Ortik is too preoccupied with the leader to notice anything before Nalun charges towards the house. "You made your choice," he says, with some sadness in his voice. "If you're against us, you're against the city." He gives a small prayer, and the Old Dame lends her aid.
Demitri nods in agreement to Nalun. "Take them down." He states drawing his sword.
"Yes!" Karri shouts in a voice not entirely her own. She begins chanting and the process of reaching in.
The thugs (rather shakily) draw their axes, and the battle is joined!
Demitri moves and lets out a tirade for all those foes near him. "We gave you a chance to stand down and to live. You forfeited that chance!" His words are so hot that they threaten to light the thugs on fire.
Lyla circles the thugs towards the house and sends a bomb flying right at the center of the gang. "Let us know when you're ready to surrender, chums!"
Karri tries not to scream through clenched teeth as she begins to pull the Hounds from her flesh.
Two of the men's clothes spontaneously catch fire from Demitri's words...
...and only one of the thugs manages to avoid the splash damage from Lyla's bomb. Burned, shaken and furious, the thugs try to rally and fight back!
Nalun kicks the door open with ease... and reveals a curious sight. An elven woman, with long, flowing hair that matches the colour of her black chainmail... body-stocking? Whatever her garment is, it's riddled with spikes. In one of her hands is a spiked chain, dripping with what looks like fresh blood. In her other hand is a silvery token on a leather lanyard--a token depicting a skull with a chain threading through its eye-sockets. Her pitch-black eyes look up at you in surprise, and she pauses in her prayer. Her mouth breaks into a sunny grin.
"Hi there! Hey, uh, mind if I join in?" She says as her spell continues.
The thugs charge the party and attack! Two of them (one of whom is on fire) start running at Karri, but the rough terrain in front of the house hinders their movement, two go for Demitri...
...with one of them managing to land a good hit.
Two go for Nalun...
...with one of them managing to land a nasty chop to his collar, narrowly missing his neck! The other one, the other burning man, overextends and his axe hits the doorway.
And two going for Lyla.
One stumbles and nearly falls while the other manages to hit her throwing arm.
Ortik finishes casting his spell, and the city awakens, guiding the blades of his friends.
The elven woman finishes her spell, and her body briefly glows a bloody red. She steps forward, casually twirling her spiked chain. "Need some help, there?" She asks Nalun, her grin widening.
Move Action:Study Target (Favored Target 1/2)
Attack Action: Stabzilla
Nalun returns the favor of the man who cut him!
26/49HP
Karri ends her incantation a pulls forth a trio of thuder clouds. With almost preternatural speed they slam into her enemies. The first smashes into the man closest to Karri, driving tge man to the ground in a shower of sparks.
Her second fiend comes into reality on tge other side of the broken front window. Its tendrils of lightning stroke the black clad elf's chain, arcing electricity into her hands causing them to spasm and blister.
The final elemental turns the man in the middle into a dancing chicken. The lightning rides the man ever closer to tge building.
Karri bides her time, glaring at the elf caster, Show me something new, fleshling! Legion clamors for release but Karri holds them in check.
Nalun drives the breath out of the man who stabbed him, and the lightning elementals begin swarming the field.
The lightning elemental on the elf throws a shock of electricity at her chain, but she manages to hold onto it. She recoils in surprise. "Whoa, whoa, WHOA! I'm trying to help you guys here, I swear!"
Lyla clenches her teeth feeling the gash on her throwing arm, and activates her healing ability to close that wound and preserve the limb's utility. She tumbles away from the two men and retreats, landing close to Karri and Ortik. Catching her breath, the halfling girl quickly prepares a bomb and throws it at her opponents.
Demitri Lashes out at the thug north of him.
Lyla easily evades the ax blades of the thugs and her bomb immolates the one in the lead, causing him to scream in fright and agony. The second one manages to avoid the explosion entirely.
At this point, the two men turn tail and start running for their lives.
The fires from Demitri's words continue to burn.
Demitri doesn't have much luck in striking the thug to the north of him.
The remaining thugs start fighting back, now more out of desperation than anything else.
The two on Demitri start swinging...
...and all he has to do to dodge them is step back. Their axes clash in the middle with a loud, bone-jarring *CLANG!* It's almost as if Demitri is a seasoned warrior and these men are little more than glorified cutthroats.
Somehow, they both manage to avoid dropping their axes from the force of the accidental parry.
The prone leader swings at the lightning cloud over his head...
...and all his efforts amount to are wild flailing.
Nalun's two opponents press the attack...
...and only one of them manages to land a blow this time. This one rakes across his breastplate and catches on his shoulder.
The last one swings at the elemental ramming into him...
...and manages to land a blow. The lightning cloud seems to scoff at the blow--the fiendish resistances woven into its very being blunt the force of the strike.
"Mind if I borrow a bit of your elementals, Karri?", Ortik asks with a toothy smirk, and offers a prayer to the Old Dame. Soon, the air begins to smell of ozone, and a bolt of lightning slams down into the ground before Nalun.
The bolt of lightning strikes the man square. His burning hair stands on end and he yells in more pain.
Noticing how battered Nalun's getting, the elf starts channeling another spell, trying to avoid the elemental next to her...
...only for Karri's waiting missiles to strike her as she casts.
The elf yelps as the missiles of force strike her. "OW! OW! OW!"
And the magic fades. She gives the party outside a look that's equal parts annoyed and... ecstatic? "Seriously! I'm trying to help!"
"Are you", Lyla retorts. "What are you doing with these guys, then?", she asks while tumbling and moving through the battlefield, still focused on the thugs, her bombs flying towards them.
Ortik witnesses her casting, and while it's clear she's praying for intercession by some divine source, he has no idea what her prayer is - nor who she's calling out to.
Lyla's bomb ricochets off of one of the cutthroats' shields and explodes harmlessly away from the battle.
"I didn't know they were there! I was praying!" The elven cleric calls back.
Demitri continues his fight against his two foes.
Demitri whiffs again. He has slightly better luck than the two chumps fighting him.
Legion laughs in a echoing chorus emanating from Karri's throat. She crawls forward and asserts herself, though her voice is a mere squeak, "She's trying to heal Nalun!" Legion rushes back up and gets more bloody work. She closes in on Demitri, her hand out stretched. She grabs his sleeve and transfers some Legion's essence into to former guardsman. She hisses, Blessed are the servants!
The elementals swarm about, punishing the thugs. Two mass around the man on the stairs, zapping and popping from both sides.
for
Nalun takes a step backwards and drops into a defensive crouch, what the blademasters at the Citadel call the "Turtle"
Nalun, having had enough of these cutthroats' shenanigans, drops into a defensive stance and guts the thug in front of him. He falls to the boardwalk with a gurgle, blood pooling around him.
The elf behind Nalun looks on in awe. "Ooh! Throw a coin in THAT fountain!" She titters.
The lightning clouds continue to shock and zap, but the relatively unharmed thug manages to avoid the first cloud's strikes...
...and swings his axe blindly as the other cloud takes its leave of the caster and flies out the nearby window towards him. It responds to his wild flailing by zapping him.
The smell of burning flesh fills the air as the burning man stands back on his feet...
...and the lightning cloud misses him as it goes for another zap. He looks around, notices Lyla next to him, and swings at her...
...and manages to hit her in the back.
Demitri's two opponents seem to come to a realization. One of them steps forward to swing at Karri...
...and manages to land a vicious swipe at her legs.
The other one takes advantage of the distraction and leaps at Demitri!
Even when he's been handed a golden opportunity on a silver platter, his own ineptitude keeps him from making the most of it.
The last two focus their efforts on Nalun, both of them ignoring the lightning clouds in order to do so.
Only the northernmost thug manages to get past Nalun's guard and slice off a chunk of his shoulder with his axe.
Too many of them!, Ortik thinks, trying to decide where his next bolt of lightning should strike, finally deciding to continue aiding Nalun, as he's far more overextended than the rest of the group. A bolt of lightning blasts down again into the same ruffian as before.
This time, the man nimbly hops aside of the lightning strike.
The elven cleric channels another spell, and touches Nalun on the back...
...and he feels surprisingly healthier. "Get 'em! You'll be fine!"
Empowered by Karri's spell, Demitri slashes at his target again.
Demitri lands a solid blow on the goon that attacked Karri!
Lyla backs away from the burning thug and runs up to the house. She quickly mixes another bomb and throws it at the men threatening Nalun.
Nalun continues fighting defensively as he studies his next target's movement.
Nalun's defensive stance, while effective at keeping blows away from him, proves to be less effective when going on the offensive. His rapier is narrowly deflected away by the cutthroat's shield, even with a lightning storm at his back.
As Lyla attempts to leap away, she stumbles on an errant bit of rock, and the cutthroat that attacked her seizes the chance to hit her in the back with his axe!
The lightning elemental gets scorched by Lyla's bomb, while the other thug in the blast radius proves to be light enough on his feet to dodge lightning and fire.
Demitri takes another swing at his foe.
Demitri's final blow drives right into the man's ribs, skewering him and dropping him to the dirt.
Karri smirks at the man facing Demitri. Her echoing voice, "Last chance to flee Legion before you are dragged to the Pit!"
The lightning elentals continue to discharge electricity into the thugs.
for
for
for
Karri's words prove quite intimidating to the outclassed rough.
The thunderclouds continue to shock and zap!
The burning man finally manages to extinguish himself before turning his axe on the thundercloud...
...and hewing away a chunk of its bestial form.
Demitri's target nervously swings his axe...
...and this time, his aim is true. Perhaps it was the sight of his companion's death that inspired him to hit, for once.
The remaining two baddies on Nalun swing and slice at him!
They're still fighting on out of sheer desperation!
Ortik slams his fist into his palm again, sending another blast of lightning into the same man for a third time. "Fall or flee, fool!", he shouts over the din of battle.
Ortik's lightning finally strikes the thug on the top of his head. His body spasms, and the smell of burnt hair and flesh fills the air for a moment before he drops.
The elven caster looks a bit disappointed at not being able to join in. "Well, looks like things are more or less wrapped up now. Here, have another one." She pokes Nalun in the back again.
He feels better, once again.
Demitri turns his attention to the foe who had just hit him and swings.
Lyla focuses on the thug close to Ortik—the same one that caused the painful gash on her back. "You know, I hate when people are too stupid to just walk away, and then we are forced to do this", she complains while throwing another explosive mixture on her target.
Nalun stabs the man twice
While Demitri misses his target, Lyla's bomb explodes and kills the last of Nalun's opponents. He then races forward and stabs the leader in the back, killing him with ease.
The last one realizes just how screwed he is, and bolts for his life.