Roland draws his earthbreaker again and starts to control his breath to avoid attacking the knights on sight, since they were not using the Silvermane tabards as the previous.
After getting disappointed with the lack of a fight, he starts to wonder if he really wants to join these folks in the siege, knowing they could ask them only to support and provide backup, which would slow them down, making Xavius' rescue slower and less effective. "Roland. Listen, we can help, but we're going for a direct approach. What exactly do you mean by 'aid us'? We are powerful enough to get inside there and rescue Xavius, so we're not gonna lose time... Wanna be more specific?"
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Still hugging the little girl, Catcher kisses her on the forehead as she whispers See the sword? After this, spellsword Catcher is what they’ll be calling me.
Then she gets up, turning to the newcomers and putting herself between them and the girl. She is about to answer when the big dumbarian open his mouth and starts to sprout nonsense as usual. ”Don’t listen to him” she says pointing to Roland ”We belong to no faction but our own, and while it can be said we are capable fighters, by no means we can infiltrate the complex by ourselves. What can you do to help us?” she finishes using conjuring her magic powers to clear the blood from her clothes and weapons.
Using magic at this time had one single meaning: How could a wizard belongs to the Silvermane faction?
He gives him a look that says the answer is exactly what he thinks it is. "Gromff Hammerhand. And ye sir?"
"Just headed their ourselves. How goes the attack. And is anyone watching the valley entrances? Attack from within sure would be a good diversion from an attack from without."
He replies, "I am Kar, 1st man of the mountain, and I now trust you more for your words." He nods approvingly at the dwarf's situational battlefield awareness. "We have scouts out toward the eastern approach."
Turning to his riders he says, "Off with you now, to the keep at the pass! Ride hard if them devils break through. You know where we'll be."10 of his riders splinter off at this command, heading eastward toward the ancient keep of Archdale that guarded the mountain pass into the Frostfang mountains. Only Kar and Helena remained.
"Roland. Listen, we can help, but we're going for a direct approach. What exactly do you mean by 'aid us'? We are powerful enough to get inside there and rescue Xavius, so we're not gonna lose time... Wanna be more specific?"
"You're a confident one, and big too. I believe you. I..." His sentence trails off as he takes in the upstart spellsword wearing officer's colors...of the enemy.
...Then she gets up, turning to the newcomers and putting herself between them and the girl. She is about to answer when the big dumbarian open his mouth and starts to sprout nonsense as usual. ”Don’t listen to him” she says pointing to Roland ”We belong to no faction but our own, and while it can be said we are capable fighters, by no means we can infiltrate the complex by ourselves. What can you do to help us?” she finishes using conjuring her magic powers to clear the blood from her clothes and weapons.
Seeing the use of magic to clean the tabard of spilt blood, he bursts into uproarious laughter. "I needed that laugh. I think I'm gonna like you all. C'mon, we'll talk more on the way."
He and Helena turn their mounts back eastward toward the siege.
Gromff gives Roland an annoyed look, or maybe just a dwarvish look at this point. "What the lad means is we been through hell and back a few times already and are still alive. Might be a small group could get through the siege and end this with less bloodshed. Devil's are smarter than most give em credit fer. Divide and conquer. One o them," he says pointing to their prisoners, "said one o their leaders up and changed his mind one day. Stinks of devil mischief ta me. And these fools seem like ones ta follow and not ask questions. Need ta find the head o this snake afore it does the devil's job for them."
Roland who's a big fan of a song that wasn't even created back then mutters to himself. "Don't believe me, just watch." He walks with the earthbreaker lying on his shoulder, holding it with his right hand only. He approaches Littledragon and whispers to him something. "You know the girl should not come. It's too dangerous for her near us, you'd do better where you were, it was safe." He is not commanding the man, but merely suggesting it, knowing that suggesting it aloud would just piss off the mage, which is not what he wants, at the moment.
Then he asks the leader, Kar, about the events. "Did you see Xavius getting captured??"
The half-elf watches and listens, not commenting on the approach or questions of the newly arrived soldiers, nor on any affiliations or faction membership. As far as he was aware, they were here to kill devils, which was fine by him, and everything else was just politics and scheming, which he would have no part in.
Once returned, he retrieves his bow, dropped on the ground during his magically induced state of fear, and moves to the side of his companions. Whatever was to come next, he hoped it included another crack at that hellish flying b~*%+ with the bow, he owed her one.
As the group hustles along beside Kar and Helena, they're told of the siege currently underway involving groups of militia men and women from various factions attempting to take down the Silvermane's fortification. They further explain that all attempts thus far have been thwarted by archers who man guard towers. (Each tower has two archers, they explain.) Several thrusts have been attempted on the walls including flaming oils, scorpions, and battering rams -- but these haven't been effective enough to penetrate the walls. (or the attempts withered under missile fire before they had time to succeed)
Upon arrival at the scene, the baying of hellish hounds can be heard from behind the walls. The twangs of bowstrings thrum on and on from both sides of the fray, accompanied by death cries of those unfortunate enough to be on the wrong side of the arrow fletchings.
A sudden hooray indicates some victory on the west side of the complex, but the cries of triumph are quickly muffled by cries of pain and blood curdling screams of pain.
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Things to note on the map:
Roland has his bow at hand, in case they choose the last option. "Break the wall, the barricade or the archers?"
Gromff approaches through the trees and sees the assault taking place. Apparently the north and south entrances have been bottled up thoroughly and the one breach has been blocked by some pretty fiendish creatures. And with guards in towers showering attackers it would make for a pretty tough tick to root out. His tactical mind began working. Thinking of options, abilities, range, attack power. The one thing he came to first was take out the archers as they seemed to be stifling any concentrated efforts. "Oi. Ranger. Take out the archers. The rest o us will charge whatever comes to investigate. Get em caught in a vice with our mounted friends there." In preparation he casts some defenses on himself.
Feeling the draw of his bow in his hand, the ranger nods at the request, taking up a suitable position with which to employ his craft. Seeking suitable cover, be it a tree or a dwarf, the half-elf readies for the attack, drawing a bead on the nearest archers in a tower.
Seeing the opening, Adakos nods to the group as he lets his attacks fly towards one of the archers.
Far less deadly than the half-elf and than himself with a hammer, Roland tries to help as he can for now, sending forth more arrows to surprise the archers, and hopefully help to take them out before they can call out a warning to the others. He also takes cover behind a dwarf or a tree, and shoots 2 arrows since he doesn't have the grace the elvens have.
Adakos puts an arrow so perfectly through the archer's neck that it cleanly exited in a crimson spray and lodged into the wooden tower's roof behind. The man dropped out of sight, dead before he hit the floor. Another of the ranger's shots is followed by one of Roland's, felling the 2nd archer.
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An unearthly voice yells out in the infernal tongue, "Dorr enzin nok, gah fluu'rlz!"
Moments later the archers are replaced by two brown furred humanoid devils with oversized gaping mouths and eyes glowing with hellfire. They emit loud breathy hisses as they search for who is to blame. Seeing the ranger and barbarian hiding behind the bare trees, the two charfiends reach back, conjuring fireballs to their cupped hands and hurling them at the pair. Adakos dodges, causing the flame to burst harmlessly against the gray tree trunk, though the fireball fired at Roland was aimed with more precision. The flames scorched the barbarian's shoulder, but the damage was mostly superficial.
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"That's the stuff," Gromff says to himself. They took out the archers quickly but they were replaced with more fiendish reinforcements. He figured the fiends would die quickly enough and then the bearded ones (they really gave dwarves a bad name) would follow. When they did, he would be ready.
"Ha, I think I hit one!" Says the barbarian, notching and loosing another arrow at the one who hit him.
"You know, I think I should shine more using the bow. It makes the wizard envy me." But the second arrow goes wide as his wish to impress.
Adakos grins at the barbarian as he puts his own bow to work. While there was definitely a lack of finesse in the larger man's shots, his skill was still more considerable than the half-elf would have originally thought. "You call that a hit? He could do worse with a shaving razor and a hangover!" the elf calls out, taunting the man playfully as he continues to seek targets on the walls. At the sight of the flame throwing devils on the ramparts his grin vanishes, instead replaced by a look of determination as he sets more arrows in flight, targeting the southern fiend.
The half-elf frowns as his last arrow slams into the fortress crenellations and ricochets off high into the air.
While Gromff and Catcher wait for their moment to thrust, Roland and Adakos continue their assault on the northwest sentry tower. One shot of Roland's hit a charfiend with barely enough power to draw blood but it was soon made up for by Adakos' profound skill with the bow. The half-elf sent a pair of admirably-aimed shots, each sinking squarely into the forehead of a charfiend. They both drop out of sight, one after the other, dead as they day they were born into their hellish afterexistence.
A barbazu who stands at the wall breach calls forth a taunt in the common tongue of men, "I see you, tiny dwarf man. I see you cowering behind the gray wood." His vocal voice is followed by a creepy mental intrusion on Gromff's consciousness... mentally it speaks again, eschewing the use of its voice in favor of telepathy, "I see your blood being spilled by my glaive, I see me tasting your flesh before the light has even left your eyes!"
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Roland finds the elf to have a sense of humor, after all. He's not gonna drop the subject in any case. He drops the bow, since he doesn't plan on using it for now, and puts a hand on the grip of his Earthbreaker. "See that wall?" He points to a section at the wall with a smile on his face. "Imagine that's you if you don't run more than I do."
He sprints towards the wall while drawing his massive weapon on the way, ready to put the barrier to the ground even if it takes some seconds!
Gromff keeps his disgust at the mental intrusion from showing on his face. He steps from behind the cover and calls back. "Thought ye were supposed ta be smart? Pretty sure that's yer blood all over me and the ground between us. Why don't we see whose right?" Gromff points at the area between all three bearded devil's and burst of radiant light explodes right at eye level. He closes in after the explosion, taking advantage of their disorientation.
Gromff summons forth the pure light of the heavens in a flash of radiance centered on the trio of taunting barbazus. The light seared their flesh with an audible sizzle, causing steam to erupt from areas of their skin that bubbled in rage. The devils covered their eyes just in time to avoid temporary blindness, but when they opened them they were staring down an angry dwarf who had stepped right up to them.
Catcher begins her incantations which will result in the dwarf becoming ogre-sized, but needed a few more seconds to finish her magic.
Roland charges the wooden wall itself, determined to show his prowess with his earthbreaker maul to his ranger friend. The following CRACK was impressive but failed to penetrate the walled structure fully.
The dazzled barbazus turned their heads at the BOOM caused by the barbarian's assault, seeing that their fortifications were finally under a significant assault.
Adakos moves to the barren trees behind Roland's position in anticipation of a new breech in the perimeter wall. Ducking behind the foliage, he tries to remain unobtrusive.
"Vehr saath sag vera d'luth morh depth derriorh'lor!"...a terrible, commanding voice calls out in the infernal tongue of the devils. The voice's origin remains yet unknown and unseen.
Obeying their commander, the trio of bearded devils began chopping their serrated glaives at the holy-armored dwarf, though their dazzled eyesight hindered their accuracy. One of the devils managed a single armor-piercing slice, however, and the blade tainted the wound with evil.
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Roland continues with his divine mission of putting the wall down!!
The barbarian's 2nd swing easily finished what his first could not, namely breaking open a sizable breech in the wooden perimeter north wall.
Seeing the large man employ his earthbreaker to full effectiveness against the wooden palisade, Adakos quickly creeps past the barbarian, through the newly opened hole, and along the line of tents, until he comes to the edge, where he prepares to make an attack from behind the ranks of the demons.
Round 3
Gromff feels the vile blade rip into his shoulder but he carries on. He had to.
Roland breaks a new hole in the wall, allowing Adakos to sneak in past the palisade. The half-elf hunches in the shadow of a tent, silent as death.
Gromff grows to the size of a hellskin ogre and brings his over-sized adamantine morningstar down upon the wicked bearded devil in front of him, solidly connecting with brutal force and a flash of holy light.
Barbazu #1: 41/57
Barbazu #2: 22/57
Barbazu #3: 41/57
Erinyes: 77/100
Like humanoid spiders, several more charfiends scuttle and crawl from deeper in the camp, emitting their loud, breathy hissing. Their chorus grows in volume as they spill out from the tent row, spreading out to re-man the sentry tower and to investigate the new hole in the wall. Two of them scale the tower as easily as an arachnid climbs its web.
Seeing the holy warpriest grow to a massive size, the barbazus move back a few feet, clearly unhappy at the changing in momentum against them.
A wily, sexy, feminine giggle enters the mind of the barbarian. Hehe. Heheheheee hee! You're so big and strong! We could use you, you know. But for now we'll need to bring you down a notch. Immediately after the telepathic intrusion, several flaming arrow shafts fly out from the elusive erinyes deviless who has suddenly made her reappearance. 3 arrows find their mark and embed themselves, seriously wounding the barbarian warrior.
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Things were getting worse and worse. With that in mind, the wizard takes another scroll from her bag.
With the scroll in hands, Catcher conjures a new layer of magical protection to Gromff, making him resist fire as well. "Hang in there." she says as she turns to the militia nearby. "Get your ass here passage is open!"
And finally, she digs in her bag once more, this time, taking one of those magic stones. The one used for attack.
Round 5
Now supersized, Gromff squeezes into the vacated space and continues to pummel any within reach.
The sudden appearance of the flying devil-wench did not bode well for the group, especially with Roland standing in the open, a perfect target for her arrows. Adakos ducks around the tent line, using it for cover, and suddenly noticing more of the flame-throwing fiends. Not ready to let the feathery b+#@! get away this time, he narrows his eyes and sends a pair of silver arrows in her direction, determined to bring her down. "Roland! Grab some cover man!" he calls out, seeing the deeply buried arrows in the barbarian's torso.
The ranger frowned at the second shot, the arrow zipping off into the horizon beyond the creature.
Roland rushes inside the hole he just made on the wall, knowing he could have made even more if he attacked fast. Still, he couldn't hurt the flying b!~!* now, so it would be better to seek a more advantageous position, which he does, and gets him in range to protect the archer and attack one of the charfiends, while at the same time covering himself from the arrows, since there was a tent there. He gets infuriated and doesn't even care about the arrows, knowing that at this time of his life he could outlast the enemies even with a spear through his throat.