Naali sighs a quiet sigh, and squeezes through the main door and back outside. For a master thief, perhaps the safe could be picked quickly enough, but not for her. Not enough time. Too many eyes and ears.
Naali slips past the man and although he notices something, he has no idea what.
The alchemist soon meets up with Anna out of earshot. The paladin, still in disguise says, 'Well, what did you find out?"
Naali sighs. "Well it doesn't look like there's any other ways in, just some tiny windows." She shrugs. "If we needed to get bigger, I could do something about that, but as is, it's the front door."
"The guy in charge, Dox, has an office where the safe, is, but it's locked and he has the keys. If he wasn't around, I might be able to get through it all, but it would take time."
"Besides, I couldn't very well leave you out here alone, right? Who knows what trouble a paladin could get into!"
Anna shakes her head, and even disguised Naali can see her exasperation. [b]"We already have a map. We could just leave right now and not worry about these smugglers until we come back and arrest them all.'[b/]
"Ahh, you're right. I can't imagine they're suddenly going to leave the door open. I'm wondering what those newer marks on Mastrich's map were."
"Mastrich already admitted he was going to spy on us where we were going, so I can't imagine it's just happenstance."
Anna looks a bit confused, "Are you agreeing with me or not? I can't tell by that gleam in your eye...."
"Are we waiting until tonight, breaking in and opening the safe or are we just leaving, and letting them sort themselves out?"
"No, no, you're right! We can't stay here much longer - I set up a chance to investigate and see if it would be doable, and I did that. It's too busy to check during the daytime, and if Encvaenves is right, then there are magical traps that I didn't even see while I was in there - I'd definitely run into those at night time, and I don't think I could do anything about them. It's too dangerous."
"Besides, we still have to go find our missing researcher, shouldn't dawdle on that either."
Anna looks relieved and says, 'When do we leave? now?" Then she adds, 'And when can I look like myself again?"
Naali snickers quietly. "Don't worry, it's not permanent. Let's get out of here and then if you just focus enough it should run its course over a couple seconds. Don't want to try to hitch the horses when we're disguised."
Quickly the two hide in a small alley, and the magic soon wears off, revealing them back to their usual selves.
Anna sighs, "Much better. Next time, can I have less warts?"
They find the horses and their supplies easily enough, although Naali does note more tension in town then usual, but it is hard to put her finger on.
"But that's what makes it such a wonderful disguise! Who would willingly make themselves like that?"
"Me, that's who - apparently!"
Naali would be happy once they left the town. It had been the worst outcome - open ended deals, untrustworthy sorts of people knowing about them. It could only end to make things worse farther down the road. Hopefully that trouble would at least delay until they returned.
Anna and Naali leave town, heading into the swamp. Almost instantly the ground turns to a brown goo and they are forced to pause. Anna says, 'I don't think we can get the cart through. Even with that map, the ground is going to be difficult."
Ahead of them lies the Cicitrix, the blasted swamp. It is vast and treeless, with the only plants Naali can see being stands of brown grass and green slime. The ground is rough, uneven, covered with pools, ponds, and sinkholes. Despite the lack of vegetation, an entire army could be hiding int his folded land, and she'd never know. A sulfurous smell suffuses the place, and int he distance, vast columns of black smoke reach toward the sky.
Naali sighs and hops down to lead the horse out of the mud. "Ah well, that was to be expected, I suppose. Should we just leave the cart on the road? I hope the gnomes didn't want it back too much."
"We could try to at least hide cover it up for when we come back, if we think we're lucky enough that nobody will bother to investigate."
Anna looks around, the blasted swamp gives little place. She wrinkles her nose at the smell and adds, 'Or go back into town and sell it?" she looks at the sky. It is early afternoon. "I can stay here with the horse or do you think that it too dangerous?"
"That we could - the gnomes made it well, we could probably get another horse so we don't have to share. As nice as it is, I don't think the horse is too fond of it."
"We might as well go together - I wouldn't want to stay any longer around the swamp than is necessary - that smell is going to be in our lives for the forseeable future." For once in her life, Naali was glad that years of alchemical work had dulled her sense of smell, but there was little that could banish the swamp stink completely.
As before the town is a bit uneasy, the gangs seeming restless. it probably has something to do with Naali's maneuvering over the last day or so. The delicate balance the town is based on is unsteady right now.
She even spots the red-haired leader she scorched, eyeing them from a shadow alley but he does nothing other then stare.
The market is, as before, a bazaar of the illegal and smuggled. Anna has to restrained herself several times from smashing the mouth of a merchant selling blatantly evil items.
A pot-bellied human trader offers to swap her cart for another horse.
Naali haggles with him a bit for feed and supplies, but ultimately trades the wagon and sets back out before Anna starts burning down stalls.
They manage to get out of town (again) without any impromptu vigilante action. Naali can tell eyes watch them though. Their leaving town is not a secret, but no one openly follows them.
The going is slow, even with the map. The soggy ground has many pockets and pools that could swallow a horse, not to mention banks of tough grass that grab at the horses' hooves, entangling them.
Despite the difficult terrain, Naali's new mount seems to be a clever and able beast. They dodge several swamp-like areas, pick through fire-blasted tree stumps, and creep through rolling hills of moss and ferns.
They make it miles out of town as the sun slowly sets behind them. Finally Anna turns and says, 'Time to make camp?"
Naali ties up the horses to the least rotten stump she can find. "Right, and we should plan where exactly we're going. We could try to head for one of those X's on the map, see if that's at least good information."
"Hey, we might be stuck in a swamp, but at least we don't need to worry about leprechauns stealing our food this time."
Anna makes a face at the smelly, vast swamp rising around them. "No, but we might be food to some of the things that live here. This swamp has an evil reputation."
As tot he plan the paladin shrugs, "You are the one you took the contract. I'm just the sidekick." She smiles as she says it, sliding off her horse and squelching into the mud.
"And that evil should beware, there's a new paladin in... swamp!"
Despite not expecting any leprechauns, Naali does fasten their bags on the horses, and finds the most firm ground to start planning the rest of their journey.
In much newer ink she sees a dot near the center of the swamp, not on any of the traced paths. It is unmarked and unlabeled.
Naali peers over the map and chooses one of the thin twisting trails that takes her close to the new, freshly inked dot. It seems to take her through a small forest and through a series of pools and small ponds. Otherwise, there isn't much marked on it.
'We setting a watch?" Anna asks, trying to make some type of camp on the muddy and unpleasant ground. 'A fire?"
"That depends - are you more worried about the animals that would be afraid of fire, or the distinctly-not-animals that would be drawn to it?"
"I can take first watch, you see better at dawn anyway."
Anna frowns, looking at the blasted swamp. "Can I be worried about both? But I do hate eating cold food. I vote for a fire, if that matters, although not sure if we there is anything dry enough.."
Anna finds a few bits of dry brush and grass but it is rather pitiful.
Naali smiles sheepishly as she arrives with an equally pitiful bundle of sticks.
They have a tiny fire as the night settles in. Huge numbers of biting insects come out in the darkness, covering Naali and Anna both with welts and bites.
'Any magic that can help this?" The paladin asks, slapping at a fat mosquito.
The entire swamp seems to gurgle and bubble at night, shifting and settling. It will be hard to hear anything approaching.
"I could try to brew something if we can find the right stuff around, but I don't think I have anything on hand."
Keeping a close eye Naali hears movement off to her left, and the barest shadows of movement. Someone is trying to sneak up on their camp.
Naali reaches into her backpack quietly, watching the edges of the forest as she focuses on what she's looking for - her urgency met with the reliability she's come to rely on from her magical backpack.
With a quick motion she pulls the eversmoking bottle from her bag and twists the stopper off of it. Clouds of dark smoke shoot from the bottle like a cannon, filling the clearing within seconds.
She dives from her seat towards Anna, kicking her awake. "Get your sword."
Her kick jostles the paladin, sleeping in most of her armor. Anna wakes up, 'What are we fighting?" she says, reaching for the pommel of her blade resting close by her head.
Smoke starts to fill the campsite, billowing up and out.
Dagger in hand, the alchemist listens but can hear nothing.
"Not sure yet, didn't want them to get you while you were asleep. I heard something sneaking closer. Ready?"
She corks the bottle again, dagger at the ready as the smoke slowly dissipates.
The smoke slowly fades away, revealing the swamp around them, flat and black in the dim moonlight. Naali can see, very distantly bright orange tongues of flames.
Closer to home, she sees nothing, scanning the unkempt grass and hillocks.
Then an arrows come whizzing out of the darkness, from behind her.
Naali just manages to dodge it, the arrow's fletching brushing her horns. Anna whirls, peering int he darkness but says, 'I don't see anything."
Then, in front, from where Naali heard the noise, two figures loom out of the darkness, charging in. One is the red-haired gang leader she burned when she first came to town. Murder flashes out of his eyes. Alongside is a smaller, thinner man with a long blade at his side.
"Over here!" Naali alerts Anna, shifting to face the two men.
"Drink this!" Naali shouts, tossing Anna a blueish vial before the men can move up.
Even as Naali starts to move the red-haired man, although he looks slow, bounds up to her, carrying a huge falchion. He is so close she cans mell his foul, ale laced breath. "You're mine this time, fiend." he swings his weapon at Naali's head.
It just misses, merely slicing some of the alchemist's hair.
"We already went through this whole thing! It didn't end well for you!"
She ducks under his swing and steps back before he can swing again, chucking a bomb at his feet.
'This time, I'm prepared and there is no one to save you." He roars just as her bomb hits. Instantly, ropy coils of tangling vines spring out, sticking to him.
With skill she can hardly believe he manages to dodge the entangling bomb and keeps his feet free. He leers at her, "Just you and me, demon spawn. I think the gods are favoring me"
Even as he speaks an arrow whistles out of the dark, zipping right at Naali.
It misses, and sticks upright into the boggy soil near the campsite.
Anna springs into action, drawing her blade quickly. "Betraying an agreement and attacking travelers does not earn divine favor."
As she speaks she tries to bring her blade down right on his head.
The blow goes wide however, and the man laughs as he dodges it.
Meanwhile the smaller, thin man has run up along Naali's other side.
Silently, he lashes out with his long blade.
A thin line of red slices up her leg, but it doesn't bother the alchemist much. More concerning is the green ooze dripping off the blade, and she can feel poison burning into her veins.
However, Naali is made of tough stuff and this is not the first toxic poison she had dealt with. She shrugs it off.
The tiefling has little time to reflect however, as the falchion comes swinging at her again.
Naali just dodges it, ducking below the wild blow.
Naali winces through the pain, and tries to take more steps back before she is surrounded. She takes more care in choosing her surroundings and lobs another bomb at the falchion wielding thug. She is uncharacteristically too focused for a witty retort.
This time the bomb catches the red-haired man off guard, and the exploding glue attaches firmly.
Once again Naali leaves the man burned and smoking. Cursing he shouts, "I don't care what kind of deal you made with the boss. You think you can come into my home and humiliate me?"
Another arrows comes streaking, as if punctuating his words.
This time the arrows find its mark, right between Naali's shoulder blades. It slices through her clothes, digging into her flesh.
Anna turns to the now entangled man and smiles, "I told you, you have been delivered in my hands."
For all her talk though, the fates do not agree for her blade misses again, barely cutting his armor and sinking into the entangling glue instead.
The smaller man takes another step, trying to flank Naali. He leaps through the campfire to get around her.
He leaps the low burning ashes and lashes out his his blade, now flanking her.
The blade hits, but she twists and it doesn't cause nearly as much damage as it could have. The thinner man is dangerous...
Entangled the leader snarls and tries to swipe at her.
The quickly hardening glue throws him off stride and he misses entirely, nearly falling on his face.
Naali yowls in pain as she reels from the arrow and following blow. "Ignore him, we have bigger problems!" Naali shifts to get away from the trapped man and avoid being surrounded.
Naali takes the risk to chug what appears to be an empty vial. With that, she disappears.
As she swigs her potion, the skinny man's eyes narrow and he attacks, but the blade only knicks her.
Then Naali is gone, invisible. With Naali gone, whoever is firing arrows shoots at the paladin instead.
It hits the paladin, jabbing beneath her armor. The elf ignores it though, turning away toward the skinny man.
Her blow lands, but the man manages to swerve and avoid most of the damage.
The red-haired man struggles toward Anna, glued and entangled legs sinking into the deep mud. Not flanking he clumsily lashes out.
His heavy falchion bounces right off Anna's armor though and she smiles grimly at him.
Things were dire - they were outnumbered and wounded already, and these didn't seem the type to take prisoners.
She reached once more into her backpack for her jar of smoke, and uncorked it again.
Thick smoke starts to re-fill the campsite, clouding everything. Anna moves away and vanishing into the banks of black smoke. Out of it, she can hear the paladin say in Elven, "What now, Naali?"
The two bandits seem to be struggling in the smoke and no arrows whine out of the darkness.