Now, every girl growing up in the City of Greyhawk knew all about
fates worse than death. One of the more fanciful "fates worse than
death" was being taken in the night by the evil wizard Murq or his
fearful mist golem. Even 15 years after it happened, parents still
used that to scare their children. Ehlissa had long since stopped
worrying about Murq and golems, but still held onto the very real fear
of being dragged into a dark alley by evil men for nefarious purposes.
It was typically said, though, that such misdeeds were only
commonplace in the Old City, swarming as it was with beggars and
thieves. The newer quarters were supposed to be much safer. Ehlissa
had walked safely to and from the guildhall countless times, never
needing to rely on the dagger she wore at her side for protection.
The dagger at her side. She could draw it and defend them, she realized.
But Hertha had her own answer prepared and gave it by starting to
speak a magical incantation. She wove her hands in a swift, arcane
pattern.
"Here, what's this?" Ham asked, only starting to realize what she was
doing.
Hermon realized too late what would happen and tried to pin Hertha's
arms, but Ehlissa had her dagger out of its sheath in a flash and held
it between Hermon and Hertha to ward the brute away. Before Ehlissa
could do anything else (though she was not even sure yet what that
would be), Hertha had cast a spell that made a glowing arrow appear in
the air before her. She made a violent motion of her hand that seemed
to propel the arrow straight into Ham's bowels. Ham doubled over and
fell to the ground, clutching his stomach like he had to hold it in.
"Hertha!" Ehlissa cried, stunned by what she had just seen.
Luckily, Hermon was equally stunned. The first one to recover seemed
to be Balgo, who did not acquit himself well in the following moments.
He screamed out "sorceress!" but everything else he said was a curse
or profanity in his native tongue as he fled the scene.
Although the street had been otherwise deserted just a moment before,
the raised voices were quickly attracting witnesses. Shutters flew
open that had been closed and people peeked through shutters that had
already been open. Two respectably-dressed gentlemen exited a house,
saw the scene practically outside their doorstep, and turned around to
run back in. Others took a more civic-minded approach, calling out
for the town guard. That was all Hermon had to hear before he too
broke rank from his fallen comrade and beat a hasty retreat. Hertha,
apparently, was of a similar bent of mind. "Come on!" she said as she
took Ehlissa by the arm again and pulled hard on it.
Ehlissa, who had never witnessed someone almost murdered in front of
her, was too shocked to do anything but dumbly comply. She felt like
she should say something to Hertha about it, but her lips protested
and did not wish to do anything so productive. Finally, Ehlissa found
she was back in Hertha's home. She leaned against the foyer wall for
sup****t as she listened to Hertha go into the sitting room and fetch
Welmer.
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