Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Bloodied Shards IC (CLOSED!)

While it was true that Adriannu had a plan, it was also true that she wanted to quickly go to the bathroom since if this worked, they would probably be running for a good while. Besides if it smelled like she had taken care of a call of nature, it would make Victi less suspicious since she looked like she had a good sense of smell. Yet as she walked to take care of it, the Cathera looked carefully for a potential target, for while she had a plan, it didn't actually involve Victi directly. What the child was looking for was a rather tough looking man, ideally with at least one buddy with him. However she wouldn't do anything until after she had taken care of her business. Once out of sight, she'd quickly grab a small pebble from the ground since she was going to need it later. Then while heading back into the parlor, she would try to do so from behind Victi, hoping that between Lilaith and Lisa they would keep Victi distracted long enough for her to get her plan done.

Now came the risky part as she was attempt to casually pass by whatever target she identified earlier and attempt to pickpocket something like a knife, a coin pouch, wallet, anything worthwhile. She would do this without breaking stride or even looking the guy or the table. Now she had stolen things before, but this was still risky, since if she was caught, she'd have no choice, but to probably show off even more of her skills to the enemy. Ideally however her nimble fingers wouldn't fail her and she would have managed to grab something.

Should she succed at her light fingered task, Adriannu would be left with the even more risky part still to do which was pin the theft on some poor sap. But she wasn't going to pin this on just anyone, no she wanted to go for maximum chaos so she was going to pin it on a guard. Nothing should stir up a mess quickly then a tough guy or more who thought a corrupt guard had stolen from him. Guards are often not well liked and ones that steal, even more so.

Before approaching the guard, she'd quickly crouch down if possible out of Victi's sight and plant the pebble between the toes, while hiding the stolen item on her belt. Afterwards just like before, she would move to walk past the guard table and suddenly stop, crouch down and mutter "stupid pebble" while lifting her foot to dislodge the pebble. If the guards just ignored her, great, if not, they would see that she was just removing an annoying pebble and quickly get back to whatever they were doing. Then before standing back up, she'd remove the stolen object and quickly plant it by the guard's feet as it it had fallen from his pocket.

Afterwards she'd return to their table and once again lean against the wall and wait for the inevitable explosion. Hopefully in the ensuing chaos, they would be able to make a quick escape.

Lisa replies to Victi's happy chirp, one so deceptively sweet and cat-like that she thinks of Raven for the third or fourth time since they got separated, with a pleasant smile. Then she chuckles quietly at Liliath's answer while wrapping the cloth around the girl's injury. "Maybe not today, but if you aren't careful someone will have to get a new dress eventually, won't they?"

Next she addresses Victi, carefully dodging conversation about what's in the tea. "What were we discussing a minute ago?"

"Heh, if you think that was a threat, wait until she catches you, ya little sprite." Drake smiles coldly and watches as the fairy crosses the cavern to help Geoff.

Geoff smiles weakly at the fairy. Between his protections and magically accelerated healing, his injuries aren't critical, so he shakes his head. "Thank you, but I'll be okay soon." No squishy wizard stereotype here; that's more for the beginners and the folk who shirk their studies in medical and defensive magic. "So, this 'shard thing,' ya? That's...you're not all...you know, actually blood mages, are you?"

The wizard instantly forgets to get an answer on that as he and Drake turn their heads and pay rapt attention to Isabella's transformation...or release, from a terrifying dark mage who sees from the void to the green-eyed darling Drake first saw out at the gate.

The mercenary's eyes widen when, during the change, Isabella drops a long black sliver of clay, edged in a golden material like the translucent shard he'd had what feels like ages ago. "The kid has it? You've got to be kidding me!"

When Isabella turns to him with a charming little smirk, he visibly softens too. His cold gaze disappears and he returns her smile. Putting out and dropping the torch he taken, he walks over to her and drops into a crouch, switching tactics now that he (thinks) he knows who the shard holder is. He starts with his most basic concern, figuring that cutting to the point will spark resistance, "Hey there, you alright?"

"I can agree to that," Victi says to Liliath before changing her focus to answer Lisa.

"Which thing?" Victi chuckles as she brings the mug to her lips, "I mean, the one thing was helping each other untangle the information you found about the shards. That would be useful to both of us. We work it out, we go our separate ways, and we each do what we need to to figure out how to use that info. That kind of thing."

As she drank, Victi got a nagging feeling that she'd.... forgotten something, maybe? a clenching of dread in her gut like there was something important that she'd missed.

So far, though, it just seemed to mean she was on edge. Eh, whatever.

"These kinds of artifacts usually don't like to be as simple as 'grab them all and shove them together,' there's almost always some specific thing you have to do with.... oh, what now?" Victi begins explaining before being distracted by some noise from the back.

Outside:

The little fur-goblins had put together simple alcohol-based molotov cocktails and were throwing them.... well, a few places, but they seemed rather intent on the tea parlour, shouting about awful plants and disgusting smells. The proprietor saw this and panicked, shouting "FIRE! MONSTERS!" over and over while attempting to douse the flames.

While the burning alcohol itself was very resistant to the water, the wood it had ignited was partially doused, but there was still lots of burning starting as the cackling little beasties kept on throwing bottles and lighting long sticks to spread fire the hard way.

Up under the roof of the University's tower, the hanging figure adjusted their weapon, adjusting from a laser to a much more solid projectile....

Back inside:

"Oh, you cannot be serious," Victi sighs as the calls for help rang out into the main room, "Okay, I should probably go help with that. I swear it wasn't my fault, whatever it is."

"Right, right," Lisa finishes wrapping Liliath's hand while nodding along with what Victi says.

She smiles with relief at Adriannu as she returns and leans against the wall near their table. "There you are. what kept y-"

She jolts out of her seat, stunned silent, at the same eruption of chaos that interrupted Victi.

At the first cry of "FIRE!" Lisa's hands clamp onto the edge of the table in a white-knuckled death grip. She freezes. Shaking. Sweating. Drawing short, gasping and wheezing breaths. The unmistakable acrid stench of smoke fills the air. This is real. This is happening. Victi's promise that the fire isn't her fault is lost in the din of hollering goblins warped into the thundering roars and hiss of flame spewing from dragons' jaws, and the cries for help that echo the distant, suffering screams of her clanmates all on their own...

She cries out as her back hits something solid, the wall. She'd thrown herself into the wall. She hears glass shatter as cocktails hit the floor. I need to get out- WE need to get out.

Victi and her past forgotten, she ducks down and grabs Liliath and Adriannu by the arms, pulling them toward the first exit she spots.

Fire, did these people yell fire? Victi hadn't done it, that was good. She managed to get a quick glance of a golbin in the chaos. "Lisa don't let them see me." Liliath cried out as Lisa pulled her to the fire exit "I killed 2 of those silly man, cause they tried to kill me. Lisa I am scared." Her face had turned pale again and she looked extremely frightend around

With the oncoming fire, Kuro simply wasted no time. He quickly hurried on the rooftops, the area where he is most comfortable and can get the most amount of info. Looking at the fire, it was simply going to get bigger, and with the wind feeding it more and more, it was only going to be a matter of time before the town simply going to be ablaze.

He ran to shops close by, showing people paths they should take. He also warned people of falling debris, but due to the fear, some people ignored and were crushed by the weight below.However he knew that due to a sixth sense.He didn't really know on how to describe it. And really didn't care about said sixth sense.All it did was help in see in a different way using aura. Objects would glow black, people glow blue. And he was pretty sure it was magic.

Adriannu was about to answer Lisa's question about what had taken her so long when she suddenly heard people shouting about a fire and hr ears could pick up the crackling of burning wood to indeed confirm this. Well this wasn't the chaos she had been expected, but it could certainly worked. Victi meanwhile said that she had to help out with this and promised that it wasn't her fault, which was something that she was inclined to believe since it seemed very unlikely that she had anything to gain from starting this fire.

Lisa then attempted to grab her arm, but the child quickly pulled her arm to prevent her from doing so and shook her head before following after. If there were indeed monsters, then she didn't want to have one of her arms restrained by Lisa in case she needed to defend herself. As the Cathera followed Lisa and Liliath out, she moved her hands down to her hips and seized both of her new daggers by the handles, but didn't draw them just yet. Honestly, she really didn't want to draw her blades as she wanted to keep her "stinger" hidden from Victi as long as possible as there would be a decent chance that the kitsune would see them if she ended up fighting. However that wouldn't stop her from bringing them out if it came down to it. A hidden stringer was useless if the scorpion it was attached to was dead after all.

Once they finally made it outside, Adriannu would attempted to find a good vantage point to get a bird's eye view of the situation should one prove easily accessible. Hopefully that would be the case considering her ability to jump thirteen and a half feet.

Victi dashed toward the back of the shop... and then stopped. Through the crackle of fire and the shouts of panic, there was a sound, one most people here would overlook, but one that she was all too familiar listening for...

With the group:

As Adriannu pulled away from Lisa, the slight jerk was accompanied by a crackle barely different from that of fire and the sound something striking the floor. Something small, fast, and which had come through the upper part of the wall.

Looking would reveal a short, deformed bit of metal, slightly over 4cm long and a bit more than 1cm across embedded in the floor, and a hole in the wall on the opposite side of the room slightly larger than the object.

Victi:

Victi hadn't seen the sight yet, but the sound alone gave her an awful feeling about what was going on here.

These goblins things were just a distraction, making a fire that, hell, could probably even be managed by the services here. She bet that was planned carefully, too.

"Oooohhh no you don't. She's mine," the kitsune growls, returning the way she had come... and stumbling slightly. Something felt wrong. She... hadn't been hit, but she felt like.

SHE FELT LIKE SHE'D FORGOTTEN TO DO SOMETHING. The tea! She'd been so distracted by the steam blast, snarking at the kids, brow-beating Lisa, that she forgot to check for poison. What the hell did the girl use that wasn't being picked up by her spells, though? Anything lethal or paralytic would be picked up, and non-lethal neurotoxins that didn't reach the brain just wouldn't work while she was running mana over her nerves... Oooohhh, this was extremely bad.

That was a worry for later, though. For now, she needed to make sure she had her info source, even though said info source might have been the one to poison her. That was probably what that weird flask was, though she also wouldn't put it past the fuzzier kid with the attitude to have done... something. Never knew.

Catching sight of the trio outside, Victi lept and transversed, abruptly appearing right next to them in a shimmering of momentarily twisted space, continuing her trajectory at Lisa with all four limbs extended toward her....

Urug pauses for a moment, thinking to himself. "If the problem is the information getting out before it should, perhaps something else would be more beneficial. A method of communications out in the field, perhaps? You've shown you're capable of such things."