"We should probably put our front line fighters in the front and back of the file. In case something tries to take us on while we're walking across."

"Reasonable. I vote myself in the front, mom in the back. I'm good at situational awareness and am a tough target, mom's hard to take down."

"Sounds good to me! I'd suggest I go second: overwatch and all that, you know?"

"Works."

They discuss for a bit, put Karin second-to-last, Juerai in the middle with Shalsuve and Jet.

And then down the alley they go - 

And Rune falls, as an arrow hits her chest.

Well, that's not good.

She swings up her sights, scanning for anyone suspiciously holding a bow.

There might be a flash of movement over there? Hundreds of feet distant - far, even for a longbow. 

Liliane darts forward to cover and heal Rune, as the others react.

Yeah, hundreds of feet is way too far for a splinter rifle. She's pretty useless right now.

She curses, both for the situation and how little she can do to change it.

Jet and Shalsuve, it turns out, are both fast when motivated - 

But their enemy seems to be faster.

The two stop, and curse, and then back up, as Juerai casts, raising the nearby river to sweep through the buildings their enemy just ducked into. The water manages to splash the rest of the party's feet, and quickly recedes.

The buildings are closer to their party, and Jet's shouting for them to come on, help cut off escapes - 

Closer she can do.

She starts running toward the building, ready to fire from the hip if any of the enemies make the mistake of being spotted through the windows.

One - a cat person - can be glimpsed as he darts between two buildings.

Well, that cat person can get a splinter shot to the legs for their troubles.

He stumbles, and trips, then rolls out of sight.

She starts running to go help Jet, she can pick up and question that catfolk later when they're not being attacked--

The cat person seems to be their only attacker, actually, and he quickly surrenders as they close on him.

"Surrendering is definitely one of your better options. As is explaining why you thought that attacking us was a good idea." He tone is syrupy sweet and her smile has too many teeth.

"Hunting," he says, "is what I do."

"Hunting people? A common mistake, but not a good one to make, let me tell ya."

He grumbles under his breath.

"Look, this is me being nice. You just tried to kill my friend, and look! I'm not trying to kill you back. Very generous of me, I'd say. Might even make it sensible to make it worth my while."

"I hunt. I have since I was young, and I will until I die, and you are prey favored by the greatest Hunt of all."

That sounds pretty alarming. "And who might that be?"

He opens his mouth - and the world jerks.

It's bright, suddenly. Colors oversaturated. Sounds purer.

At least their prisoner seems alarmed.

In hindsight that was very predictable! But for fuck's sake.

Ramming one's face into one's palm repeatedly is not the best response to a dangerous situation, but for fuck's sake. AAAAARGGHH.

"Lichy McLichface, I take it?" she says to the prisoner.

"No. That's - "

A long horn blast sounds. There's a very visible, supernaturally beautiful woman standing on the top of the palace. She spreads her arms, grinning. "Welcome!" she announces, clearly audible over all of Omu, "To the Wild Hunt!"

WHAT.

WHAT.

"Hello?"

And because an overabundance of paranoia can't hurt (that much), she checks over her shoulder to see if Lianne and the rest of the party are nearby.