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YarrickiBot and ThunderBot charge forward and move themselves in front of Kalkamedes and Luurg, hoping to draw the attention of the hands and the scaled monstrosity. It seems to work, as all three of the hands immediately make a beeline for the axe beak, leaping and flailing with long, sharp nails!
Two of the hands grasp only air but the third manages to leave a painful scratch down one of Thunder's legs. Luckily, the axe beak seems to be too big for the hand to try and latch on to.
Noting the strange band around one of the scaled creature's horns, Meredith studies the creature's movements. And it's strange...despite the creature's eyes glittering with intelligence, its movements as it turns to face Marcel and Serge seem oddly jerky and stilted - as though it has poor control over its own body.
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Yarricki + Thunder (-4)
Malusha
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Hands
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Luurg
Serge
Marcel
Meredith
Denair
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Illvaster
Active Conditions: Bless (sans Marcel + Serge)
Luurg, Serge, Marcel, Meredith, and Denair are UP!
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Luurg looks back over his shoulder as the Gnome has a mental breakdown "You sure some spoilt half man. Half man wid funny halfman name. Now Luurg mad, you won't like Luurg when he's mad..."
With that Luurg drops the leash, moves down towards the injured woman, drawing his spear as he does. He stops, pulls out a small, dark red cherry, holds it up by the stem and daintily sucks it down with a schlooop!, chews and swallows it. Almost instantly Luurg quadruples in size, his spear extending out as so does he. As he stops growing he smiles and spits out a tiny little cherry pit that bounces off Ilvaster's forehead.
Denair studies the scaled beast. "Oh! Be careful, I think something is controlling the big beastie's movements!"
Denair climbs 10 feet up the wall and begins to scamper across.
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Meredith scowls as she's been had. "Little man, this isn't over..." She casts Long Arm on herself and heads up to join the fight. "Denair, let's surround the big beastie. Maybe get that armband off."
"Mother Green, give my arms the power to stretch like vines!" Meredith's arms burst into a mass of vines with her hands at the end as she grabs the bandit's sickle.
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"Oh, dear. Luurg, remind me not to do anything to make you mad," Marcel says with a note of worry in his voice at the impending creature trying to move toward Serge and himself. He sees the crawling hands moving back the way he came, Marcel moves to stand to the right of Serge. "Keep Kalkamedes and the girl safe!" he calls out as he fires a shot at the scaled monstrosity.
Rather than seem worried about their current predicament, the majority of the group instead find themselves rightly angry and indignant at Koth'Vaul's sudden change in attitude. Luurg moves forward, growing ever bigger and buffer as he waits to skewer the first thing that moves with his spear. Trusting in the others to handle the hands and keep the scaled beastie distacted, Meredith and Denair begin to work in tandem to liberate the odd little metal band from around the beast's horn. And Marcel, ever the practical sort, raises his bow and fires a shot at the scaled creature!
*THUNK*
The arrow strikes home, penetrating through the creature's scales...but though Marcel and everyone watching is certain that the arrow did damage, the creature doesn't give any indications of being in pain...
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Yarricki + Thunder (-4)
Malusha
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Hands
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Luurg (Enlarge Person, Heroism, Str. Mutagen)
Serge
Marcel
Meredith (Long Arm)
Denair
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Illvaster (-5)
Active Conditions: Bless (sans Marcel + Serge)
Serge is UP!
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Serge's face is filled with anger when the gnome turns on the group. He turns to face the scaled beast, his greatsword held tightly in front of his body. "Koth'Vaul, you will soon learn that living down here alone for years is but child's play compared to the suffering you will endure from the hand of vengeance!" Grunting, Serge charges forward towards the scaled foe, holding his blade over his head now, and swings it in a wide arc.
Full of sound and fury, Serge grips his greatsword in both hands and charges to meet the scaled monster! As he comes within range of the beast's great maw, Illvaster snaps with sharp teeth...
...but the paladin ducks under the gaping maw and keeps going! He brings his weapon down in a ferocious arc...but even with the size of the creature, Serge's strike catches only air!
"Suffering? Hah! You make me laugh, mortal...I have awaited freedom for eons," Koth'Vaul laughs derisively. "I can wait a little longer - and watching your flesh putrefy and your bones crumble to dust will make the wait that much more bearable!"
Lumbering slowly, awkwardly, the creature known as Illvaster turns its attention to its new challenger and unleashes a flurry of teeth, wing buffets, and tail slaps upon the paladin!
The barrage of attacks slam into Serge like a series of gut punches, leaving him reeling and barely on his feet! Koth'Vaul laughs gleefully, clearly enjoying the 'show'.
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Yarricki + Thunder (-4)
Malusha
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Hands
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Luurg (Enlarge Person, Heroism, Str. Mutagen)
Serge (-29)
Marcel
Meredith (Long Arm)
Denair
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Illvaster (-5)
Active Conditions: Bless (sans Marcel + Serge)
Yarricki + Thunder and Malusha are UP!
Realizing that the small fry need to be cleared out as quickly as possible so they can get around to help Serge, Yarricki urges Thunder forward and the great axe beak snaps one of the hands up in her beak - crushing it soundly! The limp appendage drops to the ground, never to trouble anyone again.
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Yarricki + Thunder (-4)
Malusha
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Hands
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Luurg (Enlarge Person, Heroism, Str. Mutagen)
Serge (-29)
Marcel
Meredith (Long Arm)
Denair
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Illvaster (-5)
Active Conditions: Bless (sans Marcel + Serge)
Malusha is UP!
Seeing Serge in dire straights, Malusha hustles forward towards the center of the large cavern and calls upon Sarenrae's light to heal his friends of their injuries. Thunder trills happily as the scratch she suffered from the hand mends and some of Serge's wounds scab over and heal as well. And thanks to the otherworldly influence of the fey that raised him for a time, the healing magic proves slightly more effective on the paladin! He also notices that the healing magic seems to have no effect on any of the hands nor on Illvaster...
The two remaining hands, mindlessly focused on the giant bird, give chase after Thunder as she falls back. As the pair come skittering and leaping towards the axe beak, both of them are left open to attacks from Thunder and her rider.
Assuming either of the hands survive, they continue trying to claw at Thunder's legs...
...and undo all of Malusha's healing work with extra to spare!
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Yarricki + Thunder (Pending AoOs, -4?)
Malusha
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Hands
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Luurg (Enlarge Person, Heroism, Str. Mutagen)
Serge (-19)
Marcel
Meredith (Long Arm)
Denair
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Illvaster (-5)
Active Conditions: Bless (sans Marcel + Serge)
Luurg, Serge, Marcel, Meredith and Denair are UP!
Luurg bravely attempts to come Serge's aid, lumbering up behind the battered paladin and stabbing ferociously at Illvaster with his spear. Unfortunately, he has to make sure he doesn't catch his friend by mistake and Luurg's blow just misses catching the scaled monstrosity in the chest...
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Yarricki + Thunder (Pending AoOs, -4?)
Malusha
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Hands
=======
Luurg (Enlarge Person, Heroism, Str. Mutagen)
Serge (-19)
Marcel
Meredith (Long Arm)
Denair
=======
Illvaster (-5)
Active Conditions: Bless (sans Marcel + Serge)
Serge, Marcel, Meredith and Denair are UP!
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Serge groans as pain radiates outwards from the three attacks he took from the serpent, then groans for the opposite reason as the pain fades. "My thanks, Malusha. I can feel the strength of your goddess all around me, and now I shall act as the very shield of vengeance!" He drops his sword into one hand and touches himself with his free hand.
After Ragathiel's power closes up several more of his wounds, Serge uses his sword and free arm to defend himself. "Foul serpent, attack me! I dare you!" He shouts up at the scaled beast.
The rest of the group begins to come to Serge's aid, as Thunder and Yarricki both finish off the two remaining hands - easily skewering and crunching them into submission! Marcel advances and fires another shot, but the shot flies wide! Meredith moves up and attempts to pop the strange little band off of Illvaster's horn...which would normally earn her a retaliatory snap but the creature's reach with his mouth is just a little too short. On the downside, she isn't able to pop the band off of the creature's horn and she gets the sense that doing so might very well be beyond her current abilities.
Realizing that he's in a tough spot, Serge calls on the healing power of Ragathiel to further mend his wounds and then falls back a step as he adopts a defensive position and taunts Illvaster to try again! The scaled monstrosity seems ready to take him up on his offer and tears into Serge again...as well as snakes his large head out to take a bite out of Luurg!
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Yarricki + Thunder
Malusha
Luurg (-19, Enlarge Person, Heroism, Str. Mutagen)
Serge (-26)
Marcel
Meredith (Long Arm)
Denair
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Illvaster (-5)
Active Conditions: Bless (sans Marcel + Serge)
Everyone (?) is UP!
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Denair mumbles. "Oh, alright...sorry about this!" She begins flanking with Meredith and tries to slam it with her tree-like limbs.
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Luurg closes his eyes a bit, seeing that bite chomping down on him Owwie! Just like dem days wid da gobbies! He opens his eyes and sees it wasn't as bad as he thought. "You gonna pay fer dat!" He rumbles, stabbing out with his spear again as the teeth marks in his side seem to start to fade a bit.
You Be Goblin Whelp: Happy Beat (0/2): When you are hit by an attack, you can check one of this badge's boxes to gain DR5/- against that attack.
Spontaneous Healing (Ex): The alchemist gains the ability to heal from wounds rapidly. As a free action once per round, he can heal 5 hit points as if he had the fast healing ability. He can heal 5 hit points per day in this manner for every 2 alchemist levels he possesses. If the alchemist falls unconscious because of hit point damage and he still has healing available from this ability, the ability activates automatically each round until he is conscious again or the ability is depleted for the day.
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Marcel lets out a sigh of frustration as his arrow goes high. "Keep your eye on the quarry," he mutters to himself as he pulls another arrow from his quiver. "Don't look at what it's doing to others and focus on a weak spot," he continues as he draws a bead on the creature and lets the arrow fly.
"Serge! Fall back and regroup!" he shouts as he sees the paladin has taken a beating. "You may not survive another barrage like that!"
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Marcus calls for Serge to fall back and the paladin finally obliges, putting some distance between himself and the vile beast. As Serge once more calls upon Ragathiel's power to mend his wounds, the rest of the group rallies together and rains blow after devastating blow down on Illvaster. Yarricki and Thunder slam against the beast with the fury of a tidal wave, Meredith and Denair fall into a well-practiced fighting formation as the eidolon batters her foe with her limbs, and Luurg is finally able to display his own combat prowess as he thrusts his spear deep into the creature's chest! The scaled monster teeters and sways, clearly on death's door but not quite finished yet...
*PTWANG!*
And then Marcel's arrow sinks into Illvaster's head, right between the eyes. With a great, rattly thud, the beast collapses to the ground, unmoving.
Unperturbed by the life-or-death struggle that took place mere feet away, the still-sleeping Kalkamedes strides over to the runed circle where the elven woman still lies motionless...and stops.
"Zz...dawn...the light..." he mumbles.
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Just as Luurg pulls his spear back the creature falls over dead "Wow, you guys r gud! Dat ting didn't stand any chances!" He exclaims before hearing Kalkamedes and spinning around, as best an over grown Luurg can do. Spear swinging sideways just over Serge's head.
"Whoops, fergut 'bout sleepy sleeper over dare!" He heads over to grab up the rope leash just in case.
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Denair bounds up to Meredith, who gives her the high-five she's always wanted. "Good job, Denair." Meredith pulls out a wand. "Serge, you can use divine magic, right? Use this to close your wounds."
"Now then, what is this thing?" Meredith stows her longspear. "Unseen Servant, retrieve my mace." She then walks up to the beaten creature and tries to remove the strange band.
Once that's done, she tries to stabilize the creature. She needs answers, now.
"Something's wrong with it- it doesn't have full control over its body! Maybe its forced to fight us." Denair runs up to Meredith and turns to Luurg. "There is this band on its left horn- maybe it's being controlled?"
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Marcel moves over to Serge to make sure he's going to be all right. "We almost lost you, my friend," he says with concern. "Anyone else standing against it like that would be dead now. It takes a lot of heart to be brave like that," he adds with a note of admiration. "Let's see if we can help this woman that Kalkamedes seems interested in."
Marcel then moves next to Kalkamedes and checks on the downed elfwoman to see if any of the previous aid has helped.
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Serge lowers his sword, panting as he smiles at Marcel. "It is good to see you all alive and well," he takes the wand of cure light wounds from Meredith and taps himself a few times, watching his wounds close up. "That foul beast proved difficult to hit for myself, not so for my more skilled companions," he says with a nod towards the rest of the party.
Serge dusts his armor off while walking over to the elven beauty once more and attempts to rouse her.
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Malusha sighs with relief as the last monster collapses. Still shaking a little from the excitement of the encounter, he goes up to Meredith to examine the band she found. "Do you mind if I look at this?" he asks while casting detect magic on it.
After a moment of study he becomes aware of the activity near the elf and he joins his companions there. "Do we know what's wrong with her? Is she who Kalkamedes has been trying to get to?"
With the beast now felled, the group quickly takes a few moments to assess their injuries and mend the worst of them. Meredith reaches down and carefully slides the strange band off of Illvaster's horn...and nearly drops it when it suddenly shifts from a band into a rather shapeless, floppy hat! The 'band' now removed, Illvaster's still form shifts and shimmers as the illusion veiling it drops away. Instead of the freshly-killed body of a living creature, you see the mottled, rotting remains of a creature dead long before it crawled out of the nearby pool to do battle with the group. While the hat-band does indeed radiate a magical aura, Malusha isn't quite able to get the gist of just what sort of enchantment it holds.
Serge and Marcel, both quickly reassured that the paladin will live to fight another day with no lingering damage from the recent battle, move to inspect the unconscious elven woman. They realize that with the application of just a little more healing magic, the woman's injuries should mend enough to allow her to return to consciousness. Kalkamedes now stands still for what may be the first time this entire long, strange night, almost as if standing guard over the woman.
Upon closer inspection, peering into the woman's eyes, you realize that this is no elven woman at all! She's actually a ghaele azata, a powerful creature of goodness and light that hails from the plane of Elysium.
Meanwhile, from within his circle, the gnome spits a litany of vile curses at the group. he snarls, throwing himself at the circle that binds him - to no avail. He's clearly not going anywhere and his words seem to be nothing more than empty threats.
"Tch! What a sore loser" Gamin's voice rings out from within the scabbard hanging at Serge's belt. "An' Marcel's right...kinna see much of what was goin' on but I heard it all - yer a brave lad, Serge. I'm glad ye dinna git sent on ta tha Boneyard this day," he adds, his tone reflecting both relief and a sense of pride.
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"Huh, what a weird hat."
"You can use my wand of Cure Light Wounds on the woman. Or Malusha, you can look into helping her, too."
She shrugs and readies her longspear, watching the gnome bounce against the barrier. "Swift death, huh? Denair, surround the field. Unseen Servant, make some tea while we wait for this swift death."
"As far as I'm confirmed, we freed the right person. You're going to rot here for a while, or I'm going skewer you."
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"Don't let him get under your skin," Marcel says as he looks up from the unconscious lass to Meredith and Malusha. "If he has the power to do us in, he'd have done it without help from that thing," Marcel waves a hand at the remains of the long-dead monster. "Let's get this woman healed and maybe she can shed some light on what's going on."
Koth'Vaul opens his mouth to respond to Meredith and Denair's (figurative) nose-tweaking...and nothing comes out as Malusha drops the cone of silence into the gnome's circle. Koth'Vaul blinks as he realizes that he can no longer hear himself talk and then begins clawing furiously at the unseen barrier holding him within the circle, his mouth moving rapidly with words that are probably best left unheard.
The group gathers around the unconscious woman and as Malusha once more channels with the power of the Dawnflower, a few more of her wounds close up and her eyelids flutter...and slowly open.
"...wha...?" she mumbles as she takes in the sight of unfamiliar ceiling and the rather concerned faces surrounding her and peering down at her. Then, as if remembering something, her eyes open wide and she suddenly bolts into a sitting position. As she gazes around at each of you, you notice that her eyes seem to radiate with an otherworldly glow.
"Koth'Vaul! Where is he?" she asks anxiously. "You didn't free him from his prison, did you?" Then, she pauses. "No, no you haven't...if you had, we wouldn't be having this conversation now. He's still within the binding circle, isn't he?"
Now fully awake, the woman grimaces and staggers to her feet. Gazing down at her tattered clothing and many wounds, she grimaces and then places her hand over her heart.
"ದೇಹವನ್ನು ಸರಿಪಡಿಸು, ಮನಸ್ಸನ್ನು ಪುನಃಸ್ಥಾಪಿಸಿ," she intones and her wounds quickly and completely vanish.
"Mend the body, restore the mind."
She just cast Heal on herself.
"Much better," she sighs with a radiant smile. "Now, I suspect you've got some questions of your own for me, don't you? The first and easiest to answer, a simple matter of names. I'm called Sulianna and it's quite a pleasure to meet you...?" she trails off, clearly waiting to hear each of your own names.
"Hi, I'm Denair!" The fox-tree gallops up to Sulianna. "I thought Koth'Vaul was innocently trapped, but I guess it's good to be wrong sometimes!" She giggles.
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Meredith grins as Koth'Vaul yells into silence. Meredith puts her hands to her ears to indicate she can't hear him, and then laughs and returns to the rest of the party.
"Nifty spell. I'll have to learn that at some point. I'm Meredith, good to meet you. You're free now." Meredith goes to shake the woman's hand...although she's even more suspicious than usual.
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Malusha recognizes that the elf woman is casting a spell and he tries to follow the magical energies to determine what it is. However, the complexity of the spell is beyond him. He shakes his head to clear it from the effort then focuses back on her.
Malusha steps forward with Denair and offers a hand in greeting. "I'm Malusha. We are pleased to meet you as well. Although, we didn't know you were here until we were led here by this man." Malusha points out Kalkamedes.
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"I'm pleased to meet you as well, Sulianna. My name is Marcel and what Malusha says is true," he adds. "This is Kalkamedes and he's been sleepwalking every night for the past few nights. He doesn't remember doing it or why, and we were asked to watch over him to see where he was trying to go. It would seem he was trying to reach you."
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Serge squints to see if he can recognize the spell, but he's more interested in the recovering fair maiden whose sweet Celestial voice tugs at his heart strings. "Miss Sulianna, I'm Serge, faithful servant of Ragathiel. It is good to see you recovered and well. Perchance you might tell us how you came to be here, and shed some light on why Kalkamedes was guided to this place?"
"A pleasure to meet you, each one of you," Sulianna smiles as she clasps each of your hands (or whatever approximates hands, in Denair's case) tightly in her own. Her very skin seems to radiate warmth and light.
"As I'm sure you may have guessed by now, Koth'Vaul is not what he seems," she begins, and as if on cue, Malusha's spell fades and Koth'Vaul's yelling and cursing can be heard once more. "Ah yes, there he is. He knows his time is at an end; I can hear the fear in his voice. Anyway, whatever form he showed you when you arrived here is false - Koth'Vaul is a powerful demon, called and bound to this realm long ago by those you call the Thrallkeepers. He was made to serve his masters but once the Thrallkeepers were no more, he remained here, still bound to his circle...but not for all time."
"You see, the binding circle has slowly weakened...eventually it will break and Koth'Vaul will be loosed on this land," Sulianna continues, her tone grave. "A month ago, I journeyed here to put an end to him before that could happen...but the circle was already much weaker than I had expected. With the aid of his undead puppet Illvaster he managed to draw me in close and we battled." Here, she sighs deeply. "I was not strong enough to slay Koth'Vaul and it was only by escaping to this circle, bound with positive energy where Illvaster could not follow, that I lived. But I was in a sorry state, as you saw."
During Sulianna's speech, Kalkamedes has remained standing as still and silent as a statue. Sulianna walks to him, a look of thankfulness but also sadness on her face. "This man, Kalkamedes, was my unwitting savior. Though I was unconscious, I could sense his mind when he drew close to this place one day. I tried to reach out to him for aid, but Koth'Vaul guessed my plan and intervened to dampen my call. Kalkamedes journeyed on, unaware that both of us had touched his mind so. But...yes, I see it...his subconscious still remembered and drove him to seek this place out."
The angelic woman hangs her head, wiping away a tear. "And it very nearly cost him his life. And all of you yours, as well, because I was too weak to finish what I had begun on my own."