Hawke would suddenly come sliding to a stop as he sees the Sinathel finish off the last of their opponent's, it would not be until he started to glance around that he came to notice that one of their companions was laying rather still upon the ground.
Steeling his emotions, Hawke would ask in a matter of fact tone, "Is he dead?"
Olivius is confused by what he is seeing at first. Then the childhood stories start to trickle back to the front of his mind. Bleak landscape. Penitent skeletons. Complete lack of anything interesting to steal. Ya, he was close to death.
Speaking of, the man (if death had a gender) himself was standing right in front of him. Nothing shiney even attempted a glitter on that thing's massive form. No hint of liftable goodies. Not even the clink of coin.
*sigh*
The cowled figure closes the tome and it fades away as if it were never there. A long pointed finger of bone emerges from the robe and gestures behind him, exposing a treasure trove of gold, jewels, sacramental idols, precious stones of all descriptions. Death stands beside you as you behold the wealth of a lifetime
Olivius Telraven. Death's voice is flat and cold. Your pursuit of material glories and wealth has not gone unnoticed. Well do I know the greed that stirs men's hearts to secret actions. But in exchange for your life, I demand a more balanced soul. Henceforward, whenever you steal, you must perform a selfless act of goodness in equal measure to what you took. The figure turns to you, and you see a hint of exposed jawbone and teeth in a macabre smile. I look forward to seeing your criminal mind bent toward...nobler pursuits.
Olivius ponders. Noble deeds in exchange for theft. Generosity in equal value to plunder. His life hanging in the balance. Death meant for him to become a pauper. Or not. His time was worth something, after all. Olivius the Philanthropic Thief. Hadn't be heard about a Hood Robber once who was much the same?
After an eternity, and yet no time at all. Olivius comes to his decision slowly and all at once.
Accepted.
His eyes snap open. His first mistake of his new life. There was but one sensation in this Land of the Living. Pain. Overwhelming, mind clouding, all-consuming pain.
He gasps, then gags on his own agony. He gags on congealed blood and invoulentary coughs up even more phlegm. Three seconds since his return and he is already drowning on the results of his own near-death.
Hawke's eyes would dart to the man he thought dead moments before. Surprise could be seen in them for the briefest moment, before he they turned to survey the room once more. "Someone might want to turn him upon his side so he doesn't die choking."
With that said, he would start to search the room and it's dead occupants for anything of use while sliding the temple sword back into it's sheath.
You find:
2 Healing Potion; 50 coins/potion, 0 weight When you drink an entire healing potion, heal yourself of 10 damage or remove one debility, your choice.
1 pair of Nunchaku Close, precise 1 Weight, 2 Coins
2 Steel Knuckles, precise, hand, 1 coin 0 Weight
Various minor jewelry and gold worth 3d6+Cha coin.
While gathering up anything he can find that might be of use, Hawke finds some potions. Gently, he'll slide one across the floor towards Olivius. "You might want to drink that. It should get you back on your feet for now. Otherwise, we all need to decide whether we wish to give our enemies more time to prepare while attempting to recover or if we wish to push forward."
Dambreth looks at the thief laying in a pool of his own blood. Soft, just as I thought.
However, witnessing the small thief rise after suffering such wounds begins to alter Dambreth's opinion of the thief, at least in some part. Whether he senses his masters growing acceptance of Olivia, has begun to consider him part of the pact, or just wanted to know what the little man tastes like, Scram pads off and begins to lick the blood off Olivius' face.
As Scram is busy, Dambreth repairs the minor damage done by the harpy to his armor. He then walks over and gives the giant tiger a firm hug, "Well fought cousin!"
Olivius grasps at the bottle of healing and chugs it down as fast as his broken face will allow. The magic instantly takes effect. Bones snap back into place, flesh mends, and the pain mercifully, beautifully, fades.
Olivius is so happy he doesn't mind when Dambreth's overgrown house cat comes over to clean him up. He just sits there for a moment, enjoying the sensation of breathing.
Soon enough he comes back to the present and says in an oddly cheery tone (considering he just came back from the dead), Well! Are we all ready to kill some harpies? I have some noble acts to perform, and I figure slaughtering harpies is a good start!
When he catches Hawke with a moment, he asks for the Nunchaku that killed him. I feel we have a bond, that weapon and I.
Hawke's eyes would slowly turn to regard Olivius as the man came to him asking for the weapon that had felled him. "Fair enough," he would simply state while pulling the exotic weapon from his belt and handing them to Olivius.
"And I am willing to continue on. Considering we still have the b*#(@ queen to consider into our current situation, would someone care to make use of the other crossbow that I confiscated from earlier? One may find that they need to attack an enemy that is in the air." As he speaks, Hawke will stare at the barbarian.
Sinathel gives Dambreth a chuffle of greeting as he gives her that firm hug. She was glad he was mostly, if not unharmed from that harpy that had tried to dive bomb him. A large paw wraps around him and gives him a pat on the back.
Sinathel gave another chuffle of satisfaction as she surveyed the disaster that was this 'library'. With any luck, the books would begin to return to the earth, and nature could take back what belong to it in the first place. With a sniff up the stairs, she was ready to move on. Her tail gave a twitch of excitement and indecision of waiting for everyone or moving ahead on her own.
With one last twitch, her mind was made up. She starts up the stairs before looking back at the others as if to ask 'Coming?'
It was time for the hunt to continue.
Si-Yi raises an eyebrow at Olivius' sudden outburst of nobleness. Looks like the poor guy got one hit too many to the head...
Then he raises an eyebrow at the weird giant-cat thing that Sinathel has turned into. He sighs, and starts following her up the stairs, but not without mumbling something about "silly jungle elves" and "absolutely inappropiate-sized cats".
Olivius follows his comrades, then takes the lead. As Sinthel was currently a large cat, he was the party scout. He just hopes it goes better for him from here on out.
Seemingly at home carrying all of the equipment that they had come upon so far, minus a pair of nunchaku, Hawke follows behind the rest with a readied crossbow in his hands.
At the top of the stairwell is another set of double doors. After carefully examining the door for traps, Olivius nods to the party and pushes on through.
What he sees next brings him up short, his mouth hanging slightly open. Olivius, you get the feeling that the personage of Death that you just met would be pleased with this room - the smell of death hangs in the air like heavy, foul incense.
This room was formerly a common area, a large meeting place for monks and visitors to gather and discuss business. Now, though, bird feces is found everywhere, and the monks have all been cruelly eviscerated. Their bodies lie all around you, like the cast-off toys of a careless child in a playroom. In the middle of the room is what looks like a death arena, ringed by a circular line of stones and slick with blood in the center. You see two dead monks in the center, locked in a final embrace of bloody combat. You see no dead harpies anywhere - this looks to have been an easy conquest for the flock.
You glance up and your heart briefly stops when you see the dead, ripped-up face of one of the monks hanging in the air not a foot from you. His body had been tied by the ankle to one of the tapestries overhead, and now swings back and forth slowly.
There is no sign of the harpies, but your ears do pick up the faint sound of muttering.
Hawke would flush with anger at the sight. To him, this looked like a make shift coliseum where the harpies and matched their captivated prey against one another. More than ever he wished to make the matriarch feel the bite of his axe.
"" Hawke would shout.
Dambreth readies his bow and moves to give himself a direct line of sight for anything coming into the room. Scram gives a low growl of anger seeing the carnage. Even his cougar brain recognizes this as an abomination against nature. His tail lashes back and forth revealing his building rage.
Hawke angrily advances into the room, his heavy boots echoing in the tall chamber. Stained-glass windows make the sunlight reflect in a hundred different colors, but the light reveals blood and more blood everywhere he looks.
Brandishing his sinister-looking axe, he calls out his challenge, but the muttering sound continues unabated. It's difficult to place its location due to the faintly echoing nature of the room you're in.
Scram and Dambreth quietly slip off to the side. Dambreth, you notice two doors on the right side of the room that have been barred from your side.
Sinathel slinks off into the shadows, letting her stripes and the shadows help hide her form. She looks for other entrances and places for the harpies to hide as she herself stealths around.
Hawke would remove one of his hands from the shaft of his great axe and push it into a pouch at his side. Upon removing it, he would toss a hand full of the jewels he had taken from the previous harpies across the room in an attempt to provoke any harpies that might be lurking in the room.
"Do you not wish for revenge upon those that have slain so many of your kind? Or perhaps you are too cowardly to risk your life to avenge your own family!"
Hawke would return his hand to his axe once done.
Olivius is a human form of Sinathel as soon as he enters the room. He is careful to stay hidden while he scours and probes the room for any enemy activity.
The ground beneath your feet rumbles, then stops. Again, and stops. And again. And again. On the rhythm goes until one by one the realization strikes each of you - the rumbles are footfalls. Something very, very big is coming your way, and gaining speed. You can hear faint female voices cheering from the small door in the wall on the far side of the room.
The rumbling culminates in a CRASH as whatever it is smashes into wall on the other side of the room. The stone buckles inward from the impact and many rocks are knocked loose.
A window is opened high overhead! A female head pokes inside, wearing a garishly oversized and horribly tacky crown. She sticks her tongue out at all of you, crudely, and screams "YOU'RE ALL #@%&ED NOW!" before cackling madly and flying away from the window.
You have seconds before whatever smashed the wall on the opposite side hits it again. What do you do?
Hawke will run back towards the door they had entered through with a large grin on his face. Perhaps he would finally get himself a challenge. Perhaps even a challenge that would manage to fell him. None the less, he was a pratical man. So as he moved, he would retrieve one of the potions he had upon his person and pull it's cork free with his teeth before imbiding the substance within.
Sinathel hides to lie in wait letting the debris, the shadows, and her stripes work together to conceal her form. She was going to ambush this creature. 'May the surprise be on you!'
Olivius is scared. So scared. And so Excited!. He holds his newly freed rapier in one hand and a throwing knife in the other.
Come and get us, big boy. he mutters to himself.
Dambreth finds a spot that will allow him to get off a unobserved shot. Scram crouches next to him ready to follow the arrow to the target.
Si-Yi stays where he was, at the centre of the room, holding his sword like one would hold a baseball bat and staring at the wall the harpies are trying to break down.
Hawke's boots echo once more as he turns around to run. He bolts back to the door and sucks down his potion hungrily, turning back to face the wall as his companions position themselves carefully.
Except Si-Yi, of course. Positioning himself carefully really wasn't in his playbook. He stands and faces the slowly collapsing wall as it is continually pushed towards him. With a hideous cracking sound that makes you all want to cover your ears, the wall is broken through. But the wall pieces...the stone that made up the monastery...doesn't fall. Instead, whatever was pushing the wall behind it absorbs the masonry into itself.
The giant snake-like creature made of rock and precious gems rushes into the room and roars, its voice shaking the masonry that many of you hide behind. The beast is nearly 15 feet high at the shoulder.
Si-yi, the onrushing maw of the rock-snake is coiling to strike at you, what do you do?
After skidding to a stop, Hawke drops the now empty potion bottle while turning to regard their newest assailant. It was big, it was strong, and it promised either the sweet release of death or treasure to those that dared face it. This was Hawke's kind of foe. One worthy of his full blown attention.
With a quick turn, he would rush back to lash out at the beast made of stone with his most trusted companion which gleamed wickedly in the dazzling display of light that shone down from the multicolored glass above.
As soon as Olivius is certain that the two big guys have the snake's attention, he darts from his place and attacks any exposed joints he can see.
- Reduce armor by 1 until repaired
Even as the Olivius stabs the creature, Dambreth takes aim and lets go an arrow at the massive creature's head as Scram leaps for the back of the monster
Si-Yi just stands there, not even blinking when the gigantic stone-beast charges towards him. The snake moves closer and closer, until the monster's maws are only at an arm's length away from the elf's throat, and that's when he finally acts.
In a split second, the barbarian has grabbed the creature's head from both its top and bottom, and is pushing the teeth-filled maws against one another in a desperate struggle to keep the beast from opening its mouth and tearing off a limb... Or worse.
Hawke dashes alongside the monster and attempts to slash it with his axe, but the snake's armor is made from the masonry of the monastery itself, and he is knocked backward. Hawke, you're stunned - you need to make a Defy Danger roll to do anything, the danger being "you're stunned still."
Olivius is successful, but only barely. He boldly sidles alongside the snake's underbelly, attempting to strike at its stone "skin" rather than its armor of the masonry. Some of the rock armor is slipped away, but Olivius can tell it'll take a lot more than a few well-placed stabs to take this creature down.
Dambreth sends his panther against the rocksnake, firing a shot. The rumbling of the floor beneath his feet throws off his aim slightly, but it still strikes true enough. It sticks in the face crystal of the rocksnake as it rushes Si-Yi.
The elf barbarian, meanwhile, seems unafraid of the onrushing threat. Without hesitation he grasps the massive head of the rocky beast, his muscles tensing to their utmost limit as he struggles against the mighty force of the earth-monster. With a shout, he actually wrestles the head of the creature to the ground alongside him, giving himself +1 to his next strike against the boss.
With a roar, the rock-snake rears up! The boulders and stones that make up its body suddenly shift, and the monster abruptly stands on two legs in bipedal form! The beast turns its gaze downward to look down at the still-defiant elf barbarian, and throwing its arms up, it falls forward towards him in an attempt to crush him beneath his incredible bulk! The creature's body, almost as tall as the side of a barn, is falling down on you, Si-Yi, what do you do?
Not seeing any reliable way to get away in time before the beast crushes him, Si-Yi decides that offense is the best defense, even against giant masonry-snakes. Instead of dodging away from the massive monster, he jumps towards it, swinging his blade in a wide arc towards the creature's neck just as its mass begins to descend towards the barbarian.
The inevitable shaking that occurs when metal strikes stone would vibrate through the metal shaft of Hawke's axe and into his bones. Hawke could feel it rattle through his bones and up into his skull causing his mind to start and cloud over. In an attempt to clear his head, he would give it a vigorous shake.
Feeling his senses sharpen for a moment, Hawke charges in once more in hopes of finding a sweet spot behind one of the, now bipedal, creature's knees.
As he stumbles in, Hawke will come to realize that his mind is not as clear as he had hoped and he could still feel the rattling in his bones. None the less, he pushes himself forward and lets out a fierce yell as he swings his axe in a vicious arc.
Olivius sees no sign that the beast is even aware of him, so he keeps stabbing, hoping to peel off more armor for his comrades.
-reduce armor by another 1
Dambreth aims at the spot that Olivius has weakened trying to strike at something vital to the monster. Meanwhile, Scram scrambles to maintain his footing on the back of the monster as it rears upright.
His arrows hits but in conjunction with knocking off a chunk of the monster, the arrow shatters beyond ability to repair.
Dambreth wracks his brain trying to think of any useful tidbits about rocksnakes.
Si-Yi's barbarian fury shows in his forceful upward slash, cutting a significant chunk of rock from the side of the jeweled beast. In the same motion as his fluid strike he follows-through, allowing his momentum to carry him upward and onto the creature's shoulders! It rears up on two legs again and makes to brush you off, Si-Yi - its fist is the size of a wagon and coming at you, what do you do?
Meanwhile, Hawke manages to injure the creature's "foot" - which is actually just a large boulder that happens to be in that spot on its body. Regardless, his wicked greataxe sunders through much of the beast's natural armor, cleaving the boulder in half. The beast rocks unsteadily on its feet but it swings its leg and catches Hawke by surprise! Take damage.
Dambreth narrows his eyes in frustration as he loses some of his ammunition, and thinks to himself about his past travels.
Dambreth, you think that this is a breed of rock elemental. These beings don't belong on the Material Plane - they're either summoned here by mortal sorcerers or drawn here by great upheavals of nature. You remember that earth elementals don't really have an anatomy, so they can change their shape at will as long as the raw materials are available for them to bind their spirits to. Earth elementals, they have a "heart" known as a lodestone that serves as their anchor to this place, preventing them from returning to the Plane of Earth. Destruction of this heart would release the earth spirit, and leave behind a valuable treasure - but how to get to it? You can't quite remember.
Hawke will get pushed back as one of the earth elemental's massive legs slams into him. It was an impressive blow that would have ended many normal men, but Hawke was not a normal man. As the beast's leg moves back beneath it once more, Hawke would be close behind aiming to attack the same place he had mere moments before.