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Seraphina clambers up the palisade with the help of the rope. She slips at one point, her one foot losing purchase. She hangs on to the rope and does not fall, but her flailing boot thunks against the wet, decaying wood with an all too loud sound. There's a tense moment where eyes flash to the lizardfolk in the open, but you're far enough away that the sound didn't attract attention over the background noise. Aside from that mishap, Seraphina gains the top of the wall.
From your vantage point, no new lizardfolk are revealed. The guards continue to laze against the gate, and the pair by the fire are absorbed in their cracking of horse bone - long tongues slither into the jagged remains to snake out morsels of marrow.
Kivan waits below with Nix, unwilling to trust himself with climbing up even a simple rope against the wall. Instead he just readies himself for when the time comes to deal with these barbaric lizardfolk.
Idris looks over the camp, looking for signs of alarm, and where their defenses and warriors are.
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Milo perches atop the wall and slowly lowers another rope into the compound so that they can climb down the inside of the wall more easily. They've chosen a good place to scale the wall - the hut to the northeast of them will block line of sight to the watchers near the fire. Yet if Pretty is discovered while she sneaks around the camp, the rest of them can quickly rush to her aid.
Below, Nix waits next to Kivan, looking from the wizard, to the group on top of the wall and then at the lizardfolk inside the walls.
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Idris doesn't see any lizardfolk save the four plainly visible - two unarmed, cracking bone for marrow in the middle of the camp, and two bored-looking guards leaning on spears near the gate. None of them seem alarmed.
Pretty winks at those perched on the top of the palisade. On deft feet, she lowers herself down the inside of the wall, the faintest lick of firelight playing across her dark clothing as she descends. The light-footed tiefling drops to the ground with almost no noise at all, and slowly draws a blade as she stalks towards one of the huts.
Firelight emanates from the doorways of the huts, shining around the blankets hung as curtains over the arched openings in the rude mud walls. Tiny wisps of smoke trickle out of holes in the top. Pretty angles silently to the one furthest away from the guards at the gate, knife in hand. She peeks around a curtain for a brief moment, then slips inside.
A few moments later, the door curtain rustles aside and Pretty strides back out of the opening. She wipes her wet blade against the cloth and signals you with two fingers held aloft and one drawn across her throat. The first blood of the night has been drawn.
Seeing Pretty's signal, Milo silently slides down the rope into the compound, waiting at the bottom to help muffle Idris and Seraphina's descent. From time to time, he glances at the lizardfolk near the fire to make sure they haven't been spotted, or that the lizardfolk haven't decided to go to bed.
I've had enough haunted towers and creepy visions. It'll be good to fight a real foe...
Pretty sees the next shackle in line opens in her direction, so she tries to go closer to the fence where the darkness is deeper. Slowly she looks back at her companions and moves to the next one, knowing they were ready to act in case of trouble.
Idris begins climbing down, as silently as she can. Part of her wonders if killing the lizardfolk is truly necessary, but the larger part is eager for battle.
Seraphina looked down toward where Maja and Kivan waited with Nix. She cocked her head to the side, a questioning look on her face and beckoned to them. When they still hesitated, she pointed toward the gate and and looked at them expectantly.
Once she got her answer, Sera accepted Milo's help and climbed down into the enclosure as quietly as she could.
Kivan points at the gate and nods. He wasn't going to trust his frail arms to carry himself up even the tiniest wall if necessary. He also motions over at Nix as if to say someone had to keep Nix company.
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With no alarm being raised, you have all the time you need to carefully pick your way around the encampment and over obstacles. First Idris, then Seraphina, gently touch down inside the wall. Milo's steadying arm provides an extra bit of balance - your landings are nearly silent.
Pretty ghosts across the open territory, a shadow against the night. Without drawing any attention, you find yourself pressed up against the wall of a second mud hut. Like the one you just left, this is a rude construction of reeds and swamp muck with a blanket hanging over the doorway. Also like the first hut, it is occupied. Unlike the first hut, the inhabitants are not asleep.
Your mind flicks backwards to the events of a moment ago. Gorged on horseflesh and sprawled on reed mats, the first two lizardmen were easy prey. The occupants of this dwelling won't be so vulnerable. One of the lizard folk is hard at work scraping a hide on the floor with a rough chunk of flinty rock. From the distinctive dappled colors on the hide, you can tell that this was your horse. Two more lizardfolk are in this hut as well, lounging on their nest-like mats. Three spears lay piled against the wall, and all three lizardfolk have a bone knife either on them or within close reach.
The light in the hut is somewhat dim, and the energetic dance of the campfire within throws erratic shadows that lurch about in the smokey haze. The stink of reptile and tanning fills the air.
Pretty should study more about the ability to see in the dark of other creatures. Lacking that knowledge, she would have to take her chances. From afar she looked at the other huts, but they were too close to the fire and she would be noticed. Better to be noticed when you are close to the enemy, then. She is THE independent combatant, after all.
The stealthy rogue draws even more from her dark inheritance as she drains the light around her, sending everything around her to a pitch black tone.
Round 1
Pretty moves in with deadly intent, aiming at the throat of the one who's closer to the door.
Milo waits a few moments to trail behind Pretty, following the curve of the palisade wall. He stays far enough away that any noise on his part won't attract attention to her, but close enough that he can loose an arrow if a lizard person. He finds it oddly reminiscent of hunting wild game with Nix. Often, Nix would stalk an animal before ambushing it while Milo waited nearby, his bow ready to bring down the bear or elk.
Nix sits quietly next to Kivan, her ears turning this way and that as she listens to the faint sounds in the darkness.
Idris steps up next to Milo, her bow at the ready, looking around for any foes.
Seraphina nods to Kivan before sliding down from her perch. Rather than follow the others, she cast her shield spell as quietly as she could and then crept toward the portcullis' gate, albeit somewhat noisily.
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Pretty's question about the darkvision capabilities of the lizardfolk is answered as her darkness snuffs out the light of the cooking fire and the inhabitants of the hut fumble around in the darkness. The lizardman by the door is easy prey, completely unawares of his assailant. Pretty's blade rasps across bone as she slits its throat. An arterial spray of hot, stinking blood spatters across the mud hut interior. The stricken reptilian falls to its knees, clutching the ruin of its throat and trying unsuccessfully to gurgle a scream.
Seraphina feels the bracing tendrils of force from her spell wrap around her fist and project into a protective barrier. Unfortunately, her spellcraft surpasses her stealth. A clay pot escapes her notice in the dark and her boot sends it crashing several feet ahead of her in a shattered mess. The sharp noise of clattering pottery stands out distinctly from the background noise of the swamp at night, and all four lizardfolk in the open twist around to see its source. The two that had been looking into the fire squint as their eyes adjust, but the guards take note of Seraphina's presence and rasp out an alarm in their crude language.
Maja struggles to get up the wall, but after a false start manages to struggle up with the aid of the rope, just in time to witness the alarm being raised.
Glad to have chosen a good strategy, Pretty steps up to the two poor souls who were in front of her and tries to kill them both at once. It was just a matter of time before they perished. She just hoped the noises she heard outside were soldiers coming her way, and not towards her friends.
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Idris moves around the side of the hut, using it for cover, and fires at the lizardman she can see next to the fire.
Milo scoots around the hut, using it to hide his movement from the lizardfolk. Now he's in range of the targets near the fire and closer to Maja and Seraphina. He isn't used to fighting without Nix to distract his opponents, but this setup was working okay since he could use his bow from a long distance. After loosing an arrow at the lizard man he can see near the fire, Milo attempts to conceal himself in the darkness around the hut again.
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Kivan hearing the sounds of combat heads out with nix towards the entrance to the lizard folk palisade to get ready to rejoin the group.
Seraphina swears under her breath as the pot skitters away from her boot and crashes into something, drawing the attention of the sentries. She hoped Pretty had made some progress toward thinning the enemy's numbers at least. But in truth, she felt some relief at no longer needing to skulk about.
She pointed a condemning claw at the lizardfolk near the fire who had spotted her and hissed in Draconic.
Her angry declaration was punctuated by a roar of fire as a great font of flame arced from her fingertips to consume her foes. It seared the first one terribly and then leaped to burn his fellow as well.
Sera then proceeded again along the wall toward the gate to help get Kivan and Nix inside.
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Milo's arrow streaks through the night, burying itself in the shoulder of one of the lizardfolk by the campfire. A moment later, Idris' arrow spears through the eye of the neighboring reptilian, breaking out of the rear of its skull with a shower of blood and grey matter.
Seeing the pair by the campfire under heavy attack, Seraphina instead targets the guards by the gate with her fire.
The first guard sees you working your spellcraft, and figures that he'd rather be somewhere else. Unfortunately, your magic works faster than his legs, and the guard is consumed by fire. Scales pop and fall off as the lizardman falls, clutching feebly at his face and trying to scream with seared lungs. The second guard looks on dumbstruck as the fiery blast wreathes around him as well, scorching him severely and causing his leather armor to smoulder. In a panic, the guard throws aside the log blocking the gates shut, pushes one heavy wooden door open, and stumbles towards the promise of relief from the cool mud outside.
In the supernatural darkness of the hut interior, Pretty continues her offensive. One dagger plunges downward into the neck muscles of a lizardman, drawing a gout of blood. With a raspy moan, it sinks to the floor of the hut - alive, but unmoving.
Pretty's other dagger stabs deep into the chest of the last lizardman, the tip of the blade pricking its heart. Roaring in pain, it tears itself free of her blade, worsening the wound, then claws and bites at the tiefling in a blind fury - coming up empty.
The lizardman with Milo's arrow in it beats a hasty retreat into the center hut.
This was too easy. Pretty almost felt ashamed to be so effective against this poor carnivorous beasts. But of course, they made their decision, and it was pretty clear the lizard folk did not want to talk to them, or they would not have taken the horses. Now, since the alarm was raised, it was up to them to finish this with no causalities on their side. So Pretty stroke once swiftly, still benefiting from the cover of the darkness, then left the hut without even checking if she killed the poor thing or not.
Idris draws her sword as she runs forward, holding her bow in her other hand. She runs for the hut into which the lizardman fled and looks in before continuing her motion.
Not seeing anymore enemies, Milo makes a dash towards the gate, hoping to find either more enemies or put himself closer to letting Nix and Kivan in. He glances around, unsure if any lizardfolk will come out of the huts. The camp seemed like it could support more of them, but maybe they were asleep or afraid.
Nix trots obediently and silently alongside Kivan, occasionally glancing towards the palisade walls and the sounds of the fighting inside.
Kivan seeing a burning lizardman open up the gates begins moving towards him to take him out. When he gets within range he makes the ground underneath the lizardman greasy and flamable.
A wicked smile crossed Seraphina's face as her burn victim accomplished her task for her. If he thought freedom and relief awaited him on the other side of that gate he was sorely mistaken.
She turned to move around the hut toward the center of the area and began to spin the magical whirlwind between her hands, preparing to cast her haste spell as soon as everyone was gathered close enough.
"Gather 'round, my friends!"
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The fleeing lizardman gets only a few steps past the gate when he finds his balance removed by Kivan's spell. It goes tumbling into the fetid swamp water with a splash - a splash that draws attention. A blur of reptilian jaws and bone-white fangs explodes from the water, clamping down on the doomed lizardman with a crunch of bone and spray of blood. The lizardman's killer drops the body and gapes its jaw at Kivan and Nix - a larger than average alligator, and an evidently aggressive one.
Pretty's parting shot slices across her target's chest, and the lizardman topples onto the ground to join its slain kin as the deadly tiefling slips back out into the night.
Maja's arrow flies true and buries itself in the back of the fleeing lizardman, who stumbles through the curtained entrance of the central hut as he falls. Hot on his heels is Idris, sword and bow in hand. A forbidding reception awaits her - three large alligators rasp and hiss at her from nests of reeds and mud. Unlike the rest of the huts, this central residence is lit by glowing rocks embedded into the mud walls in geometric patterns. Their multicolored glow washes across the yellow-green scales of the alligators and reflects bizarrely in their slit-pupil eyes, and the entire room is tinged with the sharp musk of reptile scent.
Lording behind the alligator nests is a well-muscled lizardman clad in boiled leather hides. The crown of glowing stones on his head indicates his importance in the lizardfolk clan. The trident grasped in his hand indicates he's ready for a fight. The lizard king looks on apathetically as his dying minion expires on the floor with an arrow through him, and settles into a combat-ready stance as Idris crashes through the door. The challenge in his eyes is clear.
In response to the disturbance and combat around the campfire, the occupants of the other huts pile out into the night. Some are armored, some are wearing flax robes, and others are clad only in their scales. All of them, however, grasp some sort of weapon: Spears, knives, clubs, or whatever else is at hand. The fight is joined in earnest!
Idris drops into a two-handed dueling stance, and beckons at the chief. "Let's go, big man," she says in Draconic, figuring the language of the kobolds might be understood here. "I challenge you! For the glory of battle! Gorum, guide my blade!"
Pretty and her cloud of shadows move towards the next prey, tumbling around the huts to approach a poor soul behind, ready to strike at it in a second.
Milo shakes his head, regretting not thinking to check the tracks to see how many lizardfolk might live in this village. As Seraphina's magic takes effect, he fires two shots at the nearest lizardfolk. Although he'd rather have Nix standing between him and the lizardfolk, he's glad she's protecting Kivan from them.
Meanwhile, Nix moves to defend Kivan from the lizardman and the alligator outside the compound. Her ears flatten against her head and she growls at them, ready to tear into them and drag them to the ground if they come too close.
Having sent magical haste to as many of as her comrades as possible, Seraphina prepared herself and stepped to unleash a colorful spray of illusory magics, hoping to slow down some of the lizardfolk as they poured out of their huts toward her.
Color Spray DC:15 (Will)
unconscious, blinded, and stunned duration
blinded and stunned duration.
Then stunned for one round.
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blinded and stunned duration.
Then stunned for one round.
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If 5 HD then stunned for one round.
Kivan looks at the ruined lizardman and then back at the alligator. He could quite clearly feel the fact that only Nix stood between him and this monstrous mass of muscle and teeth. Deciding to try and take the alligator's attention away from them. Casting a spell Kivan quickly makes an illusion of the giant snapping turtle they encountered before appear to climb towards the alligator's side to distract it.
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The lizard king smiles, showing his numerous teeth, and replies to Idris in deep, raspy Draconic. "Ha! You are the champion of the humans? Pitiful." In a fighting stance, he makes several very practiced lunges, showing off his own prowess. He is clearly very skilled, fast, and strong. "Let's fight!" The three alligators inside the hut open their mouths, and Idris can smell their awful breath - it reminds her of rotting meat. But they seem to be waiting for something, for now.
Seraphina's spray of colorful magic adds to the dancing light of the campfire and two of the lizardfolk fall over unconscious at the overwhelming sight.
Noting that Seraphina's magic is affecting some of the closest lizardfolk, Maja and Milo aim their arrows at the group emerging from the hut Pretty just entered. Maja's first arrow hits the lizardfolk close to Seraphina in the arm, but the second bounces off of his scale armor. Milo's shot follows close behind, piercing through the lizardman's eye and killing him. His second shot strikes the lizardfolk just behind him squarely in the chest, though he is still standing.
Pretty's prey notices the sudden deepening darkness and flails in her general direction with a wooden club. Somehow, the lizardfolk manages to make contact in the darkness, smashing her in the ribs.
Preferring to fight in the light of the campfire, rather than the darkness of the hut, the two lizardfolk rush Seraphina. The one that wasn't affected by the colorful spray joins the fray as well. All three swing their crude maces at her. But none of them manages to make contact with the sorceress.
Outside the compound, the alligator swings its head to look at the illusory turtle lumbering towards it, then lashes its tail and snaps at the turtle. It roars at the new, larger enemy, ignoring Nix and Kivan for the moment.
Pretty thought it was a really luck shot, cause this guy could not be different from the other ones, could he? He could not see in the dark, as she realized when she easily struck, twice.
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Sera knew she ought to feel more concerned as the lizardfolk crowded around her, swinging their heavy weapons. But as they wiffed around her, barely managing to stir her hair, that reckless side of her nature suffused her thoroughly with the thrill of battle. With a mischievous glint in her eye, she raised her hand with one jade tipped talon extended and wagged it back and forth before their scaly faces as she shook her head and clucked her tongue in a patronizing way, as if she chided mere children. Then she stepped away to give herself some room before unleashing another arc of flame that leaped from her claw to scorch first the most hale and hearty of her opponents and then to two more who posed a lesser threat.
Milo adds his arrows to the fray, firing two more at the remaining lizardfolk.
Milo speeds off in Kivan and Nix's direction to make sure they are both alright, his movement quickened by Seraphina's spell.
Kivan looks over at the crocodile before focusing his energy into causing the illusion to seem like it's fighting back before falling back with the Nix.