Seeing the halfling attacking his drake-companion, Amari quickly pulls the bowstring again.
And again.
(probably not)
Amari's second arrow downs the halfling. Both the halfling and Drakar lie bleeding in the alley, the whole process being remarkably silent aside from three twangs of a bowstring.
Ashivla moves up to the site of the fight and looks up and nods at Amari and signs to him.
<Good job.>
She kneels down to the halfling and displays her kukri, making sure no one is watching.
Ashivla whispers, "Lo'Laan, please see if you can help Drakar."
Lo'Laan approaches his downed comrade and with a light touch casts a cure spell on the Wyvaran. "You're lucky we returned when we did Drakar." Lo'Laan chides.
The halfling seems to be bleeding out.
Drakar's ears ring as he comes to, after blacking out for a bit. He lays on the ground and clenches a fist, as he prays to Pharasma to cure his wounds. "Ooowww." He "Ow." slowly "Ow." stands "Ow." up, and sees the motionless halfling laying there. "Is he dead? I hope he's not dead, because if he stabbed me and we don't get anything out of it, I'll..." he drifts off as blood loss clouds his brain. "Well, I guess I can't do much to him, but Aroc will pay."
Ashivla frowns. "I think we have enough information to assault them tonight. And we did get something out of it, Drakar." She leans down and quietly slits the halfling's throat. "There's one less of them to worry about."
She cleans the blood from her kukri with the halfling's cloak. Then she finds a cloth to put over his body and wrap it in. She looks up and signs to Amari. <Rope? We need to pull him up to our room.>
Amari quickly lowers a rope from the window as soon as Ashivla has signed him.
As soon as the dead man is fixed he pulls him up, making good use of the window frame for support - luckily it is the halfling and not the big scaley fellow from the other evening...
+++ Later +++
Once everyone is back in, Amari will ask how Ashivla and Lo'Laan have faired, then signs:
<We must act this night or the halfling will be missed and the targets are warned.
No time to kill and properly hide another body.
Let's let the thief live.
He can't warn a dead men even if he wants to.>
Lo'laan shakes his head. "Him warning the smugglers was the least of our worries. If you don't have the stomach for what needs to be done then I will take care of him."
Ashivla nods slowly, then looks to the silent monk. "He knows what we are Amari. We were given clear instructions in how to deal with this. We cannot take the chance he will talk. We must kill him, find a way to bring their bodies out into the desert for the sands to have them. Then we enact our plan and strike and be gone before the sun rises."
<Fine. I'll bring them out one hour after nightfall.
As soon as I am back, I will lead you to the tunnel entrance.
Ashivla, can you disable the roof door in the meantime?>
The signs come quickly, nearly hasty.
Ashivla nods. "Yes, I can do it. Good, then we have a plan."
She goes over to where the thief is tied up, then braces a hand on his chin and another on the top of his head like her instructors taught her and jerks the head to the side, severing the spine.
"We wait here for cover of night. No one enters this room. Amari, I'll help you dispose of the bodies we need to do this without anyone noticing."
The group of Shadows head silently to the warehouse. The other three keep watch while Ashivla climbs onto the roof.
Ashivla draws on her timeline again, visions of a distant future's sensations and expertise flooding into her muscles. She maneuvers about the rooftops like a cat in the moonlit night. Then she sabotages the latch on the roof door, causing it to malfunction when opened and stick closed.
She then climbs back down the outside and heads toward the tunnel entrance to prepare their assault.
When she gets to the other, she nods. "Now, we'll need to make the first part of this quiet. Let Amari and I sneak ahead to incapacitate any guards. I'll also need to rig the tunnel's entrance to cave in in case they get past us. That might be the best thing, getting them to commit to the tunnel so that they are trapped. Maybe we leave Serenity here to guard the entrance and make sure none escape if I can't cave-in the tunnel?"
The halfling guard doesn't notice as Ashivla slips through the darkness to the roof, where she sabotages the lock. She descends with equal silence and the group quietly follows Amari toward where he saw the tunnel.
Due to their synergy, Ashivla and Amari slip through the night in extreme silence. The group crawls with agonizing slowness over the rough hills north of Lopul until Amari raises a fist to halt. There is a human in armor standing near the tunnel exit.
He doesn't seem to have noticed your presence.
Ashivla peers down at the human man, surveying the situation. She turns and signs to Amari, <We'll go together like we planned. Get in position, then if the others can't sneak in, we'll be there close enough to surprise the enemy.>
She looks to the others and points at herself and Amari, then the man down the hill. Then she makes a sign for passing time, then points at the man again. She nods with a questioning look at Lo'Laan and Drakar.
Just like we planned?
When they are ready, she will sneak down the hill toward the man with Amari, as far up to him as they can get without giving away their positions.
Lo'Laan nods and waits for the pair to get into position before moving.
Following Ashivla in her footsteps, arrow on the bowstring.
Once they get into position, Amari will open the fight with a surprise volley, softening the man up so that his fellows can end him quickly before he can make much noise.
The guard seems oblivious as Lo'Laan's knees scrape some pebbles that rattle down the hill a little ways. You creep forward until Amari springs up and fires two arrows. The shaft misses wildly as the archer jumps to his feet.
"Now," Ashivla says to the others.
She reaches out and attempts to hook her kukri around the leg of the man to trip him, pulling on her timeline once again.
Falling into water. Clouds above fat with rain.
Ashivla barely manages to bring down the large man, her leverage on his thick leg sufficing.
Lo'Laan takes advantage of the opening and swings his polearm down like an executioner's axe.
Serenity lunges for the man's throat with a vicious growl.
Drakar leaps on top of the human, planting a foot on each of his arms, and reaches down to cover the man's mouth. "Dead men tell no tales, but wounded men shriek," he whispers at the threshold of hearing.
The group converges on the man with deadly efficiency. Drakar seizes hold of him while Lo'Laan and Serenity take advantage of his immobility to savage him, the great feline tearing out the man's throat.
12 gp
1 potion of cure light wounds
1 dagger
1 greataxe
banded mail
brown robes
You look behind the bushes he was guarding and see a dark tunnel just large enough for you to move through while hunching over. It is a rough, earthen tunnel supported by wooden beams.
<Good. Let's go in, slow and quiet.
Maybe they have set traps and they do not know we're coming, so we can take our time.
Drakar should take the potion, he is still wounded.>
"Yes," Ashivla whispers. "Drakar use the potion. Let's move up and see if we can't do the same to any other guards. If they're guarding the tunnel, they may be on alert. They may know we're coming. Be wary."
Ashivla slips down into the dark tunnel and beckons Amari forward to sneak with her out ahead.
This time it is Amari's turn to prevent Ashivla from a possibly dangerous-loud error, pointing out a heap of small stones on the ground, just befoe she could trip over them in the darkness.
Lo'Laan and Serenity follow the others down the tunnel taking up the rear of the group as they move.
You head down the tunnel into the darkness, moving quietly. You reach a wooden door at the end of the tunnel. Ashivla presses her ear against the wood.
Inside, you hear a male voice say Go replace Rade. His watch is over. You hear footsteps that seem to be coming closer to the door and boxes being moved.
Ashivla lets Lo'Laan stealth in front of her, keeping a hand on his shoulder to guide her. She motions for Amari to do the same. When she sees the door, she moves up and listens and touches each of them urgently twice on the shoulder. Then she moves behind where door will open, crouched and ready to trip the guard about to come through.
+++ As the guard comes through +++
Before the guard even hit the ground, surprised by Ashivlas trip, Amari is on him, seeking to silence the man with a tight arm lock around the mans chin and head preventing any shouting.
A man much like the one whom you surprised outside the tunnel steps into the tunnel. Lo'laan quickly closes the door after him while Ashivla trips the guard and Amaria catches him silently in a grapple.
Ashivla plunges her kukri down into the man intending to end him swiftly.
The kukri sinks into the man's soft flesh. Drakar follows up the strike with two fist blows.
The man tries to yell past Amari's arm.
He makes some muffled cries.
Lo'Laan cuts into the prone guard as the group descends upon the fool with practiced ease.
Serenity bites and claws at whatever flesh she can get a hold of.
The group finishes off the guard as quietly as possible. No sounds come from the door on the other side.
Ashivla searches around for the guard's health potion then tugs lightly on Amari's tunic, beckoning him forward in the dark. She waits and listens a bit longer trusting in Amari to pinch her if something doesn't sound right, before she opens the door a crack to see into the room beyond.
Ashivla peeks through the door and sees a tiefling at a desk with some papers looking at the door. The tiefling looks expectantly at the door and calls out
Come in Rade. Why are you wasting time with the door?
Ashivla pats each member on the shoulder once.
Go, go, go!
Then she shoulders the door, kukri out, feet skittering across the floor. She rounds the table and attempts to trip the tiefling, pulling on her future to aid her.
"I don't waste time," she whispers. "Every moment, every breath is precious."
Ashivla charges in, tripping the tiefling just as he stands up from his chair in alarm.
Amari propels into the room from a crouched stance, leaping onto the Tieflings desk with a long jump and uses this fortunate position to come crashing down on the downed man, seeking to lock his limbs in a tight grip.
Amari grabs the surprised tiefling in a death grip, trying to prevent him from doing anything problematic.
Drakar rushes in and throws a punch at the prone man behind the desk.
The tiefling's eyes grow brightly and he disappears out of Amari's grasp, reappearing on top of the crate near Amari. He then shouts
HELP ME!
Then he weaves his hands together, focusing on the three of you clustered around his desk, a sphere of glitter beginning to materialize around his fingers. But he leaves an opening for Amari to strike at him!
The wizard's brow furrows in pain, trying to hold onto the spell
but it fizzles out! But he still smiles as you hear an increasing number of shouts coming from the rest of the warehouse.
Surprised that the enemy slipped through his strong arms, Amari kicks out as he hears shuffling behind him, catching the Tiefling square at the chest.
He doesn't even grab his bow, but throws his weight against the man with wide-spread arms, ready to grab him anew!
It is difficult though, since the crate gets into the way, but the man clearly isn't trained in close-combat so maybe he falls this attempt as well.
Amari suceeds in grabbing hold of the tiefling trying to squirm free while lying on his back on top of the crate.
Lo'Laan and Serenity make their way into the room, the cat snapping at the prone mage. The Half-Orc waits for the mage to cast again before striking out. "Block the door." He growls out as the tiefling shouts for help.