Chapter 5: Pleased to Meet You

Ember releases a guttural cry, grabs Elora with one hand, and waits for a way out so they don't die.

Both guards falter a moment as Verrian's words sink into their heads. The one that spoke looks past the party, down the alley, eyes growing fearful. The other's sword point drops and he grabs his fellow's arm to pull him away. "We... we should go..." he says, voice shaking.

The other nods, still staring down the alley, and he starts to back away. Just a moment longer, and they both turn and begin running away. The way forward appears to be clear.

Verrian watches the guards run away with a slight sense of shock. She hadn't really expected that to work.

@Everyone: Keep moving! Follow Giran!

Verrian pushes back to the front, closer to Giran. She doesn't want to leave him without someone to watch his back.

Swan lingers with Yelnar, not getting too far ahead, but continues to follow the others. That thing is making merry with the guards, best not test ourselves on it.

Yelnar puts away his plan to manoeuvre the guards between the hunter and the group if it came to fighting and keeps moving.

As he moves he starts thinking about the hypocrisy of the Crows using something like this to hunt them down, and an idea starts to form in his mind. If the group was able to defeat this creature, they might be able to use it as proof of that hypocrisy. We wonders if one of the group may have read something about these things that might give them more of an idea if that is feasible.

He nods at Uelten and tries to move his way further up the group. "Anyone read or heard anything about these things at the School?"

Elora ponders this while running for her life.

Well, Emby? Do you know about these?

Ember makes a low "shhhh" noise as she runs.

I didn't think they were real! Ember groans as they run. I had to hear stories about these things when Mother thought I misbehaved.... They're assassins from Alcave. Hand-made from when mages fought, because of course this is from the War, too. But it'll see us, even in the dark, and these things have......impossible fortitude. And you just can't get inside their heads.

There's a look of awe mixed in with the horror on her face. Illusory flames dance on her skin. She can't fight it.

We need a plan, NOW.

"Can it see us through buildings? If we can get to cover, can we lose it?"

I don't know how well it smells, or tracks, or whatever! But Mother never told a story where it could see thought walls.

"Then for now, the plan is to get to cover. Keep running!"

It's a good idea, and everyone seems more than happy to put some distance between themselves and the hunter.

That's when the wall of the tavern bursts outward in a spray of splintering wood and shattered stone. Nearly everyone is pelted by the shrapnel, though Verrian manages to roll cleverly away from a head-sized rock that might have otherwise cracked open her skull. In the sudden confusion and settling disaster, the Hunter stalks out into the alley. Its arms elongate into tentacles, which wrap up the nearest person: Coreene. The hunter holds her at a distance, lifting her a few feet into the air and tilting her as though you would hold something up to a light to study her further.

"No, no. You won't do at all," it says, though you can see that its face is nearly featureless, save for faint depressions where eyes might normally be, and it has no mouth to speak. Whether the voice is transmitted directly into your head or broadcast by some other mystical means, you can't quite tell.

Though it doesn't release Coreene quite yet, it does turn its humanoid head toward the scattered party members that are just now picking themselves up from the explosion of wall. "I told you that you wouldn't get away, little chickies..."

For Wil

As Wil stops to converse with his other new friend (there are a lot) Vesina, the other captives are herded toward the exit at the front of the room. She informs him that she's been able to speak to a few of the people she knows in here, and they're willing to follow as needed, though she isn't sure how brave they'll be able to be. Vesina, on the other hand, looks excited and ready to try anything.

Previan, the sick man, of course, hasn't moved.

Brick spots the straggler, and calls out to the guards at the edges of the room to go move him along. In the end, about six guards move past where Previan is lying on his cot, two of them stop to speak with him. "Come on. You've got to move. No one's staying here, no matter how sick you are."

Previan coughs, a tiny spatter of blood appearing on his homespun shirt. "Leave me here to die," he responds. "Die here or die somewhere else, I won't last."

The Hunter

Ember lets out an angry howl, pulling her hand back and jamming it forward.

RUN!

Like you'll make it out of this.
THEN HELP ME.

Two red missiles fly from Ember's hand, straight toward the Hunter.

Coreene gasps, out of shock and from air behind driven from her lungs, as she is lifted into the air by the Hunter. Her eyes go wide like saucers, but more so when she sees Ember casting at the creature. No, no, no... she thinks. We need to run, not fight. She struggles within its grasp, then stops as she thinks of something.
She didn't know if they could fight it, but she knew something that could... at least long enough for them to get away.