Astounded that Nalathi left her to deal with an enemy on her own, Zee stands over the unconscious Joanna. Her bladed scarf in one hand, she fixes the Tower Girl with a glare.
Teldon steps back and tries again to stab the girl who just tried to knock him out.
,
The Tower Girl chasing Nalathi clutches her brow as she runs...suspecting Ziomarra has something to with the feeling of dread washing over her, she scowls at the Varisian as she acrobatically skips past...
At the other end of the hut, with Teldon and Briana both failing to find their targets with their attacks...the fight is shaped more by the rain obscuring vision and the mud betraying balance than by any skill...
Once more, the Tower Girl moves in to attack Teldon...and skids on the mud, just catching herself before she falls.
Fixing Briana with a glare, the leader swirls and cracks her whip...and, stepping out of Teldon's reach, snaps it at Briana...but the leather is left to sting the air as the aim is well off.
With the Melee in full swing, no one notices Nalathi hiding in the shadows...
Joanna grimaces as the pain hits her like a sledgehammer. Her head throbs and her body feels like it did the first night after she'd been sparring with Titus for the first time. Her hair and clothing are covered in mud and filth and she looks more like a vagabond than a proper priestess at this point. She looks tiredly at Ziomarra and asks, "Zee, what's going on?" as she draws her sword.
Visibly relieved that her friend has come back around, Zee replies, "Thank Desna, you're awake! ...um, and the Inheritor. The short version: You hit your head when you jumped to save Natalya, and I went after both of you, and pulled you out. Natalya is still inside, alive but knocked out. The Tower Girls are after the artifact, which Nalathi now has. I don't know where Teldon or Bree went. Nalathi went THAT way!"
Placing her bladed scarf back around her neck, Zee draws the Thassilonian silver dagger, holding it as if ready to throw it.
"Can you and Nalathi handle the one after her?"
She slinks to the southwest corner of the building, getting as close as she dares, hoping she remains unseen. Absently her thoughts turn to the shard hanging around her neck, and she glances down at it. Okay, shard, she thinks at it. You seem awfully sought-after. Do you do anything special? Other than give me something to show off?
Teldon steps back from the crossbow woman, again, carefully positioning himself where he can reach both women with his spear. Then he tries desperately to stab her again...
,
To Joanna's question, Zee replies, "I think so!"
As the whip wielding woman strides closer to Briana, Teldon sees his opportunity and, as quick as a flash, sweeps his spear across her ankles… As she tries to whip at Teldon’s friend, she stumbles over his outstretched spear and falls flat on her face… The language she uses to curse Teldon is exceptionally colourful…
"Good." Joanna shakes her head and finally clears the glaze from her eyes.
"Good," she growls.
...at the southern end of the hut...
Above the rain, the wind and the clamour of fighting, an authoritative voice rings out..."What the bl**dy h*ll is going on here? Put your weapons down you stupid b*tches!!! You need to let these ones go!!! Explain yourself!!!", and then, strolling around the corner of the hut...an exact twin of the whip wielding Tower Girl...
...the two girls at the southern end of the hut stand with their mouths wide open in amazement....
"What? Do as I tell you, you damned moronic idiots!!!"
Everything takes a decidedly surreal perspective as this duplicate Tower Girl strides into view… Two of the Tower Girls stop in their tracks, momentarily forgetting the fight whilst their minds try to comprehend what is going on.
Stumbling to her feet, the leader of the Tower Girls starts shouting at her charges, ”What are you doing? It’s a trick, I’m me!!! Pull yourselves together”, and, as if to underline her fury, she whips at Teldon.
Nodding toward Jo, Zee follows the Tower Girl around the corner, and curses her with another Evil Eye.
,
Teldon surveys the positions of his enemies and calculates the costs and benefits of remaining prone... Seeing that he is not currently threatened, and reasoning that he is not the most likely target for the next round of crossbow attacks, he rises to his feet. For a moment he considers trying to bluff to further the confusion caused by the new arrival, but decides to wait and hope someone better suited for the task will do so; instead he simply stabs at the frustrated blonde leader.
,
A clone? That'll do it. Just the type of distraction she was looking for. Wondering briefly whether it was the shard that had done whatever it was, she inhales, preparing to hold her breath... and notices the other Tower Girl coming from behind her. Persistent thing, aren't you? The girl doesn't seem to have noticed her. Nalathi draws her shortsword, steps out from the shadows, and strikes.
Joanna comes from behind the shack with divine fire blazing in her eyes. Someone had tried to ambush them, the cowards, and at this point she really didn't give a damn who.
"Lay down your arms," her voice cutting through the last shreds of her folly, "This is your first and only warning!"
She marches forward, her sword out, and ready to come up in the blink of an eye.
The confused Tower Girl stands in absolute amazement for a moment until, stepping from the shadows, comes Nalathi...as further nagging feelings sink into her back, Nalathi cuts a severe blow across her legs...red blood splashing onto the dark mud of Underbridge.
Whilst, towards the other end of the hut, as the leader of the Tower Girls stands, Teldon manages to drive the spike of his spear through her armour. She scowls and spits in pain as her whip snakes around his legs pulling him over... only to watch him stand again and stab at her... this time missing wildly.
Briana’s pleas for the Tower Girls for a peaceful resolution would probably have gone a lot better if Nalathi hadn’t stepped out and stabbed one of them and, more pertinently, if Teldon hadn’t tipped their leader face first into the mud. As it is, her words do stay the sword hand of one of the Tower Girls…although this brief cessation of hostilities may be due to the duplicate leader berating her and ordering her to dropped her weapons immediately…
The Tower Girl injured by Nalathi grits her teeth against the pain and, drawing her sword, slashes wildly at the shadowy Wayang.
Whilst the leader, coated in mud and bleeding, drops her whip, draws her sword and charges at Teldon.
The girl draws a sword and swings it, but Nalathi dodges it easily. She counters with a stab of her own.
,
Teldon recoils from the blow, blood spilling from his arm and side... "Briana, they will not listen to reason, I need your help... please..." After coughing out his plea, he steps back 5 feet, toward Nalathi, positioning himself to provide a flank if Briana charges, and frantically tries to find another chink in the woman's armor with his spear...
,
Zee moves in to assist Nalathi against the Tower Girl.
Teldon and Nalathi both miss with their attacks, the rain making their grasp on their weapons difficult... But, sneaking up behind the Tower Girl, Ziomarra slides the knife that she is wielding between the ribs of the rogue attacking Nalathi...
...she screams in agony, turning around with a look of desperation in her eyes, she is clearly sizing up escape routes...
Joanna steps up and her steel-gray eyes bore into the Tower Girl's.
"Lay down your arms, I will not ask again, and you might not get a chance later." The young priestess puts as much iron as she is able into her voice.
Striding forwards through the mud, Briana realises that the leader of the Tower Girls, blinded by fury, has ignored the shaman entirely...and, hefting her mace, swings the blunt weapon at the woman's back. With the sound of cracking ribs, the force of the blow completely winds Teldon's assailant. In absolute shock, the woman turns to see Briana...realising they are outnumbered, she shouts,
"Run girls... Run!!!"
The two other Tower Girls need no further invitation and, looking towards the maze of huts towards the north of Natalya's Shack, try to flee...
Teldon shows no sign of chasing the fleeing Tower Girls, but rather turns his attention to the illusory leader saying, "Thank you for your assistance... to whom do we truly owe our gratitude?"
Joanna remains alert for a few more moments, once it has become apparent that they are indeed fleeing, the young woman closes her eyes and shakes her head. She looks up to the others, her eyes weary and her voice just as tired.
"What was that all about?" she asks as she looks after the fleeing Sczarni.
"I don't know, but good riddance!" Zee makes no effort at pursuit. She cleans the blood off the Thassilonian dagger as she walked around the building, grateful for the reason washing of the worst of the sewage on her clothing. She stops suddenly as she sees the clone of the Tower Girl leader. She takes a defensive position, but then relaxes when she notices that her friends aren't treating her as an enemy. "Who are you?" she asks. After the woman's immediate response, Zee suddenly gets a look of horror on her face. "Desna's wings! Natalya is still sitting in that cesspool!" She turns to hurry back to the open window.
Seeing an opening as the girl tries to run, she thrusts her shortsword into it.
Hitting only air, she scowls. "That's right, run!" she yells after them. "And remember who beat you!"
As Teldon addresses the duplicate Tower Girl left behind by the fleeing women, he notices that the rain is passing straight through her and splashing ripples in the puddles below her... The vibrancy and colour of the woman's clothing starts to wash out until all that is left is a monochromatic image that, moments later, blinks out of existence...
Briana, watching the girls run from the hut notices that the leader dropped, and left behind, her whip.
Gregor and Piotr still lay unconscious nearby.
Running back to the open window, Ziomarra sees Natalya in the place where she has been left...she remains unconscious but she is still breathing.
Teldon tries again, calling out a bit louder, "Do none wish to claim our gratitude? Whomever has assisted us, please show yourself that we might thank you!" While he speaks, he looks for signs of their secret ally...
Teldon looks around, his calls going unheard in this particular corner of Underbridge...and the rain continues to beat down upon you all...a cold rain yet, at this particular time, a cleansing rain...
Suddenly realizing that Zee was right, and chases after the young woman drops into the sludge to get Natalya out.
"Zee, can you pull her up if I get her over here?"
Zee pulls Natalya's unconscious body through the window. "Joanna, would you climb up to Natalya's platform and see if she left anything of interest up there?"
Zee then rifles Natalya's pockets looking for more clues to what happened...and for anything of value. She then casts detect magic and examines Natalya's belongings, liberating them.
She then fastens Natalya's hands behind her back with manacles.
After getting Natalya free of the sludge, she looks up to Ziomarra and nods, wearily.
Some wise servant of Iomedae I am. I stole into the night bare hours after my anointing. I've failed miserably with words and sword since then, and had to be pulled free of my folly after attempting to dive in like idiot from a bard's tale to save someone else, she thinks as she climbs up the ladder.
Something has definitely changed since the start of the day, beyond going from immaculately groomed and dressed, to looking like she'd fought for weeks in endless rain and mud. Joanna seems, defeated, tired. It's almost as if the last fight, or the spill she took, broke something inside her being.
She reaches the top and looks through it throughly, and noticeably keeping from the edge of the platform.
Joanna reaches down and hauls Natalya through the window. Her limbs ache, but the worst of it is her pride. Every mis-step, every fault, every tiny error she committed in last fight came back with pride, and confidence, shredding humiliation.
Some wise servant of Iomedae I am. I stole into the night bare hours after my anointing. I've failed miserably with words and sword since then, and had to be pulled free of my folly after attempting to dive in like idiot from a bard's tale to save someone else, she thinks as she sets Natalya against the side of the shack and turns back to pull Ziomarra out when the other woman is ready. After making sure Natalya was restrained, she looks to Ziomarra.
"Do you think the two of us can carry her?"
Joanna's shoulders are hunched by more than fatigue and injuries. She seems defeated, even broken, as she moves about and helps Ziomarra get Natalya out of the run down shack.
With Natalya, unconscious and bound, safe outside of the hut, Ziomarra discovers that the ex-Tower Girl was a relatively well accomplished thief... A bounty of treasure stored in her many pockets...
- Masterwork Mithral Short Sword
- Two Scrolls (both giving of weak abjuration auras)
- A beaten up wand (giving of a weak conjuration aura)
- A Tanglefoot Bag
- A Smokestick
- A leather pouch containing 55 GP
Furthermore, there is a faint transmutation aura coming from Natalya's boots.
Meanwhile, after helping retrieve Natalya, climbing the ladder and looking around on the platform, Joanna discovers several items stuffed into the chimney breast...
- A very elaborate climbing harness
- A well cared for pouch of what is likely to be thieves tools (lock picks, wire cutters, etc)
- A sack containing 33 GP, 86 SP, 192 CP, a brass comb, assorted buttons (some with gemstones) and a faded printed handbill declaring it's holder to be the 'Rightful owner of the Grand Mastaba of Korvosa'
Referring to Natalya's erstwhile guards, Zee says, "Let's leave them in their old guard shack. At least they'll be out of the rain. They should cone around by themselves in a few minutes."
Regarding Natalya and the bauble around Nalathi's neck, Zee adds, "Let's head back to the Pathfinder Lodge and show Lady Heidmarch what we've captured."
"I suspect that the item was exerting some influence on miss Vankaskerin... It seems too connected to be a coincidence that she was overcome with Pride, one of the seven sins of ancient Thassilon, after taking possession of it..."
Kneeling in front of Nalathi as he speaks to everyone, Teldon inspects the item for any symbols, sigils, or snippets of language.
"It would be in our best interest to carry it in a bag or backpack where contact will be more limited than if it is worn... and, yes, returning to Heidmarch quickly would be smart for the same reason..."
Joanna brings everything she found out with her and shows it to the others. She's quiet, lost in her thoughts as she helps get the group ready for the journey back to Heimarch Manor.
She nods in agreement when Zee suggests that they head back to Lady Heidmarch, but balks at Teldon's idea of taking off the shard. "Now wait a minute. I took it, shouldn't I be the one to decide what to do with it? I happen to like wearing it."