The situation degrades quickly as the group falls to a wave of confusion. Eugeni buries an arrow in Riley's rib cage on his right side, as Morythine and Setsuna bludgeon themselves in the head.
Another wave of magic washes over the group, and a large number of them begin moving with great speed.
As the strangely masked man steps away from the rail further into the room above, the cultists at the rail reload their crossbows and send another volley down into the gathered intruding do-gooders. "Fire on the ones closest to the top!" one calls out, and they all train their weapons on Zoli!
The cultist on the lower level continues his slow advance up the stairs, slicing at the leopard at the turn of the stairs, hoping to clear himself a path to the witness of their earlier deeds. The cat, even in its confused state, is able to avoid the blade.
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Riley coughs up a bit of blood as he grimaced in pain from the arrow in his side. "Shoot that one!" He shouts as he lobs another ball of fire at the cultist on the stairs.
Eugeni snaps back to reality for a moment. He uses the bit of lucidity to run up the steps as far as he can.
Riley issues another command, and Olympus flies up and over the heads of the cultists to drop behind them into flanking position with Zoli. He also tries to bite the one he's flanking.
Her mind still broken by the Confusion, Setsuna randomly jams her own sickle into her stomach.
However, thanks to her Cloak of Shadows, she misses her anything vital and only nicks her side. Still, the Half-Elf feels herself starting to slowly bleeding out.
The Red Leopard snarls at the cultist who dared attack him and begins to violently bite and claw at his prey. In a flurry of claw and teeth, he manages to tear off two chunks of the cultist.
Meanwhile, his cousin continues to babble incoherently as much as a cat can.
Mayhem indeed. Morythine stares at the back of Tzefira's head, and decides the sylph is no friend of his. His fist snakes out at the back of her head, but luckily his coordination is as unbalanced as his brain.
Zoli feels her heart race as she is magically quickened by Tzefira. She races up the stairs, rounds the corner, sees the four cultists--and no creepy caster in sight--and brushes her lucky Sihedron medalion once more.
Her scimitar feints left and then whips right and up, slicing a long line across the cultist's belly.
"Hey guys, come on up! There's a party going on up here."
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HP 37/44 +12 THP
Luck 4/7
Panache 3/3
Charmed Life 3/3
Buffs luck (round 1/3): +2 to hit, damage, skill rolls, saving throws;
false life 12 THP
bless +1 to hit, fear saves;
haste +1 to hit & AC, +30’ move, 1 extra attack on full attack;
Eugeni lets an arrow fly, piercing a cultist in the abdomen, as he moves deep into the upper level thanks to his increased speed. Meanwhile, Tzefira makes the motion of a loud scream, but there seems to be no sound...except from the reaction of the cultist near her, who clutches at his ears in agony. She then moves away from all of her confused allies.
Upstairs, seemingly being spoken from the room itself, a voice speaks out, "Father Skinsaw, bring forth your servants to rid us of these enemies of Our Lady's will."
This chant does not seem to stall the cultists. They begin moving into position, some quite nimbly, and begin trying to take out chunks of the heroes before them. Two attempt to cut down Olympus, while another pair move to try to eliminate Eugeni from the equation. While Eugeni takes a deep cut to his bicep, none of the other attacks manage to harm anyone.
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Despite the mayhem around her, Zoli finds the thrill of speed that Tzefira has granted her almost giddy.
She swings her scimitar into the neck of the injured cultist before her, dropping him and--with a velocity she didn’t dream was possible--steps right up to the next cultist and fells him as well with a well-placed swing up between his legs and beyond.
Seeing them both drop, she starts to look around, wondering where the voice is coming from, and what horrors it might be summoning...
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HP 37/44 +12 THP
Luck 4/7
Panache 3/3
Charmed Life 3/3
Buffs luck (round 2/3): +2 to hit, damage, skill rolls, saving throws;
false life 12 THP
bless +1 to hit, fear saves;
haste +1 to hit & AC, +30’ move, 1 extra attack on full attack;
"Yeah, run you treacherous wench!" mutters Morythine, as Tzefira flees his wrath. He moves to pursue, until he notices the snarling leopard. "I despise cats! Such lazy, arrogant creatures!"
The dhampir leaps at the feline, fists and feet flying.
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Setsuna's mind manages to wander out of confusion for a few seconds. Seeing how wounded she is, the Half-Elf wastes no time in patching up her injuries. She calls upon the benevolent powers of the Dark Tapestry and much of her pain vanishes. Glancing down at the remaining cultist, she whimpers and quickly retreats to a safer location.
Meanwhile, the leopards continue to attack their prey. The confused leopard quickly sets his sights on Morythine and takes a bite and claw out of the dhampire's side before suddenly ceasing to exist. His cousin continues to focus on the cultist. While the madman evades both claws, he loses a pound of flesh from his gut via a nasty bite.
As Riley's last command was "flank," Olympus hops into a flanking position with Eugeni, not knowing that the archer likely wasn't going to cause enough of a distraction to actually provide the roc with a benefit. However, still under the effect of haste, the oversized bird is a flurry of talons and beak.
Riley's own enhanced speed carries him up the stairs and next to the cultist who is covered in wounds from his companion. He reaches out with his hand of fire and immolates the cultist.
The leopard takes a swipe out of Morythine before fading away. "Oh," remarks Morythine in consternation, as blood fountains from the wound. He crumples to the floor.
Cultists fall rapidly as the group manages to begin to come together on the upper floor of the sawmill. A thick layer of sawdust covers the floor, mounded nearly a foot deep in places. Workbenches sit here and there in the room, their surfaces cluttered with saws, hand drills, planers, and other woodworking tools.
The remaining cultist takes a stab at Eugeni, but fails to connect this time. Suddenly, two quivering mounds of flesh appear and attempt to claw at the heroes! One manages to open some surface wounds on Eugeni, while the other lands a solid blow on the back of Riley's head.
Then, shimmering into view behind the cultist, the thin, red robed man in the spiraling skin mask appears, his hand clenched in a fist held out in front of his face. He opens his hand and in a flash, a wave of dark, purplish energy washes out from him and over the heroes, and they can feel the pain down into their very soul, as if their life force was being snuffed out!
Eugeni spins around and puts an arrow directly through the fatty creature's throat, which it clutches at briefly before fading from existence!
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As the battle moves upstairs, Morythine remains where he is, babbling softly to himself and bleeding all over the floor.
As the fleshy monstrosity materializes, Zoli's eyes widen. "Unless I miss my mark, that's a Lemure--a kind of a devil. Aumus Koronus used them to great symbolic effect in his avant-garde Egorian After Dark. It's not really my style (I'm more into the classics) but for what it is"--She seems to suddenly remember that she's in the midst of a fight for her life--"Ahem! Anyway. If I remember from the appendix right, they're easiest to hurt with silver or Good weapons, and hard to hurt with fire, cold, and acid."
As her focus snaps back to the present, she nimbly dodges away from the devil and toward the bigger prize: the cultist who summoned it. He moves surprisingly fast and a cut that she thought might reach his heart instead just manages to leave a gash on the villain's shoulder.
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HP 37/44 +8 THP
Luck 4/7
Panache 3/3
Charmed Life 3/3
Buffs luck (round 3/3): +2 to hit, damage, skill rolls, saving throws;
false life 12 THP
bless +1 to hit, fear saves;
haste +1 to hit & AC, +30’ move, 1 extra attack on full attack;
Riley catches Zoli's description of the summoned creatures and looks down at the mundane scimitar in his hands. Shaking his head in frustration, he instead steps forward to attack the remaining cultist standing between him and the spellcaster.
Olympus also continues his attacks at the cultist.
Tzefira licks her lips as she views the situation, looking for potential openings. Her eyes narrow as the red robed man steps out alongside the fleshy Lemures. The voice... the form... is that Ironbriar?? Shaking her head she calls out "Riley, step aside... I would have... words with this man..., amonsgst other things... Ironbriar, is that you?" I suppose I'll find out afterwards... She begins to chant in an arcane tongue gathering crackling energy to herself as she awaits Riley's movement, at which point she releases the crackling energy in a bolt of lightning.
The confused Setsuna feels the sudden urge to attack something, but given the emptiness of the current floor, she has no options.
Not regarding the babbling Morythine as a threat, the remaining leopard quickly turns tail and rushes up the stairs to where the action is.
The man grits his teeth in pain to the onslaught leveled against him, then takes a step back, his eyes glaring out through the mask at his assailants. A single word is heard from behind it's grotesque design, "Mayhem," and the fleshy spiral begins to swirl once again as the heroes closest to him can feel the malaise of confusion wash over them once more! Only Riley and the leopard seem to be unaffected!
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Morythine continues to babble incoherently. He's getting rather good at it.
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Riley steps back after issuing a command to Olympus to attack. He begins the steps to summon the forces of nature to fight on his behalf.
Zoli tries to fight the magical assault on her mind. She howls "WAAAAAAUUGH!!!" as she feel her sanity starting to slip away from her.
In a desperate move before she loses total control of herself, she follows after the red cultist and takes another swipe at him, leaving another gash in his side.
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HP 37/44 +8 THP
Luck 4/7
Panache 2/3
Charmed Life 2/3
Effects
confusion round 1/7
false life 12 THP
bless +1 to hit, fear saves;
haste +1 to hit & AC, +30’ move, 1 extra attack on full attack;
Eugeni, momentarily aware of his actions, fires as many arrows into the cultist leader as he can, as fast as he can. The archer looks on in horror as only one of his missiles seems to penetrate the strange man's red robes. "F$*@!"
Attack 1: Hits 14 for 15 damage
Attack 2:Hits 23 for 14 damage
Attack 3:Hits 28 for 13 damage
Attack 4:Hits 22 for 17 damage
Attack 5:Hits 27 for 15 damage
Olympus hops over and attempts to harm the cultist leader despite its impressive wards around it.
Setsuna feels compelled to attack something, but once again, there are no targets on the empty floor.
The remaining leopard tries to take a bite out of crime, but the agile cultist leader easily dodges the attack as the celestial cat fades from existence.
Tzefira moves forward to channel her power into a sonic blast directed at the man who could be Ironbriar.
As the confusion sets in on the adventurers, the masked man nimbly maneuvers through their ranks and lunges at Riley. Riley is narrowly able to step aside of the man's sinister blade. Eugeni slams his own bow into his head, a small gash opening up on his brow, as Zoli slices her curved blade at Olympus.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Setsuna and Morythine feel the malaise lift from their clouded minds, just in time to catch themselves rambling on and on about nonsense.
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Seeing Zoli stab his companion, he clucks twice to order Olympus to break off the attack. Badly wounded, the roc flees from the melee.
Riley then finishes his spell, thankful that the cultist missed him. Out of ether appear stirges fluttering around the foe. He steps back to use the corner of the building as cover and casts another spell, bringing a ball of flame into existence in the cultists' space.
Feeling her mind finally leave the insanity of the Dark Tapestry, Setsuna takes a deep breath to collect herself and then starts heading for the stairs to the next floor up. Not wanting to lose her sanity again, she decides to cast a simple spell that would have saved her a lot of heartache earlier: Protection from Evil.
The cultist, in a stunning display of agility, leaps over top of Riley and lands behind him, rolling before taking his feet, his hand clenched into a fist in front of him as he rises. He opens his hand forcefully, and another dark wave of energy washes over those around him, leeching more of their life force from their bodies!
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