Do you want to make a snow man?
Jhelnae had somehow gotten the Stone of Golorr?
The surprise and even disbelief of that thought ran through Aleina's mind as she sprinted with the others after the half-drow out a side door of the Pink Flumph theater and into a narrow alley. Straggling stagehands and musicians leaving the building at a more leisurely pace glanced their way as they raced by. Hard packed dirt underfoot and darkness gave way to cobblestones and lamppost light as they left the alley onto Warrior's Way. Jhelnae slowed to a fast walk and joined the flow of evening foot traffic heading north.
If she hoped to avoid attention by not running, she failed - their still hurried pace drew gazes as did the illusory uniforms they wore from the spell cast earlier giving the impression the companions wore the green-and-goldenrod doublets of the Watch. That same spell also disguised the half-drow as a moon-elf and masked Aleina's aasimar features - her pale hair, skin, and eyes that seemed to glow like moonlight - into those of a more typical human.
"Hold on a moment," Kuhl said when Jhelnae cast a fearful glance back towards the theater. "What happened? How did you end up with the stone?"
Apparently, Aleina wasn't the only one having trouble mentally keeping up with unfolding events. But Jhelnae didn't slow at all, just shook her head and motioned for them to follow.
"There was this faerie dragon…" she said.
The aasimar heard no more than that. Partly because the rattle of the wheels of a passing carriage and the clopping of the hooves of the team of horses drawing it drowned out Jhelnae's words, but mostly because she spoke facing away from them. She was apparently more intent on quickly getting away from the theater than communicating what had happened while she was invisible.
Sky gave a growl of frustration, put on a burst of speed, and grabbed the rushing half-drow by the shoulder, forcing her to stop.
"I got that you have the stone," the tabaxi said, tail lashing in irritation. "And something about a faerie dragon, which I'm really curious about, but I didn't hear anything else. What. Happened?"
"There was a faerie dragon," Jhelnae began again, then her eyes widened. "By all that dances! Wishes couldn't delay them long. I hope she is alright. Come on!"
She pointed, turned, and ran, not even trying to disguise it as a fast walk this time. Aleina looked back to where her friend pointed and found someone else pointing back from the entrance to the alley next to the theater. It was a woman. She still wore pieces of the shiny gold costume and some of her makeup from her role as the titular lamia in Kiss of the Lamia. But the aasimar immediately focused on those she spoke with instead - the black robed man, the green robed woman with partially revealed tattoos at her hairline, the big brute with the burn-scarred cheek and neck, and a new face, a stunning half-elven woman with scarlet red hair.
"Who is Wishes?" Sky asked, confused. "Is that the name of the faerie dragon?"
"Nevermind," the aasimar said. "Run!"
"Maybe we can lose them in the Market," Kuhl said. "It's just ahead."
They ran, the half-drow leading the way and, strangely, the tabaxi trailing behind despite her natural speed and possession of magic boots of speed.
"Why are we running?" she asked.
"Because people who want the stone are behind us that way," Jhelnae snapped.
They came to the end of Warrior's Way to Bazaar Street, which ran along the great open air market's southern edge. Aleina had lost track of time during the play's performance, but it must not be too late as crowds still gathered on either side of Bazaar Street to wait for the traffic warden to signal with his blue hand flag that it was safe to cross. The aasimar could now smell the mixing scents from some of the nearest stalls of the Market - a batter-fried silverfin stand, a vendor selling skewers of sautéed meat, onions, potatoes, and garlic, one selling shou noodle dishes, and another selling flower bouquets. She spared a glance backward while her group waited for a towering horse drawn dray to trundle past.
What she saw made her nervous. Their pursuers closed the intervening distance between them as they waited. The dark-haired, black robed man even offered a conspiratorial nod and smile as he met her gaze.
"Blue flag," Jhelnae said. "Let's go."
They crossed, the traffic warden giving them a little wave with the yellow flag he held in his lowered hand. The aasimar hoped the same yellow flag would be raised when the black robed man and his companions tried to follow across the street.
"Keep hold of that stone," Kuhl muttered. "We don't want to lose it to a random pickpocket."
"Not my first time here, Kuhl," Jhelnae whispered back.
But the half-drow did put a hand over her belt pouch.
"The reason I'm wondering why we are running," Sky said. "Is, we're the Watch. With badges and everything. Shouldn't they be running from us?"
"What are you saying? That we should arrest a Red Wizard of Thay?" Jhelnae asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "Not to mention this Manshoon character?"
"Not by ourselves," the tabaxi explained. "The traffic warden would help. They'd also help. And summon more help with their whistles."
She flicked a clawed finger towards a pair of Watch officers, immediately recognizable in their green-and-goldenrod doublets and tall steel helmets, standing at the nearby entrance to the maze of vendor stalls. Each was equipped with a long truncheon, a buckler, and a whistle hanging about their necks.
"Also," Sky said. "Wouldn't any nearby members of the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors help?"
"You're right," Aleina said.
She herself and Jhelnae had signed up as members of the Watchful Order with the Blackstaff, Vajra Safhr and members of the Watchful Order were supposed to help the city authorities if needed. But Kuhl had picked up on the reluctance in her tone.
"But there are too many bystanders," he said, finishing her thought. "Who knows how many would get hurt or killed if we tried to arrest them or if we'd even be successful. We can't. Not here. Not now."
"And those smug bastards know that," the half-drow growled. "So, they feel perfectly safe trailing behind us and waiting for an opportunity to take the stone."
That rationale in mind, the aasimar approached the pair of Watch constables with the others with only a wave and nod of acknowledgement.
"Haven't seen you lot before," one of the officers greeted. "No helms? No sticks? No bucklers? How'd you manage that?"
"Off duty," Kuhl said with a shrug.
"Off duty and still partly uniformed?" the other constable sniggered to his fellow. "Raw recruits, newly badged and as dumb and fresh faced as we were."
"Way I see it, fresher and prettier faced. Lucky half-elf gets them in his recruit class while I got the likes of you."
This was Aleina's first time visiting the Market at night. It was different than during the day. More like a festival than a place for shopping. All around Waterdhavians drank, ate, and laughed in chairs and small tables set up in knotted bunches under flickering, multicolored lanterns hanging from stall fronts. And while there were less merchants present at night, they clustered in one area, making the place feel just as active and crowded as during the day. It also seemed to be a different set of vendors than from those in daytime, ones focused on serving food, drink, and providing entertainment rather than on selling farm produce, clothes, spices, and household wares.
A string puppet show of a knight fighting a silk dragon so large it took two black clad puppeteers to control it played in one corner of the open square between the stands the companions entered while a different performer in another corner juggled flaming torches. Labyrinthine paths led off through the stalls in all directions and it seemed the perfect place to try and lose someone in the confusion.
"Which way?" Aleina asked. "The Trollskull? The palace? Head straight there or go a different direction and double back?"
Behind them she caught glimpses of the dark robed man and his companions making their way through the crowd. They'd closed the distance.
"The palace," Kuhl said. "Let's go to the right, run the moment we're out of sight, and double back."
The aasimar nodded. When someone who might be the legendary villain Manshoon chased you, seeking the protection of an equally legendary figure, Laeral Silverhand, the daughter of the goddess of magic, made sense.
But things went wrong the moment they quickened their strides to enact their plan. The first warning sign came with the seemingly innocent dropping of a partially eaten meat pie.
"What in the Nine?" the thin, gray-haired dropper said, mournfully looking down.
"Ow!" a halfling said, rubbing his nose and then feeling ahead of him with his hands. "What gives?"
He acted like one of those pantomimes who performed for coin and pretended to be stuck in a box, except they remained silent while he complained loudly as did the others who started doing the same thing. Within a couple of steps, the aasimar and her companions reached the invisible barrier themselves. It felt distressingly solid.
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae growled.
"I do so love an evening stroll," a calm, cultured voice called out. "But an evening run? No, that will never do. I believe you have something that belongs to me?"
Aleina turned to find the black robed man, flanked by his companions, facing her group across the market square, the crowd rapidly slipped away to the sides to clear the space between them.
"Aleina, fly!" her half-drow friend whispered in her ear while pushing something small, oval, and hard into her palm. "Get it out of his reach!
She gave the aasimar a shove when she hesitated.
"Go!" she hissed under her breath. "He wanted a crowd! Next, he'll take a hostage!"
In a prescient moment, Aleina could see it playing out just as her friend described. Hostages would be taken, perhaps even one of the children who still stood in front of the now halted dragon puppet show, and the coldness in the black robed man's eyes told her any hostages would be killed as well, one after the other, in rapid succession until they gave him the stone. Their only choice would be to give it up long before any meaningful threat from the Watch or the Order of Magists could be brought to bear. Or, they could give the man no hope of getting it before a single hostage was taken.
The aasimar took a breath and summoned her wings, leaping into the air even as they formed and carried her aloft.
Bolts of flame sizzled past her head as she flew upward and snuffed themselves out on the invisible barrier behind her, cast from the tattooed woman and the other with scarlet hair. Screams of panic erupted as Aleina spun and dodged higher into the air. Light blazed from the Dawnbringer's radiance as Kuhl ignited her and sprinted across the square with a bellow, causing more cries of fear from onlookers. A beam of energy crackled across the square from Jhelnae's summoned abyssal blade, but the black robed man deflected it with a shield of magical force conjured by a casual wave of his hand. Another pair of flaming attacks came at Aleina, these flew harmlessly up into the night sky, perhaps thrown off by the distraction of the half-elf's charge. The aasimar spied a tall, two-story temple-like building constructed of marble at the west end of the Market and sped towards its rooftop, deciding to secure the stone there.
Time was on her friend's side. Eventually enough Watch officers would converge. Eventually enough members of the Watchful Order would come to help. She just hoped they could hold out long enough to survive.
"Selune, help us," she prayed with a glance at the moon above.
The goddess either hadn't heard or wasn't in the mood for broad, open-ended prayer granting. As Aleina neared the temple-like building, something scalded into her back, and she screamed in agony as her wings winked out of existence. Momentum, thankfully, carried her to the edge of the rooftop to tumble atop its slate tiled surface, a fall of half a dozen feet instead of two stories.
She called on healing magic. This prayer, at least, was granted, and pain ebbed as the burned flesh of her back stitched itself back together as she rolled to see who had scorched out of the sky.
The black robed man flew in pursuit on a giant hand of conjured force, with one hand, the flesh one rather than the metal one, held in an open palmed gesture that mimicked the giant one. Aleina decided she thoroughly hated this giant hand spell since the necromancer in the battle of Uluvin used the same one to punch her to the ground.
"It was going to be, 'give up the stone or watch people die'," the man said, stepping from the magic hand to the rooftop. "But 'give up the stone or die yourself' works."
Aleina didn't answer, just kept scrambling back, fighting down rising panic. What could she do? She'd seen the way he casually blocked Jhelnae's attack as if it were nothing. But there was no way she'd meekly give up the stone to this smug bastard either, she decided.
She'd never be able to live with herself!
Slipping the stone into her belt pouch she stood and pulled out her moonstone orb. No time for the defense of her warding armor. She held up the orb purposefully and concentrated.
Nothing happened.
The aasimar tried again and again, still nothing.
"Angry stares," the man said. "A furrowed brow. Very cute and fetching to some men, I'm sure. And you aren't even a member of the Watch. No more stalling please. The stone."
Aleina's shoulders sagged and she hung her head in defeat. This was the legendary Manshoon. He'd taken away her access to magic and dropped the seeming spell giving the illusion she wore a green-and-goldenrod doublet as if it were nothing.
But then something unexpected happened. As he stepped away from the roof edge, stride confident, the giant conjured hand now floating protectively in front of him flickered then vanished.
"What?" he questioned, gaze confused as he looked at the empty space his spell wrought hand once occupied.
The loss of her magic was not his doing! His spell had also failed.
"We're atop the Cynosure," he mused aloud. "The dead zone, of course."
He looked again to the aasimar.
"The stone, girl," he said, flesh and blood palm outstretched. "Now."
She did not miss the note of panic now in his voice and smiled.
"You want it?" she said, dropping into one of the fighting stances Hlam had shown her during training atop Mount Waterdeep. "Come and get it."
He retreated to the roof's edge first, brought fire to his hand and cast it at her. But like the giant magic hand before it, the fire flickered then snuffed out of existence well before it reached her. Aleina crept further back up the roof and, she hoped, further into the magic dead zone.
"Give me that stone!" the black robed man raged.
There was no hint of his urbane and cultured reserve now and his face contorted in rage.
"I heard you," the aasimar said. "And I said, come get it."
"I will bludgeon you into a pulp!" he yelled, brandishing his metal hand into a fist.
But something happened as he crossed the invisible boundary into the magic dead zone. Sweat seemed to suddenly pour off him and he barely managed another step. A wave of chill air enveloped Aleina as she sped forward and kicked him in the chest hard enough to send him tumbling head over heels backward down the slope of the roof and sailing over the edge. The aasimar half-expected to see the black robed man rising up, caught by a new hastily conjured giant hand, and ready to fight. But a satisfying splatting sound came from below instead.
Yet another surprise waited for her when she crawled her way to the roof edge. A vaguely man-shaped patch of snow rather than a dead body lay on the ground. She just stared, confused, unable to comprehend what she looked at, until a pair of Watch constables came running down the steps of the building to see what was going on.
This temple-like building was at the edge of the Market and while the entire open space was filled with vendors during the day, it was smaller at night, and no one but the two Watch men were around.
"Excuse me," she yelled down at them, pointing. "What does that look like to you?"
"Looks like a big patch of melting snow," came the reply. "Which is a bit out of season."
"Yeah, just a bit," his companion scoffed.
"Oh good," the aasimar yelled back. "I thought I might be seeing things."
The approach of a griffon rider stayed whatever else the two below might have said.
"Kuhl said you might need help," Savra Belabranta called out over the beating of wings. "But I took that to mean more than you were perched like a gargoyle on a rooftop and needed help down. I take it you took care of the one who chased you?"
Aleina pointed down towards the ground.
"What, by the missing hand of Tyr," the griffon rider exclaimed. "Is that? It looks like a patch of melting snow."
"Hells if I know," the aasimar shrugged. "It was a black robed wizard."
"Well, since you seemingly report directly to the Open Lord," Savra called out, somehow making a yell sound like an exasperated sigh. "You can report this to her. And she can share it with my superiors as needed. I'm done for tonight. Snapper and I were on our way back to the Peaktop Aerie when some idiot lit up the market with a sun sword, making me divert to learn what was going on. But since I'm here, want help down?"
Aleina actually didn't need help down. Practice had given her a greater affinity with her magical energy and now she could fly longer and more than once before needing to rest, but she nodded anyway.
"Hold still," the griffon rider said. "Don't worry. Bonesnapper has been trained for this."
Having a griffon named 'Bonesnapper' grasp you in his talons seemed a very bad idea, but it was already happening, and she'd agreed to it. Thankfully, the griffon was quite gentle. Her companions ran up as her boots touched the ground.
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae yelled, gathering her in a fierce embrace. "You're alright! Thank the gods! I didn't know he'd be able to chase you if you flew away!"
"I'm fine," the aasimar said. "I kicked him off the roof and he became that pile of snow."
"What?" Sky asked, toeing the melting snow curiously. "Did you get magic boots of snow-kick-freezing or something?"
"No to the magic boots," Aleina said. "Also, I'm having trouble breathing."
Jhelnae laughed, squeezed her tighter for a moment, then let her go. But Kuhl was there to take her place, though his hug was brief and less crushing despite his greater size and strength.
"Glad you're alright," he said with a relieved sigh. "We feared the worst."
"Everyone stop fussing," the aasimar said, extricating herself. "I'm fine. What happened at the Market? Anyone hurt? You capture any of them? Or did they also turn to snow?"
She actually felt far better than fine. Mere minutes ago, she'd been prepared to die in a final burst of slung spells. Yet somehow, by a miracle of location, she was alive! Elated euphoria filled her.
"No one hurt," the half-elf said. "The other three fled the moment this one took off after you."
He pointed at the melting pile of snow next to them, which was already much smaller and no longer man shaped.
"By 'fled' he means the former Red Wizard made the burnt one disappear," the half-drow said. "Then disappeared herself. We chased the other one, but she got away."
"But I found her dress," Sky said, tail lashing and golden eyes bright. "She'd stripped it off behind one of the stalls?"
"Stripped it off?" Aleina asked, brow wrinkling in confusion.
"Are supposed to be on the lookout for a naked fugitive?" one of the constables asked with a laugh. "Because we'll join in that hunt."
The aasimar had been so focused on her friends she'd almost forgotten the presence of the Watch officers, the griffon and rider. Jhelnae gave the speaker a sidelong glance but ignored the question.
"It was the shapeshifter," she said, focusing back on Aleina. "The one from the Jade Dancer who took my form. I'm sure of it."
"So they ran away the moment they had no chance of getting…" the aasimar began, then looked at the constables and the Savra and trailed off.
If that weren't telling enough, she instinctively put a protective hand on her belt pouch as well.
"I don't suppose you are going to share with these constables and myself what this is all about?" the griffon rider asked, staring down from the saddle with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe someday," Kuhl said with an apologetic shrug.
"I'll hold you to that," Savra said. "Well lads, back to your post. Apparently, based on the judgment of her high magicness, our Open Lord, whatever these four tavern owners are about is beyond our pay grade. And I've decided I just don't care. It's the Peaktop Aerie, a glass of wine, and a soft pillow for me."
With a flick of her reins and clicks of her tongue, Bonesnapper launched himself skyward.
"Please don't cause a general panic in any more market places until I've had a good eight bells of sleep," she yelled down as she flew away.
Aleina couldn't have answered even if she wanted as for several moments those on the ground needed to just shield their eyes from the dust and bits of snow spray the beat of the griffon's wings stirred up into the air.
Apparently, the words of a griffon rider were enough to convince a pair of Watch constables they no longer needed to investigate a pile of melting snow that had been kicked off a rooftop, because they started towards the broad steps of the marble temple-like building after a nod of farewell.
"Eight bells of sleep," Kuhl yawned. "That sounds very good right now."
"I think you mean twelve," Jhelnae put in. "Or more."
"Have you all lost your minds?" Sky said, golden eyes bright. "You wish you could sleep? When we have the Stone of Golorr? Let's see it!"
Aleina pulled it from her belt pouch, curious herself. In all the confusion, she'd never had a chance to examine it. The oval, glossy, greenish-gray stone fit comfortably in the palm of her hand. Three green gemstone 'eyes' were vertically oriented near its center. Everyone bent in for a closer look.
Which is probably how the man snuck up on them because all of them started in surprise at the sound of his resonant, silvery voice.
"Luring the simulacrum to the magical dead zone of the Cynosure. Very clever. Very clever indeed."
The speaker was a handsome, well-built man swathed in expensive looking green and gold silk that well suited the umber brown of his skin and long, curly dark hair.
"I applaud you," he said, pantomiming applause. "As a long time resident of Waterdeep, it gladdens me to know she still has Watch officers of such resourcefulness. I couldn't help but overhear that you report directly to the Open Lord?"
Aleina opened her mouth to deny it, but something in his gaze captivated her. Were his eyes brown or red? Whichever color they were, they were certainly spellbinding. She lost herself in his gaze for a moment, relaxed, smiled, and nodded.
"Aleina?" Jhelnae said, voice concerned.
"That is good," the aasimar's new friend said. "I have information she will find useful. Interesting. Shall I convey it to you over drinks?"
"Drinks sound good," Aleina said, before any of the others could protest.
The dead magic zone qualities of the Cynosure I got from Realmshelp which says because of the death of the avatar of Myrkul during the Time of Troubles that: "The minor planar breach has allowed the Fugue Plane's impeded magic trait (all spells are impeded; Spellcraft DC 20 + level to cast) to leech into this area."
So then I was like, "Well, what if Aleina fought Manshoon's simulacrum there? Then she could beat it..."
Next up, Interview with a Vampire...