Lucht Runs Out

Log Info

• Title: An Armed Collision
• Emitter: Jinks
• Characters: Brianna, Eztli, Jay, Nemori
• Place: Lower Trades District
• Time: July 19th, 2022
• Summary: A small group leaves Robert's smithy, and theres sudden commotion and bright light, as people flee from the scene. With a bit of prodding the group investigates, and is met by a strange sight, of some sewer dwelling creature being attacked by a large black cat. The creature disappears, but the cats remain and fight the group, injuring some. They're revealed to be illusions, but the culprit, able to move along the walls of the alley, slip into the drain. The creature is revealed to be a strange Lucht-Suil, and the group departs to warn the guard to keep the area off limits so no one else gets injured.

The omnipresent and oppressive fog of the past weeks is gone, replaced by a mad downpour of heavy, cold rain falling in sheets from grey-black clouds in a moonless sky. A howling wind blows down from the Redridge to the east, slamming loose shutters and sending unsecure shingles sliding to crash on cobbles below.

It's not a night most folks would choose for a stroll.

The Ilife Smithy has taken steps against the weather; oiled tarpaulin is stretched between the roof's support beams to keep the worst of the rain out. The canvas sheets strain and snap in the wind and the forge's fire flickers and flares even as the bellows rest.

Goblintown has gone dark. The Tribune is shuttered and closed to ride out the storm. The streets are all-but-abandoned.

Brianna is just leaving the Smithy. She had paid to gain access to the forge to make some adjustments and repairing of her armor. SHe flexes her arms, her artifice armor moving smoothly. "Much better, all the kinks worked out." She smacks one fist into the other.

Nemori is also done with her day at the smithy. Though she'd had to relinquish her time at the forge for Brianna (something she'd made no secret of being resentful of), there was other work to be done. Including restocking the coal reserves from an order that had arrived by cart. She's washed up as best as the water barrel allows, though her dark skin is smudged darker yet in areas she won't be able to get to without a proper bath. And she seems exhausted, but satisfied. Satisfied until she is brought forcefully aware of the harsh wind. She almost loses her hat, snatching it at the last moment and then pulling it close... her hair whipping away from her head and briefly revealing the ugly scars on the right side. This is followed by a sil-themed curse.

There were two main reasons for Eztli to be in the lower trades area. For cheap street food, and to visit Robert's smithy. This day, she was there to visit the Smithy. The small makari had a seat in the fenced in area, resting one leg over another as she read her book and listened to the sound of work. It was offered, and Eztli didn't have much to do that day, so she had been nearby, even when the use of the forge changed.

She does leave when the place is finally emptied, and she gives Nemori a concerned look.

"It's windy enough I could hold a rope in my beak and you could fly me like a kite." Jay says, from behind Nemori, following her out of the forge. Having finished early at the courts, the l-eagal egalrin had followed up on his promise to watch Nemori at work.

Or Brianna, as the case had been.

There was no promise of silence, however, so he was chattering away the whole time on subjects speculative and current, and easily forgotten.

"So, where we going next?"

With the forge smothered and the smithy battened, the quartet head out into the open air and hostile weather it brings. Voices have to be raised to be heard. Eyes are forced to squint against a not-quite horizontal rain.

At least it's not warm.

A pedestrian passes on the main street in quite the hurry, head down and arm raised against the precipitation. They're obviously not impressed by the weather as they huff and puff and leave caution in their wake moving from north to south. Maybe they have a date at the docks?

Then there's sounds of alarm in the distance, worming its way through the violent winds. Two more people pass by in an unmistakable panic; an older man half-carrying a one by the scruff as they scramble. "-- said move, boy!"

There's a flash of light through the tattered grey downpour. Back from the direction they came; to the north.

Brianna blinks, "Now what has them all stirred up?" she asks mostly to herself as she watches the few go buy at a seeming hurry and the sounds of alarm coming over the wind. "Well best to see what's up." she turns and starts in the direction of the light and sounds. At least her armor protects her a little from the weather.

Eztli was already a bit on edge out of concern for the Mul'niessa, that a sound of alarm and bright lights out in the streets makes the small makari jump. She should run and go get the guards, but there was no knowing when they would get there.

"That really doesn't sound good at all. We should go take a look, someone might be hurt and need help, and Nemori's here, so she'd be able to provide immediate assistance." Eztli suggests quietly, glancing to the direction of the lights.

"Shouldn't we be following them?" Integrity suggests, pointing at the fleeing civilians and away from the flash, raising his voice in the wind. "That's the safe and smart thing to do."

Also the chicken thing to do. The 'c' is for chicken.

He looks at Nemori.

Having thrust her hat back on to her head, and continued to hold it there with one hand, the shadow elf just give the makari a sharp shake of her head. "I am fine," she tells Eztli, then steps aside to give Jay some room as well.. one never knows where those expressive wings of his might flail about next. Flail... briefly Nemori imagines the kite scenario that the egalrin presented. Would he be the flailing type, or more the graceful? It is a musing that is cut short however when Brianna comments on the alarm and alarmed. For a moment she is unresponsive, watching forge's guest's back for a moment before she looks at Eztlie. "What? Why? I care little for..." She trails off, of course. As her thoughts catch up, she realizes full well why Eztli would wish to investigate. Thus the now pained suffering expression on the shadow elf's face. She turns to Jay, nodding with him. "Better to follow... bah, shadow's kiss. Fine! No, Integrity.. we go. If only to keep Eztli from doing something foolish."

"--came from th' blasted sewers, it did!" Shouts a harried Khazadi of indeterminate gender, the wind and rain has loose, blood-red hair tangled about their face and a wet, wool cloak clings to their lumpen shape. All you see are dark and wide eyes shifted into their nighttime sight as they huff and puff their way past you. "MONSTROUS!"

And then you're at the cross street where things have kicked off! A planter on a nearby window is smashed as the clumped, wet earth is turned to mud and washing away down the street. What used to be a wood bench beneath a furrier's sign sits broken and splintered. A mana lamp is dented at the middle and sags, dented and bent. The glass bulb at the top is shattered at the aetherite crystal inside flickers weakly.

The sounds of further violence spill out from an alleyway darkened by the lamp's defeat.

There's a wet, gurgling roar from within the alley at the sound of wood splintering. Something falls with a crash. Clearly, something upset and violent lurks within the darkened area between the buildings.

"Okay, sure, to help out Eztli." Integrity agrees, unwilling to abandon everyone. With Nemori's encouragement he follows along. The bellowing khazadi spurs him into motion, "I'll check it out."

He rushes forward. As observed, his wings are liable to go everywhere, and do. While he crosses the streets swiftly and silently, the trouble comes when he tries to slip into the alleyway. Slip, being the operative word, as he trips boucnes off the mana lightpost. He's silhouetted now; the alley is dark, and there is movement.

"There's movement!" He caws. This would give him away if there wasn't a lamp-hat spinning on the pavement behind him, loud and tinny.

Clearly, something is going on in the pitch black wetness of the back alleys. Water splashes and a jar breaks. What sounds to be a felid roar prefaces the sound of tearing.

Nemori winces as the lamp hat hits the ground... and sighs when Jay calls back to them. "Foolish boy," she mutters to herself, then lets go of her hat.. at least the wind doesn't seem like it's going to steal it for now.. and pulls a coin from her pocket as she keeps low and follows the egalrin. She intones a maigc word, and the coin turns brilliant, a light that flickers and bends like firelight might.

Brianna moves up a bit and now that there is light she peers through the rain and the low light and blinks at what she sees. "That isn't good." she mutters as she activates her armor, and sparks run along the artifice armor as it powers up boosting her muscles. She reaches towards one of her fists and activates something there as she reaches back and throws her fist at the short grey creature. The metal fist of her artifice armor flies and strikes the creature. The armored fist starts to reform in its place not long after.

The mul'niessa's spell floods the alley with light, pushing back the dark but having little effect on the heavy rains. Two figures struggle within the alley; an ugly thing with greyish skin in old and patchwork clothing, its arms whip through the air around it like pale, agitated snakes. Steel flashes at the end of one of the overlong arms. From its shoulder hangs a black, shadowdy cat, almost twice as long as the little thing is tall.

Eztli was half expecting everyone to talk her out of it, not to agree and continue on. The small makari swallows, and hurries off to the scene of the crime. "Okay, but please be careful everyone! I know I want to help the people there, but not at the expense of all of you. If you get hurt or it looks bad, don't be afraid to get out of there." She states loudly to the others, before Jay is sneaking off, followed by Nemori and The lady who was borrowing the smithy.

"Guard!" The sorceress hisses, raising one hand as the air around her shimmers once before vanishing. "Do they look hostile? I don't want to hurt anything I shouldn't in there, all my magic is pretty violent in nature."

"I... I don't know." The bluejay caws, slipping around the corner and plucking a set of bolas from his belt. "It was a pauper halfling, wearing Alexandrian style clothes when I first came in, in the half light, but then the rain obscured it, and it looked like a choker."

"That's a subterranean abberation that preys on passers-by."

He winds up his bolas, "Something, the creature, has been attacking the walls. There's chop marks and scoring all over the place. Bri's attack alarmed it, so it ran away."

He flings his bolas, and they miss completely, the cord magically rotating around the cat. "Wait! The cat is an illusion! There's some graffiti moving on the wall too. Like it's alive, over there!"

Another shadowy felid pops into existence, coalescing out of the darkness and into physical reality. It roars and runs three quick steps before leaping through the air to pounce atop the mul'niessa. It bites hard, latching onto her arm, and then draws a claw down her flank. The second claw misses, thankfully, and its hind legs skitter on the wet cobbles.

Nemori hisses as her arm is latched onto.. then screams as the claw rips through her shirt.. a shirt which swiftly stains crimson as she falls back, trying to dislodge the cat. She has no breath in her to refute Jay's claim, trying her best to fend off claw and fang from doing worse.

Brianna frowns as she looks at the cat and watches it grapple Nemori. She considers moving up and punching it but better just to shoot it. She pulls her deathray from her back and aims at at the cat on her and fires. The electrical burst of energy flies at the cat like this and hits it, causing it to vanish and poof disappating into the air.

That... didn't sound particularly good. Eztli winces with the scream, but before she can actually do anything about it, It's already vaporized. The small makari slipped past the elf, stopping to give her another concerned and apologetic look. "Fall back if you need to Nemori, if someone should get hurt, it's me for getting us into this." She states, snapping her fingers and sending a pair of bright orange bolts to thud into the remaining shadowy cat. Illusion or not, it seemed to hurt like the real thing, and she wasn't letting Jay get mauled too.

"I know what it is!" Jay squawks suddenly, drawing his rapier and crossing the small alley to stand opposite the wall with some graffiti. He points, about to thrust, then hesitates, "It's an abberation. It only exists in two dimensions. If it turns sideways you can't see it. It can hurt you if you touch a shared surface and normally uses shadow spells to hurt people."

"That's why it can summon with the Adburation! HA! It found a legal loophole." Integrity laughs, "You just have to believe. And it's very territorial."

"Oh! That must be why there are marks on the wall, other people have attacked it. Hey, thingy! Would you be happier on a canvas with your own gallery? I've got some...aaah" Jay jumps backwards as the image tears down the wall, onto the cobbles beneath him.

He's dancing on talon-tips to avoid touching it, and also stabs instinctively with his rapier. It rings loudly off the stone, adding another scrath, and missing the aberration.

Which flows along the alley and down the drain with the rainwater.

The bluejay stares; the worm got away.

Brianna blinks a bit as she just watches, she still had her death ray ready to fire again and just shakes her head a bit. "Um...okay." she shakes her head once more, "Everyone ok?" she asks as she looks around to the others.

Nemori pays only half attention to Jay's explanation; she's too busy at first scrambling away from where the shadow cat had been mauling her, and then too busy trying to inspect the gash in her side and the holes in her arm. She struggles to take hold of her token of the Muse.. its in the pocket on her injured side with her injured arm.. and she drops it once when she pulls it free. But then she grabs it with her good hand and, despite knowing the fatigue and nausea to follow, channels healing energy through her body and outwards.

Eztli is left with no targets, and a figurative fire to their eyes as they try to pin down the source of it, only to find... whatever it was, slipping down the drain.

"There's no one injured around here save for Nemori by the looks of it. I'll take a look around though." Eztli sighs defeatedly. "I'm sorry, that's my fault. But at least we know these creatures are around here, and we can alert the watch to warn people. So after I'm done, we can all go ourselves."

There's a moan from the corner as you talk amongst yourselves. Carefully, slowly, an odd-looking Lucht eases his head out to look across the magically-lit alleyway. It has dark skin like a strong tea, blotchy and spotted with milky-grey irregularities. Its hair is black and messy, soaked and hanging from a scarred scalp.

The hand gripping the edge of the wall only has three fingers and they look a little too long.

"... are they gone?" he-- yes, a he from the voice. A bit high and oddly accented by certainly male. The eye the considers you nervously is the same grey as the spots on his skin with a thin black ring around an ice-blue pupil.

"I'm okay." Jay confirms, "I got a little scratch."

He's moving now, chasing over to the grate to peer down it, and into the side alleys, "I don't know what caused the explosion. That's the weirdest thing I ever saw."

"I think they are." Integrity answers, peering carefully at the unexpected lucht.

Nemori sighs softly as the healing energy partially reviatalizes her.. and the moment of fatigue and nausea pass. When she finally pushes back to her feet, she's shaking her head. "I am fine. Now." she responds to Brianna. "Thank you for slaying that... shadow." she adds. She's a bit put out; upset with herself for allowing herself to be fooled by the illusion. Then she looks at Eztli. "Do not be sorry. Never be sorry for doing what you want. We made our own choice to follow the two of you." She glares a little bit longer at Eztli, trying to punctuate her words, then she turns towards Jay and takes a few steps to look at what he's looking at. And recoils slightly. That lucht does not look... well.

Brianna puts her death ray back on its back and nods, "I should probably be going." she says and dips her head to the others. Not really wanting to bring up the fact that the hit the halfling with her fist when it all started. She gives a bit of a wave and then is off to whom knows where.

"I'm going to feel bad for you getting hurt, Nemori. Your choice or no. I do care about you, Nemori." Eztli half sighs, half sniffs, when her attention is suddenly turned to the lucht. "Oh! As far as I'm aware, it's gone for now, but for how long, I don't know." She begins to say. "So, we should be having this conversation away from where it emerged from. Are you okay to walk?"

The little guy is tired and more than a little brutalized as he pulls himself further around the corner of the building and into view. His raggedy clothes are torn and stained with blood in several places, exposing more of the splotchy skin, milk-dribbled-tea skin. His second eye is an unremarkable brown and almond-shaped. His soaked, drooping hair is split along his scalp with a greivous and old surgical scar.

He's carrying a hatchet in one hand. It's old and rusted and chipped. His wet, barefeet stop slapping when Nemori channels her divinity, flinching until he feels the energy knitting some of his wounds.

"Can you do that again..? Those cats deflowered me good when I tried to smash the paint-- but the paint was sulking after me!" He splashes over again to Nemori and squints up at her. "I saw it following..."

The strange Lucht turns to look at Eztli, cocking his head and combing his too-few-fingered hand down through the chaotic tangle. "Of course I can walk. What's that supposed to mean? You think I'm uncompatible to walk? I have great walking attitude; I'm a very good walker."

"Yeah that was some strange paint." Jay agrees casually, resheating his rapier and retrieving his lost bolas. His attention remains on the halfling, his wings carefully pulled in, his head cocking from one side, to another as he peers.

"Did you see what made the flash of light?"

"Someone... chopped the lamp because the paint was on it..." The halfling looks down at the axe and inspects the chipped blade with his finger. Then he tosses it to clattertowards the grate. The slates aren't wide enough, however, and the blade ends up sticking up to wait and give a hapless pedestrian tetanus at a later date.

Nemori just scowls at the halfling... and were she on her own? Well, her glance back at the entrance to the alleyway probably tells a story of her leaving him to his fate. But then she looks at Jay and Eztli.. a moment later she looks back at the lucht. Without a word, she prepares a more focussed healing magic and imparts it upon him with a brief touch. A VERY brief touch. And she immediate wipes her hand afterwards.

"I'm not saying you can't walk. But, people can have trouble moving when they're injured?" Eztli offers weakly. "It was something strange for certain."

The small makari goes to take the axe. Best not to leave it for more illusions to be used to trick and injure people.

"If you're good to move though, then let's go, please?"

"Okay! Yes! Let's go, out of the rain and away from the drains!" Jay chirps, flapping over to Nemori and acting like a wind-break for her. "We'll let the guards know about the light and the other aberation!"

There's still no sign of the Watch as you clear out of the alley. Someone has gone for them, surely, but the constable's office at the Phoenix Gate isn't close and it's probably not terribly easy to find patrols with the weather like this. Perhaps heading towards one of the corner booths is the best bet!

Speaking of, it's been long enough that each and every person present is soaked down to their boots (short some variety of magical intervention). Whether or not this is an issue might vary from person to person.

After the magical healing, the Lucht doesn't seem to really mind; he's still tired but the vicious gashes, bites, and tears have all closed over. Nemori is currently his favorite person which means getting her personal space back is tricky short of sprinting away into the night. In fact, the halfling is faster than you'd generally expect-- even walking barefoot in the rain with feet that seem to just have two wide toes apiece.

"You're good at fixing things. I know someone who's also good at fixing things. She's incremental! She'll fix what the cats tore in no time. With great capacity." He looks down and picks at the shoulder seam of the savaged coat. There's a quite pop and the whole sleeve sags down into the crook of his arm.

"She'll emancipate at me, though. She's gonna go 'Yer ruined it yer git! Oi!'" He half-shouts, affecting an unfortunately-familiar accent.

Oh. It's another one of Them..!