Kalem frowns at being told such a vague lead. "That isn't much to go on," he says. "There are many demons within the city, but looking for a kelavakus demon is a good lead. I will inform the guards to be on the lookout for a creature like that. We will go to the common demon meeting places as well."
He nods. "Thank you," he says.
Then the pair leave, heading past the efreeti policeman and into the street. Utilizing directions given by the librarian Emij, the pair head to the efreeti bank First Flame's Security Bank, the site of the most recent Blackfire attack. Blackfire, a substance similar in consistency to mercury, can be collected in large quantities and detonated, and it appears that a similar thing was done here. Once a proud structure made from warm-colored cinderblocks, the bank has since been largely destroyed. It seems that the blast took most of the building, as well as the edges of nearby buildings and a large chunk out of the ground below your feet, leaving what amounts to little more than an ominous pit with unnaturally smooth edges and floor. Something strange has happened to the gravity in the area, and random bits of debris and rubble idly float here and there in the air above the hole.
It seems that a portion of the bank survived, but it has since collapsed without the support of the other half of the building. Perhaps something survived, but it would require a keen tracker's eye, a strong arm, and perhaps magical aid to uncover.
A police line has been set up on the block, but it is unmanned, merely to keep random passersby from going, 'oh, its ok for me to go over there!' A sign in Ignan has a brief description of the relevance of the site: It was the site of a terrorist attack, it may still be dangerous, a magical explosive was detonated, keep away for your own safety.
What do you do?
Zadok decides to simply let Amarelys tell the lie. She seems quite good at it, considering even he would be having difficulty seeing through her if he didn't know that she was lying. He nods one more time to the warden as they leave. The site of the former bank draws a sigh from him. "This is much worse than the explosion back home. We should be careful. They were not wrong to put warnings up." He ducks past the blockade and approaches the pit, looking for any signs of anything usual, perhaps something that the efreeti wouldn't have been looking for. He also mutters a word and activates his mage sight, looking for traces of unusual magical energy, though he doubts much remains now.
Zadok begins to poke around the site, but he doesn't find anything particularly noteworthy on the surface. It's likely that anything to be found is on the inside of the ruin, which means you'd have to find some way to get through the rubble first.
Amarélys gives a look of empathy at Zadok while secretly wondering whether the attack on shadow Absalom had personally affected Zadok. But, after the moment is passed, Amarélys follows her ally across the police line. Unlike him though, she doesn't exactly duck, but seems to slide under it with almost unnatural grace. And, following his lead, she mutters an incantation to the forces of nature to pierce the realm of the mundane and see the magical aura of the place.
"Nothing really unusual. The efreeti do not seem to have disturbed the ruins of the bank though. And I have a trick or two that will allow me to search the area. I just need to commune with the energies of the plane beforehand." she turns her deep blue eyes toward Zadok "It won't be long."
Zadok nods. "Then I shall leave it to you. Otherwise, we may need to find some help to sift through the rubble in a more direct manner."
Amarélys sits down cross-legged on the ground at the border of the spherical chasm in front of them. She closes her eyes and slowly let the fiery energy of the plane of fire invade her body and mind. From them, she distills the essence of nature and slowly shape it into a imaginary cloud, a cloud whose form she would soon take.
After maybe 10 minutes, Amarélys opens back her eyes, ready to explore the rubble. But first thing first, she needed to see in the dark of the ruins. Lifting a hand to her mask, she focuses on its magic, and slowly, her shape changes. She becomes shorter, the bumps under her hood caused by her ears slowly disappear, he jawline become more rounded, and her right eye takes on a rusty red color.
"This migh appear unusual, but there is no need to worry. " she says as she stands up. And, with one last look at Zadok, she draws holly and mistletoe and starts an incantation. As she speaks and weaves green threads of magic in the air,
Amarélys sits down cross-legged on the ground at the border of the spherical chasm in front of them. She closes her eyes and slowly let the fiery energy of the plane of fire invade her body and mind. From them, she distills the essence of nature and slowly shape it into a imaginary cloud, a cloud whose form she would soon take.
After maybe 10 minutes, Amarélys opens back her eyes, ready to explore the rubble. But first thing first, she needed to see in the dark of the ruins. Lifting a hand to her mask, she focuses on its magic, and slowly, her shape changes. She becomes shorter, the bumps under her hood caused by her ears slowly disappear, he jawline become more rounded, and her right eye takes on a rusty red color.
"I will try to make this as quick as possible." she says as she stands up. And, with one last look at Zadok, she draws holly and mistletoe in her right hand and silent starts casting a spell. As weaves green threads of magic in the air with her left hand, a cloud slowly starts to form around her, until with one last gesture, she fully disappears within the cloud.
Slowly the mist Amarélys as becomes glides toward the rubble and seep between the broken stones.
Amarélys becomes a massive, misty cloud and drifts into the ruin, her insubstantial form fitting effortlessly between the tiny gaps left by stone lying on top of stone. For a short time, she drifts aimlessly through the ruin, her huge form able to observe large amounts of shadowed debris all at once. Then a corner of her enters what small part of the bank remains and discovers... an entrance to an intact basement!
Amarélys floats in through the cracks in the doors and into the basement. With her changeling form's vision revealing all to her in the stark shades of black and white, she drifts through the few rooms in the basement. A filing room, filled with paper bank records. A shut-up vault, the corners of its doors shut too tightly for even Amarélys' cloud-form to drift through. A doorway leads into a section of basement that has since collapsed, but lying in front of it is a deceased giant, his form stocky and his once-fiery beard having turned grey in death. His throat is slit and his face is locked in a rictus of shock and betrayal.
Fire giants are immune to fire and they can imbue weapons they wield and rocks they throw with the elemental fire that courses through their blood.
Because of their fire affinity, many of them have immigrated to the City of Brass.
Amarélys floats around the giant for a while, inspecting it and gathering as much information as she can. Once she is done inspecting the general layout of the basement, she slowly floats outward, seeping through the cracks of the rubble to finally amalgamate into her original form, right next to her investigator companion.
"There is nothing in the rubble as such, but I found a basement, still intact. Most things there were as one would expect, but there was a single body lying there. A fire giant whose throat had been slit. I am thinking that he might have been involved in the attack. And..."
Amarélys hovers around the giant, her cloud-like form running over it and through its clothes. As she searches, she finds an ID clipped to a front, although since she can't read Ignan she can't read exactly what it says. The fire giant is armed with a longsword strapped to its hip, and its hand is on the hilt of the longsword as it lies dead on the ground. It hadn't drawn the blade.
The hallway around is mostly clear. It was a bank, kept meticulously clean.
Amarélys, untrained in the ways of medicine, cannot really tell anything specific about the fire giant's death or the state of his body.
"... The giant had papers on him, with his name. Let me remember." as she speaks, Amarélys takes out her crystalline rod and starts tracing symbols in the dirt. "There. This is what I saw."
"I haven't found much interesting things down there, but maybe your eyes could find something. I have the power to transport us there.... but the return would take a whole day."
"Fortunately, Ignan is among my linguistic knowledge." Zadok glances down at the roughly copied letters to see if he can make sense of them. "Yes, I believe I would like to examine the room for myself. Perhaps we should also check with the Riftwardens for the possibility of calling someone who has skill in examining the dead or communing. I was never trained as a coroner, unfortunately."
Amarelys' copied Ignan characters aren't perfect, but Zadok can clearly make out that one is supposed to say SECURITY. After a bit of scrutinizing and pondering, Zadok makes out the rest as saying: HI! MY NAME IS ____! HOW ARE YOU TODAY but Amarelys is unable to copy the handwriting on the name sufficiently.
"That seems like an odd thing to have written on someone." Amarélys says, looking at Zadok. "Efreetis did not strike me has having a great sense of humor." she adds, to avoid implying that Zadok mistranslated her writing.
Seeing Zadok shake his head imperceptibly at her suggestion to spend the whole day in the bank's underground, Amarélys goes on.
"We can move to the Ono's embassy, investigate there and then come back here once we have the required resources. Maybe tomorrow." she says, making her suggestion almost seem like their agreed upon course of action as she invites Zadok to follow her, and strides in the direction of the closest ship tower .
"Do you know about Ono? I don't remember meeting anyone from there...." she asks as they are walking.
Amarelys and Zadok, having decided that they don't have the abilities to extract information from the dead fire giant in the basement, head off to the temple of Onos in search of more leads.
They take the transit across the absurd, gigantic planar metropolis for another ten minutes before coming to the temple, which looks exactly like a diplomatic mission. Flags from many nations the pair recognize and which represent many that are unknown circumscribe the temple. Four pillars stand at its cardinal points, representing each of the four traditional elements. It seems to have been undamaged by whatever attack came here, and members of all four elemental races can be seen walking the yard in groups, talking.
"It seems like it's just a name tag," Zadok says with a shrug. "But, yes I supposed we should move on for now. We'll have to look into this a bit more later." The fetchling adjusts his cloak and joins Amarelys as they walk to catch a ride to the embassy. "I'm afraid I've never heard of him, but it must have been something of importance for the terrorists to attack."
As they arrive at the temple, the facade of the building finally brings something to mind. "Actually, I have heard a little of this place. I don't know much of the patron, but I know that the temple serves as a neutral meeting ground for elemental beings. Perhaps that's why it was attacked. I doubt terrorists would want their war to end. Let's see if one of the priests is around. Perhaps they can tell us what happened."
Zadok heads into the priest and asks around for someone to talk to. The halls are just as filled with all sorts of different elemental creatures walking and talking and working together, and with mortals too. The building exudes wealth and age and importance. It turns out that the head priest is actually an elderly shaitan, a bent and wrinkled creature made of elemental stone who sits behind a desk in one of the temple's offices. He looks up when the pair enter the room. "Ah, yes?" he says, voice warbly. He adjusts a monocle. "Can I help you?"
"Good afternoon," Zadok says with a smile. "My name is Zadok Warren and this is my associate Amarelys. We've been contacted to help investigate the recent attacks in the city. We were hoping that you would be willing to provide us with further details on the attack your temple suffered not long ago. I think we're all interested in seeing the recent violence come to an end before anyone else is hurt."
"Terrorism is a dangerous path. Attacking peace talks especially so, as it is a roll of the dice. Even if the peace talk fail, the members of the terrorist group might only want to dissociate from them. I believe you are right though, in their minds, they are probably punishing those who betray their view. Extremism can have strange consequences on one's mind. "
Entering the Ono embassy, or temple to be more accurate, Amarélys walks with assurance and grace toward the head priest. Though her gaze remains fixed on him, she takes in the surrounding from the corner of her eyes.
"Good afternoon." Amarélys joins in with Zadok "Anything you can tell us would be useful, including why your worship would attract such attacks." Amarélys adds, expecting her words to motivate the priest to explain what Ono is.
The elderly shaitan nods, and sighs deeply. "Ah, I see, you're here about that," he says. "Of course I'm happy to talk. We were only too luck that we were spared the worst. You see, many of our residents and employees possess extra senses. One earth elemental resident detected the Adepts when they were still setting up their bomb, and our guardsmen were able to leap into action."
"From what I understand, a couple of the Adepts and guards were killed, and the remainder of the Adepts teleported away with their unfinished bombs in-hand." He sighs again, although the poof of air from his big body is miniscule. "It's very lucky that we were not destroyed."
"As for why... I don't know. I don't know too much about who attacked us. The police came after, and that's when I heard 'Blackfire Adepts', but I haven't been able to find much in the library about them."
"Telling us more about Ono might help us better understand the reason why you were attacked." Amarélys suggests "That is, if you do not have access to talking with the dead adepts. I am not a cleric myself, but I have heard to holy servants have the power to question the dead." Amarélys says, putting the emphasis on the words so has to strongly suggest that they should be doing so. Yet, someone, her innate charm makes it seem as though she is politely asking for something rather than bullying the priest.
"If you wish to speak with them," says the elderly shaitan, "You absolutely may. They are stored in our crypt underneath the embassy for now. We have been preserving them, although the efreeti have had trouble extracting answers from them. You may try."
"Onos, the Gate of Many Doors, is the god of the elements, embassies, and interplanar travel. His faith ended on the Material Plane milennia ago, but it survives in the Elemental Planes between those of us who would prefer that the inhabitants of the Inner Sphere not spend our immortalities at war with one another. His faithful and his servants gain power over all of the elements, and the ability to travel long distances at once."
"This is one of his four major temples. There is one each on the other elemental planes. We work to maintain a basic peace between the four Elemental planes and their various races, to... varying levels of success."
"I have heard a little of this before," Zadok admits. "But know little of your faith, unfortunately. It is a shame. A god who seeks to bring peace and order to the elemental planes seems a god whose word should be more well known. Lords know the world could use a bit more negotiation some days." The fetchling taps his chin thoughtfully. "But I thank you kindly for your offer. Is there one you would prefer to send with us to examine the bodies?"
The shaitan nods, and calls for an acolyte. Soon enough, a burly and blue-skinned marid genie appears at the doorway. The shaitan explains the situation, and that there is need for speak with dead on the dead Blackfire Adepts. The marid nods stoically and then leads Amarelys and Zadok away from the head priest. The marid introduces himself as Kalio, and explains that he has served Onos for but a hundred years - the blink of an eye in the life of immortal outsiders. "His faith came to me recently," he says. "One of the clerics of Onos saved my life on a forsaken battlefield on the Plane of Earth. I was alone among my compatriots, and afterwards I decided I would have no more of wars."
He leads the pair down a hallway, into a magically-powered elevator (merely a stone disc in a vertical cylinder that lowers itself on verbal command) that brings them down to a cool cellar several levels below. He then leads them past several other rooms. He then indicates a stone door with a sign in all four elemental languages marked "MORGUE #6". He pushes it open just a crack before he hesitates. His nose wriggles back and forth like a rabbit. "There is evil beyond the door," he murmurs, his eyes glowing with a before-unnoticed shimmer of detection magic. "Do what you must now, I am going in."
Marids are strong, tough, intelligent, charismatic - in every way bigger and better than your average human. Despite their giant size, they are not typically as strong as true (mortal) giants the same size as they are. They possess darkvision, and they are capable of assuming a variety of elemental, giant, and humanoid forms.
As water elementals, marids are most comfortable in water. As such, they are stronger when in water and against foes also in water. If either they or their foe is touching the ground, their strength is drained. They are also capable of shooting a blinding stream of water and becoming a whirlpool which sucks in unaware swimming foes.
Once per year a marid can grant a wish to a mortal, but it can only do so willingly.
More powerful and rarer versions of marids exist, both varieties of the common marid and also noble marids with more supple bodies, more powerful spellcraft and more frequent wishcrafting.
"Ah, a pleasure to meet you," Zadok says as he offers a hand to the water genie. He hadn't expected to meet one of them on this trip, but perhaps it should have been expected in a temple dedicated to peace between all four elements. He follows the marid down to the morgue, only to stop short as the genie senses something ahead. "Allow me..." He waves his hands and mutters a few arcane words under his breath, laying an enchantment over the group to enhance their reactions.
After her usual introduction, involving name, holding out a hand/curtsying if needed, Amarélys engages in conversation with Kalio.
A flash of respect appears in Amarélys' eyes as the marid explains his story.
"A moving tale. War is something that brings only death. Yet the path of peace is also a difficult one. Your devotion to it is to be commended."
Putting her back to the wall in one quick and graceful motion as soon as the Kalio senses the evil beyond the door, Amarélys holds out a door to stop the genie.
But, too late, Zadok incants, their position is given. Magic coursing in her veins. One step sideways. She opens the door and reveals the room.
As Zadok unleashes speed-demon magic on the group and Amarelys opens the door to reveal the room beyond, Kalio tenses his body up to leap into battle against whatever lies beyond the door...
The door swings open to reveal a small crypt, five rows of two slabs for corpse storage line down the cold stone walls. Three of the slabs are occupied by corpses, but standing over the slabs are four other figures. Standing over one is a snake-man warrior carrying a shotel, a curved blade superior against shield-wielding foes. The serpentfolk is lifting one of the Adept corpses into a waiting bag held by monstrous green hag. Standing behind them are two wind elementals, their lower halves dissolving into whirling winds. They turn at the intrusion, snarling, and just then Kalio leaps into combat. He forces the serpentfolk to drop the corpse (which tumbles to the ground beside one of the slabs) with a powerful slam of his genie fists.
Kalio hesitates before slamming his fist into the serpentfolk, years of meditation and peace-bonding getting in the way of a true savage attack.
Gathering himself, Kalio pushes himself forward and strikes twice more against the serpentfolk before him, but he still isn't able to muster the most of his strength, because his contact with the ground below him saps away his strength in battle. He lands one strike on the serpentfolk, but it is not a strong one, and then one of the djinni, drawing a scimitar, attacks him. While Kalio is able to fend off the blow with naught but his fists, he now finds himself in battle with two foes at once.
Serpentfolk were rumoured to be natural sorcerers, with several magical abilities at their disposal. In addition, they had lean and fast physiques, poisonous bites, and were immune to poison themselves.
They have access to a myriad of spell-like abilities, including disguise self, ventriloquism, blur, mirror image, and suggestion. In addition, they resist magic naturally and are immune to mind-affecting abilities.
As such, you should expect some specialized melee ability with that sword he wields and some minor arcane tricks.
They have powerful claws, thick skins, and thick, wiry muscles that make them powerful foes in melee.
Green hags naturally resist magic. Their claws sap the strength from anything that they are able to dig into. In addition, they have access to a suite of spell-like abilities: pass without trace, tongues, water breathing, alter self, dancing lights, ghost sound, invisibility, pyrotechnics, tree shape, and whispering wind. It can call on all of these powers either at will or constantly.
1. Kalio
2. Djinni #2
3. Amarelys
4. Serpentfolk
5. Zadok
6. Djinni #1
7. Hag
Heart beating from facing danger once more after so many years, Amarélys has to momentarily think back about her lost glade to recover her countenance. So strong a drive it is, that her heart stills and her gazed sharpens to an edge. Her deep blue eyes quickly scan the scene, and before she can do or say anything, Kalio has already entered in melee with opponents. Her gaze stops on the unlucky one who's slower than her and locks with the serpentfolk. Unearthly beauty mixed with inhumane drive fills the snake's mind as it feels forced to sustain the gaze, and in doing so to reflect upon its own insignificance.
After three long seconds, Amarélys draws her dagger and slowly approaches the melee, ready to help Kalio if need be.
"Careful with the green woman, she might appear ghaunt, but she will be a formidable foe to fight in close quarter."
At last, Amarélys looks over her shoulder, expecting to see Zadok quickly join them in battle.
The serpentfolk is immediately struck dumb by Amarelys' stunning glance. His shotel clatters to the ground while his allies snarl in anger at his uselessness.
"Noted. Let's not let her get into close quarters then." Zadok raises a hand and incants another spell. Shadows swirl around his hands and surge forward, carving out a pit beneath the green hag's feet.
"Be cautious of the djinn yourself," he adds after a moment. "They're quick and mobile on the wind and as naturally magical as any genie race. They obviously favor abilities drawn from air such as conjuring or becoming wind and can vanish with a thought. It looks like we're not the only ones who thought the bodies here might have something important on them."
"Also, while you seem to have the serpentman well in hand, be careful. He's one of their old breed and much stronger in both mind and magical potential than most of their kind. He has some mental tricks and seems to be trained in swordsmanship and possibly further magical power. Don't take him lightly just because you have him disabled for now."
Zadok opens up a portal underneath the feet of the green hag and the paralyzed serpentfolk (both the djinni are flying, and so are not useful to try and target with his ability).
The green hag, suddenly nervous of the opening portal beneath her feet, sidesteps out of the way just in time. The serpentfolk's mind sees through the shadow spell, but he is too paralyzed to try and avoid it. He teeters... and then topples down into the hole, but only partway, to the "real" bottom.
One of the djinni sees Zadok, standing at the back casting spells. Snarling, he raises his scimitar and flies in an arc up and over Kalio. He brings his scimitar to bear against Zadok. While Zadok is fast, the djinni is made of elemental wind, and manages to score a slice along Zadok's arm when the fetchling tries to bring it up to block the attack.
The green hag steps back and incants a spell. As she does so, her skin glows and tightens, and her veins are outlined in green as she calls on her power. At the doorway, a cloud of noxious green smoke appears. It smells like absolute garbage, and blocks Zadok and Amarelys' view of the battle.
Meanwhile, Kalio and one of the djinni assailants continue to duke it out. While blows are blocked or dodged on both sides, the great strength of the two giant-sized genie warriors evident from the great sounds made from the exchange of their blows, only Kalio manages to land a single blow.
Zadok coughs and quickly pulls his cloak across his face to keep the noxious cloud from his nose and throat. "Disgusting," he grumbles through the layer of cloth.
Amarélys gracefully vents the air in front of her with her free hand, somehow calling on the power of air to cleanse the air she breathes.
"I am going in." she whispers.
Her dagger defensively held high but blade pointing down, Amarélys comes out of the cloud and into the room. Circling around one of the giant empty slabs until she finds a clear line to the hag, Amarélys quickly flicks her wrist dragging a green trail of magic behind it while she intones an incantation. Mud slowly forms into her right hand, and once it forms a sticky ball, she throws it at the hag's face.
Amarelys bursts from the cloud of stinking fog, a ball of blinding mud building in her hand. She hurls it at the hag at the back of the group, catching the green crone squarely in the face.
At the bottom of Zadok's pit, the serpentfolk lies, still paralyzed.
Zadok dashes forward, using the swirling cloud to give him some cover to avoid leaving another opening for the djinn as he skips forward out of the reach of both his enemy's blade and the poisonous fog. "Good shot. Though I have a feeling this one doesn't care about being dirty all that much." The fetchling mutters a few more words and suddenly there are half a dozen of him standing in the room, flickering with shadows that make it hard to tell where each is standing.
Zadok's mirror images confound the djinni facing him for but a moment, before she charges back into battle against the fetchling, scimitar humming with the speed of the elemental's strike. While the elemental isn't quite fast enough to strike at Zadok himself, one of the images is on the periphery of the fetchling's space and it vanishes with a pop.
The green hag shakes her face vigorously, failing to dislodge the mud. She growls with frustration before spending several seconds wiping it from her eyes. After she removes it all, she glares furiously at Amarelys.
Kalio and the djinni continue their brawl, the marid's dominance over his weaker air cousin becoming evident as Kalio lands another powerful blow on the djinni terrorist. Lips pressed into a grim line, the djinni fades from view, which draws a yell of frustration from the now-roused anger of Kalio.
Amarélys who had so far been quite serious in the battle, straightens herself up, back arched slightly backward, and weight shifted on her left leg, as if to laugh at the absence of reprisal against her. In defiance, she flashes a haughty derisive smile at the hag who has just washed her eyes clean. The change from her usual charming demeanor is striking.
"You really think that you magic will work? Hah. Come and fight me if you can. We will see whether true beauty or sour horror has the upper hand."
With this said, Amarélys gracefully drops behind the slab she had put between herself and the fight. There, out of view, she begins to incant a spell while laughing in derision, effectively concealing her words of power.
Then, still crouching, she moves up the slab and toward the lizard man, making sure to leave a clear path for the hag to reach her previous location.
The hag snarls as Amarelys turns invisible, her eyes scanning back and forth for where her fey opponent could be...
Meanwhile, the serpentfolk is still paralyzed at the bottom of the pit...
Zadok takes a moment to study the djinn's stance as his strike does little more than make one of his shadowy duplicates vanish. "You upset your balance moving like that," he comments dryly. He adjusts his grip on his sword and rams the point into the genie's gut. "You really should be more careful again an unknown opponent."
Zadok gets in underneath the guard of his djinni opponent, slicing into the creature with practiced efficiency. The creature hisses with pain, and Zadok can feel its hiss as a whoosh of air across his face before it retaliates at him with a pair of scimitar-swipes. Zadok easily sidesteps both of its attacks, although he finds another one of his images winked out as collateral damage by the djinni's strikes.
Snarling, the hag calls upon her sorcerous powers and summons fire along her arms into the palm of one hand. She then points two fingers at Kalio and lets loose a pair of flaming rays at the marid. Both rays hit home, and the marid's flesh bubbles and evaporates like water at the two points where the rays strike. Kalio grits his teeth and bares the pain... but seems none the worse for wear afterwards.
The marid charges into battle against the hag who struck him with rays of fire, but the second djinni appears from invisibility along the way, striking into Kalio's flesh with his scimitar. The marid's guard is down due to his charge, and the djinni's blade strikes true. Not only that, but the marid cannot penetrate the defenses of the hag, who raises a hand to block the marid's attack and then recklessly slaps the giant genie's blow aside with a powerful parry.
Flying in from behind, the second djinni charges towards Kalio's back, his sword biting into the now-slowing marid's shoulder blades, drawing a liquid that looks suspiciously like water to the surface.
Zadok clicks his tongue as another of his illusions vanishes and their marid ally is rapidly swarmed by the remaining foes. "Amarelys! Help Kalio! I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment." He twists and makes several more quick strikes, aiming for weak points in the genie's guard and trying to put an end to his opponent quickly.
Amarélys rushes to Kalio's side, aware that she is making noises, but confident that her invisible nature will provide her with the necessary protection against her foes.
"I see you don't take me seriously, maybe if I am standing right behind you you will." the nymph calls to the hag as passes behind the monstrous woman.
As Amarélys finishes speaking, she once again starts to laugh in derision at the hag. And, again, she incants a spell in between each small burst of laughter.
Just as the djinni gets overconfident from the fairly weak efforts of Zadok's attacks, the fetchling lands three well-placed jabs in critical areas, and before he even knows what's happening the djinni has disintegrated into wind.
Amarelys lays a ward upon the back of her marid ally, just in time for the hag to unleash another pair of scorching rays at him. Unfortunately for her, the rays are completely rebuffed by Amarelys' magic, and the hag snarls with frustration. She points at her djinni compatriot and cries, "Get Ssissthek out of here! I will handle these clowns."
True to her word, when Kalio unleashes a flurry of fists against her, she fends off most of the blows, only allowing a single slam to clock her across the face. Although a dribble of blood exits her mouth, she smiles and appears ready for more.
Meanwhile, her djinni compatriot aims only one parting slice back at Kalio - a slice which is easily rebuffed by his tough, outsider skin, before fleeing back into the pit where his serpentfolk ally is lying stunned.
Zadok quickly closes in behind Kalio. "Be careful," he warns as he puts a hand on the marid's shoulder. "She's no push over." Shadowy smoke twists off his fingers and wraps around the genie, making him hazy and hard to see.