>>5959343You have not changed from your <Improved Aetehrial Form>, which makes the quick ascent of the treehouse ladders and steps a swift and mostly silent affair. Once there, you signal Pearce, and sign to the Price of Bloodrise: ‘We are leaving.’
‘Good,’ he signs back. ‘I hate it here. I’m hungry.’
Pearce looks at you questioningly, concern etched across his features. You affect a reassuring smile, but your old friend plainly sees right through you.
“It’ll be fine,” you tell him. “Really.”
You all descend, the Unknowable Prince scuttling with unsettling speed and dexterity for his massive size such that he reaches the ground sooner than the rest of you. Unfortunately, all your race have the gift of low-light vision, and such a massive, dark shape as a fifteen-foot-long insectoid-reptilian abomination can only be so stealthy.
“H-hey! The guards on duty shouts. “Stop!”
His elven polearm, blunted staff on one side and stabbing-slashing spear-sword on the other, twirls elegantly as he points it at the three of you. The Prince, growing impatient and anxious, rears up and emits an awful shriek that peters off to a thunderous roar. You cringe, knowing that the dragon-spawn has just sounded a high alert but, ell, he IS only three years old.
>0/5 MP>3/3 HPYou’re ill-suited to fight a single guard right now, let alone an entire team of them, which is surely on its way.
“I can take him,” Pearce says.
“What?!” you balk. “Pearce, he’s a trained warrior.”
“What, and I’m chopped liver?” your friend demands. “Tips, I’m a Tower Guardian!”
“You used a bunch of your magic healing me!” you retort.
Pearce smirks a little, and with a flourish he twists the head of his mage’s staff and produces…
“A sword-cane,” you groan, and the shining silvered edge. “THAT’S the secret weapon you kept hinting at.”
“What?” Pearce says. “It’s cool!”
You facepalm… But you have no time to criticize your friend's conception of 'cool'. At the edge of the glade, the rest of your friends—and the Unseelie who are your allies-of-convenience—are waiting. If you all turn and run, well, you’ll be exposing your backs to an athletic-looking elfman a weapon and, as a elf, probably SOME form of ranged attack-magic.
What will you do?
>Flee, all of you, and take your chances>Let Pearce fight this guard to cover your escape>Shout for your friends to come to your aid>Let the Unknowable Prince deal with the guard, quickly but probably lethally>Write-in 