Grigor puts on an exaggerated reel and leads them out of the pub... singing loudly and off key. A happy song, a song of how the singer has not a care in the world.
Therie glares angrily at Grigor, pointed teeth showing through her grimace. That seemed wildly unnecessary. If the thing only attacks groups, it's not likely going after the weak and easy...
Loch moves out behind the others and immediately dashes off the main road and across the way from the others, making for an alley or other crawlspace to enter. There, he turns to look at the group and grasps his hammer with both hands, shrugging it off of his back. He watches the others as they move off and carry on, following by sticking to the alleys. He doesn't particularly try to remain quiet or hidden, just out of the way.
You eventually come across a place that rather well summarizes the Shingles. Somebone built a house atop a two-story building on the ground floor, itself a floor tall. To your left are tents and a lean-to beneath a shoddy pair of stars leading up to another roof. To your right, several rows of creaky planks nailed together bridge over the street. Behind you, a narrow alley where two people have erected huts on the roof space, leaving only ten feet between their doorways. Its isolation and multiple vantage points make it a potential place to dig in and wait for the creature.
The ex watchman turned private agent does a little jig and continues crooning, waving his spirits flask around as he does so and taking the odd sip though making it look like he's taking a more generous 'belt'.
Sylas takes up a place in the shadows under the stairs, sitting on a barrel with his blades drawn, he seems to meld into the night. I need to be able to study this thing before I strike.
Therie walks into the alleyway and draws her blade and shield, hitting the two together creating a loud chorus of metal on metal. Come on. Come out and face us.
Grigor sighs...
Greeaaat - sodding amateurs, he thinks. Just what any hostile devil wants to hear, blade and shield instead of the song of a hapless drunkard.
Seeing others in the group move into the alley to await the creature, Loch steers himself around one of the two huts that form the alley, putting his back up against one while he wrings his hands around the haft of his hammer. His eyes flick up to the sky and dart back and forth, waiting to see this terror of the night.
Theodosia hangs out on the right at the top of the creaky wooden planks. She looks for a darkened corner and squeezes in there, drawing her pistol and waiting.
"I hope these fools know what they are doing, lest thees turns out to be more deadly than any of us imagined" she says under her breath, oblivious of the fact that her position is already compromised by poor stealth-work.
After a few minutes of Grigor making a drunken fool of himself, a sickening, raspy laughter fills the air. First from the north, then the southwest. Though the laughter sounds the same and is likely from only one creature, the speed with which it comes from different directions is enough to give pause.
A black blur glides across the dark blue sky, landing behind Grigor and cackling its spine-tingling laugh. It swings a strangely-shaped blade with expert precision, cutting open the world-weary man's back. Before anyone can react, it kneels down and hops away again, continuing across the arc it began on.
Whore-poxed..., Grigor swears hissing in pain as he is attacked from behind. Luckily his armour keeps the blade out of anything vital.
Grigor draws both is blades but turns off to the side pointing in the wrong direction while keeping the creature in his peripheral vision.
That's no blade - come closer fiend and I'll show you a real one!
Theodosia hardly catches a glimpse at the flying creature. She draws her rapier and pistol and waits to catch sight of the bastard thing so she can blow it out of the sky.
"What's going on? Who the hell are you yelling at? You're drunk!" asks Thalachi, drawing his sword and shield.
Sylas saw the creature, it was fast. He dashed out of the shadows to stand back to back with Gregor, his swords drawn. "Keep your gaurd up, it won't be able to do that again.
Loch peers out from around the hut and he narrows his eyes when he hears the creature laugh, though it seems to have moved much too quickly for him to see this time. "No mere beast, no..." he mutters at the thought of it laughing while tightening his grip on his hammer. He keeps his back to hut's wall and glances one way to make sure nothing is there before peering around the hut and watching the scene more closely.
Knowledge (Planes):
If you do manage to see it at some point, you will not be able to determine if it is an extraplanar being or not. Just that it's definitely a being.
Seeing the speed of the creature and it's inclination to hit and run Therie cautiously sheathes her scimitar and shield, instead drawing her longbow. That thing is lightning fast.
Therie glares in the general direction of the creature.
Therie is able to ascertain that the creature is not undead. Her gaze is able to sense no aura of evil about the creature.
The way their eyes remain on him tips him off to the fact they've tracked him by his leaps, and he cackles. His eyes drift for a moment to his surroundings.
He spies the catfolk waiting in the shadows with her gun readied, but she seems like such easy quarry. Instead, he sets his sights on the Paladin standing there, staring up at him. He leaps forward, cloak waving in the wind as he lands in front of her. Up close, he looks even stranger. His skin has a strange texture to it, an odd composition of what seems like muscle that leaves him looking somewhat shriveled. His dark red eyes flare up, casting a wicked light onto the Paladin's face.
But the Dhampir's resolve wins out, and though a tingle of fear tries to worm its way up her spine she's able to fight through it and remain stern instead of fleeing for her life. The creature realizes this, and snarls.
Theries questions her thoughts as she fails to detect any evil aura's on the creature but her resolve strengthens as she feels the creature try to manipulate her mind. She drops her bow, more comfortable fighting with her goddess holy weapon, draws her sword and shield, and swings at the creature.
The creature manages to avoid the swing of her blade, laughing and lashing his tongue out at her cruelly. "Maybe you're more afraid of me than you think," he rasps out before sucking in a deep breath. For a brief second, the air heats up around you, before he hisses and releases a plume of flame.
Only Sylas is able to react in time, ducking as the fire rolls over you, though the scorching heat above his head is still painful.
After leaving his mark, he takes a short hop backward followed by a further one straight backwards, his powerful legs carrying him much further than anyone thought legs could. His back remains against a wall, but something about his mobility tells you that he isn't too afraid of being backed into a corner.
Gah!
Move Action: Run along the planks towards center of the action. Standard Action: Fire pistol at the monster.
Theodosia, finally having the creature in sight, runs along down the rooftop planks and fires down at the beast, on hand on her pistol and the other on her sword.
When the creature swoops into attack on the other side of the tent, Loch feels it in his blood. A call bubbling through his veins; a supernal echo that reverberates through mind and spirit. A command both whispers and bellows from a time, a place beyond. Trembling slightly, he allows the voices to conjure up the might hidden within. His eyes take on an otherworldly glow, and his pale flesh takes on a lunar, pearly sheen. One step takes him from a stationary stance to a run, and he u-turns around the tent, footfalls heralding his coming. Other than his steps, he is silent, but within his head the voices scream.
Coming up on the creature, he draws his hammer back into a ready position. When he closes in on the creature, he swings it down in attempts to strike.
Earthbreaker:
Damage: plus if evil outsider.
Status:
HP: 27/27 (6 temporary)
AC: 18
Bloodrage: 1/10 rounds.
The ex-watchman charges up and swings hard with his silvered blade... bane against devils, certain undead and shapechangers.
Conversion?
Therie coughs through scorched lungs, the fire seeming to travel down her throat. She grimaces with pain while running after the agile monster.
She swings her longsword deftly at the creature, death in her eyes as she looks to rid the world of this evil.
Thalachi will move to strike the creature.
The creature clearly did not expect such a vicious result from people more skilled with weapons than he expected. The bullet piercing his thigh, the slam of an Earthbreaker down on him, and two of the three blades swung at him making their marks. He hisses a raspy, high pitched hiss as he takes a step back, out of your range as he then leaps forward over you, his feet barely touching the ground before he jumps again in his desperate attempt to escape, a trail of blood leaking out after him.
You aren't goin' no where you bastard! Get him!
Therie watches angrily as the monster sails over her head, and charges after the creature.