Café de Nuit

The prisoner makes his way past Norzak and down the rightside tunnel. He hesitates for a moment as he reaches the edge of Benn's circle of light, then continues walking, the hempen rope trailing behind him.

He quickly comes back into the light. His face is pale and his eyes are wide. He looks sweaty, despite it being rather cool down here.



'' There's some kind of animal back there! It's big!''

Norzak keeps moving along then stops as he scans the water. Frowning, he looks again just to reassure he wasn't seeing something. He holds his hand up for the party to stop. Looking back he puts his fingers to his lips. He looks at Benn and Cirdan and points to a piece of moving cloth in the water, and imitiates a dog as he gets on his fours and pretends to howl, less the howl of course. Then he sheathes his dagger and unsheathes his short sword, grinning. He looks at the floating cloth and approcahes it, following.

In a passage not far away, Dorgio trudges towards an intersection of tunnels. The light emanating from the tip of his spear casts harsh shadows on his grime-covered face, and he narrows his eyes at the darkness ahead. Little Anja, he thinks to himself, when this is over, your father and I must have words. He grits his teeth and silently curses the fumes.

The cleric passes straight through the intersection, then stops as a noise reaches him.

“(…kind of animal back there! It's big!)”

Dorgio perks up and slowly approaches the sound, his short-hafted spear poised and at the ready.

The cloth spotted by Norzak proves to be a section of burlap tarp, big enough to cover a grown man. It is moving against the current, oddly enough.
As Norzak draws more near the lumpy mass of torn and stained burlap, he spots small and pale humanlike limbs moving in the muddy water beneath it. Something under the cloth is shifting about in an agitated manner, and Norzak spots a bright brown eye staring at him through a tear in the fabric. It certainly isn't a human eye....

Brock Marsh Runoff wrote:In a passage not far away, Dorgio trudges towards an intersection of tunnels. The light emanating from the tip of his spear casts harsh shadows on his grime-covered face, and he narrows his eyes at the darkness ahead. Little Anja, he thinks to himself, when this is over, your father and I must have words. He grits his teeth and silently curses the fumes.

The cleric passes straight through the intersection, then stops as a noise reaches him.

“(…kind of animal back there! It's big!)”

Dorgio perks up and slowly approaches the sound, his short-hafted spear poised and at the ready.

Dorgio comes down the tunnel. Ahead of him, he sees a small group of men gathered about the far end of the tunnel. One of them stands to the rear with a light source of some kind. Another of the men, a very short and stout fellow, is creeping forward with a naked shortsword in his right hand! In between Dorgio and these strangers floats a brown mass of sewer flotsam, upon which the little man with the sword seem most intent...

Norzak, Benn, and all the others in that party notice the approach of a lone figure coming from further down the tunnel under investigation. The man is holding what looks to be a glowing spear! He's perhaps sixty feet from the dwarf.

They couldn't be so bold, yet dimwitted as to approach us with a lighted spear, now would they? I'm not complainin' mind ye. Let 'em come 'n' we kin get lil missy back easier 'at way. Norzak looks back at the others quizically, then to the approaching lighted spear.

Whatever is under the tarp is now moving through the water towards Norzak!

Norzak will keep that in mind and his short sword is out. Once the thing under the tarp acts, he will attack it in surprise before it attacks him. Wait till the last minute if that's at all possible.

The thing, whatever it is, comes very close to Norzak. Something cold and wet brushes up against the dwarf's leg!


[I need an initiative and an attack roll from tarlyn, please. ]

Norzak played his cards well. When the beastie was close enough and touched him, he struck. "Git offa me ya dagnabbittted water cretin!" he hisses as he strikes with his short sword, slcing deeply into the flesh of the thing.

Ok Initiative 16+2 = 18. Attack 19 + 2=21. Confirming the crit or trying to 14+2=16. Damage is either 4 or 8! Go me go!

Norzak's sword tears through the damp cloth and into the soft body of the thing beneath. The thing lets out an awful shirek and flails violently. The cloth is thrown aside, revealing the monster...

a little girl, perhaps eight years old, who was swimming on her back underneath the cover of the burlap. A scrawny puppy paddles in the water above her now still form, making frightened noises but refusing to leave her side.

Cirdan all the while stays close to the prisoner, his sword always ready to strike. When he sees the girl, his face softens, but he doesn't make a move.

Dorgio breaks into a run towards Norzak when he hears the shriek.

“ANJA!”

As soon as he is close enough to see what has happened, he squats down beside the child and begins chanting a prayer, all the while keeping his spear level at the dwarf’s nose.

“Morninglord, owner of the rays, bestower of the rosy-fingered dawn, stay this child’s heart!”

Bennedict shakes his head in wonderment at the dwarf crawling around on all fours. He is insane. There is no other way to explain it. The archivist follows on the group's heels, trying to will caution upon the dwarf, when suddenly he strikes, wounding what is shortly revealed to be a small child!

"You monster!" Benn snarls, rushing forward to help the girl, when the man with the spear rushes forward and drops down next to her, muttering a very familiar prayer to the morninglord. Assured of the girl's safety, he whirls on Norzak. "Mein gott, dwarf, is it your intention to kill everyone we meet on this little sojourn?"

Grumbling in irritation he turns back to the man, looking over the girl's wounds with a critical eye. "Is there any way I can assist you?" he asks the man quietly, trying to lend a hand without disturbing the man's concentration.