The snow and the recent passage of the person you're pursuing makes following your quarry easier than it would be under less accommodating circumstances. The trail continues of for a short distance further before ending at the closed door of a two story residence.
”Door’s been forced. He’s in there. No time for subtlety. Anybody here have a hard-soled key?”
"Got just the spell for this. Abracadabra." Khadron said, dryly, as he walked forward and gave the door a solid kick.
With a loud crash, Khardon kicks the door open, sending the chair that had been braced against it flying. The room beyond is dark, but as your light spills in, you see a living space in disarray. Furniture is scattered and speckled with the drying blood of two more stilled forms sprawled among the wreckage.
A flight of stairs sits to one side, and from above, flickering candle light can be seen.
"Constanble Destin. Can you climb the wall outside and flank?" Arakar asks, then leads the way up the stairs, preparing for the enemy to show him or herself at any moment!
Gilfroy is hot on Arakar’s heels.
Rushing up the stairs, you find the sleeping area of the family that lived here. The room has been roughly tossed and dresser drawers and clothing lies scattered. The architect of this disarray faces you from across the room. A Ragesian soldier is full armor leans against the far wall, his helmet is missing and his face is caked in blood. He has one arm wrapped around the chest of a young boy, his other holds a wicked looking battle axe near the boys throat. "That's close enough," he growls. "Take another step and I'll cut the lad's head clean off."
At the threat, the child begins to sob.
Arakar looks at the honorless murderer and attempts to keep the disdain from his features as he sheathes his bardiche. "Comrade! It is good to see you well. When I saw you fall, I feared the worst. Still, why are you hiding in here? The battle is still raging on outside! Let us heal your wounds and rejoin the fight."
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Gilfroy rolls his eyes at Arakar’s “attempt” at deception, but keeps his peace until its clear that the soldier isn’t buying it.
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The man snarls at Arakar, "Do you take me for a fool?"
The man's eyes widen at the sound of the wails rising behind him. "Call off your spirits sorcerer! They'll never take me before I finish the lad!"
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”Okay! Don’t hurt him! I’ll call them off.”
He steps forward and starts chanting at the spirits, which turns into a colour spray in the soldier’s face. Will DC 16
”Charge him!” he shouts in case the spell doesn’t work.
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Khardon did just that. If the hostage died, so be it. As far as was concerned it wasn’t blood on his hands. Well. There would be blood on his hands by the time he was done. Just not the hostage‘s.
Arakar looks at Gilfroy, equally confused at first, then shields his eyes for the sudden powerful burst of sense-inhibiting illusion magic. " Clever." He thinks, and readies his poleaxe to charge if it looked like the warrior wouldn't pass out from the spell.
Destin is outside during all of this, attempting to climb with his grapple and rope to keep the enemy within from running.
Distracted by Gilfroy's clever ruse, the Ragesian holds his position and takes the full brunt of the spells sensory overwhelming deluge of colour.
The axe drops from the soldier's suddenly nerveless hand. He sways unsteadily on his feet, eyes unfocused. The child on the other hand, collapses in a heap to the ground.
Gilfroy darts forward, gravs the ace and tosses it away (first round), then grabs the child and drags him acrii on as the room (second round).
Arakar roars, then attempts to knock out the Ragesian with the flat of his gigantic 'axe'!
Khardon completed his charge, punching the foe with a metal fist. It was a task made much easier by the quick thinking of Gilfroy.
Destin finally manages to clamber up and in only to see his allies beating, what one might call, a dead horse.
Would you prefer to tie him up first? He calls out as he approaches.
Already wounded from his crash landing, the Ragesian soldier collapses in a heap, helpless to protect himself for the party's vicious blows. Gilfroy spirits the unconscious child away, keeping him far from harms way.
Torrent attends the child and seems satisfied that his is unharmed. "Poor lad, we'll have to take him to the safehouse, I guess. Unfortunately, I doubt he'll be the last orphan of the night."
Rivereye nods sadly, "I'll keep an eye on the child until we can find a proper home for him."
With that taken care of, Torrent turn her attention to the unconscious Ragesian, her face darkening with anger. "Why did you bother keeping him alive. The rank and file soldier never know anything of use and I've no interest in transporting prisoners."
Khardon shrugged. "If they captured ye, would ye want them to say the same? Anyways, it's done. So nay use complain' now."
"First, because I wanted to give you a chance a weigh in, Rivereye. Perhaps you felt you still wanted to try interrogation later. And there's that one of our own is a member of the town guard. But if either of you prefer execution instead, I will do so. We cacnot have him run free or risk him waking up alone and killing more civilians."
Arakar raises his bardiche and readies to cleave it into the soldier's skull. He mostly looks Destin to see if the constable objected.
Destin shrugs.
He may know some things, or at least more than we do. Whos to say. But do what you want, even if we took him in, I doubt the city will remain under its own rule. So he would receive no punishment. I would say he might know something, but he might not. At this point however, I doubt he will be waking up for several hours. He answered, glancing at the now blackening bruises.
"True. He deserves punishment no matter the outcome of the fight. He killed multiple civilians in cold blood, and leaving him be is still a risk."
Without sparing further words, Arakar executes him. "His gear is of good quality. I suggest we divide it between us on the way. Lead on, Rivereye."
To Khardon Torrent say, "I expect no quarter from the enemy and knowing what they do with their prisoners, I don't know that I would want any. Besides, he didn't surrender, but was taken by guile. I'm sure he would have been more than happy to gut the lot of us if given the chance. Regardless, as you say, what is done, is done."
With the Ragesian dealt with Torrent and Rivereye lead the party to the safe house, which turns out to be a temple of the Order of the Aquiline Cross, devoted to Serenrae.
The is packed with at least a hundred nervous people, all squeezed into a 40-foot circular prayer chamber and adjacent rooms. Many are nervously relating rumors of how the battle at the main gates is going. Children cry and the people look scared and demoralized. Priests go between the wounded, tending them as best they can, their healing spells all expended.
Just inside the front door, a dark-skinned and dark-haired young woman dressed all in black plays a depressing tune on a guitar, a typical new year’s festival song, redone in a minor key. While fitting for the situation, the tune isn't really doing much for moral.
Torrent hands off the now conscious, but nearly catatonic child to Rivereye. The gnome turns to the party, "Thank you again for your rescue and good luck with your mission. Do not fail, or this will be but a taste of the misery that will follow."
Arakar gives the now conscious child a look of Pity and sits down near him. "Listen, boy. You need to be strong and listen to the priests here - they'll take care of you. Know that the one who did this to you and your family is dead, and find solace in it."
He'll pass a few gold coins to one of the nearby priests and points at the lad, saying it is to keep him fed and safe.
On the way out, he stops near the woman playing the depressing tune. "Woman. Many here have lost their family. Do play something not quite so morbid, would you? Or at least not play at all. This is not helping anyone."
Gilfroy can't reach to pat Arakar's shoulder as he lashes out at the depressed minstrel, so he settles for a knee cap instead.
"Where to now?"
Interesting. Is all he thinks as his mind flits through information he had logged away years ago on the temple and its order. He can't help but notice the almost metaphorical similarities to their group.
Destin's brow furrows as he marches around the area, pausing to help a citizen here and there.
At Arakar's words, he turns to the musician.
What he means to say is, at this time, morale is the most important aspect for survival. If people give up, its over. There is always a chance, even if you have to crawl through hell for it. I personally would appreciate if you could do what you can to raise their spirits. Music has a powerful effect on many. Even if you yourself feel like giving up, for their sake, you must act like you don't.
With a firm nod, he follows Arakar and Gilfroy.
I believe, the exit?
"That, but more specifically, Gabal's school of wizardry. We need to track down those elves who supposedly stole the briefcase." Arakar remarks, re-stating the current objective. "We can only hope that the city holds long enough for us to get its content to our allies outside the walls. And if only because of that, I'd advocate against resting. I assume you and Torrent can lead us there, Destin?" he asks, not commenting on the constable's attempt at suger-coating the message that the musician's playing sucked at best and degraded morale further at worst.
The woman grumbles, sarcastically, "Sorry, I left all the sheet music for my “happy songs” in my house, which burned down," but puts down her guitar.
With your contact and the child as safe as they can be given the siege, the party prepares to move out. Torrent say, "Yes, from Rivereye's account, that archon came from Gabal's, if not the elves themselves, and it's the only lead we've got to work on."
Heading out, you zig zag towards the School, avoiding the parts of the city engulfed in flames and detouring around collapsed buildings. The aerial combat is still going strong and periodically you see a magical discharge launch from the city to strike at the darting wyvern above. Evidently at least some of the cities mages have come out to aid in its defense.
Eventually, you reach your destination. Gabal's has not been unscathed in the assault. Signs of a focused bombing efforts are everywhere. The most glaring being the collapse of one of the schools two towers. As you cross the bridge over the moat, you notice a griffin and its rider bobbing along, half submerged. The schools itself is quiet, as one would expect that most of its students would be out contributing to the fight.
Still, it is not completely empty, inside the fence beside the main gate stands a robed figure, his face periodically illuminated by the glow of the cigarette that he smokes. He studies your approach, but says nothing.
”Ho, by the gate,” Gilfroy says. ”Are you a student or teacher here?”
"Student, name's Diogenes. Who are you?" The man surveys the party, taking in your weapons. "If your looking for Gabal, you're out of luck, the old man skipped out at the first sign of trouble. Some mighty battle mage, huh?"
"Let us hope he went for a strategic rereat rather than outright fleeing. We could definitely use the reinforcements, from the looks of things," Arakar responds to Diogenes. "Though, for now, we are looking for a group of Elves we believe have the means to help the city in this situation. Do you know where we can find them?"
"Jus' give us some info and we'll do the hard work of it, aye?" Khardon added, somewhat unhelpfully.
Diogenes puffs on his cigarette, "Group of elves? Not enough elves here to qualify as a group. If you're looking for bunch of them, you might have better luck trying the elvan quarter. Or are you looking for someone in particular?"
”An elf that may have been in the company of a floating, glowing ball of light.”
Diogenes snuffs out his cigarette, "An elf with a floating ball of light, eh? We'll if you're talking about a lantern archon familiar, then you're looking for Shealis. She's a student here. Don't know why though, hasn't seemed like there was much for her to learn here."
He pauses, "So why are you looking for Shealis? She finally pissed off the wrong people?"
”We have reason to believe she’s working with them,” Gil says, pointing up at the nearest wyvern rider.
Thank you, do you know where she is staying at the moment? Or would have been staying, as the case may be.
Destin asks, after receiving a name.
"That would be helpful to know, yes. Or at the very least, some way to contact her in short notice," Arakar adds.
Diogenes pulls out a tobacco pouch and starts to roll himself another smoke.
"Working with whom exactly?"
He takes in the party with a bit of a smirk, "Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't piss of Shealis if she were on fire, but you don't exactly look like you're here in any official capacity and I really can't just be letting in random folks off the street."
He lights his fresh cigarette with a spark from his finger and takes a long drag. "Give me cause, and I'll be more than happy to help you take the b@+!# down."
”Cause? Okay, let me see. On the one hand, this here is a genuine constable with the actual City Watch, here on an official investigation to a threat to the city. On the other hand, this dwarf here has a mechanical arm he uses to gut and eviscerate people he finds uncooperative. You can pick whichever one you want to be your cause.”
It took Khardon a moment to realize that Gilfroy was referring to him, which quite ruined his chance of acting intimidating.
Diogenes raises an eyebrow, "Well I don't see no badge. You know this a school for battlemages, and fireballs can be launched through the fence, right?"
Torrent steps forward before things escalate any further. "There's no need for threats. A group of elves assaulted the Depository and stole something that may be of vital import in our fight against the Ragesians. We believe that this Shealis is involved. Will you help us?"
Diogenes flicks his cigarette away, "Shealis is a traitor to the city? Well why didn't you say so? Come on in. Let's go take her out."
Diogenes moves to his side of the gate and mutters something under his breath. The gate glows faintly, before swinging open. It swings back shut again, once the party has moved into the courtyard.
You follow your guide to the campus kitchen, where he tells you to help yourselves to the food. "So what's the plan? Because I wasn't joking about the fireball thing. It's one of Shealis' favorites."
”I did say that,” Gil mutters to himself. ”Sort of.”
"I'd imagine this magic school has countermeasures of sorts for wizards who abuse their magic, in this case betraying the city?" Arakar suggests, inwardly a buit worried over this news. He wasn't *that* good of a spellcaster, but heard enough to know that Fireball was an infamous, fairly advanced form of destructive magic. "If not, we'll have to restrain or otherwise incapacitate her as soon as possible. Or try to hit her just as she starts the incantation."
He also inquires about how long it would take them to reach her. If it is within ten minutes, he will cast his second and last spell of the day, another hightened awareness.
Diogenes scoffs at the suggestions of counter measures, "The instructors are the counter measures."
"I imagine that Shealis is in her room, if she's anywhere and you could try to take her there. I don't know if she has any wards in place, though."
He thinks for a minute, then smiles slyly, "You know something that might work? I could challenge her to a wizard's duel. There's dueling chamber in the main tower for instruction, but also for settling grievances. I've definitely cause for calling her out, and with the city seemingly about to fall, it wouldn't seem too out of place to take this last chance to settle things."
"I doubt I could take her in a fair fight, but it would give you a chance to take her during the duel, or once she's left her room."