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Message: <blockquote data-quote="arwink" data-source="post: 284013" data-attributes="member: 2292">Finding the lair of the Fists is easy in the blood district. The two men standing guard out the front are bulky, doing a bad job of hiding their heavy armor beneath their cloaks. They also look healthy and well fed, traits missing from nearly every inhabitant of the blood.Solomon and Meryn are sent forward to scouting, creeping around the corner of the building and peering through a window. The fists have taken over a small warehouse of some kind, and through the grubby glass, the two scouts can make out several bulky men dressed in dark-plate armor. Solomon can make out their symbols on shields and cloaks, and realizes that they aren't true fists. While the true Fists of Hextor are a swift, efficient force of brutal destruction, these men are simply initiates in the order. They may be training to become part of the Legion of Hextor's Fist, perhaps even led by one that has served in the legion, but they simply aren't yet skilled enough to be part of the elite legion. Solomon breathes a sigh of relief. Even as initiates, the men are likely to be dangerous, but he and his companions were outnumbered even by those in the first room of the warehouse, and had their opponents been members of the legion Solomon and his companions wouldn't have stood a chance.He gestures to Meryn, and they skulk back down the street to their fellows. Solomon explains their opposition, and its decided that the assault will take place tomorrow, when everyone is well rested and prepared. The five companions head back to the Gilded Gargoyle.When they return the next day, things look grim. The guard on the door has doubled, and they are no longer as careful about hiding their arms and armor. There are signs that one of the guards has been in a fight, the fleshy pink of freshly healed wounds obvious on his face. The companions ask around, trying to find out what happened. In an open room, part of an abandoned shop, around the corner from the warehouse they find a number of down on their luck dwarves that fill them in on the story - the Hextorites got into some kind of tangle with a few guards from the Dragon-ladies temple. Despite the alliance between the two churches, it's obvious that all isn't right with the two temples in the city. After asking the dwarves a few more questions, the companions learn that three of the dwarves are thieves, members of the brotherhood who were trying to break into the Hextorites temporary stronghold. Although they'd built a secret passageway from their temporary stating into the hallway connected to the warehouse, they couldn't use it because a guard was stationed but three feet from where the entrance emerged. All in all, their way in was too dangerous and they were ready to write it off as a loss. When Khynal offered a few gold coins for the entrances location, the three thieves were more than happy to hand it over and head off into the shadows.Casting spells or drinking potions of invisibility and Silence to mask their presence, Meryn and Solomon snuck through the narrow passageway the dwarves had constructed. It was a tight squeeze, barely wide enough to fit Solomon if he sucked in his stomach, and they had to crawl forward on their hands and knees. On the far end, they found themselves staring through a small grate build into a hallway, an armored hextorite standing guard a few feet down the hall. He doesn't seem to have noticed the sudden presence of a silence field around him, something that causes a quick sigh of relief from Solomon. The edged forward his crossbow, trying to bring the guard down silently with an unexpected attack. The luck of Olidammera is with him; the shot ricochets of the guard’s helm and caches him just above the eye, bringing him to the ground. Solomon breathes a sigh of relief and pushes out the grate. There are more guards at the far end of the hall, but they don't seem to have noticed their companion fall. Solomon squeezes into the murky shadows of the hallway, his invisibility dispelled by his sudden attack. Meryn is quickly out of the passage and creeping up the hall towards the guard. Solomon tosses a few coins down the passage to alert the rest of the group the original guard is taken out. The rest of the companions start crawling through in as Meryn launches a surprise assault on the guard.</blockquote>

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