Arranging himself in front of Oz, but placing the masked-man's hand on his shoulder, Tanjvats led the pair on into the room. He moved as quietly as possible, along the walls and the edges of the available light, trying to peer down the hallways with his darkvision.
Beads of sweat formed on the Tanjvat's brow.
"I can see passages on every side of the room. Let's head for the northern one though. Natalya's map suggests the stairs down are to the south and if there are any Tower Girls up on this floor, it'd be best to not leave them behind us in case an alarm is raised."
Moving in through the large room gives signs of what may lie down each corridor. Straight ahead is only darkness ending in a wall and hinting at a larger space opening up to the right. The passage south is a straight hallway, and a chamber opening along its right-hand wall with a soft light spilling from it. Moving into the north opening, the passage 'T's, with the left only leading a short ways before opening into what is likely another chamber. Most importantly, the right-hand passage is made more visible by the light also coming from the back end of it. There can be heard light chatter and maybe a slight giggle now and again. A door beside the hallway faces the group of you, but it is closed.
It doesn't help the status of his stealth at all that Dareon is carrying the vase full of gold coins on the outside of his pack - the ceramic container rattles and clinks as he walks, and he cringes with every little noise.
Dareon, lacking darkvision and any real stealth skills, has to rely on the skills of his compatriots, frustrating as that is.
He'll have his day. He will.
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"Decisions... Decisions..." he says as he looks about the room with a stark curiosity. Such damnable darkness... if only he could see in it, he would be far more useful! Tilting his head about, he keeps his daggers out, ready and willing to take down whatever may come from wherever they go.
Looking to tanjvats, he asks simply. "See anything?". It was one of the few things he'd said so far that made legitimate sense.
Tanjvats shook his head in response to Oz's question. Signaling to the others that he and Oz would move forward as discussed, he led the strange man towards the western end of the northern passage.
Natalya's map had shown that there was a single room there. Perhaps they'd be lucky and find it empty.
Faedrin tenses at the sound of the voices from around the bend. He whispers to the others, "We'll be hard pressed after this to maintain any element of surprise. We'll need to move quickly as soon as things start happening."
Uriah acknowledges Faedrin's caution with a nod and readies his light crossbow.
Towing Oz along with him, Tanjvats heads to the left to give certainty to the expectation of what lies that way. He and the map are correct, in that it is just an empty room, not unlike the oversized 'alcove' that sits almost in front of the passage they entered. It appears that the only signs of activity up this direction comes from the lit room down the hall.
Stepping back to rejoin the others, Tanjvats whispered a suggestion.
"Perhaps Oz and one or two others can sneak up to the eastern room, using the Girls' light as a guide. The rest will follow up as you go in. That might give us a short moment of surprise."
"Or Oz and I can continue on as before."
Tanjvats eases forward, with Oz by his side, the others staying far enough back that the direct light doesn't touch the two. They all hug the north wall with Tanjvats keeping Oz, and his greater skill at hiding, closer to the enemy. As they near the room to the east, they see what has the girls giggling and attention. They are sitting on makeshift pallets, while they toss crumbs to two donkey rats, a taller leaner species of dire rat. As the rats hiss and snarl over the scraps, the girls make small bets amongst themselves. They seem to be completely unaware of the team.
At the door, Oz hears next to nothing through the heavy stone door, whereas Tanjvats only hears a gentle slosh of water, like in a large pan or bowl.
Tanjvats's resolve wavered slightly at the sight of the girls, not sure he could shoot them in the back from a position of stealth. He blinked, shuddered and swallowed hard. Raising his crossbow he couldn't decide if he should call out a warning or pull the trigger and murder one as a show of force. Childhood stories of daring and combat swam in his mind, and the image of a pirate ship came unbidden to his eyes.
"Avast", he squeaked, and he shot at one of the rats.
Hearing the twang of a crossbow and the whistle of a bolt as it flies through the air, Dareon tenses, sword in hand, ready for combat.
Dareon charges forward into the fray, sword in hand and silent. Battle-cries are stupid. What are they even for?
Shaking his head left/right...Such a waste... Good night sweetheart.
Range to target 70'
Seeing Dareon break ranks, Uriah draws a bead on a girl, his only clear option.
Faedrin focuses for a moment before nimbly dashing forward to the corner , a soft snap clicking from his wrist as a silver kukri releases into his hand.
HP: 12/12
AC: 19 (15 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 17
F/R/W: +3/+4/+4 (+2 vs enchantment, immune sleep)
Arcane Pool used: 2/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - jump [ ], obscuring mist [ ], silent image [ ]
Ongoing Effects
spell dance: 1/10 rounds
As Tanjvats fires in nervous anticipation, the others see the signal and spring into action. Dareon and Faedrin rush toward the imminent fray, while Uriah shoots past them to nick the arm of the furthest girl. The shot just barely stinging her arm, due to her luck of throwing something to the rats as the bolt passed, instead of striking its true target. Oz steps forward and throws one of his daggers at the back of the closest woman. He is truly in his element, as the blade flies from his hand to strike her right behind the heart, very near the spine. She cries out in pain as she drops to her knees and tries to reach for the weapon stuck within her.
Faedrin
Oz
Tanjvats
Uriah
-------------
TG1
TG2
TG3
Rat 1
Rat 2
Almost as soon as the fight starts, the rats hiss and squeal as they rush to attack the invaders. They each move up and try to bite Oz and Fade, respectively. The first one gets a nip on Fade's leg, but it just isn't strong enough to make him feel it through his leggings. The other one actually almost bites its fellow rat, as the events of them fighting before is still fresh in its mind.
Dareon bulls through the rats, trying to get to the Tower Girls while his allies engage the rats. He uses his brute strength to try and shove his way through the rats.
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Seeing the situation unfold in rather low lighting, Oz somewhat freaks out at the nearby rat nipping at his knees rather foolishly, and throws a wayward dagger at it. Fortunately it's own clumsiness could have very well made it miss entirely, a fact that he isn't too proud of. One rule he'd managed to learn in his long line of work was "You can never account for the factor that is stupidity."
That said, he didn't waste much time throwing the other dagger, at the same time, a woman much in the limelight, the already-staggered woman he'd bedded a knife in prior. He saw the pain he'd caused, and it was only natural to atleast put her out of her misery here and now, though he did make it a point to pull his veritable punches, so to speak.
He can't properly see what happened with the first blade and the rat, but the candle light catches the glint of the second blade as it travels, in a remarkably skillful way, across the front of her throat, doing enough not to kill the girl, but send her into an unconscious state. Killing wasn't something he was rather fond of.
Dareon barges past Fade to push his way into the room, merely knocking into the rat in front of the elf and toppling it over. Both the rats nip and snap at Dareon as he comes, but the shield before him just brushes all the gnashing teeth aside with nary a concern.
Oz releases another blade, from his wrist sheath, into his hand and throws it at the rat standing in front of him. The blade left over in his off-hand, he throws at the girl writhing in pain from his last throw. The one intended for the rat is far from its mark, with all the chaos ensuing around it, but his other blades just seem to be seeking out the girl, even amidst all that is going on. The cut is enough to drop her to the floor where she begins bleeding out.
The other two girls ignore the bleeding girl, and instead encircle the loner stranded in the middle of all of them. Lucky for Dareon, they didn't have their weapons out, so all they were able to do is move up with blades drawn, not quite ready to swing. They do call out, though. "Karisa!" cries one, "We've got intruders!" shouts the other.
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Hearing the name aloud amidst the slowly forming, yet slightly controlled chaos, Oz takes a moment to consider. They'd already encountered atleast 5 people, and this new approaching woman would be coming in alone. Needless to say, he was rather prepared for the woman that was coming in next as he reached for his silver dagger. He didn't audibly mention this, however, as information was precious. He just assumed that his allies would think similarly.
It wasn't as if he wouldn't be able to retrieve his daggers, but the silver one was something he definitely wanted back.
Tanjvats reloaded his crossbow and stepped back slightly from the door. He aimed his crossbow at it, waiting for it to open. "Karisa" was likely washing up, or something.
AC 17 while using Crossbow.
Move 20'w/Backpack on
quiver -3 bolts
Frustrated, Uriah shouts to Oz and Faedrin
Push through to give me a clear shot if you can.
Seeing that he's surrounded, Dareon huffs. Hunkering down behind his shield, he pivots and spins around the Tower Girls, moving much more gracefully than his stature and armor might suggest. He pivots around one, getting his back to the wall before ending his momentum in a sword-swing against one of them. "Your chances of survival narrow with every move you make against us. Surrender now, or we'll be forced to put you down like the rats you are."
Faedrin looks exasperated as Dareon manages to get himself cut off from the rest of the group. With a plaintive glance at the rat before him, he does his best to heed Uriah's request by slipping past the rodent in front of him.
HP: 12/12
AC: 19 (15 T / 14 FF) (+2 more vs AoOs provoked from movement)
CMD: 17
F/R/W: +3/+4/+4 (+2 vs enchantment, immune sleep)
Arcane Pool used: 2/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - jump [ ], obscuring mist [ ], silent image [ ]
Ongoing Effects
spell dance: 2/10 rounds
Faedrin decides to try and move past the toppled rat, but the flailing limbs, thrashing tail, and gnashing teeth cause him to overthink his approach and lose the opportunity. Lucky for him the two rats had harried Dareon enough in his passing that they weren't ready to bite Fade for his efforts.
Tanjvats moved to put his back against the wall, prepared to skewer whoever Karisa was as soon as she comes out her door.
Uriah moves closer to the fray, and fires at the rat before Oz, but with all the movement, he manages to cut a tear near the hem of Oz's cloak more than anything else.
The wriggling rat manages to get his feet to a point where he can stand, which opens himself up to take a hit from the end of Fade's kukri. He stabs the rat hard behind its left foreleg, and it squeels hard, biting pathetically at him before dropping into an already forming puddle of its own blood.
The other rat futiley snaps at Oz once again, but the thing must been near blind, deaf, and dumb, for everything it nips at before getting anywhere close to the masked man.
Dareon tries a bold maneuver, relying on his layers of protection and training to avoid their desperate swipes as he passes. The first one is so startled by his advance that she doesn't get her weapon to bear in time. The second one fares better, but only in that her blade glanced of his armored back. Once he gets around the first one, he uses her surprise to his advantage, slashing her hard across the body, cutting armor, flesh, and bone alike.
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Not wasting much time throwing any more daggers, Oz makes it a point to retrieve his most prominent dagger at the time from his maze of robes, making it a point to flourish them directly infront of the rat's poor eyesight, and from that sea of robes, he stabs at it with his notably silver dagger, effectively attempting to take it's respective virginity when it came to bloodletting.
Oz pulls more blades with a flash of silver on one of them, and stabs the remining rat. The cut is almost as good as the Fade delivered, but he just didn't have enough of the angle Fade did when the rat stood. It squeels in pain all the same, barely staying on its feet, but it manages.
The girl Dareon just hit stares daggers at the man, as she spins and turns to get on the otherside of him, putting him between her and the rest of the group figthing the rats. Her spin was ill-timed, and even worse planned. Dareon hacks into her leading leg, almost taking it clean off, and leaving her toppling to the ground in a bloody heap.
Seeing this, the other girl loses her bravado. She can't think of anything else but getting out of the room she is trapped in. She rushes the elf with the kukri. Trying to take advantage of his being busied killing the rat. She just barely makes it past Faedrin, but is not quite quick enough to escape the masked man lashing out. Lucky for her it was no more of a nick than she took from the first crossbow bolt.
Tanjvats watched with alarm as the girl whirled past Faedrin.
Faedrin shakes his head in respectful appreciation as the agile girl rolls and spins past him. He tries to nimbly slip away from still-aggressive rat beside him before dashing toward the fleeing girl. Slipping around in front of her if possible, he stops abruptly in his tracks and brings his magics to bear. "Now now, stop running for a moment, won't you?"
HP: 12/12
AC: 19 (15 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 17
F/R/W: +3/+4/+4 (+2 vs enchantment, immune sleep)
Arcane Pool used: 2/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - jump [ ], obscuring mist [ ], silent image [ ]
Ongoing Effects
spell dance: 3/10 rounds
The rat is easy enough for Faedrin to dance away from, and the girl had already pushed herself when she took a shot at Dareon, allowing Fade to slip past without giving her a chance to strike him. She sneers as the man as he begins, and then she seems to be struggling with the urge to do more, but is unable.
Dareon doesn't even care about the remaining dire rat - he just strides right past the thing after the Tower Girl that tried to evade him. His metal-booted feet click on the floor as he approaches, and he says, "I tried to warn you.." as he stabs at the woman with his sword, trying to slide the weapon right in between her ribs.
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As the woman whizzes past him, Oz sighs a bit of relief at the fact that he managed to find combat with the slightly "touched" rat in front of him. Not wasting much time in putting it out of it's misery, he flourishes both weapons at once, exquisitely placing 2 blows, one of which he doesn't even think was necessary...
He effectively catches it in a moment of stupor and slits it's throat accordingly, not having much remorse for animals, when he's done worse to humans recently. The act of killing weighs rather heavy on him however, and he can't help but have thoughts of these people merely enjoying themselves with these "pets" prior, though he fights the thoughts and does his duty.
Move to E24
AC 17 while using Crossbow.
Move 20'w/Backpack on
quiver -4 bolts
Convinced Faedrin had the potential escapee under control, Tanjvats kept his attention on the door.
As Fade rushes around to halt the woman's steps, Tanjvats holds steady on the door that may hold a girl on her way. Uriah, takes a step forward, reloading and firing again at the rat in front of Oz. He still cannot seem to connect with it.
The rat stabbed by Fade doesn't get back up, but it seems that the pool of blood isn't growing any further. Meanwhile, Oz faces no real threat from the rat that still doesn't seem to be quite sure where it is. Is still snaps uselessly at the air near him.
Just as Tanjvats suspected, the door opens, and inside stands a hybrid of a rat and a woman accompanied by two more of the large donkey rats. That's when the prepped crossbow fires. His held aim was worth it, as the bolt flew straight at the girl, but despite the shot, it didn't seem to faze the woman as much as it should have.
The wererat just hisses and commands the two rats to attack. The first rat rushes straight at Tanjvats, but is just as ineffective as the others in drawing blood
Meanwhile, Dareon rushes around the corner to follow the girl trying to escape, and manages to find her stopped by Fade. This is when he stabs her hard in the back of the thigh, tearing into the leg muscles that would propel her further away. Oz, decides to stop toying with the rat and put it down for certain. His deft stab, followed by an ensuring swipe of the other blade makes it almost definite that it wasn't going to make it.
The second rat in the room, slower to act on his master's command steps out and turns right for Oz. Although it's not quite as worthless as the one he just fought, it still misses him all the same.
The two mostly dead girls seems to maintain a more steady breathing, faint but steady.
As the other girl appears bolstered by two more large rats, Faedrin's eyes turn sad as he shifts his gaze back to the stunned girl beside him. Though he knows her recovery could complicate their situation by keeping their attention as a group divided, his hesitance to kill blunts his strike noticeably.
HP: 12/12
AC: 19 (15 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 17
F/R/W: +3/+4/+4 (+2 vs enchantment, immune sleep)
Arcane Pool used: 2/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - jump [ ], obscuring mist [ ], silent image [ ]
Ongoing Effects
spell dance: 4/10 rounds
Seeing the door open and frustrated that he cant hit the broadside of a barn, Uriah roars out..Wereb#$+# on the loose!
AC 18
Move 20'w/Backpack on
quiver -4 bolts
Used Battlecry lasts until end of turn plus 2.
Faedrin, even reluctantly, manages to dispatch the last of the girls from the room. He does so just in time too, with a wererat now in the mix. Uriah states the obvious, with a touch of flavor. The urgency in his voice, though, puts everyone on alert and ready to react accordingly.
Almost right after Uriah calls out, two more girls run up around the corner, and take in the scene of battle that had drawn them to investigate.
Cursing himself for not having been prepared for the wererat, Tanjvats was driven to further emotion by Uriah's battle cry.
Moving away from the rats, he spied the newcomers down the hall.
"Don't you ruin everything!" he shouted, pointing an accusing finger.
"How does it feel, when it comes into your head like this?!"
As Tanjvats heads away from the rat, the thing is the first to finally get a taste of one of the group. A little nibble, but a bite nonetheless. Dashing around the corner back towards Uriah, he sees more of the women, and lashes out with some incoherence. The woman just looks at him oddly, like he had just gotten her mixed up with someone he knew. She merely turns to the other girl and shrugs.
The wererat that just stepped from her room, Karisa if that's who they called out to, witnesses Faedrin put down one of her girls. She steps out around the rat beside her and swipes at the elf, but recognizing the silver in his hand and that of the odd masked man nearby, her attention is distracted.
The rat, meanwhile, tries to follow Tanjvats around the corner. Instead it stops short as it comes up to Uriah. Redirecting it's attention, it tries to bite him instead, but falls short.
Roaring, Dareon charges to engage the two Tower Girls that have crept up on them from behind. "Take out that were-rat, I'll keep these two from flanking you!"
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Not wasting much time, Oz begins to chatter something fierce beneath his mask, which, to everyone's surprise, has small magical letters somewhat fall off of it as he does so. Black letters that seem more like shadows dance down into the floor and dissipate as he steps back, close behind Dareon.
Placing one of the daggers into another hand, he forcefully pushes forward, finishing his odd incantation, and proceeds to wash the wererat, and both the rats on the upper end of the room in a strange, dark, yet unintelligible light. Flickers of color dance around the room as the 3's pupils widen in surprise.