"My lady, we are but simple group of adventurers/caravan guards, who heard your cries for help & came to your aid. This is the brave sir Neils, who confronted that dreadful beast for you, the strong sir Aidan who carried you out of there, the valiant Lady Kazushi whom healed you, and I am Christaph, who simply was at the ready to provide further assistance as needed. May I have the pleasure of making your acquaintance my Lady?"
"And the unobtrusive Squirm, who would have filled your attacker with fear had they not fled. Can anyone judge if this building is likely to fall down?"
Kazushi is still looking at the building anxiously.
"Oh yes! Of course the illustrious Sir Squirm as well! Who stood guard over you as the Lady Kazushi administered to you. How could I have forgotten him? Sorry about that my friend! Now, may we get back to making your acquaintance please?"
"Pleased to me meet you," the soulknife nods when Christaph introduces them all.
He then looks at Kazushi and at the house.
"Can't tell if it's going to fall down, but we should move a bit further away from it," suggests Aidan. "The creature might still be there and we don't know what it was."
"Just a headache?" he asks Neil. "It didn't do any physical damage?"
"Nah" replies Neils as he starts to usher people from the building "Just gave me a good rinsing of the brain and wounding of the ego, that's all."
"Well you have earned my thanks. And if you please, I have a little something for your troubles."
Unconcerned with Kazushi's worries about the soundness of her structure, she heads back inside. The group can see her rummaging through the different piles that have amassed in the middle of her floor. Finally producing two flasks, she hands them to the nearest guard. "Here, take these. The can help restore you in the midsts of a fight. It seems that I have a lot of work ahead of me. I can't thank you enough." She picks the closest pile and begins to sort through it.
Squirm looks askance as Chrisaph completely fails to introduce it. The Dromite's acerbic response is cut short when Kazushi introduces it so graciously, replaced with a deep bow.
"This is a lovely town you have here Miss, but the earlier tremors seem to have made quite a mess, are shakes common place in these parts?"
As Neils describes his injuries Squirm cocks it's head
"You have dealt with worse Mr Neils, a good night's sleep in this hospitable town will serve you well I think."
"I cannot remember an earthquake here, especially not one of that magnitude." comes the woman's answer.
"Then the good night's sleep will indeed serve you well," smiles young man.
He then asks the woman to psecify Squirm's question.
"How long have you lived here? Maybe earthquakes are just really rare in these parts."
"You may want to move somewhere else at least for the moment. That reptilian... thing was very dangerous and it nearly killed you. It is still there for all we know, or it could return. It rather takes the shine off a rescue if the person rescued dies to the same hazard soon after."
"How long have you lived here? Maybe earthquakes are just really rare in these parts."
Arbil is a relatively new city, established just over thirty years ago.
"I moved here with Mosephi when he founded this place. Strange things happen though."
"You may want to move somewhere else at least for the moment. That reptilian... thing was very dangerous and it nearly killed you. It is still there for all we know, or it could return. It rather takes the shine off a rescue if the person rescued dies to the same hazard soon after."
"Sounds like good advice."
Squirm moves off with the others. Initially seeming to be keen to help, the little Dromite repeatedly gets distracted, Chatting with bystanders and investigating anything that catches its fancy.
As the caravan guards' altruistic nature takes over, they begin to move throughout the city. Helping to clear a pile of rubble, propping up a sagging roof, bandaging minor cuts and scrapes all earn the goodwill of the populace of Arbil.
Until they notice an odd-assortment of ophiduans.
This run-down house is boarded up and overgrown. If not for the new-looking lock on the door, you would swear this place was abandoned.
Not noticing anything other than that the rest of his group seems to be paying attention to something or other and being smart enough to be discreet, Christaph will wait a little bit, then casually as he happens to be close to one of the others, in a low whisper he will ask: "What are you guys all looking at?"
Kazushi speaks quietly and closely to Christaph, saying:-
"The locals all seem to be trying to clean up after the quake. But look at that group of Ophiduans. And that house,run-down, boarded up and overgrown. It looks was abandoned. But the lock on the door is knew. We should investigate, but carefully."
"Mhm, can't be anything good, that's for sure," agrees Aidan.
Squirm slips away from the group to finds itself some debris within earshot of the group of ophiduans,
Its no good, I cant shift it... all that gold just sitting there. If you would lend me your prestigious strength over here I could repay you handsomely once this boulder is moved and I can get at the riches below?"
As Squirm finagles the populace into assisting him in the clean up efforts, the guards notice that the ophiduans coming into and out of the house are carrying a variety of items that don't seem connected. One ophiduan is carrying a rug, while another have what looks like a vase under one arm.
The caravan guards wonder why ophiduans, or anyone for that matter, would decide to redecorate in the aftermath of an earthquake.
The ophiduans ignore Squirm, moving purposefully about their business.
Neils approaches the ophiduans confidently. He places his hands on his hips and addresses them in a loud voice:
"You folks appear to be looting. You shouldn't be doing that."
The three ophiduans looks at Neils. "If you're smart, and we aren't sure you are, best to mind your own business."
All two grips their maces while the other places his hand in his pouch.
"See now, I wouldn't really recommend what you seem to be considering. I've had kind of a weird day so I'll be curt - my friends and I outnumber you just about two to one and, not to brag, we kind of beat slime like you professionally."
He shrugs, manifesting his crackling mind blade.
"I mean, hey, you want to do this then I'm game. Fair warning though: restraint isn't really my strong suit" he chuckles at the thought "Well, ya'll probably figured that out already."
Squirm gives up on its lame pretense and limps over to stand beside Neils and his new friends.
"Mr Neils is as smart as they come gentlemen, you on the otherhand would have done well to help me with that rock over yonder. That's probably going to hurt you in the long run... Mr Neils here can be so impulsive."
One of the ophiduans steps forward. "Listen, mind your own business. You do your thing, and we will do ours. Stay out of our way." Then they slowly back towards the run down house.
Walking over closer to the group, but not too close, speaking up rather loudly, "Our business is to help and protect the innocent! So it looks like this is our business. I suspect you all are up to some mischief, to put it mildly. Care to explain yourselves?"
"Look guys, just walk away. That's the best thing you can do right now."
"Care to explain yourselves?"
"No." comes the curt reply. "I see no city watch badges on your cloak. Back to your own business."
"Look guys, just walk away. That's the best thing you can do right now."
"Sure thing. You do your thing, we'll do our." The group has now reached the broken down house and one ophiduan begins to knock on the door. "Its us. Open the damn door."
"Well now you're just being facitious” days Neils as he bears down on the ophiduans.
Deciding that they time for talking is all over, Neils advances forward to teach the Ophiduans a lesson. Neils is right. Now and forever.
Though Neils is the lead instigator in this fight, it seems the Ophiduans are quicker to react. The door to the ruined house is thrust open showing three more Ophiduans in the entryway. Two of the three emerge and stand shoulder to shoulder with their comrades evening up the odds a bit.
Kenax, exceedingly quiet until now, draws his bow and fires at one of his brethren, a shifty ophiduan who had his hand in a pouch before now.
Kenax draws back and fires his arrow wide. Though it is hard to read other species' facial expression, Kenax has no problem seeing the hurt look on the other ophiduans' faces. "Could use some extra muscle if you want to ditch these bums." one of the ophiduans implores Kenax.
Seeing that his proposal has fallen on deaf ears, his hand emerges from the bag and a plethora of caltrops are strew all over the battlefield. The other two ophiduans follow suit and now there is a river of caltrops between the ophiduans, and the caravan guards.
Each time a creature moves into an area covered by caltrops (or spends a round fighting while standing in such an area), it runs the risk of stepping on one. Make an attack roll for the caltrops (base attack bonus +0) against the creature. For this attack, the creature’s shield, armor, and deflection bonuses do not count. If the creature is wearing shoes or other footwear, it gets a +2 armor bonus to AC. If the attack succeeds, the creature has stepped on a caltrop. The caltrop deals 1 point of damage, and the creature’s speed is reduced by half because its foot is wounded. This movement penalty lasts for 24 hours, until the creature is successfully treated with a DC 15 Heal check, or until it receives at least 1 point of magical healing. A charging or running creature must immediately stop if it steps on a caltrop. Any creature moving at half speed or slower can pick its way through a bed of caltrops with no trouble.
Caltrops may not work against unusual opponents.
Neils rushes through the caltrops, gritting his teeth in anticipation.
Kazushi moves as needed to get as many of the [non-Kenax] Ophiduans in the cone of effect of a colour spray, then casts the spell. I am going to avoid Neils and am not going to go where the caltrops are.
"You fools really asked for this."
Neils avoids the caltrops and Kazushi drops four of the six Ophiduans for three rounds.
Christaph forces his mental energies at one of the Ophiduans outside the house.
Neils dodges past the caltrops and moves to engage one of the Ophiduans that were not brought down by the spray of color. He winds up and delivers a brutal kick, sending the creature into the air with a flourish. Smiling, he delivers a lighting fast attack with his mindblade while his target is still hanging in the air, the surging electricity restrained just enough not to kill the unfortunate creature.
The soulknife manifests his panoply, directing the heavy blade into the the other ophiduan who remains conscious and filling it with disruptive energies.
Squirm sees an opportunity and scampers across the caltrops...
The dromite's strange limping gate somehow avoids the thorny dangers.
As the brothers strike Squirm comes to a halt in the midst of the stunned reptiloids.
Kazuhi picks up a stone from the road and fires it at one of the Ophiduans unaffected by her Colour Spray.
She then calls for surrender:-
"Freeze and put your hands in the air before you get badly hurt."
The badly beaten Ophiduans give Kazushi a strange look before dropping their maces to the ground. "We surrender." comes their dejected voice.
"Check out the house and see if you can figure out what they were up to, I'll keep an eye on them."
Squirm doesn't need telling twice, rapier in hand he heads into the house...
Fixing the Ophiduans with a stare that probably violates the Geneva Convention, Kazushi extends a hand and demands:-
"Key!"