ESCAPING OLI:
Zarek choses bravery over common sense and launches himself from his hiding place, hake a grab for the uncovered bulging pouch and dashes westwards towards the Scrap’d Rafter Tavern. Zarek did not want to take Oli towards Alley and hoped to manage to lose the Villain and take a look inside the pouch, though Zarek had an idea of what was inside.
Zarek plucked the pouch and continued off westwards, turning to see that Oliver was still clutching his chest, raging with fury and then finally preparing to give chase.
“What on Faerûn can he be doing?” asks Zarek to himself.
Zarek continues his dash across the streets of the Field Ward, remembering to choose a God or Goddess that he will thank later on, luckily finding no foot traffic at this time of night. Zarek is worried though as there is no sign of Oli behind him or no sound of him running through the muddy roads.
Zarek avoids a group of ladies of the night and endeavours to make his sprint as quite an unassuming as possible. Zarek ends at the corner of one of the many one-story buildings in the Filed Ward and chooses to look about. North of his current position, some 3 streets up from his location, Zarek spots Oli bent over double and puffing hard.
“I have one or two more dashes in me then I’m done, I need to find a place to stop or hide. Then I can investigate what Oli was looking for and I now have.” Thinks Zarek.
Zarek moves out and heads westwards once more. As he passes the street that Oli was on the Tiefling spot Oli once again angrily swearing and then placing his hands over his face. Zarek begins to look for a good place to hide but is worried what Oli was doing.
“Ahhhgggg.” A loud cry from the area where the Villain was standing, a cry of pain this time, not anger.
Zarek successfully doges past a couple of citizens and continue to dash and find a place where he can stop in the shadows and look through the pouch.
Nonetheless, he is soon spotted by a passer-by who sees him slip towards the side of a pair of buildings. Here in the dark, Zarek takes out the pouch to examine it and its contents.
The pouch is made from an animal’s skin, with very fine hairs that have kept the whole thing dry, the workmanship is exquisite and the whole bag is decorated with patterns and topped off with silver and gold ornaments on the drawstrings. Truly a valuable item indeed. Inside the pouch is stuffed with small wax paper envelopes marked with a crude drawing of, what Zarek now knows to be, a Chimera. Zarek scrutinises the envelopes and discovers them filled with a dark red powder.
“So, this is not Traveller’s dust but Chimera, the deadly drug that is ravaging the Field Ward.” Thinks Zarek.
Zarek then hears the sound of someone running through the fresh mud and coming down from the north of the Filed Ward and heading in his direction. Then the sound of a large cart colliding with a building and a series of yells and profanities.
Zarek is questioning what to do next, he knows that Oli is not in the best of conditions but he has taken some Chimera. Still, there is nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide during the quarantine, and given enough time the Villains will end up finding them, hell anyone of the citizen that saw Zarek tonight will give him up for coin.
Zarek steels himself and stealthily moves towards the coming of Oli, using the side of a building as cover as he looks down the alley towards the rampaging Oli. Zarek can see Oli walking down the alley as the Villain calls out to another figure, hiding in the shadows, in a language or code that the Tiefling had never heard before.
Oli continues down towards the location where our hero stands and Zarek needs to make a decision as he is too tired to run for long and it looks like Oli knows all of the short-cuts in the Field Ward.
“What should I do next?” Zarek asks himself.
“Maybe I should take some of the Chimera as it is meant to bestow powers. But what else was it that Dudley said were its effects, I can’t remember. What harm it do, I can handle it.” Zarek thinks.
Oli is slowly walking towards they very corner that Zarek is using for cover, grinding his teeth and swearing under his breather. All the while his beady, blood red eyes, are darting about looking here, there and everywhere.