The assault on Salty Pier

[Anastasia]

Romiel is already descending, holy smites blasting what's left of the assassin. Romiel's power savages it, leaving no part untouched as he lands before the burning corpse halves. "I'm fine, thanks to you."

[Nephrite]

"You can do a lot of things if you're willing to gamble with your magic." Moore says as he flies down with him. "Was this someone trying to send a message to say 'you're no longer safe in Celestia,' you think?"

[Anastasia]

"That or killing me," Romiel says blandly, dryly. As the pieces of the assassin burn to ash and less in holy flames, "Both and more. It was a suicidal attack, though he gave it a good effort at getting away. It was a message - probably from Hell over the Crusade there a few decades ago, but it could be other enemies." Kneeling and checking over what little is left, "If you stand for what is right, you make many enemies in Creation."

[Nephrite]

"Hm. Suicidal, yes, but... if that was really all there was, or all he wanted to do was try and kill you, I think he'd have just tried something else after the first stab." Moore says. "Though they had to expect that strong enough magic could undo it... you can't just come to a place like Celestia and not expect someone to know a healing spell."

He shrugs and gestures upwards. "I'm sure someone's already trying to figure how they even got here and why, out up there, anyway."

[Anastasia]

"Which is why I wonder if there was more to it," Romiel rises, nothing left of the assassin. "It will give the diviners a task to work on."

[Nephrite]

Moore nods. "There may be. I have a feeling I'll get tasked with investigating it." A smile and a shrug. "We'll see, I suppose. Well, once the others are able to get back, I hope we can return to the original reason for my visit."

Still, though... this whole scenario... isn't it really up Shar's alley? To try and inflict despair and loss in such a brazen way... Moore frowns inwardly. It will have to be investigated at length later.

[Anastasia]

Wise, but not every evil is Shar, nor Hell or any other single enemy.

Meanwhile you see them flying from the fortress - Cresiel and Kaja, along with a small battalion of celestials.

[Nephrite]

Inwardly, there is a huff. Just spit it out!

Moore waves at the two incoming. "We're all good here!" he shouts at them.

He takes in air through his nose. "Fine, too!" He follows up.

[Anastasia]

Cresiel lands in a crouch, standing after. "Good," he says, a look shared between father and son.

Kaja lands, "Nice hunt," he says, "Bastard's slippery, or was slippery. The hell was that?"

[Nephrite]

"Are you familiar with glooms?" Moore asks. "They're people who went some sort of transformation from yugoloths."

[Anastasia]

"And now he's dead, good enough," Kaja shakes his head, "Brazen bastard, that sort of assassination's one the assassin rarely walks away from."

[Nephrite]

"They either overestimated the poison or..." Moore shakes his head. "We can investigate the why, later. We should move on to somehow a less pleasant topic."

Moore turns to Romiel and offers him a bow and holds his hand out again. "I think we were interrupted before the official introductions. Sir Romiel, it is a pleasure to meet you. I can imagine you're not one for formalities, but if there is another title I should refer to you as, please let me know."

[Anastasia]

"Romiel is fine," Romiel says, "Let's return now and talk within. I fear our original conversation will be delayed a little while."

[Nephrite]

Moore nods and will follow along. "Of course. I'm glad we arrived when we did, though."

[Anastasia]

From there it's a few hours of mundanity. Clean up from the battle, organizing that, giving accounts of what happens.

"Yeah, we pinned it down, but it had some clone that fooled Cresiel's true seeing," Kaja explains, "He came prepared. By the time we realized it, he'd had enough time to get out of our immediate grasp."

You hear this near the end, everyone explaining what happened. "We're lucky you caught him where you did or he'd have gotten away."