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"Are you daft? We don't know how strong those creatures can be, we don't even know what they are!" Yizkavesh spoke in a hushed tone at Nalia, before she sarted running off in the direction of the scream, and soon the others. "Fine, but keep it down!" He continued onward with the group, trying to step quietly through the darkness.

Beyond some brush and trees, they would be able to see what seems to be a crying girl garbed in a magenta robe, hunched over in a fetal position rocking back and forth in front of a strange, black, crystaline totem pole, depicting the moon, nightmarish creatures, and a winged woman. Every other moment she would let out some sort of scream or whimper, and quiet whispers speaking in an alien language could be heard if they go near it.

The girl is completely oblivious to the group, as she has not noticed them in the brush behind her.

As Nalia gets closer to the sound she jumps to one of the tree branch to use the tree as cover, Nalia looks back for a sec just to see the others have followed and are already hiding in the brush and trees below her, she returns her view on the crying girl to see she is human but her action is somewhat wierd, Nalia thinks to herself while looking at the crystalline totem pole.

Such a powerful Black Magic...its hard to tell if its the totem pole that is releasing such magic pressure or the girl...im sure even Bialis or the Hanged man can feel this even if they aren't mage... need to find the source fast this magic might be attracting those beast or worse. It might be capable or corrupting people. (Sigh) I need more knowledge on that totem pole or the girl which ever is the one releasing this magic

Nalia stays quiet above the tree as she thinks so hard on how to get close to examine the totem or the crying girl. Nalia's face show she's in the middle of thinking.

The Hanged Man hurried as quietly as he could through the trees after Nalia ... but then suddenly she disappeared. Due to the accursed darkness, it took him a moment to see that she had leaped up into the trees. He drew to a halt just before emerging into the clearing, his attention caught by the girl kneeling by the monument. In the caravan there had been word of such strange crystal formations, though the soldier hadn't seen any for himself until now, and the detrimental effect they had on those of a magical persuasion. The Hanged Man was not entirely mundane, yet he was certainly no mage, and felt no calling towards the monument--perhaps if he reached out to touch the ley, he might feel a tug, so he avoided doing so.

At Adrianna's whisper, he beckoned her a little closer so that she might see the girl for herself. The girl's screaming would no doubt attract unwanted attention, and he could see no obvious way to help her. Help her, commander. Like you helped me. The Hanged Man closed his eyes to shut out the image of Ayma touching the gash on his neck. It hadn't come to that, yet, had it? He glanced back to Bialis with his bow. The boy would have a clear shot ...

Bialis did not go so near to the crystalline structure as the others. He could not make himself get so close as the others could. It was too unbearable.. His expression twisted as he approached, painfully as if he were being stabbed -- in just trying to get a look, he was driven to his knees, gasping, the arm whose hand held an arrow trying desperately to protect his head, as if that might alleviate the pounding in it, so severe he feared, though he knew it could not be so, that his skull itself might be fracturing along each seam.

He gasped hoarsely -- "Get her -- 'way frommit--" And promptly retched upon the ground, trying to retreat even as he did so.

Adrianna glanced at the hanged man as he beckoned her closer, and as she did so, she got the full view of the crying girl and the totem. She immediately looks at the girl, crying on the ground and her eyes narrow. She looks around, thinking to herself before finally saying something.

"Does this feel like a trap to anybody else...from what I can tell she's not injured, and she's screaming and whimpering....if she's in fact not hurt, then she could be trying to lure something out of hiding, or trying to draw attention to herself. However I wouldn't know why, what, or anything about that totem..."

She whispers. She wasn't lying. She really did get the impression that this was meant to be a trap for whatever unlucky soul heard it. However there were still a lot of things that were left unexplained. She got a very bad feeling about the totem as she held her locket in her hand.

Meanwhile, Yizkavesh is currently hiding in a bush to the left of the group, peaking through the leaves looking at the girl and the totem, he begins to whisper to Bialis. "If a totem pole's bothering you that much get away from it boy! There isn't any use in getting sickly over it."

Upon closer inspection, it can be seen that's the girl's skin is covered in dimly glowing black lines and symbols, and each time she screams or whimpers they glow brightly for a moment. After listening for a while, they would now also be able to hear her whispering to herself. "...where's the sun...? ...where is everyone...? ...why is there darkness all around me...?"

Yizkavesh would speak up again. "Yes, quite correct about that... it does feel a bit suspicious."

After for a while of thinking and hearing the others whisper. Nalia also notice the black lines and symbols, staring at them as she thinks to herself.

Binding Symbols? The Symbols are somewhat same in the one use in Binding creatures to take control of them, then it's the totem that is releasing this magic we can feel, did the Totem Bind the girl or did someone Bind the girl to the totem? The others are right about one thing is that it looks like a trap but I doubt the girl is the one who made this, the girl might be a victim captured and used to be bait for any wondering survivor or just one of those insane sorcerer that intends to feed this girl to those beast by making this girl scream endlessly until a beast come... if that's the case then we don't have much time on deciding what to do since most of the possibilities are monster coming here soon because of the screaming or the totem corrupted the girl after getting that close to it.

Nalia jumps down landing as quiet as a feather between The Hanged Man and Adrianna. Nalia gives her staff to The Hanged Man.

Please hold this for me.

Nalia body starts to shrink until her robe fell from her body, a small Green Snake slither out of Nalia's Robe as Nalia have shape shifted into a small Green snake. Nalia heads towards the screaming Girl from behind, slithering up the screaming girl body until she reach to the neck of the screaming girl. Nalia bites the girl in the neck making the girl silent and passing out after a few second.

The Hanged Man trotted back to Bialis' side when the boy collapsed. "Lad?" Yizkavesh's helpful response to the boy's collapse was met with a sharp green-eyed glare, though no words. The soldier attempted to pull Bialis away from the monument a few meters, before going to get Nalia's staff when she proffered it to him. Her solution to the problem of the girl's screaming was ... quite elegant, he had to admit, provided it succeeded. "I do not think this is a trap for us," he finally commented, responding to Adrianna. "But a trap for her ... perhaps it was." He returned to Bialis, kneeling beside him and looking down with worried eyes. "Lad?"

(*evil Snicker*)

Adrianna looks at the hanged man questioningly for a moment, before looking back at the woman. She strained to get a closer look, but when she did she noticed the markings all over her, as well as barley being able to hear her whispers. She looks at nalia who immiedletly transformed into a snake, and made her pass out. She couldn't help but give half a smile, as that wasn't something she would have though of. But the smile wiped off her face when the hanged man spoke. She just turns to loom at him, raising an eyebrow and occasionally glancing at the girl.

"But why? Why would someone set a trap for her? Maybe we're staring at the handiwork of a madman with no moral conscious...maybe we're looking at a case of revenge. Maybe she made somebody mad, and they decided this was how they were going to settle the score. But if that were the case, that means she's associated with dangerous people...which means she could bd just as dangerohs...and she's in no condition to tell us what happened so we're left guessing as we figure out what to do.."

(Dang. Didn't expect to get an 18. Next to post gets first in combat initiative.)

As soon as Nalia bit into her neck, the girl screamed a harrowing scream, nothing short to what a banshee might let out. She fell on her back with her eyes open, now in view. They lack irises, and glow bright purple. Almost instantly, the black lines and symbols glow brightly, and the rest of the girl's body glows vibrantly purple, almost in a pulsing fashion. A beam of black energy erupts from the statue's top totem, and hit's the girl's head. The girl then get's up, now surrounded in a black, smokey aura, and throws Nalia off of her. She then runs towards Adrianna and The Hanged Man, forming long claws out of purple energy, attempting to try to slash them to bits!

Adriannas eyes widened as she saw the girl violently scream before falling on her back. She would have stepped closer, if it wasn't for the fact that the symbols on her body were now glowing and pulsating. Her attention turned to the totem, and she nearly jumped back as a beam from the top shot at the woman's head. Not even moments later, the woman was up and surrounded by an evil aura. Adrianna growled under her breath.

"Damn it! I knew this was a trap!!"

She says aggrivated as her eyes and the gem on her staff both turn bright grey simultaneously. She notices the claws as the woman charged at her.

"Good a place to start as any!"

She says a spell under her breath, and slams her staff on the ground to make her claws appear and become real momentarily using illusion magic. Her eyes and gem then both turn fiery red as she slams it on the ground again, the woman's claws lighting on fire at a heat so intense that they start melting to the point that they would (hopefully) be useless. She then casts another spell to turn her staff into a sword as she readies herself to fight the woman head on. She looks over at the hanged man, keeping her attention on both him and the woman.

"Looks like she's after the two of us. You ready? We shouldn't try to kill her. We should try to knock her out. Give the others time to escape perhaps."

She says as quickly as she can before the woman gets to them.

Bialis was moving back, damn it, he'd only tried to see what it was that was going on, hidden as it was behind the shrub -- speaking only the words he'd felt were necessary -- get her away from it, he'd said, not bite her in the neck, what -- he just shook his head at the Hanged Man's concern, unsure how to address it and perplexed by it, and kept backing up -- releasing an involuntary, strangled-sounding shout when the magic beamed from the crystalline totem and struck the girl in the head. He wasn't even looking at her in that moment -- in fact from the angle he was at he could not know it hit her, from sight or sound.

He kept backing away, trying to nock the arrow and to keep his hands from shaking, but as the fire would burst onto the shifting woman's claws, a different look appeared on his face -- not this dread and pain, but fear in his eyes, as he stared, teeth gritted, arrow nocked, keeping his distance.

The Hanged Man still did not believe that they had walked into a trap--moreso that they had simply interfered with something they weren't supposed to. Bialis' agony was ... troubling, and certainly unnatural, yet at the moment they had more pressing concerns. Once Bialis was a little further from the monument, the swordsman laid down Nalia's staff.

"If you do not wish her dead, put away your sword," he said to Adrianna. He hadn't drawn his own blade, and instead adjusted his grip on his shield so he could wield it two-handed. He than advanced, slowly and tactfully, to meet their assailant. As the girl tried to claw at him, whether or not Adrianna had succeeded, he fended off the blows using the wall of metal. Should her claws remain sharp enough, she would begin tearing the burlap coverings.

#screwedupsoignorepostandacceptapologyT-T

As Nalia got thrown off from the girl, she started to slither back to her robe once she have, she slithered inside. Nalia returned to her original form, seeing Adrianna and The Hanged Man busy at defending from the girl attack. Nalia tried to get her staff before she fall on her knees unable to move.

This is bad whatever magic was inside that girl is inside me right now (Heavy Breathing) need to solve this fight first.

Nalia tries to stand up but instead ended up fainting.

As the girl's claws catch on fire, she doesn't seem to notice that it's burning her hands. Instead she keeps on trying to slash around the shield, seemingly unaware that her claws are burning her fingers, though her claws remain intact. After realizing her attempts are futile, she instead rushes towards Adrianna.

"I knew this was a bad idea! Hold on there, i'm coming over to help!" He instinctively puts up his axe and draws his mace, and begins to run over to help the two. He attempts to try to cut the girl off by growing plant-life in front of her to make her fall down. Brambles, tall grass, and roots spring up from a small spot of the ground in front of her, but she simply jumps over it and continues heading towards Adrianna.

"Damn it!!"

She says as she blows towards the girl. A massive amount of wind surrounds her, and extinguished the flames as to not hurt her further. She takes another deep breath, but is then tackled to the ground. She manages to keep the woman off while the woman knelt over top of her, but in the midst of the woman's thrashing to get at her, she managed cut Adrianna cheek. Adrianna yelps as her eyes glow a deep red.

"Ok, That does it! Now I'm pissed!"

She grunts as she tries to kick the woman in the stomach as hard as she can, and if it worked, then she tightens her grip on the woman's arms and flips her over onto her stomach. She tries holding the woman's hands behind her back, but the woman just continues to thrash around trying to attack her. Adrianna eyes just glow brighter as she places her knees on the woman's back to prevent her from getting up.

"get a head start away from here while you can! I can't keep her restrained forever! But I can at least keep her down long enough for you guys to get away!"

She says as she struggles to keep the woman on the ground and from hurting her or the others.

Bialis didn't like this even one bit. The woman wasn't going after him -- indeed, she seemed to be targeting Arianna, and Bialis believed he knew why. He was already inclined to keep his distance from her -- from all of this -- and he would indeed have continued keeping his distance, aiming his bow for the strange girl's leg to see if he could perhaps keep her from her attack -- but he suspected perhaps it would do little, and he neither drew nor fired --

Where had the elf gone --

And then Adrianna was trying to take down the girl herself, the girl who had targeted her... the boy's eyes hardened. In a sense he saw no reason to help whatsoever -- but then, his horrific imaginings gave him at least half a dozen powerful reasons -- and he drew and fired the bow, guided as much by his sensing and by the flaming claws as by his sight, once Adrianna and the girl had stopped moving quite so much so as to get a good shot (and the lad's aim was a fine thing, in his favour) -- for the clawed girl's leg. It would at least slow her down, and, if Adrianna chose to seize that opportunity, give Adrianna some chance at fleeing theoretically.

But past that -- he was quite ready to flee into the night -- there was Yizkavesh, there was the strange hanged man near Adrianna, there -- but where had the elf gone -- his eyes searched the ground for ... well, for something that could not be there and in truth was not -- but caught the prone form of the elf. He cursed a curse which did not involve his voice, but a strange, furious movement of his hands despite the one still holding his bow -- and ran to try and collect Nalia, with strangled noises of pain, as doing so would certainly bring him closer to the damn crystal monument -- praying that elves were as light as he'd heard, for he had never had the opportunity to find out. (He had. He knew damn well he had, but that opportunity had been squandered.).

He wouldn't have questioned this wisdom, but he was full of dread and pain, and he had received this concept of feather-light elves from drunkards who also believed that a halved sparrow could cure plague. He would try to kneel beside Nalia's form and hoist her onto his shoulder, as he had seen others do with -- well -- others. And if he could manage it -- damn straight, he'd try to flee, leaving Adrianna to handle herself!

The Hanged Man could devote no more attention to poor Bialis, for the robed girl was now lunging towards him. He didn't look terribly concerned about this situation, and didn't budge backwards no matter how furiously she clawed at his shield. When she changed her focus back to Adrianna, however, he let out a soft curse and turned to follow her movements. The wall of vines and grass that climbed up out of the ground made him hesitate for half an instant--the village of Malben's Meet was green with new spring--commander, help me! Help me! He shook his head to clear it and drove the bottom edge of his shield between the two women like a wedge. He then attempted to flip the rabid mage off of Adrianna. As Adrianna then tried to get the girl into a pin and told them to flee, he shook his head. "D-don't be foolish," he told her; then, to Yizkavesh, "Bind her with your magic!" He prepared to look away, not wanting to exacerbate the now-fading visions by watching the magic again.