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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 4082673" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #429] Showdown at the Gate[/PLAIN]"Non-lethal shot... if you can," Ayremac said, spread his wings, and shot skyward after the boy. Ayremac flew a lot faster than anyone could run through snow, but the youth had a big head start and it seemed unclear whether the boy would reach the keep or Ayemac would reach the boy first."Is that boy not part of the group?" Ahlear asked. "Why is he running?""Stop the boy from making it back to the keep, Anania," Shamalin said, ignoring the newcomer's confusion. "It's possible that he's taking information about our numbers and weapons back to buy favor from Sir Alechtus.""No. Let him go, beautiful," Huzair countered. "I do not think he is a threat. He already gave us the info he had. I can find out the rest from Sparky." The elf maid ground her teeth."Morier?!" she said urgently. "What is your order?""Stand down!" the albino said at last. "He's scared. Let him be. He's provided us with enough information, and it sounds like whatever is inside there is far scarier than the lot of us." Anania nodded and lowered her bow."As you say," she muttered and returned to silently breaking down their camp. Huzair, however, regarded the eldritch warrior slack-jawed."Holy crap! You agree with me?!" the mage exclaimed. "I thought I was going to have to jump on Anania to stop her." Morier spared him a side-long glance before striding toward the keep, one hand shading his crimson eyes."Do not worry, love," Huzair purred to Anania, "I can jump on you later if you like.""Morier, are you sure this is the right course of action?" Shamalin asked, hustling in her heavy armor to keep up with Morier's pace. "We don't really have surprise on our side altogether, but wouldn't it be better not to run the risk that the boy betrays us? I trust that Anania can make the right kind of shot. And I can heal-""He's just a boy, Shamalin," Morier growled as he pulled away from her with annoying ease."Perhaps she is right, Morier. If the boy is not part of your group, might he be a spy who, seeing what he thinks are reinforcements, runs off to snitch?" Ahlear offered. His own armor encumbered him far less than Shamalin's did her and he was able to keep pace with the albino without difficulty."Look, Ahlear, I mean this in the best possible way," the eldritch warrior snarled, "but you have no idea what's going on here. So save the advice.""Morier, can you and your group give me a short rundown on the previous chain of events that led to this location and the effects of the Keep?" Ahlear asked, unperturbed by the albino's curt attitude. "Did you parlay with the ruler of the keep or something?""I'm not sure this is really the time to explain all that," the eldritch warrior said, peering ahead toward the keep. "Just follow my lead for now." "I am not trying to insert myself too easily into your group, Morier," Ahlear said in thickly accented common, "but seeing you just lost two members, I am a welcome addition, if for the rest of the group a little unknown?""Ahlear! Now is not he the time to-" Morier started to snap, but Huzair's call silenced him."Hey, whitely!" he shouted. "Ayremac says we better hustle up there."The holy warrior eyed the weapons that were trained on him and considered his odds. Three bows and a spear were aimed at his heart, and while he imagined that he could survive an attack to lay into these men with Windblade if it came to it, he wasn't sure that was the best course of action. His opponents seemed little more than armed peasants, frightened and ill-fed. Their superior numbers would not long stand against his superior skill and it seemed a trifle base for him to even try."Guys," he muttered into the Ring of Communication again, "I've got a situation here.""Let Gialf go, angel," the man with the spear said, his lips pulled into a snarl behind his full red mustache. "If angel you be. Such behavior seems ill-suiting a member of the heavenly host." Ayremac noticed that the large man's left arm ended not in a hand but in a grisly stump of scar tissue."Two of our number have been taken. Perhaps slain," the holy warrior said, releasing his hold on the youth as he spoke. Gialf immediately darted behind the assemblage of warriors and through the narrowly-opened gate."Not by us," the one-armed man said flatly. "We've had our fill of outlanders and would have you gone. It gains us nothing to attack you." The holy warrior noted that the spear the man held in his hand did not waver from Ayremac's heart. His eyes, however, flicked briefly over the Officer's shoulder at the sound of the others' approach."Stand where you are or by Brogine's teeth I swear we'll use yer angel here for target practice!" the one-armed man shouted."It is clear that you are in need of a healer," Shamalin said. "I have experience and can help you." Ayremac heard her take another step forward and saw the mustachioed man's arm tense in readiness."I said stay where you are!" he shouted. "The plague's run its course here and we don't want any outsiders bringing it back to our door!""Two of our own are missing," Morier said and the man snorted."Check the firepit!" he said, nodding his head toward the charred ruin where Huzair had found the burned remains of the Sanctifier. "That bastard Alechtus dumped another bundle there before taking off north again!""Sir Alechtus is gone?" Shamalin asked, while Morier and Huzair stepped away to check the firepit. The one-armed man nodded and spat once into the snow."He took the last of the horses and headed north some time before dawn," he said. "And good riddance, says I!""No one listens to the best plan ever made," Huzair groused to Morier as they walked the dozen paces to the firepit. "Why do I even try? Oh well, at least I will not waste the spell and-"The mage's voice hitched in his throat as he looked down at the body of Ixin Chaririejir."Damn it," Huzair whispered and the mage thought that he could hear Morier's teeth grinding against each other as the albino's jaw clenched with emotion.It looked as though Ixin's body had been stripped before it was wrapped in its makeshift funerary shroud. Of Karak, there was no sign.</blockquote>

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