With the rat noro was originally after now dropped, Noro moves of to be near her boss, stepping up to get between the thug and Absentia.
welcomr to the party, try the punch.
A punch from Noro, an arrow from Halsanna, what more could a guy ask for at the end of his days? The last human goes down.
In the vault, the lead rat is now very injured. He fights with desperate fury in an attempt to claw his way out of this death trap.
He pulls his teeth away form the young ranger's neck, taking a chunk of flesh with him, and bites again. Blood gushes from the wound as the rat's teeth savagely rip apart something important. His blade sticks into Zayid's shoulder, but that's just morbid icing at this point.
Outside, the last rat tries to flee! After him! Drag him back here for questioning! Absentia commands.
Zayid tries to dodge the rodent's teeth, but he's a moment too late. He feels the sharp fangs sink into his neck, and his eyes widen slightly as the overgrown rat rips flesh. "Bo..." gurgles the young man, slumping to the ground as blood pours from his wounds.
Aboki sees the downfall of his master and screams. His eyes go wide, his nostrils flare, and he tears into the offending rat with a vengeance.
Somehow, maybe via his new feline form, Zayid doesn't look like he's about to die on his own, though Friea's constant view of other being's life forces is screaming at her that he is inches from joining the River of Souls.
Aboki tears into the rat in return, robbing him of his opportunity to gloat.
Freia shrieks out, seeing his spirit start to depart before her very eyes. But, with some superhuman effort, it lingers. He LIVES!!! With a sob she steps up toward his would-be slayer, swinging her sword in a wide arch just trying to get the rat away from him. Snowflakes glimmer in the air between them, but the thug easily sidesteps the strike.
Rather then give him another chance, Freia spits a curse under her breath. A translucent rope manifests in her free hand and at the blink of an eye, it grows and lashes out towards the wererat like a spectral snake. As it reaches him it does not bite, rather it loops itself around his neck tying a perfect noose. With a quick jerk at her end of the rope the noose tightens and pulls the wererat off balance before disappearing as hastily as it came.
"Next time the rope will be real, scum!"
The leader lashes out at Freia as she leaves herself open in her effort to control the whip.
His blade whistles by her face just as the noose forms. He screeches when he hits the ground on his back and throws up his hands to defend himself.
On the orders of her superior, Noro rushes around the opposite way in the hopes to cut off the fleeing rat.
Giung Shomewhere? she says as she nearly catches him.
The running rat still tries to make good his escape up the stairs.
The leader growls and serious at Freia's feet.
But the ever-nimble teifling skips over the blade.
Aboki continues to ravage the floored rat.
Unceremoniously, Freia pulls her silver hammer from her belt and hits the downed wererat once. Not the heaviest of blows, but it would do.
The leader screams and hisses and struggles as Aboki trashes his back and forth with his huge paws. The great cast almost seemed to be playing with his prey. Mercifully, Freia steps up and delivers his last blow.
Noro's attack comes around and clobberes the rat across the face. He is thrown back and through the railing with a great crash.
When you drag the rat back, Absentia wordlessly points you into the vault.
Ariana glances around at the fallen foes and to Absentia's pointing finger. She arches an eyebrow and glances toward the vault. "Well we did save the documents."
Absentia says nothing. She just points you into the vault again.
With the fight inside the vault over, Freia kneeled next to Zayid. She simply drops her sword and hammer on the cold floor next to them and retrieves the healing wand. A quick gesture and a gentle nudge later, his wounds start to close. With uttermost care Freia also tries to prop him up little, putting him in a less awkward position, and then wraps a blanket from her backpack around him. With a nod she inspects her handiwork and makes sure Zayid's condition is actually improving and not worsening. Satisfied she turns to the harder task - getting Aboki away from the wererat long enough that she could stabilize him. With a careful pull at his pelt she tried to nudge him towards his master - hopefully the feline would go to him rather then continue to savage the wererat.
With a hiss, Ariana turns from Absentia to Freia. "What are you doing?! Don't heal that thing! It needs to die!"
Instinctively Freia recoils from her work - from the tone of Ariana's voice she realizes she must have done something wrong. She looks up at the elven wizard with a confused glance before realization hits.
"But - shouldn't we interrogate him first?" While she felt no love for the wererat (quite the contrary in fact, seeing him die wouldn't be so bad after what he did to Zayid!), he wasn't a thing. Perhaps Ariana could still be bargained with. In a somewhat morbid hopeful tone she continues. "And I did promise him a hanging ..."
Noro drags the smashed rat-man with her as she heads into the vault.
Thish one tried to get away, now he'sh gone for good.
she tosses the body to the floor. Noro then takes a seat on the floor beside her fallen friend, He gonna be alright? she asks, she's hasn't seen wounds that severe in a long time.
"I-I think so. Look - the worst of the wounds are closing!"
Aboki growls at Freia as she tries to redirect his attention, but does stop savaging the wererat long enough to watch the tiefling work. After that he loses interest in the former toy and moves over to his master with a deep whimper.
Zayid's wounds improve with the healing magic, but one dose isn't enough. After another tap and some more infernal love, Zayid finally comes around.
"You're back!" As soon as Zayid crosses the threshold back into conciousness and start to stir, Freia leans over him and gives him a quick hug. "Don't do that again!"
Noro rolls her eyes at the display, yeah, glad yer ok she adds looking away seemingly toward the rat prisoner.
The young man groans. "What... what did I do?" he asks quietly, frowning as he tries to remember his last few moments of consciousness. Did I kill someone? A Tear? I... can't remember.
"D-die. Well, close. So very close. Don't do that!" With one more affectionate pat she stood up and aside, to let Aboki greet his master too.
Absentia waits a moment for everyone to recover slightly before speaking.
Finally, I get all of you into a warded room with me. I've been trying to pull this off for weeks!
Anyway, we must talk quickly. My absence from my superior's link can only be justified for so long. I have brought you all here for more than the rat infestation, though the Order does thank you for clearing this up. You may have noticed that leader speaking of a contact within the Order. Were you able to gather any information on this person's identity?
Zayid pushes himself to a sitting position, leaning against the wall and supported by Aboki. "A Tear," he replies. "Male... and they were scared of him."
The young man frowns for a moment. "But you fear it's higher than that, don't you?" he asks quietly.
"They seemed to expect reinforcements from our ranks - they thought we were here to help. So their should be dissidents on our level as well." Freia added. With her eyes narrowing, she continued. "I bet it's that pesky gnome!"
Noro remained silent, she avoids eye contact with everyone. she seems worried that her actions today may have prevented getting more information.
There are plenty of scary Tears, but I worry that organizing something like this took resources and freedom afforded to few Tears. In fact, most are standing here.
As you can imagine, this represents a grave threat. The Order is the crutch upon which the Law of this city is leaning. If corruption infects us... Her voice trails off.