skittering along the carpet floor. His bone-like finger is at his mouth while looking at Linzi, indicating that she should stay quiet. She'll have an easier time getting out of here with his guidance.

Zrak takes a step into the hall, trying to stay as quiet as possible, signaling to Linzi to leave. However, he was so focused on the giant and Linzi that he did not notice a book on the ground. He kicks it, sending it into the leg of the table. It makes a loud noise, and the giant immediately turns to Zrak, snarling, "There you are, halfing!"

Malkala lets out a draconic curse and slides into the room. Getting in close with her blade, she then gives a nod to Zrak, who knows that she wants to make a unified attack. In unison, the pair swing their weapons at the giant's leg. They both hit deep, the giant letting out a scream of absolute pain. Their strikes then take the leg clean off, and the giant falls to the ground, bleeding profusely before it loses consciousness. It is obvious that it will die soon.

Seeing this, Linzi gets up from her hiding place, visibly shaking,. Despite that, though, her voice comes out clear and energetic "Ink and pen... that was horrible! Thank you for saving me!"

Zrak's legs shake at the sight of the fallen giant, realizing that he and Malkala slew it in one move, even though it was a wounded giant. Linzi's words bleed like water into his ears: wet, bubbly, yet a babble of noise. "Save it for when we get outta here," he responds, shaking his ratty head and trying not to critique her for being stuck with a giant. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood right now. What the hell happened with you?"

He motions for Linzi and Malkala to come, heading to the door and looking down the hallway again. The sight of bodies and blood was clear now; a reckless fight occurred between guards, assassins, and the giant. Zrak and Malkala should consider themselves fortunate.

"We're not going anywhere until we find everyone else." He flashes his green eyes toward the halfling. "Do you have a weapon? We've probably got plenty more to fight." His teeth chatter again, ready to dig into whoever they encounter next.

Linzi pulls a shortbow off of her back and pulls the string a couple of times, making sure it is taut and ready, "I was doing some late night reading and note taking when I heard the door burst in! I didn't have time to see who it was before it started attacking. I'm sure if I didn't manage to get its eyes with my rapier, I would have died!"

When she is able to see outside the room, she sees the bodies on the floor, and Zrak and Malkala can see her face pale, "Oh Sheylin, I didn't hear any fighting outside." The pair see her shakily take a deep breath and calm herself down, "Alright, focus time." She nods to the next room down the hall, "I know that room is a storage room, but I do not know what's in it. The other two rooms I have no idea, but the other end of the hall leads to the scullery, and then to the feast hall."

Having been used to battle, Zrak gives Linzi a rather unimpressed look across his snout. He sniffs a few times, bouncing his whiskers up and down. "This is what battle's like," he warns her. "I've been in Numeria for most of my life; you don't explore the world without getting your hands dirty." His green eyes stared down towards her rapier, carrying some of the giant's dry blood. She had a good handle on it, perhaps more than with her short bow. "Just keep a steady aim on your bow, and don't hesitate. All else fails." The ysoki looks up toward Malkala. "Follow her lead."

His bone-thin feet tap across the battle-ruined hallway, smelling death and blood through his nostrils amid complete silence. "Storage room," he whispers, hunching over with his hands outstretched. "I'd rather find anyone else before we go to another big room," he mentions to Linzi. "The garden was a bloodbath."

From excitement to bloodthirsty anxiety, Zrak walks up to the storage door and stands beside it, leaning on the wall. He nudges his ratty head for Malkala to take the other side, preparing a simple ambush. He ensures that everyone is in position before swinging the door open!

The door swings open to reveal a room full of stacked boxes. Despite the room being barely large enough to allow all three adventurers at once, it holds dozens of boxes of various sizes. Most are labeled with common items such as lamp oil, linens, candles, and tools. However, there are some boxes left unlabeled.

Malkala starts looking through the unlabeled boxes. Most seem to be boxes that someone forgot to label, containing more common supplies. But, Malkala finds a tiny box that holds vials of a reddish-pink liquid. Each vial has handwritten labels of "Heal Pot, Less." With a relieved sigh, she hands out two of the vials to Zrak and two to Linzi. She then takes one of the remaining two and downs it.

Linzi looks down at the vials, obviously struggling with the idea of just taking the potions. However, she silently pockets both and tightens her grip on her bow.

Zrak searches the room with Malkala, observing the unlabeled boxes with their brown, hardened cardboard and this musky and dusty smell. With his smaller size, the Ysoki climbs up where he can on the boxes and shelves, getting a higher look and checking for anything from unusual angles. His green eyes observe the open spots between the boxes, adjusting them where he can without tumbling them over.

And sit sightly between some of these boxes were two more vials of red liquid, containing the same labels half-peeled from age. Zrak's sharp teeth widen in glee as if about to devour well-deserved prey.

His mind considers his self-preservation above the safety of his allies and quietly pockets the vials for himself. He is the one that pounces first in combat and is the one in most need of them. He'll offer them to Malkala or Linzi if necessary, but his survival comes first.

"Looks like that's it," Zrak quietly whispers, motioning out of the storage room. He leads the two toward the scullery, once more moving to the door's side and ready to enter quietly. While he can't trust there's much there, it's still worth scavenging what they can.

Malkala slides up to the door next to Zrak, blade in hand. She then motions for Linzi to stand behind her against the wall, which the halfling nervously does, holding her bow in a white-knuckled grip. With everyone in position, she gently and slowly cracks open the door, only enough to look inside the room.

This oddly shaped scullery contains two sturdy tables for prepping food, a large tin washbasin for cleaning dishes and laundering clothes, a hefty wooden bucket for hauling water, and many shelves containing goblets, plates, dishes, and eating utensils. Though the fragile-looking dishes and glassware remain miraculously undamaged, many bloody corpses lay piled in the middle of the room.

At the other side of the room, leaning against the double doors that lead into the Feast Hall, is a giant. If he was standing, he would easily be ten feet tall, with ice-blue skin and snowy white beard. He wears bloodstained furs, a lot of it coming from wounds and crossbow bolts all over his body, the worst being from a massive gash on his left side, nearly hitting his heart.

One would think the giant was dead, as it lay still, but looking closely, the adventurers can see his labored breathing and occasional twitches from pain. He is not dying, but he does not seem too far from it.

Malkala looks over the giant, her eyes carefully studying the humanoid. Her eyes then turn to Zrak, "He is definitely severely injured, but if we choose to fight him, he could still hand us our tails. We can't assume we will be as lucky as the last one." She looks to Linzi, "Stay back, make sure your bow is ready for the first sign of conflict." Back to Zrak, "We will need to fight cautiously. We have the potions, and you have your mutagen, but we should be ready to pull back if needed. Unless he is desperate or stupid, he won't try to follow us if we fall back to the hall."

Low to the ground and snout sticking through the door, Zrak takes several sniffs, smelling the blood dripping from the giant. Whatever food was in here had been overpowered by the awful scent of the wounded creature and many corpses lying about. It seemed like the three avoided an absolute bloodbath and was an observer of the aftermath.

Zrak looks for the door to the feast hall, recognizing its blood-splattered wood at the other end. The complication results in a quietly groaning Ysoki, aware that conflict with a giant may be inevitable. "Well I guess there ain't a better way," he mutters from the door. "Let's handle it like before. I'll go in quiet, move around the side. Malkala, you flank it and we'll strike together before he knows what hit him."

His green eyes look back at Linzi, short bow in hand. "Stay by the door and fire away if you see him moving," Zrak instructs, leaving it at that as he tip-toes on his feet into the room. This time, he wouldn't alert the giant.

For his own sake, he won't.

As Zrak moves forward into the room, Malkala mirrors him on the other side, moving as silently and slowly as possible. They manage to reach halfway across the room before the giant's eyes open and he looks up at the pair. With a pained, but angry snarl, he stands to his full ten foot height, and stumbles into a battle stance with his bare fists.

Malkala does not hesitate. She continues her movement, stepping up next to the towering giant, and barks, "Zrak!"

Zrak knew what the plan was, but the dragonborne's voice helped him shake off the inevitable momentary hesitation of giant getting up. He finished his step as well, flanking the giant with Malkala. Seeing him in position, Malkala swipes once with her bloodstained dueling sword, aiming for a wound already made in the giant's leg. The blade did not bite as deeply as she wanted, but it did open the wound wider. The giant let out a growl of renewed pain, but did not seem to flinch.

Witnessing the giant's size makes Zrak feel utterly puny. He's seen his share of towering creatures but is never comfortable facing something doubling his height. The Ysoki's eyes flash a beastly look while standing in a long pool of blood. The room's wartorn sight and scent pump his battle-hardened heart.

And Zrak's roar matches the giant's painful shout: an animalistic cry showing his bone-tearing teeth. His feet skitter into a wolf's charge, splashing a pool of blood up in the air as he reaches the giant.

And in a feat of shocking athletics, Zrak climbs up the giant's leg as if it is a wall, pressing his bone-thin feet against the skin. Before anyone knows it, Zrak presses down on the giant's chest, leans in, and skewers his teeth toward the giant's throat!

Zrak is fast, his lithe limbs pushing him up toward the giant's neck. He chomps down, but is only able to get a nip before the giant moves his head to avoid the attack. The ratfolk falls back toward the ground, rolling to avoid any damage and moving a step away. He then swings his combat lure around before sending it at the giant's head. The weapon slams hard, causing the giant to reel back.

Which put him in perfect position for Linzi. The tiny woman, shaking but determined, pulled back the bowstring and let loose with a grunt. Metal glints as the arrow flies, soaring straight at the giant's head. It buries itself into the giant's eye, sinking to the feathers. The giant does not make another sound at it stands still for a second, his body shocked. Then, he crumples to the floor, gravity forcing the massive body down hard.

Linzi seems paralyzed herself for a moment, surprised at what she had just done. Then all eyes turn toward the northern doorway of the scullery as a yell echoes and a form charges through the doorway.

Amiri, the muscled woman barbarian, lets out a battlecry and rushes for the corpse of the giant, before she realizes that he is already dead. She stops in the center of the room, and looks around to find Zrak, Malkala, and Linzi.

"Oh!" She barks, "Well done! I was hoping for a rematch, but it looks like you did it for me!"

Zrak's sharp teeth appear in their fearsome presence as Amiri appears. She witnesses the remains of his frenzy before he calms down once more. After seeing that the large woman is Amiri and not another giant, Zrak shuts his mouth and retracts the metal ball back to his hand. The ball leaps up and down from his moving hand as he smiles at Amiri.

"Thought you knew better than to leave your enemies for dead!" The smaller Ysoki responds with a playful remark, walking up and looking at her large blade. Yep, that would cleave through a giant without a problem.

The small ratty barbarian looks over the dead giant, ensuring it wouldn't have one last burst of strength. "So Amiri, what happened to you? Me and Malkala didn't wake up to giants like these."

Another thought comes to his mind as he looks up at Malkala. "So is this sorta thing normal to nobles?" His question is sincere, given his quizzical look. He's heard stories of intrigue between nobles, but this seemed like an extreme case.

"We had been attacked in our room. After easily taking care of them, we rushed to find Aldori and ran across that guy." Amiri shrugs easily, "He managed to clobber me. Each of us tried to take him one on one and failed."

Linzi blinks, "'Each of us?'" She looks toward the doorway that Amiri charged through and cautiously approached. Her head goes around the corner and Zrak and Malkala hears, "Oh Sheylin! Are you two alright?" She then runs into the room.

At Zrak's second question, Malkala looks pensive, as if recalling information, "While brazen, dramatic, and risky, it is not uncommon for mercenaries to be hired to kill another noble. But the problem is, unless they tell us who hired them, which is VERY unlikely, we won't know for certain who. Even that may not get us anything, though. Smart hirers use cats paws, scapegoats, back channels, and layers of protection. Only the most idiotic hire