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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 950150" data-attributes="member: 79">Despite the bandit’s tactical edge, the battle was short, sharp and not to their advantage.  Raven’s deadly arrows dropped two of the archers on the top of the house.  The burly thug with the flying guillotine was taken care of by a Fireblossom dominate person.  Then one of his attacks snatched the head off the body of one of the thugs Mongo was fighting, before he and Vlad cut down the others savagely.  Kyruko froze one bandit in place with a Hold Person.  This was the first time the party had the chance to really cut loose in Kuzo and the bandits were totally unprepared for the results.  At the last, Fireblossom dropped a Web over the alley Taka was in, planning to give the others time to get into position.In the alley, Taka was starting to grow a little concerned.  Clearly Malachai had underestimated these people.  He’d kick the little runt’s butt later, but for now retreat was clearly the tactic of the moment.  He’d escaped the sticky strands of the web, but looking around, both ends of the alley were engulfed in the thick, white web.  It was probably be faster just to climb up to the roof, take a look, then get the hell out of there.Taka was beyond surprised, however, when a ball of rolling fire bounced through the web, missing him thanks to his keen reflexes, while clearing a path through the web.  Taka could barely believe his good fortune…  A touch to his magical ring and the activating phrase “Inbisibaru!” and he vanished before the eyes of his foes and ran out of the web along the convenient path.  No one seemed to have prepared any spells to see the invisible, since he passed by the fighters without any trouble.  The elf…Fireblossom…conjured up a wall of fire to try and keep him from escaping, but the slippery thug barely broke stride, throwing himself through the flames, accepting the pain as the price of escape.As he raced down the street, the wall of flame melted away behind him and then he heard Vlad yelling “Down the street, there!  100..130 feet and moving fast!  Kill him in the name of Bane!”A red bead rocketed down the street and exploded into flames, leaving the houses on either side of the street smoking and frying a couple surprised bandits into charred remains.  But not Taka, he simply threw himself off to the side, rolled under the flames before kipping back to his feet and turning the corner.Verick considered trying to chase him down and for a moment he started to run down the street.  Mindra had finally cast True Sight on him, and he –really- wanted the cowardly archer dead and his sword back.  But none of the others in his party were following him and running off alone seemed like a bad idea.  Er...especially after declaring himself a Banite…[GM Note:  My group’s tactics can vary widely.  An occasional strength, and weakness is that there are a few individuals with tactical sense, but there’s never an overall plan.  Volar created the net to trap Taka but then used a flaming sphere to let the fighters in at him, with the result he also created an escape route.  Mindra didn’t cast True Sight on anyone until a couple of rounds after Taka went invisible and started to run.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The party regrouped quickly and decided returning to their old camp would be pointless.  A few looked over at Vlad and shook their heads over his Bane comment.  They were already in trouble, but now the Church of Cyric would be taking this personally.  The group debated where to hide out for the night when Fireblossom’s dominated thug cleared his throat.“I’m Nagase…called Naga.  I know you have me controlled by a spell.  And I…can’t…break…out.”  Fireblossom could feel his will like a fluttering bird inside a cage, utterly unable to escape the spell. “way I see it, my only chance to live is to see to it you guys get out of this alive.  So you don’t need to force me to help.  Just swear to me if we get out of this I won’t be killed.  And that doesn’t mean turning me over to anyone else so they can kill me.”The group agreed and Fireblossom came up with some carefully worded instructions to make sure the thug was not leading them into a trap.  Then he took them to his home, a rather small place in the northern section of the bandit village.  Badly in need of rest and a little healing, the group set up camp there and set watches.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Verick had the early shift, joined by the still twitchy Nezu and Yukiyo.  The windows were closed to slits and checked often as the others tried to sleep.  Several hours had passed and Nezu was peeking out the back windows to make sure the coast was clear, when Verick saw a shadow move.  Then again, a oozing darkness growing along the wall he was facing.  Silently, Verick drew his jade katana, holding the sword ready.  The shadow did not attack, however.  The wispy, almost human silhouette whispered softly “Danger follows close behind me.  If you survive and can get to the octopus house, you should be undisturbed tonight.”Then to Verick’s surprise the shadowy form simply vanished back through the wall.  Verick frowned, then decided to try to head off this trouble before it reached them.  He slipped over and awakened Toshiro and Kaz “Get your armor on.  We might have a fight coming and I don’t want to disturb the spellcasters.  They need their sleep.”Armored and ready, the three samurai slipped out of the house and crossed the street quickly to an alley on the opposite side.  Inside the house, Yukiyo and Nezu awakened the others quickly and explained what Verick had said had happened.  They peeked out the front while the samurai watched from the opposite alley and saw a white mist roll in down the street.  Lingering in the slight breeze until something else disturbed it.  Figures in black clocks and armor, with great metal shields bearing the symbol of Cyric, and long swords that gleamed with an icy blue light.  The figures moved with complete silence as they started to march in formation toward the house.Verick’s plan came together quickly in his mind and he set out down the alley with the intent of circling around and catching the Cyricians from two fronts.    He left the alley on the opposite side of where the Cyricians were and started to circle around behind.   After perhaps 30 seconds he looked back and realized Kaz and Toshiro had not followed him.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Instead the two Crab samurai had lingered at the mouth of the alley and been spotted by a couple of the silent, armored men and the attack was on.  While two attacked and sealed off the samurai in the alley, the others assaulted the house.  A hasty fire trap by Yukiyo on the door was enough to set off an eruption of flame there, so little effect.  And Mir, Volar and the others ran out the back of the house.  The first out the door, Nezu, took an arrow from an ambusher there but Mir shoved right past him as he stopped short and the others escape the house quickly.Volar summoned up a boiling, thick cloud filled with noxious fumes to slow down the Cyricians but a few walked through it like it wasn’t even there and started to attack Naga and Nezu.  To some surprise, Naga actually held his own with the Cyrician, though Nezu did not do quite so well, bloodied by the first attack and as the Cyrician moved out of the Silence cast on the others, he lifted the shield with the Symbol of Cyric and invoked Blindness on the luckless rat.Mindra had quickly scampered around the houses to where Toshiro and Kaz were holding their own.  But found thanks to the areas of Silence, he could not get close enough to heal them, and could not tell the samurai to make a tactical withdrawal.Mir was forced to retreat as the sniper at the back door was revealed to be Malachai, the tumbling Orcling constantly moving to try and flank her with one of the other Cyricians attacking.  By this time Verick had finished his circling maneuver and caught back up with the battle again.  Obviously with some pent of aggression he needed to take out on someone, since he charged in and engaged three of the Cyricians all by himself.  He was even mostly holding his own, jade katana and mundane wakizashi flashing, until Malachai tumbled into range, daggers finding the vulnerable parts of Verick’s anatomy.Across the street, Kaz had finished off his opponent and taken a step back, allowing Mindra to heal him.  Then the two of them finished off the one remaining hooded figure fighting them.As Volar and Mir withdraw to a safer spot they were attacked by rubbery black tendrils that grew up from the ground.  At the same moment the illusions of Cyric warriors melted away.  Faelyn, Finafin’s ‘friend’, was revealed flying off to the side, letting the tendrils do their work before dropping a fireball over the two as they retreated back toward the Cyrician clerics and warriors.With the illusions gone, Naga was able to find real targets to fight and Yukiyo’s arrows began to fly with more deadly results, focused particularly on Malachai, who was forced to somersault away and drink a healing potion.  With Kaz, Toshiro and Mindra returning to the battle, the tide had turned firmly against the Cyrician’s.  Kaz was able to save Nezu before the cleric finished off tormenting his blind opponent.  Bloody as he was, Verick had stood up to the best the Followers of Cyric could throw at him and was still standing.  Seeing little point to placing himself in real physical danger, Faelyn flew away once the battle went against him.  And Malachai tumbled off into the darkness.  Volar was ready for him…a scroll of dominate person prepared for just such occasions.  But as he reached for the scroll he was reminded.  The spell had already been used up on Naga.  So Malachai escaped into the night, and with a vital bit of information.  In the heat of battle, Mir had called Volar by name.  At last, he had his first clue to the identity of the group.</blockquote>

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