An old enemy appears

With the fires lighting up the roofs of the city, the overall chaos grows in parallel, raging from house to house, from district to district. Building up in intensity, gaining momentum, and consuming all of Elohin.

By the time Ceinwyn, Tri'lanna, and you reach the main roads, Elvish civilians and soldiers are clashing against one another, attacking with anything from swords and spears to clay pots and chair legs. Those not fighting are forming mobs and rioting, taking advantage of the madness, looting and stealing everything in sight.

To your dismay, some of the mob start pointing fingers in your direction, screaming in Elvish. As the throng of rioters starts to surge in your direction, your party is **** to retreat back where you came, scampering through alleyways and through windows. You quickly lose them, as you weren't a priority, but you have to proceed more carefully. Escaping the city seems even less likely now.

After an hour of running and sneaking and avoiding the chaos, the three of you stop to catch your breath on an old cobbled bridge, its foundation layered in moss and stained a dark green color. The bridge arches over a fast-moving river and its deep enough that you cannot see the bottom. It's a cold night, even with the fires gutting all of the houses, but you shiver thinking about how much colder it is in the river.

"Hans, will you listen to me?!" Tri'lanna shouts between gasping breaths. "Don't you think I wanted to tell you? I only held back because I wanted to avoid this very situation!"

"Then start talking!!" You snap back at her. "What's the real story? Are you really not working for Vanarim? If that's true, why couldn't you trust me?!"

"That's because....!" She says, **** angrily on her words, trying to **** them out but no sound is escaping.

You blow out a sigh, not sure if you're even in the right mind to listen. Already, you're thinking up things to counter what she's saying. In fact, you really don't want to hear anything Tri'lanna has to say at this moment. Whatever sadness you were feeling for being lied to has now been replaced with steaming anger and hearing her try and defend herself would only make you madder. Luckily, you're interrupted before anything could happen.

"Get out of the way!!" Ceinwyn points upwards.

Following her outstretched finger, you look up just in time to see the world crashing down on you.

A tall building near the bridge, at least a dozen stories high, was burning intensely when the flames weakened a corner of the foundation, causing the entire thing to topple over - directly over your party and the bridge.

You have to literally dive out of the way of the collapsing tower. Feeling a wave of heat lick across your back, you tumble on the cobblestones before finally rolling to a stop. Somehow the bridge stays firm and doesn't collapse under the weight of the building, but now you are stranded on one side, while Tri'lanna and Ceinwyn are on the other.

"Hans! Answer me!!" It's Tri'lanna's voice, from the opposite side of the structure. She sounds terribly distraught.

The heat from the blaze is intense, and you have to shield your eyes from the burning embers, as they dance and flicker. You inspect yourself quickly, looking for injuries, but other than a scrape when you rolled out of the way, you are fine.

"I'm alright!" You call out to the other side. "Give me a minute to find a way to you!"

Frustrated by how events are playing out, you wonder how much worse things could get as you begin looking around the pitch for a way to cross over.

"Ssstone-bearer."

The reptilian word sends a shiver down your back. You know that voice.

Moving cautiously, you turn to look at the face of a lizardman, grinning with long rows of canine teeth, elongated by the shape of its inhuman head. It's him. The one you fought in the Dragon's Spine.

Stalking towards you from the shadow of the flames, the creature approaches. He is wearing a chestpiece of scale armor, painted black with soot, with the rest of his body covered in loose mail. Around the fringes of his armor though, you can see an angry red scar, made when you hacked him down with your axe weeks ago.

"You remember me, don't you? Yesss. I missed you." He growled, his voice dripping in hate. "After our last fight, I thought about you all the time. I thought about what about what I would do to you. The ways I would destroy you. Did you think of me as much?"

"Who in the hells are you?! How did you get here?!" You shout at him.

"Nautilex. Commander of the attack **** that annihilated the Druids and Vanarim's right-hand." The lizardman chuckled gleefully. "And the primary agent of the Pro-Vanarim revolution within the glorious Elven city of Elohin."

You flash back to yesterday. The killing sensation you felt as you were walking through the city, that someone was staring at you with murderous intention.

"It was you...You were the one who was watching me from the crowds! You're the one who started this riot!"

"Yes and yes, both under orders from my master." Nautilex waves his hand casually, as if the **** of thousands of innocents was like scratching an itch.

"But that is not why we're here now, is it? It's much more personal than that." He said, eyes narrowing further into slits. "You defeated me once, gave me a ssscar to remember you by, but now you're all alone. No pretty elves to protect you from me, no annoying arrows, no outsiders. It'sss time to repay you for the wound you gave me."

In one smooth motion, the lizardman unsheathed his sword and calmly took a combat stance.

"This time you will die." Nautilex spat, scraping his serrated blade along the rails of the bridge. "Defend yourself."