Sergeant Bennett walked into the guard headquarters with a somewhat strange group of people that drew more than a few eyes. With him were four guards, two civilians that some guards recognized as being Harry and Kateryn Hatch, and the priest Jehan. A few guards said friendly words to him as he walked past, but he quickly walked through the station and up the stairs without stopping to talk, and most of the guards recognized that he seemed to be moving as if something urgent was going on and let him go. They quickly walked up the stairs past the second floor of the guard office and up to the small third floor, where there was only one office, the office of the Captain of the Guard.

As they walk through the door, the Captain's personal assistant was sitting at a long desk in front of the door and looked up from her paperwork in surprise. “Sergeant Bennett! It's nice to see you today. I thought you weren't on duty until later?”

“We have urgent intelligence for the Captain, about a threat to the town.” Bennett said, without slowing down his rapid walking pace. “I'm going in to see him now.”

“Oh. I...uh...” she started to say, but before she could figure out how to respond, the group walked past her and opened the door. Bennett nodded to two of the guards, and they nodded back and took positions on both sides of the door outside the Captain’s office.

“Sergeant Bennett! Is something the matter?” The Captain asked.

“Yes. This priest has information about the monster attack that happened inside the city. The situation seems to be urgent.”

The Captain leaned forward in interest, while the other two guards who had come in with Bennett nonchalantly walked forwards on the left and right side of the group.

“Oh? What's the information?”

“For one thing, it seems, um...” the Sergeant drew it out until the two guards had moved up to be on both sides of the Captain “...some members of the town guard have been affected by mental magic.”

As soon as he said the key phrase, the Captain suddenly yelled and started to draw his sword. The two guards who had quietly moved to outflank him reached out and grabbed both of his arms, holding him in place. The Captain yelled incoherently and slammed his head into the nose of the guard on his left, who collapsed, and then as soon as his left hand was free he swung it around in a broad roundhouse punch into the guard on his right. The poor guard literally flew several feet back and slammed into the back wall, unconscious, and the Captain drew out his sword and rushed Sergeant Bennett.

Sergeant Bennett had his sword out in time to parry the first swing, and the second swing, and the third swing. The Captain was a normal looking man in his 40's, but the speed he was moving at and the strength behind his blows were both intense, and he was attacking frantically and wildly with no attempt to defend himself. It was all Bennett could do to keep up.

Kateryn moved, thrusting the dull end of her spear towards the Captain's legs. She missed his kneecap, but the spear got tangled between his legs, and the Captain tripped over it, falling forwards. Bennett had to quickly jump to the side to avoid the Captain falling onto his sword.

The Captain struck the ground, and Harry jumped on top of his back, pulling his staff across the Captain's neck and pulling it back against his throat, cutting off his air. The Captain coughed and struggled, but after a minute he stopped moving, and Harry pulled the wooden staff away.

“I hope I didn't hurt him too badly” Harry said.

Jehan got down on his knees on the hard-stone floor next to the Captain and held a hand under his nose for a minute. “No, he's still breathing, he should be ok. Hopefully he'll be out for long enough for me to work...” Jehan gently put his hand on the back of the Captain's head, and concentrated, muttering words of prayer under his breath.

Several minutes later, Jehan had finished his work and gone to check on the two guardsmen who had been knocked down early in the fight, when the Captain woke up, groggy. He looked back at them and shook his head slowly.

“Are,” he coughed, “Are the men all right?”

Jehan nodded. “They're both alive, at least. I think you may have broken this man's nose with that headbutt, though.”

The Captain winced, and then looked back at Bennett. “You found out what was happening. Good man. Was...was it just me that woman was controlling, or...”

Bennett shook his head. “She got to me, as well, and a few others we know about. At this point we're assuming she may have gotten to much or all of the command staff. And there's going to be an attack, tonight, from inside the city.” There were muffled sounds of a struggle outside the room. “Oh, but first, you will need to talk to your assistant. The two guards I left in the hallway had to...restrain her, when she heard the fighting going on in here, so she wouldn't go and get help.”

The Captain nodded and pulled himself up to his feet. He had another coughing fit and winced, before shaking his head. “Ok, I'll talk to her, and then we'll have to take back the rest of the guard together. I'm guessing we're going to need more priests who can dispel magic first?”

Bennett nodded, as the Captain walked towards the door. “Oh, and Captain...don't mention mind magic to her or anyone else, not until we know if she's been charmed as well, or she might flip out the same way you and I did.”

He winced but nodded again. “Yes, you are correct Sergeant. Although I'm going to have a hard time explaining this to her without saying that...”

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Richard, Teodric, and the elvish woman Reneth were lying on the rooftop of a three-story tower, above a building full of people weaving blankets and clothing to sell.

“Yes, that's the warehouse, directly ahead of us. You see the guards standing around it?”

Teodric nodded. “I see what you mean, those guards are not standing around like merchant guards usually would, and there are quite a few of them for a quiet warehouse.”

Richard nodded. “We were able to climb through by coming from the window of that warehouse next door, but it looks like they have a guard in that alley now.”

“Yes. I need to get closer and get a good look at what we're facing here. Reneth, can you get us over there?”

She nodded. “Yes, I think so.” She looked at Richard’s questioning face and smiled. “Enchanted boots and a little bit of air magic can go far.”

Without saying another word, Teodric tied off the end of a long rope to a raised tower in the center of the roof and handed her the other end of the rope. She whispered a word and leaped forwards and up; Richard noticed glowing runes on her boots as she left the ground, and she leaped a good 15 feet into the air. She opened her green cloak in midair, spreading har arms like wings, and Richard could see a sudden strong gust of wind catch her from behind and carry her forward. She sailed across the street, her cloak flapping in a wind that didn’t touch anyone else and landed hard on the rooftop of the warehouse. Her enchanted boots absorbed most of the impact, but she still had to make a controlled acrobatic tumble forwards and go into a roll for several feet before coming to a stop, still holding the rope.

“Now, let’s quickly slide down that rope over there, before anyone happens to look up and see it. Make sure you’re quiet, if you yell people will notice.” Teodric wrapped his ankles around the rope and held on to it with his hand and slid down the rope onto the other roof. Richard bit his lip and hesitated for a second, before clumsily climbing on to the rope himself.

A week ago, on Earth, I don’t know if I would have been able to do this, but my dexterity is higher now, and a supernatural force has granted me additional skills, so I should be fine now right?

He put both hands on the rope and tried to wrap his ankles around it the same way Teodric did. The first time he tried he got his right ankle over the rope, but when he lifted his left foot off the ground he spun around and fell back onto the roof. He got back up, and this time after getting both hands on the rope he jumped with both feet at once; it took three tries, but he was finally able to hook his ankles over the rope the way Teodric did.

I hope I’m doing this right Richard thought, and he loosened his grip a little and started sliding down the rope. He started going faster and faster, the rope burning his hands. About halfway across the street he suddenly felt like he was going too fast and clenched down with his hands, coming to a stop and almost losing the grip on the rope with his ankles. He hung there above the road for a second, and then slowly moved hand over hand down the rope the rest of the way to the rooftop, his friction-burned hands complaining the whole way.

Finally, he got to the other end of the rope, and managed to get his feet up onto the roof of the warehouse and then pull himself up. Teodric and Reneth were waiting; Teodric had a blank facial expression but Reneth seemed to be smirking a bit.

“Sorry, never done that before,” Richard said, breathing heavily and his heart still racing.

“You did fine. Let’s cut this rope loose and hopefully nobody will see it.” Teodric cut the rope, and most of the rope swung back to the other building, keeping about fifteen feet of rope on their side. “Ok, let’s climb down into the second story window on this side, and hopefully that will be another empty office like the one Richard told us about.”

They tied the rope off and climbed down, and the office was quiet, with no light except the sunlight streaming in the window. Reneth went first and was able to quietly pry the window open from the outside. Richard followed her, and Teodric came last.

They quietly moved towards the door of the office, and they could see the warehouse full of warped men. The warped men were all standing in rows and staring up at a flickering light coming from the left side of the warehouse.

With care, Reneth quietly opened the door wider so they could get a better view, and they got a view of…

“What?” Reneth whispered.

A giant, floating, partly transparent figure that looked exactly like Richard floated in the air, slowly rotating 360 degrees.

A moment later, it flickered out and an image of Evelyn was there instead. A few seconds later, that was replaced by a picture of Jehan, and then of Harry. The warped men stared at the three-dimensional illusions, apparently enraptured.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” the enchantress said loudly, as she stood under the illusions she was creating.

“They know too much,” hissed Vlithar, darkness moving across his features like shadows that weren’t cast by any light. “This way, if the warped men see any of them, they will know to go after them first and to pursue them no matter how they flee. If we can make sure that anyone who knows too much dies in this attack, we will have fewer problems later.”

“The warped men aren’t going to get to much of the city, though, not if everything goes according to plan and the mayor acts like we expect him to. What makes you think the warped men will even run into those guys?” The enchantress asked, as she again idly spun a giant image of Richard over the front of the warehouse.

Vlithar laughed, a dark wheezing sound. “These are clearly self-appointed heroes. What are the odds of them staying out of the way and staying out of trouble?”

Teodric touched Richard on the shoulder, and the three of them carefully crawled backwards away from the open doorway before they could be spotted. He nodded, and then Reneth climbed out the window and down the rope. Richard followed, and Teodric came out last.

The rope didn’t go all the way down to the ground, so when Richard got down towards the end of the last bit of rope, he let go and fell the last several feet to the ground. He managed to land with some degree of grace, letting his knees flex to absorb the fall, and then quickly got out of the way so Teodric could come down. Several people on the street had stopped and were looking at them.

Shit. We can’t afford to make a scene right now, just outside the warehouse, or they’ll notice. And we probably look like we just robbed the place.

“Oh, don’t mind us, we’re working on developing fire escape routines and procedures.” Richard smoothly said, as he quickly led the three of them away from the warehouse.

“Fire…escape…procedures?” Someone asked, sounding confused.

“Oh, yes. Do you know how many of these warehouses have caught fire in various cities in the last 50 years? Dozens. Hundreds of people died. Especially if they’re filled with grain, or wheat…” Richard continued to briskly walk as he talked, and Teodric and Reneth shared a glance at each other behind him. “If we just had a good, easy way for people to escape in case of a fire, then many lives could be saved, especially people on the second floor who otherwise can’t get out of a burning building.”

“So…that’s what that rope is for?”

“Oh, it’s one idea we’re trying, yes. Just having a rope hanging down past the window from above. We’ve also considered having some kind of landing by the window and some kind of external staircase that goes down the side of the building, although of course that costs more. Anyway, I’d love to talk about this, but we’re on a schedule…” Richard nodded politely and briskly walked away, Teodric and Reneth following. The group of people behind them turned and started talking to each other, confusion clear in their voices, but none of them yelled or raised an alarm.

You have earned the skill: Fast Talking (1)!

For successfully fast-talking your way out of trouble you have earned +5 Cunning points

After they had walked a few blocks away, Teodric quietly turned to Richard. “I cannot believe that worked. We were…testing…fire escapes? Is that something that actually exists?” He paused. “Should that be something that exists? Where did you even come up with that?”

Reneth giggled quietly. “It was a good con. In this case he didn’t have to convince them of anything. He just needed to keep them unsure of themselves and second guessing themselves for long enough, so they wouldn’t yell ‘thief’ at us. A confusing story that almost made sense, delivered in a confident tone, was the best thing he could do.”

Teodric sighed. “Well, I suppose I cannot argue with success. Anyway, I think I’ve seen more than enough; we can go and bring this right to the mayor now, I’m sure he will see me.”