The Nightingale, Act II: A Village By Night

[Zilfer]

Ammanas tilts his scythe as the innkeeper speaks, only to have his thoughts interupted by the splintering and crashing of wood. The two who were near him skiddale, and he turns to see a horse on fire, his immediate reaction is to cast a spell (summon water) to put out the horse and then waited to see where the horse was going. "For the love of.... someone calm that horse!" yelled Ammanas over the commotion. He made sure his scythe was in two hands just in case he would need it.

[kintire]

Caitlin leaps to her feet and staggers back from the charging animal. She stares at her uncle right in front of the charging animal, then yells:

"Uncle, look out!"

As the burning creature charges him down she seems to focus for an instant, stares at the horse and says, in a tone of command:

"uryalarokko hestasarku!"

Green energy seems to leap from the animal, leaving slowly opening wounds behind it.

[Trike]

Nicodemus is startled into action as the flaming beast bears down on the innkeeper. In a swift turn, he strikes it with his stout cane as he draws his hand axe with his other hand. His face is set against the fear that is plain in his eyes. When he finishes his spin he is slightly closer to Caitlin.

[Le Noir Faineant]

The madness ends as quickly as it has started.

This is a horse - a normal horse, no nightmare.

The fire has already hurt it, and your defense, however lacking against a more dangerous opponent, will do the rest.

The tortured animal is hit by Nicodemus' axe, and Caitlin's spell, and halted in its rage,
and staggers, and falls down, and bleeds blood from its mouth, and dies.


Ammanas spell doesn't seem to have had any effect on the flames.

All to the contrary, the flames stick to the blade of Nicodemus' axe, ghastly glowing in the dark.

You see, the skin of the horse is spotty, where it hasn't been burned away.
Not spotted, in a natural way, but spotty, like wetted with balm...


"SEE! I told you! The priest is fake! He is an ILLUSIONIST! That's why his magic didn't work!"

Caitlin's little cousins run towards the kitchen, and suddenly, her uncle has a long hunting knife in his hands.

"You will not harm my family with your witchcraft! Foreigners!"

He spits it out like an insult.

[Trike]

Nicodemus switches to a more defensive stance eyeing the exit. His eyes shift from person to person as if waiting to see who becomes the next threat.

"I am no threat to your family, old man," he says carefully. "I seek only to protect you. We can leave if you wish to stand alone against whoever killed this poor beast."

[VAN]

Boiros goes to get a blanket, his plan was to wrap the horse with it in order to get it off fire but when he goes down sees the horse is dead. Noticing the strange fire at the Nikodemus sword he says:

"You better drop your sword, this greenish fire doesn't seem natural. Let me check for magic."

Getting his holly symbol he gives Ezra a small pray and then turns to look at Nikodemus."

After he casted his spell waits a few seconds and then goes closer to the horse and studies it without touching it though.

[Zilfer]

Ammanas watched as the horse went down, had his spell just shimmered? Usually it would have given about a drizzle of rain, that could fill up a table full of mugs. More shocking still however was the niece of the innkeeper had shown some affinity for magic.

"Quite down, 'the day you see true magic is the day you die.' And put that knife away unless you intend to use it," threatened Ammanas before He turned to his niece ignoring the innkeeper's further ravings. He kept his scythe still in hand it ready for the man if he came forward with that knife.

"You know 'The Secret Arts'?" asked Ammanas of Caitlin his curiousity was peeked with what he had seen. No doubt she didn't advertise that ability often. It had taken a dangerous situation for her to use it.

[kintire]

Caitlin looks nervously at her uncle.

"Calm down uncle! There's no need for that. Once the mayor hears how they flouted his orders, he'll take care of them. We can recover their fees then."

She glances briefly at Ammanas.

"I don't know what you mean, illusionist!"

[Le Noir Faineant]

Does Nicodemus understand what Boiros is saying?

Other than the magic that permeates from your own holy symbols, neither the horse not the fire show signs of having been treated with magic.

In fact, the flames on the axe die down quickly, leaving spots of what might well be burned oil on the blade.


On the other side of the taproom, the innkeeper appears unrelenting, and he doesn't lower the knife.

"I don't care about your explanations. Foreigners, heathens, and hedgewizards! Get off my property! - Caitlin, go get the mayor. Go get the patrol. Go!"

[VAN]

Boiros stands up and says: "The fire seems to be started by an oil and not magic".

Then noticing that the innkeeper's attitude hasn't changed towards Ammanas and he hasn't lowered his knife he gets between the innkeeper and Ammanas holding his shield up as to block an attack, his longsword still at his belt though, and asks Caitlin and Ammanas:

"What is going on here?"

[Trike]

Nicodemus carefully examines the oily substance on his axe after holding it out for Boiros' inspection. He moves with quiet speed as if waiting to be ejected from the inn. He grabs a nearby cloth and wipes the stuff from the axe's head. Then he scrapes some of the same substance off of the dead horse with his knife. He wraps the knife in the cloth for later examination.

During the moments he has left, Nicodemus searches the horse for any clues about who attacked it. "Hmmmm, whose horse where you my friend," he asks quietly in Mordentish.

[Zilfer]

Ammanas curses silently to himself, as Caitlin also calls him an illusionist. Anger peaks for a moment and it looks like Ammanas is about to get violent his hand if anyone is looking glows black for a moment, before it eases the tension and walks over to the horse seeing what Nicodemus holds out and smells it for a moment. Oil...? Looking at the other cleric and having no idea what he said but assuming from his body lanuage he was asking what was up between his readied weapon and the Innkeeper's readied knife. In responce Ammanas does the universal sign for crazy before looking at Nicodemus again.

"Sounds like we should check out the stables if we are to get to the bottom of this, maybe we'll still catch those two other fellows. We should becareful however, the voice said to beware of the dark," said Ammanas as he moved towards the inn's exit. He leaves but a fleeting look at Caitlin as if contemplating something else but he decides against it. He's ready to leave whenever most of the other people are ready to leave.

[VAN]

Boiros understands Ammanas sign but since he doesn't understand what he said turns to Nocodemus and asks:

"Sorry, but what has he said? Are we leaving?"

[Trike]

Nicodemus stands with a sigh. He doesn't seem to relish any of the paths laid out before him.

He speaks to Boiros in Mordentish. "The innkeeper is a fool. He wants to blame us for this mess. He's ordered us off his property."

Then he switches back to Darkonese. "I'll follow you to check outside. But I hate to leave this family unprotected."

He looks at Caitlin, "Will you be alright on your own with....." He looks at the innkeeper. "Well, will you be alright?

[kintire]

"Uncle the mayor said that everyone was to stay indoors! Are you sure I should go outside? And only the welshers should be evicted. These gentlemen..." She gestures to Boiros and Nicodemus "haven't done anything!"

As she appeals to her uncle, however, she is swinging her cloak around her shoulders, preparing to obey his instructions if her words are rejected. As Nicodemus speaks she glances at him and looks uncertain.

"Um... I'm not sure..."