Café de Nuit

Dadrag remember the encounter he had the last night with the reptilian men. It seem they are only two.

Dadrag prefers to attack immediately before the reptilian men come closer to him and his companions. Getting his bow aims and fires two arrows towards one of the creatures. At the same he yells:

"I think they are two and they head toward us from my left side."

Cursing mentally at Kingsley's warning cry, Crow drops from kneeling to prone, shoving the bleary Gerard down flat in the process. (It's not every day his work affords the VRS spy the chance to directly save an innocent's life, so damned if he's going to let his 'patient' be riddled with poison darts now!) Hearing the third dart spang off the lantern, he spots it quivering point-first in the damp soil; hand wrapped in a fold of cloak, he snatches the tiny missile up and tucks it beneath the outer strap of his wrist-brace.

When the lantern goes and Dadrag calls out the dart-throwers' position, the bard heads for cover, keeping low beneath a hummock of swamp-reeds. His progress is slow, for Gerard is still reviving from his half-drowned stupor, and the Souragnien is to big for a man of Crow's slight build to drag to safety; still, the dark-haired spy can't bring himself to leave the boatman behind, an open target. Tugging Gerard's arm in the darkness, he coaxes the disoriented guide to shelter behind a fallen tree trunk.

The slow-rotting wood provides some protection from the two figures the bodyguard has spotted ... still, the bard's keen ears had discerned a third dart's impact in as many seconds, implying a third attacker may yet lurk nearby, its position unknown. True to his tradecraft, he stays low, and listens.

OOC: Who has darkvision besides Dadrag? At present there's no light source available to the PCs, so everyone without darkvision literally can't see their hand in front of their face.

Both of Dadrag's arrows strike home, and his target falls behind a tree; its companion leaps to take cover as well. At the same time Roland cries out hoarsely, and Gerard gasps loudly and twists away from Crow's guiding hand. Hiro also feels the sting of a dart, but his combat experience has made him of sterner stuff. He does, however, worry when he feels the sting of the dart begin to spread along his sword arm...

OOC: The rolls.

This assumes a 21 hits Hiro's armor class, Coan.

Here's a battle-map; all of your opponents are off-screen. The two Dadrag saw are at roughly 7 o'clock to your position.

...........................TT
...........................TT.DS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>PPPPP.RD
.................HH....(GK)..RB....
........................................
.........TT..................TT.G...
.........TT..................TT.C
DD

The darkness does not bother Hiro as the lamp goes out. Taking a breath he concentrates and listens (blind fight feat) and then proceeds to move behind and up a tree out of sight of the attackers.

His next action will be to move into close range of the lizard men while hiding. Once close enough he will use ghost sound to distract them and throw a vial of alchemist's fire at one then leap into attacking them as soon as possible after that. Hopefully the light will help his allies sight them and assist as he attacks if not burning the lizard man somewhat in the process.

As utter darkness descended over them all, Gertrude didn’t hesitate any longer. She murmured and flicked her fingers, and vanished. She began to trail Crow, not by sight but by the sound of Gerard’s groans as he still worked his way towards consciousness. She moved slowly, not wanting to accidentally walk into the two men and cause them to stumble on the slippery shore. She hesitated at the cries, mentally cursing her inability to perceive who’d been attacked. Please not Crow...

She did not call out her concern however; there was no way to know how many their enemies were, or how close. Pray that they don’t have some refined sense of smell. But surely something that can hold its breath so long in the water wouldn’t rely on that sense…

She stayed where she was, pistol and guitar case in hand, listening in the darkness for any signs of approaching movement. May they indeed only be two… She recalled the promised gifts of the loa, and then recalled the mad brother's warning about lightning. 'Lightning is your enemy, moonlight befriends you'...well, we could certainly use some moonlight to strategically outline our foes right now!

Dadrag smiles evily as he sees the one reptilian man get down. Moving as silent as he can and trying to hide himself behind the trees heads left.


OOC> Dadrag has in mind to do a small circle and go behind the hidden reptilian man.

Dadrag begins to move quickly and quietly away from the channel, his darkvision steering him between the trees. For a moment the scene is lit again by lightning, washing everything with its eerie blue light, and then darkness falls again.

As Hiro scans the area he sees that there are also at least two lizard-men approaching on the far side of the channel. From the cries of the others struck by darts it seems you must be surrounded, with enemies approaching from at least three sides if not more...

Draxton puts a foot in the water. For those that can see him, he seems taller, more confident and visible, his invisibility somehow broken. However he seems ... different; more elusive, faster, sneakier. His eyes glow with a yellowish tint as he ... hisses something in a strange language. The hiss penetrates the darkness and the sounds of the rain, is heard over the sounds of the swamp and the approaching monsters.
He holds his right hand up high, over his head palm open, fingers together and sligtly bent forward reminding absently ... a snake?

Those that cannot see him can only listen this strange, long, overeaching hiss that cuts through the swamp. It doesn't sound like Draxton, it doesn't sound as a human at all.
Then, before his "allies" recover from their shock and start pelting him too with spells, arrows or thrown daggers Draxton shouts/hisses to the humans with a voice that at least reminds Draxton's somewhat:
"SSSHHTOP! All of you."
The words seem unfamiliar somehow to Draxton's mouth.

alhoon wrote:Draxton puts a foot in the water. For those that can see him, he seems taller, more confident and visible, his invisibility somehow broken. However he seems ... different; more elusive, faster, sneakier. His eyes glow with a yellowish tint as he ... hisses something in a strange language. The hiss penetrates the darkness and the sounds of the rain, is heard over the sounds of the swamp and the approaching monsters.
He holds his right hand up high, over his head palm open, fingers together and sligtly bent forward reminding absently ... a snake?

Those that cannot see him can only listen this strange, long, overeaching hiss that cuts through the swamp. It doesn't sound like Draxton, it doesn't sound as a human at all.
Then, before his "allies" recover from their shock and start pelting him too with spells, arrows or thrown daggers Draxton shouts/hisses to the humans with a voice that at least reminds Draxton's somewhat:
"SSSHHTOP! All of you."
The words seem unfamiliar somehow to Draxton's mouth.

As Draxton (if it is Draxton) speaks Hiro sees the two lizard-men approaching drop to the ground and begin to back away slowly. Turning back to the source of this strange new sound, Dadrag sees his employer standing ankle deep on the far side of the channel, a wide but curiously empty grin on his face as he looks over the scene. Turning once to look behind him, he begins to laugh, raising both hands above his head and gesturing widely to the night.

Even those without darkvision can see the yellow eyes of the Richemuloise wizard as they sweep the scene. "Sacre mere," Roland mutters--or perhaps it is an earthier epithet.

Crow is crouched behind the fallen tree, gingerly running cloak-wrapped hands along the slumped Gerard's limbs to find and remove the venomed dart, when the guttering flashes of lightning briefly illuminate the swamp. He glances up for an instant, hoping to gain some idea of their attackers' positions, only to glimpse Draxton Serd's eyes -- glowing a sickly yellow through the rain and night -- alight, on the far bank. The unearthly, serpentine voice that ushers from the Richemuloise's lips is all too familiar, from Chicken Bone's ceremony of barely an hour before.

'The servant'!, he reflects, recalling the eerie Serpent King's cryptic words to the merchant-mage -- talk of favors owed and exchanged -- and the Richemuloise's carelessly-hasty agreement. The bard's eyes widen.

Sun's blood, Serd, what have you done to yourself...?

From his position behind a tree, Dadrag looks surprised Draxton and how the reptile man obeyed him. The ex-assassin believes that Serd has casted a spell on them and make them get back. As the wizard starts laughing, Dadrag believes that the spell might had a side effect on the wizard. So he doesn't get close to him, he keeps his position and studies both the lizard men and his companions.

Gertrude only had a moment to wonder what odd kind of spell Draxton was casting when he turned his head to view them all. The yellow glow of his eyes caused her skin to crawl, as she saw another possession before her. This one terrified her more than the other. Chicken Bone was a legendary voodan, who’d have had years to develop some possible control over his powers. Serd was an outsider, with no knowledge of the loa he’d just made a pact with. Blessed sun help us all…

She had a moment of panic as she considered her own oath, then shoved the thought away to face the danger still around them- including, possibly, the possessed Richemuloise. She held the pistol close, waiting to see what the Serpent King would do, or say, next.

Hiro looks over the changed situation from his hiding place and immediatley draws his throwing dagger and aims it at Draxton. The group seems to have gone quiet -whether through shock or another spell of the mage, Hiro could not be sure.

Taking the initiative he calls out behind the trees.

"Lower your hands and explain yourself mageling, I've seen this before and if you think we're going down that road you're very much mistaken. Now tell me what is going on here or I'll put a knife through your eyes in one second flat. Start talking... Now."

Hiro's arm was feeling numb but sceat he could kill this man if he needed to. Getting out alive was another thing, Dadrag might side with the possessed in the confusion and he couldn't place the loyalties of the others. But he wasn't going to let this slide.

While talking Hiro has cast true strike on himself and is studying Draxton for assassination if needed afterward.

Draxton turns slowly towards Hiro as he speaks to him. A sardonic smile spreads to his face as Hiro goes on with his demands and protests.

"What makesss you thhhink that I'll ansssswer to you huuuman? Don't messsh with thhhings youuu don't underssstand." While talking, Draxton backed away again, taking cover behind the tree.

"To ssshow youuu all that I'm not your enemy, I'll forgive thisss man'sss insssultsss and threatsss and won't assssk my sssservantsss to resume the attack.
What will be? Deathhh or life for you?"

OOC: While talking Draxton used his actions to take cover. I don't know if the trees give him full cover, but between the distance, the concealment, the cover and his mage armor, Draxton feels quite safe that Hiro will miss.