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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 463112" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #198] Endgame, part 1[/PLAIN]Since he was invisible, no one saw him and Finian ducked back out of view of the temple and padded back to where the others waited on the other side of the double doors. As he entered the vestibule, he saw Draelond staring down at the unconscious woman. It was difficult to say what he was feeling given the hood that covered his face, but he was pondering those feelings deeply, all the while wiping his hands clean on the woman's hood."Clean those hands as best you can, and be careful not to touch your nose and mouth with that hand until I have a chance to cure you." Ruze said, snapping the warrior back to attention.Draelond nodded and Finian slipped off the Ring and explained what he'd seen. He saw several of the others blanch at the odds.Ledare let out a deep sigh and then nodded grimly. "I think we need to have a plan for moving into action and each take a target, but only do this if it appears that these evil-doers are going to harm someone," she said, looking pointedly at Finian. "We could quickly pick a target and then maneuver our way to the front, hidden in our robes.""Well, I certainly don't think bursting in, swinging weapons is the best approach here," Draelond quipped and both Kirnoth and Ruze nodded."I say that Finian should be in charge of protecting the baby and the mother if he can get close enough using invisibility and the slippers," she suggested but Finian shook his head."I'm going to be focusing on the orc-like creature," the Archer said with such menace that for a moment no one spoke.They all knew Finian's hatred for all things orcish. They likewise knew that his hatred stemmed from the manner in which his father had been killed - by ogre-sized, intelligent orcs. The mendicant bore an uncanny resemblance to just such a creature and not even Ledare thought she'd be able to persuade the ranger not to attack the thing."Do we have any spells or ideas of ways to cause confusion in the big room if we need to use that in order to get the edge on an attack or an escape?" she asked instead. "Any way to cause it to become suddenly dark or smoky?"Kirnoth shrugged almost apologetically. "In terms of spells, I'm down to my last one or two cantrips," the elf admitted. "I could cast Daze on the mendicant or robed man so someone else could attack them, but I don't think that is particularly useful.""Alas, Kitten, I am afraid that I am no longer able to seek my Queen's direct aid this day," the Battleguard told the Janissary. "I can, however, focus her lifeforce into that altar of evil, mayhap destroy it, and put an end to this den of evil for once and all."Ledare nodded. "Okay, so you do that. I'll take on a few of the guards closest to the alter and then try to deal with the figure in the robes and helmet," she said. "And Finian, since you are going to be plain out fighting, give Kirnoth the ring so he can protect the mother and child.""I was hoping to use the ring to sneak up behind them," the ranger responded twisting the ring around on his finger. "I have a hunch the mendicant will crush me in battle unless I get really good shots at it. They can use spells too."Ledare sighed again and looked up at the big fighter beside her. "Draelond, do you think you can help Finian with the mendicant?" she asked."As always," he replied, "I will do my best.""If Finian needs the Ring of Invisibility, let him keep it," Kirnoth offered. "I'll do my best with the mother and child without it.""No," Finian said with a shake of his head. "I will give up the ring since it is not mine. You'll need it more than I will anyway."He pressed the band of gold into the elf's palm.Kirnoth looked at the circlet before closing it tightly into his fist. "If I get the baby, I will run for the doors on the opposite side and try to get out of here as fast as I can and return to Grey House with the baby," he explained and the others agreed that it was a good idea.Finian entered first. He skulked amid the abundant shadows along the wall and quietly eased himself off the ground. Using the Slippers of Spider Climbing he made his way up the wall in moments and moved along near the ceiling, heading for the stage at the front of the temple and the grim ritual taking place there.After a count of fifty, the others entered. Ledare came first, followed by Ruze and Draelond. Kirnoth, crept into the temple invisibly and made his way forward along the side of the room as quietly as he could. Not that noise was a great concern in the current situation; the cultists were chanting wildly and the breathy cries of the laboring woman filled the smokey air, easily drowning out the elf's stealthy tread.Ledare, Draelond and Ruze made it half-way up the center aisle before two of the guards, one man and one woman, both dressed in chainmail stopped them."Take yer seats, worms!" the woman sneered over the chanting voices."Yeah!" the man agreed and added, "None may approach the emissary!"He shoved Ledare for good measure then and his hand pressed solidly against the steel breastplate she wore beneath the stolen robes. The look on his face changed abruptly from annoyance to confusion. The chanting rose to a fever pitch around them and Ledare's mind fumbled about for some possible explanation for her armor."What are you-?" the man started to ask when all at once the chanting stopped and for a moment silence filled the temple. The guard turned away from Ledare and looked back over his shoulder toward the front of the temple.The silence was quickly broken by the cries of a newborn infant.No one looked up. If they had, they might have seen the robed figure moving along the wall like a humanoid bug. But as it was, Finian made it unseen to a vantage point behind the edge of the massive tapestry, not twenty feet from the mendicant's back. He took a moment to ready his bow and arrows before he flexed his shoulders and drew notch to ear. He heard a baby's cry split the air and had a clear view of Rherram leaning forward unsteadily to cut the umbilical cord with a pair of rusty shears that one of the guards pressed into his hands.He sighted down the silver-tipped arrow and waited.Kirnoth was just scrambling, invisibly up onto the dais when the infant's cries ripped through the chamber. The joyous sounds of new life seemed woefully out-of-place in this dungeon. He managed to attain the stage and had gotten to his feet just as the old man performing midwife duty shakily swaddled the writhing infant in a tattered brown cloth and handed the child to the robed man behind the altar. The man smiled down at the child for a moment before holding it up before the congregation."Tonight, our destiny ends and a new destiny begins!" the man cried out in the common tongue. "This child - my daughter - will grow up and become our spiritual leader, a vessel for Lady Pestilence! Look now upon the newborn emissary of our dark queen, Aphyx! Rejoice, for she has come! "The robed figure returned the child then to the waiting arms of her mother, who still sprawled sweatily atop the altar stone. The mendicant handed the man a twisted symbol of Aphyx wrought in some gleaming black metal. He pressed it against the child's chest and smiled down at her.</blockquote>

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