She can see they are doing there best, if only she could get a message to the others, there was a way, a means, it would hurt but she could see no other way. She took HexQin off her belt.
::"HexQin, find them and tell them to rush to the gate at once, I'g going to throw you in again, do your best"::
"I'm going to seed my construct back into tell them to get a move on. And show them the way to the gate, lets hope it works, if not then great stars help them."
She moved up to the gate taking our some cloth, she rapped it around HexQin, then in one action throw I'm back into the belly of the beast.
::I will do my best mam::
The rag ball fly's throw the air and into the gate.
, you head into the path of the encroaching fog and witness the reappearance of the creature first hand as it leaves the fog, twisting in the air and landing on the cobblestones in front of you For the first time you manage to get a good look at the thing.
The upper portion of the creature is normal - monstrous, but normal. Seemingly made of the same wrinkled fleshy material as the Schultenbrak it is nonetheless sleeker, built like some scale-less drake from the waist-up, complete with tattered wings. Its head is nothing more than a nub of flesh, absurdly small and bereft of features other than a set of small hollow chambers, through which the clicking noise that you've been hearing emanates.
It is below the waist that the creature becomes something more than abnormal, and becomes something truly horrific - instead of legs the creature moves on the mangled corpses of orcs and men, mashed together and woven into eachother like a coat of vines. Their eyes are not open, and their mouths don't move or plead (though you half expect them to), but their hand grasp at the air ceaselessly - when the creature takes a step to steady itself upon landing it does so onto a score of hands, with dozens more blindly groping.
Baldwin sprints after Jack to the building that Roger indicated. The sooner he gets to Tarun and hopefully helps him out, the faster they can all get our of here. His new legs slap against the street as he runs into the building.
After getting inside, Baldwin looks around, unsure of where Roger placed Tarun.
After spotting Tarun, Baldwin rushes over to his side to look him over. "Tarun, can you hear me? It's Baldwin, the spirit-seer or whatever they called me earlier."
Lands with a bump rolling in the cloth once still it Let's go
Then unwrapping its self HexQin places it's spider like legs on the stones And looks around the null field made use of any kind of power impossible, it felt odd, but it had a task to do. Step by step it started to move, there was sound, clacking? A sound of..
Hexqin scuttles out of the fog behind the winged creature -
Jack and Baldwin, you locate Tarun in a small room up the stairs of the building. He barely registers you arrival - his arm is broken, a piece of bone showing through the rough splint he and roger were able to construct for him. He looks weak, feverish.
Jack races up the stairs, calling for Tarun. When he sees him Jack pauses for a precious second.
If I move him, he could lose the arm. If I don't, he's dead.
Apologising quickly in orcish he slings the dead orc over one shoulder, and carefully lifts Tarun. Carefully yes - but quickly also. Allies are dying to buy them time to escape.
He turns to Baldwin and the nameless orc
"Lead" he instructs.
HexQin starts winking on and off, a dull green light in the fog., he keeps his place as he dos this.
"hhheeelllooo Maaaammmaaa ssssaa ssssaa yyyooooouuuu ssshhooouuudd comeeee thhhhiiss wwaaayyyy" a faint voice says.
John, you feel your judgement catch... and then slip away like mercury. Your shot, however, flies true. The creature rears up in pain, a spray of blood from his head signifying your hit. Mere moments later Roger slices into the creature, too short to hit the now-bleeding head but landing a blow on its sinuous neck.
Enraged, the creature spins and lashes a tail toward the burly rogue, the mass of flesh and twisted limbs...
... catching on the nearest wall, leaving the creature open to attack.
Baldwin huffs rather irritatedly, "Let me see him before we run off after the others, as I'm guessing we'll do."
Baldwin places his hands on Tarun's head and whispers "Heal".
He can feel the strain more than normal, the spell leaves him rather breathless. He doesn't know how much good it did, but hopefully it helped cure Tarun's fever.
Jack growls quietly
"Roger and John are maybe dying. Sallrana is maybe dead. We need to , even if it only means we get Tarun's body to the forest."
"Mmmmaaaaammmm ssssaaaayyyysssss hhhuuurrrrryyyyyyy, ttttthhhhheeeee ggggaaaatttteeee wwwwiiiiilllll nnnnoootttt ssssssttttttaaaaayyyyy oooooppppeeeennnnn ffffoooorrrrr llllooooonnnnggggg, ccccccooooooommmmeeeee tttttthhhhhhiiiisssss wwwwwaaaaayyyyyy aaaaassssss fffffaaaaaasssssttttt aaaaassssss yyyyoooooouuuuu cccccaaaaannnnnn"
HexQin starts saying this over and over wile winking on and off, its as if hes in a slow time frame.
Time is slipping away,
Jack turns suddenly, his large ears swivelling.
His mind races
Most hotels have reasonably large windows, possibly with balconies. A second floor is typically ten feet above the ground. We should all be able to survive a ten foot fall. Height will give me the ability to triangulate Hexquin's location.
Instantly he explodes into movement, barreling through doors in a straight line of destruction towards the sound.
Jack smashes through the window in a rain of glass, sheltering Tarun with his body. Neatly he steps off the balcony and falls ten feet to the ground, his new legs deforming momentarily as he lands in a crouch and takes off at a sprint.
""ppppplllleeeeeaaaasssseee ccccccooooooommmmeeeee tttttthhhhhhiiiisssss wwwwwaaaaayyyyyy eeeeevvvvvvvveeeeeeeeyyyyyoooooooonnnnnnnneeeee qqqqqiiiiiiccccccckkkkkkklllllyyyyyyyyyy"
As if in slowed time, it voice deep HexQin calls out in the fog.
wink........wink.........wink........
it's dull green light winking slowly
Hexqin, a stray round from John's pistol ricochets off of the cobblestone to your left but you stand strong, a blinking beacon in the fog.
John and Roger, the creature before you is still tangled in the building, allowing Roger to take a might swing at the thing's exposed belly - the attack hits home, severing almost to the spine, yet the creature shows no more reaction than a series of harsh clicks and a renewed struggle to free its tail. John, your first shot goes wide but your second hits squarely, again striking the face of the thing as it turns to attack.
Roger, the tail cracks across your chest like a whip and feel the (probably familiar) internal snap of breaking bone, but you've faced worse from... well, actually probably not from bigger. But certainly worse.
Jack , you feel your legs take the strain as you land but the joy f the moment is robbed from you by the situation - you can see Roger and John engaged with the creature that has been hunting you, and as Tretotten lands awkwardly next to you you also notice the blinking of hexqin in the fog, tantalizingly close yet blocked by the combat before you.
Baldwin, Jack leaves the building by the most direct route and the brother orc follows, leaving you alone on the upper floor.
[spoiler=The gate and john]
Sallrane runs off as john flops onto the deck.
"Medical help here the judge is hurt, john the others are they coming ?"
She looks at him, then looks past the gate
"John did you see HexQin? is it still intact?"
::"HexQin if the others are lost come back"::
John, your shot flies straight as an arrow, through the centre of the creature's wildly swinging nub of a head...
( rounds)
... and the creature rears back, the belly of the thing splitting from the movement due to Roger's earlier slice, the mashed-together bodies that make up the rear portion of the creature flailing wildly and trying to pull themselves free, their eyes and mouths opening as they return, briefly, to life. Through the rippling motion of their bodies you see what looks to be a cracked church-bell, the brass of it stained-dark and inscribed with symbols that hurt your eyes.
Roger, you don't know what's just happened, but you know an opportunity when you see one.
Hexqin, on the other hand, tells a different story - your link with him is tenuous at best, but as far as he is concerned the rest of the others that he can see are not only upright, they've recovered Tarun - and John is with them, fighting the shadowed creature alongside Roger.
Sallrana steps back from John,
"hes one of the others, he could be a shade, I have been told John is with the others heading for the gate"
'One of the... I don't...'
The man who is not John passes out before he can finish the sentence, slumping to the deck - in response to your words two burly men in slacks and heavy jackets bustle forwards, grabbing him by the arms and pulling him away from the gate, past the mages and towards the side of the ship.
If they look to be throwing him over the ship she will call out to stop them.
Hexquin and John are on the fog side of the creature
Jack and Roger are near each other on the un-fog side of the creature.
The creature is Large, or Huge, or Colossal?
Is there room to run past it? How far must be travelled for Jack (and Roger) to get past to the gate?
Baldwin has not followed Jack down.
Get ready to run, I'll distract it. Take Tarun. Baldwin...
Jack notices Baldwin is not with him.
John, after exposing the heart of the creature your second shot flies wild, but your bout of savvy marksmanship previously is paying dividends for Roger. The large rogue lands a blow on the creature's heart, causing the bell to toll in a sombre fashion.
The creature flops about, carried by its treacherous rear portion and in obvious pain, turning blindly toward the small thing whose ranged attacks left it so vulnerable. John, from the opened chest area it sends gouts of pale blue flame that wash over you, a terrifying and aggressive absence of heat directed your way...
, you turn round and shout for Baldwin just as a second one of the creatures swoops overhead from around the crossroads, slamming into the building you've just jumped down from. You hear a shout of surprise from Baldwin and then see him, grabbed and helpless in the mass of bodies that makes up the creature's undersection and legs, struggling to free himself as the flying thing leaps from the building and swoops low overhead, banking up at the last second and heading over the encroaching mist, disappearing deeper into the city with your comrade in tow.
Tretotten screams impotently beside you at the retreating thing just as another slams down in the street next to you, clicking aggressively.
:::"HexQin to me":::
She try's to use far hand to pull him back.
"THHHHEEEEEE. GGGGGGGAAAAAATTTTTEEEEE. IIIISSSSS CCCCCCCLLLLLLOOOOOOSSSSIIINNNNGGGGGGGGGG......... Good byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I DDDDIIIIDDDD MMMMMYYYYY BBBBEEESSSTTTT S....."
Is pulled in to the gate
The fog is beginning to recede, and those watching him see Hexqin dragged backwards, disappearing. Wherever Sallrana was sending messages via Hexqin from, the 'doorway' appears to be destabilizing...
HexQin is pulled to her hand, she holds him for a moment, letting life return than says
"Report HexQin"
::"so others can hear please"::
"Mam I could only see, Roger and master john where fighting a winged like being, in fact one of three, there where two others, then Master Jack smashed out of a building and was coming to the gate. I did not see Boldwin until just before I left, one of the things had him. Roger hurt one of the winging things, it had a bell with something most odd written on it in its belly. As well as the body's of others it had eaten. Mam your body was there. They where coming but now with three things attacking them they will be hard pressed to make the gate. The last thing I could see what John being hit by some form of Ray, it hurt him badly mam. O I see master john is here"