The melee in the first barracks begin as a specter of Turilia charges forward, eyes on the naga and a bit of drool running down her chin in an artistic touch; as it bumps past Ambrosia (without the fairy feeling a thing, of course) the manipulation of the scene shows an empty space where the magus had been, as she in actuality quickly prepares a spell to unload into the first available target. Her image, however, sprints down the left side of the guardhouse, hopping up onto the table. "Captain!" A feline cries in alarm, before bodily tackling the intruder trying to attack his leader. It's a beautiful tackle, which makes the expression of utter disbelief on his face as he passes through the illusion unbalanced even more priceless; the black-furred cat lands chin first on the table, bouncing off and rolling onto his back with arms still outstretched.<br/><br/>The naga rolls her eyes, attention diverted to that side. "You're a guard, not a jester. Get up." Cool contempt is laden in her voice, but despite the 'encouragement' the stricken catfolk can only slowly rise back onto two feet- and seems a bit unsteady at that! His companion doesn't hesitate, unsheathing a sword and running to perch on a table in front of Gorun and Ambrosia ready to strike to keep them from passing. Well groomed, the male cat's armor is simple but high quality leather, and his sword similarly simple but well made and wickedly curved- he looks a bit scrawny, but from the set of his jaw and gleam of jade eyes he's not about to back down. The humans that rush in by his side are less impressive; Gorun doesn't even have to flinch as a flail brushes across his armor as one man in nightclothes starts trying to beat him with it, and Ambrosia barely has to step away as a shirtless young blond swings low for her knees, possibly trying to trip the fairy up. So close, they both have set, tight expressions on their faces, fear and determination together as they put themselves in the way of any easy advance.<br/><br/>On the other side, the other two bare-chested humans look at the giant snake glaring at them, then look at each other and take more than a few steps backward away from the invader. One gnome hurls a gleaming stone over their heads, which thuds off of Sira's armored hide- the other, looking at Albali and abruptly paling, hurls his stone at her. The bullet crashes into the witch's chest, not quite hard enough to break a rib but more than enough to get her attention. This one steps forward, visibly nervous... and Albali realizes that she... met... a gnome that looked like this no more than a few months ago. A brother? Yes- the family resemblance was striking once she knew what to look for. The other one had tasted divine when she caught him on a logging path. It'd been odd that he'd be so far in the woods alone... could he have been a convert early and the witch unknowingly helping fight the cult before she knew it existed? Meanwhile, Kaheksa places a hand on Xarithe's shoulder and murmurs quietly, "These are the guards. Shouldn't be much magic. Don't recognize that naga, and I don't see the guard captain I remember. Very odd..."<br/><br/>[[<span style="font-style: italic">Actions!</span><br/><div style="padding: 3px; background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-size: 1em;"><div style="text-transform: uppercase; border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC; margin-bottom: 3px; font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: bold; display: block;"><span onclick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') {  this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = ''; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;hide&lt;/a&gt;'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;show&lt;/a&gt;'; }"><b>Spoiler: </b><a href="#" onclick="return false;">show</a></span></div><div class="quotecontent"><div style="display: none;">Ain circles, seeing nobody yet.<br/>Turilia spends a level 1 spell, and chill touch is Prepared.<br/>Albali casts a spell! Catfolk guard (south) makes an attack of opportunity on the illusion as it passes by him, rolls a 20 and grapples what turns out to be thin air. Catfolk falls prone, and everyone laughs at him, but the illusion is dispelled. 3 nonlethal damage to the catfolk for achievements in pratfalling. <br/>Human #1 approaches Gorun and swings a flail: miss<br/>Human #2 approaches Ambrosia and swings: also a miss<br/>Humans #3 and #4 pull back.<br/>Catfolk #1 stands to his feet.<br/>Catfolk #2 hops up onto the table.<br/>Gnome #1 loads and flings a stone at Albali. It hits, for 3 damage.<br/>Gnome #2 loads and flings at Sira, and it misses.<br/>Kaheksa waits.</div></div></div><br/><br/>Init:<br/>Albali, Ain, Turilia<br/>Enemy Guards, Kaheksa<br/>Sira (Barkskin, Feather Step), Xiathe (Barkskin, Resist Digestion), Gorun, Eiyre, Ambrosia<span style="font-style: italic">Currently Up</span><br/>Naga Captain<br/><br/>New map:<a class="postlink" href="http://i.imgur.com/I1PKb6Z.png">http://i.imgur.com/I1PKb6Z.png</a>]]