Captain Lamorak's blindingly fast dash takes him under the 15' high dais, under the altar. He rushes forward and comes blasting out of the fog, where the wounded red dragonflight swordsman is waiting for him, his mouth a grim line in his young face.
The swordsman connects both times, but the wounds don't slow down the Skyknight captain at all. Sir Damian immediately sees a connecting pipe that is attached not only to the altar, but some other, longer pipe that stretches back into the wall. It is this y-shaped pipe that he slashes with his sword, cleanly slicing it in two. For a heavy moment, nothing happens. Then green fluid starts seeping out the sides, pushing the pipes apart, then with a loud groaning noise the weight of the fluid carries the pipe down, down, until it connects with a large drainage trough, where it spills its deadly payload harmlessly into the bathtub-sized container.
Outside, the flow of the green liquid into the channels slows to a trickle, then stops as all the goo intended for them has now been diverted by the charge of Captain Lamorak.
The last red dragonflight swordsman looks, goggle-eyed, at what Sir Damian has done, looks out at Mai and Livain and the others, and says under his breath; "S$@!."
Hearing some sort of commontion but not being able to discern its signifigance from the rest of the chaotic sounds of battle, Aylaeth continues as she had been and attempts to open the door before her
@Aylaeth: The door opens easily. Inside is a makeshift office of some sort, about 20' by 20', with a rickety desk and two lousy chairs. The desk is on fire, as is a small bookshelf in the corner and what looks like a 4' by 4' map up on the wall. A billowing cloud of smoke pours out above your head and the blast of heat makes you recoil, but you are not harmed. The rest of the room is stone, so each of the three fires is small and contained and unlikely to spread.
Making a snap decision and betting that the desk is likely to be the best source of possibly valuable information, Aylaeth dashes in and quickly puts out the fire on the desk before it can get any worse. As she passes by the map though she attempts to quickly memorize it for anything of value.
Perception:
Int check:
K Geography:
@Aylaeth: As you rush by you can see it's just a map of The Land, a common one easily found in pretty much any city. There are dots that obviously represent the major cities as well as some smaller dots and then lines drawn in red ink, but the fire is too fast and the smoke too thick for you to see anything beyond that or figure out what the lines are for, and if you spend any more time on the map you won't be able to save what's on the desk.
Turning your attention to the desk, you put the fire out as the map and bookshelf are reduced to cinders. Working carefully, you are able to save a thick logbook, like the kind a quartermaster or inventory specialist would use, and a rather small chapbook. A quick glance through them reveals lists and notes that don't mean anything to you off the top of your head, but you're confident that once you get a bit of time to actually look more carefully, you'll be able to tease meaning from them.
The barbed devil continues to lay into the Warbanians, shredding their armor and lacerating their flesh, grinning savagely as it does so.
Manyshot:
Rapidshot:
Second Shot:
Haste
Manyshot:
Rapidshot:
Second Shot:
Haste:
Livain turns her attention now that the fluid has stopped to rescuing Min. She is over come with panic and rage when she sees him lying on the ground. She can feel her emotions posses her bow and her arrows. The tips of her fingers quiver slightly and her breath steadies. Under her breath she whispers as she draws a pair of arrows. "For your sake Min better still be alive, or I swear I'll come find you in hell and use your barbs for arrowheads and kill more of your kind" As she finishes her oath her fingers steady as death no longer trembling pull the bowstring back, when it touches the side of her face she releases before the first arrows hit she had already released three more arrows.
Three of Livain's arrows strike home, with the rest scattering wide off the stones. The devil grins up at her. "Don't worry, little flying elf-thing, I will be coming for you next!"
The last, wounded red dragonflight soldier realizes he is fighting a losing battle, and seems determined to take someone down with him. He lays into the shieldless Captain Lamorak with his longsword, landing another vicious hit that cuts deep into the cavalier's leg.
Maiathreen dives towards the opening Captain Damian had just rushed into. To assist on dispatching the remaining soldier and to investigate how he stopped the fluid. When he breaks into the steam he catches a glimpse of the the red dragon flight soldier as he gashes Damian's leg. Maiathreen neatly runs the man through while his attention was held by Damian. A surge of electricity explodes from Servais causing his muscles to jump and twitch even though the only thing holding up his body is Servais. "I did try to tell you." Maiathreen whispers to him almost apologetic before unceremoniously pushing his body of Servais with a sickening sucking sound as the blade comes free.
With all the red dragonflight soldiers dead or escaped, only the barbed devil remains to fight for the enemy. The warbanians, bolstered by the turning of the tide, let loose fierce battle cries, prayers to Gorum, and lay into the beast. Their swords find the mark over and over and over as they hack the thing into pieces. It doesn't even have time to scream as it dies.
The two Warbanians immediately bend down to tend to Min. Brushing devil blood and body parts off him, they each take a potion off their belts and poor it down the Tuathan's throat.
The mercenaries call out to anyone listening; "OY! This man is hurt bad, are any of you a healer? We just stole him from Pharasma's doorstep but he's gonna make a return trip if we don't do something!"
Grabbing the books and dropping them into her haversack the Magus, still looking for the mechcanism to stop the fluid, charges across the hall, opening the door, ready to face whatever may be inside.
@Aylaeth: In this room is a clearly slapped-together lever-and-pulley system of some sort. The lever is in the "up" position. In the corner of the room is a large heap of empty phylacteries, each one the size of a large bucket and very well-made. Some have traces of the same green goo that is in the channels in the floor. Next to them you see a hole, probably where the goo was poured.
From out in the main room, you hear the shouting of the Warbanians.
Sighing in relief and quickly pulling the lever to the down position. She next rushes over to the door from where the children's cries can be heard. As she moves she whispers a prayer to Abadar that she is not too late to save them, and second to lend victory to her allies and a third, her throat catching on it, that little Ada'an will survive, even though her bond tells her that he yet lives, if barely.
Consciousness returns slowly and he was too groggy to understand the shouting around him, the words were gibberish to his battered psyche. One thing slammed to the forefront though, he was no longer grappled..
The Warbanians jump back with a startled oath as the adamantium blade whips out at them, rattling off their armor as Min scrambles backwards with a single hand and his feet. The blood covering his eyes was causing him to lash out in sheer confusion as he didn't know who or what had healed him. "YOU WANT MORE BAS!@#$! THEN COME AND GET ME!" He ran the back of his arm across his eyes and then stared in confusion at the wounded Warbanians, the body parts on the ground and the sounds of the quiet room around him. The fight appeared to be over...
He dropped the blade as the pain rushed in then, his adrenaline wasn't able to block out the pain of both being burned and impaled. "I hate devils." He lays on the floor and focuses for a moment, summoning up a modicum of the inherent magic from the bond and healing his wounds some.
Rising to his feet he looks to the wounded Warbanians and sheaths his adamantium blade sheepishly. "Forgive my rashness and you have my deepest thanks for saving me. I can heal you some if you want."
@Aylaeth: You open the door to a scene of utter horror. This is another small room, about 30'x30' this time, with two 15'x15' prison cells on the right side, the doors to which have been flung open, keys still in the locks. There are daggers and shortswords scattered all over the floor and a simple bench against the left wall. There is blood and offal everywhere and the stink of the room is almost too much for you to bear. You are certain you see random dismembered and desiccated body parts lying about. But the real horror is the children; In the room are a dozen or so kobold, orc, and gnoll children. All are terribly emaciated and covered in sores and boils. They are bent over, feral, and wild, crawling about miserably.
They at first shy away from the light that spills in when you open the door, but then you see that they have all armed themselves with weapons from the heap in the floor, and as one they surge forward at you, yelling in common "KILL THE HERETIC! SHE IS WHY WE ARE HERE! KALAROTH! KALAROTH DELIVER US! DEATH TO THE INTRUDER! SAVE OUR PARENTS!"
@Min: The two Warbanians roar with laughter. One of them claps you heartily on the shoulder, almost knocking you over in the process. "No worries, friend. You're as tough as you look; tougher, perhaps! Elve-y types are usually not so hearty. We've potions to heal ourselves, save your magic for your companions, and for your own wounds." They then turn and walk down the stairs to go see if they can save their companion, now suspended in the air over on the side of the rows of prisoners.
'Dear Abadar preserve us!' Aylaeth can't help but wail in her mind at the horror before her.
As the pitious, brainwashed children rush to attack her the magus feels not the slightest fear as she knows that, despite their number, they have little to no chance of hurting her. She also knows that, despite the fact that in just a few years all of them would almost certainly grow up to be evil, murderous enemies, she will not be able to bring herself to hurt them right now.
Wanting to simply be away from them, and to block the sight of the den of horrors from her mind, the Sylph warrior calls upon her bloodborne powers to create a think cloud of fog, obscuring everything in room.
Actions;
Buring evel 3 slot to cast level 2 spell.
Cast Obscuring Fog
Min nods to the Warbanians. "Half Bloods go through the school of hard knocks." He gives them both a smile before healing himself again.
[ooc]Ouchies, well i'm at 21 hp now lol
As he finished pulling more strength from the bond, while slowly becoming more fatigued, he felt his wounds begin to close up and he started moving towards the dias to check up on everyone else. "Captain! Did we succeed?" He looked around unsure as to where everyone was exactly.
"It would seem so. The Captain decided to cut the supply pipes, which as luck would have it caused the whole to thing to back up and drain out." Maiatyreen says as he steps out from under the dais wiping blood from Servais' blade before sheathing it. He stops and looks at Min with an odd look almost like a smile, before saying. "Also Min..a simple piece of advice....when a devil tries to hug you turn it down no matter how much it begs."
Min looks at Mai and can't decide whether the man was joking or being serious, finally he shrugs. "You try grappling with one next time, tell me how easy it is to say no." He gives Mai a smile then, it never reaches his eyes though as Min knew he had come far closer to death then ever before. Shrugging off the dread feeling for the moment he looked back around the room. The first thing on his mind was getting everyone back on their feet. "So who needs healing the most?" Min's hands frost over as he focused on drawing strength from the bond.
From the now-open door at the back of the dais, the one Aylaeth went through, you all hear the sylph magus quickly calling out a spell over the sound of vicious chanting in child-like voices, saying "KILL THE HERETIC! SHE IS WHY WE ARE HERE! KALAROTH! KALAROTH DELIVER US! DEATH TO THE INTRUDER! SAVE OUR PARENTS!"
@Aylaeth: The children are unprepared for and totally baffled by the fog cloud you create in the room; most of them stop rushing in or crash into the wall or each other. Several, however, just of them, manage to squeeze and tumble their way through the door from luck or momentum or a bit of both. These six child-creatures all crash to the floor around you, shaking their heads in confusion. When they open their eyes, they see you and growl in anger and prepare to throw themselves at you.
Completely out of spells and still wishing not to hurt the wretched younglings, and knowing it will be a temporary solution at best, Aylaeth pulls out her wand of Silent Image and casts an illusion of herself transforming into the very same bone devil which had impaled her. She makes the illusion as terrifying as possible, with the devil literally bursting out of her skin, her blood and viscera splattering to the sides and on to the walls. Then, doing her best to imitate the voice that had so recently mocked her, she growls "Do you truly wish to die maggots? Then come! For I grow HUNGRY!" and has the illusion take a step forward and raise it's claws and tail spike menacingly.
Will DC13 (right? It's a CL1 Wand. And they only get a Will save if the interact with it, yes?)
@Aylaeth: The effect is both better and more immediate than you could have hoped; as soon as the illusion manifests the children all shriek and cover their heads with their hands. Three start to cry and one soils himself. They no longer speak as one, but all gibber and mewl independently, making a grating and calamitous racket.
"PLEASENO!"
"Great one! No! Please spare me! No!"
"WWWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
"nonononononono!"
"I've been good! It was their idea! Please not the tail again! Please!"
...and so on. Apparently bone devils were intimately involved in the mistreatment of these children.
Her heart breaking, yet seeing no other way to spare them at present, she continues to growl "That is better maggots! Do not forgot your lives are mine to end whenever I wish! Now, if you wish to continue your miserable existences, you shall continue to obey me while I take this other form to trick our enemies. And do not question me or betray my subterfuge or the suffering you have known thus far shall be as nothing! But obey me as my secret army and your rewards shall be great! Now go back into the room from which you came and tell the rest of your disgusting bunch of my plan. Quickly!"
And, once confident they are listening and have heard her, she allows the illusion to drop, revealing her true form once again.
@Aylaeth:
Bluff:
Not understanding what was going on Min moves towards the doorway from where the yelling was issuing forth from. "What is going on here?"
As the haze of steam fades from the dais, Damian stands triumphantly with sword in hand. His heroic charge, nothing less than a leap of faith, had turned the tide of the battle in their favor; the skill and sacrifice of his companions had made it possible. As the final enemy falls and his allies begin to take stock of their own losses, Damian raises his sword and his voice as one. "We stand victorious, but against whom? The Red Dragonflight had designs for these prisoners. Vile as the cause of the Black Dragonflight is, their defeated number do not deserve whatever terrible fate reserved for them. We did not simply defeat the Red Dragonflight's men and evil servants in a skirmish today - we prevented their future atrocities!" His voice continues to raise, beyond the normal scope of human speech. Clearly, the divine will of the Inheritor makes itself known through his words, words carried far beyond the room they are in. "We have struck a fateful blow for hope and for our cause! We stand not simply for Izmir, or Warbane, or Stormfare. We stand against a tide of evil that rushes against us and threatens to drown the whole of the world. I tell you now, friends, that this tide will crash against our shields and In this moment, let it be known that we WILL win, and that all those who would threaten to drown the world in violence and evil WILL fail! We stand together! We stand TOGETHER!"
At Captain Lamorak's stirring words, the Warbanians all turn. As soon as he finishes speaking, the bodies that are suspended in the air over the only partially-filled floor channels suddenly crash to the ground, unconscious or dead -- it's difficult to tell -- and the green glow of the thick alchemical liquid fades away, whatever magic it contained apparently spent. The Warbanians raise their blades and call out Tribute; "HAIL THE SKYKNIGHTS! HOY HOY HOY! HAIL THE CAPTAIN! HOY HOY HOY! HAIL TO VICTORY! OUR LORD IN IRON BLESSES THIS PLACE! HOY HOY HOY!" They clang the pommels of their swords against their thick armor breastplates and bellow in victory.
Two of them then follow Min up to the dais, where he is inquiring about the sounds within. They charge through the door ahead of the still-wounded scout and see Aylaeth standing in the hall surrounded by prostrated children. "Magus? What's happening in here? The battle is won! Who are these brats?! Do you need them skewered?" Their blood up and eyes afire, the enormous mercenaries begin to advance quickly down the hall, looking to the sylph for more information.
Maiathreen's crimson eyes glow from Damian's speech though he does frown at the thought that not even the Black Dragonflight deserved thiskind of fate. He agreed to a point...he thought they deserved worse.
After the speech he goes to Livain. "Are you OK sia itova?" Maiathreen asks as he he embraces her while she heals her wounds with the wand.
@Aylaeth: The children are starting to get up and carry out your instructions when Min and two of the Warbanians come barreling into the hall. They then drop back to the ground, quivering in fear and confusion.
Maiathreen's crimson eyes glow from Damian's speech though he does frown at the thought that not even the Black Dragonflight deserved thiskind of fate. He agreed to a point...he thought they deserved worse.
After the speech he goes to Livain. "Are you OK sia itova?" Maiathreen asks as he he embraces her while she heals her wounds with the wand.
She could not help but catch a peek at his captivating eyes glowing like embers. She let out a smile and for a moment felt blood rush to her cheeks. She felt bashful for just a moment, a strange emotion for a setting like this.
"Yes, I am fine"She reaches out to caress his cheek for just a moment, a luxury that comes rarely due to all the fighting.
Maiathreen places his own hand against hers. He goes to kiss her and just before their lips meet he hears the Warbanian's talking about brats and skewering. The break apart from their embrace and Maiathreen leaps into the air and takes flight to land upon the dais. He was not prepared for what he saw.
Six children laying prostrate on the ground quivering in fear. He could smell something rotten and foul coming from the open doorway behind them. " Sekeolath clax ve...." He whispers in draconic and then in common. "Aylaeth what in the hell is going on."
"No one is getting skewered! Stand down!" Damian's powerful and commanding voice issue the order with some force and little room for disobedience. Check the injured. Any who yet draw breath, save them as our prisoners. Red or Black, they may yet prove of use in their knowledge."
He walks to the children of more savage races and sheathes his weapon with emphasis. "I am Captain Damian Lamorak. Your captors lay dead. You are safe with us. You have nothing to fear, for we came here to help you. You have nothing to fear, not now or ever again. I guarantee your safety."
Livain's eyes grew wide as she followed behind Miathreen in panic. When she arrived behind Miathreen she could not see in front of him at first until she finally stepped to the side of him. For a moment she regretted looking. Her eyes landed on the poor children that were on the ground. Her heart sank for a moment as she took in the horrible scene before her. She was so stunned by what she was seeing that the putrid stench that permeated the air had no affect on her senses. For a moment she felt as if displaced from her own body. She could handle adults in the throes of suffrage, but not children.
As you all gather, the children begin to sit up, their terrible wounds and scars and bruises plainly visible. They are clearly very confused, and you can hear frustrated grumblings and shrieks of pain and confusion from more children in the room to Aylaeth's left, from whence a thick fog is swirling out.
The Warbanians relax their stances but remain where they are and keep their swords ready. One of them spies the last closed door. "Magus! Have you searched that last room, the one with the door closed?" They start to move towards it, the children watching them closely the entire time.
The sight of the children and the scent all around her started to whirl her into a dark world of memories. The little child she was came out of the shadows of her mind and began to carve all the emotional images of her past. For a moment she could see the face of her brother and of others who died when she was younger. It was as if the quiet of the storm has passed and the rain began to pour. She could feel herself cracking in front of these children as the last image of her brother entered her mind like the last dirge at a funeral or like when the last rose is placed on a coffin. She then gathered all her courage like a woman gathering her tattered robe after being ravished. She was not afraid of these children. She knew the risks for what she was about to do but she did not care. She knew she could easily be pushed away, kicked, bit or hit but for some reason that fear was not there. A newly found motherly instinct welled up inside of her and she became compelled to embrace one of the children close to her.