"W-watch it! That things sharp!" Evalee withdraws , relying on her longer legs to keep ahead of the halfling, and angling deeper into the trees to stay out of sight.
No lights burn inside the tent, and Pogug's darkvision casts the interior in a dull monochrome, except for four narrow, tightly-clustered shafts of cool blue light that cut through the grey as they shine through a hole in the tent's canopy from the dancing lights above. Pogug sees the nearer of the tent's two support poles looming above. A ladder up the side leads to a raised platform just below the tent's apex. The other pole lies just outside the extent of his preternatural vision.
Outside, the halfling pursues Evalee out of the fog, while the floating lights fly over to hover above Ashak's head. To Ashak's north, the bald man rounds the edge of the tent, spotting the now well-illuminated hobgoblin.
Pogug sneaks his way closer to the pole, keeping an eye out for anyone in the tent. Pogug never like dark this much. Dark is good for Pogug.
With his cover blown Ashak makes a beeline for the trees, avoiding the fog bank. When he hits the treecover he turns sharp to the south and tries to put some distance between himself and the carnies. He stops behind a tree, not to hide but to use as cover from any ranged attacks.
Ashak moves towards the trees, then steps into the fog bank and ducks behind a cart.
Evalee keeps running.
Simeon hears Evalee's noisy retreat through the bushes and chases her down.
Halador and the bald man both pursue Ashak into the fog, and seeing Simeon catch Evalee, the halfling girl turns to join them. they all cast about blinkdy, but are unable to locate him. (Halador provokes an AoO, but I assume you are not going to take it, since it would give away your location).
Inside the tent, Pogug hears an animalistic screech from the platform above, but is unable to see the source. This is followed by the sound of a grinding stomp from outside the tent's entrance, then he sees the flap swing open as the tiefling boy steps inside and looks around.
Pogug covers his mouth, to deter a cry of fright, and dives under one of the benches.
Ashak carefully creeps past the searchers through the fog.
Lights flare to life inside the tent. Pogug hears something thump down on the bench above him. The screeching noise continues, right above his head.
Pogug considers his options. There was likely some kind of bird above him, but Pogug couldn't remember a bird being part of the troupe. Then again, Pogug didn't remember half of them, but he couldn't let that deter him.
Seeing the light around the bench, Pogug continues to bundle himself under it, trying to avoid sight.
Having Seemingly lost his pursuers in the fog Ashak creeps back out into the clear air and moves quietly through the shaded trees. The hobgoblin is sure to keep undergrowth or tree trunks between himself and the fog cloud in case the lights move closer.
From above Pogug, a howling monkey swings over the edge of the bench he is hiding under.
The monkey grabs onto Pogug, wrapping its narrow arms around the tiny goblin as it continues to make a screeching noise.
The Tiefling boy runs over and bends down, placing his hands on his knees to watch the the tiny goblin entangled with the monkey. He just stands there and laughs.
Ashak moves slowly through the trees. He thinks to himself I 'm still pretty far away. I hope Pogug is close.
Ashak makes it to the rear flap of the tent unseen.
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Squinting in the dark tent Ashak thinks back to his childhood days when his keen eyes would have easily pierced the darkness. Instead the scars around his burned eyes itch and he struggles to make out the interior by the minimal light from above. He moves slowly through the dark, keeping behind what cover he can in the likely case that someone is watching in the dark.
Ashak makes his way through the darkened tent, navigating half by memory of the layout and half feeling his way.
Ashak begins to climb the ladder as stealthily as possible. He thinks to himself If anyone who can see in the dark is watching in here i'm a sitting duck.
Ashak looks up through the opening in the tent at his goal. The banner that he was tasked to retrieve lays before him, just out of reach. As he looks up, the silhouette of a bulbous head appears between him and the flag, looking down at him from the platform at the top of the ladder. Though he can't make out the face in the darkness, he can feel its eyes on him.
Ashak freezes for a brief moment, then rapidly ascends the rest of the ladder, grabs the flag in his hand and attempts to roll out of the way in anticipation of an attack from newcomer. The acrobat makes it as far across the surface of the tent as he can.
Ashak ascends the ladder to the platform and takes a defensive stance against the creature before him, hoping to avoid getting tagged.
The goblin waiting for Ashak at the top of the ladder jumps off the edge, swinging from a rope and barreling feet-first into Ashak...
Ashak tries to dodge, but the goblin but the goblin's swing is expertly aimed, and Ashak has nowhere to go. The goblin plows into him like 1/60 of a ton of bricks.
Ashak rubs his chest where the goblin hit him and cracks a smile. Holding up his finger an inch apart he says in goblin "This close" Then he quickly slides down the ladder and exits the tent to find his friends.
Nathaniel watched the approach of Ashak with dismay, seeing from the man's posture and lack of flag that the group had once again failed to secure the item. Perhaps they were going about things the wrong way. They had a fairly good idea of who was defending everything, right?
As Ashak got closer, Nathaniel started walking alongside him, glancing over his shoulder at the carnies. "You know, Ashak, carnies absolutely love alcohol. Maybe we should try to grease the wheel, if you get my drift. Let's find everyone else." The juggler grinned as the pair moved off to find the rest of the group, ready to begin planning again.
"I stand vindicated," Semsephiel says, after rejoining the mortal members of the party on the material plane. "Clearly, my own presence is far more valuable than that of an elemental."
"Not a bad idea Nathaniel. We should check in find out what everyone else learned this time. I have some idea of the guard layout but it was to dark inside the tent for me yo give much info there. Except there is a goblin on the platform who nearly kicked me off. Swung in on a rope like some sort of crazy monkey pirate."
Ashak's tone is cheerful, he clearly had a nice night even if it wasn't technically a victory.
Erin trudges up to the group, looking not very pleased with the events of the night. "There was a hawk that came out of nowhere... it must have better night vision than all of us put together." She sighs, some of the tension leaving her shoulders, and glances at Ashak. "Those boots of yours were a real lifesaver, though - it was nice to at least land on my feet after dropping from the sky."
"I'm glad they helped, they sure have saved my hide on a few occasions."
"Pogug think carnival have too many stinky animals - and they mean, too."
Evalee makes a fist to show her support of the plan. "Yes! With booze they shall be bribed. It's like my dad always said, there's no problem that can't be solved with intoxicants!"
Semsephiel makes a face. "Your father never said that, much less always."
The summoner raises her hands to the sky in defiance. "I refuse to let tradition decide my fate! I am free! Free like an avocado!"
Now Sephy's just confused. "What? That...that doesn't make any sense. In or out of context."
"History is written by the victors! And we have conquered our fears! Not our actual fears, but if we pretended we were afraid of stuff we could impress each other with our bravery. That makes us victors! And authors! And my first act as a victorious revisionist historian is to attribute the preceding supposed quote to my dad!"
The bound fiend is catching on. "You're just messing with me now, right?"
Evalee continues her enthusiastic but ultimately nonsensical spiel. "Come, loyal comrades! Friends! No, family! For we are brothers, and sisters in arms! Even Chi, who has no arms! He can borrow Sephy's arms, no way does he need all of those. Come! To the watering hole! Which is some sort of euphanism for bar! I think!"
Semsephiel watches with some amusement, but decides to interrupt. "I doubt our budget can afford drink enough to drown our opposition's wits, even if we could convince our guards imbibe."
"That should be 'to imbibe'," Evalee points out.
"I was being poetic," Semsephiel protests.
Evalee squints. "Noooo, no you were not."
Nathaniel listened to the back and forth between the diminutive summoner and her hellish companion with equal parts confusion and amusement. He wasn't sure exactly what Evalee was talking about with all those big, fancy words, but he was pretty sure through context that she wasn't being very coherent. Which was exactly what they needed...from the opposition.
Nate addressed them all as they continued to walk away, determined and about as thoughtful as he got. "Maybe we should just let the drunks in town know there's free booze in the main tent in the evening, then wait for the ensuing chaos to slip in. I mean, honestly, with the perimeter and number of our opponents and the fact that they merely have to tag us the odds are severely stacked against us. They might frown upon it, but they're hobbling us with these rules...time to return the favor."
Ashak smirks at Evalee and Semsephiel's banter. "You two don't even need an act, you can just get on stage and talk all night."
Ashak turns and walks backwards for a moment at he surveys the carnival. "We need to come from different angles this time. It'll be easier to get at the tent if some of us start by the road. The drunks could be a good idea, we should spread the word tomorrow. Any ideas on what we can do about the hawk?"
Erin frowns thoughtfully. "I like the idea of bringing more people in, being outnumbered has made this an uphill battle. If we create enough chaos we might be able to make it through. Maybe?" She shrugs. "Anyway, that bird is problematic. It's not a huge threat in itself, but as soon as they spotted us and got those lights up we were sitting ducks." She pauses at that. "Even though we were, in fact, flying. Flying ducks."
"In Pogug experience, birds are not worth fighting. Run away before being hit with sticks. Smart goblin - like Pogug - leave food out for birds. Then, when birds eat food, big goblin come out and hit them! Work very well." Pogug says.
"You two don't even need an act, you can just get on stage and talk all night."
"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night," Evalee bows graciously, then skips a step to keep up with the others. "Except I won't actually be here all night, as I am currently in the process of leaving here. But I'm following you, so the effect is similar. Where are we going, anyway? Is this one of those awkward situations where everyone thinks that someone else knows where they're going, so we just meander aimlessly?"
She considers this. "Not that I've anything against meandering, it's the only way to turn unknown unknowns into known unknowns. And maybe even known knowns!"
"Y'know what we should do? We should get blitzed out of our skulls, bond as fellow hobos who are all looking for work. That's what coworkers do, right?"
Semsephiel displays apprehension by making weird noises in his throat. He doesn't say anything, though, so Evalee prattles on, knowing she'll get a rise out of him eventually.
"I've never gotten drunk before. I hear it's a lot of fun. Hooray for new experiences!"
The world-weary devil begs to differ. "You are misinformed. Drunkenness is wretchedly uncomfortable for everyone involved. The last time I let a charge of mine impair their own thinking, your father mistargeted a teleport and we found ourselves halfway across the continent - standing on an altar surrounded by the restless dead. While, I was standing. He'd just fallen over."
"See! Adventure~! New experiences~! Fun!"
"I am not an adventurous avatar of Law, Ms. Ribbinz."
First step is get more reduce person wands.
"Think they're closed?" Evalee wonders. "Welp, I don't think I can sleep, so we might as well go have ourselves a look-see."
"I don't think they'll let us into town this late... how about we just try to get some sleep and stop by in the morning?"
"Ech, you're right. Gates are closed. Forgot."
"I never understood why they do that . . . I don't understand why they even bother guarding the walls, to be honest. We aren't fighting anyone, there isn't a toll to enter, there's no plagues to watch out for, there aren't any limits on the weapons you can take in with you, and, most of all, the guards couldn't stop anyone who was really dangerous . . . or very determined." Evalee tilts her head back and looks at the sky.
"I'm neither, so I guess we're locked out for the night. I guess I should find somewhere to pass out. Doesn't look like raining, so I'm going to find somewhere out of the way . . . meet you at the gate tomorrow!"