Realizing that literally being fire is not terribly conducive for stealth, Ehren shifts form again. His body abruptly burns out, leaving in its stead a familiar, lumpy-looking stone humanoid with glistening emerald eyes. The earth elemental crouches down and soundlessly melds into the earthen ground, disappearing almost entirely.
Valaria is up!
Val dives for cover near the entrance. "The big monster is right behind me! Everyone be ready!" She draws her blades and prepares for the creature to emerge.
Hinagiku is up!
Anevia and Ary are up!
The creature in the mines steadily makes its way to the entrance, appearing to be a mass of writhing of intestines, but as it emerges into the light the truth proves to be even more horrible... the monster is not composed of tentacles but intestines, all tangled around a fanged mouth... the tips of its coils also end in gnashing maws. It squirts through the air akin to how an octopus glides through water, digestive fluids dripping from its numerous open mouths.
A voice rings out in all of your heads -
"Pashi berzúshul... kug kim Snil-Snil? Aaaaaaaaaal.... shu krúsha......"
"Little creatures... food for Snil-Snil? Yesssss.... so hungry...... "
A nyogoth’s body is full of highly corrosive digestive fluid. Every time a nyogoth is damaged by a piercing or slashing weapon, all creatures adjacent to the nyogoth are subject to acid damage.
Their many mouths are not to be underestimated. A nyogoth can bite up to five times per turn, and each bite deals acid damage, due to gastric secretions.
Despite their seemingly lowly role in Abyssal ecosystems, the nyogoths are far from stupid beasts. Most are nearly as intelligent as the average human, and are capable of solving relatively complex problems when it comes to securing the next meal. As outsiders, nyogoths do not need to eat to survive, yet this does not exempt them from hunger—a nyogoth that goes for longer than 12 hours without a meal becomes increasingly violent and erratic. Such a “starving” nyogoth typically fights to the death when the prospect of food is available, and may even resort to self-cannibalism, drinking its own spurting digestive juices from its wounds in a nauseating display.
Valaria is up!
"Okay, I have no idea what that is, but it's disgusting." She growls and charges the beast, knowing that she can't allow it to get anywhere near the army or it would be a massacre.
Valaria charges into the mouth of the mine and drives her starknife deep into the center of the writhing intestines. Purely by accident she manages to drive her blade deep into its neural center. It screams, a shrill noise from each of its mouths - though the wound partially heals over it continues to bleed onto the mine floor. Digestive juices spurt out from the open wound and onto the tiefling, burning her somewhat.
Hinagiku is up!
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From the corner of her eyes, and her hiding place, Hinagiku watched Valaria jump into the cave to face the strange oni. Smoothly switching mindset to protection, Hinagiku runs behind the tiefling. At the sight of the Qlippoth, she barely hesitates, making her way to the writhing blob and striking once toward it with her fist.
”Miss Valaria, we should retreat….. bait it outside for the others to have a clean line of sight.” she suggests, avoiding a disgusting tentacle.
Hinagiku lunges towards the qlippoth to strike one of its flailing tentacles, but it whips out of the way of her strike.
Anevia and Ary are up!
Val nods and spares a moment to look back over her shoulder. "Good plan. I'll fall back to the entrance as soon as I can, then we can hit it from all sides."
"No, it's best not to surround it. Everytime we cut into it it's gonna spurt out acid on... well, everything around it. That's a Nyogoth. Actually... if you're not sure you can handle it, just don't get close at all. It... can bite a lot. It's going to be resistant to anything that isn't lawfully aligned, too. If you aren't actively engaging it, avoid looking at it." she calls out, though the latter had already been covered by Xanderghul.
"The f$@+ do I even aim at? The thing is just teeth and entrails..?" Anevia adds, as she draws a bead, but realizes the futility of shooting the thing. "I'm not getting into melee, the thing is just... writhing. Ugh. I'll keep out of line of sight until I can get a good hit in." she whispers to Ary.
Ary nods, before digging into her bag for Terendelev's scale, concentrating on it, and bestowing Anevia's bow with the power of Justice.
"Hey! Hey! Wait for me!" Ayavah calls, guiding Callus after you.
You guide Külə out into the howler cavalry, your conjured flute drowning out the noise of the howling outsiders, sparing the surrounding troops from their cursed cries. The howlers themselves are still a problem - their long spikes embedding themselves in the flesh of the soldiers who try to take them down. The tieflings riding them fight with unnatural ferocity despite the horrible weather, their weapons glowing with unholy energy as they cut down soldiers with ease.
"Dear gods, there's a lot of them... trying to block off the entrances of the longhouses as we speak," Captain Halse's whispered voice rings in your ears.
"This sector clear of schir," grunts Captain Kost. The other captains begin to chime in with similar reports - the schir down to less than half of their original forces, all that remains are the tieflings themselves.
Round 4!
Xanderghul is up!
Isilme is up!
"Keep moving Külə," she says, guiding him towards the periphery of the Howlers.
"Hold off the Howlers and fight defensively, form up a line and try to force all the Howlers outside it. They may be from the abyss, but this weather will wear them down unlike the schir. Prepare to fall back, I will provide defenses to shield you from them." she sends to the captains. "Both the riders and howlers will likely be suffering from frostbite by now, and hopefully we can buy some time to let the cold do its job."
Isilme grabs the scroll case she keeps her scroll of silent image in and draws it. Focusing upon it, she loads it into her ring of spell knowledge and prepares herself to cast at the first opportunity.
The writhing mass of intestines lashes out at Hinagiku and Valaria simultaneously, barraging them with a seemingly endless stream of toothy maws and rancid-smelling digestive fluids.
Ehren is up!
Xanderghul bursts back out of the snow, shouting and weaving the components for a spell with a series of hand motions. "Its a nyogoth!" he shouts, before quickly recounting what he knows about them. "Valaria, fall back and align your weapon against law!"
Knowing that the creature wouldn't see him coming, he finishes up his hand signals and drops a heavy word laden with arcane power out of his mouth. He clenches his right hand into a fist behind him and them twists his whole body towards the creature with all of his weight behind it. With a whoosh, a heavy ball made of force is propelled at the monster, with the hopes of buying his allies a bit of space to retreat.
The ball of force slams into the unsuspecting nyogoth, bruising its "tentacles", but not with enough force to push it deeper into the mine.
Ehren is up!
"Argh! F*cking c*nt! That's burns!" She grasps her wounds as the acid eats at her flesh. "It must be nice to have a natural resistance to acid..." She glances over her shoulder and nods to Xanderghul.
Picking up on the muffled yet unmistakable sound of battle (and Valaria's cursing) on the surface, Ehren pops out of the ground a little belatedly, his arms already forming the gestures for a spell. Having his first real look at the qlippoth, it occurs to him how hideous it truly is. He peers into its tangle of writhing tentacles - no, intestines - trying to discern whether it had eyes anywhere. It could clearly see them, one way or the other, unless it was relying on its other senses somehow. Ehren does not think on it too deeply; there was an easy way of finding out for certain.
Finishing his spell, the glint in the earth elemental's emerald eyes seems to magnify by a hundredfold. Simultaneously, a massive flash of light explodes from somewhere behind Snil-Snil, engulfing it in holy radiance while leaving his allies unscathed.
Val leaps back and flees for the entrance of the tunnel, ducking and weaving to avoid the things flailing tentacles as she falls back to the entrance. She touches her weapon to her scale, invoking the power of law on to her blade.
A blast of light envelops Snil-Snil, the holy magic searing into its flesh. The light dazzles its senses, but fails to completely blind it. In the chaos it lunges at Valaria as she tries to flee, sinking its teeth around her shoulder in an attempt to rip her arm off. The swashbuckler manages to wrench it away and back out of the cave, though deep lacerations now trail down her bicep, dripping fresh blood.
Hinagiku is up!
Weathering the pain from the qlippoths attack by concentrating on the calm pool within her mind, Hinagiku is able to remain alert and uses the bright burst of light created by Ehren as cover from the qlippoth's attack. The monk then follows Valaria in a retreat out of cave's entrance. However, unlike Valaria, she is more careful and pauses closer to the creature, hoping to draw its ire away from her companions.
While the qlippoth is distracted by Valaria's retreat and Ehren's blinding flash, Hinagiku smoothly withdraws from the cave, and Anevia fires an arrow into the entrance. But the flash is timed as such that the crusader scout is temporarily dazzled as well, and her shot flies wide. The arrow clatters onto the ground behind the qlippoth, alerting it to her presence.
Meanwhile, Ary takes her scale and presses it against the adamantine lucerne hammer she picked up from the Ulfen bandit they fought awhile ago, enchanting it with law incarnate.
You and Külə stand amidst the crusaders crashing into the howlers... the monsters are not accustomed to the cold, and are slowly beginning to succumb to it as well. You know that this fight isn't going to continue for much longer for them, nor their riders.
In the furthest reaches of your vision you can see additional tieflings slowly pouring out of the surrounding longhouses to join the fight.
You hear Ser Ilivan's voice in your ear -
"We've got a hostage situation over here... longhouse behind the smith. Some sort of freakish... dog... thing has a bunch of women... has a knife to one of their throats. Wants us to let him go. Could be a trap. Need orders on how to proceed."
Squinting, you can see the longhouse he's talking about in the distance, thanks to the black smoke coming out from the smith in front of it.
Round 5!
Xanderghul is up
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"Keep hitting it and moving away. Make it come to you. A single bite is a much smaller price to pay than staying in melee with it! Go for the mouths, it needs those and doesn't need most anything else! Ary calls.
Xanderghul's hand falls to his hip, the shadows of the mine gathering together into a clump in his hand. The light of the day outside seems to intrude a bit farther into the mine, and Xanderghul's hand disappears into a shroud of blackness. He hurls it at the nyogoth before retreating back into the snowstorm, taking refuge nearer to Ary and Anevia. The ball of shadow roils and curls as it flies, less cohesive and solid than tar, but somehow just as heavy and restrictive.
Xanderghul's shadows wrap around his foe, binding several of its tentacle-like appendages to its body until it rather resembles a floating ball of black yarn. It struggles, a few of its arms breaking free.
Isilme is up!
The fighting was going well overall it seemed, but it was hard to avoid getting injured in the ongoing melee. Thankfully the troops kept the schir and howlers from focusing any significant attention on her.
Isilme sighs when she receives the report about the hostages. It was hard to have sympathy for people who essentially placed themselves in this situation, but to do nothing in this case was clearly wrong in many ways. Still, she wondered if any of the cultists being held hostage by their own allies were having second thoughts. "I am on my way, tell him a Chevalier is coming to discuss releasing him in order to buy me some time to arrive," she responds and begins guiding Külə in that direction.
Turning towards the howlers she unleashes an illusion using her ring. Picturing a defensive line, she causes jagged spears of ice to shoot up out of the ground at all sorts of angles, separating the men from the howlers and leaving only a couple of obvious choke points to get through. She takes care to continue the spikes for about a 10' behind the line, carefully interspersing them about the troops so as not to ruin the illusion.
"Have the men fall back and hold the choke points, but be ready in case they discover the deception," she sends to the captains. Hopefully the illusion would buy them enough time that some of the howlers would begin to succumb to the cold weather. In the meantime she needed to attempt to negotiate at the same time as maintaining the spell.
Crusader and cultist alike back off in alarm as the spears of ice suddenly erupt through the ground at their feet.
"Hear you loud and clear," responds Captain Halse. The aasimar captain grins at Isilme as she rides by, calling for her men to fall back. "Thanks for the assist."
You arrive at the longhouse. Most of Ser Ilivan's rangers are stationed outside, longswords drawn, with a small squad of ten standing within with their captain. Inside several cultists lay slain on the ground. In the back corner huddles a hunched over humanoid with a hyena-like face. The creature is clearly very aged - his eyes are white and clouded over, and his fur has turned grey and white. He wears a set of dark green hooded robes emblazoned with the unholy symbol of Deskari, a pair of locust wings, and around his neck is a necklace from which dangle the four shriveled and preserved paws of some sort of feline beast.
Surrounding him is a group of terrified looking women of various races. They are invariably young and beautiful, and clad in form-fitting warm robes. One kneels at the creature's feet, his spear at her neck.
"Skerr'esh grows impatient, elfling," growls the creature. "Let me go, or this girl dies."
Realizing there are far more creatures here than it originally anticipated, Snil-Snil hovers in place, struggling against Xanderghul's bonds. Its tentacles appear to have a mind of their own - in lieu of creatures to attempt to devour, they turn on themselves, intestines gnawing on intestines in a nauseating display...
Ehren is up!
Xanderghul is ready for the monster's disgusting display, his digestion and mind stalwart against the qlippoth's horror. He had seen the creatures before, and they had got the better of him then... Not this time.
Ehren had seen more than his fair share of vile and depraved things since the start of his journey. They all had. But even with that experience, he is not quite prepared to behold the nyogoth's display of self-cannibalism. His ordinarily impressive willpower fails him, and he is left feeling sick to his stomach. If it were not for his current form, he would probably be retching.
Sensing his own vulnerability, Ehren disappears into the ground once more; he had enough of his wits about him to manage that much. Below the surface, he shudders with disgust as he attempts to recenter himself.
Valaria, already feeling dizzy from blood loss, staggers at the beast's display. She doubles over and retches, desperately trying to keep herself from spilling her breakfast all over the ground.
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Ary, for her part seems nonplussed, "Val, you've seen a lot worse than that, probably in the bedroom. Pull it together."
Anevia, for her part, is definitely plussed. "Hurk."
At the sight of the horrible display from the qlippoth, Hinagiku has to draw in a long breath to keep her calm.
"Alright, Chevalier Lleuad will handle it, Ser Ilivan. Don't hesitate to let me know if you need backup, Isilme," says Irabeth as Isilme goes out of sight.
After reaching the longhouse, Külə mutters, "Hmph, Skerr'esh. He was one of their high priests... don't underestimate him. Bigtime slaver, always wanted to save the pretty ones for his own... use. But I'm pretty sure this is all a trap to lure someone important in. His slaves are usually enchanted to follow his every word, whether they like it or not"
Valaria is up!
"I'm not sure about that," Val mutters, but she manages to right herself and clear her head enough to stay functional. "Do we have a plan for killing this thing beyond hitting it really hard? Because I'm a little short on options right now and I'd rather not die trying to get in close when I have more blood outside my body than in right now."
"I can strangle it with a limp lash if the rest of you can keep it off of me for a few moments." responds Xanderghul. "If you're too hurt to fight, just stay back and toss daggers. You might be able to scratch it up a bit."
"Hitting the thing with hammers so that it doesn't spray on you, making sure your weapon is lawfully-aligned, and playing hit-and run with the thing seems to be the order of the day," he continues.
"Noted." Val flicks two daggers in to her other hand and hurls them at the mass of withering intestines, trying to at least inflict a little damage while she has the chance.
Valaria hurls two daggers, one after the other, but they fail to do any lasting damage to the monster.
Hinagiku is up!
"Understood, stay behind me once your spell is active." Hinagiku answers to Xanderghul.
In the meanwhile, the monk draws a wand from her pack and, after a quick prayers, heals herself.
Anevia and Ary are up!