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Jess closes her eyes and then opens them after a few breaths, with that same smile back on her face. She nods a soft thanks towards Rana, and makes an appearance of collecting herself, if not actually managing to do so.
Third time's the charm - you scramble up to the wall and cling to the top like your life depends on it. You are not hidden in the slightest, but Yistin probably-hopefully-maybe isn't in the mood to notice.
Antal suddenly pops into view on top of the wall, with not-inconsiderable rustling of leaves, but Yistin doesn't turn and look. Yet. He doesn't look up at Audric either, eyes remaining fixed to the dusty ground. "I - you know how it would be," he says, voice lowering to a whisper, almost pleading. "They wouldn't be - they wouldn't understand. She - she would have been wasted in the temple, could be so much more than a healer, more than some mere guard. No one else could have done it, not at the time, no one else had the time for her except me...." He looks up, eyes pleading for understanding. "I understand, I know it looks bad... but I swear, I never hurt her in any way. I only wanted her to be as strong, as powerful, as she deserved to be."
Sense motive, first of all (1d20+9)[23]. If the code doesn't work because I'm on a phone please roll again for me?
Audric hears the leaves rustling, but doesn't turn, lest he brings Yistin attention on Antal By Aldaran, which part of 'hidden' is difficult for him to grasp?
He does make an effort to understand what the other man is trying to say, but either he is looking at the thing from a completely different frame of reference that Audric doesn't manage to grasp, or there is something else he's missing. "I do not understand, Yistin" in a tone that implies 'try to make me'. "You...lied to the Order so she would be assigned to you? Why not just ask, why..." He shakes his head, confused. "And how did she die? I have seen her bones, she had been partly healed, over time. Some of it was missing. That was not the effect of a single explosion. "
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Antal disappears into the leaves, causing some more rustling but at least he isn't visible any longer.
"Training accidents. Bruises and yes, sometimes, when the young ones are being - being careless, broken bones. Of course they were healed afterwards, but I suppose even then, marks remain," Yistin says, looking very slightly less jumpy now that Audric no longer looks to be on the verge of exploding. "And... and that was all that was left, afterwards, to bury."
Audric makes a further effort to calm down and analyse the situation rationally. After a couple of breaths, his tone has almost become normal again. Almost. "There are still things you will need to explain to me, Yistin, if you want me to believe you. I want to hear the whole story. Why her, what was so important about her, why did you feel the need to change her sex on her papers, why was she never allowed to contact her parents... and what exactly happened to her on that riverbank." And the most important thing... "And why a sorceress felt that forfeiting her life by contacting me was somehow less important that having you brought to justice. She seemed to think you were doing something horrible to that child...and she wasn’t trying to deceive me. Now, start from the beginning. I’m listening. "
Spoiler
Diplomacy? Diplomacy can’t hurt, I guess (1d20+12)[24]
And again sense motive (1d20+9)[23]
...no, seriously. If you want, feel free to yell at him.
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Yistin raises his eyebrows at the mention of the riverbank. "That was - I wasn't being literal," he says. "Not about that. No one ended up in the river- that I know of, anyways." He frowns when Audric finishes. "She - she contacted them. Short letters. No visits - you know such things are not so encouraged, the devotion of a paladin must be absolute. And she - there really wasn't enough time... not enough that visits would be warranted, at any rate." He wets his lips nervously before continuing.
"She - Fiona - I - she had potential. Too much to ignore. More than most trained paladins, let alone trainees. It would have been like - like - imagine the divine Light is a spark, a candle flame. She was a bonfire, young and untrained as she was. How can something like that be set aside?" He is speaking faster now, and his words are almost heated in their intensity. "I - I wanted her as a personal apprentice, I didn't want them to reassign her to some adept just because of - because some idiots cannot remove their minds from the gutters. I never - never did anything like that."
Audric
Spoiler
So far, he seems to be telling the truth. Whatever Yistin did with Fiona, he doesn't consider it heinous or reprehensible in the slightest. There's something he doesn't entirely want to admit in the latter half of his confession, but it doesn't seem so much to be bad as embarrassing. Maybe something he just doesn't want to talk about with a stranger, that is nevertheless relevant to the issue at hand.
Audric frowns slightly, suppressing the urge to turn towards the wall where Jess is hidden... his eyes stray towards it for just a moment, though, hopefully too short for Yistin to notice. "You did not. Very well." He is not about to let the matter go so easily. "What did you do, then? What are you not telling me?"
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Yistin doesn't look very happy - his face flushes red and he looks away. "I - I told you everything already," he snaps. "There is nothing more to say."
"Yistin, you may be an Inquisitor, but you are a poor liar" Audric replies. Worse than me, which is saying something.
"Just remember, what you will not tell me, I can have you tell in front of the Order" He doesn't like to use this kind of threats, but it seems like something who would bring the other paladin to cooperate. "The choice is yours."
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Tayet squeezes his bow in his lap, at the thought of the broken arms and the visitations. He starts thinking, not of... her, but of Yistin, a sharp arrow hitting him in the arm. His sword hitting his arm. Something to break his arm. He might not think of her, but he focuses on hurting him. Marks remain, he said. Even after being healed, marks remain. A quick arrow. Just one arrow. His face twists in anger, and he pulls his hood down further.
When Yistin says he has said everything, he turns his head to Rana, confused and frustrated.
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Yistin immediately seems to clam up at the mention of the temple. Bit off, really, for a paladin, but not so much as one might think considering the accusations against him. "There is nothing to admit, to you or anyone else. I have already told you everything that mattered. Now, the witch is dead, your curiosity has been satisfied, and none of it, not words or papers or bones so disinterred from their resting place, is going to change what is. Are you quite finished?"
At the paladin's final protestation of innocence, there is a strong, audible growl from Jess, curling upwards into a snarl, and then she's jumped up to the wall and hoisted herself over, landing with a tumble and a feral expression.
"Blessings be upon this house, Yistin. Aldaran knows it needs them, 'cause you're in it." The smile grows edged, and she starts moving towards the paladin. "Interesting story you've got there, pained all innocent like, and how I'd love to believe the girl was treated fine and right - but if there was nothing wrong how come I was able to blackmail the church with it?"
She pauses, blinking. It's possible she doesn't realize she was shouting that last bit until she'd already done so.
Jess skips the going around part normally involved in transporting oneself to the other side of an easily eight or nine-foot brick wall. She jumps up, vaults over the wall as easily as one might jump a low wooden fence, and lands with an audible thud. Yistin twists around, and his sword is out in a flash, though he seems to be having some difficulties in deciding who to point it at. "Y-you - wha- lying, traitorous - you dare -" he sputters. He looks terrified - nearly unarmed and unarmored, with a wall-jumping sorceress yelling at him, it's not an entirely unreasonable response. However, sputtering is not conducive to acting, and he does not strike immediately.
----
If you want to hit him, go right ahead and roll initiative. Audric and Llaars should be in melee range, more or less. Jess is 5 feet away from him, if she is interested in whacking him (I think she is, somehow). It takes a full round for Tayet and Rana to get over to this side without engaging in similar wall-jumping antics - if they choose to circumvent the wall normally, they will start the next round 50 feet away from the other people. Antal can drop down from the wall and be 15 feet away from Yistin. If you choose to engage in violence, I will provide a map to facilitate it.
"No, I am not 'quite finish...' Audric starts to say, and right in that instant, the sorceress jumps right over the wall and starts shouting at them. For a second, Audric is too stunned to react Aldaran have mercy of us all...
He recovers quite quickly, though. "Sandry" he half-growls "Stop right there and do not even think about it." Lies or not, he is not about to let her just attack a paladin. Not while he is still standing there. "Yistin. It may be in your best interest to start telling the whole truth, now."
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Jess moves to barrel past Audric, eyes blazing and fist raised for a strike, when instead a dark, lithe shape climbs up to the top of the wall and from there drops onto Yistin's face with a yowl.
"Um, sorry." Jess says to Audric, suddenly embarrassed, as the cat tries to sink all four claws into Yistin's eyeballs. "She's mine. She, uh... does that sometimes. Blackie, stop!"
Last edited by DeafnotDumb : 11-22-2012 at 04:56 AM.
Yistin's sputtering is cut short by the yowl of a cat. Blackie gets one, two, three good swipes in before Yistin yanks her off with his free hand and throws her at the far wall. The cat lands as neatly as her mistress had and darts to Jess's side, looking slightly rumpled but not particularly fazed at her impromptu flight. Little drops of blood stain the ground where her claws had been. Yistin looks considerably less composed - the scratches on his scalp are bleeding, and his face is contorted with pain. Thankfully, the pain creates a split-second delay in his actions, allowing the more nimble among you to react.
Jess barely has time to glare at Blackie, who ignores it with catlike disdain for the world, before she's pulling out a little hand crossbow from her clothes and aiming it at Yistin. Even in these tight quarters, she's not aiming to kill - the bow is pointed at the man's shoulder, a nasty but ultimately merely scarring wound.
Spoiler
Attack roll: (1d20-3)[10]
Damage if hit (1d4)[3]
Last edited by DeafnotDumb : 11-25-2012 at 10:52 AM.
"Oh NO! The witch has arisen from the dead!" His poor bluff was quickly shattered when she fired upon the priest. "Aw hells." Steel would be flashing about soon, and Llaars wanted to make sure it wasn't Yistins.
Spoiler
Grapple check on Yistin
Touch attack: (1d20+7)[24]
Grapple check: (1d20+7)[18]
The crossbow bolt bounces off chain links and clatters harmlessly to the ground. Yistin barely flinches at the bolt. He wrenches his arm out of Llaars' grip and shoves himself away. The other paladin is clearly rather strong, and he moves like someone who knows combat well. Gripping his sword with both hands, he crosses the short distance separating him from Jess with a couple of steps. "In the name of Aldaran, die," he spits. He doesn't bother with flashy moves, instead attempting to cut Jess in two with one powerful blow. The sword in his hands seems to glow, though it emits no light.
Smite - (1d20+9)[13]Damage - (1d8+7)[15] Typo: damage bonus should be +6. Only 14 damage to Jess. Even so...
The strike is not entirely accurate, but it hardly matters, infused with divinity and raw anger as it is. The blade cuts through cloth and flesh neatly, and Jess crumples to the ground, the gaping wound in her chest bleeding profusely. She's not dead yet, but it's a near thing.
Spoiler
Honestly, why wouldn't he smite Jess at this point?
Shadow can pretty much double-move to anywhere he likes, so I need a specific square here.
Audric makes a move to as if to grab Jess when she draws a wepon against Yistin, but everything happens too fast for him: the sorceress shoots, Llaars attempts a grab, and, before he even has time to think of doing anything, the other paladin strikes "Yistin, dammit, wait!" he shouts, uselessly, but there's really no time to do anything else, and he sees Sandry crumpling to the ground.
The paladin reacts pretty much on instinct. Before he even knows what he's doing, he's on his knees, holding the sorcereress' body. She's bleeding out, Rana is on the other side of the wall please, Aldaran, let her have the sense to remain there, and there's really noone else that can do something about it. Without even thinking about it, Audric places his hands on Jess' chest, not caring that he's getting blood all over them, and closes his eyes, desperately attempting to concentrate. She's a sorcerer, he knows, but nevertheless... She doesn't deserve to die. Please.
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Yistin seems considerably less than pleased at Audric's actions, even before he manages to force a single artery to close. "You dare stand in the way of Aldaran's justice?" he fumes. Jess's blood drips from the sword in his hand.
Audric
Spoiler
Barriers stand in your way, and healing Jess at all is a difficult task. You force your way past them one by one, but it is like slogging through mud. Giving up would be much easier. But it would probably mean her death.
((Do you even have to ask? Of course he'll go right ahead with the healing. He IS a paladin, after all. for now...))
Audric doesn't immediately answer. He's too busy trying to avoid Sandry to die under his hands, and he doesn't have the time or the concentration necessary to come up with a suitable reply. That's probably why his words are an echo of what he has been thinking just a few seconds ago "Yistin, please. She doesn't deserves to die" He spares just a glance to the other paladin, afraid to jeopardise his attempt at healing if his full attention is not on the sorceress, before returning his concentration on what he's doing.
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Jess smiles genuinely for what might be the first time this day. It's the first one that reaches her eyes and truly brightens them beyond the suspicion so common in the citizens of this city. "Don't worry, Yistin..." She croaks, managing a lopsided smirk, one last mocking of her enemy. "I only just realized he was a good man, too. That's what they look like, see? Strange sight..."
She tries to move her hand towards her pendant. Next to her, Blackie edges up to Audric and hisses at him, not certain what is happening.
Last edited by DeafnotDumb : 11-25-2012 at 06:00 PM.
The healing stumbles, then surges on. It is not a gentle process - in fact, it looks rather like golden fire and feels distinctly like fire as well, and proceeds with a momentum of its own. But despite the pain, it does not cause further injury. In fact, the bleeding seems to have stopped, though with all the blood already there, it's a bit difficult to tell. The gash has knit itself into a rather ugly scar, but it's at least partially healed. There's nothing to be done for Jess's clothes, unfortunately.
Spoiler
It worked! Jess is healed of 4 damage, though with Yistin in a distinctly smite-y sort of mood, this might not last.
Yistin's response to everything (Shadow and Rana showing up, Audric healing Jess, whatever Tayet and Antal do) will be posted on his turn.
Antal drops off the wall, draws his sword, and then speaks forth a short incantation. His left hand raised, two blue glowing sphere emerge from his first and second fingers, fly erratically through the air, and slam into Yistin.
Spoiler
Casting Magic Missle for (2d4+2)[5] force damage
Also, how many inspiration points am I limited to when using Cunning Strike for Sneak Attack damage?
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Re: The Wrong Guys IC II
Derailed in the best way, thank you good sir.
))
