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<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 633" data-attributes="member: 63"><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Chapter Four: Unreasonable Demands, Part One</strong></span></p><p></p><p>The hooded figure stands before them, its robe drifting eerily in a conjured fog. Nikal cowers in the grass behind them, covering some object he’d been carrying with his body. Bhurisrava and James hold their weapons warily, unnerved by the pale mauve tentacles extending from the darkness of the hood. Harley glances nervously at Nikal, then gets ready to throw Ricochet. She changes her mind and gets out her dagger.</p><p></p><p><em>The book</em>, repeats the mental words. Not a voice, just urgent words streaming through their minds from this dark figure before them.</p><p></p><p>Bhurisrava cranes his head slightly. “Um, we don’t know what book you’re talking about.”</p><p></p><p>The light from the orb in the figure’s hand gains a reddish tinge, and somehow they all know that it is displeased.</p><p></p><p><em>That one has the book.</em></p><p></p><p>Harley, James, and Bhur exchange glances, and then Harley bends down and pries something out of Nikal’s frightened grasp. She looks at it for a moment. It’s a shoulder-slung bag, so she opens it an peers inside. Then, sighing, she tosses it at the feet of the intimidating stranger. </p><p></p><p>Without even moving, somehow the figure wills the bag to open, and slowly the contents of the bag levitate upward. Though the feat itself is not very intimidating, it raises the hairs on the backs of their necks, and they feel as though the air is stiflingly humid.</p><p></p><p>One by one, objects emerge from the bag, all typical traveling gear. There is no book. The orb’s light turns a dark red, and suddenly they feel a wind rush past them, as if moving from the intruder to Nikal. Nikal cries out in pain, screaming in agony, and without hesitating Bhurisrava charges forward and smashes the head of his warhammer onto the cloaked figure’s shoulder. It sags slightly from the impact, then turns its hooded gaze upon the priest. Nikal stops screaming and passes out, but Bhurisrava suddenly wants to run very fast.</p><p></p><p>He calls out for help, and James and Harley run to attack the cloaked figure. James slashes at it and Harley sprints around it to go for a backstab. It slashes across her thigh as she runs past, but doesn’t react fast enough to dodge her dagger strike. Harley’s blade pierces its robes and sinks into flesh. The creature makes its first audible noise, something like a wet gurgle of pain. It parries the attacks by James and Bhurisrava, then turns and smashes Harley to the ground with the side of its sword. Then, before Harley can scramble back to her feet, she feels herself being pulled upward by a force. The mist around the figure thickens as both Harley and her attacker levitate upward, out of the reach of James and Bhurisrava.</p><p></p><p>Harley cries out in fear as the force pulls her toward the dark figure. Hovering 20 feet above the ground, she has nothing to push off of to make her attacks, while the dark warrior seems perfectly comfortable as it draws back its sword to disembowel her. For a moment she cannot pull her gaze from the tentacles that extend from the shadows of the cloak, but then a shout from below draws her back to her senses. </p><p></p><p>James yells for her to get away as both he and Bhurisrava aim their bows upward. Harley tries to swim through the air to no avail, then shrieks as the bizarre sword slashes toward her. She curls into a ball and only gets grazed across her back, but the figure floats closer, too close for the others to safely fire at it without hitting her. </p><p></p><p>Just as the creatures looms above her, Harley twists in mid-air and kicks her legs out into the thing’s chest. She shoves away, moving back far enough to give the others room to fire. She shouts for them to shoot, and then Bhurisrava and James begin to launch arrow after arrow up at it. Harley sheaths her dagger and pulls out Ricochet, hurling it and missing because of her lack of purchase.</p><p></p><p>The dark figure hesitates for a moment as arrows tear through its heavy cloak, some sticking and apparently striking flesh. It floats away a few feet, trying to move to avoid their arrowfire, but over the huge clearing there’s no place to hide. The only thing constructive it achieves is ending its levitation of Harley. She gives a cry as she drops twenty feet to the grass below. She manages to land somewhat softly, but the fall still knocks her unconscious.</p><p></p><p>James and Bhurisrava continue to fire arrows at their foe, but Bhurisrava stops suddenly when he feels pain wash over him, making his body feel cold and weak. He drops his bow and falls to the ground, trying to regain control of his body. James continues to fire arrow after arrow at the creature, and finally it begins to drift slowly downward. The light globe in its hand disappears, and it pulls something out of its cloak, throwing it at James. He deflects it with the end of his bow, knocking it away and to the ground with a squishy sound. Not bothering to divert his attention, he simply stomps on the squishy thing while firing another arrow at the attack. </p><p></p><p>Just as the attacker finally lowers itself to the ground, sagging weakly from injury, Bhurisrava regains composure of his limbs. He stands, picks up his warhammer, runs forward, and delivers a crushing blow to the creature’s head.</p><p></p><p>James and Bhurisrava congratulate each other, and then the priest runs to heal Harley while James uses his sword to flip off the hood covering the thing’s head. Despite the deep depression in its cranium from Bhur’s warhammer, it pretty closely fits what they’d expected from Allar’s description of Illithids. Milky white eyes, slimy pale purple tentacles instead of a mouth, only a little hair on the back of the head, like a balding man. Prying open the robes is somewhat less messy, an reveals a body naked except for a harness that held a few vials that were shattered when Harley kicked it in the chest. It’s flesh is an odd mixture of human-like skin and slimy purple patches more like a squid.</p><p></p><p>Harley, now healed, comes over with Bhurisrava to see what it was they just killed. They obviously don’t feel bad about what they did, since the creature attacked Nikal first, with the telepathic powers Allar had mentioned. They just wonder why it was pursuing Nikal for ‘the book’ when Nikal didn’t have any book in the first place. Bhurisrava expended all his healing powers for the day on Harley, but he’s fairly certain Nikal will recover naturally. He just looks stunned from whatever he went through.</p><p></p><p>James checks out the thing he squished, the thing the Illithid had thrown at him. It looks like a fairly-large squid, about a foot across, with hooks on its four tentacles. Bhurisrava wonders aloud what it is, and James shrugs. Then they both turn when they hear Harley cry out in pain.</p><p></p><p>Harley stands over the body of the Illithid, holding the sword the creature had carried. The blade of the weapon looks like it is made of flesh and bone, and out of the hilt of the weapon extend narrow black tubes, like veins. The veins have begun to dig into Harley’s hand and wrist, turning her flesh an ashen mauve as the veins creep through her arm.</p><p></p><p>Harley screams to get the thing out, nearly passing out again. James takes the only course of action he knows, rushing forward and hacking into the flesh of the blade with his own sword. Two quick chops severs the thing just above the hilt, and it releases Harley, the black veins snapping out of her arm. She lets go of the hilt, then with wide eyes tells them that she could actually feel it when James chopped at the sword, as if the Illithid blade was part of her arm. Then she looks down at her hand and nearly swoons. The flesh from the elbow down has turned into a sickly purple, exuding a thin layer of slime. Bhurisrava pokes at it and announces that it’s squishy, like squid.</p><p></p><p>They worry for a few minutes to make sure that the affected region isn’t spreading, but apparently the affliction is only as far as the sword-veins extended. Regardless, Harley and Bhurisrava declare undying hatred of all things Illithid. Any race that could create things this nasty deserve to die.</p><p></p><p>James picks up Nikal’s unconscious form, and then they start to head back to Harlaton, maybe to get some sleep before the next morning. Before they get more than a few feet, though, a deep voice calls from the woods, asking what the hell just happened. Worried at first that they might have another fight on their hands, they relax when they see just a normal human woodsman. Admittedly when he comes within 5 feet they’re assaulted by his horrid stench (a mixture of alcohol, urine, and wet dog), but he seems friendly enough. He introduces himself as Roth VanMuren, and invites them to sleep in his cabin if they’re willing to tell him what the hell just happened.</p><p></p><p>James shrugs. “Sounds reasonable.”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 633, member: 63"] [size=3][b]Chapter Four: Unreasonable Demands, Part One[/b][/size] The hooded figure stands before them, its robe drifting eerily in a conjured fog. Nikal cowers in the grass behind them, covering some object he’d been carrying with his body. Bhurisrava and James hold their weapons warily, unnerved by the pale mauve tentacles extending from the darkness of the hood. Harley glances nervously at Nikal, then gets ready to throw Ricochet. She changes her mind and gets out her dagger. [i]The book[/i], repeats the mental words. Not a voice, just urgent words streaming through their minds from this dark figure before them. Bhurisrava cranes his head slightly. “Um, we don’t know what book you’re talking about.” The light from the orb in the figure’s hand gains a reddish tinge, and somehow they all know that it is displeased. [i]That one has the book.[/i] Harley, James, and Bhur exchange glances, and then Harley bends down and pries something out of Nikal’s frightened grasp. She looks at it for a moment. It’s a shoulder-slung bag, so she opens it an peers inside. Then, sighing, she tosses it at the feet of the intimidating stranger. Without even moving, somehow the figure wills the bag to open, and slowly the contents of the bag levitate upward. Though the feat itself is not very intimidating, it raises the hairs on the backs of their necks, and they feel as though the air is stiflingly humid. One by one, objects emerge from the bag, all typical traveling gear. There is no book. The orb’s light turns a dark red, and suddenly they feel a wind rush past them, as if moving from the intruder to Nikal. Nikal cries out in pain, screaming in agony, and without hesitating Bhurisrava charges forward and smashes the head of his warhammer onto the cloaked figure’s shoulder. It sags slightly from the impact, then turns its hooded gaze upon the priest. Nikal stops screaming and passes out, but Bhurisrava suddenly wants to run very fast. He calls out for help, and James and Harley run to attack the cloaked figure. James slashes at it and Harley sprints around it to go for a backstab. It slashes across her thigh as she runs past, but doesn’t react fast enough to dodge her dagger strike. Harley’s blade pierces its robes and sinks into flesh. The creature makes its first audible noise, something like a wet gurgle of pain. It parries the attacks by James and Bhurisrava, then turns and smashes Harley to the ground with the side of its sword. Then, before Harley can scramble back to her feet, she feels herself being pulled upward by a force. The mist around the figure thickens as both Harley and her attacker levitate upward, out of the reach of James and Bhurisrava. Harley cries out in fear as the force pulls her toward the dark figure. Hovering 20 feet above the ground, she has nothing to push off of to make her attacks, while the dark warrior seems perfectly comfortable as it draws back its sword to disembowel her. For a moment she cannot pull her gaze from the tentacles that extend from the shadows of the cloak, but then a shout from below draws her back to her senses. James yells for her to get away as both he and Bhurisrava aim their bows upward. Harley tries to swim through the air to no avail, then shrieks as the bizarre sword slashes toward her. She curls into a ball and only gets grazed across her back, but the figure floats closer, too close for the others to safely fire at it without hitting her. Just as the creatures looms above her, Harley twists in mid-air and kicks her legs out into the thing’s chest. She shoves away, moving back far enough to give the others room to fire. She shouts for them to shoot, and then Bhurisrava and James begin to launch arrow after arrow up at it. Harley sheaths her dagger and pulls out Ricochet, hurling it and missing because of her lack of purchase. The dark figure hesitates for a moment as arrows tear through its heavy cloak, some sticking and apparently striking flesh. It floats away a few feet, trying to move to avoid their arrowfire, but over the huge clearing there’s no place to hide. The only thing constructive it achieves is ending its levitation of Harley. She gives a cry as she drops twenty feet to the grass below. She manages to land somewhat softly, but the fall still knocks her unconscious. James and Bhurisrava continue to fire arrows at their foe, but Bhurisrava stops suddenly when he feels pain wash over him, making his body feel cold and weak. He drops his bow and falls to the ground, trying to regain control of his body. James continues to fire arrow after arrow at the creature, and finally it begins to drift slowly downward. The light globe in its hand disappears, and it pulls something out of its cloak, throwing it at James. He deflects it with the end of his bow, knocking it away and to the ground with a squishy sound. Not bothering to divert his attention, he simply stomps on the squishy thing while firing another arrow at the attack. Just as the attacker finally lowers itself to the ground, sagging weakly from injury, Bhurisrava regains composure of his limbs. He stands, picks up his warhammer, runs forward, and delivers a crushing blow to the creature’s head. James and Bhurisrava congratulate each other, and then the priest runs to heal Harley while James uses his sword to flip off the hood covering the thing’s head. Despite the deep depression in its cranium from Bhur’s warhammer, it pretty closely fits what they’d expected from Allar’s description of Illithids. Milky white eyes, slimy pale purple tentacles instead of a mouth, only a little hair on the back of the head, like a balding man. Prying open the robes is somewhat less messy, an reveals a body naked except for a harness that held a few vials that were shattered when Harley kicked it in the chest. It’s flesh is an odd mixture of human-like skin and slimy purple patches more like a squid. Harley, now healed, comes over with Bhurisrava to see what it was they just killed. They obviously don’t feel bad about what they did, since the creature attacked Nikal first, with the telepathic powers Allar had mentioned. They just wonder why it was pursuing Nikal for ‘the book’ when Nikal didn’t have any book in the first place. Bhurisrava expended all his healing powers for the day on Harley, but he’s fairly certain Nikal will recover naturally. He just looks stunned from whatever he went through. James checks out the thing he squished, the thing the Illithid had thrown at him. It looks like a fairly-large squid, about a foot across, with hooks on its four tentacles. Bhurisrava wonders aloud what it is, and James shrugs. Then they both turn when they hear Harley cry out in pain. Harley stands over the body of the Illithid, holding the sword the creature had carried. The blade of the weapon looks like it is made of flesh and bone, and out of the hilt of the weapon extend narrow black tubes, like veins. The veins have begun to dig into Harley’s hand and wrist, turning her flesh an ashen mauve as the veins creep through her arm. Harley screams to get the thing out, nearly passing out again. James takes the only course of action he knows, rushing forward and hacking into the flesh of the blade with his own sword. Two quick chops severs the thing just above the hilt, and it releases Harley, the black veins snapping out of her arm. She lets go of the hilt, then with wide eyes tells them that she could actually feel it when James chopped at the sword, as if the Illithid blade was part of her arm. Then she looks down at her hand and nearly swoons. The flesh from the elbow down has turned into a sickly purple, exuding a thin layer of slime. Bhurisrava pokes at it and announces that it’s squishy, like squid. They worry for a few minutes to make sure that the affected region isn’t spreading, but apparently the affliction is only as far as the sword-veins extended. Regardless, Harley and Bhurisrava declare undying hatred of all things Illithid. Any race that could create things this nasty deserve to die. James picks up Nikal’s unconscious form, and then they start to head back to Harlaton, maybe to get some sleep before the next morning. Before they get more than a few feet, though, a deep voice calls from the woods, asking what the hell just happened. Worried at first that they might have another fight on their hands, they relax when they see just a normal human woodsman. Admittedly when he comes within 5 feet they’re assaulted by his horrid stench (a mixture of alcohol, urine, and wet dog), but he seems friendly enough. He introduces himself as Roth VanMuren, and invites them to sleep in his cabin if they’re willing to tell him what the hell just happened. James shrugs. “Sounds reasonable.” [/QUOTE]
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