2. Kytons
3. Ciervo
4. Unafe
5. Ifrit Mercenary
6. Nidalese Aristocrat
7. Cai'nan
8. Strange Man
9. Salla
10. Nicholas
11. Gnomish Pirates
- - - - - - - -
The pirate captain, quick-witted and canny as she must be to command a ship full of gnomes, reacts quickly and first. She takes a step away from the quickly-developing melee even as the kytons from around the corner sprint at her, their chains unraveling from their bodies. She begins to cast a spell, calling out to her companions.
Two of the kytons unleash their deadly chain attacks on the nearest hapless gnome, sending the still-surprised pirate combatants unconscious to the ground, bleeding from several lacerated wounds. The other two kytons dash towards the pirate captain, their chains coming loose and lashing at her.
Both chains rake along the captain's flesh, but she grits her teeth and keeps concentration on her spell.
Unafe throws her head back and with begins to chant. As she does, a noxious green mist rises from the earth, obscuring the aristocrat and three of the Kytons.
Her spell cast, Unafe trudges forward--doing her best to keep her orange robe out of the muck--and calls out, "Beware the Kyton. Their gaze can unnerve. They can control any nearby chain. They're immune to cold, and they'll regenerate over time from any wound unless struck by silver, or the power of Good...so summoning a Good ally would be quite useful."
"Conjuration is not my forte at all. And I'm not quite good enough with shadow spells to fake it."
"Well then, hopefully some ally of ours can do so." she smiles. The dinosaur on her shoulder just keeps weaving her head left to right, alert for advancing foes.
Smoke envelops some of the enemy combatants, and strange choken metal sounds can be heard from inside the smoke. While casting, the pirate captain tells her subordinates, "Keep out of that cloud, men."
Ciervo merely watches as the inevitable happens. Clearly, the Nidalese man and his bodyguards seemed to have the upper hand. Inconvenient, considering that the pirates were the ones they had to help. With Kazavon's fangs involved, they could not just retreat from the conflict... but neither could they enter the fray just yet. Not until an opportunity presented itself.
As Unafe fills up the battlefield with smoke and Ciervo waits for the opportunity to strike, Seraphin, the ifrit mercenary, blazes fire-red. She mouths a few arcane phrases, and out of her outstretched hand flies a pair of scorching rays. The rays pop as the air around them heats up, and they arc towards the nearest chain devil.
Unfortunately for her, the two rays of intense heat reflect and spiderweb off of an invisible aura of protection that surrounds nearly all outsiders. She curses angrily, and begins to wind up for another fire spell.
Meanwhile, the aristocratic Nidalese man emerges halfway from the cloud of smoke that Unafe conjured, unaffected. He wears a savage look of anger on his face, and a rapier that crackles with energy as he jabs it into the pirate captain's gut.
Though the nobleman's attack is sudden and fierce, the pirate captain wears strong breastplate that is able to rebuff the blow.
Cai'nan rushes forward through the murk past Unafe and as far around the edge of the cloud as he can, trying to close distance on any of the chain demon devil things.
While Cai'nan slogs through the murky shallows past Unafe and into the village proper. He steps up onto the dry ground. Meanwhile, the strange man on the other side of the village clambers up onto dry ground as well, drawing up beside the smoke cloud conjured by Unafe. He frees his sword from its sheath on his back, and it shines with bright light for an instant, before be whispers angrily at it for a moment and it dims.
Cai'nan closes with the burgeoning battle and his gaze falls on the closest chain devil. Suddenly, he has a vision... someone he loves, someone who was once close to him but now perhaps has a more distant relationship or who spurned him. The kyton has the face of this person, and turns to face Cai'nan.
Cai'nan manages to shake off the gaze of the creature, coming out with no psychological trauma.
Nicholas hurries forward behind Cai'nan and raises his hands. Darkness spills from his palms and swarms around the last kyton not concealed by the thick cloud. The shadows leap and dance around him, attempting to distract the creature.
Salla takes silver bolts from her backpack and carefully studies the Nobleman for any weak points.
The pirates dash around the little settlement, three of them closing with the only kyton outside of Unafe's smoke cloud and the remaining five of them converging on their captain outside of the smoke cloud.
Their battleaxes, cutlasses, and picks fly against the bodies of their enemies where they can properly maneuver. Only one manages to strike a hit, as the kyton's chains provide a sort of armor and the nobleman is extremely fast. However, even that hit is rapidly healed over a moment after the damage is dealt.
The pirate captain finishes her summoning spell, stepping back as the creature materializes in between herself and the nobleman that is accosting her. The creature in question is a beautiful golden-skinned celestial woman wielding a magical scimitar. "Attack that man!" shouts the captain, and the celestial grins happily and obliges.
The azata is clearly strong, but the nobleman manages to parry its first strike and sidestep the second. Meanwhile, its pirate master casts another spell. The area already filled with smoke crackles and vibrates with red, bouncing energy which lashes out to strike the kytons and nobleman.
The energy ricochets back and forth between all of the Nidalese creatures, but somehow all of them resist the worst effects of the spell. Two kytons, doubled over from poison-sourced pain, emerge from the western end of the cloud, crossing the short land bridge in order to get some distance while the last kyton takes merely a short step around the gnome who had closed to attack him. Both functional kytons unleash a barrage of four chain attacks which kill a gnome with no difficulty.
Unafe considers calling on their collective ancestors to hasten them...but realized too many of her companions are still concealed.
Instead she calls the spirits to dance about her, causing her image to multiply and swirl about.
With the fight growing increasingly chaotic and with more and more gnomes falling to the kyton onslaught, Ciervo finally decides to act. Drawing one of his mundane daggers, the rogue pops up from where he is taking cover and tosses it at the nearest kyton, aiming at an assumed vital spot. Just as quickly he drops back down, hopefully eluding notice... but Ciervo was not counting on it.
The kyton is struck in the side with Ciervo's dagger, which plunges deep in between two of the creature's chains despite its resistance to the non-silver weapon's damage. It turns towards the building and just barely manages to catch a glimpse of Ciervo ducking below the level of the building. It grumbles, its voice like iron scraping on iron. "There is a man inside of this building. He just struck me with a dagger."
Meanwhile, the ifrit sorcerer attempts to fire another pair of scorching rays at the kyton nearest her..
One of them connects, but it crackles and it fizzes without delivering any harm at all to the chain devil. The woman screams with frustration, pulling at her hair.
The nobleman retreats into the cloud, but he is visible for just long enough to see that the burns on his skin from the pirate captain's spell already are beginning to fade at an unnatural rate. He can be heard intoning the words for a spell from inside the cloud, and as he finishes the ground falls out from beneath the pirate captain and the group of pirates, creating a deep pit with sloped edges. All of the combatants scrabble and struggle to escape its slippery edges before falling in, for it is quite deep and the burble of hot, acidic liquid can be heard from the bottom.
Three of the pirates and the bralani fall into the cloud, and the screams of the pirates who fell can be heard from the bottom of the pit as they strike the edges and then fal into a pit of acid. The bralani, meanwhile, can be heard shouting in pain and frustration.
One of the pirates manages to scrabble up and away from the pit, but the only way for him to go is straight into the cloud that Unafe conjured. The pirate captain escapes the edge as well, scrabbling up and towards one of the kytons.
Cai'nan rushes forward, boasting "The dagger's the least of your worries!" He moves to flank the creature with the Pirate Captain, spinning his glaive around and sideways through the chains, aiming for the soft bits behind them.
__________
Cai'nan rushes into combat, interposing himself between the kyton there and the harried pirate captain. He swings his weapon into it and draws a line which does not leak blood. The creature, however, staggers with pain as it is injured.
The man on the other side of the encampment grips his sword tighter before taking a deep breath and rushing into the stinking cloud.
"It's far too much effort for you to actually do anything about it," Nicholas says as he waves his hands at the kyton, sending off another wave of shadow magic.
The kyton seems to relax under the effects of Nicholas' illusionary magic. It looks unnatural and uncomfortable for it to do so.
Deciding the time for watching is over Salla takes her shots at the Aristocrat.
Salla fires a pair of bolts into the fog cloud. There is no answer or noise from within to indicate that anything had happened.
The three remaining gnomish pirate mooks continue to act. The one mook over near the Nidalese aristocrat simply attempts to run from him, choking on the poisonous gas, though the aristocrat jabs at him with his rapier as he runs.
The gnome takes a solid strike in the back, and it bleeds ferociously. The gnome manages to get away and around to the other side of the acid pit without dying, though.
The other two gnomes maneuver into flanking position on the kyton that they fight, lashing out with their battleaxes at it.
They both land solid hits, though only one actually ends up as any kind of wound on the kyton creature. The gnomes grimace.
At the bottom of the acid pit, the celestial which the pirate captain summoned transforms into a gust of wind before flying up and out of the pit, angrily buzzing and whirling. Its master, the pirate captain, sees it escape from the pit and shouts, "Protect me!" She takes a step back into the building behind her and casts a spell on herself, shimmering with divine energy.
The kytons maneuver into battle. The one that Cai'nan has engaged is too bored to actually fight or do anything, while the one fighting the gnomes and the ifrit sorcerer ignores the gnomes and moves to attack the sorceress. The two nauseated kytons try to circle around behind Nicholas and Unafe.
Dammit, that Nidalese aristocrat seems to be entering my cloud quite cavalierly, using it to his advantage...but I wonder...?
Unafe calls out to the to the Bralini using Unafe's native tongue, gambling that the Celestial can understand all languages but the Nidalese man may not, "Bralini, wehi ahau e te whakamahi i te rangatira taku kapua ki tona painga. Ka taea e koe pupuhi atu i te reira?"
Meanwhile she steps up onto dry land and (as she did once, hours ago) chants in deep loud tones "Nui tupuna, tēnā tere te wahi o koutou tamariki." As she does, ghostly wisps emanate from her mouth and swirl around her allies, lending them speed.
______________
. . 3rd—
. . 2nd—barkskin,
. . 1st—
Ciervo does not fret about having his cover blown. Instead, he takes this time to leap from out of hiding, a dagger in each hand. With Salla having opened fire herself, stealth was obviously no longer an option. He quickly eyes his prospects and decides that the oppressively bored kyton would be the easiest prey. He had already wounded it, in any case. The dhampir thrusts his magical dagger into the kyton, eager to finish it off before Nicholas's enchantment is broken.
Unafe blesses her allies with speed, and the pirate captain raises her eyebrows in surprise as she is affected by the spell as well. The bralani hears her call for help speaks to her master - "This dark-skinned woman is asking me to blow the cloud she created away. May I?"
The pirate captain snaps at it - "Yes, just make sure that man stays away from me!"
Ciervo vaults out of the building that he stands in and thrusts a dagger at one of the kytons. His blade barely makes a scratch, and the magical rime coating doesn't really seem to do anything at all.
The ifrit sorceress tries to take a step away from the kyton threatening her, but finds herself still within its clutches. She concentrates hard on her magic, trying to summon up more flames in which to bathe it.
The sorceress shoots a wave of fire out of her hands, bathing the kyton in it, but it calls its chains up in the way. It shields itself with its chains, sparing itself from the worst of the harm.
Meanwhile, from inside the stinking cloud, the beginnings of a struggle can be heard between the aristocrat and the unknown man. "You!" shouts the aristocrat, and then there is a shout of pain.
Cai'nan lets loose three swift but powerful slices at the nearest chain-creature.
__________
Cai'nan swings thrice with all his might. Unfortunately, the creature manages to catch his first blade with its chains, and does a hop backwards out of the way of the second strike. However, Cai'nan takes it off guard with his third strike and the creature slows even more.
From within the stinking cloud, there is more shouting and the clash of blade on blade.
Seeing the nearest Kyton seriously injured, Unafe calls out "Remember, those Kyton will recover from anything we do to them unless we can injure them with silver, or else the power of Good."
"Noted," Nick replies, calling up another surge of darkness and sending it toward the kyton locked in battle with the ifrit.
Since the cloud blocks her vision Salla decides to thin the opposition and shoots at Cievro's Kyton.
Salla points and fires a pair of silver bolts at the kyton right next to her, though her aim is off. Not only that, but the creature seems to have some kind of instinctual control over its chains' movement. Her first bolt misses, and it deflects the second with a chain.
Nicholas wades through the swamp water to get a better view of the fight between the sorceress and one of the kytons, and conjures some fake enchantment spells in order to debilitate a second kyton with his magic. The spell functions, and the kyton is overcome with apathy and stops moving.
Two of the three remaining gnomish pirates jump into action, moving into combat against the two disabled kytons with their axes.
Neither of the pirates muster the speed or ferocity required to break their target's defenses, unfortunately. The captain of the pirates draws her cutlass and steps into combat with the nearest, critically-wounded kyton and lets loose with three slashes, empowered by Unafe's speed-magic. She calls to the bralani - "Yes, you may blow the smoke out of the way! Do it!"
Her first two slashes land easily, and the kyton collapses to the ground.
The bralani summons its magic and creates a burst of wind to blow the stinking cloud away. The dispersal of the cloud reveals the strange man, bastard sword in one hand and a large leather satchel in the other, clashing swords with the Nidalese nobleman. Blood spurts from a deep wound in the man's side.
The kyton engaged with the ifrit tries to shake off its boredom. The two kytons mired in the swamp behind the group move towards the group, one managing to get close enough to unleash a chain strike on Unafe.
The chain passes through one of her kaleidoscope of mirrors, dispelling it.
Unafe sighs with relief when the foul kyton drops, and she hollers, "Nice fencing there, gnome-friend. Is that blade silver or Good by chance? Or do we need to worry about it getting back up?"
Her relief swings to dismay when she sees one of the sickened kytons recover behind her and take a swing. "Curse these abominations, they're recovering already. Watch your back, Cai'nan. You too, Nicholas."
She ducks forward a bit and swipes the air in front of her, attempting to sever the threads of fortune from the Nidalese aristocrat. As she does she begins her now familiar low chant that seems to hang in the air. "Wairua o nga saurians, wairua o te whenua, te arata'i ahau, homai ki ahau te kaha, homai ki ahau tino..."
____________
Tuturutanga chirps out warning as the chains whip toward her spirit-mate.
AC 18 (+2 vs any attack where bodyguard succeeds)
HP 43/62
Channel 4/4
Wandering spirit Lore
Tuturutanga’s HP 20/31 (+1 fast heal)
Shaman Spells Remaining
. . 3rd—haste, haste, stinking cloud (DC 18); locate object[ S ] or neutralize poison[ S ]
. . 2nd—barkskin, mirror image, shield other, stone call; lesser restoration[ S ] or tongues[ S ]
. . 1st—ant haul, ears of the city, liberating command, obscuring mist, protection from evil; detect undead[ S ] or identify[ S ]
Active effects
Ant haul
Mirror image (4 images, 6 minutes)
Shield other: tuturutanga will take ½ of all damage dealt to Unafe
The gnome waggles its blade up in the air - it's just a normal cutlass, if well-made. "This look silver to you? I look particularly holy?"
"Then we'll make sure it stays down for as long as possible," Ciervo remarks coolly, turning his dagger over in his hand. Though the kyton was still alive, it was in no shape to defend itself properly. Any ordinary creature would be doomed. The rogue falls upon the outsider, plunging his magical dagger deep into its heart.
Ciervo stabs the outsider directly into its heart, only to find that it has no heart. He leaves a really deep and grievous wound though, and visually can see that the rate at which it is healing will keep the creature on the ground for more than a minute.
The sorceress takes another step away from her kyton enemy - now incapacitated by Nicholas, and snarls. "Thanks but do I look like I need help destroying this thing? Ugh." She points at it, and another pair of rays emerge from her hand.
She strikes the thing with her rays, but they, like the ones before them, are completely negated by the creature's inherent spell resistance.
The Nidalese aristocrat sneers at his opponent. "You cannot stop this. Even if you defeat me, the shadows will descend from the night sky itself to rip you apart." Then, he maneuvers fleetly around the warrior he's found himself next to and lets loose with a spell - a torrent of water rushes forth to strike the strange warriors.
Unfortunately for him, he cannot maneuver without drawing the ire of the warrior he faces, who lashes out with his bastard sword. He bites into the aristocrat, though the aristocrat's wounds begin healing instantly.
The water slams into the man, but he keeps his footing against the force.
Seeing another chain-man move in behind them, Cai'nan whirls and slices at it with everything he has.
__________
Cai'nan steps up to the shore and lets loose with a trio of lightning-fast glaive strikes. This kyton, completely healthy, nearly matches his speed. Two of Cai'nan's strikes are blocked although one weaves through the creature's defenses and leaves a sizable chunk of sliced-away flesh.
The man engaged with the Nidalese aristocrat is silent, leaving quips aside. With a heft and a significant look, he tosses the heavy leather satchel he carries in one hand over towards Unafe, Ciervo, and Cai'nan before entering a defensive stance, probing the aristocrat's guard for openings. Though he bleeds profusely, he grasps himself with a now-open hand, healing over the bleeding wound.
Running short on spells that are of actual use and with the kytons closing in from all directions, Nicholas hurries over to grab the satchel.
Nicholas dashes into the thick and picks up the satchel - it is quite heavy, being filled with five long, thick dragon's teeth, but he shoulders it without incident, the only nearby kyton having been completely incapacitated by Ciervo just moments before.
Salla fires two bolts at the kyton still in the water, the Nidalese aristocrat having moved behind a building. Though it is injured, it is not so injured as to be struck - it barely avoids both bolts, narrowly escaping the heavy piercing rounds.
The remaining gnome pirates all share a look - the captain calls, "Retreat back to the ship!" The nauseated pirate in the surf continues to swim, making it over to the side of the ship, though instead of boarding he vacates his stomach into the water. Meanwhile, the one pirate still capable of fighting a kyton takes a swing at it.
He strikes, but does not deal enough damage to overcome the creature's natural resistance to damage.
The pirate captain indicates her bralani azata and the kyton blocking the way to the ship. "Help Seraphin defeat that creature and then cover our retreat." She then turns towards Nicholas, pointing at the satchel that he now carries - "I'm going to need that. Am I going to have to ask nicely?" She scurries over to him, holding out a hand and a severe look.
The bralani swooshes over towards the kyton, charging in with a windy slam attack.
It slams the kyton, its celestial powers overcoming the creature's resistance to damage and halting its regenerative powers.
That kyton attempts to overcome its boredom, while the other one unleashes a barrage of chains at Cai'nan. The third is still too nauseated to attack anyone, but closes in on Cai'nan as well.
"Considering how you seem to be selling the Fangs of Kazavon to the Umbral Court, why in the name of the gods would I give them back to you?"
Unafe arches an eyebrow at the gnomish captain.
"We attacked your enemies and--with the grace of our ancestors--will hopefully save your and many of your crew's lives.
"No time to negotiate what happens with the Fangs now, but if you continue to fight off these pain-worshippers beside us we can discuss it after we've dealt with them."
Not waiting for an answer, Unafe slashes with her knife at the fate of the kyton that attacked Cai'nan and then takes a step back while chanting.
_____________
The pirate captain scoffs at Nicholas. "It's because they're mine. We worked hard to steal them, and by Nivi we are going to get paid for them."
Ciervo scoffs. Given how the battle was going, he somehow doubted that the captain could stop them from taking the fangs if he tried.
"Well you aren't going to get paid by the Court now, that's for certain," Ciervo drawls, hardly able to believe that they're having this discussion in the middle of battle. "Look. We can't keep these creatures down forever. And that aristocrat is something else entirely. You have a ship and half your crew is dead. Get us out of here and then we can discuss what you want for your fangs."
The pirate grumbles and hums. "Fine," she says. "We get out of here, and then we can work out some kind of deal. Hop on board, do what you can to help, but keep the kytons off of our back. Men!" she calls, "We are leaving!"
Relieved by the bralani azata, Seraphin the mercenary hops onto the gnomes' ship. Without a clear single target to fire at, however, she is, for the moment, idle.
The aristocrat steps in closer to his opponent, an evil grin on his face, and goes in for a feint followed by a debilitating stab.
The paladin fighting him slaps away the feint attack, and though he is unready for the second strike it doesn't penetrate his armor.
Darian lets loose a flurry of swings before taking step to be beside Unafe. "Yeah, getting out of this damned country sounds fine by me!"
__________
Cai'nan cuts twice into the kyton, though its wounds are still regenerating. His strikes are swift and powerful though, and the creature is nearly in shambles after Cai'nan's flurry.
The paladin steps up close enough to touch his opponent, murmurs something, and unleashes a pair of powerful strikes with absolutely lethal intent.
As the two combatants draw close, the aristocrat suddenly calls upon a new spell - there is a flash, and a transparent bubble of force appears between the two targets. The paladin strikes twice against the edge of the wall, causing sparks to fly, but isn't able to penetrate it.
"It seems that their battle has come to a rather abrupt end," Nicholas comments as the sphere surrounds the nobleman. "Shall we ask our sword wielding friend along as well? I'm fairly certain that he'll have something to say about this as well."