Knowing that Ilistra's mighty fire would likely win the day, the determined Luna continued to fiercely fight her wicked counterpart!
Moving in such a way to avoid opportunistic attacks, the gallant Garland quickly rushed to the aid of the struggling gentleman and swung his awesome scythe at the most wounded hound!
"Cica, help me out here! Placidus can handle that one!"
While the canines nip at each other, Ilistra gathers more power before flinging it at the dog.
Cica hustles around the closest dog, to be able to reach the two chewing on the underdressed fellow.
As she does, she draws her longhammer, hollers, "Duck, Garland!", and swings it in a big arc.
...then, when he doesn't duck as fast as she wants, she mutters under her breath about messing up her swing.
___________
Ilistra's blast nearly kills the dog, which Luna swiftly finishes.
To the south Garland and Cica cut down two of the dogs menacing the civilian man. A moment later, Placidus runs around the corner and the three of the them finish the last maddened animal.
The wounded man struggles to his feet, sheathing his bloodied spatha. "Thank...thank you," he says, holding a hand to the bite on his leg. He appears to be in a lot of pain. "Those curs would have had me for lunch without your aid. I am Dux Tiberius Faustus. To whom do I owe my life?" Tiberius speaks with the polished accent of the high aristocracy. The quality of his fashionable clothing and accessories further accentuates his status as a Ruler.
Placidus offers a bow to the duke. "I am legionnaire Placidus Utilinus, Seventh Cohort Apollonian Guard, Thirteenth Contubernium. May I heal some of those wounds, your grace?"
"Yes, Legionnaire, that would be most appreciated. Thank you."
Placidus gently lays hands on the Duke's wounds, and begins to channel the power of Narinari to heal them.
The duke stops bleeding, but he is clearly still somewhat wounded.
Ilistra looks around the empty alleyway, noticing the screaming had ended. She follows Luna as she returns to Garland.
"Dogs are dead that way," she announces.
"I am Garland, Seventh Cohort Apollonian Guard, Thirteenth Contubernium," said the masked legonarrie with a respectful bow. He paused before lowering his voice, "One moment. I think I hear something approaching."
In a heroic haste, Garland quickly rounded the corner!
Our hero returned but a moment later with Luna and Ilistra in tow.
"It was just Ilistra and Luna," he said. Upon realizing that Luna might scare the Ruler, Garland quickly added, "Worry not, Dux Faustus. Luna here is part of the Guard too!"
Luna happily yipped and nodded her head in acknowledgement.
"Some native men dressed for war unleashed those dogs on everyone...They were shouting in their tongue, but I did not understand them."
As Dux Faustus is explaining what happened, more shouting and yelling breaks out a few blocks away. Turning to look, the group sees a thick column of black smoke rising into the air approximately where their warehouse should be located. The Dux goes pale when he sees the smoke. "Sweet Lords above, they've lit the town on fire! Go! I will be fine now. I will find you later to show you my thanks properly."
Ilistra gets an uncertain look. "I only start fires. No good at stopping them," she whispers to Garland.
Garland held out his gloved hand... and a small pool of water appeared in his palm!
"It is alright, Ilistra; I can put out fires," Garland replied gently. He turned to face the rest of the group, "Dux Faustus is right; we need to help save the town!"
Once more, Garland resumed his heroic hustle.
Cica (having introduced herself as well, moments before) curses loudly when she sees the smoke...and keeps cursing as she runs, realizing that could well be their warehouse that's burning.
That fool Darius better not have lit our gods-damned warehouse on fire. Where is he anyway?!?
The soldiers arrive at their warehouse to find two native men wielding torches and flasks of liquid in the street. Their own warehouse is already on fire, and the men appear to be about to light the other nearby warehouses as well.
"Ndi ebe-agha abiawo, ekwela ka ha kwusi anyi!" one of the men shouts.
"Maka Brothermụnna Freeman!" shouts the other.
Ilistra strides forward, letting the corona of flame surround her. She shouts out to them. "Kwụsị! Ga na-emezi ihe ka njọ!"
"Stop! You're only going to make things worse!"
The first man to speak laughs. "Nwanyi, sonyere anyi. Jiri onyinye nke oku a nke ire oku wee kpochapu ndi nile no n’agha!" He flings the vial in his hand at another nearby warehouse, it strikes the wall and explodes in a burst of liquid fire, igniting the wall.
Ilistra just shakes her head no.
Garland quickly started conjuring water to put out the flames!
Seeing the soldiers make no immediate move to attack them, the men turn and run. They look prepared to fling their torches and other flasks at buildings as they go.
"Cica, Ilistra, stop them!" Garland said as he tried to drench the arsonists' torches.
Ilistra hesitates for a split second, then jogs after them. She focuses on blasting their torches or flasks out of the air. She finds herself reluctant to send her flames directly at the natives.
Ilistra manages to hit most of what they throw, but blasting jars of explosive fluid out of the air in the tight alleyways proves to not be the most effective fire fighting method. The results are better than if the men had been left to their own devices, but there are still several buildings on fire by the end. The men split up and run in opposite directions as soon as they are out of fiery projectiles.
It would be possible for the group to split up and run the men down, but that would allow the fire to spread. Garland, even with his spells, is not enough to fight the fires alone.
After a few seconds of thought, Garland decided to focus on fighting the flames.
"...Let's focus on the fires; if they spread too much, they might burn down the entire city," said the masked legionnaire as he continued conjuring as much water as he could. "Those two only have so much supplies; meanwhile, I can literally do this all day."
Ilistra chooses to do what she can with stopping the fires from spreading. Since she's not burned by anything but the hottest of flames, she grabs burning torches and smoldering wads of kindling and throws it in the middle of the street or into puddles of water to stop the fires from spreading further.
Working together, along with other citizens who flock to save their own property, the group is able to put out all the fires within a minute. It turns out there were a few auxiliaries inside the warehouse when it was lit. They were trapped inside by the flames, but once they are out they rush up to the legionnaires. "Derindi. They took Derindi!"
As this is announced, Darius wanders up to the scene.
"What?!? How? Why...?"
Cica twitches her nose and it begins to look slightly wolfish.
Sniffing one of the discarded torches, she attempts to find and follow a scent, as well as looking for tracks that haven't yet been overrun.
As she's sniffing, she looks up to see Darius arrive.
"Oh now you show up. You happen to see a couple native firebugs on your way here?"
"Well, we were assigned to guard him here while we waited for you. There were more of them, they busted in and started everything on fire. We managed to kill a couple but some of them grabbed Derindi and ran off, then we got trapped by the flames. Sorry, M'am."
As Cica goes and starts to follow the trail left by the men, such as it is, another guard legionnaire soldier runs up. This one is a young ifrit woman, huffing and puffing to catch her breath. "General Havilar sent me. Freemen Brotherhood has seized the South Arcadian Whaling Company in New Haliad. They're calling for slaughter of foreigners and the overthrow of the government! They've got at least one hostage. General wants you there, now!"
Cica frowns. "Well, if you know where the bastards are, we'll follow. It'll be faster than trying to follow tracks!
"Come on then. Let's hustle!"
Ilistra looks sick, but she jogs along with the others in her unit towards the Whaling Company building.
”I did not,” Darius replies flatly. He then follows along after their guide towards where they were being summoned.
At the end of Whalebone Lane, on the west side facing the beachfront, stands a large complex of whitewashed stone and brick, easily located by the pungent stench surrounding it. The compound belongs to the South Arcadian Whaling Company, a small operation that hunts and processes whales off the southwestern coast, and serves as one of the region’s sources for baleen, whale meat, whale oil, and other whale byproducts. The compound is walled on all sides, including the beachfront, making it one of the most defensible structures in the city.
When the Thirteenth arrives at the compound, a native man is on the roof of the flensing house holding Jask Derindi at knifepoint. A crowd has gathered below him outside the compound as he shouts out slogans calling for the abolition of slavery in Apollonia. "Free every slave or this guardsman will die!"
From the ground the Freeman has cover, and it is clear that any direct attacks on him will likely result in Jask's death.
”Don’t make any rash action...let me handle this...”
Darius then slips off from the group...again...becoming lost in the crowd...
"Wait, we are a unit! We must act together. What do you plan to do?"
Darius looks perturbed at being stalled. ”I’m going to solve the problem, and I’ll be able to move more quickly and quietly alone. If you wish to help...keep him talking and not thinking about killing Jask.”
"I think Darius has the right of it, Placidus," Garland murmured. "Our only chances to save Jask are surprise or diplomacy, and given the circumstances, the latter strikes me as a shot in the dark."
Before her life in the kitchens, Ilistra was raised amongst the native tribes. She couldn't help but feel a measure of sympathy for their cause, but also remembers that those tribes exiled her. They were fine with her being a slave.
She considers the native man, picking up clues about his origins based on his dress and accent. Maybe there was something she could use.
"Sneaking in is fine, but I seriously doubt he is alone in there. Let's go to the back together and climb the wall. He's not paying attention to us anyway with all these people here. Or if Darius really wants to sneak in alone, we can be ready to break in the front when he attacks."
"Brotherhood get themselves killed and others suffer for it," she mutters.
Ilistra slips away as well, seeking to gain entrance into the warehouse compound. She gets out of sight of the guards and crowd, then takes off her tunica to reveal her native dress underneath. She pulls out her small bone-handled dagger and then decides to see what happens if she approaches the gate looking like one of them.
Cica nods and follows. As she does, she whispers to Darius, "Remember, doing something stupid--or acting without coordinating--will probably get Jask killed."
"I promise you all that I will do my best to save Jask. In fact, I think I have an idea for how we could even free him..."
He informs the others of his plan: using magic, he will disguise himself as Jask's younger sister and pretend that the two are in fact both slaves. He will then plea for Jask's release. If nothing else, the act will almost certainly stall the Freeman. If there are no objections, Garland proceeds. Luna remains with Placidus.
First, I must assume a disguise; Garland the Gallant must never be associated with lies.
Using his heroic magics, after ducking somewhere secluded, the masked legionnaire assumes a less striking appearance, one very similar to the suli Jask, albeit somewhat younger. He could easily pass as the scribe's younger sister. Thanks to the magic, Garland is also "dressed" for the part.
"Good Freeman!" hails the disguised Garland in a surprisingly fitting voice for his new role. "Please don't hurt my big brother! Your cause is noble, but in this case, I fear you're mistaken! We're both slaves! I thought you wanted to free us! Please let him go; he's all I have left..."
Using the rope of climbing, Darius and Cica are easily able to start scrambling up the wall.
With a successful Climb check, you can advance up, down, or across a slope, wall, or other steep incline (or even across a ceiling, provided it has handholds) at one-quarter your normal speed. A slope is considered to be any incline at an angle measuring less than 60 degrees; a wall is any incline at an angle measuring 60 degrees or more. A Climb check that fails by 4 or less means that you make no progress, and one that fails by 5 or more means that you fall from whatever height you have already attained.
"Well then, you understand the shackles around our peoples' lives better than most, little Sister! They will never see us as people. They will never let us live freely as we did before they came to these shores! Death is the ultimate freedom, and if this man has to give his life to free us all, then his name will be blessed for all time, and he will finally be free!" In case it wasn't clear before now, the man is clearly a fanatic, willing to justify anything if he thinks it will help his cause. Jask looks terrified and confused, seeing as he has no sister. He's smart enough to keep his mouth shut though.
Ilistra looks at the wall, and even with the rope she knows she'll never manage the climb. Instead, she runs to the gate and calls out to the Brotherhood, "Ka m banye, biko! Ndị mwakpo ahụ ga-egbu m ebe a!"
"Let me in, please! The invaders will kill me out here!"
Upon seeing Ilistra's efforts, an idea forms in Garland's mind.
"Then take me instead!" the disguised Garland pleads. "If someone has to die for freedom, let me take his place! If not, may I at least come inside and say goodbye?"