Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
"Speak of the devil, here she is now..." Violet said, and then her face went ashen when the sylph said that Drago had gotten into a fight. "C'mon, lets follow her. Her word is good. Most likely." The siren quickly moved to follow the fairy as quickly as she could, hoping that they arrived in time...
Ar moved with the Ghoul. staying step for step as best he could with the supernatural abomination as his blade made another sweeping pass at the creature. There was only so long you could avoid the arc of a weapon such as his....
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
(Dammit, all I hear is "Hey! Hey, Link!")
Atair's attention almost immediately goes to the flash of green as it arrives, ears perked and his tails flicking as the little sprite flickers about and gives her report.
"Best give him a hand. The last thing we need is another run-in with the watch, considering there's a bunch of them prowling around the bath house as we speak."
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Drago stumbles from the blow, before charging headlong into the thug's abdomen "Bastard!" he yells as he flaps his wing to give himself some extra force.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
D... destroying property? Ruckus? Oh gods, were the guards looking for him now?! What was he going to do!? He hadn't seen nearly enough of the festival to go to jail! Keti started to panic, flapping his wings in place. What was he going to do?!
He calmed down a little once Atair told them they weren't looking for him anymore... but he still felt a little shook up. What if they decided to arrest him anyway? And then that green blur - a tiny little lady, apparently - came and said Drago had gotten into a fight... fights were bad, right? Fights would get him arrested?
They had to go tell him what Atair had learned about the Red Lady... but if he was in a fight... agh! He followed along, but both felt and looked very skittish as they went.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
A flash of pain shoots through Drago as he flaps his injured wing, but the strike is successful regardless, the goon going down with a crunch. He lays on his back a moment, trying to focus his vision as the light fades from his eyes and he slips into unconsciousness, finally defeated.
Victorious, Drago looks back around to the alleyway to find it empty, but before he can investigate further, the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps catches his attention. As he whirls back to confront the source, he finds some familiar faces being led by a glowing green light.
((As mentioned elsewhere, your stress boxes are reset. Just try to take it easy for a few minutes to get your breath back, that sorta thing. The consequence, the bruised wing, however, remains))
---
"There! There's the crow! And er... there are the goons... huh. Guess he didn't need help afterall huh. Oh well, are we done here?" came the tiny voice of Sult as she hovered back and forth slowly.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Drago holds his injured wing tightly against his side, cradling it with his other wing. "Took you long enough." he states, then sighs as he sits down on one of the thugs he had defeated. "Woman's gone. Took off during the fight. She's very good at running, it seems. For an elf." he says, taking slow, deep breaths as he nurses his injured wing. "What'd I miss at the bathhouse? Anything interesting?"
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Atair slows to a stop behind Violet, eyes flicking over the downed thugs and the manner in which they were dispatched. Definitely wouldn't do to get on the harpy's bad side, that was for certain.
"She created a bit of a distraction inside the bath house and we got locked in. Then, of course, we had to catch up to you and you're not easily spotted when you're down here having a go of it." There's a bit of a chuckle in his voice, not really criticizing the harpy for the fight. Given the look of the losers, he was likely either nearly mugged or Udete could charm herself some bodyguards. While Drago catches his breath, he'll reiterate the information he gleaned from the captain at the baths, particularly who they're going after and what that likely means. Of course, the short answer to that is "trouble," but he was used to taking the rough path to get the answers he was looking for.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Violet surveyed the scene of violence in the alley and recoiled in horror, and she refused to even go anywhere near any of the savagely mauled men, or any of the blood stains on the ground. Seeing Drago take a seat on one of the injured men, Violet manages to tear her hand away from her mouth. "Are you.... Are you alright?" Violet said, and then allowed Atair to glean over what had happened in the bath house. Turning to their sylph, she said; "Thank you, Sult. Yes, that's all I needed your help for.... Might I call upon you again if I have need while in the area? You performed wonderfully."
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
In his panic Keti practically forgot the outcome fights usually had - people getting hurt. Even so, the men in the alley looked far worse than a regular old scuffle... The peaceable Siren opted to stay far away from Drago and the scene, peeking around the corner into the alley while Atair explained what had happened. Scary!
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
The sprite crossed her arms and turned away from Violet. "Hmph. I should certainly expect so. I'll consider it, for the right price," she replies, before disappearing away, fading from view as she moved away, doubtlessly disappearing back into the spirit world.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
"I see. Well, at least she didn't decide to stab me in the back while I fought.." Drago says, standing and attempting to move his bruised wing, before sitting back down and clutching it tight to his side. "And no, I'm not alright. One of them hit me in the wing with a pipe. I can barely move it without pain." he states, standing up and inhaling through clenched teeth as he begins to walk. "I don't know about you folks, but I'm going after her. She's really the only kind of lead I have that can get me out of this city and back home." he states, as his wing begins to ache again and he stumbles to lean against a wall of a nearby building.
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Violet stands in the mouth of the alley for a moment, half desiring to go and help Drago and half repulsed at the idea of getting near so much blood. Finally, she sighs and, remaining in place, says; "I suppose..... But we have no way of finding her. Did she leave anything behind? Anything that we could use to track her? I doubt she'd have gone back to wherever she lives."
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Drago's injury is fairly obvious, but unfortunately, not having much knowledge of wings, Atair wasn't entirely sure the best way to treat the injured harpy. ONe couldn't exactly splint a wing. Or maybe you could. Asking would likely get him snapped at, but if that wound go worse, it might put Drago out of commission for a time.
"Well, she does seem to be a more...prominent member of the community. The watch was complaining about that fact, especially when accusations were starting to be brought against her. That could work both to our advantage and against it. We can probably find her if we ask around. Or rather, if Lady Violetta does," he grins, "but confronting her is going to bring all sorts of trouble."
He moves over, trying to get a look at Drago's injury but definitely not touching it, as the last thing he wants to do is accidentally injure the harpy further. "Anything we can do for that, for now?" He nods his head slightly at the wing.
"If we do confront her," he continues, helping Drago as the harpy sees fit to let him, "we might actually want the members of the watch with us. Or at least one or two of them. They don't like the idea of involving civilians, not that I blame them, but if she's already suspect, having them there if trouble happens again might keep us out of the stocks for harassing a noble of the city."
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Listening in from where he was, Keti could only think that he really didn't want anything to do with more guards... He wrote something down on his slate, but at this distance, they probably wouldn't be able to read it. Taking a small gulp, he slowly made his way over to the rest of the group, trying carefully to keep from looking at the mess of people, unconscious on the ground - almost tripping over a few things for his trouble.
What if she makes them stop us?
Tells them we're brutes sent after her?
They'll take us to jail!
He probably should have just left - gone back to see the rest of the festival. Was it really worth missing everything - maybe even getting the whole town mad at him - maybe even being banned from the festival forever?! - to help in this mystery he had nothing to do with? It might get him into more trouble... but... to be honest, he was curious. What was even the point of this whole thing this Red woman - Udete- was doing?
That, and he was still curious about Atair. It was entirely possible it was just a case of... uh... what was it called? Day-au-jus? But what if it wasn't?
Re: Festival of Springtime Blooms (Occam, Garb, Tass, Copper)
Drago slowly extends his wing, twitching a few times as he does so as a surge of pain runs through said appendage. "What we ought to do is hunt her down, pin her to a wall, and drag the information out of her." he says, his face contorting in pain as his wing fully extends. "But we can't do that unless we know where she is." he states flatly, beads of sweat starting to appear on his face. He would allow Atair to help him with his wing, but damn, did it hurt like hell.
Soren felt useless, more than useless at the moment. He couldn't shoot his crossbow without possibly hurting one of the others and a fireball would be a bad idea at the moment. So he tried again. He needed to stun the ghoul for Ar to get a good shot, so he stole the heat from it and funneled it into the cultist leader, furiously praying that this worked.
Soren pointed his spear at the new cultist, once again drawing forth energy from it as the ghoul howled and hissed in pain. Focusing the energy into a weapon once more, Soren carefully studies the movements of the cultist leader for a moment before launching it, the blast striking him in the chest and causing him to cry out as he fell backwards, smoking slightly. He didn't appear to be getting up; which was a good thing, because all this magic was becoming a drain on Soren, he was basically at the limit of what he could do safely. ((As a note, Soren has filled his mental stress track, and additional spells cast this combat will require him to take consequences, or cause him to black out from the strain.))
Meaghan takes a few steps back before dashing forth, vaulting over the second barricade, if only barely as her leg narrowly clears the tips of a few of the sharpened stakes. Still, across is across, and lowering her blade, she bears down on the final cultist, who appears much less defiant than they had earlier, likely due to the sight of their leader collapsed before the altar, robes smoking lightly.
Ar swung his scythe at the ghoul once more, and then again, spinning and striking with it rapidly, causing the ghoul to dodge and duck with its uncanny speed, all the while watching. The decisive blow came soon, a strike for power rather than speed and the ghoul dodged aside, directly into the blow, it's motion predicted by the oracle. It gave a loud howl as the blade struck it squarely in the chest, and began to lash out, fighting against it and Ar had to pull the scythe from it lest he risk losing hold of the weapon. Surprisingly, the ghoul remained upright from the blow.
With the cult leader down, Irla took aim with the arrow at the ghoul, spotting an opening after Ar pulled back his scythe. She fired at it, but by the time the arrow reached the ghoul, it had already shifted, it was just too damn fast.
The last remaining cultist looked less than eager to face down the vampyre slowly stalking towards him. He seemed to work up his courage for a moment before giving a cry and running at her, sword held high. Without so much as a moment of surprise, Meaghan casually deflected the blow when it fell, forcing the cultist back effortlessly, the drastic difference in skill was obvious between the pair.
The ghoul pounced forwards once more. Ar had really expected a bit more of a respite as it recovered from the blow and while he attempted to deflect the incoming ghoul with his scythe, he just couldn't react fast enough and felt one of the dark claws slam into his chest, the claws raking at his flesh. A dull cracking sound and sharp pain from his chest inform him that there's a good chance he's broken at least one rib, but gritting his teeth, the oracle wasn't done just yet.
Lips pulling back, Meaghan smiled at the cultist, driving her sword towards his chest, aiming between the ribs that hid his heart. Her eyes were alight with desire as she aimed to finish the task.
Soren smiled with grim satisfaction as he saw the results of his handiwork. He put the small crystal shaft away and readied his crossbow, uncertain of where to shoot. "Ar! Look out!" He called, before taking careful aim and squeezing off a shot at the ghoul while it was still... occupied.
