[i][h3]The Vale[/h3][b]The Town,[/b]
[b]Currently[/b][/I]

"Good idea! Quick and quite like a cat!" The gnome wizard replied, his back turned for the moment from Katia, not quite realizing what he had said until he turned heel to face her again. His mouth opened and he raised a finger before then pausing, clearly confounded by something, only to then lower it and carry on with his address; "Oh. [i]Oh![/i] That makes sense now! Birbin sees your game!"

He went on for a moment by himself, transitioning between the words "Katia" and "cat", mouthing them silently. It seemed as though the small outlandishly dressed man was not quite right in the head; more than a bit touched and perhaps verifiably insane as nothing about him seemed rational, as though he was an embodied extreme of what one thought a gnome to be. It was maybe this that unsettled the monk the most, that it was clear the little folk was likely as much a hazard as he was any boon. Whatever the case was with Birbin, the wizard was a far cry from the cunning and kind Haemar or the studious Wick she had so long traveled with to end up here - wherever here was.

Plodding along then, as they moved as subtly as they could thereon out, the front rank consisted of the slayer, their company and their own wizard. For one reason or another, the paladin had stepped back for reasons of her own; a quality not impossible to notice, but not [i]immediately[/i] alarming. Just off, eclipsed only by whatever it was that Wick had done. [i]That[/i] was what seemed strange. She had gained an odd air of morbidity about her that was... unexpected? Even for someone who delved into the more strange mysteries of the Light and the Darkness?

It added to the uneasy ambiance of the dawning hours, many corners of the wooden and stone buildings drenched in shadow on one half, the other exposed to welcoming light. Only twilight in this town was more uncomfortable, because at least with the night, one could only imagine the skittering darkness that wandered the streets, ready to devour another unwary soul. Day was safety, a welcome safety, like a great ball of eradicating might that would come to hang in the sky - how their hearts, deep within, longed for its familiarity.

After their approach however, nearing the strange and sizable [i]Hall[/i], they immediately noted with little effort the attempts by the darkness to breach its two large wood doors. As wide as two healthy men at the shoulder, each of these doors, they had many mars and marks upon their surface. Bits of splintered wood hung frayed from their faces, carved by what seemed to be swords, axes and any number of other weapons. From her advantageous height, Katia was not only the first to notice this, but to see what they had not seen before; the shadows, how they, as they appeared to be, were but inky spots of silhouettes on the ground.

Several of them laid in wait at the doors atop a small series of stairs, as flat as could be. To those below and some thirty paces away, they were impossible to bear witness to. [i]That[/i] was how they seemed to rise up from the nothing and more eerily, it suggested that they in some way might be echoes of actual people themselves...

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The party advances to the [i]Hall[/i], a longhouse dedicated to the heroes of the town. Despite Theodore's magical aura, it is Katia upon a rooftop a ways away who spots the enemy on the steps and around the building who could not otherwise be seen on foot. She can see three [i]Shadows[/i], three [i]Shadow Soldiers[/i], one [i]Night Fury[/i] and some other, unclear shadow form that has no real distinct qualities.

No one else is yet aware of the danger.

[b]Score[/b]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwToTZc9qOk]Ghost Town[/url]

[b]Map[/b]
[url=https://www.myth-weavers.com/map.html#id=4370]Town[/url]
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[@Cu Chulainn], [@Gordian Nought], [@Hekazu], [@JBRam2002], [@Zverda]