....in The Dark

[*Selebius]

When he enters the temple he is ignored at first but for a few curious looks- the creatures there both valueing their privacy as well as are quite used at strangers turning up to either offer their services or to use what services the temple has to offer itself.

It is dark, chanting in abyssal can be heard in the distance, the air heavy with incense, the fumes of certain drugs and some sharper, nastier scents.

But soon Mauric is approached by a Babau wearing expensive silks, the demon boweing deeply.

"Ah... the agent returns. They are most pleased with your work.. most pleased. This way, please. "

The demon leads him into a small chamber in which he meets a hulking Nalfeshnee- the creature stuffing its boarlike face with food (some of it still alive), its fat body resting on a bench covered with silks that are as dirty as they were expensive once. It wears jewels on its fingers and hooves, the feathers of its tiny wings coloured with the dust of gems but no amount of refined goods can cover its corruption and stench.
The babau steps aside, keeping a respectful distance to both Mauric and the demon who speaks with thunderous voice.

"Here you are! You might not have heard... but that Succubus suffers of a terminal case of death... so there was a change in leadership. But of course we will honour our agreement... business is business. Two souls we agreed upon, right?"

**************************************************************

Her opponent choking is at the fumes as well, cursing its demonic ally as Maed's blade strikes true, ending his life. She notices the blow should not be that deadly but the poison was working fast, weakening her opponent severely.

Her lungs are burning and while she can avoid the worst she still feels the poison seep into her body (( CON damage: 2)) weakening her but she is lucky- the heavy fumes sink into the ground, flow down through gaps and chinks in the floor leaving Maed and the giant surrounded by corpses.

It is eerily silent now, the only sound the choking of a dying warg- the last casualty of the assault.

[*Krayt]

He awaits patiently with a nonchalant demeanor his hands folded behind his back and his head drooping slightly giving the impression of a man that waited for something but minded his own business as everyone else. Behind the mask however he linstened very keenly on what transpired around him. A possible ally, an old ally turning a foe. He would not wast a opportunity nor be trapped in a vise he thought.

As the Babu approached him he straighted his posture and returned his gesture with a respectful bow of his own. "I take pride in my art and satisfaction in that it met the requirements to please."

He stalled behind keeping himself around nine feet away. The old lead me into a secluded room and kill me? Well you'll have a little surprise he thought.

Being led inside the chamber he expected the door to slam Close. Moving his hand near a scroll hidden inside his robe and readying his left for a blast directed at the Babu. But as nothing of the sort occured he preended to scratch his belly through the cloth.

He chuckles cruely. "That be the way of things now isn't it." A subtile congratulation to the Nalfeshnee. "You are well informed. Two souls one near extinction with a low pulse. Tired, weary on the verge. The other bristeling with unfulfilled ambition spilling over the rim with hunger for power." He lied perhaps to extort a valuable soul for himself perhaps to unveil a lie from the demon. "Do you happen to have further need to my services?"

********************************************************************

She hissed with a painful grimace. Nearly puked when the poisonous mist seeped into her lungs. Turning around to veiw Ganatog and the strange creature he was facing.

The smog and polluted air of Sigil was something that had aggregate her from the first moment she stepped into the Cage. Comming from an extremly clean and unspoiled world she had trouble accepting it. Thus this attack prompting another of her uncontrolled fits of rage.

With her hand trembeling with fury she stucked it into her leafshaped satchel and tore out a scollcase and riffled through the many scrolls before she withdrew a Gust of Wind casting the scrollcase to the ground Before she read it rappidly in a spiteful impetuous manner and tone. Unwitting that the demon may have been destroyed already.

"Fouleth winds the befouleth bespatter! Begone with thee!" She roared in her outdated elven.

Ganatog would know that when she was in this state she wouldn't listen nor cease to attack until she was either subdued or had destroyed that object of her irritation. Just as that incident when the beetle cover her with ichor. No doubt he saw this as a weakness and possible future danger to any high risk misson.

[*Mander]

///Fort Mod: 25, Fort Roll Total:28-2= 26



The giant hacks and wheezes, his great lungs drawing in a good bit of the fog before he can hold his breath. Keeping just enough presence of mind to see Mae preparing a scroll, Ganatog staggers a bit to the side and collapses into a burning wall with a resounding crash.

[*Selebius]

The fat demon chuckles, a soiund like rolling boulders heard from afar and its small, mean eyes fix on the babau who waits nearby the door and he gestures to the gaunt creature who then approaches quickly, pulling a small chest made of blood rock and bone from the folds of his wide robes.

Mauric cannot say if his little bluff worked or not, the large demon leaving him guessing, intrigues and lies part of this creature's very nature.

"Your reward... as promised.", the Nafleshnee says chuckling between two bites of something fat, fleshy and still wiggling. "We might need your services again...how can we contact you?"

The babau bows a bit as it offers the item, waiting patiently for Mauric to accept it while the Nalfeshneee waits for the man's answer.

**************************************************************

The spell blows away what remains of the stench and dust the fumes dispersed, small pieces of debris scattered all around the place.

Soon Maed realizes that everything is dead, ecerything is destroyed, the twin borthers slain, the soldiers of the Hand slain or running away.

***************************************************************

Ganatog crashes through the wall the building rather instable again, close to collapsing.

He avoided the worst of the poison's effect ((Con Damage: 2)) and Maed's spell cleared the last nits of stench away.

Around him are only desolation, corpses and his companion- and of course a house that might collapse every second.

[*Krayt]

He stared at the presented box. He didn't like using both hands incase they would turn on him. He opend the lid with his right hand and checked the souls if they indeed held the qualities he had asked for he could not say. But he closed the lid and finally took it with his both hands. "It seem to be in order." "I make my visits frequently enough for you to find me here. If it is urgent however you could leave a note for Kendrick at Broken Haggard's End Inn in the Hive ward"

No matter who the real players was in this game he had lost any chance of nestle his way unto them for now. Cutting the losses and settle for te reward was the only sensible thing now.

********************************************************************

Falling to her knees she breaked the fall with the knuckles of her clenched hand. Breathing heavily as she tosses her head in search of any remaning foe until she realized they were all disperesed of. She swung her sword around and sheathed it in the scabbard fixed between her wings. Picking up her scrollcase before she rose to her feet. Looking at the prone giant walked over with a quick pace unknowing how the fog may have affected him or what he had incured before she arrived. Taking a few vials of Lesser Restoration from one of her satchels.

[*Selebius]

Inside the box there is a faint glowing, pale grey gem the size of a fist- most likely the housing for this fading soul Mauric has asked for.

There is also a smaller crystal, pulsating with power glowing in brightest green.

The Babau steps back again, seems somehow happy that its part in this is over and he waits near the door again while the Nalfeshnee adresses Mauric.

"We will find you then. Your performance was most impressive- you will hear from us again soon."

((Just wrapping Mauric's part up for now- rewards given in game soon :) ))

[*Mander]

Before Mae reached him, Ganatog shoved aside a burning timber and staggered to his feet. Fortunatley for him, his race had long lived alongside volcanic rifts and magma, their lungs strengthened against sulfuric gas and ash through the millennia. That alone had saved the fire giant where another would have burned from the inside out.

He coughs twice, hacking up a glob of poison spittle, then gladly accepts the potions, draining them in one swig. At last he felt his strength return, as if a century had been lifted from him. "The twins are dead?" Mae nodded in confirmation, her next words interrupted as another pillar gave under the spreading flames and general devastation. Raising a weary arm, Ganatog taps his amulet and shifts into the form of a Dire Warg. He snarls, motioning for Mae to jump onto his back; they would flee the scene as quickly as possible before any harmonium or Hand reinforcements could arrive.

[*Selebius]

Behind them the house collapses, embers rrom the fire rising inti the smoke cloded sky. The locals scramble to keep the fire from spreading, ignoring the large wolf and its rider.

Afterwards some said that the fire burnt in unusual colours, the the smoke behaved oddly and some people who came too close were...changed and months afterwards tiefling children were born to normal couples, causing much grief.

[*Krayt]

"Until then." He turned to the door and left if there was no attempt to try and stop him.

********************************************************************

She shaped changed into a stawberry red haired human woman before she mounted the Warg. Casting greater invisibility on them both.

When reaching safety she dismounted and assumed her true shape. With notable malcontent she spoke in a sour mood as she usually were in after a mission hadn't gone exatly the way she liked. "The deed is done, we ought to claim our payment at the temple from the succubi."

[*Mander]

The sound of cracking bone and tearing flesh accompany the giant's return to his original form. "Agreed. It was ill luck so many got in our way, but a message was certainly sent!" He starts to chuckle, then stops in a brief bout of coughing before leading the way to the temple.