Hasnett nods and prepares to leave. "I think the stars may have more answers than any library, but let's start with the books."
Hasnett nods and prepares to leave. "I think the stars may have more answers than any library, but let's start with the books."
"Books can carry a great deal of information," Elohir says prophetically, clutching his leather bound volume to his chest.
Hasnett leads the motley band to the temple and looks around.
"Give me a hand here. I don't know what I'm looking for."
Elohir looks ill-at-ease at the temple, but follows Hasnett wherever she goes.
"It is....very nice Hasnett," says Elohir between nervous glances. "Are you sure the rest of temple will not mind us all going inside together? I could wait outside. Also, the stars will start to fade as morning approaches and I will not get a good reading then. It could take awhile."
"It's only a building Elohir, you don't have to be polite about it just because it belongs to my goddess. She's not like Erathis, she doesn't fuss about architecture."
She considers the twitchy one.
"Wait outside if you have work to do, but may I call you if there's anything you can help with?"
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The streets between the upper manors and the harbor are what pass for wide and sport occasional oil lamps at this hour, but the overall effect is one of gloom, made worse by the multi-story buildings lining the main ways.
You have been walking for perhaps five minutes when a cloaked and hooded figure steps from a nearby alley and calls in a cheery voice. "Hold, what have we here? Five walkers out in the night, armed, but with an irresistible look of wealth. Perhaps I'll relieve you of it."
Elohir glares at the figure.
"We do not have time for such petty troubles. We have dealt with gods and giant beasts and have little concern over some common street trash. Leave us be or I see a messy end for you."
Initiative
"You're not a thief. What do you want with us?"
Hoku dashes forward. "If plans to kill, shouldn't yap so much, hey?"
Elohir looks confusedly at Hasnett after her response.
"What do you mean? Do you know this person?
Elohir looks confusedly at Hasnett after her response.
"What do you mean? Do you know this person?
"No. But I know people. He's not an ordinary footpad. Be careful."
She grins slightly. "Of course, we're not exactly ordinary either. It may balance out."
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"Ah, they fight back." The mugger(?) drops back slightly into the shadows of the alley and launches a psychic attack on the halfling. "Forget, little woman." But the attack has no effect. Then he roars "Kill the priestess!"
A second cloaked figure steps out from the deep shadows of the alley acorrs and gestures at Hasnett. Hasnett feels the moisture rapidly leaving her body.
Engraged at the disruption to their mission, Hasnett barges past Hoku and slams her morningstar into the loudmouth, sending bolts of lightning arcing around him.
"It's been a long day. A lot's happened. You are in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"You will regret that," the figure says from the ground in the alley.
"Probably. I said it's been a long day."
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Two men and two women, all armed with longswords, rush out of the next alleyway on the cloaked one's commands, charging at Hasnett. Three of them are able to get attacks in on the priestess, two of them connecting.
A seventh figure, with shortsword and leather armor, advances carefully but quickly out of the shadows whence the caster came and moves in behind Hasnett, thrusting through a vulnerability in her armor.
Aden, realizing the danger Hasnett is in, moves in to flank the thug. He swings his khopesh with the characteristic sound of thunder. Thanks to the thug's focus on Hasnett, Aden connects, also forcing the enemy's attention on him..
"At least they've come out of the woodwork," Hasnett looks resigned as multiple foes attack her.
"How kind of you to gather to listen to the words of Melora," she addresses the crowd around her.
"One of her precepts is the prevent the rampant spread of cities and empires. I do believe you qualify."
Elohir's eyes fill with pitch and he places a guttural curse on m2.
"N,gha, hai!" he says, and m2 feels the weight of Elohir's darkest nightmares upon him.
Elohir then recklessly runs by Aden as shadows swirl to conceal him.
"I apologize in advance Master Aden, but I do not think I can hold this back completely!" says Elohir in passing.
With a scream, inky black tendrils burst forth from Elohir's shadowy form and envelope the surrounding enemies and the unfortunate Aden. When he opens his eyes again, Elohir looks at Aden with absolute horror.
"No, no, no! Not again! Not again!" he begins muttering, pulling on his tussled hair.
"COME GET SOME!!!!!!!!!!"
As Elohir explodes with suppressed power, Hasnett just hears his anguished cry above the noise and makes a mental note to ask the warlock what he's talking about. If she survives to do so.
"It...it was not supposed to be like that. Hasnett, heal Aden, heal him! I hurt him! I hurt him!" cries an anguished Elohir.
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The thug thrusts at Elohir as the warlock stalks past, but Aden's shielding magic reduces the blow to a scratch.
The shadow then overtakes Elohir, and several of the attackers -- and one ally. The enemy warlock screams in terror at the mere echo of what Elohir faces nightly, and two of the attackers simply fall dead in their tracks.
The thug escapes the worst of the fear, perhaps due to lack of imagination, but Aden is not so fortunate. As noted, -20hp to Aden
"I'll heal him, Elohir, calm down. This is not the time to have a personal crisis."
Hasnett's tone is not unsympathetic, but she is still grimly aware of incoming enemies.
Nimbly, Hoku slips around to flank one of Hasnett's foes and goes for a kidney strike with her dagger.
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Hoku's target slumps to the ground without even time to cry out.
The leader rises to his feet, growling. He attempts his invocation again, this time at Hasnett. "Forget, priestess!" Hasnett feels her skills draining away, and she is helpless to stop it.
The enemy warlock, fear in his own eyes, suddenly takes on a grim visage and reaches out to Irawaru, who falls back, experiencing a completely unaccustomed terror. The caster then steps back into the darkness.