Potential for Violence

"So, you left him with the weird demon guy?" Rhen asked Faylen as he returned to the group outside.

"Weird demon guy?" Faylen asked clearly confused. "Wait have you never met a Cambion before?"

"Cem-be-un?" Rhen repeatedly pronounces the name he just heard.

Keyleth slapped his arm and corrected him "You say it Cam-be-in," she looked over to Faylen with an apologetic look, "Yeah, Rhen was an orphan and didn't get a proper education and he never really left the northern side of the empire, so he's never seen their race before. I imagine you haven't seen anything other than humans and elves till recently, huh Rhen?"

"Yeah, it's the first time I've seen any other race, I didn't even see humans much before either," Rhen admitted.

Faylen gave them a look of concern, "I didn't know the elven army was so sheltered."

"Well, it's more like the army was used more to control the populous rather than deal with external threats," Keyleth sighed and shook her head. "No one wants to fight the empire any more." She then clapped her hands together and exclaimed, "Alright enough of that let's figure out what to do with our current situation." They all looked at their prisoner, who currently had his hands tied up with Rhen standing near him with his dagger ready to strike.

"Lead the way to your meeting point with the guy from Harsi," Faylen ordered. The Shapeshifter grunted in confirmation and started walking northward. Soon they passed between a few buildings into a clearing near a park. Faylen looked around and sighed, "Great there is no cover here. This will make things difficult."

"How many men will you be meeting with?" Keyleth asked the Shapeshifter.

"I don't know," He replied. "All I know is I'm supposed to meet them here at midnight" He looked around anxiously mostly towards the tree line. "They said they would come from the northern side of this clearing."

"Well then I think we should prepare for them," Keyleth explained, "If someone can help me get on the roof of one of these buildings here, I can get a decent vantage point to cast spells," Keyleth said while pointing at the brick-and-mortar warehouses they were standing in between.

Faylen shook his head, "I don't think we should try to fight these guys if we don't know how strong they are or what their goals are besides sabotaging trade routes. I think we should just wait to report this to the guards in the morning.

"But by then these guys would have disappeared when no one comes to this meeting," Rhen argued. "Let's at least try. They don't know anything about us either." Keyleth nodded in agreement and looked to Faylen in hopes of him agreeing.

"Fine," Faylen said exasperated. "But if there's more than 3 or 4 of them, we don't fight. Got it?"

"Agreed." Rhen smiled, "I knew you had a sense of justice." Rhen looked at Faylen with admiration in his eyes.

"I wouldn't call it that really, but I understand where you are coming from." Faylen smiled as he couldn't help but give in to Rhen's clear excitement. "Ok so here is what I think we should do. First of all, I will go in with our shapeshifter friend acting like his partner, when they let their guard down I will strike and you guys can follow up. If it so happens that there are too many of them, we will just take the money and retreat and tell the guards in the morning. Are we clear on that?" Faylen looked to his two companions to make sure they understood.

"Understood," Keyleth nodded.

"Yeah, let's do this," Rhen said while pumping his fist. "Oh, and I can go hide in the tree line, so I'll be behind them when they show up."

"That works," Faylen said while pulling some pitons out of his bag. "Alright, Keyleth let's get you up to the roof. It took a few minutes to get a few of the pitons set in place and high enough so Keyleth could easily scale the wall but after a bit of effort between Faylen and her they were able to scale the wall all the way up. Once Keyleth was up top, she crotched down below the brick railing that went all the way around the roof. When they finished Faylen took the Shapeshifter into his custody and Rhen ran across the clearing and hid in one of the trees along the edge, this unlike Keyleth's climb was much easier and took him no time at all.

Once it was closer to midnight Faylen untied the rope around the Shapeshifter's hands, "Remember, one step out of line and it'll be the last you take," He warned.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's just get this over with." The Shapeshifter grumbled.

They walked out into the clearing together and son after seven men in rugged clothing came out wearing facemasks. To most who saw them they would appear like rogues or thieves, but Faylen could tell there was armor underneath their clothing and the way they walked was indicative of trained soldiers, not some outlaws. Faylen cursed in his thoughts, 'Damn, there is no way we can take on this many. Alright guys just as planned stay hidden, and I'll get the money and we will live to fight another day.' Faylen walked behind the Shapeshifter and got a better look at the seven men. The one in the center was a Half-Orc who appeared to be the leader as he led the group in their march across the clearing. There were, three other half-orcs and three other Humans. Once they were about ten feet apart Faylen noticed that one of the Humans and one of the Half-Orcs were women, he couldn't tell before due to the layers of clothing and their faces being covered. 'Well, it's a good thing we aren't fighting I always hate killing women.' He thought to himself as they stopped about six feet apart.

"You look different since we last met." The Half-Orc in the center spoke first, confirming to Faylen he was most likely the leader. He also then noticed there was a knot in his chest, he felt something was off about these people, but he wasn't sure what it could be just yet.

"Yeah, I took a new form," Faylen lied. "I wasn't sure if someone saw me leaving the crime scene." Faylen hoped that the Half-Orc didn't think too much about it as shapeshifters often changed their appearance to suit their needs.

"Right of course," the leader nodded in understanding. "We heard from our inside man that you were successful in your job so I'm glad you keep to your word." The Half-Orc took out a pouch of coins from under his robes and held it out to them. The Shapeshifter stepped forward to take it, and Faylen thought about stopping him but quickly thought better of it.

"THIS ISN'T MY PARTNER THIS GUY KILLED HIM AND THER--- guAAHHH!" the Shapeshifter started to scream but suddenly air quickly left his lungs. He looked down at his chest and saw a silver blade sticking out from it. Blood was rapidly spilling from the wound that burned him from the inside out due to the contact with the silver sword.

"I warned you, didn't I?" Was the last thing the Shapeshifter heard as Faylen twisted his blade and pulled it out of the Shapeshifter's back. As the body fell Faylen leaped back just avoiding a sword swinging for his abdomen. "Oh boy, here we go." While Faylen defended against the two who quickly came for him that were previously sanding at their leader's side, the human woman on the far end of the lineup was aiming her arrow at Faylen's head when two arrows landed on her back, and she keeled over onto the ground.

"BEHIND US!" one of the soldiers yelled, only to have his throat cut by a dagger a moment later as Rhen has already leaped from the tree after firing off his arrows and sliced the man's throat in one swift motion. He then sprinted for their leader in the hope of taking him out before things got out of hand.

Faylen paired one sword and dogged the other as he was driven back, by the two soldiers. The soldier to his right brought his sword up again after his initial strike to try to catch Faylen off balance which he would have been successful had a large mass of acid not landed on his face causing him to drop his sword and scream in pain as it melted through his skin and shortly after his insides. The soldier to Faylen's left hesitated a moment after hearing his comrades scream only to regret it soon after when Faylen's sword cleaved his head off his body. As the blood sprayed up into the air Faylen yelled, "Thanks!" He then rushed forward to help Rhen, luckily their surprise attacks had dwindled their numbers without too much effort making the fight swing back in their favor. 'Then why can't I shake this feeling,' Faylen thought to himself as he saw exactly what was causing this feeling. Rhen was about to strike the leader's back with his dagger when he heard Faylen yell, "RHEN NO!"

Faylen saw the archer Rhen had fell before started to get up and immediately poured mana into his eyes. Faylen's first thought was maybe one of them was undead, followed by maybe one could create undead. However, what he saw was much worse, as lesser undead he could handle, easily even, but four of these people were werewolves! Before Rhen could react, the leader had transformed into a massive bipedal werewolf with bulking muscles and fur covering his body. The werewolf swung his massive arm at Rhen who had no way of avoiding the blow.

Faylen saw as the Werewolves' large claws pierced Rhen's chest and heard Rhen's breath leave his lung and then his body was sent flying into the tree line he had come from followed by a thunderous bang. "NO!" Faylen cried out.

"RHEN!" Keyleth yelled, as her rage quickly took over. She pulled from deep within her as much mana as she currently could and raised her hands into the air. Promptly clouds started to gather around the clearing and the rumbling of thunder could be heard.

As much as Faylen wanted to go check on Rhen he was quickly dealing with two smaller, but just as fierce werewolves rushed him. Luckily the two soldiers from before were just a Human and Half-Orc respectively and they were no longer a threat. The Half-Orc woman was also just what she appeared but the rest were all werewolves, while Rhen's attack definitely did damage to them they ultimately healed as if nothing had touched them. Faylen could feel the mana gathering above his head and could feel his hair raising all over his body as the area around him was becoming electrified. He knew Keyleth was cooking up a big attack, and so he did his best to dodge the bulking mass of claws coming his way. He was not so lucky before though, one of the werewolves slashed his shoulder causing red blood to spew from his arm. The same werewolf quickly met their end as an imposing bolt of lightning came down and stuck them dead in place.

"They have a mage!" The largest werewolf yelled in a gruff voice. "Get her!" He then pointed to Keyleth who was no longer hiding on the roof but standing with her arms raised preparing another bolt.

"I would prefer it if you didn't!" Faylen exclaimed as he got in the path of the two other werewolves who started sprinting for Keyleth's position. He swung his sword in a wide arc in order to stop their advance. Which worked to stop them until the leader charged at him from in-between them and Faylen was forced to roll out of the way.

"Go!" The larger werewolf commander. "This on is mine!" The other two werewolves ran past followed closely by the Half-Orc women. Leaving Faylen to square off with the leader who was putting himself between Faylen and Keyleth's positions. The mighty werewolf before Faylen let out a low grow before lunging at him once more. Faylen ducked to avoid getting grabbed and slashed with his silver sword at the werewolf's back. The werewolf instantly turned around and caught the blade between his claws and pushed Faylen back. "Wait..." The werewolf looked at Faylen closely before cracking an odd-looking smile. "You're a Tempesh, aren't you?