Like Falina, Dom was all to familiar with that voice. Upon hearing the scream he bolts out of the room, dagger in hand. Sizing up the situation, he tries to spot where Wex might have gone.
IUDEIMUS TENEMENT (29 Gozran)
Rexus tells Falina that Wex fled back down the stairs after the ambush; Dom finds drops of blood on the stairs consistent with someone fleeing while carrying a bloody weapon.
Dom follows the trail as fast as he can carry himself.
"Blast! Let's go!" shouts T'chazzar as he springs out of a dark corner and into action.
Arani dashes out along with the others at the sound of Sabrina's screams, halting only long enough to realize what happened before taking off after her attacker following the blood trail. This was her city, and now she was the hunter with this bastard as her prey. Tonight, his rein of terror would end.
IUDEIMUS TENEMENT (29 Gozran)
T'chazzar, Arani, and Dom race past the manager's office at the bottom of the stairs and back into the streets of Kintargo. Arani spots a few more blood drops and then spies Wex; the killer is climbing up the side of the tenement at an extraordinary rate of speed, heading for the bedroom window of his flat on the third floor. The man's barely using his hands in the ascent; it's obvious he's using magic to facilitate his climb.
Falina saw most of the others tear off after Wex and only Davina remained behind. Falina knew she couldn't just leave Sabrinah here like this so she rose and unlimbered her whip. Wex better be glad she wouldn't be the one who found him because she was going to enjoy making him suffer for this.
Falina called into the room, "Are you going to come help Sabrinah Davina?"
"Chert!" Dom swears as he sees the man take off up the side of the building.
"Arani, I'll bet you a sail you can't put an arrow right in his ear." Turning to T'chazzar he says, "Maybe stay with her just in case?"
Davina hears Falina's call from outside the window. She sticks her head out and sees a figure climbing up the wall. What to do? What to do? She studies him and quickly pulls her head back in, and waits sword drawn not even daring to breath.
I sure hope someone is still in the hall and hears the commotion.
With blinding speed, Arani fires a pair of shots at the climbing killer, the first arrow emitting a loud keening sound that draws all attention toward her target, hoping to draw Davina's eyes to the window, while her second is designed to both slow him down, and ensure an easy trail to follow.
"Get back up the stairs! Davina will need support!" she yells to her companions.
IUDEIMUS TENEMENT (29 Gozran)
While Dom and T'chazzar execute U-turns and race back upstairs, Arani looses a pair of arrows at Wex as he climbs. The first misses the agile killer but warns Davina of impending danger; the second takes him in the shoulder. Wex scrambles up to the window and opens it.
Dom hauls up the stairs as fast as his legs will carry him, racing to the apartment.
Falina didn't get a response from Davina and felt a wave of irritation as she rose. "I'll be right back luv." She turned and entered the room with her whip in hand. So help her she had no problem literally whipping Davina into gear to help Sabrinah. When she saw where Davina was looking she realized something might be happening.
Falina gave the bastard trying to crawl through the window and evil look and said a few words as she gestured forming an arrow of acid. She said darkly, "You," she drew back the whip, "hurt," she shifted her grip, "MY SABRINAH!" As she yelled Sabrinah's name Falina cracked her whip against the end of the arrow to set the acid into motion right at Wex's ugly face!
Watching the bastard throw open the window, The Black Thorn focuses on her prey, determined to bring Wex down, and end his reign of terror.
T'chazzar races to the window, ready to grab Wex if he tries to drop away and escape again.
Davina holds her action until Wex's head pops up in the window. If she sees him she'll stab at him with her rapier.
IUDEIMUS TENEMENT (29 Gozran)
Arani makes Wex pay for being a bit slow, putting two more arrows into the man but apparently not striking any major organs. The man throws a single angry glare her way; as annoying as the archer is, what Wex wants is upstairs in his apartment.
He finds his entry window held against him as well. Falina greets him with an acid arrow to the face, and Davina stabs him for good measure. To top it off, Wex finds a drow blocking the window. Further inside, he hears heavy footfalls drawing nearer.
"Who are you people??!!" he demands furiously. In anger he stabs at T'chazzar twice; somehow, he manages to stick to the side of the building while doing so. The drow manages to barely avoid each attack, enraging Wex further.
[spoiler=Secret GM Rolls]
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Falina's acid continued to melt Wex's face and as it did she lashed out with her whip.
Arani swiftly sends another pair of arrows at the malicious killer, determined to bring him down before he can harm her companions.
After her whip lashed out Falina stepped to the side to clear the doorway.
Dom locks his focus on the man in the window as he comes into the room. "Us? We're your reckoning."
"We are your end."
T'chazzar lashes out with both blades, lunging for a finishing blow right at the outset.
IUDEIMUS TENEMENT (29 Gozran)
Though Falina misses with her whip and T'chazzar whiffs with both his short swords, Arani puts another arrow into Wex, and he takes additional damage from her earlier thistle arrow and Falina's previous acid arrow.
IUDEIMUS TENEMENT (29 Gozran)
Davina stabs at Wex again but misses, her attempt thwarted by the cover the man gets from the window's edge. Wex snarls and decides this is a fight he can't win--at least on its current terms--so he scampers further up the side of the tenement and disappears onto its roof. As he does so, Davina manages to stab him lightly with her rapier.
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Falina's eyes widened as she realzied where Wex went and knew that he might be able to get behind them. That meant he would come through the hallway where Sarinah was! She quickly turned and went out into the hall, whip still in hand, and stood protectively over her girlfriend as she waited for Wex to appear, she was going to make him suffer for what he did if he came down that hallway.
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As Wex goes up and over the side of the building onto the roof, Arani slings her bow across her back, and quickly quaffs a potion, dropping the vial as she races across the street, launching herself into a spectacularly acrobatic leap to grab the highest ledge or window on the side of the building, immediately proceeding to scale the tenement's surface as quickly as possible.
T'chazzar does manage to give Wex a little something to remember him by.
After Arani leaps out the window, T'chazzar cranes his neck up to see what he can see.
Davina rushes into the hallway and looks for stairs that go up to the roof. "He's so darn slippery. I need to learn how to climb walls."
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IUDEIMUS TENEMENT (29 Gozran)
Wex makes good his escape--for the moment--but he's still trapped on the roof of the tenements...without his deadly killing instrument. Between Arani climbing the outer wall and Davina leading the others to a small staircase that leads to the roof, the Silver Ravens trap their prey in a classic pincer move. Even though he's trapped, Wex doesn't go down without a fight, screaming and stabbing like a madman until he's dropped.
Most of you are now on the tenement's slanted rooftop with the body of a serial killer bleeding out nearby. From this vantage point, you can see that Wex's dying theatrics have attracted the confused attention of several concerned citizens at ground level. What do you do?
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"Take whatever he has, and head downstairs. Get Sabrinah and Rexus, and slip away while everyone is distracted!” Arani says quickly binding the corpse’s hands and tying them with rope, the other end of which she ties to the sturdiest anchoring surface on the roof, rolling the body near the edge.
Once the others have made their way back to the staircase and headed down, she moves to stand at the edge, veil drawn, hood and cloak casting an ominous and imposing silhouette as she looks down on the gathering crowd.
"For weeks now, a ruthless killer has stalked the alleyways of Old Kingtaro by night, mercilessly butchering innocents in a series of violent stabbings. Decent working folk who sought nothing more than to go about their lives in peace. And yet, the dottarri do nothing, the safety of the people being of minimal importance to them.” She says loudly, a ring of righteous anger in her voice. ”Well no longer! Tonight, this part of the city can sleep a little bit easier, those who work the night…know that tonight, one more predator has met his end. This man…this monster... will take no more lives. The dottarri may not care about the people of this city, but know that there are those who still do, and will hunt the things that stalk the night. There are still those whose interest lies with the people of this city, we will not let the monsters win!” she says, raising a fist in a gesture that is simultaneously triumphant, Milanite, and revolutionary.
"Good riddance to bad trash," Dom says, as he sheathes his sword. "As Arani said, let's get out of here, and figure out some way to get rid of this piece of s***," he hefts the bag with the kukri.
"I heard what you said to Sabrina, about putting a collar and leash on her. I don't think that sort of treatment is good for Sabrina, and as someone who wore a slave collar for a good chunk of my life, I won't say I like that kind of talk. Can you ease it back a bit, please?"
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Falina was glad the bastard was dead after what he did to Sabrina, and all of the others he had hurt as well, but mostly Sabrina. The lash of her whip on the fool had done much to improve Falina's mood, though it had brought back dark memories of her time before that disturbed her. Falina turned before they finished rifling the corpse to go check on Sabrina when Domitus caught her and pulled her aside.
Falina gave Domitus a serious look and said, "But if she asks me to do such a thing to her that is her choice and I will be glad to for as long as she wants it. ," she raised one eyebrow then and asked, "can you accept that Domitus?"
As Falina asks her follow up question, Dom frowns thoughtfully. Finally he responds, not sounding terribly sure of himself. "I guess? I'll be honest, Falina, I don't understand that sort of thing, but I don't think I have to understand everything in this world." Thinking about it for another long moment, he asks her, "If one night, you found yourself wanting more than you thought she could give, could you stop yourself?"
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It worried Falina that she didn't know if she could stop herself or not. Finally Falina said, "If you had asked me this during the fall of the original Silver Ravens I would have said no. I would have drained her into a withered husk to fuel my powers and become a true half-succubus for my vengeance against Thrune. Now?" Falina looked lost as she said, "I don't know. I like to know my lover's limits so I know who I can afford to take how far. I've never actually cared about any of them before and it makes it so much harder to know if I could stop." Her shoulders slumped and one arm wrapped around her middle as she looked down and said, "The emotional involvement makes it both harder and so much more enjoyable, I have never been in this situation before Domitus and I...I just don't know." Her voice was quite small as she added, "If I did take too much and hurt her I don't know if I could live with myself."
"Again I'll say, I have no idea what goes on, but if you and she are both okay with what happens, I guess that's fine." He pauses, unsure how to word what comes next. "If some time, you find yourself wanting more than ogonka can give you, if I can stand in her place, let me know. I don't claim to understand what I'm offering here, but I was raised to protect her. Slave or free, I still wish to see no harm befall Sabrina."
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Falina started to step through the door and then paused. She looked back over her shoulder at Domits with a mischievous, naughty grin, and said, "Hmm, maybe you should join Sabrina and me sometime, I bet it would be loads of fun. I think I'll go ask her"
After saying something to Domitus with a wicked, teasing smile Falina quickly slipped down the stairs to go check on Sabrina.
Standing at the top of the stairs, Dom is alternately relieved and confused. All he can do is stammer, "Wait uh, what? No...!"
IUDEIMUS TENEMENT & THE STREETS OF OLD KINTARGO (29 Gozran)
From the rooftop, the Black Thorn makes her announcement to the citizenry of Kintargo on the streets below while the rest of the Silver Ravens slip out of the building and return to the Silver Stein Inn to regroup. Arani gets a few cheers and words of gratitude from some of the people below; others melt away, probably not wanting to be around should a dottari patrol be nearby to hear the vigilante bad-mouthing them.
At the inn, the innkeeper--Alyss Rustwell--provides the group with a private room to chat and plan their next move(s). Viroleth says that he can speak with Hetamon about ways to dispose of the serial killer's deadly blade, figuring the leader of the Milanites might have an idea or two on the matter. Sabrina thanks everyone for their support and healing after Wex's sneak attack.