As night falls, you turn your steps toward the Low-Caste District, where the Apananda Silk Mill is located. It is a 20-foot-high brick building with a sloping terra-cotta roof; it looks to be about 100 feet wide and 80 feet deep. Behind the building is a small orchard of mulberry trees, each of which is covered in thumb-sized white cocoons. There doesn't appear to be a second story, but there are tiny windows around the foundation suggesting a basement. Four large but very dusty windows face the street.
Tania, as she approaches the building, feels doubt and fear crawl along her spine. She feels exhausted by the day's events and wonders how much more she can take before she's too exhausted to command the elements.
She keeps her doubt to herself, though her companion Ashaka feels her fear and lets a low growl reassure her.
Nesipho circles the building looking for guards and also doorways in.
"Let me see if I can get us in without causing a ruckus."
Nesipho slips quietly into the back yard keeping to the shadows of the trees as much as possible.
Upon reaching the door he tries the keys taken from Lankesh in the lock.
Nesipho finds that one of the keys taken from Lankesh's body does indeed fit the lock.
With the door opened just a crack Nesipho returns to his companions. "The keys fit the lock, so easy enough. It's going to be dark inside though. I've only got a dancing lights cantrip and I fear its going to make anyone who might be observing from the outside quickly aware something is going on inside. Anyone have a hooded lantern or something else we can limit the lighting with?"
Markis shakes his head. No. And you wouldn't want me holding onto a lantern anyway. Far too fragile. We might as well go in and light the place up. We've got official sanction for this mission, don't we?
"No lantern, but I can make little dancing flames to light the way."
"In we all go then. I'll take point." Nesipho slips back to the door, expecting the others to follow. Once inside he closes the doorly softly then gestures and four soft orbs of light appear.
Tania climbs on her companion and follows Nesipho, leaving a distance of about forty feet between them. Her feline companion senses her hushed alert, and crouches low to the floor, pawing with great slowness.
Nesipho motions his companions to step back several steps while drawing his rapier. His free hand moves in a quick motion then the mwangi disappears from sight.
Tania follows Nesipho's lead and gestures quickly before anishing, leaving Ashaka seemingly by itself.
Casts shield of faith, and looks briefly at Ashaka with a shrug as it seems everyone else is fading from sight.
Not everyone else, as Markis soon realizes. He chants a prayer to Irori as well, and stands next to the man. "It seems we are the bait," he says, readying a spear. "Let's draw them out."
There is only silence from within the mill.
I'll bring up another hour's worth of Oracle revelation armor, if it isn't up already. Then move further in.
Tania urges Ashaka forward, once the other visible ones have gottn in.
Prashant steps in alongside Markis, without fear.
The room into which you step is fairly large, about 30 feet wide by 80 feet long. Wooden shelves stacked with trays of cocoons and cases of silkworms feeding on mulberry leaves surround you, and a skylight in the middle of the ceiling fills the room with dim ambient light. Two Vudrani men, dressed in simple tunics and trousers that seem rather out of place in the cosmopolitan milieu of Niswan, stand in defensive postures, bare hands raised in a martial stance.
Prashant likewise assumes a martial stance, his speartip pointed at the leftmost of the two men. "We do not wish to fight," he says. "Surrender, and your lives may yet be spared."
Tania weaves a protective abjuration and an evanescent shield rises to protect Ashaka. The tiger roars and pounces forward, aiming for the closest man.
Apparently unimpressed by the tiger, or perhaps just giving it a wide berth, the two move forward, lashing out with hard-knuckled fists toward Prashant and Markis.
Nesipho's voice rings out from darkness with arcane words.
"You'd be wise to surrender as my friend suggested."
Markis feels his body become numb as the man strikes vital nerve points in his body, but he shakes off the effect after an instant too brief for others to notice.
At almost the same time, Nesipho seemingly materializes from nowhere behind one of the monks and - channeling an entire thunderstorm's worth of lightning through a single blow - runs him cleanly through, the wound completely cauterized even as the body falls to the floor. His recommendation regarding surrender is directed at the survivor, who looks over his shoulder toward the door on the opposite side of the room and cries out, "Mistress! Save yourself!"
"Thank you," Prashant says, bolting towards the the opposite door, throwing it open to confront the person beyond.
Prashant rushes toward the door - but suddenly there is a blur behind him that coalesces into the form of a massive purple-blue snake with a vaguely-humanoid head and face; in lieu of hair, a sharp fin-like ridge runs down the creature's back. It lashes out with its tail at the cleric's exposed back.
The attack strikes one of the tables, cracking the hard wood, and the creature hisses in anger.
The creature chants a series of mystical phrases while watching Prashant warily. Its form shifts and wavers, then begins flickering randomly back and forth across the nearby area.
Mark is gawks momentarily at the creature, but recovers quickly. With a few gestures, he summons a burst of discordant energy that surrounds the flickering snake-thing.
Prashant flips out of the way to let the tail crash into the table behind him. "Snake women," Prashant says, raising his spear. "That's never good." As her form begins to go hazy and indistinct, the warrior priest frowns. Rather than press the attack, he decides to focus upon his defense, drawing the creature's attention.
The snake thing seems immune to Markis' spell, although it hisses again in anger before rasping out in the same voice Nesipho heard before.
"Another rashaka Nesipho asks?" uncertain himself what this new threat is. "Take down the human then we can deal with the snake-witch."
Nesipho finds a gap in the human's defenses and stabs him deeply; blood flows, but the man grits his teeth and does not cry out in pain. Instead, he turns toward Nesipho, seeming undaunted by the dizzying array of illusions in front of him, and launches a lightning-fast series of blows with hands and feet.
The blows do not land, but three of the five figments the magus conjured are disrupted in the attack.
Meanwhile, the snake-woman (the face truly does look vaguely female, although it's really difficult to say so for certain) maintains her focus on Markis, seeming more than a bit angered by his attempt to manipulate her mind. She chants again, her tail waving through mystic positions, before the stinger points at him and a pair of lances of fire burst out of it and sear the air toward him.
Markis' mystic protections bend the first bolt of flame away from him just enough that he isn't burned by it, although the heat blackens the hairs on his skin as it passes. He is not so fortunate with the second blast, though, which strikes him squarely in the chest, scorching skin and cooking flesh.