In our favorite barricaded room in the basement of The Chapel, Coriol peeks hopefully through the hole in the door. The Black Cloaks outside struggle against the vines he has wrapped them in for a moment before one is able to wriggle an arm free, strike a match, and toss it into the pool of oil at the base of the door. There is a whoosh and Coriol stumbles backwards as a gout of flames bursts through the hole in the door. We hear cursing from outside as the door ignites and smoke billows in towards us.

A moment later, Coriol shakes his head and mutters under his breath, “Well, there go my Entangling Vines…”

Upstairs, a Black Cloak feints at Aticus and manages to land two hits, but both swords skitter off Aticus’s thick armor. Another Black Cloak feints at Flare, also landing two hits, but his swords find weaknesses in Flare’s armor and knick the Flame Elemental inside.

JPG GET DETAILS FROM RECORDING Igni get feinted, missed some details due to Sophie

Aticus and Flare both swing at the Black Cloaks they are engaged with but miss their marks.

I start to murmur the familiar words of the Lifegiver spell, hoping to give Coriol an advantage once we manage to get out the door, but I choke on smoke and cannot manage to get out the last few words. I pull out my flask of holy water instead and wet the ends of my sleeve and Coriol’s sleeve.

“Breathe through this,” I gasp, “it will help prevent you from breathing the smoke.”

Upstairs, Igni growls “I don’t have time for this!” and pulls out his vampire sword. The runes along the blade, which normally glow a dull silver, flare a deep crimson red, fog whispers at edges of blade, Black Cloak dodges out of the way

Coriol throws his shoulder into the wooden door in desperation and bounces right off

Black Cloak Igni barks “Ley’s get out of here, the building is about to go!”

As one unit, the three Black Cloaks turn to run. They dive and roll towards the door, making any chance of parting blows impossible.

JPG STUFF HAPPENED HEERE FIND IT

Downstairs, I look through the crates and barrels frantically. The barrels are sturdy and well-craftedanwell-constructed barrels, maybe liquid, maybe grain first is empty, second sloshes, rip open top of barrel, it’s water! Start pulling barrel towards door

JPG ALSO SOME MINOR DETAILS HERE

charred corpse sprawled on ground, crawling towards doors when consumed. Igni looks around, listens closely, hears nothing, whoops, Igni calls out, “Hello! Is there anyone down here?”

Coriol answers, “Move the table!”

Igni sees flaming table on flaming wall. Steps into fire to try to move table.

“You don’t have any cookie mix on you, do you?” – Coriol to Agathara

JPG STUFF HAPPENED CHECK IT OUT, MINOR DETAILS

Aticus runs after Black Cloaks but is just not fast enough :( boo knees hurt from face planting, takes a second to get back up to speed

Igni rounds corner, Barbarians sprawled in crates and barrels and things, Black Cloaks are threatening Barbarians, surprise surprise

The first Black Cloak punches a nearby Barbarian woman, while the second Black Cloak grabs a Barbarian man by the hair and holds his sword to his new hostage’s throat.

The hostage-holder shouts, “Stop right there, or I will kill this one!”

Flare immediately slides to a halt, and the standing Black Cloaks start to back away, taking their hostage with them. Flare reaches for the Black Cloak on the ground but can’t get a hold around the man’s flailing arms.

JPG WORDS HERE, GET FROM RECORDING

Aticus rounds the corner to discover the standoff between Flare and the Black Cloaks. He sheathes his sword and walks down the street towards the Black Cloaks, not trying to threaten them but definitely keeping an eye on them.

In the basement of The Chapel, I keep dragging the barrel of water towards the flaming door. “Coriol, help me, I think we can pour this out the hole and onto the flames.” Hearing another thud from outside, I raise my voice. “Igni, we have a barrel of water, we’re going to try to pour it out the door!”

Igni shoves again at the table, but it is much heavier than it looks. It scrapes forward an inch or so as the flames lick around Igni.

Coriol and I manage to lift the barrel up to the hole in the door and pour the precious contents out. There is a huge splash from the other side, and a few thin streams of water trickle down our side of the door. The smoke lightens considerably, and we breathe easier.

In the alley, the Black Cloak at Flare’s feet swings his sword at Flare’s legs and makes contacts with Flare’s shins, but the Fire Elemental is completely unphased.

“Look, we’re serious, back up or they die.” The Black Cloak holding the hostage presses his sword into the Barbarian’s throat; he screams as blood trickles from a fresh wound in his neck.

Aticus raises his hands and backs away slightly. The Barbarian woman on the ground shrieks and cries out, “Help him! Please help him!”

Flare stomps hard on the fallen Black Cloak’s hand, and the man’s sword goes skittering away as he cries out in pain.

Back in the basement, I push against the charred part of the door. It doesn’t budge, and I come away streaked in soot.

I can hear Igni mumbling outside the door. “Stupid table, won’t freakin’ move and now I’m on fire and I’m wet…” Then there’s a scraping sound, presumably the table being pushed out of the way. The building groans, and I know it won’t last much longer.

Coriol pushes against the door, but it sticks in the frame, having been warped by the wood and the water.

In the alley, Aticus whips out his lance and throws it towards the Black Cloak not holding the Barbarian hostage. The lance sails past him, and the Black Cloack smirks, but it doesn’t last long. The lance rips through the Black Cloak’s arm on the way back, and he cries out in anger as the lance returns to Aticus’s hand.

Flare throws Lorvana’s Throwing Shield like a discus towards the Black Cloak holding the hostage. The shield smashes into the face of the Black Cloak, and he stumbles backwards. The Barbarian falls with him, the sword slicing through his throat as they fall. The Barbarian woman wails loudly as the two land in a heap on the ground.

Igni, Coriol, and I work together to pry the door open. With no small amount of kicking, prying, pushing, and pulling, it finally swings open, and Coriol and I tumble out into the cellar. The three of us bolt for the side door and rush into the fresh air outside. We are surrouned by commotion - the screming of people, the roaring of the fire.

The Black Cloak at Flare’s feet manages to stand and immediately trips and falls back onto his stomach as the hostage-holder struggles to shift the corpse of the Barbarian off of him. The lanced Black Cloak shouts, “You will die for this!” and turns to run away, with Aticus pursuing. Flare punches at the man on the ground to keep him down.

“Excuse me,” I say, laying a hand on the arm of a nearby woman, “have you seen anyone leaving The Chapel?”

“Yes,” she responds, her eyes glazing over in her shock. “I saw a glowing suit of armor… and a large muscular man… and a few men in black cloaks…”

“Which way did they go?” Igni is dancing on his toes, and I can tell he’s itching to fight the Black Cloaks.

“That way…” The woman points vaguely in the general direction of town, and we rush off towards our friends.

The Black Cloak Aticus is pursuing starts to pull away as the man at Flare’s feet manages to stand. The previous hostage-holder swears and kicks the body at his feet before turning to charge at Flare. Slams iny\to Flare, launching him back a step or two and grapples with the suit of armor.

Aticus loses Black Cloak

Flare, alone with two Black Cloaks and the wailing woman, GET EXACT ACTION FROM RECORDING BUT THAT GUY IS DEAD

We round the corner to a horrible scene of carnage and gore. Flare demolishes one of the two Black Cloaks we can see as the other stares in horror. I rush to the wailing woman and help her to her feet, murmuring what words of comfort I can find and half-carrying her out of the way of the fight.

“You can either come quietly, or go loudly,” Igni threatens, his Flame Stone (???) flaring up dangerously. The Black Cloak raises his hands and drops to his knees, lowering all but two of his fingers as he does.

The Black Cloak’s eyes shoot venom as he spits, “You’ll pay for this! Your Duke has already been taken care of, and the rest of you will burn.””

Igni’s eyebrows raise. “The Duke has been taken care of? Care to elaborate?” But the Black Cloak remains silent.

Flare lashes the man’s hands behind his back and tosses him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I call over a couple women standing nearby to care for the wailing woman, and they are followed by a large crowd of Barbarians.

“Turn him over to us!” “Vengeance! Vengeance!” “We’ll take care of that Black Cloak for you!”

JPG FIX THINGS HERE

Town Guard rolls up, take Black Cloak into custody for questioning and notify that something may be going on with the Duke

As we debate what to do with the Black Cloak, there is a “caw, caw!” from nearby. We look towards the sound to see a crow perched on the edge of the roof of a nearby house. It caws again and looks at us intently before flapping its wings and hopping to another rooftop a couple houses down, looking at us intently as it lands.

“Are you the basement witch?” Coriol asks, holding out his arm as a potential perch. The crow caws again, flaps its wings and spins a small circle before settling back down onto the roof.

“I think we should follow it,” I murmur.

“Why would we follow a random bird?” Aticus asks.

“Yeah, we’re like… kind of in the middle of a thing here,” Igni adds.

The Town Guards see the bird and spit. “Filthy creature,” one of them growls. “All this destruction and now this, a bad omen of “

“Are you who they talked to a while ago?” Aticus calls to the crow.

The crow caws and flutters its feathers before hopping up and down.

“That looks like a ‘yes’ to me,” Aticus mutters.

JPG FIX THIS Long caw, circles us agitatedly

Aticus walks towards the chapel, gets cut off by bird who flies back down road and perches on house, guards think we’re crazy, but we all head towards town

Guards head toward gate, bird gets to intersection and heads West instead of towards gate

Igni turns to Coriol. “Is this a Familiar?”

Coriol sighs. JPG GET WORDS FROM RECORDING