Don't Stab The Messenger

SUMMARY: Hetzakoatl interrupts the assassination of a messenger. Yelrona and Kira help. This is part of a POP for Rona, legworks etc. welcome.

The sounds of battle coming from upstairs would be unremarkable in a place like the Ox-Blood, but here they attract some attention. Still, nobody seems too interested in getting involved, so they just stare awkwardly at the roof.

Lost in thought, with a book in one of her clawed-hands, the sounds of battle do not intrude too deeply into her consciousness. Not at first. The white-scale reads on, only occasionally reaching out to sample a large mug of something hot. Whatever is in the mug seems good to her, as she sniffs deeply at it, and mutters to herself its intrinsict pleasurable properties. It is only when a particularly loud bang, followed by a veritable cascade of dust, which lands upon the page she absorbs... does she notice. Looking annoyed at the disturbance, she huffs on the page, blowing away the offending debris. Another shower of the stuff has her slamming the book down. Looking even more annoyed at having to get up, as it seems to pain her, the Sith-maker begins the slow journey to the stairs and upwards, leaning heavily upon the ancient staff she bears.

As the Sith-makar reaches the top of the stairs, a door opens from one of the rooms, revealing a tall man with dark black skin wearing grey leathers and a matching cap. The man sees her and immediately bolts towards the window at the far end of the hall.

The white-scale hisses noisily in surprise, her jaw opening wide to reveal a mouthful of fangs and sharp teeth. A loud gurgling sound is heard, and fog and frost form around her open mouth. She suddenly slams her mouth shut, perhaps deciding against turning the upper hallway into a winter wonderland, and instead sends her staff sailing down the hallway in a twirling, end-over-end toss. "HALT!", she yells, immediately coughing noisily into her sleeve afterwards.

The man ignores her completely, fleeing even as the staff strikes him on the hip as he approaches the window.

GAME: Hetzakoatl rolls bull rush+4: (8)+bull rush+4: 12

Hetzakoatl snarls and raises up one of her hands, making a pushing motion. A torrent of water bursts forth and travels the length of the hallway. It takes the man's feet out from underneath him, landing him solidly on his behind. Letting out a grunt, the white-scale surges forward, with a limp that favours her left leg. "You do not what to see what I can do with fire, ssoft-skin.", she growls out. "Stay down, or you shall find out."

The man falls heavily, and a bloody knife is visible in his left hand. As Hetzakoatl charges forward she can see a humanoid figure through the door he came through, bleeding out on the floor. The dagger-wielder is ignoring her threat, getting hastily back to his feet.

GAME: Hetzakoatl rolls intimidate: (19)+4: 23

Well, OK, not ignoring it precisely... he's clearly a bit thrown by it, and is accordingly slow to react.

Hetzakoatl tsks as she sees the body on the ground, and eyes the man a moment, and then the person in the room. She turns to face the stairway. "SEND AID! Someone has been stabbed and bleeds to their deathsss!" She eyes the man again, eyes narrowing, before she heads into the room to kneel by the person on the floor.

GAME: Hetzakoatl rolls ranged: (5)+2: 7

Hetzakoatl tsks as she sees the body on the ground, and eyes the man a moment, and then the person in the room. She turns to face the stairway. "SEND AID! Someone has been stabbed and bleeds to their deathsss!" She eyes the man again, eyes narrowing as she reaches for something in a pouch. She tosses something towards the man, something not unlike a leafy looking ball, but it bounces off a doorway, and rolls down the stairs instead. Eyeing the stairway, she heads into the room to kneel by the person on the floor.

The figure on the floor is female, likely a human/Mul halfbreed, and bleeding heavily from several knife-wounds in her belly. She is unconscious and near death. Downstairs, the sounds of motion can be heard.

As can the crashing of a window from nearer to the door.

GAME: Hetzakoatl rolls perception: (11)+7: 18

GAME: Hetzakoatl rolls heal: (4)+1: 5

It's clear from the state of the woman's clothes that someone was searching her for something in them after she was stabbed. And she's continuing to bleed out.

ALso, you can hear someone else coming up the stairs behind you, swearing at the sticky mess on them.

Hetzakoatl moves to lift the woman from the floor, grunting with the strain. "Come quickly! She iss dying.", she says, moving towards the stairway.

Yelrona finally makes it to the top of the stairs, stops for a moment at the sight of the broken window and the soaked hallway, moves cautiously into the room, clearly alert for a trap. "What happened?"

Yelrona kneels down next to the bleeding body in the sith-makar's arms. "Hey boss," she calls out, "no time for the whole rigamarole, can you take care of this now and I'll pray twice as much later?" The coyote medallion around her neck glows, as do her hands, and as the touches the bleeding half-elf her wounds glow and heal.

"What happened?"

Hetzakoatl holds still so that Yelrona can do her thing, the Sith rolling her shoulders. "A massked man came running from thiss room as I got to the top of the stairss. I'd heard some thumpss and noises up here, and sso I came to invesstigate. I assumed firsst that he wass a thief, but then I ssaw her lying on the floor. She may have been ssearched, her body was in a bit of dissarray." The white-scale breathes a long sigh out her nose.

Yelrona nods grimly. "That... makes sense." She looks at the window and sighs. "No point in going after him, I'll never catch up. Better to find out what I can here, I guess. Do you know who she is?"

"I managed to knock him over with a spell, but I wass then torn between seeing to her or enssuring he didn't escape. I threw a tanglefoot bag at him.", Hetza says, with a sheeping expression forming on her face. "I missed, and it bounced and rolled down the stairss. Will she live?"

Yelrona nods. "Ah. That explains the tanglefoot resin. And... I think so, yes, but it was a close thing. We should probably take her to the Soldier's Repose, but for now I think it's probably best to just let her rest."

A small crowd has gathered in the hall now, including an anxious-looking housekeeper. "Eluna's Mercy... look at this mess! The carpet is soaked, and the window is shattered, and what is that garbage on the stairs, I have to CLEAN that, and - aaaaaa!!" She shrieks as she enters the room and sees the bloody body.

Hetzakoatl nods in reply. "Perhaps you and I should take turnss sitting by her bedside? In casse she sshould awaken? Or that her attacker may return? I can sit first with her, if you dessire?" She looks to the woman then, "Yess, that man who jumped out the window has created mosst of this messss."

"As the lady said," Rona chimes in, "there was an attempted murder in this room, and the assassin fled when challenged." The housekeeper is clearly trying to find some way to blame this on one of them, but is thwarted.

Hetzakoatl looks back to Yelrona. "We can hide her in my room, for now. And ssee to moving her to Alexandria in the morning, if she iss able."

"Taking her to the city in the morning makes sense," Rona agrees, "but I'd rather not move her at all right now." Rona considers. "But I'll tell you what... why don't we just keep this room rented for the lady, and I'll pick up the tab. We can take turns sitting up with her, like you suggested. And this should cover cleaning the bloodstains," she adds, placing some coins in the housekeeper's palm -- coins they both understand perfectly well her management will never hear about. "And maybe you could tell us what you know about your unfortunate guest?"

Hetzakoatl nods and moves to carefully deposit the woman onto the bed. "Sshould we get bandagess?"

Yelrona nods. "Good idea. The bleeding has stopped, but it could start again easily enough. Do you have any handy?"

Hetzakoatl shakes her head. "Ssadly, no, not thiss time around. I ssuppose we could acquire some." The white-scale eyes the bedsheets curiously.

Yelrona chuckles, and eyes the housekeeper, who pointedly turns her back and announces that she's going to go clean the hallway and has no idea what's going on in this room. She closes the door behind her, and Rona laughs outright. "Sounds like a plan, then," and she starts ripping the sheets into strips.

Hetzakoatl carefully pulls away the woman's clothing, to reveal the wounds below. "Hmmm. I think perhapss you should deal with binding her woundss. My hands are not besst suited to this sort of work."

"I can do that," Rona agrees, and begins to dress the woman's healed wounds. "So, anyway... how have you been settling in to Alexandria? I assume you've heard about the power change in Charn?"

Hetzakoatl hmms and lets out a breath. "I am unable to make it to Mictlan, despite my attemptss. I ssuppose Alexandria will have to do, at ssome point."

Yelrona nods. "I don't really understand what happened to the Mictlan, to be honest," she admits, "but as you say, it has become unaccessable. Your shamans tell me it's related to the Corruption of the Wild, and the sylvanori ritual Ga'Elian's people did to protect the Druid Grove... but all I know about such things is what I'm told."

Hetzakoatl coughs into her sleeve and shrugs. "I am cut off from my people. And missing many friendss. Hopefully thingss can be made right. Eventually."

"I hope so," Rona agrees. "I mean, the Felwood has been an encroaching threat for centuries, and that's unlikely to change any time soon, but this new incursion I'm confident we'll find a way to beat back." She thinks about that and adds "Well, no, I'm lying. I have no idea if we will. It's just that we have to."

Hetzakoatl chuckles then, again coughing into her sleeve. "We have to persevere, iss what we have to do." She eyes the Mul woman and then Yelrona. "Do you know why she might be attacked?"

Yelrona hesitates before answering, then nods. "I think I might, yes. I think she was here to deliver something to me," she says, "and someone didn't want her to."

Hetzakoatl pauses, slowly raising an eyebrow. "You don't know her, but you knew she wass to deliver something to you? What were you expecting, if I may be sso bold as to ask? What would be worth her life?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that I received a message to meet someone here -- this Inn, this room -- who would give me answers to some of the questions I've been investigating. And when I got here, well... that part, you already know. So... I doubt that's a coincidence. But she's still alive, thanks to you, and I hope that once she wakes up she'll be able to explain some things."

"I am disssapointed that I could not stop the man from leaving.", the white-scale says quietly. "I am but one persson who had to walk two pathss at the same time."

Yelrona nods. "Absolutely. And you chose to save her life, which is absolutely the right choice. I wasn't going to be able to catch up to him anyway, and his trail will still be there in the morning." As Hetzakoatl rearranges the woman's clothing, she notices a small scar a few inches below and to the right of the woman's navel.

Hetzakoatl hmms, "It is the right choice, in the end. But it leavess us with a lack of information." She points to a scar on the woman's body. "That... does not seem to be accidental."

"Hmm?" Rona looks up from what she was doing and examines the scar Hetzakoatl points out. "Hrm."

GAME: Yelrona rolls heal: (4)+10: 14

Yelrona shrugs. "You're right, it doesn't. But I have no idea what it is, do you?"

GAME: Hetzakoatl rolls Heal: (14)+1: 15

Hetzakoatl shakes her head slowly. "It is an intentional sscar. It's too perfect a cut to be accidental. Ssurgery?"

Yelrona thinks about that. "Could be, sure. You don't see much of it, magical healing for diseases and the like is so much more effective... but I've certainly read about it." She makes a note in a small book she pulls from her pocket. "Add it to the list of mysteries, I guess."

Kira has arrived.

"Indeed. Though, perhaps it was not for healing, but to remove or add something to her body?", the white-scale says. "Perhapss something Magic isn't able to do, yet?"

"It could be," Rona agrees. "Or maybe she was in a situation where there wasn't any magic available for some reason. Or no healing magic, anyway... arcane spellcasters are no good at it. And artificers... hm." She thinks about that.

Hetzakoatl nods slowly. "Yes, arcane sorcery hass a distinct lack of healing choicess. Including sorcererss. Such as I."

"That's true," Rona agrees. "And it occurs to me that I have been involved in rather a lot of mysterious artficer business lately. This might be related," she muses.

Dead bodies aren't happy things, especially since they mean that someone died! That news is enough to get Kira's attention from helping the displaced and corrupted-ground-touched in the area. She really hopes that the person is only mostly dead, so she can help them. Then she hears things that suggest someone else might be hurt. So she knocks on the door. "Excuse me? Does someone need healing?"

Hetzakoatl raises an eyeridge slowly. "That is an interessting coincedence indeed. However I disslike coincedencess. Sso perhapss it is a place to start looking." She goes silent when somene pops their head in to ask about healing. Slowly standing, the Sith-makar gestures to the woman on the bed. "She is stable thanks to her.", the white-scaled one gestures to Yelrona, "But the wounded one might use a more thorough going over now that she is out of danger."

Yelrona blinks in surprise at the knock on the door, then in suspicion. Where there was one assassin, there might be others, though She draws her bow, just to be on the safe side, but doesn't notch an arrow. "Yes?" As the door opens she regards the young woman skeptically, but nods agreement with the sith-makar. "Absolutely. She was almost dead when I arrived, and curative spells can do only so much." She gestures an invitation to Kira to look at the body, which is laid out on the bed.

Kira blinks. Twice. First at the sudden sharp things pointed her way, to which she holds up her hands placatingly. Then is the sight of the woman on the bed covered in blood. "Oh my! Yes, thank you." She promptly steps to the not-dead? woman to examine her, while also asking. "What happened?"

"That much is mosstly unknown. But she was stabbed multiple timess, posssibly by a massked man who I saw fleeing thiss room." The white-scale takess up a position by the door, and shuts it behind Kira. "She hass not yet awoken to inform us as to what transspired."

Yelrona puts her bow away as it becomes clear that Kira is not going to attack them. She nods agreement with Hetz. "Exactly. She was hanging on by a thread when I arrived, and I was still able to cure her wounds, thank Tarien. But it was a close thing. We're keeping an eye on her for now rather than move her, I figure we can take her to the Repose tomorrow."

GAME: Kira rolls heal: (19)+15: 34

You paged Kira with 'OK! You learn a bunch of things. The body is consistent with what the two of them were saying. But there's some weirdness about her coloration, and when you look more closely you detect subtle indicators that she's been poisoned, probably a blade venom. She'll probably die within the hour, with no real sign of it until it's too late. She has a small scar, decades old, consistent with an appendectomy, which is actually really strage in Ea, where it's usually way easier to find a cleric who can cure disease than someone capable of doing that level of surgery. She's a half-Mul, if I didn't mention that already, and has a small collection of healed scars suggestive of a long career surviving being wounded, not the sort of thing a normal person would notice but geez that roll. She was killed with a dagger, multiple stabs, defensive wounds indicating that she struggled but was overcome. Some of the really old scars -- decades old -- are suggestive of torture rather than combat. So she is alive, stable but unconscious, mostly healed of her wounds (a single Cure Moderate), but also poisoned with a sneaky slow-acting assassin's kind of poison that a less perceptive healer would simply not have noticed.' 

Kira uses some of the torn sheets not used as bandages to try and clean up some of the blood. Not just to be courteous, but to check for any concealed wounds. "That's horrible! Why would anyone just attack someone like that..." It's a real question for her, but she knows many think it more rhetorical.

Hetzakoatl hmms and glances to Yelrona a moment, before regarding Kira with icy grey eyes. "That quesstion hass been posed and we are working on the meanss to answer it. The ansswer, as ssuch, is half formed. If she were to awake, we would be closser, one hopess, to the resolution."

Kira's lips purse. "I think she's been poisoned, maybe from the weapon that attacked her. She looks to have suffered so much in the past, too..." The thought makes Kira nearly frown, though only nearly. "The poison could kill her even if all her wounds are tended. I don't think that I can cure it here. We should take her to the temple healers, immediately."

Yelrona blinks, startled. "Poisoned?!?" She had no idea, but the Althean sure does sound confident. "Right. Yes. Of course. Is she safe to carry?"

Hetzakoatl ohs and nods. "That makes this more serious indeed. Though, I supposse we might not be entirely ssurprised that perhapss the knife was poissoned. Inssurance of her death."

Kira nods. Twice. "She isn't healthy, but carrying her can't do any more harm than not taking her to the temple will cause." She looks perturbed by the situation, but a briefly bruised or uncomfortable life is better than a loss of one. She rolls the woman some to try and wrap her up in the bedcloth to make her ready to move and keep her warm.