The panic that had previously been present had only been compounded by the sudden attack. Thankfully, this actually helped; people were now afraid enough to run away, and with Milo and Mark shouting at them, they made sure they did. Of course, they didn't actually listen to what either Milo or Mark said, "calm" was the last word that would be used to describe them now. However, it did clear enough space to see what was going on.

Of course, this wasn't necessary for someone with access to a bird's eye view, such as Verdan. He could see the cloud of gas, which had now diluted somewhat as it mixed with air, forming a cloud of larger volume but lower concentration. It was easy to enough to work out from that that there was no source of the gas, in that nothing was creating any more. It had simply been kept at very high pressure within the vial, which had shattered on impact with the flagstones and thereby released a sudden expulsion of gas. It was impossible to tell the effects of the gas precisely, since it was still heavily obscured inside, but the screams had now stopped.

The thrower himself had abandoned all attempts at subtlety - it was no issue at all for either Vlad or Emil to find him. He cackled maniacally, now half-standing with one foot on the front and one on the back of the gable roof, until he was interrupted with a sudden, sharp, gasp as an arrow struck him in his left shoulder. He swayed slightly with the impact, but his balance was extraordinarily good, and he did not fall[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/rolls/12109]*[/url]. Looking down, he snapped the arrow off while searching for the one who had fired it. His mad eyes fixated on the grey tiefling below him, and between his panting breaths, he rasped "Oh, I'll make you suffer for that," before remembering what his orders were, and added "but not now." And with that, he was a bird again, and began flapping in the direction of the fleeing townspeople, down the main road and towards the market square.

However, even amongst all this chaos and fear, one person still found a way to benefit. Morgan had absolutely no trouble finding a place to focus. The area in front of the manor was designed to have people watching on three sides. The people had all funelled into the main road, crowding the side opposite the manor, and the gas and the blackbird had been at the side on the right when facing away from said manor. Thus, the side on the left was almost entirely empty, ignoring a single malnourished, stray cat that was looking for food there.

Lillith had been about to reply to Emil when the vial was thrown and the hell that had already broken loose multiplied. "We can negotiate this when lives aren't at stake. For now, I'll handle him-" she tilted her head behind her, towards the blackbird "-and I'll give 200 gold to whoever deals with those." This time, she pointed to the cloud of gas. It had almost completely dispersed at this point. Inside were now visible maybe a dozen corpses, all with various cuts and piercing wounds, as though clawed at with fingernails and bitten. In addition, there were six standing, hunched figures, covered in boils and skin lesions, most of their hair having fallen out. They began limping slowly towards the gallows, approaching at their pathetic pace towards the closest food source.

As this happened, Lillith cast [i]Longstrider[/i] on herself, and immediately gave chase after the blackbird, her form blurring with the extreme speed. A moment later, flashes of fire were visible shooting into the sky, forcing the blackbird to swerve away from them and therefore the crowds as well, though not a single [i]Firebolt[/i] made direct contact.

[hider]All who wish to participate in the fight, roll initiative, and switch to Discord for combat posts. Also, if either Joseph or Vlad are participating, I need an image to use for a token. It doesn't have to be great, it doesn't technically even need to look like the character, it just needs to be something that we all are aware represents that character.[/hider]