The birds peck inefficiently at Affyria, who responds by swinging her mace at the feathery fiends.
Asturu draws his rapier and steps forward to then stab some birds.
Morthos - remaining outside with Timo as an extra guard - hears the commotion and looks within. As he catches sight of the others being swarmed by the birds, the antipaladin can only roll his eyes and shake his head. "Could we possibly be any more discreet," he says to himself, the sarcasm obvious. Sighing as he contemplates a moment on letting the others handle the birds, he decides against it. Figuring the quicker they can eliminate the screeching creatures, the better. "Fine," he says, obviously annoyed as he move in and attacks.
"Feathered pests," Raevanis mutters softly as he swings his sword in an arc trying to strike as many of the birds as possible, a chuckle escaping his lips at the fact that the creatures attacking him are ravens.
Timo sighs, just as annoyed as Morthos that he's been reduced to pest removal. He swings his sword in a wide arc hoping to take down as many of the swarming birds as possible.
Orydwt: Attack green, Hit, 6 dmg
Daed: attack yellow, miss
Aff: Attack green, hit, 4 dmg
Asturu: Attack green, miss
Morth: attack yellow, hit, 3 dmg
Raven: attack yellow, hit, 4 dmg
Timo: attack yellow, hit, 8 dmg
As Asturu, Timo and Morthos come into the rookery to lend their assistance, blood and feathers begin to spray about, driving the ravens even angrier. The swarms begin to shift closer to the door, now enveloping everyone but Daedalos.
Timo lets out a growl as the birds peck and scrape at his eyes, blinding him. "Damnable pests!" he exclaims as he takes a step back and swipes at the birds
Affyria curses under her breath at the onslaught of the ravens. She had hoped to do this quickly and quietly. Frustrated, she grips her holy symbol and fills the room with her patron's energy.
Now surrounded by the birds - as he expected - Morthos's expression remains one of exasperation as he suffers from numerous cuts and scrapes. He continues to attack the swarm as normal, hoping they can rid themselves of these things quickly.
"Sheets!" The literal literary curses as he swats at the pests with his rapier and an angry clenched fist, wrapping up their predicament with one single word.
Between the biting beaks and the flapping wings, the pale elf, already in somewhat poor health, finds it next to impossible to concentrate and attack the swarm of birds. The only thing he can do is try to protect his eyes.
A swarm’s attacks are nonmagical, unless the swarm’s description states otherwise. Damage reduction sufficient to reduce a swarm attack’s damage to 0, being incorporeal, or other Special Abilities usually give a creature immunity (or at least resistance) to damage from a swarm. Some swarms also have acid, blood drain, poison, or other special attacks in addition to normal damage.
Timo: Swing and miss
Aff: Channel
Morthos: Attack, hit, 7/2=3 dmg
Asturu: Attack, hit, 10/2=5 dmg
Raven: pending
Ordy: pending
Daed: pending
Unable to see his foes, and feeling sick to his stomach, Ordywyt moves backwards, hopefully out of the swarm.
"You lot are pathetic. They're birds! Ugh, fine. I guess it always comes down to me? Okay then. Stand clear! This is your five-second warning! Move out of the way if you don't want things to get really chilly."
In the meantime, he fires off another clear ball of acid into the seething mass of birds.
Your combined attacks manage to disperse the swarm attacking Morthos and Raven. With one conspiracy of ravens dispatched, the others decide to break apart and begin to flap madly about the rookery, a few escaping to the outside but, without messages or notes, their loss is of no effect. stench of blood and bird guts begins to mix with the birds' droppings, the floor becoming slick with the foul mixture.
Timo continues swinging his sword at empty air before he realizes the room has gone silent. He gingerly sheathes his blade before waving his hand in front of his face. Timo then lets out a curse as he rages, "I can't see a bloody thing. Damn birds took my eyes! When I get them fixed I'll kill every last one of em!"
"This was more troublesome than I would have liked," Affyria says. She moves towards the windows and opens all the hatches, shooing the rest of the ravens out. "That takes care of their main form of communication though."
Affyria grabs Timo's chin and peers at his eyes. "Calm down, your eyes are fine. They scratched up your cornea a bit, but your vision should return shortly. In the meanwhile, this may help," she says as she grips her holy symbol and fills the room with fiendish energy again.
Everyone heals:
"Now, before we continue to the magister, give me a few minutes to pray to our dark prince."
"Thank you, Affyria, and yes, please do take your time now that we still have that luxury. Let us be vigilant, for there might be guards coming to see what all the ruckus is about."
Asturu then wipes away what he can and groans, knowing the effort is in vain.
Ordywyt sighs, feeling the pain in his now useless eyes. At least it would heal, but at the moment he couldn't see a thing.
"I can never see a stupid bird the same again. Pehaps you should change your namesake, Raven."
As the birds fly away, Morthos takes a deep breath, brushes multiple bird feathers off of his person and then calmly cleans the bird guts off of his blade before sheathing it. "Well that went horribly," he states as a matter of fact.
"If we cannot restore their vision, Affyria, how long will the blindness last?"
"Hard to say, could be hours, but more likely at least a day. Ravens like shiny things I'm told, perhaps that is why they go for the eyes first. Here, let me see if I can help you as well, Ordywyt," Affyria says as she tends to his eyes.
"You could always try calling me by my actual name, Ordywyt," the pale elf says with a shrug, keeping his injured eyes shut.
Listening at the stairwell, it seems nobody is coming up to inspect the ruckus. You have a few moments to regroup and collect yourselves.
Not unkindly, Affyria places her hands on Raven's cheeks. "Open your eyes now, slowly," she says as she licks her thumbs and carefully touches his eyes.
Affyria then kneels down, trying to find a place that isn't covered in bird muck, and she begins reciting a prayer in Infernal.
Comfort me and deliver me from all of the hindrances and snares of those who wish to harm me, both seen and unseen.
Visit justice and vengeance upon those who seek my destruction. Render them powerless and devastated.
Fill my soul with thy invincible power, grant me your magicks, that I may persevere in my service, and act as an agent of thy works and a vessel of thy will.
This I ask in your name, almighty and ineffable Ruler of Hell, who liveth and reigneth forevermore. Hail Asmodeus."
After a short prayer break, Affyria heads back down, after looking through the raven corpses for an old message lying about.
She then heads to the magister's quarters, which according to the information of their squire, should be on the third level of the keep. Once there, she knocks on the door. "Tacitus? Open up, we've got an urgent message that just arrived by raven for you, from the capital," Affyria announces, trying to pour every ounce of confidence and authority in her voice.
Affyria holds out her hand for him, attempting to touch the magister as she hands off the slip of paper she took from the rookery.
You make your way up the interior of the keep relatively unbothered. There are a few guards here and there, particularly in the great hall, but none seem to pay you much mind. When you make it to the landing on the keep's third level, you find yourself sharing the room with a pair of guards keeping watch outside the magister's chambers (#39). The area is lit by a pair of torches.
"'allo," one of them says. "What brings yeh up this late at night?"
Ordywyt narrows his voice into clear disinterest, raising his illusion helmet slightly to lock eyes with the guards. "Just a couple of errands, having to deliver messages and such. It's one thing to do this during the day, but the night too? They're working us like dogs, I tell you."
Ordywyt smiles. "Just a few more, though, and then we can sleep. How are you fellows doing?" His tone of voice seems to suggest only a precursory respect,and that he should keep moving.
Daidalos feigns a yawn, "This is exactly why this is taking so long, you know. If you could avoid talking to everyone you haven't seen in the last five minutes, we might be done by now." Daidalos pulls out a folded piece of paper from his belt and nods to the door, "Is the magister still awake at this hour?" he asks, "Or will we have to risk getting our eyebrows burned off because we need to wake him?"
The guard chuckles slightly and shrugs, "'ose to say, eh? Yer welcome t' try, though. Jus' don't mind too much if we stand back, eh?" Now the both of them laugh slightly as the first knocks on the door, his lazy drawl becoming somewhat more crisp. "Magister, Master Tacitus!? Message for ye, sir!"
There is what sounds like a muffled explosion on the other side of the door, followed by a string of curses in a multitude of languages. After a brief moment, only two words come back in Common, "GO AWAY!"
The chuckles fade as the guards exchange glances then look at you. "Um... want t' leave the message with us? We'll, uh, slip it un' the door maybe."
"Sorry, magister. We were told to deliver these to you personally. Apparently they're urgent. May we come in? We'll only be a minute." Daidalos tries unsuccessfully to talk his way in.
There is another explosion followed by a crash of something fragile falling to the floor and shattering. "I said... GO! AWAY! You're ruining my concentration."
The guard coughs to cover a chuckle and says, "You, eh, want to slip 'em un' the door? Might burn up in the nex' 'splosion, but you can say you gave 'em to 'im."
Timo casually places his hand on the hilt of his blade. He then glances at Daidalos with a look that seems to say, "It's time to bring out the sledge hammer"
Daidalos nods casually to acknowledge Timo's message, and glances over to Morthos and Raven, hoping they are ready for a sudden attack. "Hmmm... I guess if there's no other option..." he reaches to his belt, seemingly to put away the piece of paper, but instead grabbing his dagger, hoping it would make less noise than an incantation. With a nod, he strikes out at the guard on his right, hopefully at the exact same time as the rest of the Ninth.
Almost at the same time as the mage, Raevanis acts to support him, the elf's longsword connecting solidly with the guard's midsection.
"So much for deception," he mutters softly as his eyes momentarily turn to look at what the others are doing before once again focusing on the bleeding man before him.
Timo grins as the blood starts pumping through his veins. His casual hand the hilt turns into a firm grip in a flash as he draws his blade and levels a strike at the guard in a single fluid motion.
Affyria grips the haft of her mace, swinging it around in a wide arc, aimed at the base of the other guard's skull.
"The one inside is an annoying fool anyway." Morthos states plainly as he follows in step with the others by quickly moving toward a guard while drawing his sword and attacking.
Ordywyt assists Daidalos, drawing his mace at the same instance to deliver a blow to the guard's skull.
Daidalos: Dagger - miss
Raven: hit - 8pts
Timo: Miss
Aff: Miss
Morthos: Hit - 6pts
Ordy: Miss
Asturu: n/a
Dispensing with discretion and going for the blade, Timo and Daedalus leap to the attack followed in short order by the rest of the Ninth Knot. While the guards' armor deflects many of the blows, Morthos and Raven manage to pair up and drop one of the guards with two savage blows.
==Round 1 Begins, Guard Goes First==
The remaining guard's jaw briefly goes slack as the shock of the sudden assault and death of his colleague slowly registers. For a moment, he simply tries to keep his balance under the blows raining down on him, but then he manages to draw his longsword and swings at Morthos. The blade finds a chink in Morthos's armor but the anti-paladin manages to twist at the last moment and avoid a potentially deadly blow.
The guard yelps a panicked "Help!" but can't quite muster anything more intelligible just yet.
==Bottom of Round 1, Villains go!==
-------------------
Timo curses under his breath that they weren't able to drop the pathetic guard before he was able to utter a sound. He then moves and attempts to quickly drop the remaining guard while listening for any reinforcements coming from the stairs.