Noro drops the lifeless body of the guard. looking at the last one, looksh like thish danshe parter couldn't handle me, guessh your next.
Noro simply walks up to him and with a short leap...
Noro comes down hard with her fist on the last thug in the room (well for now)
Leaving Noro to deal with the last thug, Freia takes half a step towards the unconscious captives and Z but halts herself. Her eyes are fixed on the old man and her expression twisted in anxiety. But no, it won't help. You need to fix this mess first. Think Freia think! Within a couple of seconds Freia unfreezes and heads towards the hungry but free captives with newfound purpose.
"You!" she pointed to some people at random with her free hand then swept her icy blade towards the wagon. "What are you waiting for? Untie those people at once!"
Hopefully, the people were sufficiently cowed to obey easy - and aware of the fact that the thugs were not on top of the foodchain at the moment. Also, I assume they want to be free. Divines, I hope these are not a bunch of wererats ...
"The rest of you, listen carefully:" Freia gave them a hard look and tried to sound as authoritarian as she needed. "Really soon you are all going to leave - and you are going to bring the other prisoners with you. You are going to go to . You are all going to stay there until tomorrow. If the man that lives there complains, remind him he owes someone a favour. But be nice to him - and everyone else. Clear? Good. Then wait for my signal."
Then she gave them a quick moment to digest her words, but not long enough to complain or question, before she headed over to Z. With her free hand she grabbed his bonds and started cutting them away - the cold from the blade hopefully made them brittle enough to quickly be dispatched.
"Okay, there. I'm sorry you ended up here ... but I'm going to have to ask you for a favour. I'm going to cast a spell on you - Invisibility. Then I'm going to need you to go find something for me: somewhere in the warehouse there should be a stash of magical elixir. They are the cure for a really horrible disease that they are keeping away from people - people that need it. If you can grab some it would be super, otherwise, just were they are is enough. Then I need you to head outside and tell Zayid and Halsanna. You remember Zayid atleast yes?"
Then, once she talked to them all, she let out a nervous laughter. "Eheh. Noro, this place will be crawling with thugs in moments. We need a distraction ..."
Her eyes reflected determination, terror and the lights of a nearby torch.
Seeing Halsanna loose an arrow, Zayid nods quickly and pulls his own bow, nocking an arrow to the string as fast as he can (albeit much more slowly than the professional archer beside him). He pauses a moment before releasing it toward the dock worker nearest the entrance.
Noro efficiently makes the last guard wish he stayed in bed that morning. You actually hear him cry for his mummy before he passes out.
The prisoners move. Slowly and fearfully, but they move. The unconscious captives are in the process of being sorted when you instruct Z on his task.
Why do youall keep showing up where I am! He hisses. It makes my life so much harder! Then he smiles, Not that I mind. I'll keep an eye out for this pot you want. Just get out of here fast, ok? There's no way you're taking on this whole garrison by your self.
Zayid/Halsanna - Outside, men take cover behind the crates they were loading and return fire.
They place two arrows where your heads were just half a second before. The range is the only thing that allowed you to react in time. You peek around your cover to see two men in robes, probably casters. When they appear Lou starts emitting a palpable feeling of joy... the thrill of the hunt, you decide, and he stalks off to your right.
"Oh no I don't think we will be fighting much ..." Freia replies absent mindedly and smiles at Z. But her eyes never leaves the torch and slowly, painfully slowly, she reaches out for it.
Freia and Noro - You can hear guards lifting pins to open the door outside.
Freia, gather all the prishonersh together. we are gonna have company. glancing toward the door.
Noro moves to get into a position to jump them when they enter.
"...Yes, go on - start sneaking out..." Freia murmurs to the prisoners and points them to another opening. Then she grabs the torch, takes a deep breath and bites her lip, and sweeps it at whatever flammable things she can find. With ice in one hand and fire in the other she walks backwards to the other exit.
What "other exit"? Z asks.
"All-right." Freia whimpers and glances at the growing, licking terrible flames. Beads of sweat already races down her spine and she felt cold as death even as the temperature started to rise. "Just when the door opens; yell in panic and run. They'll let you trough in panic..."
The door cracks open and all the prisoners dart for the exit, only to be held in with a line of heavy shields. They're loose! you hear one man yell.
Keep them in there! a commanding voice orders.
Freia yells. The sheer terror in her voice needed no acting. With a quick swoop of her arm she flings the torch over the men and whispers something. The torch merely has time to land before it combust into a raging inferno [ooc]that for some mysterious reason is only as hot as a single torch, since Freia summoned the new fire with Silent Image!
Noro simply waits for an opening to pounce on more thugs..
Zayid continues to fire his own arrows, though he finds himself wishing he could hop down and feel the struggle.
Outside - Halsanna and Zayid keep the gangster's heads down while Lou slinks around doing...Something. You dodge acid bolts while responding with normal bolts of your own until you hear a scream and shouts of panic. You peek around your cover and see Lou sitting on a very dead caster. A second back pedals away and tosses a bolt of force at him! The force missiles fizzle in mid air, and Lou (you could swear he was smiling) disappears. He re-appears half a second later behind the caster and in mid air! As if mid-leap he pounced on the man. His screams only last a second.
The others around start brandishing weapons and retreating toward the warehouse.
Inside- Your ruse goes...not so well. Guards rush toward Noro, but not with buckets. Men with holy symbols move forward behind the guards. You recall that most holy men can produce significant amounts of water. All day long. There aren't more than three of them, but the fact that they are here seriously hampers your hopes for a bucket brigade.
The good news is it seems like they haven't recognized you as truly dangerous... Yet.
The good news is it seems like they haven't recognized you as truly dangerous... Yet.
Noro- They are advancing like a shield wall, but you can probably flank them if you try. There aren't enough men to guilt block the door. I'll get a nap up today.
Halsanna- Your shots down two workers. The rest start to flee in earnest. None stays back.
Zayid frowns. Run! Go, get away! We could escape, get out of the city, start life anew... just the two of us.
The young man's face describes a tortured state of emotions as he stares down at the walls and wonders what's going on behind them. Aboki, mindful as ever of his master's inner conflict, pads noiselessly up and leans softly into the man, as if to say, Hush... all will be well. I am here.
The rat-cat-man takes a deep breath, one hand twining itself in the fur of Aboki's neck, and then moves.
Zayid drops from the perch and cautiously makes his way toward the rear of the warehouse.
Noro sees the oncoming shield wall, with glance back at the prisoners, she wonders if Abigail even sees or recognizes her, but there is no time to worry about that.
she looks back at the wall and she pumps herself up for the inevitable. she rushes the shield wall. ARRRRRRRRR!!!
Allright! Let's do this! Seeing that her trick of fire didn't seem to faze anyone but herself Freia gathered herself for another try. Stepping up behind Noro she cast an quick invocation and directed a handful of sparkling snowflakes towards the thugs. Once they struck, they glowed brightly and started to refract the light everywhere.
Freia prepares the way with a burst of glitter just before Noro makes get intentions clear.
One man stumbles and starts blinking furiously. Noro slams into the formation and send one man flying.
He his the man standing behind him hard and both go tumbling backward in a heap.
The others, only two of which are any kind of combat worthy, poke at noro with their longswords to try to force her back
One manages to draw a drop of blood (take 4)
The two clerics cast spells, but not at you....
Zayid - Ratman and kitty move as one down to the freight entrance of the warehouse. Lou joins them there. His body maw lends a little terror to his majesty.
You peek in and see most of the workers are near you with few armed guards. Those that are near you are hustling to deny you entry, about half a dozen all told.
Halsanna - You locate a perch on top of done stacked doing crates that may provide good sight lines into the building. There are even stair stepped boxes for you to climb! Lucky day! It should take you a full round to make it over there and a DC 10 climb or acrobatics to ascent the makeshift stairs as another full-round action. Failure means you'll have to use an extra move to get into position.
Moving for the intermediate and most obvious treat Freia steps up next to Noro. With a quick spell her sword once more radiates freezing cold and jagged shards of ice form along the edge. An edge which she does her uttermost to connect with their foes in one savage sweep.
Zayid quickly motions the cats to either side, then gives the oncoming men a feral grin as he unsheathes claws and teeth in preparation for battle. Aboki follows the motion and heads to the left, preparing to strike when someone enters his range.
Noro turns to face the one that dared to stab at her.
Noro and Freia land all their his, but the damage is split so neither drop.
The group converges as the two noro knocked into next week struggle to their feet. They can't get through, however. The clerics make their way around and start conjuring water on Freia's fire.
Z disappears in the chaos.
Halsanna- you mount the crates and finally get a good look at Noro and Freia's situation. They look like they're in a rough spot. Only slightly more worrying are the ballistae on the upper walks getting loaded. A caster up there tries to roast Lou and the cat(?) Teleports again up to the caster. It isn't pretty.
Men are also converging on Zayid and Aboki who will be quickly overwhelmed without your support.
You face a choice. Who to engage...
Zayid- You make contact about fifteen feet in. Berserkers like men Pelgrev took apart in your last warehouse fight rush you. One grows beastial claws and the other is surrounded by semi-transparent whisps of... Something.
And for any shot of that she and Noro needed to be the two left standing right here right now! Channelling her arcane talent into her sword she swung at the thug still reeling from her last blow - he would be too weak to dodge. With a mighty crash the icy blade collided with the unfortunate thug sending shards of ice, frozen blood and glass? spraying everywhere.
Aboki, meanwhile, mauls the nearest man.
Noro squares off against the same opponent, Why don't you jusht lie down and play dead. your gonna end up there anyway, shave me the trouble and shave you the pain she says as she continues her assault.
Freia and Noro are both in fine form. They each drop a man and fend off the counter push from the remainder. Mostly. Noro takes a "scratch" (take 12) to the arm that would have felled lesser fighters.
As they defend, the clerics that are putting out the fire turn and twin bursts of energy wash over the area... But noro and Freia feel none of it. Freia's man doesn't stirr (having ones entails frozen solid will do that), but Noro's starts awake and scisors her legs from under her!(Noro is now prone).
In the midst of all this, the prisoners start fleeing. All except one old man, one young woman, and a wirey lad with a look that screams theif. These three charge the clerics!
In the rear, Lou finishes making a mess of the caster, but is soon engaged by a guard who blocks his path to the seige weapons.
The balistae swing around (one at lou and one at Zayid) and fire!
The one fired at Lou sails well clear. Zayid Feels The bolt that's as big around as his wrist zip by his cheek. He looks back to his foe only to realize he's headless! That wasn't the bolt, it was that guy's hair!
Another man soon takes his place, however, and takes advantage of a slightly low block on Zayid's part to deliver a stinging jab to the collar. (Zayid take 9)
Aboki is doing just fine. He and his prey are testing the other.
really? you shtill think you can win? Noro gives the guy a swift kick.
she then flips up from prone.