Black Hart

Gradsul by Twilight

Chapter 25 - The Beggar's Dog

It was daylight outside, but only just - the birds were twittering at the half-light of the false dawn, as was Cinion as he related his tale while he led them towards Barndanhel.
"After you rescued me I kept having this picture in my head of an old beggar slouched in a doorway, with his dog tugging and pulling on his jacket. I couldn't get it out of my head and I don't know why."
He looked around at Smokelight, who was having trouble keeping up with them, ambling along, huffing and gasping for air.
"Come on!" Cinion yelled, and was answered by several muttered curses.
"Last night I just couldn't sleep, and when I woke earlier this morning something just told me where to go." They passed through the Hillgate, unchallenged by the disinterested guards. "I walked and walked, following a twisted route from the Golden Anchor that I somehow knew I'd been before, but never had if you know what I mean."
They were walking along the inside of the City walls, over the Silver Flow and on towards the Barndanhel slum district, which sat on the hill in the middle of Gradsul.
"After half an hour, and almost every twisting turning street of Barndanhel I stopped and knew I was there." Cinion too was puffing now at the exertion of running and speaking at the same time. "The Beggar's Dog Inn. Whisper took me somewhere before Meyrit's house, and only moved me there a short while before you guys turned up. He must have drugged me, paralysed or something, but I was still conscious and it just took time for me to recall what had happened."
The houses had changed now as they entered Barndanhel - not so much in size or type, they were the typically thin tenements that were also found in the Gartten district. The yhad changed more in terms of condition, as they were ramshackle affairs, crumbling and deserted in appearance, with the streets lined with open sewers and the filth of the multitude of people that lived there.
"And another thing - the bastard's got my ring of invisibility - I remember it now, he must have taken it from me after he kicked me off Hannay's roof!"
Cinion stopped and they saw that they were outside an inn, and outside hung a picture sign, faded and battered by the elements, of an old tramp lying in the street, a wiry grey dog that looked like Ash, pulling on the beggar's jacket arm as though trying to drag him home.
Cinion turned across the street and pointed to a common close across the street from the inn.
"That's it," Cinion said quietly, as though Whisper might hear him. "That's where the bastard took me, the upper left apartment!"

Eloi looked at the others. "Well, we could steam in and try to take the bastard out, but we know that he is dangerous and more than a capable match for any of us. Cinion, do you know whether he is inside?"
"I'd guess there's somebody in there," Cinion said, pointing to the chimneys. They could plainly see smoke coming from all four chimneys there. "I just hope he doen's look out, maybe we should move away if we're going to chat about it."
"Our other problem," Eloi reminded them, "is that he has Cinion's ring of invisibility. We need to use the element of surprise and cut off all possible escape routes. Perhaps we should use Veshper assistance once more. He could provide enough men to cordon off the building and cut off any lines of escape whilst we raid the place."
Akhan shot a sour look at Eloi. "You seem mighty keen to get yourself killed, Zeb. If you remember it's only a matter of hours since Adder here saved your smelly arse. If he hadn't brought you back you could have spent the rest of the afterlife having a cosy chat with your new chum Sbetlath. Or did you lose what little wit you have when you bought it the first time?"
Akhan swivelled quickly left and right, checking for anyone watching from a doorway or a rooftop. "Forget all that anyway," he decided, realising the futility of arguing with the half-orc. "What do we do now? We either search this place now, or sit down to wait and see if our dangerous friend turns up." Akhan folded his arms and contemplated the front of the apartment. "But as we probably won't see him if he's got this ring of invisibility and whatever other tricks he's got up his sleeves, I say we sneak in and search the room now. This bugger's not our target - he's a dangerous sidetrack. Let's see what we can find quickly and move on."
"There's a window at the back and that one at the front," Cinion said. "I think."
He grimaced as he obviously recalled his experience at Whisper's hands. "And I say he has everything to do with our mission here - he was up on Hannay's roof when Gelders visited, that links him. And he's obviously Brotherhood, so what are we waiting for - are we forgetting that he filleted Meyrit?"
Eloi laughed at the remarks and turned to Helden.
"Do you still have you box of disguises? Helden was the only member of the party who wasn't present at our first encounter. He could check out whether the flat is occupied before we steam in. Also, we know he is dangerous, so let's not trake any chances. Everyone should cover their mouths and noses before we enter and we should all be prepared for traps. If the flat is unoccupied we can search it with a view to trying to find out Whisper's reasons for being here. If he is in then we should consider trying to capture him. He may still prove useful in our main mission."
"If you need disguises I could fix each of us up." Helden looked at each of them as they drew away from the building to discuss their plans. Six men talking in the open was highly suspicious, to say the least. "I still have a spell to change my own appearance as well - it's true that Whisper hasn't seen me before. But that would only be useful if we're going up to his door and knocking. If we're rushing him I'd suggest covering each other exit and each window."
"How about some sort of divination magic, mage?" Adder asked, looking towards Smokelight. "I have to agree with him" Adder continued, nodding towards Ahkan. "It would be nice to tie up some loose ends and take this guy out, but let's not let this end up diverting our attention away from the real goal, especially when time is pressing. And we really can't count on the Mareschal's help this time; he's probably spread too thin taking care of other things, and enlisting his help takes too much time. Time we don't have."
A bunch of marines or guardsmen would only get in the way anyway, Adder thought to himself.
"If one of you guys could cast some spells to see if he's up there, and to look out for traps, that would help us a lot and save us time and maybe some casualties. If he's up there, I suggest we bust in with force. I think it's obvious from our previous encounter that this Whisper character doesn't like it when the odds aren't in his favor."
Adder smirked and then laughed. "We could really piss him off by stuffing up those chimneys."
"I don't know what he has," Helden said, glancing at Smokelight, "but I can pick up emanations of evil. Or, I could focus on Cinion's ring if he gives me a good enough description and try to locate it in the room up there - that would help if Whisper's wearing it. If he can turn invisible I suggest some flour or powder and tossing it at him straight off. What we really need is to anticipate his powers of escape for a person of his capability."
"The ring is platinum, with three small diamonds inlaid." Cinion said.
Helden closed his eyes and grasped his Olidamarran holy symbol, facing up to the flat. Almost immediately he opened his eyes. As Helden had closed his eyes, he could immediately sense Cinion's ring within the flat opposite. Hehad changed the words of his prayer, seeking out evil within that place and suddenly a coldness overcame him, a powerful darkness that felt as though the life was being drained from his mortal flesh. he could bear it no longer and opened his eyes.
And now Helden was afraid, for he had never sensed such evil before in his existence, and shocked that a man's soul could be so dark and horrible.
"He's in there," he said abruptly, a shiver running down his spine. "Oh yes, my friends - he is in there!"

"And not only that," Helden's eyes seemed to blaze with a strong outburst of emotion, "I picked up an overwhelming sense of evil, almost inhuman in nature. Make no mistake, this Whisper is one hell of a customer."
"So, tactics?" Helden looked back at Eloi. "I could take the front door first with one or two close behind. If that weed smoker comes from the front as well, then we hit him with one spell apiece before attacking. Then someone to cover both windows and the ground, unless one or two of you want to come in through the windows as well."
"Of course, we're going on to get that snake," Smokelight declared, as he looked up at the flat where Cinion told them Whisper was. "What poor luck on his part, to be there right now..."
The mage prepared to cast a Clairvoyance spell, and told the others as much.
"Using flour or something similar is a good idea. And speaking of powder, don't forget his Dust of Choking, or whatever it was, that nearly did us in earlier."
Smokelight cast his spell, closing his eyes to better concentrate on his magical task.He dug about in a pocket of his shabby coat, producing a yellowed paper fold that had even more creases than the mage's weathered brow. He took a pinch of powder from that fold, replacing it in his pocket - Akhan thought that he had absolutely no desire to know what the powder was.
Smokelight closed his eyes and began reciting the words to his spell, casting the powder into the air after a few seconds.
The vision slowly appeared in his mind, a darkened room with but a crack oflight coming in from the windows. As the room lightened, he saw a single, shadowy figure moving across the room to a window, stooping and peering through a knot-hole in the shutter.
Suddenly the figure leapt back from the window, pulling up its hood and grabbing at some items from a table in the centre of the room. He could see more clearly now as the figure bundled a handful of paper sheets that lay there and darted over to the fireplace. There he threw the paper sheets onto the smoking embers, and the room lightened up as they caught fire.
The figure, whose face he could not see, then ran towards the bed and speedily began to equip himself with a number of items there, including a sword.
Smokelight's eyes were closed as his visual sense moved elsewhere.
"I think he sees us... It is dark up there, but I see that he is peering through a hole in the shutter - Hell's Bells! He definitely is alerted to danger! He now springs into action! He just threw some papers into a fire, and now he is grabbing his weapons! He is a cornered, poisonous snake, ready to go down fighting!"
"It's your call, Zeb," the mage said to the half-orc. "How do you want to handle this viper? He knows we're here, so we do not have the element of surprise. We could storm in and try to simply overpower him, or send for reinforcements to cut off the building's exits, while I watch him for as long as my spell lasts. Of course, if we do the latter, he may take hostages or threaten the lives of innocents who may be in the building with him."
"Keep in mind, my spells are nearly depleted for today. I have my devices, but I am not at optimum power."
"In the name of sweetness and light!" Cinion cried, "What are we waiting for - he's escaping!"
With a leap, Cinion ran across the street towards Whisper's apartment.
Eloi shrugged at the others. "Remind me to kill Cinion once this is all over. Someone stay here to make sure he doesn't leave by an other way, but the rest of you come on." He drew his mace and ran after the little halfling.
"Damn it, you fucking half-brain half-pint!" Eloi defintiely had a point. If Whisper didn't cut smartmouth in two, somebody else just might. With that Adder, who had just finished tying his bandana around his mouth and nose, headed after Eloi and the halfling, whose codename should have been Little Stupid.
"So much for a plan!" Helden shook his head. Now that Whisper had discovered them, subterfuge and planning was useless. He was quite sure that Whisper would use the windows if things were going against him. "If you're all going up after him I'm staying down here to watch his escape!"
Privately of course Helden would have much preferred being in the thick of things. A spell or two at the right time might just help take Whisper down quickly. Helden kicked himself for letting his mind wander, and headed towards the building with the rest.
Akhan pulled the eye patch off irritably and spoke urgently to Helden as everyone pounded towards the entrance to the Inn. "If you watch this front window, I'll get the back, but I'm going up onto the roof to do it." That said, Akhan quickly seized on the edge of the building with the most purchase and began to climb.
He might just decide to use that suggestion of blocking the chimney, but it'd be a damn shame to lose yet another piece of clothing if he had to stuff the flue with his cloak. At any rate, he ought to fix the rope up when he reached the roof - he might need to make a quickdescent again. There was very little chance of any dramatic leap through that window using it though. No way was he swinging through the window to find himself stuck on the end of Whisper's sword!
Then, with a resigned sigh, he covered his
mouth and nose with a rag, tying it loosely around his head (like a bandana)
As Smokelight conmtinued to watch, Whisper grabbed a chair and ran to the corner of a room. He looked briefly at the door then placed the chair down, stepped onto it and, using the back jumped up to the ceiling where for the first time Smokelight noticed a hole. Whisper hung there for a moment then begun using his momentum to swing up into the hole.
Smokelight grabbed a rag from his pocket and, waddling quickly towards the close entrance, he tied it around his mouth and  nose.

Eloi and Adder soon caught up to Cinion as he ran up the stairs, and saw Akhan running out the back door. As they got to the landing at the top, Cinion threw himself at the door, but it was sound and he bounced off it, only just managing to avoid falling to the floor.
"Cinion, hold up." He quietly called, puffing hard to regain his breath. "We should act cautiously as we approach the door."
Eloi looked around the corridor looking for any traps that might be evident and slowly and quietly edged his way until he was positioned at one side of the door. He motioned to Adder to take a similar position on the opposite side of the door and for Cinion to stand at the wall opposite. He raised three fingers and slowly dropped on at a time. As his last finger dropped he turned and swung his flail at the lock in the door hoping that the hefty blow would destroy it.
With a crack the lock broke and the door opened but a few inches. There was a slight smell of wood-smoke and what little they could see was flickering with the light of a fire.

Akhan ran into the close and straight through to the back door. With fear and excitement rushing through his veins he shimmied up the nearest downpipe, and swung up over the eaves, onto the roof. He took a second to gain his balance, and heard a thump from downstairs.
Quickly scanning along the roof Akhan noticed at hte far end of this tenement, about five house lengths away, a large hole in the roof.
Akhan's eyes narrowed at the sight of the suspicious hole in the roof. Wary about the possibility of Whisper being invisible he carefully drew Kagnstir from its scabbard and began to creep along. He didn't know what the hole could mean but it could certainly be an escape route.
Akhan edged nearer the hole cautiosuly. Suddenly a shiver ran down his spine as he realised there was someone within the roofspace, moving nearer - it sounded like someone in a hurry, trying to keep as quiet as possible but still desperate to be on their way.
Akhan wasn't happy. There was a very dangerous customer below and he had to figure some way to delay him until the rest caught up. And a fight on the rooftops with an invisible opponent was not appetising. Even shouting to the others gave no guarantee that they would hear or understand; but Whisper would certainly get the picture. "Damn this!" Akhan swore to himself.
He reached up to his collar and released the clasp for his cloak and edged closer to the hole. He sized it up, wondering if it was possible to cover it over. In the end he decided it was worth raising some doubt in the bugger's mind and he swept the cloak over the top edge of the gap, hoping to obscure as much as possible. That done, he retreated from the edge again and crept quickly down to the bottom of the roof and peered over. He hoped Helden would see him. If he had to he'd just have to shout. But hopefully his friend would have sharp eyes and spot the shiny blue sword being waggled around...

Smokelight ambled to the top of the stairs, just as Eloi lifted his leg and kicked the door wide open. The door swung back, almost off its hinges, and they saw a small one-room apartment, almost square. To the centre of the room was a bare table and a couple of wooden chairs, to the left a smouldering fireplace that was brightly lit. To the left and just out of sight they could see an alcove that was probably the recessed sleeping area. They could not see anyone within
Adder made sure he was out of the way of Eloi. Sword drawn, he activated his sword's power of mirror image and three other identical Adder's appeared. He then pressed himself against the wall opposite the hinge of the locked door.
"Up the chimney" Adder murmured. He then looked in and carefully extended his sword into the doorway, and quickly ran it around the doorway, trying to ensure there were no intact trip wires or the like. "Alright on three we both step in, you look left and I'll look right" he said to Eloi.
Eloi nodded at Adder's suggestion. "Cinion stay at he door and fill it as best you can. If Whisper is invisible he may try to escape throught the door."
On the count of three they entered the room with Eloi making a cursory inspection for traps as they went. Smokelight ran in after them, trying to catch up, and yelled, "Watch the ceiling!"
Upon hearing the warning Eloi's eyes sharpened and he took a long and forceful swipe with his flail at the ceiling of the room, which did nothing but bring down a lump of plaster on their leader's head.
Adder frowned at Eloi's literal flailing at the ceiling. if Whisper was still in this room, it would be better to flush him out after everyone was in place. Needless to say, Adder kept his eyes moving in order to avoid any nasty surpises the assassin might have in store.
Once sure the room was clear and that Whisper was escaping, Eloi ran to the window and flung it open.
"Akhan, Smokelight!" he shouted. He's on the fecking roof. Try to cut off his means of escape."
Eloi surveyed the wall of the house for footholds. There was no fecking way that he was going to give chase up the chimney. If he found suitable footholds he started to climb up the wall of the building until he was on the roof.
Adder looked about and saw, in the corner of the room to the left of the door, farthest away from the street, a hole which had been smashed in the ceiling, leading into the dark loft space. Immediately below the hole stood a chair, propped ideally to allow someone to reach up.
Then Adder rushed across the room to the fireplace, intent on grabbing the papers burning there that had suddenly caught his eye. If Whisper had taken the time to throw them on the fire, then they were probably as valuable as catching the assassin himself. After grabbing what he could, Adder said, "Let's see what we have here," as he tried to make out any writing that he could.
Adder quickly grabbed the few remaining sheets, then shook them until the flames blew out. He looked at them, but could make little sense of them now - they were either coded or in a foreign language. One of them was a drawing - from what he could tell probably a map of an area within the docks, and had boxes and arrows drawn upon it. Several of the smaller boxes seemed to converge on a larger one, and there was writing about this one too.
Adder stuffed the half-burnt sheets inside his jacket, deciding this wasn't the time or place to start deciphering the sheets - otherwise it could well be the last thing he ever did. Eloi was confused and in his frustrations turned to Smokelight.
"Where is Whisper now? You must try and concentrate and guide us. He could slip an knife into anyone of us without us even knowing until it was too late." He regretted his words immediately, hoping that it wouldn't give Whisper any ideas.
Smokelight shrugged his shoulders, pointing up to the hole in the corner of the croom, above the chair. "He went up there, but I had to break my spell to follow you and I can't follow him."
Eloi examined the hole and spoke quickly to Smokelight. "Is he invisible? Is he using the ring? I don't want to go in there after him in the knowledge he could be sitting there invisible waiting for me to poke my head round."
"He wasn't invisible when I saw him," Smokelight said. "Obviously! Who knows where or what he is now!" Smokelight had a quick look about the room, thinking to himself that a head-hit would be the least worrying wound for Eloi.
"To feck with it!" Eloi shrugged and drew his dagger, stepping up on the chair to enter the hole.
It was difficult, and Cinion held the chair as Eloi stood on it, grabbing hold of the edge of the hole with a dagger in one hand making it all the more difficult. As he hauled his not-inconsiderable bulk up into the loft, the dagger slipped from his hand and tumbled noisily to the floor. Up there it was almost totally dark although he could see a bit of light coming in from a hole in the roof at the far end, to his right. Eloi strained to listen, barely hearing anything over the pounding of his hear.
"See anything?" Cinion hissed quietly from below.
Suddenly there was a clatter and the pounding of feet on wood but Eloi could see nothing there! The hole became much bigger and he realised that someone had thrown a cloth cover that had been concealing a much bigger hole outside as the darkness flew out.

Akhan narrowed his eyes in fear - if what Eloi was shouting was true then this Whisper could be anywhere. He simply had to slip Cinion's ring on and he was completely beyond sight. Although of course, Eloi could just be assuming Whisper was on the roof. It rather depended who it was that was making the noises from downstairs. If it was one of the team then Akhan realised he was in the smelly stuff once again.
At any rate there wasn't any point advertising his presence by shouting back to Eloi for more information. If Whisper was on the roof now then Akhan figured he'd find out about it soon enough. If he was still down below that hole though, well, that was a different story. He settled carefully with his sword ready, trying to keep still enough to listen to the sounds around him; or even any unusual smells...
Akhan waited and could hear nothing but an eerie silence. Then, as he strained, he hear a light scraping coming from beneath him, within the roof space. He almost jumped out of his skin as his cloak came flying from the roof with somehting solid inside it, and went hurtling over the edge. At first he thought it was Whisper himself, but as it clattered off the cobbles in the back court he realised it was a sword which had been used to push his cloak away.
He looked to the hole in the roof where there was a clatter on the slates, but he could see nothing.
Akhan concentrated hard on the edges of the gaping hole. Unless the person downstairs could levitate, it was likely they'd have to grab hold of the edge and pull themself up and onto the roof. Hopefully the others were now making their way to join him up here as best they could, but for the moment he'd just have to hope he could slow Whisper down a bit. Carefully, he shifted Kagnstir's hilt into his left hand so the blade was hidden behind the length of his arm. There wasn't any sense in being too obvious.
Although, Akhan conceded wryly to himself, he was hardly doing a very good imitation of a roof tile. However at that moment, the crestfallen thief realised his folly. "Why didn't I hide over the other side of the roof from the hole?!" Hoping he still had time, Akhan tried to move silently over the crest of the roof to lie in a position where he could peer back over the edge observe the hole.
He quickly padded over to the other side of the roof and lay flat against the tiles. As he did so he could see Helden was no longer down below. He watched, but could see nothing out of the ordinary about the hole, although he could definitely hear someone within the loft space.

Eloi crouched at the opening to the room and spoke to Cinion. "I think the bastards using the ring now, I can hear him, but can't see him.It looks like he's running, there is a hole which appeared in the roof right before my eyes. Pass me my dagger I am going after him. Hopefully Akhan will be in place and be able to help."
Just before climbing up to the hole, Eloi turned to take his dagger from Cinion, and saw Smokelight scanning the room with his monacle - a few seconds later he shook his head, gesturing that he had seen nothing. As he mounted the chair Eloi noticed that the mage himself was now gently fading out of view. He quickly stood up and made his way through the hole into the attic. He listened carefully for any clue which might reveal the whereabouts of Whisper.
Once Smokelight had scanned the room for magic, he cast a flying spell on himself. Speaking in a low voice to Cinion, the wizard told the halfling that he did not detect the assassin below, but was now going to fly up to help Eloi or pursue the assassin across the rooftops, if possible.
Then the wizard Smokelight flew up into the hole and into the attic with Eloi.
"There had better be some way of getting to the roof from inside the house," Helden thought as he dashed in determinedly and ran up all the stairs to the topmost level of the building to look for roof access, pausing only for a moment to poke his head into Whisper's room to look for the others.
"What in Nine Hells are you waiting for," Helden hissed as he ran in, "get up the bloody roof!".
Helden ran in just in time to see Adder's behind disappearing out the front window, obviously intent on climbing up to the roof. He looked inot the room for hte others and spotted Cinion's tiny feet disappearing up a hole in the ceiling, into the attic space. Beneath the hole was a handy chair for climbing up into the attic.

As Akhan watched he saw a pair of grey hands, one of them clutching a dagger, emerge from the hole.
Despite the certain danger, Akhan couldn't help the tight, evil grin which flashed over his face. There was a pleasure in sneaking around which the years could never dull. And the realisation that his adversary was obviously on the back foot for the moment helped.
But the grin turned to gritted teeth as his attention switched back to the job in front of him. He peered closely at those grey hands and tried to distinguish if this bugger was trying to pull himself up. Akhan had toyed with the idea of trying to dislodge the edge of the hole under those hands using the Eye but had decided against. Right now he had no particular need to announce his presence.
No, let him stick his head out the hole. The slower the better. "Where are you Helden?" he wondered anxiously. Eloi could go stick his head in Whisper's chamberpot for all he cared about assistance from that quarter. But his newly-dead friend would be a welcome sight.
Akhan's look turned to disappointment as a familiar balding pate was thrust out of the hole.
"Psst!" he hissed, and Eloi craned his neck back up the roof to see Akhan lying on the other side of the roof, only his head protruding over the peak.
There was a noise within the loft and Eloi jumped, but looked round and realised that it was only Cinion climbing noisily into the loft. The halfling was making his way, somewhat more quietly, towards him. At hte same moment Akhan almost fell from the roof as he caught Adder moving towards him out of the corner of his Eye, climbing up the outside wall from Whisper's flat. He glanced over at Eloi, who was peering back up at him.
Then it was Eloi's turn to jump in fright as a disembodied voice, somewhere between him and Cinion within the roofspace  said, "Right behind you, Zeb -  It's me, Dunstin, so don't be alarmed. D'ye see anything?"
Eloi regained his composure fairly quickly. "Aye Smokelight, I can see Akhan's ugly face looking back at me, but no sign of Whisper. The bastards escaped us again."
Eloi growled at Akhan. "We chased Whisper out here, did you not see or hear him? He was probably invisible."
Eloi shook his head.
 "We've missed our chance again, Whisper is long..."
"Eloi!" the small voice barked, half-coughing the word.
Eloi turned and in returning from looking out to the light it took a second for him to focus - the halfling took a half-step towards him, one hand clutching to his chest, blood running from his mouth, then crumpled to the ground in a heap. As he fell, he revealed the darkened shape behind him, moving towards Whisper's apartment. As the figure swiftly jumped through the hole in the ceiling there was a crash and a voice crying out from below.

Helden stood on the chair and was about to reach up when he heard a voice above, followed by a thump on the roof. Next moment, darkness filled the hole above, and Helden was sent crashing to the floor as someone fell on top of him.
Helden speedily pulled himself to his feet, but saw the darkened figure, a hood pulled about its head, was already on its feet and running for the door.
With as much strength as he could muster, Helden leapt at the figure, who was only a few feet away from him, spear held to skewer the man's body, hoping that jumping at him might enable Helden to overbear him and slow him down before he could make good his escape.
Helden lunged, overbalancing himself as he did so, and the spear tip plunged straight for the fleeing figure's back - it pierced the black garb, but did nothing more than rip it in twain as it bounced harmlessly off some hidden armour.
The figure ran off towards the stairs, and Helden scrambled to his feet.

"No! Cinion!" Smokelight flew over to the fallen halfling to see just how badly he'd been wounded. The poor little fellow had been backstabbed - that much was obvious - the wizard just hoped he hadn't been poisoned as well.
"What is it?" Akhan hissed anxiously at Eloi from the rooftop.. "What's happening"
Eloi ignored Akhan's query and Cinion's fallen body, running over to jump down the hole.
Smokelight stooped at Cinion, only long enough to tell that the halfling was well and truly dead. He heard a thumping noise and turned to see Eloi running straight towards him, then realised the half-orc couldn't see him.
Quickly the mage flew over to the hole and floated down, past an overturned chair and into the room where  Helden, spear outstretched, was scrambling to his feet. He got to the door and stopped for a second.
Helden turned as Smokelight frantically asked, "Where is he?"
Just then there was a crash as Eloi fell through the hole, landing on the chair and splintering it into a hundred pieces. He pulled himself to his feet, obviously winded, and looked questioningly, through the invisible Smokelight, at Helden.
Not bothering to turn around to Smokelight and Eloi behind him, Helden rushed through the door and down the stairs. "This way! C'mon! He's turned invisible." A big sack of floor poured down the stairwell would come in pretty handy about now, Helden thought to himself as he ran after what must surely be Whisper's only way out.
Smokelight bashed open the shutters, and flew out the window.
"Akhan!" he said. "Help me cover the ground floor exit! Whisper is trying to run out that way!" Smokelight floated down to the entrance of the building as he saw Adder suddenly swing down over the edge and climb back down towards Whisper's flat. he then lowered himself and dropped to the ground ten feet away from the mage, who was still invisible.

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