Lómë -- the Jewel of the Desert; Ghar, Lorennia, Phineas-- "Shadows Uncounted."

[GameMaster]

Ghar
You've seen this elf before, visiting the library from time to time, though often it seemed just to escape the world beyond as for the pleasure of reading whatever books she spent her time with.  Whether the horrible monster beneath her illusion of beauty is real or far distant dream, you cannot remember.

With a true monsterous roar, born of anger and passionate desperation, you let your intentions be known, and you stride toward the woman and the bedside, determined to reach The Librarian with the Book of Healing.


Lorennia
Lorennia moves quietly out of Ghar's way, allowing him to go freely to The Librarian's bedside.  "Tend to your Mother," she says.


The Librarian
Frail, her eyes no longer seeing in this world, the old woman calls to you, her voice cracking.  "Ghar?  Come hither, my Little One."  She coughs violently from the effort of speaking.

Her next words are a weak whisper.  "Have you yet retrieved the tome I described for you?" she asks, struggling for breath afterward this time.

"...within this Book of Moving Shadows sleeps the power to heal all the world..."
She pauses only a moment, swallowing hard and forcing away coughs, desperate to tell you everything in her last moments.

"...was written...with the tears... of 999 dying..."
Her words fail, and she struggles to continue.
..."and now, at last... I go to join my Sisters, but you must remember somehow to see, for I can no longer send the messages to remind you whence you've come, and if your mind hides the Secret from you, all will be lost forever."

She now struggles to breathe to the point that she cannot even cough.



Zerathos
The High Priest of Lómë bursts in, his voice deep and loud and powerful, but grating, like sandstone being drawn across hardstone.  "Found you at last, Dream Weaver Wench!  Hiding here all this time, Coward?  Champion of Truth in indeed!" He spits the words out as a degrading curse.  "And now, finally, all the last grains of Truth die with you!"  He strides toward the prone Librarian, drawing forth a great firey sword from thin air as he does. 


Phineas
A high-pitched, unintelligable mutter is all you hear, spoken quickly from a strange voice and accent, and then the orange shirt is thrown off, and it flees.  It's a creature!  Some sort of... demon?  It races toward the back of the Library, and with shouts Tariq and others follow.  Yet others race around toward the front of the Library, but most scatter away screaming in all directions of fear.

Carefully, you follow those that have ran after it into the alleyway between the outer wall of the city and the Library.  The grand clock is actually much of the back wall and was build long before the library itself, and its ornate architecture provides many nooks, crannies, and shadows for you to make your way through stealthfully.

Somewhere within the shadows, you hear a deep, slow growl that exudes power and anger, but somehow turns into laughter at the end-- and then it is gone.

As you enter the back of the Library, Tariq is stumbling backward out of it, and dashes off and away toward his parents.  Others have fallen away, or stand frozen in fear.  Your nemesis, the The High Priest of Lómë wields a massive sword of fire, and his last words echo in the room as he strides toward The Librarian:

"...TRUTH DIE WITH YOU!"




Though this foe is clearly overwhelming, if any of you choose combat:

Initiative
1. Ghar (14.15.7)
2. Lorennia (14.15.4)
3. Phineas (14.14)
4. Zerathos (11)

[Complex_Assault]

Ignoring the elf with no apparent malicious intent, I divide my attention between "mother", the priest, and the hiding spots I collected what little possessions I have, trying to remember what could be of use as means of escape, as well as the whereabouts of my plump little friend.

[LorenniaNailo]

While the High Priest is quite clearly overwhelming, Lörennia feels the need to take a parting shot at him.  Specifically, while he's still focused on killing the librarian, a flying sidekick to the side of the knee.

After that she's taking off toward the front of the library (and presumably beyond).

[Phineas]

"NO"

I quickly look for anything; book, lamp, holder, etc; that I can use as a missile/range weapon against the High Priest to distract him from the Librarian ...

If I find something, I'll throw it at him as accurately as possible  ...  preferably at his ugly head  ...  🙃

Then, I run after the elf, following her  ... 

[GameMaster]

Ghar's attention is divided, looking around the room and watching everything that is going on.

Lorennia runs and divekicks into Zerathos's knee, buckling it and forcing him to kneel!  Trying not to drop his sword, he can't move his arm fast enough to catch her before she is up and gone!


"NO!" Phineas demands, picking something up from the ground and throwing it at Zerathos's head.  Only after releasing it does Phineas realize it was too soft to do any damage, but hoped it would be enough for a distraction.

Ghar, alert and watching, is in the perfect position to catch a toad launched in his direction by Phineas.

Phineas is then on Lorennia's heels, dodging and evading all the commonfolk filling the Library in an attempt to figure out what's going on.  They can hear Zerathos's laughter behind them.

"Where will you flee to, fools!  Where will you run and hide!  I OWN ALL THE WORLD!"


And with that, he turns his attention back to the Librarian.  He smiles coldly down at the helpless figure.
"And with you dying under my blade, Dream Weaver, I always will!"

[LorenniaNailo]

Once I exit the library, I slow down, both because I'm hoping the kobold will catch up and because I have no idea where to go next.  The last part is hopefully pretty obvious to Phineas.

[Complex_Assault]

I catch my more-sturdy-than-apparent friend, and taking the book I make an attempt to dash past Zerathos hoping his current attention is completely on "mother". I pass him carefully making sure to stay on the side opposite to his sword hand, while continuing to run away in my exhausted state. Should I succeed, I then play dumb, and intimidate those present, garbling unintelligibly like a large cat might do, escaping into the alleys and rooftops once again.

[Phineas]

As I catch up to Lorennia,  I tap her shoulder

"This way, let's head for the South gate  ...  it's away from here and a maze to lose him in ...  hopefully ...
from there we can catch our breath and figure a plan of action."

[LorenniaNailo]

"Sounds good", I respond, and follow, keeping an eye out for the kobold - in case he makes it out alive, I'd rather offer that he come with us.

[GameMaster]

Ghar
The priest's attention is firmly on the Librarian, and he offers little more than a half-hearted kick on your way by, which you easily dodge.  You hear whispering behind you as you flee, but can't comprehend the words.

Weaving through the people, who are clearly intrigued and afraid of you, climbing back up onto the rooftop is an easy task.  You have your little friend, and the book is in your bag, but all other posessions you've collected over the years are still within the building.

Finding a relatively safe perch near the top of the clocktower, you are able to cover yourself partially in shadow.  Again, the distant deep, angry growl, but it doesn't seem to be speaking to you-- or even close to you.

From the outside, here on the roof, you are able to see even more clearly that the clocktower must have been here long before the Library itself, as it is a far older and more ancient stone, but feels heavier and stronger.

Breaking away from the crowd below, you see the two who were in the chamber with you moments ago in the confrontation against the priest-- The roguish human and elven illusionist.  They break away from the gathered crowd and turn to the Bottomside of Sunset [South] entering a more maze-like part of the city which you have never been to before.  Nobody seems to be pursuing them at this time.



Lorennia and Phineas
The two of you easily make it through the crowd, so unused are the people here to any kind of exciting action.  A quick turn toward Bottomside [South] and you enter the earlier developed part of the city, where it grew before there were rules about how buildings were allowed to be built, and how pathways had to be clear and maintained.  In this mazelike place Phineas in particular feels at home, but Lorennia herself is not exactly a complete stranger.

Few people are about at the moment compared to usual, and even now more are running off to crowd the Library as they hear of the news.  So many hundreds of people moving in the opposite direction of you soon make it difficult to traverse the tight spaces, and at one point you realize that someone is eventually going to notice you are the only people [not] running out to see what the commotion is all about.

You both also begin to realize at about the same time that, despite the fact that nobody seems to be in pursuit, there is really nowhere to hide.  High Priest Zerathos will no doubt put lavish gifts toward anyone who gives you up, and there are only about 40,000 people in all the world, after all... If they don't already know you directly, they probably know someone who does, or have seen you around!

[LorenniaNailo]

Once I realize we're that out of place, we slow down and just slip through the crowd when it ebbs - there's always going to be an ebb and flow to any crowd movement.

Similarly, there must be some abandoned places in the area - the librarian can't be the first person or business to die in this world, unless it's a lot younger than I thought.  The biggest irony would be, say, a warehouse where the High Priest himself was a major investor, but it still failed...

Also, I gotta call bullshit on you this time - the High Priest just gleefully murdered someone in broad daylight, in the first murder this city has ever seen.  We will not be the only revolutionaries meeting tonight, and the paranoia in this city is about to ratchet higher than it's ever been before as neighbors turn against neighbors, siblings against siblings, and fathers against sons.  The chances that someone will care enough to report a couple of fugitives from the murderous High Priest is going to be very low - not that I intend to test that assumption.

[Complex_Assault]

I take in all the geography visible from the clock tower. The location of the endless spring, exits of the city leading to the desert, busy and calm streets, as well as armory's--though I doubt there are any in this uneventful land. After creating a model of my surroundings in my mind, I realize that the elf and human could be my only allies for a long time. While looking in the direction they ran, taking guesses of their where-a-bouts, I try to interpret the meaning of the librarians last words, and what the deep growl could be...

[LorenniaNailo]

Seems to me that, since we're the only people going against the crowd, we should be relatively easy to spot from the rooftops.

[GameMaster]

Also, I gotta call bullshit on you this time - the High Priest just gleefully murdered someone in broad daylight, in the first murder this city has ever seen.  We will not be the only revolutionaries meeting tonight, and the paranoia in this city is about to ratchet higher than it's ever been before as neighbors turn against neighbors, siblings against siblings, and fathers against sons.  The chances that someone will care enough to report a couple of fugitives from the murderous High Priest is going to be very low - not that I intend to test that assumption.

[Lorennia *does* have an extraordinary Willpower, and she has seen the dagger burn away the fog before, so she recognizes that it must be falling over her again, attempting to infiltrate and manipulate her thoughts.

Roll 4k3 d10.  (roll 4 d10 dice, keep the highest 3 results.  On a natural 10, roll that die again and add +10, so for example if you roll a 10, roll again and get a 4, that die roll would count as 14.)

Post total here here.]

[LorenniaNailo]

37 (14, 15, 8, 7)