Vaascht keeps himself in front of Evie and the madman but otherwise ignores him.
He does look over as the group discusses the rain, briefly looks up at the sky, then continues; outwardly oblivious to the cold rain.
The party bounces around Hive tavern's and flop houses asking after Eliath for the next couple of hours. You hit the Gathering Dust Bar, a somber place frequented by Dustmen and people looking to sign dead contracts. You hit the blinds at the Bloody Bucket and the Stumble Inn as well.
Searching for Quake's Place (it move around) you pass through a dark, winding alley strewn with refuse when you hear the sound of footsteps following and the whisper of steel sliding from leather. Behind you, a band of six bashers emerges from a dark doorway, weapons drawn. They're dressed in ill-fitting tatters and seem down on their luck — the lowest sort of mercenaries. Ahead of you, a pair of cutters wearing the insignia of Chaos appears, blocking the alley. One's a burly bariaur wielding no weapons, and the other looks like a priest. The bariaur calls out to the party: "Easy way or hard, choice yours it is. Weapons drop! Best is surrender. Collectors you'll meet otherwise, two smiles you'll have. Berks!"
The Patryn grips his oaken staff a bit tighter.
What the f~+@ language is that!
Vaascht just steps forward and grins, cold reptilian green eyes staring both down, off hand loosening his blade in its sheathe with a flick of his thumb.
The Patryn nods at the Githzerai.
I like this guy!
To Akrynn: ”I’ve been commissioned to find him, much as I’ve commissioned you.”
Evie keeps her ears and nose open as they work their way through the Hive’s public houses, but catches no sign of the man they seek. This Akrynn has a point. Asking after an ill-fed barmy here is like asking after a rodent housemaid back at Tryon Manor. Perhaps we should -
She stops in her tracks as the figures detach themselves from doorways and shadows to challenge her little band. Xaositects! Evie had yet to officially join any of Sigil’s many factions; she’d fallen in with the Indeps largely due to their welcoming nature. Politics aside, she found the philosophies espoused by several different factions to be persuasive. The Xaositects was not one of them.
Sooner trust a true barmy than one of these addle-coves. Frederick sticks his head out of her scarf, eyes gleaming, and she feels his focus sharpen her own. Together they glance about for nearby doors as Vaascht steps forward to earn his pay.
”Jek, this is an untoward circumstance.”
Rinika calmly stows her umbrella on her back and then spends a moment beckoning to nothing in particular. Shadows streak towards her from the alleys, the eaves, even from below the feet of her allies and her challengers. The darkness travels up her legs and coalesces around her new overlong waistcoat, girding her against light and blade alike.
The half of mob of beggars and bubbers takes one look at Vaascht and drop their weapons fleeing. The rest of them hesitate. The bariaur just gets a giant crazy grin on his face saying, "Too like I you!"
Round 1
Evie's spirits lift a little as some of the ruffians to the rear turn tail and flee, leaving their comrades in the lurch. They look ready to break as well! She concentrates on her feet, grown tired from their hours of bar-hopping, and whispers to the spirit of fatigue that tickles them, calling it up into her hand until it begins to exude a grey haze.
Darting forward, she reaches for the nearest basher's leg with her bewitched hand...
Evie stumbles a little bit and her touch is thwarted. It seems some of the spirits were grabbing at her feet a bit too hard.
The Bariaur draws a short blunt stick with a thin loop of leather strung at one end. He trots next to Vaascht while chanting, "The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth." And then using the stick grabs the githzerai in a tight hold.
Emboldened by their leader's control of the scary menace they move on Evie to attack. But between her small size and their general lack of training it's all they can do to hold onto their weapons.
Taking in the giant horseman and the leather loop encircling one of his arms Vaascht, quickly decides since he likely has backup from Jeks spear directly behind him to not worry overmuch and, rather than wasting time trying to break free, rips his blade out with his free hand, slashing as it goes.
Akrynn steps 15' closer to the Priest. Drawing a Runic symbol in his direction, the Patryn declares,
You are now Prohibited from casting a spell.
As a standard action, you can command a creature within 30 feet to refrain from committing a particular action (including any referenced in the spell forbid action). If the creature performs the named action before the beginning of your next turn, it takes 1d6 points of damage + 1 point for every 2 cleric levels you possess and the effect ends. This is a language-dependent effect. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
Vaascht draws his weapon but the awkwardness of a mad goat-man giving him a violent hug causes his katana to only slice his leather armor.
The chaos priest twitches uncontrollably as Arkynn prohibits him, clearly upset.
Jek rears up and stabs at the other bariaur.
Rinika steps up next to the trifling and full attacks, sharp claws unsheathing from her fingertips.
The Patryn smiles at the Priest.
Yomi delays
Jek thinks better of running through Vaascht or Arkynn with his lance to get at the Xaositect brawler. Meanwhile Rinika claws at the air around the tiefling.
The Xaos cleric pulls down her eyelid at Arkynn and casts a spell jolting in pain and losing the spell.
Keeping his blue eyes focused on the Priest, Akrynn grins.
Round 2
Evie reaches out to touch the tiefling Rinika has faced off against, but being surrounded has made the young ratling too skittish to follow through. She hops back from the trio of ruffians with a scowl, holding her hand out in front of her.
They've found their resolve - now I must find mine!
It's subtle but Vaascht and Jek note that the bariaur's stance has changed subtly. While he gracefully pins Vaascht he cocks his head quixotically and asks the gith, "Were you did who say you? The are Hive doing the you what in?"
The west street gang press their attack against the cat and rat team but both are either too small or two quick to be touched.
To Vaascht: ”I’ll be right back.”
To Akrynn: “Clear a path”
Jek charges the only exposed enemy.
Vaascht just grunts and attempts to wriggle free.
Nodding to Jek, Akrynn 5' steps behind Vaascht. The Patryn then writes the same rune in the air, directing it at the Priest.
Rinika keeps slashing at the tiefling, moving on down the row if targets start dropping.
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The tiefling takes the horns directly on her brain-box with a loud crack and her skull is nearly shattered. She falls over dead. Rinika manages to rake one claw against her ork opponent’s face drawing a thin line of blood.
The Xaos priest winks at Arkynn while holding up one finger as if testing to see which way the wind is blowing. Arkynn’s heart grow three sizes, and so does his everything else. Enlarge Person.
Akrynn laughs.
Isn't this interesting!
Round 3
Evie winces at the sound Jek's horns make against the tiefling's skull, a look of compassion on her face as she watches the woman's lifeless body fall to the street. Frederick, meanwhile, climbs atop Evie's head, from which vanatage he quickly surveys the shift in the battlefield.
With a squeak he indicates the half-orc and Evie obliges, clutching at the woman's calves in an effort to transmit the spirit bound in her hand...
When Evie touches the half-ork she can feel the spirit leave her hand, it just shrugs at the target, uninterested, and slinks away into the background through the path of least resistance.
Keeping Vaascht pinned Gilly pulls out an unusually large and strangely shaped basket from a bag that has no business holding something that size. Gilly pulls the basket over Vaascht's head body binding him tightly. He knocks on Vaascht's head through the basket saying, "Canny questions answer cutters, don't baskets get they."
The mobsters swipe at their respective targets and get worried looks on their faces, they back away slowly.
Akrynn takes his--now--enlarged oak quarterstaff down on top of the Gilly!
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Vaascht fights overwhelming panic as the basket closes over him and his fear of confinement kicks in with a vengeance. Soon a burning rage starts to overtake the panic, and as he tries to work his way free he sees red inside the darkness of the basket. Simply cutting him down would have been far more acceptable than this.
that pony better hope I don't get free...
As her target steps away nervously, Rinika turns to observe the rest of the battle and sees the basket descending over Vaascht. She opens her mouth to command him to get out of there just as he tenses up and bursts his way out. Then her gaze snaps to the bariaur who confined him and a cold fury rises in her. She gurgles out "Take the light" and gestures, prompting the fury to coalesce in her hand as a bleak glow. She darts around her teammates over to Gilly and reaches out to deplete his life force.
Gilly not holding Vaascht down easily jumps up and out of the way of Arkynn’s big stick. Vaascht busts open the brawler’s basket with a great show of strength. Gilly rearing up at this point gets a look of glee on his face and yells, ”Hard way!” It’s then that Rinika touches the bariaur and saps a bit of his life away.
Wiping blood from his horns, Jek turns around to charge the other bariaur only to see the path more clogged with Akrynn than before.
"Huh..."
Still thinking about what Gilly was reciting, Jek shouts ”Hey, were you just babbling about the world tree?”
Snapping back to the situation at hand, Jek notices that Evie could still be in danger. He quickly maneuvers toward the orc and tanuki and glares at them.
”Back off!”
The towering bariaur readies an attack action in case either of them approaches her or attacks.
The Xaos priest starts juggling a potion, a torch, and her holy symbol.
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Round 4
The smell of wet wool and fresh-cut grass descends upon Evie as Jek looms beside her, bringing to mind the young Honzik ladies taking a turn through the spring gardens of Tryon Manor. The pleasant memory fades as quickly as it came as the bariaur's shout fills the rainy alley.
"Quite right." Evie glances back at the crowded scuffle behind her, her eyebrows raising at Akrynn's new dimensions. Her and Frederick's eyes search for a clear path or doorway that would allow them to assist, but to no avail, so she turns her attention back to the pair at hand. She nods at the closer of the attackers.
"I think it best if you two were to leave now," she says sympathetically. "You'll not do yourselves much good if your brains are spilled over the pavement instead of boxed up proper." She looks meaningfully at the tiefling's corpse.
Gilly lands but continues his downward motion bringing his horns down onto Rinika's head, he follows up with a haymaker that connects directly on Vaascht's temple his other arm sails past Rinika.
The half-ork and Tanuki both drop their weapons and run the other way.
Gilly holds up his hands saying, "Sharp you bloods, not are bad. Truce?"
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The Patryn pauses to parley.
What we have here is a failure to communicate. We are looking for a skum by the name of Eliath. You tell us his location; and we ignore this training exercise. What say you, Gilly.
The druid smiles.
Besides, we could use a clubber like you!
Rinika sheathes her claws back in and woozily backs up to behind Akrynn.
Distracted in the process of extricating himself from the basket, Vaascht doesn't sense the haymaker coming and never even feels it connect.
As he suddenly finds himself on the floor for some reason and the darkness tunneling in around his vision he has time for a single thought.
figures
The bariaur shrugs, "Know don't Eliath. Know do killing you barmies who's?" He points to himself, "Gilly!" He sits down and pulls out some red, orange, and black basket reeds and starts to work on them weaving them together. He glances over at the Xaos priest with a withering look, who drops everything she's been juggling. She says while nodding shakily, "Oh." A wave of healing energy washes over the area.
When it becomes obvious that the imminent threat is gone, Rinika summons up negative energy again and allows it to suffuse herself.
Once she feels stronger, she holds up a hand and says between deep breaths, "No cures here...more harm...than good."
Gilly gets up and then clocks the Xaos priest knocking her unconscious and gives Rinika a thumbs up, "Know I didn't." He turns back to the group at large with an expectant look, "You barmies know do killing who's?"
"Killing barmies? First I've heard of it."
After the wave of healing energy, Jek squeezes past Akrynn and helps Vaascht to his feet.