THE BURNING BUILDING GROUP (Eftil, Milena)
As the pair make their way towards the unconscious man, a large part of the roof behind them gives way, crashing down to block the only exit visible from this room. The man isn't too heavy, but carrying him while holding your breath is cumbersome.
THE STREETS GROUP (Rodrick, Vandrake)
As Rodrick runs around to the side of the temple Xander follows, skittish of the flames. Both Rodrick and Vandrake note the structural weakness in the front of the building just as the roof at the main entrance sags and collapses, shooting a jet of sparks out towards the crowd and causing burning debris to roll into the street. Rodrick sees down the gap between the temple and the building next to it. The corridor is being licked by flame, but the fire hasn't spread yet. He sees windows down at the far end.
THE TEMPLE GROUP (Arry, Lysi)
The servant hurries to the door to the kitchens and pulls it open. Suddenly, he gasps and gurgles, and the children see a blade protruding through his chest. He slides to the floor, limp. Previously blocked by the servant stand a man dressed completely in black, wearing a mask that looks like a leering demon. He advances on the children. "No witnesses..."
THE CATACOMBS GROUP (Evengi)
Assassin 1:
Assassin 2:
Assassin 3:
Assassin 4:
Assassin 5:
Assassin 6:
Assassin 7:
Assassin 8:
Assassin 9:
Assassin 10:
Tesla:
Manius:
Caedicia:
Rutilia:
"Get him, Diri!" Arry nearly shrieks before he casts a spell. A small glob of acid flies through the air at the masked man
Not far behind the acid, Diri runs at the man, vestigial wing spread as wide as they can, and tries to catch the man in his strong beak.
Milena takes a split second to find her centre, replacing fear with calmness. She quickly floats around the room to look for another way out. She knows how temple often hide more than mysteries...
Eftil calmly watches Milena, not sure what she's doing. He gestures to the unconscious man. Then he looks at the blocked exit and blinks. "Hm!"
Rodrik jogs up to the window, huffing and puffing with exertion. He draws his warhammer and smashes the window to pieces, shying away as smoke comes gushing out.
"Eftil! Priestess!" He shouts into the opening. He tries to peer in through the window before widening the opening (ensuring especially that there is no glass left along the bottom).
THE CATACOMBS GROUP (Evengi)
As Evengi stands fast in the entrance to the catacombs, bolts of magic fly past his shoulders, striking the charging men, killing one outright. The men charge Evengi, one in front with a shoulder forward, obviously intending to bowl the man out of the way. Evengi's dagger finds purchase in the charging man's shoulder. What immediately followed what the shoulder connecting solidly with Evengi's chest, but he holds his ground. That is, until the press of bodies behind the charge pushes forward, knocking Evengi back, allowing the assassins to start moving into the room.
THE TEMPLE GROUP (Lysi, Arry)
The man is caught by surprise by Diri's charge, but the beak fails to pierce the man's armor. "Stupid bird!" He slashes at Diri with his short sword. The blade clips Diri's wing, but doesn't bite deeply.
THE BURNING BUILDING GROUP (Eftil, Milena)
Milena notes the two doors in the back of the room as possible escape routes from the building. From the left door, the pair hears a tinkling, as if from a window exploding from extreme heat. They also hear a man shout from that direction, though the sound of the fire and the muffling effect of the walls make it impossible to hear what was said.
THE ALLEYWAY GROUP (Rodrick)
Flame from the burning building licks Rodrick as he runs by, Xander stands by - barking - scared of the fire, but wanting to follow his master. After he smashes the window and looks inside, he sees what looks like a large study, less aflame than the front of the buidling, but the fire is quickly spreading to the wood furniture and books in the room.
"He's not stupid!" Arry roars as the rune on his forehead flares brightly. "Punish this man who decides to be mean, smite him now, mighty thylacine!"
A growl is the only warning the man has that Arry did something before the cat-like creature behind him attacks!
Hoping to catch the man off-guard, Diri strikes once more!
When the sword had gone through the blonde servant, Lysi had stood frozen for a few seconds and then proceeded to scream like the little girl she was. And then the masked man hurt Diri. That was not okay. Now she was really mad. She shot an elemental ray of fire at the masked man.
Eftil goes along with Milena.
Rodrik calms Xander, "Stay here, I'll be back." then he double checks the make sure there's no glass left around the bottom before heaving himself through the window.
"Damnable stairs! Push them back!"
Evengi flips the dagger in his hand and launches it at the wounded assassin, he then switches hands and tosses the remaining dagger to his right hand.
THE TEMPLE GROUP (Lysi, Arry)
The brutal assault of both the Thylacine and Diri rip the flesh from the attacker, and Diri's beak rips out the man's throat. He collapses, gurgling. His blood flows out from the wounds, mingling with the pool of blood from the servant who was leading the children. The gurgling stops, leaving only the distant sounds of metal clashing coming from the catacombs.
"What do we do now? Should we go try to help the ones downstairs? Or run after the ones who went to the fire to tell them what's going on? Or just plain run away?"
THE CATACOMBS GROUP (Evengi)
The fight rages on. Evengi squares off with the man he had wounded earlier, and manages to plant the thrown dagger squarely in the man's heart, the magic strength allowing him to penetrate the ribcage. Behind him, the assassins are attacking the delegates - specifically those who are able to cast spells. Tesla seems to be garnering the most attention from the attackers, and is wounded.
THE BURNING BUILDING GROUP (Milena, Eftil, Rodrick)
The fire is beginning to spread along the floor in the altar room as you flee towards the door.
The sight that awaits the pair would be humourous if it weren't for the dire circumstances. They see Rodrick trying to hoist his bulk into the building through a broken window - with only some amount of success. This room is also not impervious to the fire, but the air here is at least not choked with smoke. Rodrick finally does manage to clear the window and lands hard on the floor.
THE STREETS GROUP (Vandrake)
After a few minutes, Vandrake finally has reinforcements, in the form of priests coming from the temple of Corail, who immediately start assisting with the water conjuring. The leader of the group doesn't appear to be conjuring water, but instead seems to be casting a spell that requires more time. The fire is still not receding, despite the organizing force of Jobe combined with the efforts of the priets and firefighters.
THE MERMAID'S MAMMARY GROUP (Pravus)
The server - a perky red-headed girl (probably a Cinder) - nods to Pravus with a mischievous smile. Obivously she knew exactly what Pravus wanted, as if she was accustomed to this kind of request.
It takes about 10 minutes for her to discreetly gather folks to join the game, during which time Decimus has already polished off a pint of the swill-beer they serve here. The serving wench has brought 3 people, 2 of them already appear to be drunk despite it being late afternoon. The third has a pipe in his mouth, and the smell of burning tobacco permeates the table. One of the drunks speaks up: "What's the game then?"
Eftil takes a deep breath as well. "We need to move quickly."
"I.. I don't know." Arry replies, shaken by seeing his friends kill a man.
"Catacombs are closer." Diri suggests.
"Yeah.. Let's go to the catacombs. The people in there might need our help if the bad men we saw are like this guy."
"Right. Yes, that's right. Good idea," she said, her freckles standing out extra clearly as her face has gone very pale and slightly green as she is trying very, very hard not to think about all the blood on the floor in front of them.
"Let's head for the catacombs then."
Evengi disengages and takes the best path that he can find to assist Tesla, avoiding any other engagements where he can.
Flanking the warrior engaged with Tesla, he presses his advantage in a furious flurry of stabbing cuts.
"Quick, now that he is distracted, blast him with your magic!"
Rodrik stands hastily to his feet, brushing himself off.
"I remember being able to do that more easily" He mutters under his breath before moving towards Eftil and Milena, "Bring him through here, the alley's just out this window!"
THE CATACOMBS GROUP (Evengi)
Evengi's attacks miss but his shouts prove distracting enough, giving Tesla time to cast her spell and blast the man with magic force. The man staggers under the blast, teetering for a moment before droping to the ground, unconscious. Tesla is breathing hard, with what looks like a knife wound to her stomach.
THE TEMPLE GROUP (Arry, Lysi)
The kids and their friends run along the corridor to where they saw the men entering. Ahead of them is stairs that descend down into a flickering darkness, punctuated by the occasional light that shines forth, either by torch or magic. A body dressed the same as the man they killed rests at the top of the stair.
THE BURNING BUILDING GROUP (Rodrick, Milena, Eftil)
Through the combined efforts of our three heroes, they are able to get the unconscious man out the window and into the alleyway, only to face another problem. Xander's whining is their first clue, but the exit back to the streets is now filled with flame, making their exit through there all but impossible. The other direction will lead them out onto the street parallel to where they originally began. Now they are in the sunlight, the three can see that the man they were carrying is dressed as a priest of Sehlash, but is bleeding profusely from his head, likely the blow which knocked him unconscious. The flames are progressing towards the party, so any attempt to staunch the flow of blood will have to be quick.
"Lady, how are you doing? Are you going to be able to hold on until we stop the rest of these villains?" Evengi asks as he turns and looks to see how many of the enemy remain.
"Come on," Lysi said slightly panicked as she picked her way past the body, trying to pretend it was something else so she didn't start crying hysterically. "If we hurry maybe we can catch up with the other group. I bet it's safer with more people."
"He's just sleeping. Someone knocked him out is all." Arry says, more to himself than his sister.
THE CATACOMBS GROUP (Evengi, Arry, Lysi)
Evengi and Tesla are still beset by foes. Glancing around, Evengi can tell that there are only 6 assassins left out of the 10 he originally counted. 3 of them are bearing down on him and Tesla. "I'll be fine if we can just kill these bastards." Tesla says through gritted teeth.
Arry and Lysi reach the bottom of the stairs, and see a raging battle in front of them, several delegates are trying to fight off men with sword and daggers. They see Evengi standing in front of Tesla, who is doubled over in pain, facing off against three men.
"Oh well, nobody lives forever." Evengi mutters as he lunges at one of the men, trying to keep them off of Tesla.
Without thinking Lysi runs forward and casts Color Spray on the attackers.
And then her brain caught up with the rest of her and she relaized all the reasons why this was a bad idea. "Uh-oh."
THE CATACOMBS GROUP (Evengi, Lysi, Arry)
One of the men attacking collapses unconscious.
The sudden burst of light and color causing Evengi's eyes to swim, he blinks furiously as he dodges a lunge from one of the attackers. As he weaves to the side he spots the outline of the child at the end of the stairwell. For a moment, she merely looks familiar, then Evengi realizes that she is one of the local children who were at the banquet.
"Dammit child! I cannot protect you against these odds, run and get help!"
"Diri!" Arry yells as Lysi runs up way too close and throw colorful magic.
"Yes!" With a loud screech, he charges to Lysi's side and attacks the man directly in front of her.
Just a few feet behind him, Arry runs at the other with his dagger ready to strike, more than willing to protect his sister.
:
Rodrik grits his teeth and takes the bandages from Milena, wrapping them tightly around the man's head while applying heavy pressure.
"Seen this exact wound before a couple times" he states grimly while he wraps, "Not sure if there's anything to be done about it."
THE CATACOMBS GROUP (Evengi, Arry, Lysi)
Diri's beak pierces the back of one of the men attacking Evengi, one just wounded by Evengi's dagger. The beak seems to slice straight through the man's spine, and he drops to the ground like a sack of potatoes, his limp limbs flailing slightly.
With the attackers numbers are now reduced to four, but it seems the Nethysian Cardinal and Manius are now unconscious seeping blood from various wounds, leaving the remaining combatants as Rutilia, Evengi, Lysi, Arry, and Tesla - who seems to be distracted by pain.
"Kill the witch girl!!" one of the attackers roars, pointing at Lysi, directly before charging at her, with another coming from Lysi's other side. The attacker which spoke seems to be wearing slightly more well-made armour, and his voice carried the weight of command.
Evengi is still faced with one assailant, and Rutilia another, and she seems to be struggling. Evengi can't take note of that for long, as the man stabs at his heart with a dagger, but is seemingly deflected by the magical protections on Evengi.