Hide Your Face (Part 2)

You stand around a pair of footprints that look rather ordinary, and which are mingled and mixed with a bunch of other footprints. They march off toward the only other perceivable exit in the room. You decide to follow them, using Arisha's tracking skills which at the moment seem up to the task. Then you find yourselves facing another door. After the last one, this one inspires at least a little caution.

"Perhaps this time," says the heavily armored Egalrin, mithral plates clanking against each other at her shoulders as her wings flutter. "Perhaps it should be I that opens the door... and the rest stand back a few paces?"

"You got it." Arisha says before she stands back with her pistol out...again.

Toha considers the veteran at her remark, and after a brief pause to weigh things in her head, "As you wish."

From atop his mount the small Knight leans forward. "Oh, well if you want I shall not stop you! Be there glory behind that door or terror, we shall sing of your prowess! Defy that portal brave warrior! Invade that orifice!" There's a wide grin from Soup as he sets about loosening his lance and checks over his armor and shield quickly.

GAME: Iolaire rolls perception: (12)+16: 28

The war-bird begins to open the door, but pauses as her eyes roam the tunnel's sides. ".....Hunter," she says after a moment. "D'you think you might join me and take a look at this?" One gauntleted hand reaches out, pressing against a section of tunnel and pushing, fruitlessly. "I could be wrong, but, I'd *swaer* there's a hidden door here..."

GAME: Soup rolls perception: (19)+7: 26
GAME: Arisha rolls perception: (10)+17: 27
GAME: Toha rolls perception: (1)+6: 7 (EPIC FAIL)

"So it is, very perceptive." Soup says, stroking his chin. He stretches out his lance and pokes the secret door with the tip. "Good workmanship, might even be Gnomish. I wonder what's hidden behind it? Maybe it's a secret tunnel for the evil lusts of a maddened flesh craver? If they're a looker I'll gladly take on that battle myself." He grins and shifts in his seat, leaning forward to stroke the fur of his mount.

Toha cranes her neck a little bit to try and see this alleged 'door' but... Hmm. The gnome's remark prompts a casual, "Sounds perilous."

"Doors can be perilous. Especially hidden ones." Arisha says softly. "There any sort of....out of place things around here?"

GAME: Soup rolls knowledge/dungeoneering: (19)+8: 27
GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Disable Device: (14)+20: 34

Ga'Elian says, "Magic could open that door, but mechanically, it's made to only open from the other side."

The small knight leans forward from his mount and studies the door then nods slowly as Ga'Elian speaks. "Looks like it, an escape route perhaps? Maybe we should wedge it shut so our quarry cannot elude us?" He shifts in his saddle and tilts his head. "A pair of shivs here and here, this looks like the hinge side."

Toha sidles over to the alleged 'door' as best she can without stepping on anyone's toes and shifts to a more 'working' grip on her Earthbreaker. She lightly touches the head of the hammer to where the Gnome indicated one of the hinges was then brings it back and waits for the cue to swing.

Arisha actually starts poking at the door with her left arm....after putting away her pistol. It takes a few seconds before the poking just start to be become jabbing, then loud chinking, like a chisel against stone. How Arisha is hitting the stone this hard, and not stopping due to pain...is anyone's guess.

"Mayhap we should at least peer within the door we know we can open first? Prithee within may be something to slake our urges for destruction, afore we set about attacking the portal du exit?" Soup says, the Corgi beneath him arfs in affable accent. Happily swishing its tail back and forth and sniffing at Toha as the War Golem comes within cold nose range.

It's a little late for the thought of 'not doing this' about the time that they start actually breaking the door down. It doesn't take long for the effort to show effect, but it's not like breaking down a stone door is something that one can just take five minutes to do. So you keep at it, and at it, and at it. Eventually you manage to break the hinges open and the door falls in like something out of a bad movie. Just drops right to the ground as you stand there. Before you is a short hallway leading to what you can clearly see is a small bedroom of sorts. A plush bed, a vanity table. A little rug. It's someone's bedroom that you just broke into. In the sewers.

Arisha looks about. "Well...this is a lead." She looks to Soup. "Lead the way?"

GAME: Iolaire rolls reflex: (20)+9: 29 (CRITICAL SUCCESS)
GAME: Toha rolls reflex: (17)+3: 20
GAME: Soup rolls reflex: (4)+6: 10
GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Reflex: (14)+30: 44
GAME: Soup rolls fort: (5)+6: 11

Ga'Elian walks into the small room and takes a moment to collect scents, trying to determine (1) if any are familiar people-scents, and (2) if there is any aroma that seems particularly odd in this situation.

As you gather 'round the door talking about entering the room - or rather Arisha suggests that Soup lead the way. A bevy of daggers comes flying out of the empty space. All of you duck behind the wall, or against a wall. All save poor Soup who takes one directly to the center of his chest and falls over off his corgi.

"Well that door proved no match for our might!" Soup says with a chuckle as the others demolish the portal. "Now all we need is.. gurk." With a flourish the Gnome topples over off his mount on to the ground a dagger sticking out of his chest. The Corgi is instantly on top of him, poking him with a cold nose and sitting on his little body.

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Percep/Ioun+8: aliased to Perception+4+8: (18)+28+4+8: 58

Ga'Elian has caught a familiar scent and so takes aim with his bow and fires off a quick series of 7 arrows toward the middle of the room.

GAME: Toha RAGES!, gaining +2 to melee attack/damage/Will saves and 6 temporary HP

Seeing the Gnome get knifed answered by the unseen assailant being porcupined by her elf companion fills the Golem with confidence. She unleashes a bellow as silver miasma seeps from her joints, a pinprick of crimson light appearing in the center of her eyeslit as she charges the masked man, Earthbreaker brought back behind her, then arcing up in a golf swing for the masked man. Have at thee, indeed!

As the ranger fills the small bedroom with arrows, and the golem charges into the attack, Iolaire's eyes narrow. Her flail is kept out of use for the moment, and instead the war-bird lowered a pauldroned shoulder, crouches, and *hurls* herself toward the black-masked man, a whistling war-cry splitting the air as she powers toward the wall behind her target. Should he find himself between her and the wall? Well, soon he'll be very well acquainted with the stone behind him.

GAME: Arisha rolls heal: (9)+4: 13

With everyone rushing the masked man, Arisha Takes her pistol to the side and looks over Soup's wound. She checks his vitals and..once again, he seems to be dead. Arisha rolls her eyes. "Yeah....gotta be that poison again." She says as she pulls the knife out of Soup's chest, then puts her right hand on Soup's chest to heal the wound....with a prayer to Vardama.

The small knight lays on the sewer floor, a look of surprise on his face. When the dagger is removed a bit of blood leaks out, but is thankfully healed by Arisha's magic. The massive Corgi leaning over shoulder and whimpering softly as it watches her tend to the fallen gnome.

The Black Mask deftly evades Toha's attack by rolling back half a step, tearing the robe from his shoulders with one hand. The arrows come out with it, stained by his blood. Beneath the robe he wears thick well-made leather armor which shines with good health and excellent workmanship. Even those who know little of magic can tell that this armor has seen some work done to it. His long pale hands help him roll not around Iolaire, but /over/ her as she charges him. There's a light bounce in his step and he levies a string of knives at Ga'Elian. There's just as many knives in that roll as there were in Ga'Elian's and where the daggers land they vanish a moment later.

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Fortitude: (18)+20: 38

Ga'Elian gets nicked by a couple of the several daggers that come flying his way, but whether it is adrenaline or the blessing of Ea, the horrid sleep-toxin is ineffective. He does, however, get more directly physical and stows his bow just in time to launch himself at the masked man, grappling him momentarily before the man, incredibly, wriggles free.

The Golem's follow through carried to naught with the black mask's evasion, save some stone chips from the ceiling, perhaps, that glowing mote of ruby fire slides along her eyeslit to line up on his new position and situation. As Toha turns, already bringing the hammer back, that pinprick of light reorients anew in relation to her facing. About as he's wiggled loose from Ga'ellian's grapple, she unleashes a hateful swing that he almost completely dodges, though the corner of his mask spiderwebs a bit as her hammer takes off several small chips.

"...sers?" the word is barely a whisper as the sith-makar rouses himself. Awake at last, Chay looks around, not letting on at first. Who knows what awaits, in the world outside?

The sound of battle.

He rolls to his side and then stands in a hunter's motion. The move is automatic, the shake of his head--the shake of his head an admission of the fall he'd taken, at the leftovers of the smog and gas. His eyes itch, his mouth waters and feels scratchy all at once. He lurches into a run, following the sounds until he finds the bedroom--and drops again, at the entrance. Scent floods his muddles senses. Sewage. Blood. And...soup?

Arisha's focus is almost completely on Soup, mostly to protect the gnome from anything else. She does notice the wound is closed, so she's a little LESS panicky. "Whew. You may be a braggart, but you're still with us, noble knight." She then spots Chay and waves to the Sith-makar to join her with her left arm. "Do you know of any way to neutralize a poison, Chay?"

The mighty Knight is ready for battle, with the forces of slumber! He valiantly drools a little on himself, his left leg twitching as he dreams about chasing something. Probably the giant dog that is sitting above him and Arisha. Which for it's part lays down again on top of the small Gnome in an attempt to smother him to life.

Head still ringing from the attack the Black Mask nonetheless finds his standing again. He takes a hop backwards, standing on top of the vanity and levies another round of daggers. This time splitting them between Ga'Elian and Toha. Then, without stopping to see if they strike where they're supposed to he does a little tuck and roll. Dancing between Toha and the wall to get outside. He ends his movement standing beside Chay who has only recently entered the scene.

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Fortitude: (6)+20: 26
GAME: Toha rolls fortitude+4: (6)+5+4: 15

Fresh from losing his grip on the amazingly elusive Man in the Fractured Mask, Ga'Elian takes another dagger and drops instantly.

So focused on dislodging the mask's man's substructure from the meat wrapped around it, Toha's continued assault puts her in line for his retort. While one dagger glances gouging off her breastplate to flip harmlessly over her shoulder, the other two thunk into the woven straps of her midriff and left thigh. For the speed the sullied steel acts upon her, the Golem may as well have had a switch. Midstep and all at once the miasma and light in her 'eye' are snuffed, and faceplants to earth in a clatter. Hope no one's in the way.

Oh, kin! Chay looks wildly at Arisha, his eyes wide and his breath too fast. The mask lands nearby him though, and what reply he'd had is swallowed up. He pushes those words past the cactus someone had shoved down his throat.

He strikes out, wild and blind but with his kin's spirit behind him. Lessons held in the dark, held hidden from Charneth eyes--Arzaneth's sad eyes as she described the strike, as they hid from their masters--hoping, hoping, one day--

--to strike just like that.

And miss. Because this guy is shadow if he's halfway corporeal, and Chay's fist goes right past, and his breath is too fast, and his throat hurts. "GO AWAY!" he shouts at him. Screams. "GO. AWAY!!!"

"NOT TODAY, YOU MISERABLE WRETCH!" Iolaire shrieks, lunging to grab a fistful of anything one may close one's hands around -- in war there *are* no illegal blows, after all -- And with a twist and a heave, hurls the cult leader off-balance, away from the panicked hunter, and back into the room. And now her crest is up, her wings mantled, and the war-bird looks very, very much like she is finished playing around.

Arisha still sees to the safety of Soup, even when the man leaps her way. Arisha raises, steps over Soup to block the man from going near him, and Chay is there to punch at the man, only to miss, then Iolaire is there to throw him back into the room. As Iolaire move to walk past her, Arisha touches the Eagalrin's shoulder. "May Vardama guide your hands, Eagalrin...." And she's back to Soup…

There's a war gurgle from the downed Knight, a savage cry of rage and violence from the depths of slumber. Deftly he lays there unconscious and helpless. A blue armored pillow for his dog to sit on and drool over. Though the animal puffs up and growls when the enemy draws near. It doesn't leave the knight's side. For even in sleep mount and warrior are one. Hopefully at least neither pees on the other.

Iolaire blocks the door out, and the Black Mask seems to consider rushing past her. But after a long second to think about it he picks up Ga'Elian's body by the elf's scruff. He pulls a dagger out and places it against his jugular and one can almost feel the smug grin on his face though it's currently covered by a mask. "Choose. Let me free, or I kill your ally."

The war-bird has taken an aggressive stance, her wings flared out and covering the door -- and Chay -- and she returns the smug grin with something very like a hiss, and a click of her hooked beak. "Kill him and you lose your shield, fool."

"I kill him and I still have another hostage." He drags Ga'Elian a little closer to Toha, unconscious; defenseless Toha.

Arisha says, "And you call yourself a devotee of Vardama. You're nothing more than a Mul'niessa. Tactics and all." She's still looking to Soup though. She's going to let Iolaire make the decision.

"Go--" Chay's voice rasps, the cactus lodged in there firmly, thanks to the earlier gas. Then, some part of him--some part of the brain--registers what's going on, that a hostage has been taken and his eyes tighten. The pupils widen, staring.

Staring. He moves--and then there's claws near him. Reaching for his shoulder to make him do the SMART thing. Not the instinctual thing. And maybe those claws aren't even going to touch him. Maybe they're--

He screams. And lunges aside, instead. Away from--from the masked man, and his pri--hostage!

"Your insults mean nothing to me. I know why I'm here." The masked man taps the dagger just under Ga'Elian's chin. "Tick-tock. You only have until he starts to wake up and then I kill him anyway."

For a moment, Iolaire is distracted by the tense and emotion-motivated Chay, and keeping him from actually attempting to bite the cult leader's face right off. But Chay manages to direct himself off to one side, and Iolaire's penetrating stare returns to her quarry. "Let him go," she says, her voice tight around a similar need to relieve a man of a face. "Let him go, and I stand aside. Touch nobody on your way out, and you will live to be satisfied."

"What?" Soup sits up, and right into the side of his mount. Coughing in the mass of fur he pushes himself away and wipes at his face. "Where? Wurz?" He coughs a few times and begins pulling himself to his feet. "Obviously my cunning plan work..." Blinking as he gets himself sorted out he peers around the room and sniffs a few times. "Mal, did you lay on me again?" The Corgi for it's part wuffs happily before both dog and gnome turn towards the Black Mask. There's a grim smile from the gnome as he carefully peels his compound short bow from the Corgi and tries to stealthily take aim.

"Drop your weapon little man." The Black Mask barks the order out at Soup, drawing a threatening line of blood from Ga'Elian's neck. "I have no reason to trust you. Nor your allies. So back up. I will not ask again."

THe sith-makar regathers himself--and from his puddle, from his heap, glowers at the masked man. If stares could move mountains? The scaled glowers at him--and then looks around the room. Draws in breath. Deeper breath. ONE CANNOT FORGET.

Another hiss sounds out, and the flail is thrown to one side as Iolaire moves away from the door. Her wings continue to cover the Sith, in case someone decides to hurl another dagger in a fit of pointless cruelty. "There. Now let. Him. *Go.*"

"After all the killing you have done...you have no reason to trust us. I have to admire your line of reasoning....so delightfully stupid." Arisha looks to Soup as he rises up and smiles. her hand is still on her pistol, but she looks to the masked one. "Want trust? Put the dagger down and walk out. Or...we can continue this stand off until you no longer have a shield."

Arisha should emphasize that her pistol is lowered....NOT pointing at the masked one.

The man eeks forward slowly, carrying Ga'Elian with him. He's surprisingly strong for such a thin-framed fellow, but nothing about this man seems natural. Not his grace as he picks his way toward you. Not the weapon at Ga'Elian's throat. Not the poison that you have all found to be far too effective. "Me? I told you what it is I mean to accomplish. There are some in the city that must die, and they will die." He drags Ga'Elian out of the room and then with a little flick of his fingers he vanishes from sight. "Now, do not follow me or the next time... One of your names might well be on my list." He drops Ga'Elian.

Arisha says, "First smart move you've done all night. And your threats mean shit to me, asshole. We'll find you again." She says making her way for Toha.

Putting his bow back Soup swears and tromps into the formerly hidden bedroom and begins ransacking the place looking for clues. "I'll show him little man when I wear him like a flag from my lance. What say ye dark coward when I joust your colon out through yon mouth?" Behind him the Corgi trots and sets about sniffing out clues in it's best Scooby impression.

Arisha doesn't truly care about the man's taunts, but she makes her way over to Elian and uses a minor heal to cure the cut under his chin. Meanwhile, she puts her pistol away. "We should set fire to this room...."

Ga'Elian awakens in a different place than where he last remembered being... then realizes that that masked asshole must have done it to him again. He glances around at his surroundings, his companions, and the absence of his malefactor. At this, he sniffs the air, and lets loose a feral howl that reverberates through the tunnels off the sewer system, and is answered by an alarmed SKREE that some may recognize as the keen of Erithamiel, guarding outside. The elf then curses, "I will see justice done upon you!" and is off in the sort of hyper-stealthy pursuit for which he is so well-trained.

And it's not until Ga'Elian is seen to be put down, does Iolaire rise from her crouch. Soup's comment produces a whistling snort through her nares, much like a bark of laughter, and the war-bird's wings flutter until they can settle back into place. Moving to pick up her weapon, she takes a moment to coil its chain, and return it to its place on her belt, before she bobs her head at Arisha. "Perhaps it's not sporting, but a bit of pettiness *does* feel like it--"

Ruffling faintly, she waits for Ga'Elian's voice to settle. "--would make me feel better." Her eyes turn to Chay, head tilting to one side. "All right, lad?"

GAME: Soup rolls perception: (12)+7: 19

"I definitely get you, Iolaire. There is definitely something personal between him and the church of Vardama. Unfortunately, No matter what we do, he goads us into fighting, then when we actually get the better of him, he takes a hostage, and we have to choose between the hostage and him. This will not stop until HE is stopped." Arisha then sighs a bit. "Unfortunately, he picked the wrong time to try for any sort of Diplomacy. We're trying to focus on Heth....and he pulls this. I still don't believe he has other agents...or, at least, WILLING agents."

-End