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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GodOfCheese" data-source="post: 1581319" data-attributes="member: 19170">Chloe and Effrem, left behind...Davron and Chloe remain defensive, each covering the other’s back, for what seems like a century before the crowd appears to disperse.  The dispersal is not so much a physical one, because the crowd itself is still around them.  It’s more of a churning—the cold-faced people with improvised weapons vanish into the throng, and other unfamiliar faces replace them.  Chloe feels the voices slink away, though they’re not so far off that she can’t hear them.  “I think they’ve called this one a draw,” Chloe observes into Davron’s ear.  He nods in relief, though worry doesn’t leave his profile.A nearby scream is muffled by the sound of hundreds of conversations, which abruptly stop.  The hazy ring of people around Chloe and Davron expands outward hastily.  Someone has spotted the skeletons and the two armed adventurers.  Further, the slug-warrior at Davron’s feet seems to have bled to death, and is now rotting rapidly away like his brethren.  The crowd writhes chaotically, and the difference is obvious to Chloe.  Before, the people were moving in an almost-orchestrated way, but now each is acting on his own.  Is this a change in the people’s behavior, or a change of the people themselves?  Have the slugs in the crowd now been replaced by people, who are acting on their own, or did the slugs become or revert to people?Assuming that the slugs can’t actually become regular folk, Chloe whispers quickly to Davron.  “We can’t let them get away.  You must have wounded a few of them—can you track them by their blood?”Abruptly, the crowd parts for a gleaming knight on horseback.  Voldren Greenshield’s white horse rears up on its hind legs in a spectacular show of cavalry-splendor.  His sword is drawn, and his face pans over the crowd for potential aggressors.  His eyes note the skeletons, the decomposing body, and come quickly to rest on the two adventurers.  Voldren’s gaze meets Chloe’s eyes and she sees his concern.  Her expression of fear and serious determination melts a little, and he nods, realizing that they’re not hurt.  Indeed, Voldren’s appearance seems to have a calming influence on the crowd in general, which was churning a great deal as onlookers struggled to get a look at the decomposing body, then struggled to get away from the sight and smell of the cooked skeletons.“Calm yourselves!”  Voldren calls, which seems to have additional reassuring effect.  “All of you back away slowly.  We will get to the bottom of this!”  He sheathes his sword and makes a spreading gesture with his hands.  “Everyone is safe!”  The knight swings off his saddle, an elaborately-inscribed piece of thick leather and fabric that looks supple and comfortable, and kneels over the slug’s body.“I can track them,” Davron says as Voldren watches the slug liquify.  “...but we must not linger here—as the crowd moves, they’ll scatter and trample anything that would direct me.”Chloe nods and leans down to address the knight.  “Vol—Sir Greenshield,” she begins stiltedly, “Those who did this have evaded us and we have to catch them.”  She struggles for words, wanting to ask him for help, but knows that he probably can’t go with them.Voldren’s piercing green eyes look up at her.  “My men will be here any moment,” he looks around at the bodies.  “When they get here...”  Davron interrupts, “The trail grows colder by the second.”“I’m sorry,” Chloe adds emphatically.  “We have no time!  You have my word that we’ll find you when we can.”  She starts to add more, but simply falls silent, waiting nervously.“Go” is all Voldren says, though his expression is similar to that worn by children who must go to bed while the midsummer sun shines in the evening.</blockquote>

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