Sam stared at the message hovering in front of his view, his brain feeling like all its gears had frozen for an instant and he was struggling to get them going again.

“Shit,” said Sally, staring into space at what Sam had to assume was her own message. Araxesendenak must have broadcast to everyone within Phyrexes, friend and foe alike.

“How did he find us?” Cora asked, turning her eyes to Sam. “Did he find us? Is that a trick?”

“I don’t think so,” Sam said, his brain finally starting to move. “He doesn’t gain anything by it.” He glanced around the room, and met the angry gaze of the older man the women had tied up. He was awake, and he was obviously unhappy. “They probably told him,” Sam said, pointing.

Three sets of eyes turned to follow Sam’s finger. Sally let out a deep growl and started forward, her massive hands closing into fists. “Well we can fix that,” she said with murder in her eyes.

“Stop,” Sam said, and Sally stopped, turning in surprise at the tone. “We broke into their house, and they’re calling on their lord for help. We won’t hurt them for that.” Something was niggling at the back of his head, but he couldn’t catch it just yet.

“Wait. Are we the bad guys?” Pearl asked, eyes going wide.

“In their eyes? Yes. Don’t hurt them, but get them into a closet or something and lock them in. That will do.” Sam turned away, mind starting to race. They only had a few minutes, maybe less. They had to get away from Phyrexes, had to get away from Araxesendenak, and back to where they belonged.

He wanted to run. He wanted to take the others in his wake and run as hard as he could, as fast as he could, in any direction except back the way he came. His animal brain demanded that he put as much distance between himself and those necrohounds, and any other agents of Araxesendenak, and Araxesendenak himself, as was physically possible.

But the conversation with the others was still fresh in his mind, and the promise he had made to start planning. And while running might get them away for a little while… They were unarmed, barely equipped, and alone in the heart of Araxesendenak’s power. THey might be able to run for a while, but they would never be able to escape before the lich king found them.

“We’ll go out the back door and head south,” he said as Sally moved to pick up the old couple and Cora started throwing open doors looking for a suitable storage place. “Araxesendenak will expect us to head north for the dungeon, so we won’t do that.”

“Good plan!” Pearl said as the sisters found an appropriate closet and got the old couple stuffed inside. As they did so, the thing that had been niggling at Sam finally broke the surface, and he felt the beginnings of a plan start up.

“There,” Sally slammed the door. “But if you really wanna make sure they stop talking to King Bony, you ought’a let me give ‘em a couple thumps to send ‘em back to dreamland.”

“No, that’s not how we do things.” Sam said, then glanced over at Giichi, still doing something in his corner of the room and ignoring everything else going on around him. He vaguely recalled the halfing making some annoyed motion when the Kingdom Message had popped up, so probably he hadn’t even looked at it.

Good enough.

Sam looked back to see Pearl and the sisters all staring at him, waiting for his next move. He took a deep breath, then raised his finger to his lips, signaling for quiet. Three faces got nearly identical expressions of surprise. He beckoned Sally over, taking careful note of how her heavy footfalls sounded against the expensive hardwood flooring. With her following, Sam hot-footed it to the door on the southern wall, opening it up and glancing out. It led to a rather stately side yard, full of trees and well-trimmed bushes.

“Coast’s clear,” he said, loudly. “Let’s go.” He beckoned the others over, and they came quickly. Then just as quickly stopped when Sam held up his hand when they were just a few feet from him. He waited a second more, then slammed the door hard enough to rattle some of the mana light fixtures.

“Keep it quiet,” he said in a soft whisper. “Don’t let those two geezers know we’re still here.”

Sally blinked in confusion, but understanding lit up on both Cora and Pearl’s face. Pearl opened her mouth and inhaled–and Sam barely got his hand over her mouth in time to stop her exclamation.

“Quietly, Pearl,” he said.

“Right. Sorry,” Pearl whispered as Sam pulled his hand back. “You want them to think we’ve gone south, but we’re not gonna go south, right?”

“Bingo,” Sam.

“And they’ll tell Araxesendenak which way we’ve gone,” Cora whispered. “That’s very well done. But won’t he send some people here too, just in case?”

“Probably, but we’re not staying. Pearl, fly over to Giichi and see how close he is with those runes. If he can get them done in the next couple minutes, we’ll wait for him. We need the advantage. Otherwise we’ll get out of here as quiet as possible and head west.”

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Pearl saluted in lieu of words and zipped over to Giichi, avoided the emaciated halfling’s annoyed hand-swipe, and fell into muted conversation with him after a moment.

“And what happens,” Sally murmured in a rumble that Sam could feel in his gut, “if things go to shit and the bonebag finds us?”

“We die in a blaze of glory, taking as many of them with us as we can in order to give our friends a better chance when they get the dungeon back to the surface,” Sam said grimly.

Sally blinked. “I was expecting some kind of heroic ‘that’ll never happen’ speech.”

“Sorry, your butt is too big right now for me to try to blow smoke up it.”

“You have no idea how to talk to women, Butter-boy,” Sally said with a toothy grin.

“Believe me, I know,” Sam muttered. He was spared further banter by the arrival of Pearl, with Giichi in tow.

“Here,” the wizened halfling said in a harsh whisper, thrusting a paper unceremoniously against Sam’s chest. “This work is execrable and so far beneath me it boggles the mind, but it will serve our purposes.

Sam glanced down at the paper to see a whorl of mana runes inscribed on it in some kind of metallic ink. The runes were so dense and the theory behind them so advanced that it made his head hurt just to look at them, but he at least recognized the activation runes. He looked up to see Giichi handing out more sheets of paper to the others, including one for Pearl.

“Tap these runes three times to activate them,” Giichi said, indicating the specific runes. “These will block out any scrying spells or abilities that might be used to try and loAcate us. It will also alter our appearances through illusion enough so that it would take Ensure the paper remains in contact with your skin. Do not put it in a pocket, do not place it in a bag. You may crumple or fold as needed, but in order for it to function it must remain in skin contact. As soon as you are no longer touching it, it will deactivate.”

“And we’ll be dead,” Cora said, accepting hers with a grim set to her mouth. “Gotcha.”

A low ululating howl sounded. Necrohound. And it was close. Sam drew in a deep breath and forced himself to not panic.

“Don’t activate them yet,” he whispered. “Figure out where you’re going to carry it, make sure it’ll work, then activate it. Take ten seconds, then we’re going out the door fast and quiet.”

The next ten seconds were nothing but rustling clothing and quiet breaths as they all figured out the best way for themselves to remain in contact with their papers. Sam sat down and removed his left boot and sock, deciding he’d tuck his paper into the boot and just go without the sock for now. It would be uncomfortable, but he could deal with discomfort for a bit if it got them out of here.

“Time,” Sam said, and pressed both of the activation runes. A sensation like ice-cold gelatin coalesced around his body for a brief second, stealing his breath away in a surprised gasp. Then it vanished with a popping sensation, leaving behind what felt like a thin sheen of grease over his entire form.

“Did it work?” he asked turning to the others.

“It did if you’re not really an orc skeleton with a bad under bite and a white ponytail,” Pearl said, zipping forward to peer closely at him. “Wow, that’s amazing!”

“Quickly,” Cora said, applying her own runes. Her form shimmered for a moment before suddenly Cora was no longer there and in her place stood a tall gaunt woman with silver braids and a scar across the bridge of her nose.

“How does the spell work?” Sam asked as the others activated their rune sheets as well. Pearl became a beady-eyed raven, and Cora a towering ogre with a single eye. He recovered one of the sickle-swords they had taken from the guards back in the Calcified Fortress before moving. They all followed him as he led them silently towards the western exit.

“The spell selects forms at random based on a sampling of sentient creatures in the nearby region and then applies a size template to ensure that a pixie does not wind up the size of a troll,” Giichi said as he transformed into a young gnome with sideburns that went all the way up to his eyebrows. “It cannot mimic touch, so if you must touch someone be sure you do so in a way that conforms with your image.” That last was said at increasing volume until he was speaking normally as the four of them made their way out of the house and into what turned out to be a well-appointed side garden.

“Ooh, Cora, you look like a pirate queen!” Pearl said, the raven-image flapping its wings so that it landed on Cora’s shoulder. “Look at me, I’m a parrot! Polly want a fig!”

“It’s ‘cracker’,” Sally said.

“But I want a fig,” Pearl said, sounding confused.

“Hush,” Sam said, moving through the small garden over to a gate. The dirt path crunched quietly under his shoes, and the paper inside his left boot rubbed uncomfortably against his sole.

“Okay, identities,” he said, reaching the gate and turning. “Cora, you’re the boss. I’m your undead guard. Pearl, you’re a familiar. Sally–”

“I’m the non-undead bodyguard,” Sally said in a basso rumble that could have been masculine or feminine depending on the prejudices of the listener. “Heard there were some crazy fucks got loose from King Araxesendenak’s castle, so hired on to protect miss…” the ogre-image turned and raised a section of monobrow at Cora.

“Silkthorne,” Cora said, making her voice haughty. “Visiting from the eastern continent. And my husband,” she added, nodding at Giichi, who was merely standing there looking impatient even in his gnome-image. “I married him for his money,” she added in a whisper pitched to carry while her image made a playful smirk that somehow looked less playful and more predatory.

“Good enough,” Sam said, nodding. “I’ll have to stay quiet unless absolutely necessary. Skeletons aren’t known for their conversational abilities. Stay close, help each other out, and let’s get through this, right?”

“Right,” said everyone but Giichi. Sam nodded once and drew a deep breath before reaching out and swinging open the gate an inch, peering out between the crack.

There was an alleyway beyond, mercifully empty save for some of the standard refuse that seems to collect in any alleway anywhere in the world. Sam pushed the door open the rest of the way. “Alright, we avoid people as much as we can, and if we run into someone we have to approach, let Cora do all the talking. Our goal is to get out of town and find somewhere to hole up for the night. Everyone good?”

They were. Quickly they filed through the gate and into the alleyway. They could hear the sounds of the city now; boots stomping on stone, the clink and rattle of skeletons in armor, and the low hum of city life going on in the background. That hum seemed to Sam slightly louder than it might have been in other circumstances.

“That way,” Giichi said, pointing up the alleyway. “If my memories are accurate, that way lays the mercanitle quarter. Out of town visitors would be more likely to congregate there, and less questions will be asked.”

“Sounds good to me,” Cora said still in her Silkthorne voice. The others nodded their agreements and started down the alleyway.

They were maybe halfway down the alley when a pair of massive skeletal creatures hove around a bend and into view. Each one was the size of a carthorse, but looked canine in appearance. They had the mass and bulk of a mastiff, but the long elegant sleekness of a greyhound. Green ichor dripped from their fanged muzzles, and their eyes burned orange casting weird shadows the length of the alley and making them seem even more otherwordldly than they already were.

They could only be the Necrohounds Sam had heard.

They skidded to a stop on feet tipped with claws the size of daggers and swung their heads to regard the five figures in the alleyway with them.

“Just be cool,” Sam muttered without moving his jaw. “Heads high, act like you belong. Trust in the illusions.”

“Oh. Oops.” Giichi said.

Everyone froze.

“Oops what,” Sally growled out of the corner of her mouth.

“I was not provided the appropriate time I required to fully integrate the runes,” Giichi murmured. “Blame for this does not rest on my shoulders. I am a master craftsman, I should not be rushed in any way–”

“Oops what?” Sally growled louder as the necrohounds advanced.

“The illusions will not be effective against non-sentient creatures.”

The words seemed to hang in the air for a split second, stopping time with their mere existence.

Then with a sound like souls being shredded in a windstorm, the necrohounds howled and charged them.