Bryc stikes with his shortsword, the first hit slicing cleanly through the air, while a wry chuckle mocks his failure. Perhaps by following the sound of the mockery, he swings again and this time hits flesh and bone, the creature that is invisible yelling with pain!
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Still heaving the hooded figure barely registers Iqu climbing towards them at the last minute, they parry the first attack with their bow, but at that precise moment, loses their balance and the club strikes them fully in their torso (-10 hp), the air leaving them briefly.
"I'll kill you", a woman's voice snarls under the hood.
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The appearance of a cute giant pink rat takes the hooded figure by surprise. They're even more surprised as it bites into them, the sharp teeth breaking through their leathers! The hooded figure gives out a yelp in a woman's voice. As the animal companion of Quindul goes for a second bite, she moves her boot out of her way and stamps at it.
"Damn rat! Off with you!"
The rat probably chitters happily at her.
The hooded woman retches by Iqu's feet, drops her bow and draws her rapier and takes a stab at Iqu while snarling in rage!
The other hooded woman drops her shortbow, draws her rapier and stabs at the rat. The furry rodent dodges the blade easily the first time, but is struck violently the second time.
"Take that!", she hisses.
Meanwhile, the invisible creature moves... somewhere.
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As the hood moves for her rapier, Iqu's club hits her fully. The enemy crumples on the crates. Knocking an arrow confidently, Iqu takes aim and strikes the enemy who tried to kill her goblin companion! She lets out a soft "umph" as the arrow lodges on her back.
Aloysius tries to find where the invisible enemy went, but can only tell that they went northward, before the sound of his footfalls were drowned by the noise of battle.
With one enemy down, Marta's concentrates on a small sack and sends it flying, the hooded woman registers the flying projectile just in time and gets out of the way, the sack breaking the end shaft of the arrow lodged by Iqu. "Not getting paid enough for this", she mutters under her breath.
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The cute rat bites the hooded lady!
Quindul casts a spell, making a ball of fire appear in her hand. Then she tries to punch the lady with the fire!
The Quindul starts to loudly sing a song!
"Jelly, jelly, the jellyfish is the best jellyfish in the world! She is the cutest and she is the best! Jelly, jelly, the jellyfish is the cutest jellyfish in the world ever to be seen! J-j-j-jelly the jellyfish is the cutest and the best! Oh, jelly, the jellyfish... Jelly the jellyfish.... Jelly the jellyfish."
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Klaakz's smiles happily and rubs his hands together, making sparks fly between them. When he opens his hand there's a little ball of fire there. He grins even bigger, then he throws the ball of fire at the hooded lady! As it flies it looks like a little running rat!
Then he listens for the invisible person.
Klaakz listens for the invisible person.
The hooded woman falls hurt, burnt by Klaakz little ball of fire. Bryc hears something go northeast going past Marta. She hears something go past her northeast of her and then south.
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Quindul points toward where everyone seems to be looking for the invisible person.
"Sniff that bad-guy out, Cutie Rat!”
The rat climbs down from the crates and looks around. It doesn’t see an enemy, so it starts to sniff around for one.
Meanwhile, Quindul tries to untie Themolin.
”Who attacked you? And why?”
From behind Iqu, she just barely registers the sound of footfalls on the dirt outside the warehouse. As the invisible figure runs, she swings her club, hitting nothing but air as the sound of huffing and puffing of someone rushing out of the warehouse yard and onto Xin-Edasseril's streets vanishes.
Themolin coughs, "Th-thank you, miss. I-I-I don't k-know! I was just checking that the artwork, the payment for the extraction was in order, and then this happen. Oh gods, I hope it wasn't an agent of the Runelord!", he squeals. "Perhaps she found out about the accounting error! I'm doomed! doomed!", he wails before breaking down and sobbing.
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Aloysius walks up to Quindul and places his hand on her shoulder.
"By the grace of Erastil, you shall be healed."
Looking now to Themolin, his kind expression is replaced by a stern stare.
"Accounting error, indeed! I saw a paper in your office proving that a forged painting was sold to the Runelord by a person by the name of 'Ellvard'. Who is Ellvard? Tell us how you are involved with all of this or we may be tempted to turn you over to Belimarius ourselves!"
Themolin squeals in fright. "He's an Emerald Guard! I was the one that found out that the painting was fake when we audited them last month!" The poor man is clearly out of sorts, being tied up, kidnapped, seeing violence and finally threatened. "I found out and had him sign the affidavit. But if I bring it to Belimarius she would be furious that the Ministry didn't find out sooner, so I took it out from this month's financial statement, but now we have $5,000 gold pieces we can't balance and when she finds out she'll be furious at me for it and then she'll be enraged when she finds out about the paining! That's why I want out of this place! She'll kill me! What will I ever do?", he says anguished and begins to sob.
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Klaakz nods. "Yeah, we won't turn you in! Why'd we do that? Otherwise we'd lose your money! And that boss man said that's not okay! Hey. Do you like mice? I love mice? I'd never turn over someone who loved mice."
Klaakz finds this reasoning super logical and is certain he's doing a great job comforting Themolin.
Regaining some posture after wiping his tears, he says. "M-mice? Uh, no. Please, just leave me alone! You have no idea what I've just went through!"
After several deep breaths, he answers Bryc eyeing him as a dying man seeing a meal before him, even if that meal has terrible manners. "I-I have several crates of artwork. It's how I was planning to pay Guaril. They're four crates total."
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Aloysius feels slightly guilty.
"I'm sorry that I frightened you, Themolin. We just need to get out of this city without getting killed. If the artwork is your payment, we need to get it out of here. Is there a cart or something we can use to transport it? Preferably, we should find another buyer - not sure if we have room for four crates."
You would remember that Yuleg had a horse and cart available at your disposal.
Themolin nods wearily at Aloysius, in the same way a man keeps an eye on an angry snake.
"I can't take this anymore", he says turning towards Quindul, who has been the kindest towards him. "When do we leave?"
Talking to Themolin, you learn that he sold his house and all his possessions in order to leave Xin-Edasseril. All he owns now is this warehouse which he sleeps in, and the artwork.
You leave Themolin at his warehouse, with the promise that he'll join you at the Rockfish Inn later tonight. He sees you leave before heading back into his warehouse. You all have a feeling that he is a broken man.
You run into several patrols on the way, but most are uninterested in you, beyond reminding you of curfew. There is no sign of the female guard who has been following you on your return.
Back at the Rockfish Inn, you find Daffrit and her family already having dinner with Yuleg and Vurna. The six of them seem eager and nervous about departing. There is no sign of Seddothrum, but it's not surprising, considering you said you'd come over the Arcanium Abjurant and inform him when and where to meet you.
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Aloysius will Refocus to get his Focus point back at some point that evening.
"I was thinking - we should return to Themolin first thing tomorrow and get him and his artwork back here. Then, we visit Seddothrum and tell him where to meet us. After that, we seek out this Garrla."
"Have we decided who is going on the rafts? Are we launching them from Flitch's hideout?"
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Klaakz walks over to Daffrid and her family. "We need to send your children first, along with Seddy and two others that need to be moved immediately . You and your husband will follow on another ship a day or two later. We'd rather not separate you, but leaving on the raft is safest for the children. Is that alright?"
The children immediately start bawling at the idea of being separated from their parents.
"I don't wanna go!", Maffrit says clutching his mother's robe.
"Don't leave us, mommy!", Taffrit says rushing to his mother's side. He looks at the goblin distrustfully.
Yuleg looks uncomfortably at the sound of crying children, but says nothing. He just wrings his hands. Vurna seems to want to speak up, but just collects the dishes.
Daffrit is horrified by the idea. "You will certainly not separate my children from their parents! They don't even know how to swim! And you want my children to go without their mother?! Are you mad?!"
*KNOCK* *KNOCK*
The scene is interrupted by a knock on the inn's door as a figure steps through the inn's door.
"I-I'm sorry. Am I interrupting anything?", says Themolin, trying to make sense of what he just walked into.
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"Are you sure?" Quindul asks. "You look grown enough to me." She shrugs and looks at Klaakz. "Humans take so long to grow!"
Quindul looks at Daffrid. "What about one parent and one child now, and one parent and child later? Otherwise, you all have to wait for the later trip, which will be more dangerous."
Quindul grins at Themolin. "Come on in! You're one of the first to get shipped out Themolin. Those assassins might try again, so it's important you move right away."
Themolin nods at Quindul's words of encouragement and steps in. "Is there, uh, anything to eat?" He stops for a moment as Daffrid gives him a look. "Perhaps I'll check the kitchen, yes?"
"Here, I'll serve you." Themolin says relieved to be leaving the tense atmosphere in the common room.
Tellith clears his throat. "That might be re-"
Daffrit throws him a glare that immediately shuts him up as his kids whimper against their mother.
Seeing the state of things, Yuleg clears his throat loudly. When all eyes are on him, he gestures to his daughter. "Go ahead. Tell them Vurna."
"Uhm, actually..." Vurna begins timidly. I know the way to the cove through the sewers. she says with a little more confidence. She turns to her father then lowers her head. "I'm sorry, daddy. I really didn't want you to get mad, because, well, you don't like Flitch much."
Yuleg snorts.
"Before you arrived, Flitch and I would go down to the sewers and wait by the cavern where the Cove meets the sewers and see if the ship Master Karela said would come for us had arrived. It's, uhm, how I got bitten by rats in the first place."
"I can take you there and when you're done leaving Mistress Daffrid and her family on the ship I can take you back here to the inn.", she says more confidently.
Yuleg interjects, "As a father, I know how difficult it is to be separated from our children. Specially these who are so young. We'll leave with the others on the ship. And if that Flitch starts complaining, well, I'll have a few words with him."
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"Yeah, but... Someone literally just tried to kill Themolin. One of the assassins got away and we're heading back to the site of the assassination, where he's known to live, to go get the paintings. If the assassins haven't already followed him here and found him, they'll find him by tomorrow after we get the paintings. The guy's a dead man walking. If we don't send him now, he's not likely to make it out alive. His life, quite literally, depends on getting on that first ship outta here. I'm--"
Bryc's words are drowned out in a coughing fit.