Episode 2

"Sulyut," a strong voice calls in definitively. It is coming from the next room over to the west, through the open walkway.The man, not yet seen, speaks out from the darkness in Heshbaan. Kray and Thorn try to follow along, but Sizhen and Bryn are really the only ones with enough mastery of the language to follow along with the fellow's accent and given the state of disorientation everyone is in.
He steps into the very edge of the light, still remaining in the next room.



He is armed, with weapons in sheaths, but none of them are drawn. He speaks again, calmly but firmly in a rugged voice.

Trece sees the man briefly at the top of the stairs, but he is mostly concealed by darkness. Trece can make out that the man is athletic and wears a beard. He is armed with swords and knives sheathed behind his back and at his waist.

The swordsman speaks down at Trece, but then walks onward out of sight into the upper floor room into which the stairs rise.

X, doesn't Thorn have that ability to assess a
NPC via battlemaster? Might be worth doing on this guy do figure out the threat level.

Bryn passes along the general intent of Kray's brief questions. The swordsman responds concisely.

He shifts and extends a hand away, as if signaling Bryn, Kray, and the others to come forward, moving with him to the west.

Sizhen assesses the swordsman's mannerisms.

The man has already walked away and disappeared into the upper floor room when Trece speaks out his question. Either the man did not hear, or perhaps just as likely, he heard and did not answer.

Still slowed and struggling a bit from the effects of the poison gas, Trece is not as quick as he usually is. As he tops the stairs, he sees that the swordsman, on the other hand, has moved quite far in the same amount of time.

Off in the distance, into the next room, Trece sees that the swordsman standing, his form sillouetted by a light source coming from the next room even further away still.

Trece begins to hear the swordsman's voice as he gets closer, but he cannot decipher the words. Trece begins to identify that the swordsman is speaking in Heshbaan.

Uncertain at first, but then it becomes clear. There is a quieter voice, because it is originating from further away in the more distant room with the light. Trece cannot make out the words, but it is Bryn's voice. There is a conversation going on.

From the room with the stairwells, one going up and one going down, Trece moves eastward towards the swordsman, watching him speak to the others in the room beyond that is casting the torchlight. Trece's own lantern illuminates the room that he is in.

Trece hears a howl, coming from below. A distant braying of a hound. Now another. It is rather faint, but recognizable enough.

In silhouette, Trece sees the swordsman tilt his head, a telltale sign that the stranger heard the sound as well.

The swordsman makes a motion with his hand and arm, extending it out and taking a step back, as if inviting the others to come with him.

Trece looks back at the stairwell leading down. Nothing. No movement.

Only a blackness that sits in the pit beneath, outside of the reach of the lamplight at this angle.

Sizhen notices another light, to the west, beyond and behind the swordsman.

The light is shifting around, casting shadows and blurred glimpses from the threshold of the next room beyond.