - you're one of Drael's friends, right? Listen, I'm on a bit of a schedule here, so I don't have time for a story. I'll keep it short: go ahead and give that to Drael and let him know that he looks like he finally took my advice and stopped eating swine. I won't wait up for y'all but maybe if you're speedy, we'll meet up again outside the battle market. Keep your head about ya, Razif."
She turns to race up the stairs, rapier leading her way, stops and bends down, winking at Razif.
"The name is Haleen. Haleen Kapernos. Ta-ta for now."
And with that, she's gone. Looking down at the coin in his hand, Razif finds a hammered copper piece with a scratched-in stick figure of a girl bearing a sword on one side, and a shorter stick figure of a boy bearing a hammer on the other. The edges of the coin are shiny and worn smooth, as if the talisman has been well-handled over the years.
After taking a moment to dumbfoundedly process this whirlwind of a last few minutes, Razif rushes to retrace his steps and heads for the room the others are in. He immediately notices the Infusium and is filled with yet more questions, but leaves those ones be for now.
He explains the events as they happened, how he traced the blood to a guardhouse, got a flashbang for his trouble, and how a half elf woman immediately dashed in, took down the two monsters inside, and left soon after.
"We exchanged a few words... Well, she did, mostly." He turns to Drael. "Do you happen to know a Haleen Kapernos? She seemed to be pretty familiar with you. Something about stopping eating swine?"
For the first time since they've come upstairs, something breaks through Drael's focus on finding Kardswann. He turns quickly, unadulterated shock on his face, She was here? Did she say why?
Taking a second to compose himself, he explains. She's my half-sister, haven't seen her in years. I knew she practiced a lot with swords when I was younger, but have no idea what she actually does or why she's here.
"Well, she seemed to be in a hurry. Like I said, when I opened the lock to the guardhouse and got hit by that flash powder, she swooped in, took down Jank and the straggler gnoll, and pretty quickly hurried up the stairs after we talked. She seemed to know Kardswann, though... You think she might be after him as well?"
He walks over to him and gives him the coin. "She also told me to give you this. Is that supposed to be you two? It's cute."
Drael shakes his head, No idea if she's after him, or why she would be.
After turning the coin over in his hand, he pockets it, a small smile on his face. Yeah, this is us.
Layaali nods at Undrella. "Thank you."
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Undrella grunts as she straps Layaali's arm to the strange glass, leather, and rubber device. She injects the aasimar's forearm with a sharp-tipped needle; the pain is intense but brief. She then wordlessly turns to the others. "Who else?"
Rab-rab wants mage armour! She asks nicely.
Min asks for a spider climb.
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Undrella swiftly hooks both of the gnomes up to the machine once they’ve made their requests. With four of the members of the party attached to the infusium, the harpy turns to Razif.
”Dune walker, are you going to accept my gift?”
After getting caught up on the Infusium, Razif nods to Undrella.
"Invisibility, please."
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Undrella grunts at Razif's request and plugs his arm rather painfully into the infusium. Drael is the first to be finished with the infusion, his form and outline fuzzy to the eyes of all the others. Soon thereafter Layaali, Rab-rab, and Min get freed by the harpy - none of which look any different to the casual observation.
Late to the infusium, Razif's time seated at the strange contraption extends further than the others. At the moment of his detach, however, the ranger vanishes from view.
As soon as Razif vanishes, Drael looks up at Undrella. Well, where to? Let's get this over with.
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Undrella smiles at the suli and traces a taloned finger across his chest. "I told you, lover. You must climb the stairs through the guard station; it is the only way up for you unless you wish to climb like the gnome boy can now climb."
"I cannot come with you, no." She shakes her head slowly, a dark look coming over her face. "Kardswann, he can control my mind. He, or whatever he has become. I dare not travel with you. I will await your victory here, my love."
"Ah, the guard station, that's where I met Haleen. Just follow me."
Razif moves into the hallway to head out, but eventually moves back into the room.
"... Maybe one you should keep hold of me so you guys can see where to go."
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One hand on the invisible Razif, Drael leads the others out of the alchemical laboratory and back to the guard station. A large overturned table stands in front of the interior stairs to the battle market’s uppermost floor. Fresh blood soaks the corpses of a gnoll and the goblin Jank, both lying in twisted heaps on the floor near the table.
Drael moves slowly behind Razif, looking around for any sign of more enemies as they pass the corpses left by Haleen.
As they approach the stairs, he gestures to Layaali and the gnomes, beckoning them forward.
Razif slowly moves up the stairs, scouting ahead where possible.
Min tries to sneak after the others, staying at the back of the line.
Rab-rab stays at the back with her brother and King Jack-jack. She tries to be super sneaky!
Drael does his best to keep quiet as he follows Razif.
Layaali follows Drael, but walks ahead of the gnomes, trying to be quiet on her way up the stairs.
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Razif sneaks up the staircase, hugging the outside wall, reminding himself of his invisibility as he goes. The stairs lead up into a large chamber. A large rack of javelins line the west wall, a single open doorway the only interruption. In front of the west wall (and behind an upturned table), crouch two of the largest gnolls that Razif has ever seen, both sporting cocked javelins. Both of the gnolls watch the stairwell carefully, but neither seem to see the ranger.
Razif moves back and informs the others of the situation. "How should we approach this? They're clearly waiting for us."
Drael thinks for a moment as Razif describes the situation. Do you think you could sneak past them and see if Kardswann is inside? There's no point fighting them if he's not even here.
"No can do, they'll catch my scent for sure. I could maybe try to push over the table so they won't be able to use it for cover anymore, though? It'd at least tip the scales in our favor a little."
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Time passes slowly as flames gutter in their torches. Barking yips are heard deep within the fortress-like compound. The cramped and empty staircase beckons.
Drael shrugs, flickering in and out of sight. Nothing left to explore then, it seems. Shall we attack?
"Ready when you all are."