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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2020632" data-attributes="member: 143">Just temporarily...* * * * * Chapter 321“So you see, my little one, you are very, very much alone.  And I am quite afraid that you are about to find our company to be most... unpleasant.”Without shifting her gaze from the approaching Thazo, Mole pointed toward the other Jesters.  “Last chance,” she said.  “Join me now, or pay the price for your crimes.”None of them moved. “Never the easy way...” the gnome grumbled. The shadowy form behind her darted at her back, as silent as a soft breath of wind.  Somehow Mole sensed the danger, for she twisted nimbly to the side as a morningstar swept powerfully toward her head.  Even though she avoided the full force of the attack by her dodge, she was still clipped on the shoulder by Thusk’s weapon, snapping forward into a smooth roll that absorbed the force of the impact.  Unfortunately, the motion took her closer to Thazo, who had already lifted his weapon to strike.  But the evil priest took a moment to call upon his patron for aid, which gave her the split-second she needed to act.  “Gotta go,” she said, folding her cloak about her, and vanishing in a puff of gray smoke.  Thazo looked around, peering into the shadows around the circumference of the room.  “She’s gone?” Olann asked.  “Invisible, perhaps,” Karakates suggested. “No,” Thazo replied.  “She’s using the cloak of that blasted incompetent Finch.  She cannot have left the room through the shielding... search every corner!” The rogues spread out, their animosity temporarily forgotten in the face of an external threat.  Thusk had disappeared again, lost in the shadows, and Thazo took the opportunity to reinforce his magical wards, enhancing both his strength and endurance with the divine power of Talos. Despite the partitions in the room, there weren’t many places to hide.  It was the elf who found her behind the cover of a half-dozen stacked barrels in a shrouded alcove.  He revealed his find by staggering back into the center area of the room, a small crossbow bolt buried to the feathers in his shoulder.  “Nice work,” Thazo snarled at the injured elf, his voice thick with sarcasm.  Roughly pushing the elf aside, he started toward the gnome’s hiding place.  He didn’t have to go far; the gnome came to them, running across the ceiling, clinging to the smooth stone through some form of magic.  The ceiling was just high enough to take her out of easy range of their melee weapons, but the Jesters had other resources.  Thalinn hurled a small dart, no doubt envenomed with some nasty toxin, but the gnome narrowly dodged the missile.  Thazo had a more direct response: a blast of searing light that drew a cry of pain from the annoying gnome girl.  However, Thazo’s spell failed to dislodge her from the ceiling. Olann added to her difficulties a moment later, lifting a hand that bore a bronze ring fashioned into the head of a ram.  He spoke a word of command, and a bolt of force smacked solidly into the gnome’s back, knocking her free of her perch to fall to the hard ground below.  She landed smoothly in a roll that absorbed the energy of her fall, but as she looked up, she saw that the bugbear shadowdancer had reappeared before her, his weapon lifted to crush the life from her body.  The other Jesters closed in around her, closing off all avenues of escape.“Time to die, little rogue,” Thazo said.</blockquote>

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