At Tanjvats' lead, Dareon steps up to the fore and draws his new masterwork shortsword and the mutagen he'd brewed this morning. If he has time, he'll gulp it down and draw his shield, choosing not to add any of his own words to Tanjvats. In truth, Dareon is looking for a fight, and the tunnel vision from his mutagen setting in isn't helping anything.
As the alchemical substance filters down his throat, Dareon's cheekbones adjust themselves to be more pronounced, and his lower canines elongate and widen. His muscles, though hidden by his black clothing and his armor, bulge and grow. His skin reddens to a ruddy glow.
He growls, "Let them come."
Deciding to stand their ground and prepare for the oncoming remaining Tower Girls, Dareon and Tanjvats prepare themselves for the inevitable fight that they can hear making its way down the stairs.
Feeling that Desna would favor Dareon more if the danger was more palatable, Tanjvats waited until the Tower Girls got close before blessing his companion.
As the girls come barreling down the stairs, they can heard getting closer and closer. It's then that Tanjvats gives Dareon a little divine luck to help him. Right after he does so, three of them tear around the corner at the top of the landing, with their swords drawn, and continue to head down the stairs toward the two men. The Tower Girl in the back has the tell-tale whiskers, fur, and tail that indicates she is one of those with the 'gift' of lycanthropy.
"Come, then! Break against my steel!" shouts Dareon, banging his chest with his shield-arm, before settling into a combat stance. "I will rip your flesh from your bones!"
Tanjvats felt the tell-tale coursing of blood behind his eyes as the fury of battle came down upon them. He raised his mace and shield and did his best to keep the Tower Girl in front of him from getting around behind Dareon.
As the girls come down the stairs Dareon is about to thrust his blade straight into the first woman, but for some reason decides to switch to an underhand swing at the last minute. His timing was just right, she came down and his blade came up in an arc, cutting her from her left thigh all the way up to just under her chin. She drops immediately, with a thud and brief tumble on the steps. She's not quite dead, but will be very shortly without attention.
Tanjvats, with Dareon's opponent cut and bleeding out, swings instead at the girl right in front of him. He makes a solid connection with his mace, crashing hard into her left shoulder, causing the girl to grunt in pain as her bones crunch.
As the first girl lay bleeding out, the other one up front tries to bring her sword to bear on Tanjvats, but the motion jars her injured shoulder and her attack fails miserably. She decides instead to try and get past the half-orc, and just get away. The angle of the stairs causes her to misstep, and she tries to push past with the bad shoulder. She fails hard.
The wererat seems nonplussed by the actions of the two men. She snarls and hisses at Dareon as she steps over the down body of the other girl. She swings her sword at Dareon, as she leans over to try and bite Tanjvats. The blade is easily swept aside by Dareon's shield, which only sets off her too far to even reach Tanj, her bite just snapping empty air.
Dareon capitalizes on the Tower Girl's poor tactics and follows up his underhand swing with an overhand chop, trying to cleave into the injured girl's shoulder. Blood from the first girl is splashed on his face, and he is the picture of savagery and rage. "You see what happens?" he growls.
Following up his strike on the second fallen Tower Girl, he drops his new shortsword and draws his extract of enlarge person. Taking a step back, he downs it, grimacing at the sour taste of the thing.
Tanjvats grunted as the first charge broke on his shield and then fell under Dareon's sword. But he soon found himself between the wererat's snapping jaws and Dareon's rapidly expanding body.
Unnerved by this situation, he did his best to stay behind his shield, almost poking out with his mace as he moved back behind his now-much-larger companion.
The Tower Girl doesn't realize she's attempting a maneuver that has helped Dareon drop a good portion of the other Tower Girls. He seems to be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to not letting anyone get past him. He cuts hard into the girl, and she drops just as Tanjvats swings, causing the mace to go wide.
Dareon switches tactics briefly, as he drops his weapon and become a much bigger almost unstoppable force. Meanwhile Tanjvats tries to use the distraction to hit the wererat before using the much larger Dareon for cover. He doesn't connect, but is lucky that the big Dareon distraction has most of the thing's attention, as she misses him.
As the first two girls lie in an ever-growing pool of blood, the wererat just steps up to Dareon, but is more daunted by his size than she seems willing to let on. As such her attacks fall very short of their mark.
"Tanj!" Dareon shouts as he widens his arms and opens his gauntleted hands. "Take the silver, and stab this b~+~!!"
Then, he rushes forward, roaring and attempting to wrap the Tower Girl in his massive, powerful grip, dropping his shield as he goes to ensure that both of his hands are free.
Trying to make sure he wouldn't get bit, Tanjvats dropped his mace and scrambled to pick up Dareon's silver short sword. It felt odd and clumsy in his hands, but he started looking for an opportunity to get the blade at the girl.
Given Dareon's new size and strength, he tries to bind the body and limbs of the creature so Tanj can get to her safely with the silver sword dropped earlier. His unfamiliarity with his new form hinders him, though, and he isn't quite able to get a hold of the now smaller than him wererat. She uses this to her advantage, stabbing at the big man as he comes at her.
Tanj drops his weapon in order to follow the proscribed plan, and picks up the short sword. Until Dareon get s a hold of her, though, he is stuck behind the man waiting for an opportunity get a swing in.
The wererat tries to follow up her finally successful hit, with two more attacks to the enlarged man. Her own self-satisfaction gets in the way as she gets too cocky and finds that she has trouble breaking through his armor.
"Rrgh." growls Dareon, recoiling from the blow that the Tower Girl delivered onto him, and hoping that his allies can get here soon. He puffs himself up again and goes for another lunge and a grab - trying once again to put the wererat into a headlock.
Tanjvats recoiled as Dareon took more wounds. I just healed him, you b+&#~! leaped into his mind.
Cursing incoherently, he called upon Desna's healing grace in decidedly unflattering terms. Part of his mind apologized for this.
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Getting out of the carriage, Esmeralda was livid, and yet still curious. She wasn't the type to be okay with simple replacement jobs, no matter how high the Noble was in the heirarchy, or how important they were. She didn't care for being a substitute to say the least. This was, however, the only way to keep the Sczarni in check though, wasn't it? She thought to herself for a bit, before looking back at Kascio whom was just getting out himself. "What do you make of the place?" she asked, looking at manor.
"Nothing compared to the grand lodge, but then again I don't imagine these people will have sticks up their asses, either, do you? We could actually make some coin and keep it this time." she says with a smile.
As Dareon lunges in again to wrap up the wererat, she manages to strike again at the same opening he left before, recognizing the success of it last time. He is guarded enough, however, that she wasn't as able to really drive the blade in as far.
Fade and Uriah finally catch up to the fight to end on the landing above the fight and see an over-sized Dareon wrestling with a wererat as Tanj tries to get into place with the silver short sword. "Now's not the time for a cuddle, Dareon." is all the help Uriah offers on first sight of it.
Tanjvats, upset by the wererat almost undoing what he risked jumping out after Dareon to resolve, angrily heals the man before getting into position like Dareon had asked.
Considering the man's much larger size, and greater strength, the wererat decides against trying to break free of his grasp. Instead, she resorts to flailing with blade and tooth to hit any part of the man holding her. Her attempts are spasmic and wild at best, merely glancing her sword off his armor.
"You won't get the better of me!" growls Dareon, as he attempts to push the wererat to the ground, wrapping her arms around behind her back so that she'd be face-down on the cold stone floor.
Tanjvats saw his two other companions appear on the stairs above. Joy at the sight mixed with his rage at the wererat.
"From the hells!!" he screamed, beaming. His head swam a bit and blinked hard twice.
Faedrin slides to a stop and looks down at the struggle a few steps away. Ignoring the scroll still in his hand, he instead intones a simple spell and directs it toward the remaining tower girl.
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: 3/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - jump [ ], obscuring mist [ ], silent image [X]
Ongoing Effects
dancing lights: 8/10
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From beneath the ground, she pulls her hand up, lifting up a creature that Kascio knew all too well. Holding her by her wrist, the Eidolon pulls itself from the swirling red and gold vortex placing a firm hand on the ground and heaving itself up. She smiles as it comes out of the ground.
At first, the creature, Kascio knew already, would have it's great arms bound together, but then Esmeralda did what she always did. As the creature knelt down, she opened it's mouth and placed 10 gold in it's gullet, and it surged to life with a ripple of gold energy. It's skin gained trace gold elements in the wounds it'd suffered. Standing 8 feet tall, it reached out it's hand, as if to ask for something, and just as it had, Esmeralda retrieved her final object from the carriage. A Large Bastard sword.
The creature walked with her and retrieved the masterfully crafted hunk of metal. She looked at the weapon as the creature unrwappred it's illustrious grooves and smiled. One less thing she had to carry, and the sword was most certainly heavy.
Heaving the weapon onto it's shoulder, it turned to look at Esmeralda with it's deep-seated red eyes and at Kascio. "Penance Paid." it muttered to itself and began to follow her without recourse. "All well and good, Penance. I'll have something real to pay you with soon, don't you worry. Be a good boy and grab my spear, would you?" she asks, and he does.
Turning to look at Kascio, she shrugs. "Let's hope they don't mind my Eidolon. I'm not about to carry that thing." she claims.
Kascio moved forward, but allowed the eidolon to move ahead of him. Something about that thing always made him feel...squishy. Squishy and made of flesh far too soft. He felt somewhat more comfortable when he could see the thing's back and mostly when he had a clear path to flee if that thing had decided that the rogue was no longer an ally.
Calling out louder to make up for the distance, "Do you think we'll be operating mainly in town? I mean, the whole of Varisia is a big place, and if we roam I'm going to miss some beauty sleep. I've grown somewhat fond of feather beds and warm baths."
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"Best thing I can tell you is expect to not be comfortable in the near future, but, isn't that always the case? Besides! Big place means more trinkets to pick up in passing, right? I think we're stuck here for the moment, however." she says as she reaches the door. Turning, she looks him up and down. Beauty sleep. Right. and as she goes to knock on the door, the Eidolon hits it 4 times swiftly, much harder than necessary.
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"He's plenty capable of minding his manners. Plus it costs less to have him follow me around, rather than banishing him." she says with a chuckle.
Opening the door, she says one last thing. "Puppies are weak." she says.
Following Esmeralda into the house, Kascio looks around with a burglar's eye, assessing the defenses, noting the most valuable and most portable loot, watching for shadows and hiding holes. While his eyes dart, his left hand stays near one of his many daggers, only half of which are visible. "Nice place. Is this what happens when Pathfinders make good?"
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"I'd like to think so, but nobles do most definitely like to hand out trinkets like these to stay in good favor with the community do they not?" she asks, looking around and tracing her finger across the wood. Her eidolon walks in as well, but has to kneel down to fit in the door and the sword drags clumsily across the left section of the door, leaving a small cut in the work. "That aside, it would be nice to have a place like this, would it not? Though..." she crosses her arms. "I favor stone more, myself. It sounds better when gold lands on it." she says with a smile.
"Dramatic fantasies aside, we should really get the head of the house's attention, no?" she asks, looking back at him while playing with her choker.
Dareon struggles against the thrashing wererat swinging and biting at him, and just manages to wrap her up in a position that locks her arms and jaw in a way that makes it difficult for her to move.
Uriah comes around the corner and draws his spear as the two struggle on the stairs. Making a few odd gestures, he casts a spell on the weapon and it begins to shimmer as waves of heat come off of it.
Faedrin also comes around the corner and decides to cast a spell. When he finishes casting, the wererat slowly ceases her struggling, her eyes wide. She can move still, but it looks like she can't control her limbs and make them do what she wants.
Tanjvats leaped forward once Dareon and the others had trapped the wererat. He stabbed as best he could at the trapped woman.
Tanjvats takes the opportunity in stride, as he moves up with the unfamiliar silver sword and swings at the stupefied and held wererat. He actually performs fairly well with hitting her, yet not that hard. Lucky for him the silver of the sword made it so that he injured her.
Suffering from Fade's spell, the wererat can do nothing at the moment, but that moment will end shortly.
Struggling with the wererat leader, Dareon does his best to keep her pinned down, pressing her head into the ground and her pinned arms into her back. "Kill it! Kill it now!"
Tanjvats felt a peculiar mixture of revulsion and glee as he stepped forward and followed Dareon's order.
Faedrin frowns at Dareon's order and regards the lycanthrope entangled in the man's arms. Slipping in beside Tanjvats, he brings his silver kukri around in a quick arc, the blade flashing dully in the torchlight.
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: 3/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - jump [ ], obscuring mist [ ], silent image [X]
Ongoing Effects
dancing lights: 9/10
Dareon easily locks up the wererat, making it almost impossible to move, and that's when the others jump in for a good old fashioned beat down.
First, Uriah steps up with his now red-hot poker of a spear and drives it into the rat-woman's shoulder. The weapon itself does very little, but the heated metal makes a sizzling sound and leaves a definite mark.
Fade then takes his turn, stabbing into the tussle with his Kukri. His aim is true, and he makes a slash of bright red across her side.
Even Tanjvats, with his lack of familiarity and comfort with the silver weapon, is able to squeeze a jab in the wererat's thigh. It is little, but it's something.
With its options so severely limited, and its life being picked away, the girl tries to wriggle her way out to at least get a chance at escape. Alas, it is a futile effort, especially with the bulk of the large man pressing her into the stairs.
Kascio and Esmeralda
Just as you make your way toward the manor proper past the foyer, Lady Heidmarch steps up, "No need to try and get my attention young Pathfinders, for I summoned you and have been awaiting your arrival." The woman has a definitive stately bearing, one of poise and grace, but there is a clearly dangerous flow to her movements. It is easy to tell that she has attained her position with more than just writtin reports and inherited money.
She waves you both to enter the lodge, and into a sitting room, where she begins explaining her reasons for sending for the two of you. "I know you two have a tenuous, at best, tie with our new lodge here. However, I find myself in need of more of our order to assist with a local task. There is a group out exploring the Crow as we speak, and they are exploring passages and chambers within that have only recently come to light. Now my husband, bless his childlike exuberance in discovery, has tasked one of his own team to go with them and learn what he can of historical value within. In his haste, he neglected to consider the ledgers, missions and assignments that are maintained in a delicate balance. I was only able to sway him to only send his man until I found replacements. When the group returns for the evening, we will make the proper introductions, and I request that you join them to record your findings and assist the current group." despite her pleasantries, the word 'request' carried with it the obvious weight of the head of a Pathfinder lodge to a couple of junior Pathfinders.
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Esmeralda is taken aback by the sudden amount of spine in the room. "Well! Subtle. I like you." she points out as she sits down in the chair. You'll have to forgive my friend here. He doesn't talk much." she says, gesturing to Penance. Kneeling down, she places her elbows on her knees and points towards Heidmarch. "So we're replacements then? Not so bad. Half-expected we'd be doing paperwork..." she says with a laugh. "But Artifacts? You've got my interest now. What can you tell us about the folks over in the work at the moment?"/ she asks, curious about her future acquaintances.
"A little faster would be a little better!" roars Dareon as he continues to restrain the struggling (but pitifully weak) wererat.
Dareon is finding he has little trouble in holding her still while the others hit her. Uriah tries to oblige, stabbing at her again with his fiery red spear, but he instead just gouges a chunk into the step itself.
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Lady Heidmarch accepts the formal response from Kascio, but you can tell it wasn't expected as much as tolerated. When asked about the others, she seems a little surprised to field such a question. "Well, for starters they are Pathfinders, albeit neophytes much like yourselves. Dareon and Faedrin both seem like erudite and combat capable men. Oz is unusual, choosing to hide behind a mask, but he has the gift of getting into places unseen. Lastly, Tanjvats is a holy man, but I still haven't quite narrowed which deity he follows exactly. They left this morning, and should most likely return before nightfall. You are welcome to stay and wait for their return here. We have an extensive library, and room and board are readily available for members."
Faedrin's frown deepens as he slips another strike through Dareon's arms.
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: 3/5
Harrow Points remaining: 2
Spells Prepared:
Cantrips (4) - dancing lights, daze, ghost sound, read magic
Level 1 (2+1) - jump [ ], obscuring mist [ ], silent image [X]
Ongoing Effects
dancing lights: 10/10
Kascio smiles. "I am certain we will all get along like Pathfinders. And I thank you for the hospitality of your house and Lodge. But if it's all the same, I feel the need to stretch my legs a bit. I think I shall stroll down the boulevards and see what sights I might see." Bowing, Kascio leaves his things at the Lodge and heads outside to walk the city a bit.
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The Oz fellow sounds usefully qwerky... Holy man, however, sounds as though we'll disagree a little, depending on the good. Here's hoping he chose Abadar..." she says with a little smile. "The others sound just as useful, wouldn't you agree Penance?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.
The Eidolon leans in, breathing through it's helm a soft air of dark ichor. Yeeeessssssssss comes out in a monotone noise that seems to betray the very air it hits.
"You'll have to forgive him." Esmeralda claims. "He's not much for people, but he's pretty good at finding holes in their words, from time to time." she says as she caresses the lumbering monstrosity's forearm.
Lady Heidmarch nods at Kascio's decision, calling a quick, "I only ask that you return before the sun has set, as I believe the others will return before then." To Esmeralda she responds, "To the lodge, usefulness outweighs eccentricities. In that mein both Dareon and Faedrin show promise. Their education coupled with an oft-unaffiliated capability to take care of themselves in a fight can prove quite an effective tool as a Pathfinder."