You make your way down the hallway and come to the first of the doors, the door stands half open. Inside you see shelves full of glassware, windows, jars, and other finished goods made of glass, beyond that there's nothing interesting.
The next door is closed. As Garrok approaches he hears the creak of a bowstring as it's pulled taut. He spins to see Tsuto Kaijutsu down the hallway aiming a bow. In front of him, the wounded goblin, now seemingly patched up, snickers with malicious glee.
Seeing the Half-orcs surprise, the goblin senses revenge at hand and charges his foe with a high pitched war cry.
The mad little devil gets tripped up in the debris that's scattered in the hallway and swings wide.
"Goblin!" Garrokmal shouts over his shoulder as he turns the corner. "There may be more!"
You slippery little bugger - how did you make it down here?
Not taking any extra time to consider it, he tries to bury his sword in the vermin's face.
He makes contact, but merely wounds the goblin. Looking down the hall, he sees the arrow pointing his direction... "Tsuto! We're looking for your sister - Katarina is with us!" I hope he's aiming for the goblin and not me.
Tsuto scowls saying, "You should have stayed out my business, orc, now you and your friends are going to suffer for it."
He lets loose the string and the bow twangs as the arrow speeds for Garrok.
The arrow splinters as it impacts the brickwork.
As the party abruptly halts, Zafzalurg strains to see around his companions. The hall is too narrow to push up to the front and see for himself, so he shouts,
"Garrok, what's going on up there?"
As he waits for a response, the bard turns and steps back to the mouth of the corridor, peering down its length, not wanting to be surprised or flanked.
Seeing the goblin attack Garrokmal, Hieronymous attempts to swing his mace past the orc to hit the goblin.
Hieronymous knocks a chunk out of the hallway masonry as his mace swings wide.
"Hey, what... What's... I can't see a thing!" - Katarina huffs, standing on her tip toes and leaning left and right trying to get some sense of the situation up ahead - "Is it goblins again? It's so narrow in here... We should get back to the corridor!"
The goblin renews his attack against Garrok while yelling, "Tsuto say you die!"
The goblin flails as frothing spittle flies from its mouth.
What the!? Tsuto is part of this? I don't understand - no time to waste!
Garrok swings again at the goblin, hoping to finish him off...
As the goblin falls to the ground, he steps forward to get right in Tsuto's face. He calls out to his friends "Don't kill him - he may be brainwashed!" And that would be the best case scenario...
The goblin falls in a lump as Garrok strides over its mangled body.
Tsuto casts his bow aside and steps into a fighting stance.
Tsuto's fist flashes forward slamming into Garrok's sternum, he feels the wind rush out of his lungs and gasps for breath.
Wheezing and senseless, Garrokmal struggles to regain his bearings, find his sword, and exact a terrible vengeance.
So... angry...
"Oof!" That was quite a punch he thinks, as he deflects the kick with his shield... Could've been worse, I suppose!
Feeling more than a little helpless in his current position, Zafzalurg hits on a plan.
"Katarina, if Tsuto sticks his head out on this end, blast it. I'm going to try to get behind him."
The gnome then starts to hustle down the wide hall to eventually flank Tsuto and prevent him from fleeing. What have we stumbled upon? I thought this was just a sleepy port town when I disembarked.
Hieronymous moves behind Garrokmal and readies himself for any opportunity to help out.
"Oh? H-Hey wait, what..." - Katarina calls after Zaf, but the gnome swiftly makes his way toward the other end of the corridor, leaving her alone.
The young girl fidgets a little, worried for her friends and unsure upon the best course of action, but eventually, with a less than lady-like "Oh damn it all, the hell with it! Zaf wait for me, I'm coming too!", Katarina runs down the corridor and tries to catch up with her companion.
"That's it - play time is over!" Anger fills Garrokmal's muscles - he fixes Tsuto with a steely gaze and attacks.
Tsuto smirks at Garrok and says,"Nice try, oaf. It looks like your little friend here wants a piece of me too."
Tsuto does a standing-back flip to land behind Zaf as he runs up while snapping a kick at the back of the gnomes head.
That, I have never seen. Or felt.
Zafzalurg whirls and attempts to take a piece out of Tsuto.
But the blow to the head has him reeling and he is unable to connect.
Hieronymous moves past Garrokmal and lays his buckler hand on Zaf, mumbles a few incoherent words in a reverent manner, and then a warm white glow passes from his hand into the gnome.
"Hopefully that'll help ease the pain a bit my friend."
Seeing Zaf disappear down the hallway at a clip, she moves to join her friends to see if she can be of help.
Seeing Tsuto before her, she freezes, unsure of what to do. He seems to be fighting her friends, but why? Tsuto was always a bit of a jackass, but would he really be fighting her friends.
Hoping to bring the confrontation to a quick bloodless conclusion, she fixes him with her arcane stare and says the magic words that will put him to sleep.
Katarina recalls his mysterious elven heritage as she watches the spell slip around him, failing to take hold.
Garrokmal
Tsuto
Zaf
Hieronymous
Katarina
Frustrated at being unable to get at Tsuto, Garrokmal's rage continues... He sees Katarina on the far side attempt a spell. He could snap her fragile neck - I'd better get over there.
Having made up his mind, he hustles as quickly as he can all the way around the hall.
Tsuto snarls as he comes to the realization that he's surrounded.
Tsuto dives over Zaf's head once more, then cartwheels past Hieronymous, landing behind the surprised human. The sweating half elf looks down at Hieronymous and wags a finger saying, "No more magic."
Tsuto smashes an open palm into Hieronymous' sternum, knocking the wind from him.
Garrokmal
Tsuto
Zaf
Hieronymous
Katarina
Hieronymous senses the irritating Tsuto flash past.
Somehow knowing what was going to happen, Hieronymous was ready for the blow. I may not be able to hit often, but I am thankful for what luck passes my way.
He returns Tsuto's gaze, looking up at him with his glazed over eyes, seeing a twisted soul, "The darkness in your soul makes you weak, that blow should have done much more to me."
"Thanks for the help, Hieronymous! Stay away from his fists if you can - they're like steel!"
This may be a longer contest than I first thought Zafzalurg clears his throat and begins a song to Inspire Courage, then takes a five foot step back to give the barbarian room to move up, or the healer space to move back. Not that it seems to matter to Tsuto. Where did he learn to move like that?
Hieronymous looks at Tsuto again and then shakes his head in sadness.
Then, he swings his mace.
Then, he takes a five foot step backward ().
Katarina steels herself an shoots Tsuto a harsh gaze, full of scorn and contempt and imbued with powerful eldritch energy.
When the curse strikes him, she lets out a short, shrill laughter, that echoes through te walls of the tunnel far longer than it should before dying out.
Tsuto
Zaf
Hieronymous
Katarina
Garrokmal turns the corner and looks down the hall, being careful not to disturb Katarina. Okay, that kind of freaked me out - she's scary. he sees that his allies have stepped away from the acrobatic maniac. Excellent, some fighting room!
"Step aside, little ones!" he bellows as he rushes past them. Stepping up to Tsuto, he swings his longsword, fueled by orc blood and rage.
Again, the half-elf dodges his blade.
Seeing his opponent enraged, Tsuto waits for the sword to swing by then advances on Garrok in a flurry of kicks and punches.
Garrok dodges a punch toward his throat and his armor saves him from a nasty kick to the ribs. Tsuto, seeing his attacks are ineffectual takes a step back.
Tsuto
Zaf
Hieronymous
Katarina
Knowing he can't make it to the front for an assault on Tsuto, Zafzalurg instead braces for another tumbling attack while continuing his Inspire Courage performance for the rest of the party.
This hall is not conducive to group combat. If there was some way to get everyone into the larger hall...
With Garrokmal between him and their enemy, Hieronymous sees an opportunity to help the most injured member of the group. He stares at nothing, mumbles incoherently, and feels better as a faint white glow pulses from his chest to his extremities, fading as it goes.
Katarina smiles wickedly when she Sees Tsuto taking a step back after Garrok effortlessly withstood his last attack.
"Ah! Let's keep at it guys, and we'll bring him down!" - she cheers from the back of the group, with her usual pleasant and carefree tone... Before her voice takes that shrill, cold edge it did a few moments prior - "He won't be standing for long... Fate shall forsake him soon..."
Barely audible at first, the sound of Katarina's unsettling laughter fills the corridor once more, like an echo slowly coming back to life and dying out again. As before, the sound seems to take awfully longer than it should to finally disappear.
Garrokmal's rage is only fueled by Tsuto's constant evasion. I will hit you... and it's going to hurt. He takes a 5-ft step forward and swings.
"I make my own fate, girl." He then lays into Garrok with another group of lightning fast attacks.
He then deftly moves back around the corner.
His plan to attempt to daze Tsuto in his slightly weakened condition, dried up when the acrobat/monk/whatever-he-is stepped out of sight. Instead, he continued with only boon he could offer the party in such tight quarters and continued his bardsong and maintain his defensive stance.
Hieronymous places his hand on Zaf, mumbles a few strange syllables, and a faint while glow passes from his chest, through his arm and into Zaf.
He then walks 5 feet forward to be behind Garrokmal .
Also frustrated that Tsuto has disappeared around the corner, Katarina moves her hands and utters a spell, waiting for the nimble adversary to show himself all the while still laughing with a frantic glee.
As long as he keeps backing up, maybe we can push him into the open area...
Taking a careful step forward, Garrok glares at Tsuto. "Where is your sister, fiend? Did you kill her like you did your father? RRAAH!" He swings his longsword again.
"That old bastard deserved everything he got. Ameiko's safe enough for now, but one day, she'll know that I was right!"
With that, he bolts off down the hallway, making his way past the supplies and making a bid for the door.
Katarina catches him in her sights as he dashes past her view and releases the Web Bolt spell at him.
He attempts to jump over a hurtling mass of milky white webbing but slips and lands on his rump, scrabbling to stand up just as the projectile hits him in the chest and his dash for freedom stops in earnest.
He's too far for me to get an attack in, but I can block his escape. Or at least, try to...
Zafzalurg sings on and moves to put his body between Tsuto and the stairs.
Hoping to catch Tsuto despite his short legs and his chain mail, Hieronymous runs around toward the west and ends up coming up behind the apparently evil webbed half-elf .
Hopefully I can get one hit in before he wriggles free.
He stops, panting after the brief jog, readying his Mace for an opportunity to strike.
Happy that one of her spells has finally landed on the wily Tsuto, Katarina cackles in glee and tries to entrap him in more subtle enchantments.
The spell vanishes around Tsuto before it can take hold, his mind as strong as ever.
He's trapped! At least - that sounded like him becoming trapped... Garrokmal hustles down the hallway and around the corner. He sees the half-elf struggling in the webs. "Nice one, little miss!" He grins at Katarina as he passes the corner.
Stepping up to the struggling Tsuto, he brandishes the longsword. "I have you now..."
In a rage Garrok stabs Tsuto as he struggles to pull himself from the sticky mess.
The half-elf struggles with his bonds trying to free himself.
As slippery as ever Tsuto easily wriggles from the webbing.
Zafzalurg is astonished, and outraged, that this man is so easily having his way with the party. Can anything we do stop him, the gnome wonders. At least Garrok hit him so we know Tsuto can bleed. Let's see what I can do.
Encouraged by Garrokmal's successful hit, Hieronymous takes a swing at Tsuto with his mace.
He feels vindicated as the mace makes contact, Maybe we'll win this fight after all!
Seeing her companions attacks connect, Katarina lets loose with another of her spells while more unnerving laughter echoes from her.
The magic takes hold and Tsuto blinks repeatedly and wobbles a bit on his feet as if someone had punched him quite hard in the face.
Seeing the blood flowing from Tsutos' injuries and the bewildered look in his eyes, Garrok's bloodlust continues unabated. "That thing I said about not killing him?" he shouts, "Yeah - forget that!"
He attacks with his sword.