Harbug finishes his chanting and steps over the grippli. He slaps Krass on the shoulder and says "Keep at this, they bleed just like anybody."
confirm
Krass dropped his rigid defense to strike out at the wererat, but she dodged his blow by fractions of an inch. Her return strikes were weak, but one of her sisters managed another thrust under the skirts of his chainmail. The fresh wetness of spilled blood washed down his leg. The others couldn't seem to land a hit as everyone's defenses were sufficient for the task.
Tialara uses her wand to patch up the hobgoblin once more.
The blood running down Krass' leg stopped flowing, then reversed direction, flowing back into the wound, which sealed completely. Only a scar remained.
The pain served as a focus for Krass and the sharp sting in his side guided his silver blade.
Harbug looks at one of the girls, staring her down and motions strangely when she catches the gaze.
Shabbezz jumped and ducked in an attempt to target her spells around her comrades, but it was no use. The press of bodies at the mouth of the stairwell provided cover all too effectively for their assailants, and if she tried to sneak ahead of the rest of the party in all likelihood the wizardess would be cut to ribbons.
She sighed and began the chant for another acid splash cantrip. It was better than doing nothing, she supposed.
Angelica joins in on the pressing of the offense, swinging again at enemies around her. She gets too overzealous though, and almost falls backward on the steps behind her, just barely catching herself.
Tia's rejuvenating magic lent strength to Krass's tired muscles, and the hobgoblin finally landed a telling blow on the were rat. The woman fell to the ground, bleeding from an enormous gash across her chest. One of the other Tower Girls watched the were rat beside her fall, then felt an eerie presence in her mid. She fled the battle, running around the corner to the south, leaving the other two behind. Their attacks on Krass were barely more than feints, their arms growing tires and their minds in shock about the death of the wererat that led this ill-fated ambush.
Wererat is dead, and one had fled.
...and combat has officially gone longer than a minute o_0
Initiatives:
group
enemies
The tide changed and Krass slammed his shield into the chest of the woman infront of him, broke through her guard and stabbed her in the chest.
Angelica is pleased to see the one girl run off, they can't have too many others in waiting, or they would have likely come in as reinforcements while the wall was up. She steps forward into the space just vacated by Krass, reverting back to using her rapier for these normal girls.
Tialara seeing no one in immidiate danger, she paused, waiting to heal any injuries.
Seeing an space open up at the mouth of the stairs, Shabbezz darts amidst her companions and offers supporting fire.
Harbug runs around the remaining Tower Girls to give Krass an advantage in his fight.
Between them, Angelica and Krass cut down the last of the Tower Girls. The long fight has left everyone exhausted, and many are still bleeding. The gashes on Krass' and Harbug's faces where the wererat had bitten them seem to be resistant to healing, making Tia nervous.
The bodies of the six remaining Tower Girls and their lycanthrope leader, whose form returned to human after she was slain - lay strewn about at the base of the stairs. They carry very little gear, other than their weapons and armor, but their pouches have a few coins and gems.
400 XP each!
You never would have made it without the wall.
Loot on the bodies
"Everyone up and standing? Because we still haven't located our mission objective..", the hobgoblin said in between drawing huge volumes of air into his lungs.
"Looks that way. Let me have a look at those bites you two." Tialara said as she looked at the bites that Krass and Harbug took from the Wererats.
"It's fine, just a little scratch." Harbug dismisses the druids efforts, but doesn't actually stop her from looking. "And Krass is right. we've still got to find our objective; we don't know if these were the last of them, nor where we'll find it."
Tia looked the boys over and the wounds looked fine, except for their resistance to magical healing. They even looked like they might close up on their own, given time, but they would definitely leave scars.
Angelica grabs up ten of the bolts, and offers that Krass and Buggy each take up one of the potions of healing. "I say we leave most of the bulk of it alone until we are ready to head back out. No sense in bogging ourselves down until we're ready to go. Other than that, let's follow the girly than ran down this way. If we're ready that is? She's likely to run to others or a back exit, so she just may find them both for us."
"I'll take that." Krass took the potion from Angelica and stashed it away. "And you're right, let us hunt down that girl and see what she can tell us."
Harbug accepts the potion with a grunt.
"Agreed. The spoils can wait; we better get going before she gives us the slip."
Angelica leads the way down the southern hallway, taking the time to check for traps and secret doors as she goes. Given the speed the Tower Left the fight, the former are unlikely, but there have been secret door aplenty so far.
The first room she comes to is a large one, obviously used as a meal hall and common area. Two tables of planks and trestles have been set up in here, and a large alcove holds the ashes and soot stains of many recent fires, along with a stone statue of a beautiful woman wielding a ranseur. A hooded lantern burns atop one of the tables.
Angelica eyes the room warily, sure the girl ran this way somewhere. Seeing a statue with a weapon, she looks it up and down, she knows of things of the sort that look like stone, then turn to attack you. Once she's convinced it's safe, she pays attention more to who it is, and why they are featured here. Oddly enough, she is more aware of the past than she had ever been previously.
Krass follows in Angelica's wake. He's ready to smash his shield into the face of whatever might attack Angelica or his other comrades.
Shabbezz creeps along with the group, offering what expertise she can about the stonework they encounter.
Tialara follows close, wand out ready to heal her companions from the inevitable conflict ahead.
Angelica recognizes the figure as a common representation of Alaznist, the Runelord of Wrath. There are no signs of the fleeing woman in this room, nor any signs of secrete passages or unusual stonework that you can detect.
Moving on, Angelica sees that the passageway turns right and then branches to right and left a few dozen feet down.
Angelica waits until the others catch up to her before she heads further down the tunnel. She moves up, and prepares to stop where the hall opens up going two directions.
Sticking close to the group, Shabbezz continues to follow after America's lead.
Krass falls in behind America, sword and shield at the ready.
The Catfolk Druid crept along silent as possible, wand at the ready.
The room on the left is apparently completely empty. It seems odd that it isn't filled with the sort of rubbish that the Tower Girls seem to collect around themselves. The right passage angles off slightly for as far an Angelica can see.
Harbug hangs back at the large room, feeling like the group is missing something. Ignoring the party's attempts at stealth, he begins chanting in orcish and waving his hands, then peers into the room.
Harbug's magical senses detect nothing other than what you bring with you.
Curious as to why there would be a completely empty room in an old tower full of girls living together, she moves to make sure there isn't anything hidden within, and once satisfied there isn't, moves toward the hallway. She remembers growing up, none of the girls got along and liked living in close quarters. Men may like their space, but sometimes women need to have a place to be absolutely away from other women.
Seeing Angelica and Harbug pause to investigate the empty room, Shabbezz aisles over to--but does not enter--the entrance. She casts a divination cantrip just for her own peace of mind, but leaves the proverbial heavy lifting to the others.
All the use of elf magicks makes Krass feel a little uncomfortable. He takes a step back to let his companions do what they must.
There truly appears to be nothing in this room. No hidden passages, no false floors, not even a magically obscured latrine.
She just shrugs over the idea of an empty room, or even having a room and not using it for anything. She turns and continues down the angled hallway. The girl couldn't have gone too far, how big was this place after all.
Traveling down the right hand hallway, Angelica found a set of stairs leading downwards. No sounds come up the staircase.
Shabbezz continues to follow along quietly, keeping her eyes and ears peeled.
Angelica is troubled by the stairs going down. This place is a bother, first they go up a lot of floors, now they head back down. "Okay, sweeties, we got a possible dilemma. We could head down these stairs after the runaway, but then we got rooms and halls leading off back in the room where we fought most of them. So, do we make sure we cleared this floor, and let them hole up down below? Or do we keep following and hope to catch up to her before they can get too ready?"
Krass takes off his helmet and scratches his head. "I see this: the boss has or knows where our objective is, but the lackeys most likely don't OR the others do know where it is. If the former, we only need to scare her off. If the latter, well, we're at a major disadvantage since this place seems rigged with secret doors and tunnels."
He then puts the helmet back on. "I think we can rummage this floor first before moving on down. Don't forget, we also got a storage room we hadn't checked out on the floor above us. That's where we first encountered these tower girls."
Shabbezz taps her chin with a long finger as she thinks on the matter.
"...I suppose we could afford to search the floor before we move on ahead. At this point I don't believe that we would gain much advantage by rushing in blindly, and we may yet find something of value.
"These girls are weak; but their cowardice could cause us trouble--if they destroy our boat we don't have any way back to town... unless someone wants to swim back. But I agree we should search. They're as likely to hide in some crack or crevice as to run as far as they can. We'll root them out and end them." Harbug pauses after talking so much at once, looking to the others.
Angelica nods with the others' input, agreeing for the most part. "So, let's head back to the room with the big fight. Branch out from there, hitting the upstairs room last. From what I saw as we ran by, it was small, and I'm guessing there's not much to it if she passed it up completely." With that she turns and heads back to the big room, "Which way? There, or there?" she points first to the north entrance, then to the east.