The Naga's magic continues to confuse and befuddle as Vivian misses with her sword as well.
Another crossbow bolt heads towards the snake thing
Listlessly thudding into the gold sea beneath.
"Confounded worm! You are only angering me!"
Continuing her frozen assault, Qina released yet another ice packed snow ball at the naga.
The hissing of the Naga begins to sound almost...mocking as more of your party fall. It strikes at Vivian next, halfway convincing itself Allister will push through any poison injected in him.
The Naga distracts Vivian by crunching down on her forearm, teeth gnawing and gnashing, allowing its tail to slip through to tender flesh, pouring venom into her veins as well.
Bel risks a glance at the far doorway
[I]Something slammed that door, we're so vulberable...[/ooc]
He fumbles another bolt into his weapon and carefully looks down the sight
"Pharasma hear me now. We need you..."
...
The snake woman continues her deadly dance, ready once more to tackle Allister.
"THIS ENDS! HERE! NOW!"
Allister and Qina bring all of their focus on the beast, packed snow and ice crashing on its head and forcing it low enough for Allister to remove its head in one smooth pull of his blade. The Naga's corpse dissolves into smoke and shadow leaving three sleeping forms on the coins.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
With the threat gone, Qin'a calm demeanor returned. She used the hand holds to climb down into the pit, tears in eyes and running down her face. Slowly, she walked over to Brezik, still fearing the worst. She knelt down besides the dwarf and was startled to find him snoring. She ran over to Gad to discover him sleeping as well. Last she went to check on Vivian.
"Allister, they're alive! They're all alive! They're just sleeping. That's a strange time to take a nap" she said as she started wiping her eyes.
"Bel, come down, they're okay!" She ran over and gave Allister a big hug. Then she walked over and laid down next to Brezik and closed her eyes too.
Bel hears Qina's words and some of the darkness that has been clouding his thoughts lifts, some but not all.
we're not safe yet, whatevers behind that door...
Bel crouches, another bolt loaded and pointed squarely at the opposite door.
"Can you wake them? That thing must have p-poisoned them."
The stutter is accompanied by a shudder that seems out of place on Bel.
I have some medicine hang on..."
Hand shaking Bel takes a stoppered gourd from his pack.
"I have some antitoxin, can crow come and grab it, I don't like the idea of looking away from this door right now..."
"Okay Bel. I'll try" she called back. She whistled loudly for Crow, wondering where he went when the excitement started. The little raven flew back into the room and circled it once before coming to a landing on Allister's shoulder.
The armored man, who had been frozen since severing the naga's head, slowly turned his own head to look at the raven perched on his shoulder. Crow met his gaze, and for a brief moment, the two stared at each other until the silence was broken by one word. "Bread" the bird squawked.
"Later" Qina called out. "Go get the vial from Bel and bring it to me, then you can have some bread." The bird flapped its feathers before taking off and moving over to land on Belathorian's shoulder.
While she waited, Qina began talking to and shaking Brezik in an attempt to awaken the dwarf.
|
For a moment after their battle Allister felt stunned.
Three of my friends died so I could pretend to be a Lightbringer... It was not worth the cost.
Then Qina shouted that his friends were only sleeping and a massive weight fell off his shoulders. He could almost cry with relief.
"Don't worry Crow. Once our friends are awake I will give you all the bread you can eat."
He rushed over to his Captain and set to waking her. He shook her, lightly slapped her cheek, splashed water from his waterskin onto her head and face. "Captain, wake up! Captain!"
As Qina is about to administer the anti-venom Brezik and Vivian are awakened by the shaking, noise, and in one case water. Turning to Gad'larr and repeating the process the half-orc is awake and ready fairly shortly. As with the ledge Allister and Vivian jumped from the ledge across the chasm of coins has a series of hand and footholds for climbing up and down.
Frowning in ebarassment, Gad'larr searches the beast and the surrounding coins for some of his thrown shuriken, hoping to retrieve at least a few. If he sees something useful or odd among the gold coins, he may grab it too...
"We should heal before we head up there. They know we are here now. They will be ready."
Brezik wakes up to Qina's prodding and gives her a smile and starts talking to her in a tone a little softer than most of the others in the group have ever heard him use before.
Whah... Hey... Qin... Did I fall asleep aga.... The last word is cut off as the dwarf realizes that he's not in the smithy and that there are people other than Qina here. His face goes a little red and he continues on in an overly deep voice to badly cover his embarrassment
Everyone looks okay. Did you guys scare that snake thing away?. Um looks like we need to get out of this hole.
With that the Dwarf quickly turns away and begins to climb up the wall towards the closed door.
"Oh my god, you should have seen it Brezik. After you guys decided to take a nap, Allister raised that great, big sword he carries and lopped the naga's head right off."
Qina held both her hands together, one on top of the other, as if swinging her own invisible sword. She raised it above her head and brought it down with a violent "swoosh", emulating the epic battle between man and beast.
Gad looks seriously at the halfling before climbing back up.
"Mother Dragon...not to belittle Allister's effectiveness with his sword...but you were very helpful too. Do you not remember? Your threw chunks of magical ice at the creature several times. You spoke...and your voice changed. It was deeper. Older. Stronger...but still you."
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Vivian wakes with a gasp, "Tha mud there's too much!.. I.. I.." She then notices her surroundings and the events of a moment ago with the Naga flood back. She slowly stands with Alister's help, mumbling half to herself, "I hate those sleeping and reality bending spells, it cheapens the glory of battle to take such a short cut."
Immediately Vivian looks up to the apposing doorway. "Gather around, we are weakened." Vivian places her hand on her metal chest and begins to hum, a light calming aura emanates from her for a moment before it dissipates.
To heal the rest, Vivian will use the wand.
"Alright, lets all get up there before we knock, if this is what I expect we'll need to punch in swiftly. Cover the flanks, don't stop moving. Engage them close. Hard." She meets the eyes of all as she speaks her view of the situation.
This large room has high, arched ceilings and a floor made of simple white tiles. Four statues frame the room, two of them recessed in wide alcoves along the south wall and two more standing against the north wall. The statues in the southern alcoves are carved from granite polished as smooth as glass. Both statues depict the same man, tall and regal with a full head of windblown hair. They are both completely nude, and each statue has one hand crossed behind its back while the other hand points toward its twin. When viewed from the front, the statues look like a mirror image of the same person. The two statues against the north wall are sculpted from lightly veined marble and depict two different women, nude to the waist and draped with robes from the waist down. The one to the east scowls and points accusingly at a plain wooden door in the north wall. The one to the west smiles and regards the door with a curious expression.
Gad'larr will be the first to enter the room, moving low, looking for any enemies.
Wary, Gad turns and points to the two loitering around the south-east statue.
"Ware! Surrender now false priests and we might offer you incarceration rather than a quick death!"
Bel moves in close behind Gad, eager to face this foe. His crossbow is slung and he is carrying his beautiful scythe once more.
"Choose whether you are at the end of your spiral, it makes little difference to us. One way or another you shall be judged."
The man of the pair looks at his companion before raising his sword higher, only slightly shaking. "N-never!"
The woman beside him scoffs and raises blade and shield as well, "For Iramine and Razmir!"
Allister and Vivian prepare to meet their attackers as they step forward, blades and shields at the ready when Allister feels another presence at his back...
A black-robed cultist pops into view, stabbing and bashing the unaware paladin. This gives the other two the distraction they need to launch their attacks.
Hearing the commotion Brezik looks down at Qina. Be careful now.
With that the Dwarf rushes into the room just in time to see the cultist appear out of nowhere and pummel Al.
NO ONE DOES THAT TO MY FRIEND!!!
With typical Brezik style He brings his axe around in a big arc to come down on the mans skull from above.
Rushing into the room after the others, the first thing Qina saw were blades slip past her friend's armor and come back with blood.
"Allister!" she shrieked, but it was too late. Frustrated by her own slowness, Qina decide to change that. This time though, she didn't whisper the words of power. This time, she released them. She shouted them as loud as she could.
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The dim-witted paladin would not have noticed his stealthy foe's attack were it not for the screeching sound when the assassin's blade bit into his full plate. All his focus was on the other cultist who had bashed and stabbed him.
"Bad idea," he said in a low and violent voice his friends had seldom heard before. Then his blade whistled as it cut through the air and swept back and forth again.
After the flurry is finished, Allister takes his left hand from the blade's hilt and places it over his heart.
"Don't worry about me," he said with his unshakable smile that hid the burning pain from his bleeding wound.
Wide eyed at seeing the sudden appearance of the hidden man strike Al, Gad flies into a high spring-jump flipping amazingly in the air and kicking out at the man suddenly...now trapped against the wall!
-Includes Dragon Style!
+Stunning Fist if it hits! (Fort DC15)
+ Flurry!
-Includes Dragon Style!
+ Iterative
-Includes Dragon Style!
+ Haste
-Includes Dragon Style!
Crit?
-Includes Dragon Style!
With three swift cuts Allister strikes down the cultist before him, allowing Brezik and Gad'larr to cut down the now visible man behind him.
Vivian's two attacks bring down the final cultist, the woman screaming as her blood gives the floor a red sheen.
"Captain. My magic won't last much longer. We should hurry."
Twice now his friends have been hurt when he was left unscathed! Hearing Qina's plea, Gad'larr will turn and race to the final door and push through if he can...hoping to take on the brunt of whatever happens next!
As two of the foes are felled Bel spots a route to the last remaining foe. Stepping through he brings his scythe around and... The for is no longer standing, cut down by the Captain's blade.
Taking a moment to breathe and reflect Bel sensed that the final battle was imminent, he knelt in swift prayer to his Goddess
Before following Gad into the breach.