"Aranka, does the temple of Desna have another entrance?"

"Yes..."

"Alright. Here's what we're going to do..."

Hulrun's subordinates are very much on alert. Firstly, the Prelate would never countenance any less, and secondly, while they have Ramien and one of the Wardstone vandals, the other two vandals are still at large. The fact that they're likely to attempt to free their co-conspirators is, overall, a good thing--it makes it more likely they'll be taken into custody sooner rather than later--but that doesn't change the fact that it would be unconscionable to let them slip by by not paying enough attention. Besides, there are, in fact, demons around, and nobody wants to die horribly on an Abrikandilu's claws. 

But they still have a certain level of expectation about what kind of thing they're keeping watch for, and an intense flare of light from behind one of the nearby buildings wasn't it. 

The glow doesn't diminish after a few seconds, either, and it's just as the men are getting over their surprise that the source of the bright light shoots out from its origin point and towards the temple. 

They aren't caught flat-footed; before it's crossed half the space from where it began to their position, a volley of crossbow bolts has already been loosed towards it. Some of them miss entirely, and some of them bounce off of--whatever it is--either it's invisible or just glowing brightly enough that it can't be seen through its own aura--but some of the bolts sink into what sounds by the thunks of it to be flesh. It is, unfortunately, flying, too high for them to sword at it--

And then it reaches their position, and abruptly becomes visible when a long, dangling tongue drops down from it to entangle around one of their number. 

The creature is grotesque--five fleshy spokes radiating out from a center seemingly composed mostly of mouth, sticky tongue and sharp teeth, and every square foot of its skin containing at least one staring eye, arranged irregularly over its surface. 

The man currently ensnared like a bug by a frog screams. He has the maneuverability to draw his sword, and does so, releasing the prisoner as he does so--they can always recapture the Desnan later; whatever kind of Abyssal beast this is needs dealing with now. 

The tongue retracts back into that horrifying mouth the first time someone successfully hits it with a sword, but it doesn't stop there; it lets out an absolutely horrible noise which, on the plus side, does result in men from the other side of the perimeter scrambling over to help against it. 

Even the Prelate storms out of the temple, several rounds later, looking impatient and irritated right up until he sees the thing that his men are attempting to deal with. 

After that, the tides begin to turn; instead of staying out of sword range for the most part while still harassing the inquisition with relative impunity, they actually manage to begin to drive it off. Not that just driving it off is sufficient, they've got to actually kill it--

but after they've chased it some way away from the temple, it just vanishes. And enough demons have teleportation-related spell-like abilities that they can't surmise that it's the kind of thing that just has some kind of existence failure when it dies. 

Meanwhile, Team 1, consisting of Aranka, Thall, Lann, and Ember intercept Ilkes as he runs away from the fight between the inquisitors and the surprise monster. He's surprised and relieved to see them, but--

"Aranka! Thall! They've got Ramien--Hulrun's finally lost it--"

"We know," Aranka says. "The starfish creature is friendly. She's creating a distraction on purpose." 

...Well, that's surprising. But far from unwelcome. "Really? Do you have a plan to get Ramien out--"

"Yes, someone else is on that. For now, our job is just to get away."

Once the guards on this side of the temple have run off to help with the starfish-eyeball-monster situation, Dànpiàn scurries into the temple again. As soon as Hulrun has gone out the front door, she slips outside and gives the signal. 

Woljif would like it noted, for the record, that he would REALLY prefer to be somewhere else, doing something else, preferably involving not deliberately pissing off Prelate Fucking Hulrun Bloody Shappok. 

But it's not like he's used to what he wants being important. As soon as they're inside, he starts cutting the ropes holding Ramien to the chair. 

Camellia finds herself briefly arrested when she sees the state of Ramien's face. It's...mmmmmm.

Personally, Daeran prefers Ramien's face when it is not bloody and bruised. Cure Light Wounds. 

"Tch. Of course Prelate Hulrun would be such a philistine as to damage your pretty face. At least he didn't do anything to your curls."  

"The situation could certainly be worse," Ramien agrees, standing up as Woljif finishes slicing through his bonds. "They have Ilkes--" 

"Already handled," Daeran says carelessly. "Let's get you out of here, and let the others do their part." 

Ramien would really rather personally make sure Ilkes had been rescued too, but--alright. There's clearly a plan in motion and he's not going to disrupt it. 

The two groups meet back up a few streets over. Aranka, Ilkes and Thall are overjoyed to see that Ramien is alright, and the sentiment is very much returned. 

Lusilla Dimension Doors in a few rounds later. "Is everyone alright?"

"We're all fine." Ramien had also not been aware of Lusilla's other form, but he can recognize her voice well enough to put two and two together. "Thank you." 

She shifts back into human shape and scoffs. "We were hardly going to leave you to that man's nonexistent mercies!"

Woljif would have been fine doing that, actually! But he is not going to say so out loud with his mouth words. 

They're only a couple of blocks past where the three units reconverged when Hulrun and his inquisitors catch up to them. 

Aw, crap. 

"Please don't do this." 

"Bad enough to make yourselves accomplices to these traitors--if you aren't cultists yourselves--but associating with that--demonic aberration--used to draw us away from the site--"

"Prelate," Ramien tries, because just because someone isn't going to listen to reason doesn't mean you don't have a responsibility to try, "you can detect Good as well as Evil. Did you try that, on the flying creature?" 

Literally why would I do that, Hulrun's expression says quite clearly. 

"Alignment auras are entirely possible to fake," he says, because if Ramien is suggesting he check then probably they have in fact managed to fake a Good aura for the thing somehow. 

"I am begging you to stop. This city needs you to kill demons, not people who are also trying to fix this situation!"

"That," his lip curls, "is precisely what I am doing." 

Okay, yeah, nope, talky time's over. 

Entangle.